Anthony Wong Critiques Grace Chan’s Performance In “Captain of Destiny”
Anthony Wong (黃秋生) and the cast of TVB’s four anniversary dramas Captain of Destiny <張保仔>, Under the Veil <無雙譜>, With or Without You <東坡家事>, and Lord of Shanghai <梟雄> attended TVB’s Anniversary Lighting Ceremony on October 2. The ceremony, which is held every year, officially commences the station’s anniversary celebrations, which lasts from October to December.
Anthony will be starring in TVB’s last anniversary drama of the year Lord of Shanghai, which will premiere on October 26. Also starring in the series is Wayne Lai (黎耀祥) and Kent Tong (湯鎮業 ), his first TVB drama in thirty years. Anthony is said to have a huge chance at winning Best Actor in the upcoming TVB Anniversary Awards, but the Hong Kong Film Award-winning actor said he doesn’t think he has a chance.
“I don’t think I’ll get it! [TVB] invited me to be an award presenter. It’s weird to present it to myself.” Asking if Anthony would be presenting Best Actor at the ceremony, he said, “Not necessarily. If I am to do that, I want to present the award to Wayne Lai. That would make much more sense. He’s been filming many dramas for TVB, and he’s definitely a great actor.”
When speaking about TVB’s rookie actors, Anthony commented that TVB has been promoting many newcomers in recent years. “There’s so much. Even Liza Wang (汪明荃) doesn’t know all of their names.”
However, Anthony added that despite having many newcomers, none of them seem to have caught his eye, expressing that the new generation of actors lack character. “It’s not just about the TV [industry]. Back in the day, every newcomer had his or her own individual character. Today, although there are many newcomers, all of them want to do what other people are doing.”
Anthony was then asked for his thoughts about TVB’s star rookie Grace Chan (陳凱琳), the lead actress in Captain of Destiny, Anthony said, “She’s quite pretty. She does have character, as well as Sisley Choi (蔡思貝). Especially Sisley.”
Mentioning that Grace has been slammed for delivering a poor acting performance in the series, Anthony said he has seen half an episode of the drama and monitored Grace’s performance.
“I think some of that is the director’s fault. [Grace] is a pretty girl, but I don’t understand why the director didn’t tell her to stop doing those exaggerated expressions on screen. It made everything ugly. She also has a lot of little habitual movements. These little movements look like they are supposed to be very minor, but she repeatedly does them over and over again, so it ends up being a nuisance. The director is supposed to watch her. It’s not her fault at all.”
Asking if Anthony would have a chat with Grace about her acting, Anthony said, “No. When this interview is out the media would probably say I’m scolding her. I am not trying to do that. I am saying this out of goodwill. You should all watch her scenes with a gun. She looked very scary.”
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
LOL i agree with everything he said, her acting is so over the top. i also agree that the director should have said something, but maybe he did and grace wasn’t able to change it. who knows. i’m just sick of seeing her everywhere
@hkeni…I just watched first episode last night.
she is too exaggerated in her movements. but Sisley is worst!
grace behaved like a highly strung teenager jumping around. the rest of the policemen don’t have to do anything.
Lol what does he mean when he said she looked scary? Tvb are you listening? Pl demote grace asap. Dont torture yr viewers any more. She’s really ruining COD for me more than Tony and im really annoyed about that.
I think it would help for Grace to attend more acting class, so those habitual movement would be corrected. On other hand, hope she would also practice her speaking tone and voice, it sound very nosey.
Another rookie Sisley too, better control her annoying voice, being lack of truetone, feeling and expression, it always sound like constant yelling with uneven voice. Muting the audio in her scene is the best thing to do. Hope she corrected it.
Thank you Anthony for telling it like it is. But I disagree on Sisley.
@funnlim i think sisley have it in her but she havent show it yet,of course her acting needs an improvement and also gets the right role.
Well said Anthony. When I was watching Captain of Destiny I was too wondering why didn’t the director should ‘Cut! Grace you need to stop being OTT and exaggerating!” Surely Grace would have listened or something. But yes whilst I partly blame the director the finger should be pointed to Grace Chan for portraying Mui as unbearable to watch.
A pity because I see potential in Grace Chan. There were the rare moments in the series where Grace was quiet and not speaking but expressive and she did a good job.
Other than that I feel Ruco Chan was the most impressive among the bunch. Favourite scene thus far was when he was arguing with Consort Yim and General Fok about Ha Shim being innocent:
“You guys are never reasonable so why should I talk about reason? What a joke”.
@anthony blame the director..,its his vision,and grace os a conduit.
Man ho can take care of himself. I wonder if there was such a man like man ho he will make a great emperor or ceo but will b shortlived because he will make a lot of enemies. However he will also make a lot of close confidants. In short he could be cao Cao.
@anthony agree ruco is impressive especially in ep10,every word he speak have so much strength and power,unbelievable what a charismatic leader.
Nugu director too? I agree with Anthony. He comment based on his experience, so he was able to look at things in the big picture.
Basically, tvb is losing talents behind the scenes too.
TVB had thrown beauty queens into the water before and they stayed afloat and learned to swim i.e. Bernice Liu in Virtues of Harmony and Linda Chung in Virtues of Harmony 2. Linda said in a radio interview that she was given the role days after moving to HK and joining tvb, she asked about acting training and they told her that Virtues of Harmony is the best training for her! Somehow, they managed to pull it off but this time, throwing Grace into Captain of Destiny is over ambitious and looks like she’s struggling to stay afloat.
@genxx11 Not only that, she’s dragging the drama and everyone else down with her! Especially feel sorry for Ruco who turned in such an impressive performance in every episode only to be dragged down by this awful noob! He should have been remembered for his awesome performance in this drama but now everyone will just remember how awful (dis)Grace is!
@isay actually I think it helps that Grace was so bad in this. It highlights everyone who did well. Actors who aren’t really even noticed like Ruco & Tony & Li Shing Cheong, have proven their acting prowess without those who usually take their limelight.
@coralie huh? Ruco has always been known to deliver a convincing performance whether his costars are good or bad. I can’t agree with you on that. Good is good, terrible is terrible. You don’t need terrible acting to highlight good acting.
@isay well I dunno about you but I never really thought Ruco was all that special esp with all the surrounding good actors. And I took him for granted since he’s been acting for so long. Versus a newcomer like Grace, you can really tell who has their skills honed. It’s true that you don’t really need bad acting to highlight good acting but sometimes when you put someone who is really bad next to someone great…the difference is like between night & day
@coralie hahahaha i guess that’s the difference then. I’ve noticed him for a long time already, even before The Other Truth which made a lot of people sit up and notice him. Other roles that got people talking about him were as Tony the villain in When Lanes Merge and Ah Hoi in EMYM. Then there’s Carson from ROE and many many more. He was never mediocre even when cast opposite the famous actors of tvb in supporting roles only.
@isay yeah I watched The Other Truth. I was only half-heartedly interested. Didn’t even finish the drama. And haven’t watched the rest of those dramas you mentioned. So my exposure to Ruco was only for a little bit…but I wasn’t especially impressed. Not impressed in the same way I was impressed by Li Shing Cheong or Wayne Lai.
So yeah. But next to Grace…all the actors are significantly better. Like I said, night & day
@coralie i can only say different strokes for different folks. Not impressed by Wayne.
@isay…never liked wayne and roger kwok.
@genxx11 But Virtues of harmony was barely focused on Linda or Bernice. There was some screen time, but they didn’t have a ton of ups and downs and they weren’t the main characters. Placing people in sitcoms is a good idea because it lends them the ability to really slowly acclimate to act. They have a long training period with all the seniors in steady roles and chemistry.
I honestly think it’s the director’s fault in this one. Because Grace did fine in her previous roles like 4 girls 1 bar. The producer/director/whomever jumped the gun after her acceptable performance there and placed her as star actress in COD and didnt even tell her to rein it in. He shouldve at least made some suggestions as to how to control her expressions without going OTT, but didn’t. It felt like all he wanted to do was finish the scene.
@coralie we blame grace for ott acting,but maybe the director wants her portrays the character is just like that, who knows? btw this character a mui isnt easy for a rookie actress,grace have to show much more different kind of emotions than her previous roles. the director didnt make it easier for her because many of grace’s scenes doesnt make sense.
@coralie Yes, TVB is putting a heavy bet on her, it’s unprecedented. They are hoping to win big, create a new fadan in the shortest time.
When you watch a show about CPT, and the only thing interesting in this is Ruco Chan and the palace conflicts lol.
ruco chan should win this year’s TV King…enough of wayne lai. the female lead needs someone with weight.
ruco is GOOD, and he is doing a great job in this drama.
as for grace, she is a little old to be jumping about. i can’t feel the sadness about that part on her boyfriend cheating on her.
i’m shocked she took his notebook away just like that. it doesn’t make sense!
Grace is going to be the next Toby Leung cuz she has been using English phrase in almost EVERY sentence she said…Sad to see the drama lost its authenticity of real Hong Kong drama…But I like Ruco acting 🙂
@melaniem3i her english is good though!
Just watched Grace Chan’s self-reflective response to this and I think she responded well. She agreed on Anthony’s comments about her bad habitual movements and she said when she watched the series she regretted how she acted out Mui. But Grace said there’s no way back and she will move forward with this, and treat Anthony’s comments as useful feedback from a senior.
Even after this unbearable performance, I haven’t lost confidence in Grace yet because it’ll only mean she’ll try harder to improve and I do anticipate her future roles. Only advice to her would be to listen to other actors’ feedback like Ruco Chan other than Kevin Cheng (who I think is a decent actor).
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@freedalas please dude, we all know that you love Wong Cho Lam and his wife, now can you just stop ranting on about them? sorry if i’ve offended you, but it’s pretty annoying!
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@freedalas a) you CAN’T deny me the right to post any comments, you aren’t the owner of the website!
b) i respect your comments too, it’s a form of freedom of speech, I’m just advising you that even if I don’t try to stop your comments other people will, eventually (haven’t they already?)
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I think I started observing Ruco more after that drama with Aimee Chan. But Ruco playing Carson impressed me. Ironically opposite Kevin Cheng then. He is convincing as a bad guy.
@janet72 sorry, why the use of ‘ironically’?
@ruomin02 ruco was acting opposite kevin cheng, who is grace’s boyfriend.
@janet72 ohhhhh! 🙂
@janet72 I think you meant Ah Lik in Eye In The Sky not Carson from ROE.
@isay sorry…mixed up the characters and dramas.
Eye in the sky was good as well as the carson…ruco has promise.
“Anthony said, “She’s quite pretty. She does have character, as well as Sisley Choi (蔡思貝). Especially Sisley.””
Very obvious that Sisley Choi caught Anthony’s attention more than Grace. The reporter only asked about Grace, but, Anthony brought up Sisley on his own accord.
To be honest, Sisley also caught my attention more than Grace during the pageant.
” expressing that the new generation of actors lack character.”
I’m curious. How does one define ‘having character’? How did Anthony see character in Grace and Sisley but he did not see in other newbies? What makes Grace and Sisley have more character than other actresses like Tracy Chu, Rebecca Zhu, Grace Wong, Katy Kung etc? They all seem to have their own unique individuality to me.
I hope TVB listened! Well said Anthony. Jus being real. I agree that the newbies really lack character. They got it too easy nowadays. Not just lack of character, lack of individuality, but also training, passion…everything.
There is one thing about Grace in COD that really annoys me too was the way she always broke up and heavily emphasized individual words in sentences for no obvious reason (for example, the word “why”, pronounces “dim gai”, will be broken up by Grace with DIM spoke louder and heavier, etc…) she does that a lot!!
Surprisingly I think Sysley has more hope than her lol. Although I hope never have to watch either one of them again as lead actresses in future dramas.