Lesson 9
Maggie Makes the Grade
| After eight years in show business, actress Maggie Cheung feels that at last she has made the grade. In the first five years of |
|her career, she said that she had been no more than a pretty face: she was there for decoration rather than acting ability. The |
|turning-point of her career, she feels, was winning the Best Actress Award in the Taiwanese Golden Horse Awards for her role in |
|Stanley Kwan’s ‘Full Moon in New York’, which also featured Sylvia Chang and mainland star Si Qin Gao Wa. [ Introduction ~ The |
|important news of Maggie Cheung] |
|Cheung was nervous about working alongside two established names but decided to take the chance, seeing it as a good opportunity to|
|learn. ‘The two actresses were extremely dedicated and involved.’ Even so, her success came as a big surprise: ‘Why me? I didn’t |
|think I acted at all well, in fact it was a mediocre performance.’ [(Interviewee’s) Maggie’s comments to news mentioned in the 1st |
|paragraph] |
|Cheung’s first opportunity to venture away from undemanding roles in Cantonese comedies and dramas came with Wong Kar-wai’s stylish|
|gangster picture, ‘As Tears Go By’, which was acclaimed by critics. ‘I think I have entered another stage of my career,’ she said. |
|‘I’ve got to become more serious about my acting and strive to be consistent in the future. Before, people expected your |
|performance to be average and were surprised if you turned out to be good. Now it is totally different.’ [Interviewee’s career in |
|brief] |
|Many local stars make over ten films a year in order to earn as much money as they can: Dodo Cheng is a notable example. But Cheung|
|is happy with an average of four to five movies a year – ‘there’s no point in over-straining yourself’ – and she is willing to |
|adjust her fee for a low-budget production if she likes the story and role. |
|In choosing her films, Cheung looks for good stories, a director she can trust and the names of the male and female leads. ‘I |
|normally talk to the director to understand more about his approach to the film and find out how he intends to shoot certain |
|scenes,’ she said. |
|Cheung was born in Hong Kong in 1964. Eight years later, her family emigrated to England. With no English, she found school life in|
|England very difficult: the fact that she was the only Chinese girl at the school hardly helped matters. When she was 17, she |
|returned to Hong Kong and worked for Lane Crawford as a sales girl. ‘I didn’t want to continue studying and I hated nine-to-five |
|office jobs so I chose to work as a sales girl. Then I began to develop an interest in films.’ [Background information of the |
|interviewee ~ not important to the article] |
|In 1983, she entered the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, thinking it could be a stepping stone to joining the film industry. She was first |
|runner-up and this led to a two-year contract with TVB. In 1984, Cheung made her film debut in ‘Prince Charming’ with Cherie Chung |
|and Kenny Bee, a film she describes as ‘terrible’. |
| |
|Initially, Cheung’s attitude was that film-making was fun and an easy way to make money. Her good looks helped her to get parts but|
|they were lightweight and there was little incentive for serious acting. Although she does not intend to give up commercial |
|productions altogether, she is happy to have made the move into more serious, artistic films. |
| |
|Cheung has high hopes for the Hong Kong film industry but sees only a short-term career for herself. ‘I think I’ll retire before |
|1997,’ she said. ‘It’s an industry where the new faces tend to edge out the old ones. My family is in England and therefore my home|
|is there.’ |
Words to remember
|Turning-point (n.) |Featured (v.) |Established (adj.) |Dedicated (adj.) |Mediocre (adj.) |
|Venture (v.) |Acclaimed (v.) |Notable (adj.) |Over-straining (v.) |Debut (n.) |
|Lightweight (adj.) |Edge out (Phr. v) |
Comprehension Exercise
Answer the following questions in COMPLETE sentences.
1. Why did Maggie feel that “she had been no more than a pretty face” in the first few years of her career?
| |
2. What was Maggie’s turning-point of her career in show business?
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3. Which was the first film that Maggie found herself in a demanding role?
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4. How was Maggie different from other local stars in terms of quantity of film production? What was her reason for that?
| |
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5. What does Maggie look for in the choice of her films?
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6. Why did Maggie find school life in England very hard?
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7. How did Maggie get into the film industry?
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8. What did Maggie think about film-making at first?
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9. What, as Maggie suggests, is the characteristic of the film industry?
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10. Why would Maggie think of going back to England after her retirement?
| |
Vocabulary Exercise
Look at the vocabulary you have learnt on page 3. Re-arrange the spellings of the following words. Then, match the words with the one having similar meaning.
|betud (n) | | | |Outstanding |
|___________________ | | | | |
|ableton (adj) | | | |Average |
|___________________ | | | | |
|trenuve (v) | | | |Commended |
|___________________ | | | | |
|treafued (v) | | | |Overloading |
|___________________ | | | | |
|cremedio (adj) | | | |Included |
|___________________ | | | | |
|clacaimed (v) | | | |First appearance |
|___________________ | | | | |
|datediced (adj) | | | |Keen |
|___________________ | | | | |
|blestishade (adj) | | | |Unimportant |
|___________________ | | | | |
|stoverraining (v) | | | |Well-known |
|___________________ | | | | |
|10. ghlittweigh (adj) | | | |Attempt |
|___________________ | | | | |
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