Rebecca Zhu’s Rise to Stardom in 8 Years
Currently airing, The Dripping Sauce <大醬園> revolves around a family that owns a large soy sauce factory in the 1930s. Through hard work and determination, Rebecca Zhu’s (朱晨麗) character is able to break down gender barriers to become the new owner. In real life, Rebecca has been in the industry for eight years and has slowly worked her way up to leading actress. As she has become a familiar face in TVB dramas, viewers have also warmed up to her presence. Her success is the result of her positive nature, work ethic, and adaptability.
Rebecca’s convincing performance in 2019 Anniversary drama Wonder Women <多功能老婆> as a materialistic woman with a heart of gold was highly praised. This year, she takes greater weight on her shoulders as she carries the leading role in The Dripping Sauce.
Born in Suzhou, China, Rebecca spent all her childhood learning different styles of dance. At the age of 16, she received acceptance from the dance department at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. Afterwards, she was sent to the United States for intensive training. After graduation, she joined the Hong Kong Ballet.
Criticized for Her Mandarin Accent
In 2011, she won the Miss Hong Kong Pageant and earned the nickname as a Fala Chen (陳法拉) lookalike. Her first drama was actually to replace an injured Fala Chen in Silver Spoon, Sterling Shackles <名媛望族>. Unfortunately, Rebecca’s her first role was met with a lot of criticism towards her bad acting and Mandarin accent. She also had romantic scenes with Kenneth Ma (馬國明) and Ron Ng (吴卓羲) which led to much jealousy and criticism from their fans. Of course, she was very unhappy with all the criticism but decided to face it with positivity and learn from the experience.
Continuing to face disapproval for her lack of fashion sense and broken Cantonese, Rebecca faced these challenges directly and took lessons to improve her Cantonese.
Admirable Work Ethic
She also decided to learn kung fu from action star Sharon Yeung (楊盼盼) to increase her skill set. Rebecca was able to show off her newfound abilities in Officer Geomancer <八卦神探>, Fist Fight <兄弟>, and especially in The Stunt <特技人> where she personally performed difficult stunts.
There was a time when she filmed for 30 hours continuously and had to be hospitalized due to exhaustion. Quickly she worked her way up from supporting characters to lead roles.
In 2017, Rebecca won Best Supporting Actress for her role in A General, A Scholar, A Eunuch <超時空男臣>. In her acceptance speech, she encouraged others like herself, “I hope that all of the children who have made their way from China to Hong Kong can achieve their dreams too.” Unfortunately, this remark led to some backlash from Hong Kong netizens.
The drama also brought another bigger reward in Rebecca’s life–she found love in co-star Matthew Ho (何廣沛). It was rumored that they fell in love while filming A General, A Scholar, A Eunuch. Sighted taking vacation together, Matthew has also been seen frequenting Rebecca’s home.The pair frequently attends work events as a couple and even play onscreen lovers in The Dripping Sauce. The couple has incredible chemistry on and off set, everyone is rooting for them to have a happy ending!
Source: HK01
This article is written by Kiki for JayneStars.com.
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And I wonder why too. I dont feel like switching on the TV to watch her. I dont find her performance engaging.
@funnlim
In the soy sauce series apart from Hugo, Rebecca is the only one turning up for. Her Cantonese may be unclear especially when she’s screaming at Matthew but she is showing plenty of charisma…
Reason 1: all other fandans have left the building
Reason 2 : TVB needs more than 1 fandan
Reason 3: a Miss is better than a nobody
XD bash away lol
i think she’s a fine actress got the looks. 8 years is a quick rise given that nancy wu and tavia put in more than a decade before they would lead.
@m0m0
The thing I like about Rebecca is that she does not hold back and goes all out when she acts….
I think Rebecca is among the watchable actress of the current fadans in TVB. Her acting and Cantonese may be lacking, but she does show improvement and the potential to grow in her acting career.
She’s cute. Her acting isn’t bad. Not good but it’s ok. The main thing that bothers me about her is her accent. 8 years and literally, no improvement whatsoever. A few months ago, I had rewatched some youtube clips of her during her Miss HK pageant days, and she sounds exactly the same. Her accent I mean. She needs to practice harder if she is to be a recurring leading lady at TVB.
Agree with other posters, I don’t see what’s special about her. Her acting is average at best and her accent is still quite heavy.
What impressed me the most about Fala was her ability to mask her Mandarin accent shortly after she debuted. I remember her having a thick-ish Mandarin accent when she was in Forensic Heroes, but that completely disappeared when she appeared in Steps. I do think her Cantonese regressed after awhile with particular words, but Rebecca is nowhere near that level.
But to be fair, Christine Kuo and Leanne Li have the same issue and they’ve been in the industry for longer.
@hazel ” But to be fair, Christine Kuo and Leanne Li have the same issue and they’ve been in the industry for longer. ” – The only difference is they are both prettier but they are completely supporting’s and this one became a lead w/i 7 8 years? She’s not impressive acting or appearance wise either. LUCKY is the word or inside connections?
@wm2017
Christine Kuo is super pretty but hasn’t even got past speaking her accent with confidence Nevermind acting well.Leanne Li isn’t even attractive and can’t act either. It’s like she fell into the wrong industry…
@jimmyszeto Valid. Christine and Leanne have no acting skills whatsoever. Come to think of it, the Virgin Girl Club are all terrible actors.
I remember reading a tweet when The Other Truth aired. The user was like “Leanne Li is THE WORST actress ever!”
@hazel Leanne was pretty good in Black Heart White Soul
@jimmyszeto CK – right? I think she’s really pretty too until she got a little chub but definitely not bad looking still even when she got chubbier. The other commentator is right – none of the V group are good actresses. It’s just Linda C got the most popularity into lead roles ( not sure how ) than the others. I actually like Grace Wong’s acting the most out of the 5. She can do fighting & evil roles well. I can’t say I remember anything of the other 4. haha Leanne L isn’t a good actress but I have to say she is good looking too hahaa… and come on when you see her next to the hubby? Come on now!!!! How can she not be attractive? haaha…lol…
@wm2017 Lucky cause of dwindling talent.
@hazel
Fala has improved her cantonese to the point where every word is clear but she is a lot more reserved in her acting. She recognised that during Triumph in the skies when she couldn’t play ‘Holiday’ with enough charisma. It has also to do with personality though since it is much tougher playing characters who are totally opposite to real life personality. I expect Fala to be much stronger now after years of top quality acting school. Rebecca however is a lot more stronger vocally than Fala and isn’t afraid to look ugly when acting. She gives her all but the character she has played recently probably suits her personality. Her acting is far better than the ones we currently have active especially with Tracy Chu gone. Too much emphasis is placed on accent but we can still enjoy the acting regardless of accent. I can barely hear a word Francis Ng or Jordan Chan at times but their acting are great. Same with King Kong because he has charisma. In all the recent series, Rebecca has been good. The loud unladylike characters suits her well. I like Fala and Rebecca. They are both in the bracket of decent celebrities to come from TVB…
@hazel
Well with the current talent drain and standard in TVB now, she can easily rise since there is no one else to compete with.
I don’t like Rebecca Zhu in particular, but I must say that she has improved a lot, both in acting and in accents. She was terrible in her first supporting role in the big production “SSSS” (the series with Damian Lau, Tavia Yeung, Kenneth Ma and Vincent Wong). She is getting better and better, but still have some accents in her Cantonese.
Compared to Fala Chen, of course, Fala was a lot better, both in acting and in Cantonese. Fala also acted for TVB for 8 years, but she was able to get rid of her Mandarin accents before she left TVB.
“8 years is a quick rise given that nancy wu and tavia put in more than a decade before they would lead.” …………We cannot compare Rebecca Zhu with Nancy Wu as timing is very important. Nancy had to be a supporting actress for a long long time as there were too many beautiful fadans in TVB at her times. Nancy went through 2 decades with Flora Chan, Jessica Hsuan, Maggie Cheung, Ada Choi, Kenix Kwok; and Myolie Wu, Fala Chen, Linda Chung, Tavia Yeung and Kate Tsui. Right now in TVB, there is absolutely no good and pretty fadan, and TVB has to promote every artiste. Almost anyone can lead a drama series now. TVB now does not have any artistes with solid acting.
In conclusion, timing is super important to any artiste, especially in TVB, such a big organizations.
She’s got the look and charisma that will show very well in serious and professional roles. One of the best actress in tvb today.