13 years after he first joined local showbiz, Shaun Chen finally scored his first trophy at Star Awards 2015 Show 1 last night. The Malaysia-born actor snagged the “Rocket Award”, which is given in honour of an artiste who has made the most improvement in the past year.
While speaking to Toggle (who accurately predicted Shaun’s win) in an interview backstage, Shaun confessed that he was so nervous that he forgot to thank his family on stage. In fact, the 36-year-old did not even prepare an acceptance speech and “said whatever was on his mind” as he was not expecting to win any award.
“I’m already at this age. I thought the Rocket Award should be given to the younger ones. I guess the judging criteria are based on an artiste’s performance in the past year,” Shaun added.
The actor also let on that his The Journey: Tumultuous Times co-star Chen Hanwei had reminded Shaun to thank him before he went on stage to receive the award. “I am indeed grateful to Hanwei for being such a great acting partner,” said Shaun.
In addition, the acclaimed thespian expressed his gratitude to the company and judges who “wanted to give him some encouragement”.
Emphasising that he gives his best effort in every project, the actor is heartened that his years of hard work have not gone to waste. “I hope that every year will get better and I will continue to soar higher,” he reiterated.
When asked to rate his own performance last year, Shaun commented that he enjoyed playing both “Lian Wending” in Blessings and “Hu Jia/Zhang Jia” in The Journey: Tumultuous Times because the dramas are from different genres and the personalities of the two characters are distinct from each other.
In his opinion, Blessings is a light-hearted and feel-good show where he could act naturally. Shaun also sang praises of the good chemistry between cast members, while expressing his thanks to the production team.
On the other hand, The Journey: Tumultuous Times was a project that he had highly anticipated to take part in. The role, which possessed both evilness and kindness, allowed him to display his versatility as an actor.
“I tried to interpret the role to the best of my ability. Hopefully the judges will recognise my effort next week (Star Awards 2015 Show 2),” he said laughing. “They told me to pick my most exciting scene in The Journey: Tumultuous Times but to me, every episode was interesting. I worked hard for every scene.”
After bagging the Rocket Award, however, Shaun admitted that he is now worried about his chances for the coveted “Best Actor” prize – We see where the actor is coming from. Priscelia Chan, winner of the Rocket Award last year, lost out on “Best Supporting Actress” despite being touted as a hot favourite. Nevertheless, the suave actor is looking forward to celebrate his first Star Awards triumph with his fans and family.