Bosco Wong Disappointed by His Own Acting and Entered Depression
Bosco Wong Chung Chak portrayed a villain for the first time in Growing Through Life <摘星之旅>, Since he had high expectations for this role, he experienced depression and disappointment in the end results. Reflecting calmly over the situation, Bosco hoped to have additional opportunities to play villains in the future, confident that he will portray the evilness well.
“I had a good time portraying the villain role in Growing Through Life. Earlier, Producer Tommy Leung Ka Shu, told me that he originally intended to cast me in Raymond Lam Fung’s role. Raymond was supposed to play the villain instead. However, I unexpectedly landed in my first villain role!”
Did Bosco fall in love with villain roles? “Yes, I did! As a villain, you can incorporate many elements [and emotions] into the characterizations and they will seem reasonable. I find it boring to always portray well-off characters or good, honorable roles. I do not want to be stereotyped to certain roles only. If possible, I would like to portray an effeminate, flirtatious (好姣) character!”
Despite the audience’s mediocre response to Growing Through Life since its broadcast, Bosco continued to support the series as a good production. Due to his busy current schedule in filming Female Fist <女拳>, Bosco has only been able to watch sporadic episodes of his own performance in Growing Through Life. Asked how he rated his own performance, Bosco said, “Initially, I thought my performance was okay. After watching the aired episodes, I can not pin-point what is bad, but my performance is just passing. There are still many areas for me to improve.”
“Coupled with these emotions, I was quite depressed and lost for some time. I never felt this way before; I never had such a lack of confidence in myself. Perhaps Growing Through Life was my first villain role. With the high expectations, I became even more critical about myself. I hope for additional opportunities to portray villain roles; I believe I will perform better next time.”
The Advantage in Filming at a Remote Location
Expressing gratitude in Power Chan Kwok Bong’s consolation, Bosco also thanked Damien Lau Chung Yan for his insight. “I was very fortunate to have Damien teach me so many things during the filming of Growing Through Life. He was very helpful. Prior to filming, we often discussed the script together over meals. He was very sharp and analyzed [the script and characterizations] deeply, spotting things which I did not even think of.”
“There was also an advantage to filming in China . Filming at a remote location, you do not have to think of anything else. You can focus on purely acting. The entire cast ate dinner together almost every day. We talked about many topics and discussed the script together. It was very helpful. ”
In response to the mediocre ratings, Bosco said, “In the past, I used to think about the ratings performance after filming a series. However, it is difficult to forecast the audience’s taste these days. So I can only do my best and not speculate [on matters beyond my control].”
Source: Appledaily
Jayne: To-date, I was most impressed by Bosco’s acting in “Dicey Business,” but his role was quite extreme as a semi-autistic youth. Since “Triumph in the Skies,” his popularity rose very quickly. Filming series after series non-stop did not give him any break to reflect on his past performances and improve on his weak points.
Furthermore, an artist needs adequate time to just break away from his former roles, otherwise the performances blend together and you don’t see any distinction between the portrayals. I have noticed this problem in Bosco’s performance recently. His boyish charm is what makes him endearing, but he tends to overdo it, sometimes inappropriate to his character, most notably in “Heart of Greed.”
It is critical that an artist watch his own performance, to be able to critique it find more effective manners to deliver the performance in the future. Bosco does not even have time to fully watch his own performance in “Growing Through Life” onscreen. That is unacceptable for any actor and shame on TVB for running a “workhorse factory” that allows artists no rest and no time to improve their skills! TVB is focused on mass-production, filming 14 to 16 hours a day to lower costs.
I was quite alarmed when it appeared that Bosco still does not grasp his roles fully. He referenced that Damien Lau dissected the script in a way that did not even occur to him. The seasoned actors like Wayne Lai, Francis Ng, Wong He, and Sheren Tang do a lot of deep analysis of the scripts and character’s psychology. Perhaps the script may be written poorly and the director may have low expectations, then the actor s need to step up themselves and fill in the gaps. That’s why the same script, same director, could yield very different results with different cast members. The good actors will always make more of their own contributions, such as understanding the character’s psychology and prepare adequately. The result will be a layered performance that is distinct each time. That is the magic of Wayne Lai.
I truly hope Bosco and Myolie Wu both come to this realization. There is a “method” to be found in acting and that is to understand your role fully before you can even portray it, rather than resorting to the same expressions, formula and methodic acting each time.
@Jayne
Personally, I rarely feel much honesty in Bosco’s expressions in any of his romance scenes, largely because I don’t feel like there is any chemistry btwn him & the bulk of his female co-stars. Raymond, on the other hand, more often than not, matches up very well w/ his female co-stars. I prefer Bosco in more righteous yet aloof & carefree kinda scenarios, when his natural boy-charm clicks in- you know, when he isn’t trying to act like THE MAN or God’s gift to the universe.
@Vivien
This shows he still has more to work on and is farrr from remarkable! A remarkable actor will cover a mediocre script!
^^If you read what I said properly, I’m not here trying to defend Bosco. I acknowledge that he under-delivered in TGWL but I stand by the fact that it’s wrong to blame him solely for the low-ratings for the series. The plot should’ve been pushed further & quite a handful of characters were very poorly written. That said, yes, a “remarkable” actor can still make a mediocre role glow in a mediocre series (recent e.g. Gallen Lo in Born Rich) but at the same time, ONE actor can not save an entire series in the same way that he or she can not be the single person to credit for the success of a drama. It is always a joint team effort.
I would also like to point out that, in my books at least, Roger has been under-performing lately. If I were to choose, Bowie & Bobby would be the number one TVB actors atm.
Re Lawrence Ng! I know, I know! I love that guy! I’m currently midway thru ATV’s The Men Of Justice (picked it up purely for him xD) & he’s just as perfect as ever.
in my opinion, Bosco can’t act, i would have imagine he has skipped tvb trainning class or something, many of us would agree, and should forget acting and do something different like modelling instead of wasting co-stars opportunities playing his wasted roles from some losy producer hoping he couls act or fool viewers. on the otherhand, Gallen Lo or Gallen Law is an inspiring actor, hope to see this experience actor get more serious roles, not just some beginner like from tvb class graduate who can’t act with full effort, such a waste of viewers time
You must not have seen Gallen Lo in ‘The Season’.
Gallen Lo, some said in the past that he was like a log of wood. Took him a decade to improve I believe.
I can just imagine that Bosco’s personal sense of style and looks are more suitable for modeling! Although Bosco isn’t a bad actor, there has been little improvements seen in his performances in the last few years. His roles and characters come across as forgettable. Like Raymond Lam, I think Bosco is less of an actor and more of an idol.
@Amanda, many TVB actors started out terrible. Does anyone remember Bobby Au Yeung, Sean Lau, Francis Ng, Maagie Cheung Man Yuk, Carina Lau’s early performances at TVB? They were all very stiff and aside from Bobby, all the above actors only improved after they made more movies.
I think Bosco has promise, but he’s also been in the industry for almost a decade. His rate of improvement has been a little slow….
I think Bosco’s improvement seem slow because he was already pretty good from the beginning. He has no problem expressing himself and I was impressed with how expressive his eyes was when I first saw him in ‘Find The Light’. If he started out as a log of wood, we will see more improvement from him. 😛
Anyway, I still think Bosco has talent in acting. Maybe doing too many things at one hindered his progress? Just drop the singing and focus on acting and get more tips from Power Chan since they are good friends. (In the early years of his career, Bosco has said in an interview that the TVB actor he was closest to was Power Chan. Don’t know how is their relationship now).
“Bobby Au Yeung, Sean Lau, Francis Ng, Maagie Cheung Man Yuk, Carina Lau”
Funny. I was watching Seasons and there was Francis Ng and he was very scary but his acting is what I would say equivalent to some so called experienced newcomers these days. Sean was raw but he had promise. Carina was actually very good for a newcomer. Bobby was never a great actor but with the right role he could do very well.
Maggie Cheung Man Yuk is the only one in the list I feel that went from god awful to still awful. I never thought she was that great anyway.
Bosco can act, everybody can act but how painful for viewers is different. Bosco is not improving nor is he deproving. He is just stagnant. I thought he was at his most natural in Burning Flame 3. Maybe he should go Wong Hei way and do everyday guy roles instead of rich man, rich guy, etc. TVB should tailor make a role for him, like an underdog sorta guy.
Kidd and Funn, TVB loves to assign sunshine characters to Bosco because that is close to his real life personality and also his distinct edge from other young actors of the same generation. However, like Myolie Wu, who have played these sort of characters to death, the same roles over and over again didn’t help.
Personally, I also think that for outstanding actors to play a wide range of roles and emotions well, they must have experienced some deep real life experiences to draw from, such as poverty or tough upbringing in childhood, extreme love relationships that lead them to truly feel, etc. The importance is to be fully in touch with those feelings, be introspective, analytical about performances, and have true passion for really improving.
@ Jayne
I personally like Bosco’s portrayal of an autistic person in ‘Dicey Business’. I think he portrayed that role very well. Both Myolie and Bosco are people with natural talent in acting as can be seen from their performances in their early roles. Myolie was good as the mentally challenged girl in Golden Faith and Bosco was good at ‘Find The Light’.
Don’t know what happen to them that caused them to go stagnant/have little improvement in their performances.
I agree with you that actors need real life experiences to shine. So, older actors will be better than younger actors because they gone through a lot.
But, talent do come into play, and the ability to emote. Some very old actors are still very bad at acting. I guess it’s either they don’t know how to access the feelings in their past experience or they have problem emoting. Or they are just happy go lucky people who are able to let go of past pain easily.
I also think that observations and research help. If the actor is fortunate/unfortunate enough to not have experience hardships in real life, the second best thing they can do is observe other people and read more books on other people’s experiences. I think many great actors use this method. I doubt they have experienced everything their various type of roles required. So, all they can do is do research.
@Kidd, I enjoyed Bosco’s portrayal as an autistic youth in “Dicey Business” as well. Early in his career, I think he had more time to watch, reflect, and analyze his performances. His acting in “Dicey Business” was very channeled and each gesture directed towards a collective whole, until the latter half of the series, when his character became more “normal.”
In a way, Bosco’s character in “Dicey Business” and Myolie’s character in “Golden Faith” were very distinctly written, with many supporting scenes and surrounding cast to add to their final success. In “Dicey Business,” Bobby Au Yeung gave a sparkling performance, often shouting at the cringing Bosco and crying his share. In “Golden Faith,” Gallen Lo portrayed the paternal/ big brother role to Myolie so well, Myolie had to act carefree and be a naive little girl. They are very memorable roles, much like Roger Kwok’s Ah Wong character. Bosco, Myolie, and Roger were capable actors and with the right cast chemistry and roles, they were allowed to shine. But do we give more credit to the artists or to the scriptwriters? If the character is crafted to stand out so much, such as Michael Tse’s Laughing Gor, the success must also be owned to other people involved, director, co-stars, scriptwriter etc.
There are defining roles that capture our attention. However, to be a truly outstanding talent, the most boring roles must be made captivating by the artist as well. There must be some distinct edge that the artist has to bring to the table, other than having a great supporting script and team to make them shine. Wayne Lai, Sean Lau, etc. are such talents.
Lawrence Ng, who was once hated by the audience for playing villains in TVB series in the 80s, once said that villain roles are the easiest to portray. All he had to do was scowl and people would hate him (or rather applaud his talent) because the script already made him into such a bad guy, he didn’t have to do much. IMO, I agree with him to a degree. Lawrence may have been too humble in his assessment of his early career. Everyday good roles such as his character in “Healing Hands” is a lot harder to play because of the degree of normalcy, the subtlely must be there, yet he has to make the character interesting, human, and complex at varying levels.
To be a great actor, the person really needs to not only successfully draw upon past experiences (which are key to allowing the artist to feel those raw emotions), but able to incorporate and adapt those feelings into their onscreen performances.
The main problem I see is that artists enter the industry mainly because they are drawn to the money first. They may grow to like their profession because of the monetary rewards. But how many have true passion for their craft, unlike the actors of the 70s and 80s when they were willing to invest average of 3 to 5 years before landing lead roles?
Bosco has been in the industry for more than 10 years but his improvement is too slow!
Look at Ron he has been for the same time as Bosco but ROn is improving at a rapid speed now and already got TV King award in China and a rival station and recognition from Hong Kongers.
“Bosco has been in the industry for more than 10 years but his improvement is too slow!
Look at Ron he has been for the same time as Bosco but ROn is improving at a rapid speed now and already got TV King award in China and a rival station and recognition from Hong Kongers.
It’s more noticeable when an actor improved from really bad to decent. Not to take away from Ron’s achievement. It’s great that he got an award from I-Cable when TVB didn’t give him any. But, this is also a popularity award. It’s voted by the public. You really think Ron got the award solely because his acting is great? The attractiveness of his character and his hotness didn’t help?
That’s why we have the Miss HKs or MCI’s that struggled to act because they get the priviledge of being a lead too soon.
Such as Kate Tsui. Still a bad actress after how many years?
Linda was popular after HOG because the script help her but her acting in Moonlight resonance and Ghost Writer are dull?
Tavia was great as a supporting actress but once given lead roles she becomes an OTT actress?
Sorry Tavia wasn’t from pageant but just an example of someone going down.
Myolie shot to fame in GF but after that all her acting are OTT and unlikeable until she becomes likeable recently when she paired with the likeable Chilam?
You’re so right. Michael Tse only stands out as Laughing Gor. He’s dull and unlikeable in his other roles after Laughing Gor. The writers should get the credit too for crafting Laughing GOr instead of Michael Tse alone.
“If the character is crafted to stand out so much, such as Michael Tse’s Laughing Gor, the success must also be owned to other people involved, director, co-stars, scriptwriter etc.”
Bosco has been in the industry for more than 10 years but his improvement is too slow!
Look at Ron he has been for the same time as Bosco but ROn is improving at a rapid speed now and already got TV King award in China and a rival station and recognition from Hong Kongers.
Please don’t put that too big hat on Ron :P. He has best actor award of TVS – a small TV channel in GZ area only. And in I-cable, it’s a voting award and Ron shared the award with a Korean actor. No one can take away Ron’s achievement but these 2 awards don’t make Ron’s acting becomes anything too outstanding.
In my view, Bosco is still a better actor than Ron. Ron improved, I agree but his eyes are still “eyes of dead fish”. Bosco has more facial expressions than Ron. I prefer Ron over Bosco partly because of the look. Hehe, Ron looks good in my eyes while Bosco looks cute sometimes (in the past).
Luck plays an important part in anyone’s career. To have a role that being loved by a lot of ppl, this artist needs this luck. An interesting role, but if the audience dun like, it’s still “out”. Like Michael Tse, before Laughing he had some interesting role like Ah Man in LFD, but he can’t be famous until he had Laughing. I doubt that anyone can predict that Laughing would be famous before E.U was aired. Everything before that focused on Michael Miu, Ron and even Sammul. But unexpectable, Michael’s Laughing is the most favoured. It’s luck.
@Vivien: Kate joined TVB after Linda :P. Linda is 2004 and Kate is 2005.
^ I’m not saying he made the ratings low! It’s the team’s fault for making a bad series at first place.
I have to differ. Gallen was a legendary TVB actor but I didn’t think he glow in BR. I blame the script and producer because Gallen is great back then and is TVB’s best actor with 3 Best Actor awards but he’s nothing special in BR. Anita was mediocre too for a great movie star and Ray Lui is horrible and wooden. Joe Ma is forgettable he shouldn’t have been promoted to a leading actor. Not everyone can become first line actor.
I never understood why Ray Lui was lead actor. Back in the 80s, it was uncommon that someone who didn’t seem to have perfected their Cantonese to be able to take lead roles. But Ray was an exception for a some reason that is still a mystery to me. It’s probably his personal style of acting, but I don’t know how to appreciate it and like you said, it does come off as stiff and wooden, lol.
@Chriselle, Ray Lui had the handsome qualities of lead actor, even when he first appeared in cameo roles in the late 1970s. Does he have an accent or is it just slurred speech? Personally, I feel his enunciation is not very clear.
During the late 1970s, the male leading touch went from Adam Cheng to Chow Yun Fat. Although Ray Lui and Simon Yam were from the same era as Chow, they never had a chance to shine in the 1980s, when the 5 Tigers became a big hit.
Personally, I feel Ray and Simon did not become truly good actors until they made more movies and developed a more stylish, masculine image.
@ Jayne
I think it’s accent. Ray was born and raised in Vietnam until around age 11, when his family moved back to HK during the Vietnam War.
Yes, Ray was from Vietnam. Accent or no accent, he speaks “grammatically correct” chinese if there is such a word. Like what’s that actress name? Elann Kong? Raymond Wong? All of them have accents, surprised to know Raymond is from HK.
I don’t get how Ray Lui is called a good actor. His acting is wooden in Born Rich. It’s bad.
Then perhaps you should watch his much much earlier series.
to jicks: At least you managed to get the main point that Bosco is in no way remarkable. Compared to Ray he’s stalling behind. Ray is already excel in series and singing and is making ways in movies while Bosco is still a nobody.
It’s GTL not TGWL. TGWL is a crap series with crap acting from Myolie Wu and Andy Hui. I’m not going to watch GTL, never.
To Vivien,
You don’t seem to like Bosco at all. I admit that Ray is ahead of him, but that does not mean that Bosco is a nobody. I am guessing you don’t follow his news or something.
Probably because Ray started much much earlier?
They started at the same time (1998).
But, Bosco only started acting in 2003 while Ray started in 2000 (not counting kelefe roles). So, Ray is 3 years ahead. 😛
Haha, it’s a perception illusion. Bosco and Ray both entered the industry in the same year. But, because Ray get his first major role earlier, it gave the impression that Ray started out earlier. I’ve always thought Ray started out earlier too until I read the wiki info on both.
Ray join TVB earlier though. Bosco insisted on finishing his Form 7 first. So, he joined TVB in 1999.
@HeTieShou
How come I don’t notice this comment before. Well we don’t see Bosco having concerts at HKC or carrying a successful high rating series and movies so he’s still nowehere high in the ent biz. You an see a lot of comments below that many don’t like his acting now.
Wait until he has box office movies or high rating series or HKC concert then you can call him somebody.
Forgot. He also don’t have any memorable role for example Chai Gau or Laughing Gor or many more.
Even Moses acting is horrible in HOG but his role Dak Dak Dei is memorable.
It’s GTL not TGWL. TGWL is a crap series with crap acting from Myolie Wu and Andy Hui. I’m not going to watch GTL, never.
^^Oopsies, my bad *smacks head* For some reason, in my brain I kept thinking the series was called “To Grow Through Life.” But I will not take all the blame since the majority of TVB series these days have super similar sounding English titles -_-;
So Vivien… you haven’t actually watched Growing Through Life at all???
there are so good ideas, but lack substance coz the production not just lack budget, but also lack talent, lack knowledge from research, and the actors and actress lack info making it unbelievable and worthy of watching, thats what make ‘gong-chan’ unlike older hollywood production, even recent hollywood production are switching to the ‘gong-chan’ element in my opinion, cheap and uncheerful!!
Actually the one good part of Growing Through Life, was Ray’s and the mainland girls romatic story line, I was looking forward to them the most through out the whole series. IT just sucked, mainly on the lack of plot, and the unrealesticness to it…it didn’t really flow either.BUt acting did contribute to it, for good and bad. I actually think it’s one of Ray’s good acting, especially the scene where he finds out that his uncle is really his father and his mom dies, it was really good. But I wouldn’t mind if his acting was bad in this series, cause he was practising for his first ever HK concert. BUt as for Bosco, his preformance was really bad, he didn’t portray the character that well, at one moment he was nice, good guy, and the next episode he’s evil. Like that’s it, not progression, maybe that’s why. BUt it’s mainly the plot, more like lack of, that really sucked.
^ I said before that I tried picking an episode in the middle maybe 20 or 20+ but not even halfway into an episode and I get turned off by the economical lighting and bad soundtrack. Every scene is so deserted too without many extras and so unreal. There’s lack of music and lots of silence. The female leads are unattractive and Cecilia look so old and haggard. No wonder pitiful ratings in HK.
“I’m not going to watch GTL, never.”
No wonder GTL got low ratings. Even a die-heart Raymond fan won’t watch it. Not even going to try a few episodes. Just said it sux because someone said so. But, strangely, not having even watch one episode, you can criticise it as crap again and again and again.
@Vivien
Economic lighting?? Forgive the director for actually having his own vision in trying to create a certain mood.
As for the soundtrack, I was actually enjoying not having to listen to TVB’s recycling of the SAME music scores over & over again.
With all due respect, I don’t think it’s right for you to pass judgment on the entire series when you haven’t even bothered to sit thru on episodes. The series is from perfect but it’s not as poor as you are making it out to be.
And I think Zhao Ji Kei & Vionn Song are rather pretty^^
in my opinion, theres lots of fantastic vocals,acting talents out there not receiving the same treatment as this lousy selected few with some sort of connection behind the scene is wasting the opportunities of unfortunate talents, many blind scouts/head hunters and producers failing the viewers rather protecting there investment without delivering results!!those stupid sponsers beliving we would watch adverts between lousy tv series and tv shows. ps: those webstes that do not let you give your view are just rubbish, its cool here folks!!
Raymond’s real fans never bash his series and his partners. Never. Only the fake Honeys are doing this. Don’t blame real Honeys for what fake Honeys do.
@Jayne I agree that some of these artistes early performances were quite amateur, particularly Carina’s. I wonder why they improve so much and even become respectable stars as they enter into movies.
In my opinion,
publicity and acting are two different thing, and also theres those who could act and those who can’t…publicity help promote them, doe’nt meant they could act, not every one attending tvb school means they could act does it..Bosco can’t act, lol ??
hi Funn Lim, in my opinion,
Bobby Au Yeung was’nt given the opportunity to act in the first place was he, say in 80’s Legend of the condor hero, he was only some ‘care li f’er, he come the hard way coz he was’nt handsome, but not ugly, unlike Bosco been promoted with publicity, came from the easy door. in short, Bobby is a good actor who had potential but lack opportunity in the early stages, and Bosco just could’nt act, talent is not present, just tall and fair in looks. Promotion makes a huge difference has it not for Bosco. Idolising is no acting, viewers are not interested in package, acting or stop wasting actors’ or actresses’ chances to act I say. no matter what role one plays should one be able to present and deliever
ps: Mr Lau as pictured above is a very good actor!!