Alex Fong Struggles With Long Lines in “Legal Strongman”
Attending the costume fitting for upcoming TVB drama, Legal Strongman <律政強人> with Liu Kai Chi (廖啟智) and Mandy Wong (黃智雯), Alex Fong (方中信) spoke about the lengthy script and the extensive number of lines he had to remember.
After spending an entire night reading through the script, Alex could only finish going through eight episodes worth of lines. Legal Strongman was, to date, the drama he had filmed with the most number of lines. He expressed, “It has really not been easy! But thankfully, it’s all in Cantonese…so it’s still much more comfortable than filming Mainland Chinese dramas.”
Alex added, “I highlighted all over my scripts. It really tests my brainpower. Thankfully, my memory is still alright.” When Alex was first asked by one of the producers of Legal Strongman to play a lawyer, he initially thought that it would be a fairly straightforward role. He had not expected such long and complicated lines. Did he complain to the producer? Alex joked, “Yes! I showed the script to the producer. Each paragraph of my lines was literally a foot long!”
One reporter suggested that the long number of lines could perhaps increase Alex’s chances of winning Best Actor award. Alex laughed and said, “I would rather win Best Actor by playing a mute character!”
On whether Alex was comforted by the romantic scenes in the drama, Alex said with mock self-deprecation, “It doesn’t work…my daughter is already seven years old.” As for whether he had any intimate scenes, he said that there were none.
At the end of the event, Alex was gifted an audio recorder by the production team. He immediately made another reference to the length of the script, and joked that with a memory card that only contained 6 GB of memory, the audio recorder would not be able to record all his lines.
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Jingles for JayneStars.com.
I was and still is not a fan of Alex Fong. I find his acting stiff and boring. He sounds like a whiner in here lol. I wonder if Uncle Chi complained about the script too or he just sucked it up and delt with it professionally. Surely they both had similar length and difficult scripts since they both play a lawyer and seem to be co-leading the series.
Who’s the girl in the middle? the article only mentioned Mandy Wong… but that can’t be her…. is it? O.o
@jjwong That’s Ali Lee! I think from a previous article, they said this is her first drama as a leading actress.
@ayyh0 She’s hot
@jjwong
Agreed, Alex Fong in my opinion, isn’t leading material (on big or small screen), but again, this is TVB we are talking about here.
Only worth watching for LKK.
@jjwong Yep… Alex Fong is not great IMO either. Very stiff and not much expression but Uncle Chi is in it too so all good!
@jjwong I share the same sentiment as you. Never liked Alex as an actor and always felt that he was boring – can’t recall any of the dramas where he’s been lead that I’ve ever sat through in their entirety. Uncle Chi of course didn’t complain about the script. In his usual humble, low-key style, he said that the script is realistically written, has potential, and he will do his best with his performance.
I’m actually quite disappointed with the casting of this series – specifically the female cast. I understand that TVB doesn’t have much to work with in terms of artists, but since so many of the recent series are led by non-contracted artists anyway, why not invite a female lead back who is a better match for the male leads? Sure, Ali Lee seems to have potential and amongst the newbies, her acting is one of the better ones, but is she really ready to be a lead yet, and in such an intense drama at that?
In any case, I’m still on the fence as to whether I intend to watch this series or not – if I do watch, it will be because of one reason only: Uncle Chi. With that said, I sure as hell hope that Uncle Chi is truly ‘co-leading’ in this series and doesn’t get relegated to a ‘glorified supporting’ role (which could potentially happen given that with each mention of this series, much of the focus has been on Alex more than the other members of the cast). And in terms of the series having The Election feel to it – that’s true based on the trailer, but I’m hoping it’s not a cheap knockoff, since this IS TVB after all….if the scriptwriter and producer for The Election (both of whom have returned to TVB) were involved with this series, then I would have more confidence, but seeing that neither is involved, well, that’s a different story….
@ayyh0, OH! Ali looks different in that pic too, lol. I remember said-article and still can’t believe it. She has potential but lead now? Eeeh, iffy at best. Again, poor Mandy being overlooked and stepped on once again.
@anon , @happybi , @llwy12 , yea, Uncle Chi is the only thing I look forward to this. I will be highly disappointed if Uncle Chi turns out to be a ‘glorified supportor’ …
I’ll give the script ‘the benefit of the doubt’ (see what I used there? Just wanted to slide that in lol) until proven otherwise (probably like 2 eps in lol. Then again, TVB is notorious about screwing crap up and airing crappy end-product. How many legal dramas had TVB effed up? Too many to counts is the answer. Still, I’ll give this series a chance. I just won’t hold my breath for the ‘wow.’ Lol.
i don’t know if others have said about long lengthy lines…i remember aarif lee the other one who said his lines were very challenging in his drama w/ fan bing bing.
This is probably the only drama I’m looking forward to. It got that movie feel to it. Also uncle Chi is in it. For some reason it feels like The Election but lawyer version.
@krolxl Me too. I am also interested as we now have a new face Ali Lee. I don’t Alex Fong is the best actor but I do enjoy seeing him on screen, And Liu Kai Chi si back. I think TVB has made a good move to do darker genres.
Have never been a fan of LKK. However it is good to see some different characters assembled for a modern series like this. It’s worth a try for TVB with nothing to lose