Charmaine Sheh Recalls Unforgettable Showbiz Moments

Achieving another career high after multiple award wins for her role in The Queen of News <新聞女王> last year, 1997 Miss Hong Kong runner-up Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼) has truly come into her own as an actress, a far cry from her early days in showbiz when faced criticism over her acting and grating voice.

The amicable 48-year-old shares more about her showbiz journey in a YouTube interview with veteran host Lawrence Cheng (鄭丹瑞), by recalling the forever etched moments which helped her grow as an actress!

Held Back Tears After Being Targeted by Production Assistant
Lawrence asked, “How did you achieve your level of acting?” Charmaine replied, “Through many sleepless nights of tears ,” Following, Charmaine recounts three unforgettable incidences of getting reprimanded. The first was when she had a guest-starring role in a drama when still serving her Miss Hong Kong duties, but was unreasonably scolded by the production assistant (PA). Arriving on time, Charmaine was lashed out by the PA who told her, “Do you know today is Father’s Day, everyone is rushing home to have dinner, why don’t you come earlier despite being informed,”

Later, Charmaine was preparing for script reading, but did not bring her script along as she had just one line. The same PA then lashed out, asking me “Where is your script?” I explained that I remember my line, when she threw a script over at me, screaming “Didn’t bring your script,” and continued nagging.

“I recall feeling really insulted, but remained calm, as my makeup was already done and did not want waste even more time with any outburst on my part, as the schedule for the day was already tight. So I held in my emotions till I finished the day’s work and was escorted onto a cab, when I finally let out a scream,” When Charmaine got home, she received a call from Miss Hong Kong nanny-in-charge, Rosa who asked if she would like to dismiss that particular PA. It turns out that someone had witnessed her being bullied by the PA and phoned TVB to lodge a complaint, but Charmaine only wanted to let bygones be bygones. The PA was later transferred away from the drama department.

Ms Catharina Tsang Cautions Her Against Letting Award Go to Her Head

The second time was the same year when Charmaine was handpicked by producer Lee Tim-sing (李添勝) to star in costume drama The Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain 1999 <雪山飛狐>. She was on the set of another drama when the director lashed out, “Now we’re not acting in a period drama!” Although it was an embarrassing moment for her, Charmaine started to reflect on her own method of performing, and told Lawrence, “I really want to thank him now, although it was a little hurtful,”

The third incidence was after she nabbed an acting award for 2020 drama The Return of the Cuckoo <十月初五的月光>. One day she was summoned to the office by higher management, Miss Catharina Tsang (曾勵珍), who told her “What do you think you’re doing, now you think you’re brilliant at acting? So capable? So what… …” Reflecting on herself after the episode, Charmaine said, “After that time I’d take every role very seriously to figure out the character’s transformation”.

Watch Charmaine’s full video interview:

Source: HK01