August 2010, Sammul Chan left TVB and entered the Mainland market. He spent three years performing in China and finally gained recognition. On Weibo, he already has nearly 5 million fans following him and once his grand production Beauty at the Crossfires (烽火佳人) releases at the end of the year, his number of followers could probably exceed the HK total population.
Recently Sammul came back to HK for three weeks, and its been like that for the past three years, he'll be flying back and forth between HK and China. "Many people ask me why don't I just move up there (China), my home is in HK after all, my family and friends are there. Everything is just much more convenient." After departing from the HK television industry, Sammul got to enjoy the life of a common citizen, "In the past, I thought artists shouldn't be taking the bus or subway, but then again I thought to myself, I'm a taxpayer too, why am I hiding at home? Today, I frequently take the subway and during rush hours, I'll just put on a mouth mask."
Sammul's manager Ivy accompanied him on this interview, the two have been working together for over ten years. When the reporter asked Ivy why she decided to sign Sammul, who was still working as a DJ at the time, to be one of her managed artists? She said: "Simply because I supported him, also his vocals is very inspirational." Ivy said a newcomer with potential usually go a long way and now they've been working together for 10+ years, the word 'fate' isn't enough to describe the connection.
Over the years, Sammul has matured a lot and lost the young boy feeling. In acting, his decisions doesn't change that easily, and that is one of the reasons why he's a popular choice for Mainland producers. Sammul said: "I am a committed person with expectations, I won't let productions that are no good go on air, so I really don't like to handle interpersonal relationships. I would rather spend more time on analyzing the script or discuss with the other cast. So, some artists don't like me. For example, when I have to do a sad scene, I would maintain that sad mood the entire day and wouldn't say a word. Other people think I'm hard to predict, and think I'm strange."
"My thought is, the audience watch me on screen for one or two minutes, but how much do the audience really know of what happened behind the cameras? But I think certain persistence is worth it, it is necessary. How can you be playing at this moment, and the next moment get into the right emotions for that particular scene? I think there will definitely be something lacking, not even the best actors can be distracted. Of course, there are some that will say why should it be like that? But I've opened up now, there will people that like you and others that think you're annoying. Whatever. But I think the ones who's watching is the audience, not you!"
This "bad habit" existed during his time at TVB and in which led to many unpleasant experiences. Sammul said: "I really am a despicable person! During my time at TVB, I really enjoyed learning new things, such as in costume dramas, we use a rope to pull layers and layers of clothing together. I would go and watch how they do it. How can they assemble it all together? I even learned to blow dry hair, putting on wigs and putting on special makeup. Nowadays when I'm out working, some new staff that don't perform as well, I would just go and do it myself. Once I do it myself, they begin to think what is the value of them being here?"
Of course, Sammul has heard nasty comments. "There was one time another artist was shooting a wide shot, he said to me, 'Hey Sammul Gor, we've been standing here with you for really long time. It's been too tiring for us, I need to go and get my rest. You can stand here yourself!' Why do I have to stand there? Because even if I finished shooting my scenes, I want to watch other people shoot their scenes, so I can understand their response, then when its my turn to film, I can adjust my own reaction and acting style. If you just go and take a nap, then how will you know what your co-star's reaction was? Also, its a form of respect."
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