Flora Chan Realizes Her Acting Career is in Decline
Shortly after marrying her then-manager, Mike Chung (鍾家鴻), in 2006, Flora Chan (陳慧珊) became pregnant and halted all work. Since Mike filed for bankruptcy in 2012, Flora became the sole breadwinner for the family and Mike transitioned to being a stay-at-home dad. In the blink of an eye, the couple’s daughter is already turning 11 years old this year.
After nearly a five-year hiatus, Flora returned to the small screen and appeared in TVB’s Suspects in Love <搜下留情> in 2010, alongside Joe Ma (馬德鐘). Touted as one of the five fadans at the height of her career, Flora’s return to filming yielded only a lukewarm reception, much to her dismay. After several more attempts with a supporting role in Never Dance Alone <女人俱樂部> and starring as the main female lead in the recent Watch Out, Boss <波士早晨>, Flora came to understand that she may not be able to revive her career to what it once was.
“Actually, I am already almost 50 years old. I am also a mother now. There are very few roles that are suitable for me. Since there are no opportunities for me, then I will have to seek out another door for myself. Earlier, I wrote a script. The content is a blueprint of my life. There is a film company that really liked it. I even found artistes already for it. But in the end, because the main female actress fell ill and we did not want to recast another actress, the project is on hold,” Flora said.
In addition to transitioning over to behind-the-scenes work, Flora is also continuously seeking personal growth and development. After earning her master’s degree in education, she is now working toward her doctoral degree and will be graduating in three years. She hopes to put her educational pursuits to use and contribute to Hong Kong’s educational system.
Source: East Week
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
Unfortunately in the Asian entertainment industry, young and pretty is a must because most dramas are idol or romance dramas. Hence roles are limited for older actors.
@mangotango
It’s unfortunate we’ll never see an Asian Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren. Such a lack of appreciation for mature talent in Chinese regions where traditional respect for elders seems to have disappeared.
@msxie0714 We do have Liza Wang
@msxie0714 Do not think we may see the likes of Meryl Streep if audience taste does not change. I remember watching a very nice drama and the comments were more on the female lead looks… plain. She is actually a good looking girl but her role is plain plump Jane. Audience tastes usually dictate the market esp. in Asia. When something is successful, it gets cloned zillion times.. similar scenes, story lines etc. No one dare to venture into something different/different theme. I hope the Asian movies can match those from USA and Europe. I must say.. I am impressed with some Korean movie genres today. Some way better than Hollywood.
@anoninhk, I think Lisa is older than Flora?
@mangotango Maybe it is also because no one watches TVB dramas nowadays. Its hard to be popular when viewers just drop the drama after 1 or 2 episodes.
Lots of ‘older’ actresses have made a successful comeback in TVB. She is expecting too much if she expects to shoot straight back into stardom after doing 1 or 2 series. The series will need to be amazing to catch people’s attention.
@mike
i agree that older actor/actress could make a comeback given the right script. on the contrary, out of all places, i think tvb is probably most possible place to make a sucessful comeback given that tvb doesn’t really produce that many idol dramas. their starlets tend to be on the older side of the scale.
@mike I agree and many veteran actresses way older than her are still successful. It is just that you okay different types of roles according to your age.
Flora didn’t regain her shape before she rushed back for ‘Suspects in Love’ which was a huge flop. She did not wait or was not offered any decent roles on any of her comebacks. Maybe TVB gave up on her…