Roger Kwok to Win 4th TV King Award?
Transitioning to antagonistic roles in recent years, Roger Kwok‘s (郭晉安) career and popularity rose even further. He received rave reviews for his performance in Last One Standing <與敵同行> and earned his third TV King award for his role in Black Heart White Soul (忠奸人). Most recently, his role as YT Yeung in the medical drama, Big White Duel <白色強人>, has put him on the radar for another Best Actor nomination this year.
Roger said, “I won’t think about what kinds of awards there will be just because the series is getting positive feedback. I don’t think this way when I am filming, and I don’t think about it when it is broadcasting either. An award is given to you one night. However, if the drama can make people want to re-watch it, the satisfaction is even greater.”
Surprisingly, this is Roger’s first time portraying a doctor. Roger reflected, “This character has both a logical and emotional side to him. The logical side knows that there needs to be medical reform. If someone prevents this from happening, he would readily get rid of this person. He is a calculative person with a lot of foresight. However, when he is rescuing and saving people, his emotional side would come out and we can see his humane side. Towards John Chiang’s (姜大衛) character, he would not do him any special favors just to give him face. However, towards Ali Lee (李佳芯) and Kelly Cheung’s (張曦雯) characters, he would reveal his real sentiments. His relationship with Kenneth Ma’s (馬國明) character is even more unique, so filming opposite Kenneth was much more dimensional and fun. His character thinks I am not a good or righteous person, so he will fight me on a lot of things.”
Unlike his previous evil characters, YT can be better described as a morally gray character. To this, Roger said, “An ‘evil’ character is someone who kills and hurts other and would do anything to achieve their goals. However, YT is not doing what he’s doing for his own benefit. Because of this, there are many ways that he could express himself. When I portrayed this character, I decided to portray him as an antagonist, as an anti-hero. I believed I would be able to portray this type of character successfully with all my experiences now.”
An Understanding Father
Although Roger has been taking on more antagonistic roles in recent years, he is not worried that his young children will have a bad impression of him. “Fortunately, they understand that it is just acting.”
However, Roger revealed that his kids don’t watch his dramas, because they don’t understand the content. “They’ll watch and understand Marvel movies. Kids these days may not sit still for long periods of time to watch a television series. I hope that one day, they will watch some of my projects and understand their dad a little more. Perhaps not today, but maybe one year they will decide to watch all of my dramas at least once.”
Unlike YT, Roger is more tempered and understanding with his children. “Although I am the man of the household, I try my best to assimilate into their world and their perspective. Children their age are very emotional and moody. I make an effort to control my temper and mood around them.”
Leaving the Nest
No longer a contracted artiste with TVB, Roger signed with Wong Cho Lam’s (王祖藍) company due to the higher pay and hopes of more opportunities. “The pay is very important. If it wasn’t a significant amount, then I would’ve stayed at TVB. Pay is also one of the main reasons that attract us to go work in Mainland China. All I can say is that the amount of money you’re paying me will not go to waste. I will definitely make the amount worth it.”
Maintaining good relations with TVB, Roger will film one TVB series per year. However, between the projects at his new company and his work in China, how will he divide his time? “If the script is good and the price is right, I will tell my manager to ask them to postpone the filming date. If they’re specifically asking for me, then they must know I will be able to earn them money. So one of them can postpone their projects. This is a problem for my manager to figure out.”
Source: HK01
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
Honestly I wasn’t all that impressed by his performance. It wasn’t bad, but there was nothing noteworthy at all.
Roger was good but nothing outstanding. I hoping Kenneth win this year.
@hannah Not sure about the TV King award, since I didn’t watch this series so can’t comment on Roger’s or Kenneth’s performances, but if there were an “outstanding EQ” award (or something along those lines), Kenneth would be my one and only pick for that this year — and no, it’s not just the way he dealt with the whole OnSum scandal thing (though that plays a role)….I’m referring more to the recent difficulties with TVB being the newest target of the extradition bill protests (due to claims of biased reporting from their news department)…the way Kenneth reacted to the latest incident at one of the events he attended (which had to be cut short and he had to be escorted out by like 5 policemen), not shying away from stating his honest opinion (not the “TVB canned response” that most of the other artists have been giving) yet also refusing to get pulled into supporting either side, he definitely gained a lot of brownie points in my book. At such a sensitive time where anything an artist says or does in relation to the unrest in HK society currently is a huge deal, Kenneth has been one of the few artists to actually “get it right” in terms of response without offending either side….
@llwy12 I think kenneth just give a diplomatic answer here. of course he will take a neutral stance, because one party gives you salary and the other party gives you popularity so he has just no choice. He is not the retired alan tam with millions of money in his pocket.
@kolo Yes and no. Most of the other artists of his stature are either choosing not to comment or if they do, it’s something very fake-sounding and generic or they try to feign ignorance hoping the issue will go away or they show clear discomfort talking about the issue (some of the bolder ones actually take a side, but then backpedal when they start getting called out by netizens). With Kenneth, he was pretty much his regular self, smiling and waving at protestors (even though they were outright booing him) and even afterwards, in an interview, said all they did was shout slogans and as long as they kept safety in mind (since there were kids at the event as well), he was fine with it, no big deal at all. He didn’t try to avoid talking about it, he didn’t condemn the protestors or try to jump to TVB’s defense (which some have been doing on social media), of course he didn’t show that he supported the protests either — pretty much just acknowledged they were going on and responded tactfully. Of course it might not be him…it could be he just has a really really good PR person coaching him, in which case, that person should definitely get a raise, lol.
I hope not. I thought he was sleep walking in this series. As for Kenneth, also no. But maybe his “cupping genital area style of walking, standing, strolling” deserves an award. The english teachers deserve an award tho.
Roger’s acting in this series is just good, but not deserving for another Best Actor award since his acting is pretty much the same as how he portrayed his previous antagonist roles.
Besides, Roger is already a three-time Best Actor award recipients. Winning it again would just be the icing on the cake for him. But it’s a different case for Kenneth who has never win the award. It would be a great encouragement for him to do even better thereafter.
Therefore, i hope TVB will finally give Kenneth the award this year to recognise his good acting (although may not be the best) and his loyalty to the station.
Even Ruco & Vincent who rose to popularity later than Kenneth (in TVB) have won the award…so why not Kenneth? No doubt both Ruco & Vincent have good acting skills, but they also didn’t win the award for their masterpiece, instead they won it because TVB has finally willing to recognise their value…after an overdue period.
Can’t in good conscience vote for Kenneth until Vincent Wong’s Al Cappuccino & The Man Who Kills Troubles airs. Not sure when they’re broadcasting, but I am anticipating awesome performances from him in both series.
Besides, I don’t think Kenneth wants some pity award. People who want him to win because of his longstanding relationship with TVB is doing all of us a disservice. If you’re going to go by loyalty, plenty of veteran actors/actresses deserve it more than Kenneth. I only go by talent & ability – I hope Kenneth gets a bigger fighting chance in the sequel, “Demon-Conquering Taxi” to compete with Vincent. Big White Duel is not his best shot at it.
Apparently Ruco was meant to play the role of YT originally… I think YT would have been tailormade for him and would have loved to see that over Roger playing YT
@ledge Apparently Ruco has been cold storaged. He is no longer popular
@meme I was not aware. What did he do to offend TVB?
@ledge Really? I think Ruco will be perfect for this role. He has this sort of conniving scheming look in him. Roger is good and I enjoy watching him but there was just something lacking in him as YT. Maybe the way he speaks.