Elena Kong Says Fei Mao Actor Kent Cheng Once Hurled Vulgarities At Her For Messing Up On The Set Of Forrest Cat
She also recalled having to reshoot an emotional scene ‘cos Kent wasn’t happy with her performance.
Fans of Hongkong dramas in the ‘90s would certainly remember classic ATV tearjerker Forrest Cat, which starred Kent Cheng as the iconic character Fei Mao (or Fat Cat) and Elena Kong.
It was Elena’s first lead role in a television series as well as her first showbiz project after returning to Hongkong from Canada, where she found it “difficult to make money”, in 1997.
“At that time, I thought I’d come back to film one show, make some money, and then go back,” the 50-year-old shared in a recent interview. “I never expected I would stay on for over two decades!”
Elena Kong’s still fit and fab at 50
Since the former model was still very new to acting, she inevitably made a lot of rookie mistakes, which her co-star Kent, now 70, apparently had no patience for.
Elena received a particularly harsh scolding from Kent while they were shooting a scene where the latter had to fall down and get up again, which she admitted was very difficult and exhausting for him.
“I didn’t know how to position myself and kept blocking the lighting on his face,” she said. “He told me off really badly at that time, to the point that I felt like crying, but there was no use in scolding me ‘cos I really didn’t know anything!”
A young Elena with Kent Cheng in Forrest Cat
When asked just how bad it was, Elena said that she “wanted to hide in her car and cry” and that Kent had used a lot of vulgarities while chewing her out.
While she didn’t specify exactly what he said, she recalled that it involved mentions of “sexual organs”, “aunts”, and her “mother”. Use your imagination, we guess.
Naturally, poor Elena was very hurt by his outburst, especially since she was treated like a “princess” during her modelling days.
“When I was shooting TV shows, I had to take care of everything myself, so I really wasn’t used to it at the beginning,” she shared.
She’s now a respected actress herself
Elena faced another hurdle after completing a touching scene where Fei Mao’s mother, played by veteran actress Nina Paw, dies in the hospital.
“Everyone on set, even the sound and lighting crew, was crying during that scene ‘cos it was very moving,” she said. “We were all very satisfied with it.”
Little did she know that two or three days later, Kent would suddenly inform her that they needed to reshoot the whole sequence.
“He told me that the one crying was Elena Kong, not [my character] Connie,” she explained. “She’s a social worker and probably sees deaths like that many times a year, so why should she be crying so hard? It wasn’t even her own mother who passed away.”
The scene that needed reshooting
As shocked as she was at Kent’s feedback, Elena said that it helped her to slowly understand what acting is all about.
She also clearly doesn’t hold anything against Kent as the two went on to appear in several more shows together, such as My Brother, My Mum, Forrest Cat II, and The Poet Su Dong Po, where she continued picking up more valuable tips from him.
“He was really like a teacher to me,” said Elena, adding that she feels fortunate to have worked with Kent in her earlier dramas.
No hard feelings
Photos: Elena Kong/Instagram and Facebook, Sin Chew Daily, HK01
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