Evergreen Mak Recalls Struggling Days as an Actor
After more than 33 years in the entertainment industry, Evergreen Mak (麥長青) has starred in many well-received dramas and portrayed many memorable roles. His acting skills have long been noticed and applauded by the greater audience. Despite his clean and personable image, Evergreen’s opportunities at TVB continued to be a roller-coaster ride through the years, going from a supporting actor, to a lead actor, and back to being a supporting actor. After winning the Best Supporting Actor award in 2010, Evergreen’s passion for acting was reignited and his dream of being a lead actor was once again on his radar. Despite this, his career never took off. Last year, Evergreen officially terminated his contract with TVB and joined ViuTV.
Evergreen’s relationship with TVB soured in 2014 when he became a victim of investment fraud, and harassed him and TVB staff at the station. After losing a seafood endorsement contract, Evergreen saw his onscreen roles also dry up. Suffering from taunts and ill treatment during his lowly days, Evergreen expressed, “Every man wants to give the best to his family. In order to make a living and survive, we often have to deal with people’s deliberate unreasonableness during work. Before I won the award, I had dramas to film. However, from second or third line characters, I was demoted to playing passerby roles. People are very realistic. Some directors feel that the company no longer values you and will treat you as if you have no value at all.”
He recalled a specific dispute with a director once, “After reading the script, I feel that there are some lines that would be quite impactful. I followed the script to film the scene, read my lines, and gave all the necessary expressions. However, the director loudly reprimanded, “Hey! What are you doing? Why are you acting? It’s not necessary! We don’t need it! All you need to do is walk in! The camera isn’t even on you!”
Despite the ill treatment from certain individuals, Evergreen expressed gratitude and warmly regarded his costars and other crew members. “At the time, the crew knew what was going on. The most heartwarming thing is when my coworkers would come and just give me a pat on the back. Some people have told me that my EQ is high. But honestly, what else can I do? Whether it is the training class professor or the director, they rule their territory. You have to let it go. Karma will work its magic.”
Leaving behind the politics at TVB, Evergreen is happier filming for independent productions. “Everyone will help each other–the team spirit is very important for actors. If a company [pays you], then slowly there will be a structure with higher or lower positions. Some people like to play politics and power trips.”
Possessing a good relationship with ViuTV after several collaborations, Evergreen is currently writing a drama script for the station and hopes he can still be a leading man.
Source: Sing Tao
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
I’m glad everything work out for him now, hopefully he will achieve his goal as he has sacrificed so much and he isn’t young anymore. Would be sad to see him as one of those TVB actors who ends up poor when old. He seemed like a nice person.
And yeah, the so-called friends or co-workers tend to distance themselves when someone is in trouble. Sometimes even family, that’s the harsh reality of life.
@pompidur
“And yeah, the so-called friends or co-workers tend to distance themselves when someone is in trouble. Sometimes even family, that’s the harsh reality of life.”
In my experience, that tends to run rampant more so in Chinese/Asian culture than the west. They tend to kick you a few more times when you’re down and out than try to lift you up. There’s even a figure of speech for this type of behavior. My Chinese ain’t good enough to write it out, unfortunately.
@anon fair statement. I think the same about my own relatives. This is why I don’t communicate with most of them.
No wonder i haven’t been seeing him lately……….Wow realistic indeed……… TVB directors think they are the top??!!! cant produce a good drama and there talking trash hope Evergreen will be cherished in Viutv and hope for the best in his future runs
@sherla1019 Evergreen is a good actor. I still remember he won best supporting actor from “No Regrets.” I thought he would get more opportunities from TVB afterwards, but I guess not