Sheh's so lovely

By Karman Tse, TODAY

SINGAPORE : Poor Charmaine Sheh was not feeling well on Saturday.

The Hong Kong actress was nursing both a headache and gastric pains, and even had to pull out of an event earlier that morning where she was scheduled to spread the Lunar New Year cheer to disadvantaged senior citizens with fellow TVB star Bobby Au Yeung.

Sitting face-to-face with her at the Conrad Centennial, though, it was terribly hard to feel much sympathy for the comely 32-year-old star.

The former Miss Hong Kong second runner-up has pretty eyes that sparkle, a brilliant smile that's always good to go, and confidence wafting from every pore. Which makes what she had to say all the more hard to believe: "Before the (Miss Hong Kong) pageant, I was a very shy and soft-spoken girl."

Yup, it turns out beauty pageants are a good boost for your inner beauty. Who would have thought?

"The competition was very good training for me — it has taught me to be confident," the current "It" girl of TVB told TODAY.

Sheh was in town with her fellow actors — Bobby Au Yeung, Kevin Cheng, Myolie Wu, Bosco Wong, and Wang Xi — to promote TVB's new channel on StarHub Digital Cable, TVBS News.

The former beauty queen may be the blue-eyed girl du jour — and she was reported to be one of the highest paid TVB artiste, too — but Sheh's start in the business was anything but pretty.

Despite her hard work and enthusiasm, viewers and especially the media were very unforgiving, criticising the then-newbie for her "lousy acting" and "squeaky voice".

"It's a fact that I couldn't act. I had no acting background," said Sheh, who read Hotel Management in Switzerland for three years pre-pageant.

"But I worked very hard. I had very little sleep — I've never not have enough sleep my whole life before that! So, after a while, I thought, maybe I'm not cut out to be an actress, and that I should give it up."

Good thing giving up was a one-sided affair on Sheh's part. Had TVB let her go, she would never have gone on to prove her detractors wrong by winning Best Actress in 2006 (Maiden's Vow) at the station's annual anniversary awards ceremony.

But winning awards, to the grounded actress, is no more than "a good form of encouragement".

"Just because you win an award doesn't mean you're the best. I'm happy with what I've achieved so far. But I won't say I'm satisfied — once I allow myself to be, then there would be nothing left to strive for."

Part of that goal is to "grow" as an actress — literally.

"I don't mind being 'uglified' if it means I get to stretch my acting chops. But not getting fat," said the actress who has a reputation for being a hopeless vainpot. "I'm the type — touch wood — who can eat and eat but won't get fat."

You want to roll your eyes and walk away at this point of the conversation, but she has been so polite and obliging, the most you can do — with much glee — is smile back and secretly hope for her metabolism to slow to a crawl.

Catch Charmaine Sheh in The Drive of Life, which is available on StarHub's Demand TV from March. MaxOnline customers can also download episodes of the drama from StarHub's Play Video portal from March. - TODAY/ar