90’s HK Star Jay Lau Would Not Have Been An Actress If Given the Choice Again

Now living in the US, former TVB actress Jay Lau Kam Ling (劉錦玲) had no qualms when she recently revealed her regrets about going into showbiz. In her heyday, the 55-year-old actress appeared in various Hong Kong classics such as The Silver Tycoon (銀狐), Winner is King 3 (勝者為王III王者之戰), Working Women (當女人愛上男人), The Demi Gods and Semi Devils (天龍八部), the TV series Simply Ordinary (林世榮) and Family Man (絕世好爸). After her contract with TVB expired back in 2006, she left it all behind to focus her efforts on getting her degree and on insurance. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t kept up with news about her former peers in the entertainment industry.

In a recent post on social media, Jay Lau says she regretted being an actress after watching an interview where Maggie Cheung said she would still choose to be an actress if given the choice once again. “I also thought about it and asked myself the same question. My answer is: No, I won’t.” The thing is, what really gives her the chills is that there’s just too many people in the industry and media willing to do just about anything for their own interests, “hiding daggers behind their smiles”, she said. Moreover, she said the techniques used for filming and acting were so bad the resulting performance just felt so contrived and exaggerated it didn’t have any more substance.

The Dark Side of Showbiz

Further sharing her thoughts on the comments sections of her own post, she said she liked the essence of performing. However, what she  didn’t like was the frivolity and “vainness” of the industry. Moreover, she expressed her appreciation for audiences who didn’t believe in the media smear campaign launched against her, calling them “invaluable”.

In 2019, the former actress who played A Zhu in the 1997 version of Demi Gods and Semi Devils once lamented how few people sought the truth in the face of so many false rumours. Before switching to TVB, the actress was actually an artist under ATV. However because she was unwilling to renew her contract with ATV, she said a smear campaign was launched against her damaging her reputation all because she didn’t “fall in line” with unspoken industry practices. Even before this, she said as early as 1992, the company forced her to decline many invitations to work together with other artists. In fact, their supposed manipulation made her almost miss the opportunity to star opposite Andy Lau on the film Days of Tomorrow 天長地久!

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