asiaone
Diva
updated 4 May 2011, 10:40
user id password
Mon, Apr 11, 2011
The New Paper
Email Print Decrease text size Increase text size
Chung's sad, busy year of acting

With the many comings and goings in the Hong Kong entertainment scene like top TVB actress Charmaine Sheh's departure, Linda Chung (top image) is one of the few left at the Hong Kong broadcaster that has a chance to make it as an A-lister.

But the 26-year-old admitted that she doesn't think she has what it takes to rise to the top.

Chung was born in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, and raised in Vancouver. In 2003, she won the title of Miss Chinese Vancouver, along with three other subsidiary titles at the same event.

A year later, she joined Miss Chinese International, a pageant organised by TVB. She was praised by HK singer-actress Kelly Chen for her sweet face and voice.

Chung then became the third contestant from Vancouver in four years to win Miss Chinese International. She was then talent-spotted by TVB and signed on with them to be an artiste.

This year, Chung has at least four TV dramas that will be shown, but she doesn't feel that acting in a big number of TV serials will snag her any awards.

What is most important is that she receives good scripts, she said.

She said: "Last year, when I got back from my vacation in Vancouver, work just kept coming and coming. One after another, work just really snowballed and I didn't even have time to take a break. From the looks of it, I can take my next break probably only after August."

For Chung, last year was a roller-coaster ride of really high highs and really low lows.

"To be honest, I wasn't really satisfied with my performance for the past year. I always felt like, with anything that I undertook, I could have always done better.

"For example, I was really sick when I was filming Ghost Writer, so my mood and my overall outlook on things wasn't good."

To make things worse, she played both a ghost and a human in the series and felt that it was particularly difficult to flesh out both characters.

The heavy schedule also took a toll. She said filming every day then sucked the life out of her and she ended up feeling rather empty and defeated inside.

She also admitted that she was depressed almost every day.

But her lowest point was when she was filming the hit TVB drama Heart Of Greed.

Said Chung: "On the surface, she (her character) looks like a perfect woman but deep down inside she's not very in tune with her feelings and doesn't know how to handle them."

At that time, as she was so immersed in her role, Chung would be crying every day and feeling negative all the time. This dedication to her craft was what did her in and she said she felt broken.

The irony was that when it came to the scene where she needed to cry the most, she had "no more tears left"

 

This article was first published in The New Paper and was translated from the latest issue of U Weekly, which is out on news-stands tomorrow.

readers' comments

asiaone
Copyright © 2011 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn. No. 198402868E. All rights reserved.