KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Actor Aaron Aziz has denied director Syamsul Yusof’s claims of being too unfit for a role in his latest film, The Original Gangster.
It was reported that Aaron was dropped from the cast of Syamsul’s film because he was in poor health and had gained too much weight.
Aaron has now gone on social media to reveal his side of the story and detailed his steps to prepare for his role before being dropped.
@therealaaronaziz Ni aku terpaksa bela diri aku.
original sound - aaron aziz
Firstly, Aaron claimed that Syamsul had approached him in 2022 three times to discuss the role and was fully aware Aaron had neck pains.
Yet, Syamsul said he was willing to give Aaron time to prepare, telling him there were minimal fight scenes for his character.
By the time Aaron was ready to begin training, he found out filming was only one month away.
“My trainer had told me it would take me six months to become fully fit for the role,” Aaron said.
“So I knew it would be impossible to be fully prepared, yet I still tried my best.”
Aaron also found out that he would be preparing for a lot more fight scenes than Syamsul had told him initially.
Secondly, during Aaron’s time training, he found it difficult to work together with the production fight choreographers.
Aaron’s suggestions were not well received by the fight choreographers which added to his exhaustion from training.
The actor claimed he trained four hours a day in total and burned 1,000 calories in each session, resulting in him losing 8kg of weight.
Meanwhile, Syamsul reportedly also wanted Aaron’s body to look trimmer and instructed him to use acupuncture needles.
In his video, Aaron proceeded to show the needles Syamsul allegedly gave him on his table as proof.
Finally, Aaron claimed that the choreographers would send videos to Syamsul of him learning the fight scenes that made him look slow compared to his co-stars.
According to Aaron, Syamsul did not communicate with him at all during this time, actively ignoring his questions.
“Don’t say that I was slow when I have my trainers as witnesses that I have no problems,” Aaron said.
“I was willing to show my body progress to you and even accept a smaller role in the film, yet you still didn’t want to meet with me.”
“Allah is my witness to what happened, you (Syamsul) will answer to him at Padang Mahsyar later.”
The Original Gangster stars Datuk Adi Putra, Datuk Rosyam Nor, Beto Kusyairy, and Indonesian action star Yayah Ruhian and is currently in production.
