Hong Kong beauty queen Grace Chan has been universally panned for her weak performance in her latest drama series, Captain of Destiny, now airing on TVB. Even screen veteran Anthony Wong has given in and called her acting annoying.
“I feel very annoyed, Grace Chan does a lot of these extraneous actions, and she contorts her face in an unnatural way,” he said recently. “After about 20 of these tics it gets annoying, and Grace probably frightens the director, because the way she holds a gun is ferocious.”
Grace’s boyfriend, 46-year-old Hong Kong leading man Kevin Cheng, agreed with Anthony. At an event on Sunday, Kevin was asked whether he was keeping up with Grace’s performance in Captain of Destiny and for his comments on her acting skills.
“Let me put it this way, for everything there is a proper process, and for a newcomer this isn’t bad at all,” he said.
“Take schooling, for example. When you’re done with primary school you don’t go straight to university, so she’s just getting started. I received constructive criticism before, and Anthony was earnest and he meant well. This is a phase she has to go through. When I started out acting I wasn’t so lucky, I didn’t have seniors to guide me.”
Kevin added that he thought Grace’s biggest challenge was the forcefulness in her acting. “When you’re forceful all the time, it loses its effect, so you have to know when to lighten up.”
After winning the Miss Hong Kong pageant in 2013, Grace entered the entertainment industry amid a hemorrhage of TVB’s top talents, including Myolie Wu, Aimee Chan and Kate Tsui. The station promoted Grace heavily, but she was criticised for her poor acting skills in her first drama series, Overachievers.