Ali Lee’s Lowest Point in Her Career: Dropped From Four Dramas
After Ali Lee (李佳芯) won Best Actress at the 2018 TVB Anniversary Awards for her performance in Who Wants a Baby <BB來了>, it was expected that she’d be heavily promoted and achieve greater success at work. However, she suffered a huge career setback when her strong political views upset TVB management. Despite denials of being “frozen” by the station, her lack of work made it obvious. On top of that, she was reportedly dropped from four dramas.
In addition to being taken out of Legal Mavericks 2 <踩過界II>, Plan “B” <BB大晒>, and the Big White Duel 2 <白色強人II>, it’s been reported that she was also dropped from the upcoming 7 Princesses <七公主> (literal translation). According to reports, Ali was supposed to play the lead role, but TVB decided to give up on her and passed the opportunity to Priscilla Wong (黃翠如), who has a better image and listens to the company management.
It turns out this isn’t the first time Priscilla replaced Ali. It is said that Ali refused to film Life After Death <那些我愛過的人> during a holiday period after winning TV Queen because she wanted to earn quick money through other events. As a result, Priscilla was cast for the role. Although displeased, TVB management let it slide, and gave Ali roles in Death By Zero <殺手>, and Amelia’s Rhapsody <愛美麗狂想曲> afterward.
Maintaining good relations, Ali is often well looked after by producers, particularly 7 Princesses producer Joe Chan (陳維冠), who had cast Ali in many of his dramas. An insider revealed, “This whole time, Joe has always been giving Ali opportunities, such as My Ages Apart <誇世代> and Death by Zero. When Joe was preparing for 7 Princesses last year, he already had Ali in his mind as the lead, but he changed his schedule and delayed the shoot until June to accommodate her since Ali had plans to film Plan “B”. Now that Ali is allegedly frozen and Death by Zero was pulled as the anniversary drama last year, Joe has no choice but to give up and change the lead to Priscilla.”
Since joining TVB in 2012, Ali worked her way up from playing minor roles to main roles. With support from many senior executives, she was offered several potential breakout roles. Eventually, she successfully broke out with her role in Who Wants A Baby and was crowned TV Queen with immense love and popularity. Unfortunately, her controversial political views became the final straw for TVB, who was already displeased by her failure to play by their rules.
Source: Weekend Weekly
This article is written by Minna for JayneStars.com.
It’s really a shame, especially since her view was so mild.
She is one of the very few actresses that I would watch a series for. Her character was the most interesting in Big White Duel, a sequel without her is going to be more dull. I am also disappointed to not have her in Legal Mavericks 2 (especially since I liked her pairing with Vincent), but story-wise, that makes sense. BWD had a cliff-hanger ending with her, it is a rip-off not to include her again.
I like Priscilla Wong too, but she does not have the draw that Ali would have brought to 7 Princesses. TVB better give Ali more work soon.
Miss Ali. Hope her frozen period thaw soon. TVB needs her.
Honestly, I feel that TVB really suck at treasuring talents. Ali is good in acting and they decide to cut her off completely? On the other hand, they kept giving chance to Jacqueline -.- it’s ridiculous. Looking at the cast of 7 princesses, I don’t even think it’s strong enough at all lol and BWD 2 without her? It’s gonna be another disappointment.
i wonder whose toe she stepped on in tvb. her comment was neutral, there’d got to have been more to just her comment.
@m0m0 I agree! Her pro-democracy comments were neutral at best; I think she definitely offended one of the higher ups at TVB.
I can’t say I’ll miss her acting as I’ve always found her to be average, but the longer she goes without work, the faster she’ll be forgotten.
I wonder if TVB regrets not giving the Best Actress award to Mandy considering she has no image problems and is well liked by the public.
@m0m0
Maybe:
” It is said that Ali refused to film Life After Death during a holiday period after winning TV Queen because she wanted to earn quick money through other events.” ?
What a pity. She’s a good actress
Typical TVB. This is how TVB has always managed (mismanaged) their artists. This is nothing new. It’s only more apparent these days due to the drain of talent remaining at TVB. In the 90’s when this happened, it would be a non-story because TVB had a load of capable first-lead actors that they can fall back on to takeover that role. Nowadays, they need to scrape the bottom of the barrel just to find a quality actor to save their ratings. TVB should just close up.
So sad! Ali was on 50 song classics episode this week and was showing extreme positivity. She seems the typical good girl but taking a shocking punishment. Ali is taking it well for sure…..
Given the current lineup of actors and actresses at TVB, freezing someone like Ali is a perfect way to keep the quality of their shows consistent across the board.
@tatsumakijim consistently bad I suppose you’re referring to.
I would have preferred her to Priscilla.
I love Ali, the best actress TVB currently has and they freeze her..
Typical of TVB ..Wonder who’s the next few female leads (number one sister) they are going to invest in.. seems like more and more are leaving or disappearing from the limelight
I’d rather watch Ali than any of the current crop tvb is promoting.
Poor Ali. She’s the only decent actress left in TVB with good acting. Love her in Legal maverick and enjoyed how she portray as Paris in The Ages Apart
She must have offended TVB mgmt executive. Seriously TVB is really bad in managing artists. They chose to push & promote those mediocre actress and letting go those GOOD actress. Typical TVB…, sigh!
i feel sorry for ali :(( i still can’t believe she got dropped from legal mavericks, bb 2 and big white duel because she basically carried those dramas. she’s honestly the top actress at tvb and does not deserve to be frozen because of a mere political opinion… but then again it’s just typical of tvb to drop good artistes for a small reason. it just confuses me because it makes no sense to freeze one of the top artistes in the company so harshly as that is a loss for everyone. but all i have to say is mismanagement at the max!
Maybe one of the tvb higher ups tried to bed her but failed…