HONG Kong actress Charmaine Sheh has had much luck with awards.
The 34-year-old recently won two – My Favourite TVB Female Star and one of the five My Favourite TVB Female Characters 2009 – at the inaugural StarHub TVB Awards held in January.
In her 10 years with the Hong Kong TV station, she has bagged many Best Actress and My Favourite Female Characters trophies at the TVB Anniversary Awards.
While they provide a goal for her to strive towards, Charmaine said the award ceremonies can also leave her disappointed.
"Although I'm thrilled when I win, I'm also very aware of the rules of the game after all these years in showbiz," the former beauty queen admitted.
"So that's why I won't go out of my way to fight for an award. The results of a competition aren't something I can control. An artiste wins not just because of good luck, the script plays a part too. Otherwise it wouldn't matter how good your acting is."
For one of her recent dramas, Beyond The Realm Of Conscience, Charmaine tirelessly mulled over her lengthy lines every day.
It was tough for her not just during filming but afterwards too.
She complained: "My head felt very heavy after filming wrapped up, like I couldn't let the drama go. I even lost sleep for close to two months. It was only after a holiday in Hawaii that I was able to fully relax."
In the period drama, she plays Sanhao, a goody-two-shoes whose motto is to do good, speak of good things and have a good heart.
Worried
She said with a laugh that it's rare that she plays someone who doesn't stir up trouble.
She added: "I've played good characters many times, but when I received the script for this drama, I was worried about how I should handle the role."
"I realised later that if I want Sanhao's personality to stand out, I had to rely on my co-actors. I had to find the X-factor in them and create sparks."
Charmaine also sang one of the songs in the drama. While she has prior experience crooning songs for TV serials, she confessed that she will not cross over to singing like fellow TVB actor Raymond Lam because she's not interested in it.
Like Charmaine, the 30-year-old also took home two awards at the StarHub TVB Awards – My Favourite TVB Male Star and one of the My Favourite TVB Male Characters 2009.
And after playing good characters for close to 10years, he's looking forward to taking on baddie roles.
He said: "I want to try roles that aren't too normal. My biggest wish is to get a role like Roger Kwok's in Last One Standing. That should be very challenging."
Roger played a scheming murderer who pushed the blame to his cousin (played by Kevin Cheng).
Raymond also wants to act in a bitter-sweet romance and his pick for a leading lady is the gorgeous Fala Chen, who played his sister in the hit drama, Moonlight Resonance.
He explained: "We already have great chemistry and we really want to play a pair of lovers on-screen. I think that feeling will be very intriguing."
This article was first published in The New Paper.