People
On and off screen
by Gladys Cheung
Award-winning actress Karena Lam Ka-yan is often a surprise. Despite her angelic face, she has chosen to play characters with hellish looks. While many celebrities take pleasure in a vibrant life, she enjoys spending time alone.
Behind the surprises are Miss Lam's professionalism and passion for her job, which in turn has taught her to appreciate the tranquility of life.
Over the past six years of her movie career, the 28- year-old Miss Lam has learned so well the characters she played that they have sometimes become part of her in real life.
The actress spent extra time to learn the skills the characters were supposed to be excelled at before shooting. Flower arrangement and hairdressing, examples of some of those skills, have now become her hobby and a service for her family and friends.
But there is downside to be too involved in the characters she played. She became very emotional while playing a tragic and disfigured vagrant in the film Home Sweet Home in 2005.
"I am an optimistic person. But I suddenly held extreme views and felt unfair, rage, anger all inside of me. This was so not me," she said in an interview.
She was unduly upset. After the last shot, she immediately flew back to Taiwan, where she later fell sick. She took more than two months to overcome her negative emotions.
The delusive experience was repeated through her career life when Miss Lam was shooting for Inner Senses in 2002. She could not distinguish between her real life and the character that was emotionally damaged and could see dead people.
"I felt isolated and always hid myself in the room crying," Miss Lam said. She later called up her father. "I just want to hear his voice, although what he said was only some tittle-tattle, but I suddenly recognised ‘oh, this is the reality!'." The playing of tragic and hideous characters has not only taken toll on Miss Lam's emotional well-being, but also her physical health.
In Home Sweet Home, the grueling makeup that created her hideous look from teeth to toes took up to nine hours every day. She suffered from rashes because of the makeup. The shooting had also left the actress with no more than three hours of sleep every day for a month. But she did not complain.
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