Fala Chen Graduates from Juilliard; Will Return to Work Full-Time
Since her TVB contract concluded in 2013, Fala Chen (陳法拉) decided not to renew her contract and instead decided to further her studies at Juilliard School in New York. Hoping to better herself as a professional artiste, Fala took a break from work to pursue a four-year Master of Fine Arts in Drama (MFA) degree. In the blink of an eye, the 36-year-old has already completed her program and will be dedicating herself to work again full-time.
As a final project, Fala and her classmates performed on stage in both New York and Los Angeles. To celebrate a successful performance, the group went out for dinner and drinks afterward. After enduring a rigorous four-year program together, the group has grown very close and share a special bond. Though happy to complete her program, Fala admitted to feeling bittersweet. “After dinner, we took turns talking about our past experiences. We witnessed each other learn and grow. Some classmates joined the program when they were 18 years old. In these past few years, we have seen them grow a lot. I have also matured a lot. Everyone has supported one another through the last four years.”
Career Outlook
With school done now, Fala will readjust her focus to her career and will be dedicating herself to work again. Currently, she is in considering several Mainland China, Hong Kong, and American filming projects. When asked what types of roles she hopes to challenge, Fala said that Juilliard provided her with the opportunity to portray a variety of roles in these past four years, including an 80-year-old grandma. “In these four years, I have tackled a lot of different roles and alleviated my acting cravings. I portrayed many roles that are completely opposite and different from myself, so I hope to play roles that are more similar to myself and more down-to-earth. I think these are more challenging at this point.”
It seems as if there is no shortage of opportunities for Fala. With TVB’s current shortage of artistes, has the company reached out to her yet? Fala shook her head, “They haven’t talked to me yet. Right now, I’m also considering a movie script.” If Fala is hoping to break into the film industry, is she setting her sights on Hollywood? Fala responded, “The U.S. film market is changing really fast these past two years. There are more Asian faces onscreen. There are more controversial female characters too. I think there is hope. But I won’t set a limit to restrict myself. I don’t want to give people the sense that Asian actresses can only go the route of sexiness, be a martial artist, or speak broken English. I hope there will be change.”
Despite being done with school now, Fala is still keeping her permanent residence in the United States. On whether she will move back home to Hong Kong, she said, “Let’s see where my work will be. If I come back to Hong Kong for work, then I will move back. My boyfriend [Emmanuel Straschnov] works in the United States. He is supportive of my career. Right now, I want to focus on work. There are a lot of different opportunities right now. If I have time, I definitely want to see my boyfriend more. He would fly here to see me.”
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
Well done Fala! Do hope to see you in Cantonese tv show soon. Also happy to see her dating.
Congrats Fala! Hope to see you back on screen.
With the current shortage of good actresses at TVB, i do hope that the station will approach Fala for future collaborations, so that we could see familiar faces with decent/improved acting again on TV…much better than watching those inexperienced Miss HK.
Since Tavia, Myolie and Linda were all married and shift their focus on their family, it will be interesting if Fala and Kate could come back to film for TVB…perhaps on a per series contract.
Kate has been rather quite ever since she left TVB…not much news about her. Although her acting may not be superb, but i still remember her good performance in Highs and Lows, which to me is her remarkable performance in her acting career.
I honestly don’t see Fala returning to TVB to film series. She didn’t go all the way to prestigious Julliard’s for additional opportunities at a TV station like TVB. She’s aiming to become female version of Tony Leung or even higher – international markets like Hollywood.
I don’t anticipate seeing her on my small TV screen for a while
@coralie
i think that it’d be a waste if she goes back to tvb. afterall, even w/o her jillard’s credentials, she would have been the household name given her popularity had she stayed w/ tvb. i wonder if her acting really improved. i found her acting to be quite stone before.
I think the HK film industry may be a good market for Fala. Casting in Hollywood film roles seems to be based on artistes’ ability to draw Mainland box office sales. Fala had some popularity in China as a TVB artiste, but that slipped away during her four years at Julliard. New Mainland dramas seem to prefer casting their own Mainland artistes in leads. Many Hong Kong artistes have been playing supporting roles in bigger productions. When they lead, the dramas may be smaller or less successful projects.
A high degree sounds good and all and I respect her in actually putting time and effort to better her “craft”. Unfortunately Hollywood is racist af and doesn’t care about prestigious acting diploma also the fact she’s Asian doesn’t help. So many people make “it” young these days without talent and Fala is already 36 :/ not so sound ageist but it’s true unfortunately
It would definitely be a waste for her to go back to TVB, a station that doesn’t care about acting talent. With her Julliard degree, she should shoot for the international film arena (doesn’t have to be Hollywood…independent films can be just as prestigious)….or perhaps try theater, which is where artists with those types of degrees usually shine — hey, you never know, she might even be able to break onto the Broadway scene, which would definitely be prestigious if she were able to land a lead role.
@karina congrats to Fala for getting her degree. Her opportunities are limitless now. I for one agree she should not go back to TVB, as it will be a waste of her hard earned degree and her talent. Fala is a pretty decent actress. Yes Hollywood is not really kind to Asian artists. In fact, they are not too kind to black actors/ actresses who are born in the good old USA. Having said that, maybe the Asian culture will realize what blatant racism is, as they are extraordinarily racist towards darker skin people, especially blacks
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I know I will get crucified f poo r this, but I do not mimd being verbally lynched for speaking the truth.