Mandy Wong Sacrificed Love Life for Acting Career

As one of TVB’s most talented new stars, fairly few people still remember that Mandy Wong (黃智雯) was actually a Miss Hong Kong finalist.

“When I auditioned for Miss Hong Kong in 2007, I remembered that I didn’t have much courage,” said Mandy. “It was my mom who encouraged me to audition. At the time, I was not feeling very fond of the idea, and I was afraid that my boyfriend would not like it. But my boyfriend was very supportive.”

Mandy had contradicting feelings during the audition process for Miss Hong Kong. She knew she was not a hot favorite, so she concentrated on perfecting her performances through vigorous practices. “I was very nervous, even to the point where I wished I would not win the competition in the end! I was afraid that once I did, I would lose my relationship, and I really did not understand how the entertainment circle worked.

“Around a week before the final competition, everyone was putting in their votes on who would win. I was considered to be the dark horse. Maybe it’s because there were a lot of dance segments that year, and because I have an adept dancing background, I was able to pick things up faster than others, so I grew more confident. But on the last night, I kept telling myself to not win. Please don’t let me win! The judges chose Kayi Cheung (張嘉兒) in the end, and she was a very deserving winner. She has very high EQ.”

After losing out in the competition, Mandy immediately joined TVB’s acting class. Mandy thought she was going in the direction she wanted, but upon seeing her fellow winning candidates traveling to other cities and making headlines at promotional events, Mandy felt at a loss. “I developed a deep admiration for them. Now, I had to start from scratch. I would always think that if I was a winner instead, I would be able to become famous faster, and my life in the circle would run much more smoothly. Thankfully, TVB recruited me into the drama department soon afterwards, and I was able to completely focus on my acting career.”

Had No Choice

Mandy’s work increased by the year, and she was beginning to spend lesser time with her boyfriend. “I could not just give up my work to be with my boyfriend. We slowly began to have disagreements, and along with the fact that we are from two completely different family backgrounds, our problems with each other worsened. We tried to salvage our relationship, but it did not work in the end. After a long time, I finally realized that career and love cannot go together. I decided to give up our four-year relationship to completely focus on my career. It was a cruel decision, but I had no choice!”

Mandy did not regret her decision. Now, the actress has no qualms when it comes to performing in intimate scenes, and she will be able to dedicate her time and energy to perfecting her acting career. “I have no distractions. I do not have to worry about upsetting anyone when I have to do intimate scenes, and I am able to completely focus on my roles. Even today, I will still choose my career over love. I am not cold blooded, but since I chose acting to be my career, I would have to invest in it completely. I will not allow distractions. I enjoy the satisfactions that come with my job, so I will have to sacrifice my love life. I have no complaints, and I should not, because this is what I chose.”

Full of Confidence

Mandy is currently a hot favorite to win this year’s Most Improved Actress award, and award critics estimate that Mandy will be the one to ultimately take the ward home. “All my roles this year had received a lot of attention from the public. Whether the comments were of criticism or praise, I cherish every single opinion. I am very happy to receive so much love from so many people. I know that there are many other factors when it comes to winning the award, but I have much more confidence this year than last year!”

Mandy also thanked producer Poon Ka Tak (潘嘉德), the first TVB producer to notice Mandy during TVB’s acting class. Tak Gor was the one to cast Mandy in A Chip Off the Old Block <巴不得爸爸…> and Suspects in Love <搜下留情>, the first two dramas that put Mandy’s name on the list.

“He also cast me in The Hippocratic Crush <On Call 36小時> and Divas in Distress <巴不得媽媽…>,” said Mandy. “We also keep in contact out of work. He is both my mentor and friend.”

Source: Oriental Daily via ihktv.com

This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.

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Responses

    1. Me too! Maybe it is because she chose to start from scratch by joining Training Class that it definitely reflects in her performances. All her characters that she’s portayed so far are quite believable to me. She definitely shows that she knows her stuff and delivers it convincingly 🙂

      Supporting her to win Most Improved this year !!! 🙂

  1. Mandy won me over this year. I am a big fan of hers now. Yes, she still has room to improve but she is a deserving candidate for Most Improved Award.

    1. totally agree!!! same here! I hope one day she will be like Sheh…become very popular..

  2. Mandy should get best supporting actress as well for lesgargot as Kwan Yee So She was hated by the whole of HK when this came out….

    1. Hm, I wonder why so many HK people make the mistake to take the characters for real and hate the actor/actrice of the role. Does this mean that the actor/actrice was that good?

    2. i would be more happy if she can get “best supporting actress “…support support

  3. Sry, i couldn’t find any unique characteristics displayed by her. It looks normal. However, i believe tat hard working shud earn her something valuable.

    1. my thoughts exactly, i dont see anything special about her appearance or acting for as long as i’ve seen her.

  4. If the relationship didn’t last, it was never meant to be in the first place.

    1. nahh.. she is much better than nnadia… i liked nnadia in the beginning, but her last few series few yrs ago with TVB .. her acting were.. ughhh

  5. I don’t like her. If I were the judge, I’d give it to Charmaine Li from SSSS. Superb acting for a small character. Mandy and the others have always been overhyped. Sometimes I notice you don’t even see Mandy’s expressions when she acts, the camera doesn’t ever zoom in much, its like you hear her voice, then some shot that doesn’t display her face, maybe they know thats how the audience cant criticize her acting, if they dont see it and only hear her talk. What acting is there except delivery of lines. No offense, I wish to see them promote some other people who are truly underrated and thats Elaine Yiu and Charmaine Li. Mandy only has better interpesonal skills especially with Producer Poon Ka Tak always giving her a bag of goodies from the dramas he produces.

    1. Agree on Elaine Yiu. She has improved so much in her acting, and she looks very pretty in ancient drama series (“The Life and Times of a Sentinel”). She will be another Nancy Wu. Unfortunately, Nancy has not won a Best Support Actress award yet, and Elaine has not even been nominated for “Best Improved – Female”.

      1. Elaine Yiu is unlucky. Txb gave up on her too fast rite after the first failure she had in Safeguard. Many others also have failures, even in many series but they still had the promotion of Txb. Poor Elaine.

  6. People that sacrifice/leave others for their own ambition, in real life, we call those people “heartless” but since they’re in the spotlight, we fluff it up.

  7. The only role I liked her in was A Chip Off the Old Block! She was very likeable and cute there!

  8. Losing out in MS HK competition doesn’t mean you won’t be famous in the end.. I think mandy is more famous than Kayi now in term of getting roles in tvb series. Kayi often played those Kelefe role while Mandy in 2nd line artist and already got more scenes than Kayi.

    1. First Kayi Cheung was never promoted by TVB, and secondly Kayi Cheung’s acting is not as good as Mandy’s. After all, Mandy was trained professionally in the Academy for Performing Arts and TVB Artistes’ Training Course.

      1. And your conclusion is?

        Same as mine.. Mandy’s luck is better than kayi cheung obviously..

      2. Kayi Cheung is 張嘉兒

        As per Wikipedia:

        “Cheung was educated at David Thompson Secondary School and graduated in 2002.
        Kayi Cheung Crowned Miss Hong Kong 2007

        In 2005, Cheung entered the Miss Chinese (Vancouver) Pageant in which she was not named as a Top 3 contestant. However, she did capture the Miss Vivacious Beauty award. She hosted What’s On on Fairchild Television until April 2007 when she returned to Hong Kong as an overseas contestant in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant. Cheung wasn’t a favorite to win, and was virtually ignored during the entire pageant. She was not considered even a contender to make the top 8, let alone top 5 or top 3. When she was announced as the winner, the live audience booed heavily because nobody expected her to be up there. Most of those in attendance thought that the crown should have gone to eventual runner-up Grace Wong, who had bagged the Miss Photogenic and Miss International Goodwill awards on the same night.

        What followed was massive criticism totally unseen in Hong Kong pageant history.[1] The media and the public severely bashed Cheung for being one of the least beautiful Miss Hong Kong winners ever. TVB, the organizer of the pageant, claimed that the onstage performance on the final night was just part of the game and Cheung had showed very strong communication skills when meeting the judges before the final, which might prove decisive. The public were not convinced, and insisted that Cheung’s win was fixed. The bashing continued to the point that there were informal polls among internet fans on whether there should be a re-election of Miss Hong Kong 2007. Nevertheless, Cheung handled the pressure gracefully and remained calm and composed whenever she was asked about all the harsh comments made on her looks.

        Cheung competed in Sanya, China for the Miss World 2007 pageant in December 2007. In the pageant she made history by becoming the first Miss Hong Kong to win the Beauty With A Purpose award, based on her charity work for the “Wai Yin Association”, a charitable organisation set up by a group of former Miss Hong Kong winners/participants since 1982. Cheung tied with Miss Ecuador, Valeska Saab, for the award so both advanced to the semifinals automatically. She is the first Miss Hong Kong to make the semi-finals since Pauline Yeung did in 1987. The Miss World 2007 title went to Zhang Zilin of the People’s Republic of China.[2]

        In January 2008, Cheung went on to compete in the Miss Chinese International 2008 pageant[3] where she was not considered to have much chance to do well even as the host delegate. Again she broke all odds and became 1st runner up, the first Miss Hong Kong to place in the top 3 since Mandy Cho in 2004. This was again criticised as being the result of TVB’s “help”, especially because other contestants were mostly of very competitive quality, and Kayi’s performance was considered mediocre at best.”

        At least Kayi Cheung speaks perfect Cantonese and was one of the hosts in media news program of Fairchild Chinese TV in Canada. She was a pretty good host here.

      3. Kayi Cheung is a trained nutritionist in Vancouver, Canada. Don’t know if she is still practising her profession.

        I remembered her in the following drama series, but she did not have heavy roles:

        – Beauty Knows No Pain as Betty
        – Growing Through Life as Fanny
        – Til Love Do Us Lie as Ling
        – Tiger Cubs as Tong Yuen-kei (唐宛琪)
        – Highs and Lows as Operations Officer

      4. Kayi Cheung was never given a chance to act any decent roles. She needs more practices and exposures to act different characters. She was the least promoted Miss Hong Kong by TVB (as far as I can remember).

      5. It’s actually hard to tell whether Kayi’s acting is weaker than Mandy’s or not. Kayi has such small roles, there’s not much opportunity to show her acting ability, unlike Mandy.

  9. guy maybe think of this news in another way, mandy could be telling tvb indirectly that they should promote her more because she will have all her time for tvb

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