Michelle Ye Was Bullied by Kingdom Yuen
Known for her straightforward personality and candidness, Michelle Ye (葉璇) has been spilling the inside scoop on the workings of the entertainment industry. In a recent episode of Hot Mom Academy <辣媽學院>, Michelle boldly shared about her experiences when she was an upcoming actress and how she once felt oppressed by her former co-star Kingdom Yuen (苑瓊丹).
At the time, Michelle realized she was not the only artiste who received this treatment. “Myolie Wu (胡杏兒) and I were filming Triumph in the Skies <衝上雲霄> together. She asked me if I had ever been bullied by a senior actress when I first started in the entertainment industry. I told her that there was one, and she also confessed that there was one for her too. We both later said the person’s name out loud, and it turned out to be Kingdom Yuen (苑瓊丹). We both started talking about how terrible and strict Kingdom was, and how she bullied and lectured us.”
Despite an initial negative experience with the seasoned actress, Michelle eventually realized Kingdom’s intentions later in her career. “After more than 20 years when I finally learned how to properly act, I invited Kingdom to star as one of the main actresses in The Purple Hairpin <紫釵奇緣>. Without Kingdom’s harsh treatment, I would not have grown and matured. My first acting gig was in Gods of Honour <封神榜>, where she portrayed by mother-in-law. When I was younger, I thought it was bullying when someone would take away scenes from you and reprimand your acting and have you re-do every scene. In actuality, it was that I was not good enough and not performing up to par.”
As to her personal experience in working with less experienced artistes, Michelle recalled, “When a person is portraying a character poorly, he/she would feel that I am wrong for teaching him/her. These things do happen. We just have to see how this artiste turns out later down the road. Perhaps in the future, the artiste will understand where I am coming from, just like I am now grateful towards Kingdom.”
Source: Hket
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
Kingdom Yuen treated Michelle that way because Kingdom herself was also taught this way when she first entered the entertainment industry. This is how actors learned to improve their acting prior to the 2000s. She talked about this in a few YT interviews about her projects with Stephen Chow.
@anon yup, and kingdom is such a good actress, if she’s not happy with your scenes, you must have been bad lol.
@anon lol yeah that’s what the article pretty much was about but thanks for the unnecessary summary.
@seriously Kingdom?
@mike Possibly… telling dumbass what’s what’s sounds about right.
@anon
Honestly, being strict and helping juniors are one thing, but being rude and bullying your juniors are a different story. I remember Felix Wong talking about his seniors helping him out and he said that being scolded by the seniors was like having them put change in your pocket. However, they seemed to be nicer than Kingdom was to Michelle.
hard to imagine that Kingdom yuen would bully anyone. lecturing yes, she seems to be that type.
Bullying and being strict are two different things.
I recently saw an old drama, The Price of Greed. She’s pretty good. If she was still acting in TVB, I think all the new actresses/actors would be crying. LOL
Not surprised that Kingdom did this. I have seen her interviews before and she does seem to have a very blunt personality. I understand that she was trying to help them and teach them, but like my mom always says, “it’s not what you say, but how you say it.” I think Michelle Ye was trying to be polite in saying she knows it was for her own good, but I’m sure she still doesn’t agree with Kingdom’s way of “teaching”. Furthermore, Kingdom may want to teach juniors how to act, but really, unless you are the director, making someone redo a scene over and over is really out of line. She could pull them aside before/after the scene and give them pointers on how they could improve their acting, and whether they take her advice and comprehend it, is up to them, and she’s done her part in trying to teach. But her way may not work for everyone and would definitely rub most people the wrong way, irregardless of her good intentions.
@gnomageddon agreed…the old school way of teaching tends to be really rude, hostile and aggressive. sink or swim. but it doesn’t have to be that way.
@gnomageddon
I agree and they have the director too so they need to respect him/her as well. Yes, it is not just what you say but how you say it. She should help and encourage her juniors instead of be so rude and blunt about it. It may not help but may also hurt them too.
Bully is such a strong word here, don’t think it’s bullying. More like being too strict or too high expectation. In the end it was out of goodwill, not malicious intent.
@xystus
Well we don’t know for sure… Helping someone is one thing but she needs it do it correctly too or it may hurt them more than help them.
I didn’t know Gods of Honour was Michelle Ye’s first gig at acting. No wonder she was so wooden in it…On the other hand, I was very impressed with Kingdom Yuen’s acting in Gods of Honour. As, I totally felt for her character especially the scene where she had to beg Benny Chan’s soul to come back to the mortal realm. Her desperation brought me to tears eventhough I was a kid at that time!