Criticism Made Sisley Choi Feel Inferior
It has been a stressful three years for Sisley Choi (蔡思貝), who hasn’t gone a day without the burden of negative gossip. The 2013 Miss Hong Kong runner-up, who made her debut three years ago as an actress, has had both her public and private life judged—from the controversy behind her academic career, to the constant love rumors with her costars. Sisley knew she had to stay strong to keep herself sane, but all that negative gossip actually made Sisley feel more inferior.
Although it’s been only a mere three years since Sisley started acting, she’s had the opportunity to play a variety of different roles—a college student, a cyclist, a martial artist, a police officer. In her most recent drama My Dearly Sinful Mind <心理追兇Mind Hunter>, Sisley played a gentle and quiet social worker, a stark contrast from her earlier robust roles. Sisley has a gentle personality herself, much unlike the image she puts on in her acting career.
At one point in time, Sisley was rumored to be dating a different costar every month, significantly bringing down her public image. “I’ve had rumors with both Alan Wan (溫家偉) and Adrian Chau (周志文), and they’re both close friends of mine. We’re practically sisters. But I know time will tell. We’re still friends and hang out.”
At the mention of her rumored boyfriend Shing Mak (麥秋成), Sisley said, “I’ve never admitted to dating him, and I also won’t admit to breaking up with anybody. I don’t want to elaborate on my romantic life to the public. I only need my close friends to know. After all, I don’t consider dating to be a two-person thing. I will introduce my boyfriend to my friends and family.”
Sisley said she used to hide herself in a corner and cry when she first faced the reality of having to deal with negative press. “I felt like everything I did was wrong, and it really affected my performance. But now I know how to adjust it, and kick away the negativity.”
For years, the 26-year-old was criticized for her poor acting and being too loud in her roles. She has heard all of the constructive criticism and is working on improving herself. “I’m not getting as much complaints about me being too loud anymore, but I know I still have some lazy tones. I think it’s because I speak many languages, and that slurs my speech. I really need to work on that.”
The attacks Sisley faced during the first three years of her career made her feel inferior, but she’s going to build confidence from experience.
“I need to build more confidence, so I’ve been doing a lot more reading and exercising. I’ve been watching more movies to work out my acting,” she said. “That’s how I’m going to find my confidence again.”
Source: Mingpao
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Kudos to her for knowing, recognizing and accepting her shortcomings in her acting abilities, and most importantly is actively working on improving them. She’s much more bearable in Mindful series than that cyclist one, lol.
don’t worry Sisley. you are improving and humble compared to Grace Chan.
She has improved a lot since the traffic police one! She doesn’t scream unnecessarily and doesn’t over act. Good job!!!
@yuannie she seems to have attended lessons…her acting skills and her tone has improved. she is definitely worth watching out for…hope tvb gives her MORE opportunities.
go girl!
She looks pretty here.
Hope she will continue to improve!
Hard work will get her far.
Good on Sisley. I am not a fan but glad to see her keep on improving.
Super similar article about Grace Chan came out last week, yet this one is met with praise while the other with criticism. Just goes to show that when you’re humble and you actually try hard, people will know without you needing to use it as an “excuse”. Keep up the good work, Sisley!
@melia880 It helps too that Sisley showed improvement while Grace regressed. I thought the latter would be more success in acting than the former when they debuted. Grace wasn’t bad in that Bar-lawyer series while Sisley was horrendous in cycling series. Oh, how things have flipped!
It’s quite easy to see improvements in Sisley than Grace Chan, look at the variety of roles that is given to Sisley compared to Grace.
It’s not fair that some of you compared Sisley’s most recent series to Grace Chan’s older series such as 張保仔 and concluded that the former has improved and the latter hasn’t. I also realized that Sisley was given more opportunities to act in more series each year so far.
@rainbow28
Well, they both started out in 2014 with Overachievers.
In 2015, Grace Chan showed a lot of potential with “Raising the Bar” but showed that she could not carry the show by herself with Captain of Destiny. Sisley got lots of backlash for “Young Charioteer”.
In 2016, Grace continues to make audience cringe in “Blue Veins” and “Brother Keepers” while Sisley shows significant improvement in “Fashion War” (better emotions) and “Presumed Accident” (significantly lowered her pitch).
In 2017, Sisley gets ahead with “Recipes to Live By” and becoming really lovable in “Mindhunter”. Grace does not have a series out this year yet so we cannot comment, but Grace has so much news with her telling the audience about her relationship with Kevin and about how hard she works on the series while Sisley keeps her life private and accept audience criticism.
They both start out at the same year and same series, but Sisley does show gradual improvement through each of her series while Grace does not.
@iciel you said all the things I wanted to say, and very well said I add.
@iciel Good explanation, I agree with all of your points.
@rainbow28 Besides iciel’s points, I want to add that I also think Sisley is better at romantic scenes. Maybe that’s why TVB likes to pair her again with some of her leading men, like Tony & Him.
@rainbow28 Let’s not keep trying to use the lack of opportunity as an excuse to defend Grace because that argument is extremely weak. Honestly speaking, it is not necessary to be in a lot of series to show improvement….as the saying goes, it’s the quality that counts, not the quantity. If an artist is truly serious about their career, they will take steps to improve themselves regardless of whether they get opportunities or not.
Besides, as iciel pointed out (@iciel very well said, by the way!) up until last year, Sisley and Grace were pretty much even in terms of number of series and opportunities given by TVB. If you take those series that iciel mentioned (same number of series for both Sisley and Grace) and compare the performances, it is very obvious that Sisley has improved while Grace has regressed. In terms of opportunities — actually, I disagree that Sisley was getting more opportunities….if you look at it more closely, it’s actually the opposite: Grace was being promoted more than Sisley – remember that Sisley had that education scandal thing that pushed her back a bit while Grace was given even more opportunities such as hosting gigs and such. While Sisley took the “downtime” to self-reflect and take acting lessons to improve herself, Grace spent most of that time feeding the media train by gushing endlessly about her relationship with Kevin. So is it any surprise then that Sisley gets ahead of Grace and is given more opportunities going into 2017?
@llwy12 I Always enjoy reading your comments. Very well said piece above. If an actor is determined to improve, it does not take a collection of roles in which to do so. One or two roles is enough to show the audience like ourselves vast or little improvement. Grace is still stuck with the same exact two bit style of acting that she delivered in her first role.
How she won an award for most improved actress is beyond me. It is the million dollar question with a ten cent answer. The only improvement Grace has made is how to needlessly yap about her love life. She deserves the Yakitty Yak Award for that.
@bubbletea Oh my, I almost forgot she won most improved. By far the most rigged award in recent TVB award shows (even more than Benjamin Yuen for Fave Male Character, haha). Poor Tracy and Rosina.
Interestingly, Sisley hasn’t even been nominated for that award. So, even though she’s gotten more opportunities, it seems that TVB executives don’t favour her that much – definitely not as much as Grace. I hope Sisley at least gets nominated this year, and would be pleased if she won.
@melia880
When Grace won the most improved female artist a while ago, I felt that she didn’t deserve that award. I think she only had one or two series out at that time and she was very new. I was like how did she improve with only one series out. Improved compare to what?
@rainbow28 then you can understand how others disagree with Grace winning Most Improved Actress. She honestly did not deserve it. What annoys me the most is, instead of trying to improve, she whines and complains when viewers call out her weak acting. Grace should learn from Sisley to heed to constructive critism and learn to improve, and stop yapping so much about her love life.
Well said Iciel !! Sisley was absolutely lovable in Mind Hunter. What happened to her brother and her in the end? I missed the ending.