Sheren Tang Battled Depression While Filming “Beauty at War”
Even for a veteran actress like Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯), the hardships of filming may sometimes be too much, causing stress and emotional problems. Sheren admitted battling depression while filming Beauty at War <金枝慾孽-貳> last year.
March 2 marked Sheren’s 47th birthday. Instead of a wild party, she chose to spend a quiet day with close friends and family. On Sunday, reporters followed her from her apartment at Symphony Bay, Sai Kung to her church at Causeway Bay, and wished her a belated birthday after she got out of her car. She replied, “My birthday is over. Another birthday means another year older!”
Dressed solemnly in dark-colored clothing from head to toe, reporters asked if she is suffering from mood disorder. Sheren smiled and said, “It has been a while ago. Why did you only receive news now?” Continuing, she said, “I’ve not gone through anything like this before. But I’m much better now, thank you. ”
The Toll of Late Nights and Change of Scripts
Two-time TV Queen, Sheren revealed that the unplanned change of scripts as well as the overnight filming caused her undue stress while filming Beauty at War last year, leading to her mood disorders.
However, when filming wrapped up, Sheren felt the burden lifted and felt better almost immediately. Stressing that she has fully recovered now, she said she is ready to go back to work after a long break she has taken after filming Beauty at War. Sheren will be shuttling between filming in China and promoting Beauty at War in Hong Kong, since the drama is scheduled to be aired on April 22.
Always known to be curt to the media, Sheren asked reporters to leave her alone when she discovered that they had been following her all day, including waiting for her while she had a meal with fellow actress, Kelly Yao (姚煒). Sheren said, “I will have an evangelistic service where the reporters can raise their hands and ask me any question, including my boring life and why I used to always give a sour face to the media.” Not long after, she and Kelly went separate ways.
In other related news, Sheren’s ex-beau, Joe Tay (鄭敬基) is back in Hong Kong. Spotted in a café in Causeway Bay two nights ago, rumor has it that he wants to go back to acting again.
Bowie Lam Reveals Sheren Tang Had Cried on Set
Last year was not the first time that Sheren had suffered extreme pressure while filming on set. Bowie Lam, who had partnered with Sheren in 2004’s War and Beauty, revealed that Sheren had cried on set once.
“Since the lines were very hard, with names of many Chinese herbs, we had more than 40 outtakes one time. One time, I watched a playback scene with Sheren, I heard her crying from afar. It turns out that she thinks that she did not act out the scene well enough.”
Since leaving TVB, Bowie has been filming in mainland China. Bowie revealed that he will be primarily filming movies this year.
Source: Sharp Daily; On.cc
This article is written by Karen for JayneStars.com.
That is the price of stardom and fame as one of the lead roles. Her monetary reward should be worth the trouble or if not, she will need to renegotiate her contract.
It might have only been a rumor, but I remember reading about her wanting a high fee when TVB approached her to film Rosy Business 3. It was because TVB thought she was asking too much that they took back the offer and gave Myolie the role.
Sheren Tang denied it at that time and Producer Tim Gor confirmed that it was not the reason.
Where Sheren Tang was approached or not, we don’t know. It was definitely not the fee, but it could have been her health problems.
I don’t think this is true because the Wayne/Myolie series was originally not RB3. They only added that name for PR purposes for advertisement money.
Are you going be maggie siu there when she in needed of you on her wedding day of her lover. who are you going invisted with your friend. Sherence no more cry will you think first if is sad than i will see it okay. love take good care of your health. [email protected]
Sheren revealed that the unplanned change of scripts as well as the overnight filming caused her undue stress while filming Beauty at War last year, leading to her mood disorders.
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The dialogues of “War & Beauty” and “Beauty at War” are old literary Chinese and it is extremely hard to say it, to memorize it, and even harder to say the memorized dialogues with proper facial expressions and inner emotions unless she knows it very well. The scriptwriter, Mr. Chow Yuk Ming, is well-known for “flying paper” scripts. It means that the scripts will not be ready until that day or maybe the day before filming, and he will still change them again and again during filming. If it is a modern drama series, it would be a lot easier. However, “Beauty at War” is an ancient drama series with Ching Dynasty palace-setting, the royal families have to speak old literary and elegant Chinese. I can see that pressure that the artistes had during filming. Moreover, they had to work until 6 a.m. most of the time during filming.
Sheren is a perfectionist-actress. She always wants to be perfect and perform her best. If she cannot memorize those difficult dialogues and speaks with her proper emotions, she would feel very bad and upset herself.
I don’t think any artistes would like to film drama series written by Mr. Chow Yuk Ming, especially ancient ones. Mr. Chow’s Chinese scripts are very well written, but he should have the scripts ready at least two weeks before filming, not on that day or the day before.
Does Mr. Chow still work for TVB or did he follow Chik when he left too?
Chow Yuk Ming actually left before Jonathan Chik did (he left several months prior) — it just didn’t seem like it because he never really said anything. But around the time Jonathan Chik’s departure was rumored, Chow confirmed on his Weibo that he himself actually already left TVB.
Actually, TVB as a whole is notorious for doing the ‘flying paper’ / ‘on the fly’ script thing — it’s been happening for a long time and is nothing new (keep in mind that very few scripts for TVB series are actually completed and written prior to filming — majority of them are done as the filming takes place). The difference here is that Chow Yuk Ming does it ALOT (pretty much every single one of his scripts and almost all of the scenes)…plus add to that the ‘higher level’ with which Chow’s scripts are written — especially the ancient series ones — that in general are hard enough for most people to understand let alone study and memorize. That’s why artists who film Chow/Chik dramas find it especially difficult.
then don’t accept the job if chow yuk ming is the script writer
But, I bet if Jonathan Chik as Sheren again to film his series, Sheren will accept. I remember reading in previous news between RB3 and WAB2, Sheren will choose WAB2. She knew Chow Yuk Ming’s working style from working with him in WAB, but, she still accepted the offer.
The success of Jonathan Chik’s “War and Beauty” gave Sheren Tang great success in her acting career in Hong Kong and Mainland China. She was very grateful to Mr. Chik for giving her the chance to film that drama series, so she did not hesitate to accept her role in “Beauty at War”.
However, “War & Beauty” was filmed more than 7 years ago, and Sheren was a lot younger. Moreover, she had not filmed that many drama series for TVB lately, so she was used to work long hours, until 6 o’clock in the morning. It was really hard on her. As she was so tired, it made it more difficult for her to understand and memorize the dialogues.
Jonathan Chik is a highly reputable perfectionist-producer as well. With Sheren’s expectation and requirements, he is a perfect producer for her. It would give her lot of challenges; unfortunately her body and health were not able to take that much stress.
This truly shows that Sheren Tang is a professional and “top notch” actress! She definetely put 100% into everything she does! All artistes should look up to her!
Agree, especially the young ones.
Totally agreed
agree!
I agree!!! All the newbies seem to value the dollar more than their performance. It seems everyone is trying to find their niche market. I think it is important to go to acting school for most of them or even refresher classes so that their performance is, at least, acceptable.
Sheren seems like a perfectionist, in the pursuit of excellence. These traits can easily lead to disappointment and frustration and worse, depression. Beating yourself up over a performance may sound ridiculous to others but is the world to that person in a depressed state. I can see how her health was adversely affected by her negative self talk as she buckles under the stress and pressure to perform her utmost best. I’ve found her to be quite the actress and applaude her for her bravery for opening up about her depression. It is more common than you think and yet many are too afraid to share their experience for fear of ridicule. Well done Sheren, you do a marvellous job with all your roles.
Sheren is a true professionals who put so much pressures on herself to get everything perfected. It must be tough to learn the old style script on the fly while trying to inject the right expressions.
All the beauty queens who can speak Cantonese properly let alone act shoul take a leave off Sheren’s book and learn to walk before TVB seemingly let them fly like headless chooks!
Sorry i mean can’t speak Cantonese properly.
How many actors can emulate Sheren? I think that to just read and understand the script is difficult enough, not to say having to memorize it and acting it out with understanding and feeling. This Chow Yuk Ming is a monster!
I studied Chinese in high school in Hong Kong, and I still had difficulty in fully understanding every single word of the dialogues in “War & Beauty”. I was not able to understand them without looking at the subtitles, not to mention memorizing and talking like conversations.
This is the reason why I was impressed by Sheren Tang’s acting in “War & Beauty”. She was the only lead actress in the royal family who spoke properly as Yu Fei. Gigi Lai and Charmaine Sheh were almost reading out their lines. Maggie Cheung was okay, but her dialogues were a lot simpler as she was not a member of the Royal Family …… not so much old and formal Chinese.
I think all the artistes complained about the last-minute scripts in “War & Beauty” because of the difficulty of the dialogues, especially Bowie Lam’s …… to do with herbal medicine.
I took a class of Classical Chinese and gosh was it difficult. I can imagine the hardships of filming shows like War and Beauty. No wonder HKTV does not dare to do any ancient series yet. I heard that Ricky Wong was not happy about the shows that have been filmed already. That is not a good sign for them and shows TVB may still be the main dominating tv station in HK.
i like sheren tang wonder why she is still single
I wonder how will Sheren fare if she were to film a Wong Kar Wai movie where there is no script and most things are improvise last minute.
I am sure Sheren Tang can manage it as Wong Ka Wai’s movies are filmed at a very slow pace, unlike “Beauty at War” which was filmed until 6 a.m. most of the time. Moreover, I think that most of Wong Ka Wai’s movies are modern movies. Sheren Tang, as well as other members of the cast, only had difficulty in understanding and memorizing Chow Yuk Ming’s ancient scripts, which were usually very literary and elegant, especially for members of royal families. I am sure if the artistes were given more time to do preparation work (not “flying paper” scripts), they could all do a good job.
Chow Yuk Ming has fantastic Chinese language skills and is a highly talented scriptwriter. Unfortunately, he has a very bad habit in producing scripts on time, which is highly unprofessional.