Bowie Lam: The Rightful TV King Who Refuses To Be Obsequious To Anyone

Charismatic veteran actor Bowie Lam (林保怡), who naturally possesses a crystalline voice, has been in the entertainment industry for more than twenty years now. Bowie was known to be a jack of all trades in the past, dabbling in everything from singing to acting in movies before venturing into the television industry and shooting countless sets of drama series.

For decades, Bowie steadfastly bided his time, refusing to bow down to “reality” for any awards. Fortunately, as the saying goes, “good things come to those who wait”, and Bowie was eventually dutifully rewarded for his perseverance in the year 2004 when he was rightfully bestowed the TV King title based on his role in War and Beauty《金枝慾孽》, winning it honorably without any form of intended socializing, fawning, sending of gifts or advocating the heavily rumored unorthodox practice in exchanging of a contract renewal for an award.

Musing over his past pilgrimage in finally attaining the TV King award, Bowie marveled, “I entered TVB in the year 1990 and had filmed several dramas that received high ratings and glowing reviews from the audiences, which included File of Justice《壹號皇庭》, Healing Hands《妙手仁心》and Untraceable Evidence《鑑證實錄》. At that time, many people said that I should already have won the TV King award. Well, to be honest, I have never hankered after the award as I’m aware that my interpersonal skills isn’t good at at all. In fact, at the 2004 TVB Anniversary Awards back then, I was standing beside Lawrence Ng (吳啟華) and I clearly remembered thinking that Lawrence would be the one winning the TV award. I often thought to myself that being an actor, pure capability and competency is of the utmost importance such that one shouldn’t just plainly stand in TVB and keep viewing the award as insurmountable . One should instead adopt a more macroscopic view and discern this award from afar. They will then discover, “Oh, so this is how the TVB award looks like”, and realize that it is really nothing more than just a game and a dream. In that case, then why should I even yearn for it?”

“Every year, on the eve of the Anniversary Awards, there will always be rumors circulating around without fail. For example, the long-standing rumor that one has to sign a new contract in order to receive the award. However, to be totally honest, I did not discuss anything with TVB prior to receiving the TV King award at that time. Although I’m not certain whether there is truly such a matter (constituting the exchange of a contract renewal for the award) but I absolutely would not do such a thing. If anyone paid attention to the timeline, they would observe that I only signed a pay package contract with TVB after quite a long period of time and not immediately after I had won the TV King award. At that time, TVB was extremely sincere in discussing the contract renewal with me hence I was, on my part, willing to give it another try. Interestingly, someone had ever asked me which camp [referring to the hearsay that artistes usually split into either the Virginia Lok (樂易玲) camp or Stephen Chan (陳志雲) camp] did I belong to and I replied without thinking twice, “Sorry but I don’t belong to any camp!””

Not stirring up any form of rumors to gain publicity

Bowie continued, “I feel that being an actor relies on one’s capability after all. Hence, it is not necessary to walk around shopping malls or out on the streets, specially to get photographed by the paparazzi, or stir up some rumors to get anyone to notice you. There is even lesser need to rely on giving of gifts, licking of boots or attending of a senior management executive’s birthday party, in order to pull strings. I had never done those and have always been persistent in sticking to my moral principles. In fact, I’m thankful and take pride in saying that I did not succumb or change the slightest bit over the years, especially because I don’t wish to change myself in order to ingratiate to others. Thus when my name was announced as the winner of the 2004 TVB Anniversary My Most Favorite Male Actor Award (equivalent to a Best Actor award back then), I felt extremely emotional as I could finally gave myself six letters, which was “Truly worthy and deserving of this award”. As it turned out, every underdog has his day and can succeed based on pure capability and competency. Furthermore, that award was exceptionally memorable and significant to me as it proved that my perseverance was indeed not in vain. Thus I can only say, “So sorry”, to my then-opponent, Dayo Wong (黃子華).”

“Apart from sheer capability and competency, I also feel that I was very fortunate to be acquainted with such a good script like “War and Beauty”. After “War” was broadcasted, many Mainland television stations and websites allotted several acting awards to me but so what? All these were just meaningless to me as I feel that it is more crucial to do your part well and give it your best in every filming scene. However, with that being said, there is currently still an award that I really hope to clinch and it is none other than the Best Actor award from the inaugural Venice Film Festival. This internationally acclaimed award is the only way to undoubtedly prove that one’s acting skills has reached the ultimate stage of winning recognition from audiences of the world. Furthermore, seeing “Deanie-Jie” Deanie Ip (葉德嫻), who is actually my mentor for personally nurturing and bringing me into the entertainment industry, winning the Best Actress award at this year’s Venice Film Festival, has actually helped me to fuel further interest in advancing towards the Venice Film Festival awards.”

Jumping out of the Hong Kong boundary and diligently working towards spreading his name worldwide

“Masses of people thought that I only decided to leave TVB because I had fallen out with them and the rumors only grew stronger after I had won the Best Drama Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role award at the Asian Television Awards last year. Back then, many people felt that TVB carried a cold response towards my winning of the award and the press had a field day publishing reports criticizing TVB for allegedly secluding me into a corner. At that time, I was pondering in my heart that TVB wouldn’t treat me like this and that perhaps it was just a matter of an arrangement of time. I had to think that way in order to reassure myself  and to make myself feel a little better emotionally. Actually, I truly didn’t bear any grudges or complaints when I left TVB, which was my employer for nearly twenty years, as I owed them everything that I have today. If it hadn’t been for TVB, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve all those feats. I must clarify that I only left TVB as I wanted to undergo trials to test my ability.  I wished to see how far the name, “Bowie Lam”, could spread and to which country, apart from Hong Kong!”

Deanie Ip uncovered a rare gem in him through their duet and brought him into the entertainment circle

“The most heartening moment for me this year was when Deanie-Jie was crowned TV Queen at this year’s Venice Film Festival. On that fateful day, I only learned that she had won the prestigious award through the television news and at that point in time, I was so thrilled for her that I literally jumped up in joy! After which, I acted like a small fan of hers and photographed a snapshot of the news footage of her winning the award with my cellphone before uploading it onto Weibo. I still remember the time when Deanie-Jie gave me my first big break. It was the year 1987 and I was still a record company’s coordinator who was responsible for helping Deanie-Jie set her microphone. One day, while waiting for Deanie-Jie to arrive in the recording studio, I playfully hummed her song, “Li Ge Yuan Quan”. When I spun around, she was shockingly right behind me and had been listening to me humming it, all this while! After which, Deanie-Jie took me by surprise when she abruptly requested to duet with me, just as we were preparing to record her song. Fortunately, the then-record producer, Danny Chung (鍾定一) gave his consent and we then went ahead to record the first song of my life, sharing one microphone and not having any form of preparation or rehearsal. Just like that, I was thrust into the limelight through the sparkling vocals of the Venice Film Best Actress. After we recorded that duet, Deanie-Jie often found me to guest star in her music videos and the rest, as they say, is history. I can still clearly recall that during the year 1990 when I released my first solo album, it came out along the same time as the albums of Shirley Wong (王靖雯) who is now better known as Faye Wong (王菲), Shirley Kwan (關淑怡), Patrick Tam (譚耀文) and etc. Talking about Faye Wong, I had also acted alongside her in her first TVB drama, Eternity《千歲情人》.”

Source: Oriental Daily

This article was translated by Ah K, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com.