Natalie Tong and Ali Lee Ignore Each Other On “Big White Duel” Set
As Hong Kong’s most controversial TV Queen winner, Natalie Tong (唐詩詠) is a central figure for gossip. Accused for forcing out Eliza Sam (岑麗香) and bringing out ex-boyfriend Tony Hung (洪永城) to make headlines, Natalie’s image slightly plummeted since winning 2017’s Best Actress. But there’s no such thing as bad promo, and Natalie’s career continues to rise despite the negativity.
The rumors didn’t stop there. The paparazzi were present when Natalie and her Big White Duel <白色強人> costars were filming a promotional clip for the upcoming TVB anniversary program. According to her interactions with the staff on set, it appears that Natalie was rather cold toward Ali Lee (李佳芯), who co-leads Big White Duel alongside Natalie, Roger Kwok (郭晉安), and Kenneth Ma (馬國明).
During the shoot, Natalie and Ali did not communicate at all. When the two were alone, Natalie would rather scroll through her phone than to interact with her costar. Ali ended up talking with costar Kelly Cheung (張曦雯).
A staff member said, “When Ali won Singapore’s TV Queen, many people thought it was unfair, that she wasn’t at that level yet.”
The two TV Queens actually share many scenes together in the drama, but Ali had clarified in an earlier interview, “Most of our scenes are with patients. [Our storylines] are kind of separate. There could be more fireworks. Hopefully, we’ll get more screen time together.
Big White Duel is a medical drama which centers on a series of characters who work at the fictional Maxwell Paxton Hospital. Natalie plays an ER doctor, while Ali portrays a cardiologist. Big White Duel is Natalie and Ali’s first series together.
Source: Eastweek
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Natalie stole Ali’s best actress award though. Not sure how either. Would be surprised if Natalie has any fans. So average…
@jimmyszeto
Totally! Can’t agree more.
@jimmyszeto, totally agree…
Natalie is not a bad actress but her variety seems to be quite limited once the spotlight is on her. Maybe has something to do with her facial expressions. Ali on the other hand is still quite versatile especially when given roles totally unlike herself. Natalie just lacks A lister charisma like Tavia.
@bubbles23
Agreed. Natalie ain’t a bad actress, but not a leading A-lister in my eyes. She’s a career supporting actress. Ali is significantly better than her.
I forgot that Natalie even won Best Actress. Just goes to show how forgettable she is.
@anon haha very true!
Probably also because she looks the same in about every drama style wise
@bubbles23 Natalie’s acting has been stagnant for a very long time. Her given roles may have played a part in terms of variety but I also doubt her ability to showcase her range of acting skills. Of course, given the likes of some of the current actresses in TVB with even poorer acting ability, I’d rather see her but that doesn’t say mean a lot when TVB is lacking in good actresses, let alone good leading actresses.
The problem is that Natalie never really had a breakthrough role. Not that she’s a bad actress. Ali started in her career not too long ago, but she’s had a variety of characters. Natalie had weird roles, but none particularly that shone or was really lovable.
However, even with that said, Ali really did amazing last yr and the award was well deserved if it had went to her. Unfortunately, it didn’t.
I hope to see Natalie play a ditzy and lovable character for once and see how that goes.
Some BA went to actresses who plays flirty, humorous and ditzy roles well – like Charmaine Sheh or Nancy Wu. Ali would’ve made a great addition, but we’re still missing Natalie in there
@coralie
wasn’t her role in the drama which she won BA supposed to be ditzy, love-blind and lovable? it just didn’t come across as that
@m0m0 She was lovable in My Unfair Lady, but she was still too serious. Her role wasn’t light-hearted enough. If you think about all the previous BA winners and their lighthearted roles, you’ll see what I mean.
They are colleagues. No best friends or nonsense club or whatever. Maybe they can form a Unfriendly Alliance club.