Translated by: Megan, Annie, Ms.Chen and kellyhsu
Sometimes compromise is an art, which is about timing and destiny. Thus just like 30-year-old Sammul, people have to compromise. “Having been working for so many years, my personality has changed. In the past, I strictly stuck to my principles, but now I become more flexible. I’m not saying that I want to become slippery, I just get to know how to do the right thing at the right time, and understand compromise is necessary.” Due to not reconciling himself to constraints of signing management contract with TVB, Sammul hasn’t ever been fully promoted by TVB despite how talented he is and how much fate he has with the audience. Compared with his fellow TVB actors who have been playing leading roles, Sammul still performances as “half-lead” in EU, which has been kind of embarrassing and unfair.
“No pains no gains. It wouldn’t possible for the world to treat you nicely. Bigger look in the promotion trailer or more freedom, which one I would like to get? But I believe there should be someone who can notice Sammul Chan being pure and innocent finally. “
TEN YEARS
The chances of seeing Sammul on TV have not been few, but not rather many either. Without signing a full management contract with TVB, Sammul receives the chance to shoot two or three series each year on average, some of them only broadcasted overseas. This year has been a luck year for him as EU is broadcasted in early this year, which is viewed as a good start for him. What Sammul has been up to at other time? Thanks to his motherland and the support from his fellow citizens there, Sammul can go back to perform in mainland China and star in TV series. “In fact, work has no regional differences to me. Now I have been doing promotion for EU, and meanwhile have been contemplating filming several mainland series. In May, I’m going to perform in a charity musical in Toronto Canada. What I can say is that I very enjoy filming series both in Hong Kong and in mainland China. Having been working as actor for so many years, I do have affection for TVB though. After working for a long time in mainland China, I just want to come back and see my colleges here.” “Having been working in entertainment industry for so many years, especially for these years going back to work in mainland China, I have broadened my vision. Seeing so many C/D-list actors own acting&film school background and have highly polished acting skills, I found myself even having no chance to enter acting training class since my company needed to reserve the degrees for Miss HK. What all I could do was learning-by-doing. I have nothing well compare to what they’ve got in this sense.”“But I view entertainment as people going back to home and turning out TV. If the audience likes to see me on TV, I have reached my goal. Of course, everyone enjoys seeing pretty girls or handsome guys. This is the basic requirement. Nowadays the audience even will judge what kind of person you are. In my opinion, at least in daily life, they probably will agree that Sammul Chan is not an unfavorable or malicious guy, but a pleasant person to see.
Mr. Chan
Honestly, there are barely totally malicious artists in the world. Besides “the basic requirement”, Sammul does have many other abilities that his fellow actors lack, which probably is the reason why he has been able to find his own place in TVB, and even could film The Vanishing Glaciers in Iceland with Mr.Chan, which was an enviable job.
“You said other people were jealous? That’s predictable. And even if people are not jealous, there probably will be some other people complaining about something else. I have asked Mr.Chan why he selected me. He told, “ I’ve got no idea. It wasn’t totally up to me, but the whole company. I cannot make decision for everything. Don’t you really think I’m of so much authority?” “But you should have known the final decision after group discussion. Why did you choose me?” “they just told you have a silver-tongue.”“Yet later, I asked the director again. And he told that there are many emergencies coming about in the glaciers, like ice collapsing suddenly or rollers turning over on the lake. Thus, they needed a methodical person who can organize appropriate speech immediately. “ Learning that Sammul persistently tried to figure out the real reason for his being selected and even raised question to Mr. Chan, I have no doubt about his excellent adaptability.
However, no world-shaking emergencies happened during the shooting, except that Mr. Chan hurt his waist on the iceberg while Sammul was standing too far away to help him out. I cannot help teasing him for losing this good opportunity to become Mr. Chan’s “favorite subordinate”. Otherwise, he should have been treated totally differently in TVB now.“Well, it doesn’t matter. If there would be such opportunity, my career path shouldn’t be so tough…”
Tough Path
How tough the path has been? Sammul is capable of renting house and living on his own, and of purchasing and wearing “Fendi” or “Hugo Boss”. Yet, happiness is all relative when Sammul is compared with his fellow actors: Raymond Lam is currently living at Mid-Levels ; Ron Ng always has usually played leads and drives Benz or Audi even being rumored by scandals all the time.
“Compared to my fellow male artists, I have a bit tougher career path. Say to buy an apartment, I’m not financially capable of doing that right now, but other people said they would buy big house, like Raymond Lam. I’m pretty poor. So now my biggest goal is to make money and blueprint the life after retirement. Haha. Of course, it’s impossible for me to retire right now. Sometimes I’ll still think about when I’m gonna reach my career peak though. I hope I can leave at the best time.
“I’m actually pretty satisfied with my present situation. Some people may think that it seems like I’ve stopped and don’t go forward, just in an embarrassing position, yet it actually depends on which market you would like to develop in. To be more honest, I indeed have earned money from filming series in mainland China these years. The pay for filming one single series in Mainland China is several-times better than in Hong Kong. “
“Where there is a loss, there must be a gain. I actually don’t really pursue and chase such things in some degree. Now I have the freedom I want, and one year later I also can go back to TVB filming two series. That’s not bad! And I’m conservative, of a personality fault. I have no thought to correct or change, you know future cannot be obtained by force. I know myself well and if I don’t do something now, I won’t do it later.”
Being weird
“You know, I’m really weird that I can do anything on my own, like going travel alone, going to movie alone, and even singing Karaoke alone. Okay. I’m afraid of getting into troubles, and don’t like to compete against people for things. But recently a sudden thought came to me about getting married and having kids.” Yes, you don’t get it wrong, Sammul said he wants to settle down.“Recently I have many friends getting married and having kids, which has brought me to this question. But I cannot really accept girls inside entertainment circle. So I think I probably will get married at or after age 35. Yet I rear cats in order to train my patience. I suppose if I cannot raise two cats well now, I won’t possibly be capable of raising and educating my kids in the future.”“I like to see everything under plan, and hope my kids can grow up in the best circumstances.” As a Christian, Sammul believes in that love is destined.
Sometimes compromise is an art, which is about timing and destiny. Thus just like 30-year-old Sammul, people have to compromise. “Having been working for so many years, my personality has changed. In the past, I strictly stuck to my principles, but now I become more flexible. I’m not saying that I want to become slippery, I just get to know how to do the right thing at the right time, and understand compromise is necessary.” Due to not reconciling himself to constraints of signing management contract with TVB, Sammul hasn’t ever been fully promoted by TVB despite how talented he is and how much fate he has with the audience. Compared with his fellow TVB actors who have been playing leading roles, Sammul still performances as “half-lead” in EU, which has been kind of embarrassing and unfair.
“No pains no gains. It wouldn’t possible for the world to treat you nicely. Bigger look in the promotion trailer or more freedom, which one I would like to get? But I believe there should be someone who can notice Sammul Chan being pure and innocent finally. “
TEN YEARS
The chances of seeing Sammul on TV have not been few, but not rather many either. Without signing a full management contract with TVB, Sammul receives the chance to shoot two or three series each year on average, some of them only broadcasted overseas. This year has been a luck year for him as EU is broadcasted in early this year, which is viewed as a good start for him. What Sammul has been up to at other time? Thanks to his motherland and the support from his fellow citizens there, Sammul can go back to perform in mainland China and star in TV series. “In fact, work has no regional differences to me. Now I have been doing promotion for EU, and meanwhile have been contemplating filming several mainland series. In May, I’m going to perform in a charity musical in Toronto Canada. What I can say is that I very enjoy filming series both in Hong Kong and in mainland China. Having been working as actor for so many years, I do have affection for TVB though. After working for a long time in mainland China, I just want to come back and see my colleges here.” “Having been working in entertainment industry for so many years, especially for these years going back to work in mainland China, I have broadened my vision. Seeing so many C/D-list actors own acting&film school background and have highly polished acting skills, I found myself even having no chance to enter acting training class since my company needed to reserve the degrees for Miss HK. What all I could do was learning-by-doing. I have nothing well compare to what they’ve got in this sense.”“But I view entertainment as people going back to home and turning out TV. If the audience likes to see me on TV, I have reached my goal. Of course, everyone enjoys seeing pretty girls or handsome guys. This is the basic requirement. Nowadays the audience even will judge what kind of person you are. In my opinion, at least in daily life, they probably will agree that Sammul Chan is not an unfavorable or malicious guy, but a pleasant person to see.
Mr. Chan
Honestly, there are barely totally malicious artists in the world. Besides “the basic requirement”, Sammul does have many other abilities that his fellow actors lack, which probably is the reason why he has been able to find his own place in TVB, and even could film The Vanishing Glaciers in Iceland with Mr.Chan, which was an enviable job.
“You said other people were jealous? That’s predictable. And even if people are not jealous, there probably will be some other people complaining about something else. I have asked Mr.Chan why he selected me. He told, “ I’ve got no idea. It wasn’t totally up to me, but the whole company. I cannot make decision for everything. Don’t you really think I’m of so much authority?” “But you should have known the final decision after group discussion. Why did you choose me?” “they just told you have a silver-tongue.”“Yet later, I asked the director again. And he told that there are many emergencies coming about in the glaciers, like ice collapsing suddenly or rollers turning over on the lake. Thus, they needed a methodical person who can organize appropriate speech immediately. “ Learning that Sammul persistently tried to figure out the real reason for his being selected and even raised question to Mr. Chan, I have no doubt about his excellent adaptability.
However, no world-shaking emergencies happened during the shooting, except that Mr. Chan hurt his waist on the iceberg while Sammul was standing too far away to help him out. I cannot help teasing him for losing this good opportunity to become Mr. Chan’s “favorite subordinate”. Otherwise, he should have been treated totally differently in TVB now.“Well, it doesn’t matter. If there would be such opportunity, my career path shouldn’t be so tough…”
Tough Path
How tough the path has been? Sammul is capable of renting house and living on his own, and of purchasing and wearing “Fendi” or “Hugo Boss”. Yet, happiness is all relative when Sammul is compared with his fellow actors: Raymond Lam is currently living at Mid-Levels ; Ron Ng always has usually played leads and drives Benz or Audi even being rumored by scandals all the time.
“Compared to my fellow male artists, I have a bit tougher career path. Say to buy an apartment, I’m not financially capable of doing that right now, but other people said they would buy big house, like Raymond Lam. I’m pretty poor. So now my biggest goal is to make money and blueprint the life after retirement. Haha. Of course, it’s impossible for me to retire right now. Sometimes I’ll still think about when I’m gonna reach my career peak though. I hope I can leave at the best time.
“I’m actually pretty satisfied with my present situation. Some people may think that it seems like I’ve stopped and don’t go forward, just in an embarrassing position, yet it actually depends on which market you would like to develop in. To be more honest, I indeed have earned money from filming series in mainland China these years. The pay for filming one single series in Mainland China is several-times better than in Hong Kong. “
“Where there is a loss, there must be a gain. I actually don’t really pursue and chase such things in some degree. Now I have the freedom I want, and one year later I also can go back to TVB filming two series. That’s not bad! And I’m conservative, of a personality fault. I have no thought to correct or change, you know future cannot be obtained by force. I know myself well and if I don’t do something now, I won’t do it later.”
Being weird
“You know, I’m really weird that I can do anything on my own, like going travel alone, going to movie alone, and even singing Karaoke alone. Okay. I’m afraid of getting into troubles, and don’t like to compete against people for things. But recently a sudden thought came to me about getting married and having kids.” Yes, you don’t get it wrong, Sammul said he wants to settle down.“Recently I have many friends getting married and having kids, which has brought me to this question. But I cannot really accept girls inside entertainment circle. So I think I probably will get married at or after age 35. Yet I rear cats in order to train my patience. I suppose if I cannot raise two cats well now, I won’t possibly be capable of raising and educating my kids in the future.”“I like to see everything under plan, and hope my kids can grow up in the best circumstances.” As a Christian, Sammul believes in that love is destined.
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