To say that the drama Immortality 皓衣行 is one of the year’s most awaited shows might be putting it lightly. After all, how often do you see so much leaked photos taken by daipai and so many Netizens up in arms over something when the drama hasn’t even aired yet? This week, the issue seems to emanate from the rumours that Immortality ‘s screenwriters added in more romantic scenes between Arthur Chen’s Mo Ran and his shixiong Shi Mei played by actress Sebrina Chen Yao. Naturally, this led to Netizens being quite suspicious of the “upgrade”, especially since the story is about the two male protagonists Mo Ran and Chu Wanning played by Leo Luo Yunxi with Sebrina listed as a supporting role. Some have even said that the move somehow “reduces” Chu Wanning’s role in the drama.
Whatever the case, you can be sure that Netizens didn’t hesitate to make their feelings known, leaving nearly 500,000 comments (I kid you not) in the drama’s Weibo page bashing Sebrina. Does this sound familiar to you? It should because the situation kinda brings to mind the same treatment actress Meng Ziyi got whilst filming The Untamed. Remember how rumours had her pegged as Wei Wuxian’s female love interest when it became clear after the drama aired that she was anything but?
Immortality’s Main Screenwriter Responds to the Backlash
With no less than half a million comments kicking up a fuss regarding this controversy, Immortality’s main screenwriter was forced to air out production’s side of the story.
“Hello everyone, I am the lead writer for Immortality who originally fled the scene. Because I signed a NDA, I am unable to show you the script. And save for the script and the filmed final product, there’s no way for me to prove innocence. I can only vouch for this: what should be there is there and what shouldn’t be on the script won’t be. The main creator knows, our heads are screwed on right.
Dear friends, if you are willing to believe me, please bear with us for a little while longer. Once the drama airs, everything will come to light. If you’re still not satisfied, you can come back to bash us again. If you don’t believe me, I can only swear to you: if there’s any untruth to it, may lightning strike me, slowly boil me in a pot of goose stew, and let the screenwriters not receive their final payment.”
Regarding the “proof” some people have been posting online to back their claims, she further responded on the comments section saying: “there’s been a lot of so called announcements and “proof” involving spoilers. There’s no way for me to disprove them all one by one. I’ll be picking a few to talk about the gap between the real storyline and what’s going on in Netizen’s heads. This should be entertaining for everyone.”
Trinity
It’s kinda disgusting these people all spammed Sabrina’s page. She has nothing to do with this. She is simply an actress acting out the role she was given. If people are upset and want to spam, then attack the showrunners or screenwriter because they are the ones more responsible. Poor Sabrina is simply a victim here.
I was also going to say this seemed quite similar to what happened with Meng Ziyi in Untamed. People just need to wait and be patient. If it does go that route then you have every write to be angry with the SCREENWRITER not the actress. But I hope the showrunners of Immortality have seen the success Untamed had as well as the debacle with the same issue and make the drama accordingly.
ceruleanxstar
It’s pretty disgusting for fans to take out their frustrations on the actress, but I will say point out something that the writer of this article completely missed – the character of Shi Mei was actually a MAN in the original novel (The Husky and his White Cat Shizun) but more importantly, Shi Mei was Mo Ran’s love. Even the source novel has romantic scenes between Shi Mei & Mo Ran, because in the previous lifetime and when Mo Ran first comes back, he ONLY had feelings for Shi Mei and thought of him as the only person he had ever truly loved.
So it’s not like The Untamed/CQL drama with Meng Ziyi, since nowhere in MDZS (source novel) does Wei Wuxian ever have any sort of romantic interaction with Wen Qing, nor anything that can be even slightly construed as romantic interest.
Thus, I can understand why fans are up in arms about this, because the fact that the casting changed Shi Mei to a woman and that supposedly there are more scenes with her strongly suggests that there will be heterosexual romantic scenes, if only because that actually stays true to the book. And how convenient that since Shi Mei literally got made into a woman, these scenes will pass government censors and also can be used to market the drama as not-really-BL.
Lala
Lol. Pretty much creating drama so that people would talk more about. Leaking so-called stuff like this creates buzz making people curious about the drama. It work for CQL so they’re doing it again for this. Pretty disgusting.
Rose
Not agreeing with bashing Sabrina. It’s not her fault if the screenwriter makes her character romance with MR. How are netizens so dumb! Attack the screenwriter if they have a problem smh. Well, I really don’t agree with romancing MR with ShiMei. Hope the team can yield a different direction.
Anna
Tencent is not stupid, especially after the mega success of The Untamed and the failure of The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty.
Tayyabakakar3
Of course we don’t want any extra romance between shimei and Moran so I hope they make atleast untamed like
Sunny
So tired of these crazy fans bullying actresses. It is just an unsubstantiated rumour and even if it is true Chen Yao is just an actress doing her job and acting the script that was handed to her. Take it up with the producers or writer and leave her alone!
Vadioni
Sebrina Chen seems like a genuine actress to me. I like her ‘Chen Lao Rou’ Cat. Haha. I watched her first drama – Maiden Holmes. She displayed a very high standard of acting. I like it. However in reality, these netizens shamed her thinking they’re the GREAT or the best. SHAME ON THEM!!! I’ve become a new Fan of hers, and waiting for her Next/ Future Drama to be a Hit~! Finger Cross. Fighting, Fighting Sebrina!!