Carina Lau
- Actress
- Producer
Carina Lau moved to Hong Kong with her family at the age of 14 and at
the the time could not speak the local Cantonese and was often teased
by other people the "Mainland Girl". She would eventually gave her best
effort to learn the language and then was re-accepted at the TVB actors
training program when she had improved her speaking ability. It was
1983 the year when she had graduated from the program and launched her
acting career as contract basic actress for TVB, and her now boyfriend
Tony Leung (Happy Together) was graduated one year earlier. Her acting
career for TVB was limited to playing ornamental parts in series for
the first several years and she didn't get a major challenging starring
role until the hit series Looking Back in Anger. That series had
established her status as a strong leading lady, but she was aiming to
abandon the small screen for films.
She had been in tabloid headlines for her near-marriage romance with a
handsome billionaire in the late 80s, and she was considering giving up
acting to marry him but the wedding got cancelled the last minute, and
Carina was devastated. Shortly after she started dating Tony after
partnering to do a stage play called "Happy Lemon Husband". It was "I Am
Sorry" (a low-budget dramedy) that first garnered her the HK best
actress nomination in 1989, and she had previously been sent out by TVB
to do some films but nothing significant enough to turn her into a film
star. Since leaving TVB, she had been approached by film jobs
consistently. She found the dream role when Wong Kar Wai let her play a
sexy and volatile showgirl in Days of Being Wild opposite Leslie Cheung
and Maggie Cheung, and she was in the spotlight and became the "It"
girl of the year during film festivals and awards. She once told the
press that it was WKW who taught her how to bring out the best of her
acting skills and how to use body language to convey emotions.
Over the course the 90s, Carina was constantly working mostly on dramas
and comedies and had many box office hits. She subsequently chose very
daring dramatic roles and she has a reputation for playing troubled
women and prostitutes very well. For instance, her bisexual role in
Intimates was one of the most challenging roles of her career and it
was very provocative that it was entirely accepted by mainstream
audiences. Towards the late 90s, she cut reduced her working in films
since there was lesser good scripts and the industry was in decline.
She even participated in a period dramatic series in Taiwan and a HK
theatrical play when films didn't excite her. With more than 60
starring roles in films, TV series and plays, she was not desperate to
work just for work, so the recent years she's still one of the highest
earning actress in Asia because she's the spokesperson for numerous big
fashion and cosmetic labels. It was unfortunate that her five year
involvement in making the most lavish sci-fi epic 2046 had reduced her
to a supporting role. She was frustrated that she didn't know what she
was playing since Wong Kar Wai had not issued a script and was working
from his head the whole time. Finally, a fellow actor recommended her
to read a script called Curiosity Kills the Cat, a low-budget Chinese
thriller, and insisted that she should do the film because it was clear
that the leading role was perfectly suitable for her and she's never
played anything like it before. Her performance garnered her the best
reviews of her career. In this film, she turned in a multi-layered and
unpredictable performance and for the first time she was willing to be
made up to look very middle-aged and unattractive, and she was welling
to do 3 takes of paint splattering all over her like Sissy Spacek in
Carrie.
the the time could not speak the local Cantonese and was often teased
by other people the "Mainland Girl". She would eventually gave her best
effort to learn the language and then was re-accepted at the TVB actors
training program when she had improved her speaking ability. It was
1983 the year when she had graduated from the program and launched her
acting career as contract basic actress for TVB, and her now boyfriend
Tony Leung (Happy Together) was graduated one year earlier. Her acting
career for TVB was limited to playing ornamental parts in series for
the first several years and she didn't get a major challenging starring
role until the hit series Looking Back in Anger. That series had
established her status as a strong leading lady, but she was aiming to
abandon the small screen for films.
She had been in tabloid headlines for her near-marriage romance with a
handsome billionaire in the late 80s, and she was considering giving up
acting to marry him but the wedding got cancelled the last minute, and
Carina was devastated. Shortly after she started dating Tony after
partnering to do a stage play called "Happy Lemon Husband". It was "I Am
Sorry" (a low-budget dramedy) that first garnered her the HK best
actress nomination in 1989, and she had previously been sent out by TVB
to do some films but nothing significant enough to turn her into a film
star. Since leaving TVB, she had been approached by film jobs
consistently. She found the dream role when Wong Kar Wai let her play a
sexy and volatile showgirl in Days of Being Wild opposite Leslie Cheung
and Maggie Cheung, and she was in the spotlight and became the "It"
girl of the year during film festivals and awards. She once told the
press that it was WKW who taught her how to bring out the best of her
acting skills and how to use body language to convey emotions.
Over the course the 90s, Carina was constantly working mostly on dramas
and comedies and had many box office hits. She subsequently chose very
daring dramatic roles and she has a reputation for playing troubled
women and prostitutes very well. For instance, her bisexual role in
Intimates was one of the most challenging roles of her career and it
was very provocative that it was entirely accepted by mainstream
audiences. Towards the late 90s, she cut reduced her working in films
since there was lesser good scripts and the industry was in decline.
She even participated in a period dramatic series in Taiwan and a HK
theatrical play when films didn't excite her. With more than 60
starring roles in films, TV series and plays, she was not desperate to
work just for work, so the recent years she's still one of the highest
earning actress in Asia because she's the spokesperson for numerous big
fashion and cosmetic labels. It was unfortunate that her five year
involvement in making the most lavish sci-fi epic 2046 had reduced her
to a supporting role. She was frustrated that she didn't know what she
was playing since Wong Kar Wai had not issued a script and was working
from his head the whole time. Finally, a fellow actor recommended her
to read a script called Curiosity Kills the Cat, a low-budget Chinese
thriller, and insisted that she should do the film because it was clear
that the leading role was perfectly suitable for her and she's never
played anything like it before. Her performance garnered her the best
reviews of her career. In this film, she turned in a multi-layered and
unpredictable performance and for the first time she was willing to be
made up to look very middle-aged and unattractive, and she was welling
to do 3 takes of paint splattering all over her like Sissy Spacek in
Carrie.