To this day, the 1998 hit drama My Fair Princess 还珠格格 starring Zhao Wei as Xiaoyanzi and Ruby Lin as Ziwei, remains to be an unrivalled classic despite subsequent attempts to expand or retell the story. Even now, writer-producer Chiung Yao is reportedly working on another remake, but I’m probably not alone in finding it hard to imagine another cast doing as well as the original.
In a recent episode of The Inn Season 3 亲爱的客栈第三季, Ruby Lin made a surprising reveal when she shared that she almost lost the part of Ziwei. At the time, she had already been casted as Ziwei and had started filming. However, Ziwei is a character that has a substantial amount of crying scenes (if you’ve seen the drama and all the melodramatic angst that comes with it, you’d know why). Because Ruby Lin couldn’t cry, Chiung Yao considered recasting for the part. Ruby Lin said that it came to a point where she cried and pleaded with Chiung Yao not to replace her.
There’s no doubt that keeping her worked for the best considering the success that the show has achieved. Now that Ruby is in her forties, happily married to Wallace Huo and a mom to her 2-year-old daughter, the actress seems to be devoting more time to her family while her acting career takes a backseat.
However, she reveals some of the heartaches that actresses have regarding role choices that become more limited with age. Ruby Lin admits that there is still one type of role that she can’t accept for the time being. She says, “I might not be able to accept if I had to play the mother of the leading lady, then I won’t act.”
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