Former TVB actress Michelle Ye is recently back on the small screen in Madam Xian 谯国夫人, a C-drama honouring the life of China’s first heroine that they shot in late 2020 to early 2021. The 43-year-old actress plays the titular Madam Xian, a woman who has lived through ten emperors of the Liang, Chen and Sui dynasties. She accomplished great things and was honoured for her many contributions. Naturally any series about her spans quite a big chunk of her life. However, Netizens aren’t so sure she should be playing her character’s 18-year-old version at the beginning of the show.
Granted, some actors in their forties might still be able to get away with playing a young girl on screen. However, playing someone more than half her age might be a bit of a stretch. Some viewers certainly didn’t mince words when they pointed out Michelle looks “too old” to be playing a character who’s young and delicate at 18. The same also goes for her co-star Ren Zhong who’s also in his forties playing a 20-year-old boy in the series. “How did the director choose the actors” was the question on everyone’s minds and why they didn’t cast younger actors to play the younger versions of the characters instead.
Michelle Ye got her start at TVB with whom she had an exclusive contract with after winning a pageant organised by the network back in 1999. Since leaving the network in 2005, the Chinese actress began to focus on developing her career in the mainland. Last year, Michelle’s appearance shocked some fans after she went barefaced in a livestream, drawing comments such as how she’d “let herself go” or how she looks very different from her glamourous image in the past.
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Jia
I don’t know why actors/actresses agree to do this. You’re setting yourself up for ridicule.