Many will recognize Eric Li (李天翔) mostly portraying villains or small roles in TVB series but not even know his name. Despite his frequent television appearance, Eric remains a struggling actor for years, even working at a massage parlor due to pressure from financial realities. Eric has been with TVB for 18 years, making a paycheck of about $10,000 HKD a month. With his measly salary and unstable acting career, he relies heavily on his girlfriend of 3 years, Bobo. Although Bobo is not in the entertainment industry, she has supported Eric and remained by his side. To make ends meet, Eric also has a part-time job as a receptionist at a Thai massage parlor. From answering phones, scheduling appointments, selling massage packages to serving tea, Eric does it all. Reporters went undercover to the Thai massage parlor and witnessed firsthand how Eric caters to patrons. When they walked in, Eric cheerfully asked, “Welcome! Is it your first time?” and proceeds to pour tea to serve them. When the phone rang, Eric excused himself to answer the phone and book an appointment on the spot. There were some patrons that recognized Eric’s star looks and his appearance from recent TVB series, The Day of Days <初五啟市錄>. When they asked him if he was the actor in that series, he embarrassingly answered, “I’m just helping out.” A regular patron of the massage parlor spilled, “Eric has been working here for several months. He comes more often when there is no work with TVB. I heard that this parlor was opened by his ex-girlfriend and she wanted to help him out since his salary at TVB is so low. He makes $50 HKD an hour here which is higher than the required minimum wage, so he can pull in some decent income if he works 9 hours a day! If he has to film for TVB, he’ll still come back after the shooting to help out. At first he wasn’t used to pouring tea and serving customers, but now he’s doing really good and hard working.” Creds: Next Magazine
isn't it 'gam guy' to have a guy work at the desk of these places? did he do any 'under the table' happy endings:naughty: jk i do like this guy but damn 18 years...he seem not that old either!
It sucks he gets paid so little when sometimes he get kind of prominent villain roles :/ I think he is a great actor, hopefully soon he'll have his time to shine.
He been in the industry for so long, shame that TVB isn't giving him the opportunity to shine. So that's his name. Eric
that's got to suck, I didn't know he worked at TVB for 18 years, I do hope these actors can get more money for their work. So many of them are working for very little, especially in a city like HK, that wage is going to be tough.
He probably looks at TVB as only a part time gig. His real job is the receptionist position, LOL... But seriously, I never liked him; something about his "look" that I found disturbing. Moreover, TVB only ever seems to use him in negative roles, which further reinforces his bad guy persona and alienates viewers. This was the same story with Ben Wong, another TVB Villians R US alumni. The studio has audiences trained to react with, "uh-oh... scumbag alert!" as soon as we see these guys. Having said that, another problem for them is, that they only seem to get meaningless two dimensional bad guy bit parts; they're never really quite as interesting a bad guy like Michael Mui's Kong Sai-Hau role in The Academy 3, EU. In that instance, sure, Mui was the bad guy; but he was a bad guy you actually became interested in and even liked, even though his role had his character do some very evil shit. Maybe its because Mui is a much better actor and thus more versatile and effective? Or, maybe he kisses TVB exec ass more effectively to get the meatier roles? It doesn't matter. Audiences see him, not just a role of the bad guy, and thus, he's a hell of a lot more successful, IMHO. :Talktohand:
I liked his role in The Day of Days <初五啟市錄>. At least he isn't playing villian roles and has more opportunity to show off his acting. A bit like 'so fee'.
But seriously, I disliked the derisive tone taken by the original authors from Next Magazine; that Li is working as a receptionist, ...to survive. There are plenty of people, both men and women, who are gainfully employed as receptionists, raising and supporting their families and themselves. Next Magazine makes it sound as if being a receptionist is akin to either begging or prostitution; that somehow, it was lowly or bad and something that Li had to sink to in the depths of his desperation. What genuinely would have been bad was had Li been forced to lower himself into writing media fluff pieces for gossip magazines; that really would have been the epitome of desperation, IMHO.
