Francis Ng states TVB actors and series have gone downhill

Saturday July 12, 2008 Hong Kong
Source: Wenweipo
Translated by: kingkongit27

Francis Ng states TVB actors and series have gone downhill
Raymond Lam: Need Producer's to give you opportunities


Leo Ku, Raymond Lam, Linda Chung, Edwin Siu, Yeung and Heidi Chu attended the Olympics promotional event 「2008北京奧運會攜手同心迎奧]. The artistes competed in games of Ping pong and Badminton. When Leo Ku and Heidi Chu paired up to play ping pong, they had trouble serving and missed the ball twice.
It was reported that Leo Ku had to offer to volunteer in order to be part of the Olympic hosts. He states that he had hosted for TVB shows in the past. After doing events, he will rush to TVB city to rehearse for the evening shows. During that time he will not accept any interviews and will focus mainly on hosting.

Francis Ng accepted an Radio broadcast interview yesterday, he said that the standards of TVB's actors and TV series have gone downhill. He also mentioned that while he was filming "Triumph in the skies", an actress cried while telling him about her worries. She stated that filming a TV series is no longer about talents in acting but rather about connections with certain people in the industry. If they have connections then they will be casted without needing to know how to act. There were reports that the person Francis mentioned about was Myolie Wu, when she was still a newcomer.

The reporters asked Raymond Lam about it. He immediatley replies loudly "Crazy". He explained that he has known Myolie for many years and that she isn't the type of person who would say things like that to anyone. He feels that the Phrase "Depending on Connections" actually means "Depending on the Producer to give you opportunities". He says " When the producer gives you opportunites you must value them. You must do your best in order to get another chance or opportunity. That is what depending on connections is about. You must start off slowly to learn, then you will gradually improve. ( If you have good relations with the Bosses, does that give you a better advantage in getting more work? "I don't agree, it's not an advantage to have good relations with the bosses as they don't get involved with the production side of things." As for actors without acting talent, Raymond states that everyone has a different opinion on that. The viewers know how to judge what is good acting and it's his job to improve.

Linda Chung considers that if she does her best, then others will be interested in giving her work. However she states that she has never depended on connections to get work for herself and all her friends in the industry have depended on their own talents to get work. As long as your hardworking, the company will give you opportunities. Linda responds to Francis Ng's comment about current TVB artistes having Poor acting skills. "Many senior actors have been through alot of tough times in order to get to where they are today. It is normal for a newcomer to not be able to deliver the outstanding acting skills straight away, it takes practice. It's not possible to get those skills over night either, it takes years of effort to be recognised with talent. We are not superheroes. Many of us did not learn acting through acting schools, therefore we needed to start from the bottom and learn from our mistakes."