Felix Wong defends Sheren Tang

Sheren Tang may have been the only "Beauty At War" star who is brave enough in voicing out her dissatisfaction towards scriptwriter Chow Yuk Ming's work discipline, but fellow actors, especially Felix Wong and Eddie Chung understand her woes.

Jayne Stars reported that at the Hong Kong Star Football Team event recently, Felix, who has worked with Chow before, stated, "Actually, nine out of ten artistes hate receiving uncompleted scripts, but it happens often. It's very difficult and there's not enough time to prepare for the role."

Felix revealed that Chow had so many last-minute scripts during the filming of "The Criminal Investigator" and "Secret Of The Heart" previously that he became furious with the latter.

"20 years ago, we have talked about it. I seriously cannot accept late and incomplete scripts. A professional actor needs time to digest the character. If script comes by bits and pieces, the actor has to rely a lot on the screen writer and producer."

When asked about his thoughts on whether the late and incomplete scripts will affect the ratings of "Beauty At War", Felix said, "I don't think the two are connected but still, actors should be given the finished scripts on time to be productive."

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TVB Only Agreed HK$500 Raise, Felix Wong Slams on Table and Leaves

Felix Wong was on the iCable talk show Star Chatroom for an interview. Felix expressed he endured through continuous filming and eventually suffered from hepatitis. When it was time for a contract renewal, TVB was only willing to give him a HK$500 raise.

Felix claimed, his record back then was 7 days, 7 nights of no sleep. After enduring through 3 years, he eventually suffered from hepatitis and it was only that time he had the opportunity to get a longer break -- 18 days. Felix sighed, back then he endured through so much, he was basically hallow and was half asleep, half awake when speaking his lines. How can an actor perform well in this kind of condition?

The "Five Tigers" back then were Felix, Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Michael Miu and Kent Tong. They all left to work elsewhere, except for Felix, who stayed with TVB and continued to shoot series. He expressed, during that time he still had to pay for his house and car, so he only stayed because of the job security.

Unfortunately when he tried to get a raise during his discussion with TVB on the contract renewal, they could not come to an agreement. Feeling disheartened, he decided to leave. Felix's unforgettable moment was the cold comment TVB made to him: "You didn't really have good performances in the past few years, you don't deserve to get that much of a raise." Felix expressed although there wasn't many achievements, still his hard efforts should count. He put his life into acting and the ratings for his series did pretty well too. When TVB finally said they'll give him a HK$500 raise, but he has to renew his contract for another 5 years, Felix's first reaction was: "My hand slammed on the table, I said forget it, don't give the raise, I don't even want a penny. Three years later when my contract ends, I'm leaving." Felix disclosed when he left TVB in the 90s, his monthly salary was around HK$10,000. He later signed a 'per series' contract with ATV and they paid well. When TVB wanted to bring Felix back, he already had a contract with ATV and eventually the many year business relationship came to an end.

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Oriental Daily Interview with Felix Wong [Part 1]: “I was never mad at Tony [Leung]!”

The HK television industry of the 1980s was full of talented artists – that was also the era that brought us TVB’s 5 Tigers: Felix Wong (黃日華), Tony Leung (梁朝偉), Michael Miu (苗僑偉), Kent Tong (湯鎮業), and Andy Lau (劉德華). Despite being promoted together, all 5 siu sangs had different personalities and ended up going down different paths, both in life and career. A few years ago, when the Tigers reunited to film a movie, Tony Leung was not part of the group, leading to rumors that the ‘brothers’ relationship had ruptured and media speculation that perhaps Tony was the cause.

For the next 5 days, during an interview with Oriental Daily, Felix Wong will talk about the various trials and tribulations behind the 5 Tiger relationship. In addition, he will also speak candidly about the marriage ‘crisis’ he and his wife had experienced, his path to fame as well as how his life was like working for TVB back in the 80s.

** Felix speaks:

Back then, TVB was going through a ‘poaching’ crisis and the company lost quite a few siu sangs – therefore, they decided to push the newer siu sangs up to take their place. The strategy was to take the current popular siu sangs with the most potential and put them together – I was picked as one of those to be promoted, along with Michael [Miu], Kent [Tong], Tony [Leung], etc. Actually, at the time, the 5 of us had never officially worked together – our first collaboration was in a charity event in 1982 where we performed various stunts together. Since there was some difficulty to the stunts that we had to do, we all practiced together for close to 2 months – we saw each other practically day and night at the time, so that’s how we become more familiar with one another. To be honest, we never really spent a whole lot of time together outside of those 2 months – once the charity event was over, we pretty much only saw each other in the makeup room, though our relationship overall remained pretty good. You might not believe it, but all these years, the only TV series that all 5 of us collaborated in was The Yang’s Saga《楊家將》.

Kent Tong was known for being the most good-looking one

Over the years, I know there have been a lot of rumors surrounding the 5 Tigers. One of the rumors was that our relationship with Tony was ‘ruptured’ because he was rarely seen together in public with us. To tell you the truth, back when we [the Tigers] were at the height of our popularity, there truly were a lot of ‘crises’ that we had to endure. At the time [back in 1984], TVB wanted all of their artists to sign a long 5 year contract with them, however quite a few artists had already started movie careers outside of TVB – in order not to be tied down, we had once discussed among ourselves about not signing the contract. One day, we suddenly received word that Tony had already signed the [5 year] contract – of course we were shocked because we didn’t understand what was going on at the time, however I wouldn’t say that we felt ‘betrayed’ because everyone has the right to pursue a career path that works best for them. Besides, it’s not like we had actually come to an agreement not to sign – it was just something we had lightly talked about, so of course we wouldn’t be mad at Tony [for signing].

Michael and I were classmates in the same year Acting Class and since we pretty much ‘grew up’ together, our relationship is especially close. Kent is actually considered our ‘senior’, since he graduated from the Acting Class right before ours, however we were still able to get along pretty well – amongst us Tigers, Kent was known for being the most good-looking one. As for Tony, he truly was the most reclusive one in the group – he didn’t like to talk much and in fact, he could actually go an entire day without saying a word! We once tried to ‘influence’ him and get him to talk more – it worked for awhile, but he very quickly went back to his old ways again.

Tony likes to stay at home, turns down socializing opportunities

Even though he likes to be silent, Tony truly does take his work very seriously. As soon as he starts working, he is 100% focused on what he is doing and doesn’t play around, though he does sometimes have a brief conversation with those he’s working with on a particular scene. Even after work, Tony is the type who leaves quickly and doesn’t participate in any social activities -- he has his own little world. Every time we invite him to go out, even if we get Michael to ask him, Tony’s answer is always the same: “No, you guys go play, I’m going to head home.”

Informed about Barbara Yung’s death, Felix’s initial reaction was: “Stop playing!”

Back when we filmed Legend of the Condor Heroes《射鵰英雄傳》together, Barbara Yung (翁美玲) was actually a newbie at the time. I feel that she was a very smart woman who took her work seriously, worked hard, and had good relationships with each of her colleagues – she got along well with pretty much everyone. Even though I knew that she and Kent were dating, we actually didn’t see each other often because I was very busy with work. Later on, I remember very clearly that I was on vacation in Malaysia one day when a colleague called to tell me that Barbara had passed away – I couldn’t believe it and even told the colleague: “Stop playing!” However, after I found out it was true, I immediately cancelled the rest of my vacation and rushed back to HK to help with pall bearing responsibilities [at the funeral].

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Felix Wong and his daughter Adrian signs with CTI, to collaborate in a drama together

Felix Wong and his 22 year old daughter Adrian Wong signed with CTI and will collaborated in a detective drama in August. CTI chairman Ricky Wong especially held a contract signing ceremony for the father-daughter to show respect for Felix. Felix, who had once bashed TVB for being harsh, saw the sincerity in CTI, he said: "Before when I signed with TVB, I was just in an office, never have I signed at a hotel. This is very refreshing! (Higher price?) Reasonable! (Help your daughter get a higher price?) No, money is not important for a newcomer. It is actually to gain experience. (Upset?) No, striving to give advice and teach my daughter to read scripts. (Advice?) Must not be on time, must be early!"

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