Charmaine Sheh a 10 million FaDan is not easy to be

Charmaine Sheh has been dealing with different gossips in the entertainment circle for 13 years. She personally experienced 100 battles, such as rumors, TV Queen battle, and negative criticisms, but she still takes it easy. Vulnerable to attacks, she still successfully holds the TVB Fadan seat tightly, earning more than 10 million a year! All is not easy, she is grateful of all the people who once supported her, encouraged her to seek an acting breakthrough! Year 2011, she has a few series to release, where she challenges her acting. She has hope to recover lost grounds and sit back on the TV Queen seat again!

Charmaine has been a frequent candidate for the TV Queen battle in the last few years since she got TV Queen in 2006 for her role in Maiden's Vow. However, in the last two years she has been defeated by opponent Sheren Tang. The public feels bad for Charmaine, and there are even rumors saying that she has intentions to leave TVB and head to Mainland due to her dissatisfaction. Towards the rumor, she cares less. Charmaine said: "After so many years of award presentations, winning and losing is not important anymore. Can't Buy Me Love (CBML) and No Regrets are two completely different series. I am very happy that both series got good results, it is a double winner. From what I remember, the most intense TV Queen battle was in 2004, of the Top 5, War and Beauty took 4 of the spots. So I have been getting more and more relaxed every year. Honestly, making it in on Top 5 is already really good. It proves that you have the ability to be in the competition."

Thanks Catherine Tsang's encouragement

In CBML, the barbaric Princess Chiu Yeung is one of Charmaine's favorite roles: "I rarely do comedies. At first when I saw the script, I was really scared, this girl is so annoying and disliked, always causing trouble! Will my portrayal be really disliked by people? That time I was still shooting When Heaven Burns, didn't have much time to look into detail on the role. In the end, more barbaric elements were added, luckily people liked the outcome and audience can see another side of me. Shooting comedies is really fun, most important is the chemistry of the actors, I feel that CBML is a perfect combination."

Since Miss Hong Kong 1997, Charmaine has been with TVB for nearly 13 years. Her acting career ran smoothly, it's just she had some negative criticisms early in her career that she had a 'chicken voice' and had poor acting. After her hard efforts in training, she quickly got approval by audience and sits stably on the TVB Fadan seat. She is most thankful of Production Director Catherine Tsang's spur of encouragement: "Tsang Jeh always says to me: 'You ugly, fix up your looks!' She has always been encouraging me like that. At first, I did not know how to act, but she did not give up on me and kept giving me opportunities. I worked hard to change. I remember my first series, Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain with Felix Wong. I asked him: 'How do I do well, and be like you?' He said it's good to be natural, this world does not have success if nothing is done, what he said is really true."

Careful observations, learn with the heart

"I never took an acting class, after Miss HK, I came out with a white piece of paper. I was just like a sponge, slowly observing and absorbing when others are acting. I used my heart to learn, slowly I gained more confidence and improvement. I started to see my own path. Every time I encounter different roles, I would take time to do the homework to get a good feel of the role. Just like When Heaven Burns, I play a very serious role, the month before filming started, I kept thinking my boyfriend was murdered and the unhappy background my role has. It was only then I could quickly get into character. As an artist, sometimes there can be some mental confusion, but luckily I am usually doing series after series, can quickly get out of character and erase the previous character."

170 Episodes in 2010

During the interview, Charmaine appeared tired, she counted the series she filmed over the last year and the upcoming Forensic Heroes III, she has already done 170 episodes worth of TV series. She frankly said it's very exhausting: "I am really exhausted, really want to take a break. In the past, I would take the summer off to go back to Hawaii. Last year, I was scheduled to shoot Mainland series Justice, My Foot in the summer. It was really a tight schedule last year, but my time in Mainland is fixed, have time to rest."

Charmaine and Moses Chan are crowned as TVB's "Gold Sucking Kings". She is the rich lady in the entertainment circle, earning 10 millions. Last year she did 2 Mainland series and earned Chinese yuan. She smiled: "Actually calculating overall, earning Chinese yuan is pretty much the same! But it is a fact I had a prosperous year last year, lots of money-earning opportunities. I also did several Ads, like what Moses says, I'm already happy enough and it's the hard work that pays off."

Always surrounded with rumors

Since Charmaine's entry into the industry, she has been basically rumored with all the lead actors, so she's already immune to all of it. Last year when she was shooting CBML and Colorful World of Sister Fa, she was rumored with Moses Chan and even with Raymond Lam for a short period. Charmaine sighed: "Many of the rumors are clearly fake. They are all just playing around and writing it. As long as I have a male co-star, they write about it. If they ask me, I'll just answer, I don't even know what they wrote. The rumors with Moses started because we filmed so many series together, just don't mess with me!"

Sheren Tang once said she's encountered many good men in the acting world, like 'Chai Gau' and 'Lau Sing' and that has made her standards for a partner increase, so it's hard for her to find someone. As for Charmaine, she doesn't have much feeling: ""TV series in the house, even if the male and female leads aren't perfect people, they are still good people. However, I won't choose a partner based on the male lead in a series."

Empty Love Life, No Time to Date

Currently, she is so busy that she doesn't even have time to rest. She really doesn't have time to date. She reveals her grandmother is often rushing her to get marry, unfortunately she hasn't encountered her Mr. Right yet. Even if she wanted to rush, she can't: "Can't rush relationships, I feel that when the heavens want you to meet your Mr. Right, whatever happens, still will meet him. If wanted to break up, can also simply break up. This is my experience, currently I will not purposely go force anything. Also, if I do have a boyfriend now, I basically don't have time to spend with him. I would feel really sorry to him."

Moses is said to be the 'deal' in the entertainment circle after his break up with Bernice Liu and Charmaine is also the 'deal' to all the gentlemen. She is a very independent woman, absolutely does not have 'Princess Illness'. "I don't like to ask people to do things for me, I try my best to do them myself. I don't even have a house worker, just two part-times, who come twice a week to clean my house. I am someone who really needs personal space, often I need to study scripts and think of how I should approach the acting for my roles. I need a quiet environment, and cannot be disturbed." When she's not smiling, people feel she's cool, she said: "Perhaps that's when I'm thinking of nonsense, like what I'm going to eat later or maybe I don't have anything on my mind at all."

Source: Mingpao
Translated by: aZnangel @ AsianEU