Grace Chan (陳凱琳) is experiencing immense stress and pressure due to her first lead role in the TVB anniversary drama Captain of Destiny <張保仔>. As the drama’s only female lead, Grace expressed her burden of having to carry a series after only one year of debut. Captain of Destiny, a historical sci-fi drama about a prince and a pirate, also stars Ruco Chan (陳展鵬) and Tony Hung (洪永城). In the series, Grace portrays a 21st century cop who accidentally travels back in time to early 19th century Cheung Chau, meeting the renowned Cantonese pirate Cheung Po Tsai. Grace develops romantic feelings for the two male leads, and finds it hard to leave them knowing that she would have to return to modern-day Hong Kong. Grace’s character, Wong Tai-mui, is heavily disliked by netizens, calling her one of the worst characters on television. Netizens also criticized Grace for being a poor actress, making an already poorly-written character even poorer. Anthony Wong (黃秋生) commented that Grace’s performance was “a nuisance” in the series, and Grace’s own boyfriend, Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎), remarked that her acting was still very elementary. Facing negative reviews in all four sides, the 24-year-old Grace said she is in extreme stress. “Before Captain of Destiny, I filmed Overachievers <名門暗戰> and Raising the Bar <四個女仔三個BAR>, but [Captain of Destiny] was my very first drama as lead. I was in a great amount of stress. Now that it’s broadcasting, I’m nervous about it again.” Grace admitted that she was quite upset about the negative reviews on her performance. She said, “There’s been a lot of comments [about my performance], and some people would use whatever they could to attack you. My grandmother once told me that it’s impossible to get everyone to like you. She then asked me, ‘Did you try your best? Do you have any regrets?’ I answered no. Since I tried my best, there is nothing else I could do. Her comment made me feel a little better.” The former Miss Hong Kong revealed that she tends to cry when she gets extremely stressed. Asking if her boyfriend, Kevin Cheng, had consoled her, she said, “He would. He is my senior, and very experienced. He advised me to not care too much about what outsiders say, but listen to the opinions from experienced coworkers and producers. If you take in what everyone has to say about you, you will definitely make yourself unhappy. That’s why it’s important to listen from those [with experience]. The drama started airing after he came back from the Mainland. He told me he would monitor my performance and share his opinions.” On how it was to work with seniors such as Ruco and Tony, Grace said, “Tony Hung is very playful, while Ruco Chan is very serious. He would ask me for my thoughts about the script and then analyze it with me.” In Captain of Destiny, Grace has kissing scenes with both Ruco and Tony. She shared that she finished her kissing scene with Tony after only one take, because they did not want to film it again. Would Grace make Kevin watch her intimate scenes? Grace laughed, “It doesn’t matter. We’re all professionals. I actually don’t want my Daddy to watch it. I also had a kissing scene in Raising the Bar, and Daddy asked me why I had to shoot those scenes. He really does not understand them. When the time comes again I’ll have to shoo him away, haha!” Creds: Oncc
