Fans Station Blogs & News: Not Caring about money, Leila has a breakthrough on stage, Kate Tsui and Leila Tong Interview

Not Caring about money, Leila has a breakthrough on stage, Kate Tsui and Leila Tong Interview

Kate Tsui recently has successfully moved into the entertainment drama circle becoming different leads. These opportunities have had several people to feel very envious, but when compared to Leila Tong, who started early and spent her childhood in the movie and series industry, although Kate’s older by two years, she immediately changes to underclassman to learn from Leila.

Very close to manager

Kate: The Hidden Master is my first ancient series, and introduced me to you. I was busy promoting my movie, “Eye in the Sky”, and you were busy rehearsing for “Popcorn”, I hear that this production’s really difficult; you haven’t acted so “sexy” before!

Leila: I never really knew I could act this sexy, haha! I think Models not wearing a lot of clothes when filming is actually ok, because just like I’m an actress, you also need to film love scenes, so being really sexy onstage is actually ok.

Kate: That’s right, stage productions give the actors time to warm up, not like when filming series, you just do it, sometimes there’s a lot of stress given on you.

Leila: I know! People always think that filming series are hard that you don’t need to warm up and you’re in your character. But theatre actors need to remember complete plays and stage directions, and have to perform it many times without making mistakes. I think that’s impressive
Kate: Everyone knows that stage productions don’t get a lot of money; your manager still lets you try it. A lot of people would rather accept more series, or television ads to make more money.

Leila: My manager and I are really close. I wasn’t even 18 when I started working with her; she sometimes helps me work out my personal problems too. When I sometimes see an artist break ties with their manager, my heart really hurts. She knows that I really want to do a stage production, even if there’s not much money involved she still lets me do it. Actors always have to work non-stop, it’s really mentally stressing, sometimes needing to “recharge” themselves, haha!

Lots of sicknesses when filming in Mainland

Kate: During the year when I was doing Miss Hong Kong, went to Africa for a photo shoot, you also went to Africa to film The Last Breakthrough. Have you gone to a lot of different places to film?

Leila: Canton, Wu Xi, Heng Dian, when filming in mainland, be really careful of what you eat. Last time I went to Heng Dian, I went over to film and got sick for a while, it really got me down. I really wanted to immediately come back to Hong Kong.

Kate: How is it filming in mainland?

Leila: Mainland series are so much like movies, they have an A and B group that film at the same time, and there is a lot of cooperation between the two.

Kate: I heard that mainland actors are really clear about who is “upper class” and who’s not.

Leila: I know! That’s their “tv” culture, when becoming a star they have a lot of people to take care of them. Even if you’re one of Hong Kong’s best, when filming in different places you bring your own mini refrigerator and personal accessories.

Kate: I’m gonna be filming The 4 Great Constables soon, the first time going to mainland to film, I’m getting kind of nervous.

Leila: It’s all ok, you went abroad to study so you’re gonna be able to fit in. When filming in different places everybody’s together day in day out, so we get real close, a lot of times when we leave, we fill really sad at the end.

Owning pets to release stress

Kate: Have you ever been yelled at by the director for not acting well?

Leila: Every actor will have that kind of experience, but don’t feel down because you were criticized by others. I sometimes don’t like what I have acted, the whole way on the car repeating the dialogue over and over. But acting always gets better if you look forward. I won’t give myself too much pressure, and I’ll look at it from different perspectives. If I think of things that make me unhappy, I’ll try to change the perspective to look at it.

Kate: Then what ways do you have to reduce stress?

Leila: Owning pets! They’re really sweet, I’ll tell them what’s bothering me, and they’ll understand sometimes and have a feeling of responsibility, making life really interesting.

Holding on the music industry

Kate: How come you went to record some songs before, but now you stopped?

Leila: I sing because I like it, but to do anything really good needs a lot of time. I spend a lot of time with acting and filming series, and I don’t want to stop in the middle. For singing, I can’t really get around to it, but if someone asks me, and the song is Ok, I might think about trying it.

Kate: What’s your favorite character that you have acted?

Leila: A lot! Like in Square Pegs, acting as a bad person, the first time not acting as someone’s younger sister. In Bar Benders acting as a lawyer, having to be in front of a lot of people and be really confident about what you’re saying. And also War and Destiny being the fourth concubine, the first time so many people said my acting was really good, that character really didn’t have any expression, always having to keep your emotions really straight.

Kate: I also wanted to ask you why you changed your name.

Leila: It was my manager’s idea, the basic idea’s that I finished one stage of my life, and changing my name means a new stage in my life. She found some Fungshui teacher’s for me to change my name, in the end we chose Tong Ling, I’ve used it till now, and everything’s been really good, I’m really happy.

Ending: Hoping to improve acting.

When Kate becomes really open, it scares people! Like when she asked Leila, “You were really small when you started acting, did you go do school?” Luckily Leila didn’t really care, and also answered really openly, “No worries, I went to school, but didn’t really study a lot, I actually regret it! If I have the time in the future I really want to study more, I want to study English and acting.” Kate replied, “Right! I also want to study acting, to learn some from professionals.” Both of them are really open and nice people, also adding that they just found a white bunny rabbit, having Leila currently putting it at the theatre to own, the two’s relationship have gotten a lot better still.