Style Folio: Eliza Sam, Hong Kong Actress

Eliza Sam, the Hong Kong actress with a million social media followers, talks to us about everything from style to stilettoes, on-screen and off.

The entire feature and shoot is up at PrestigeOnline.com here.

Special shout out to the dream team that did this incredible shoot: 

PHOTOGRAPHY RUBY LAW

ART DIRECTION AND STYLING TASHA LING

HAIR KOLEN BUT

MAKEUP DEEP CHOI

ASSISTANTS VENUS CHU AND PHEOBE

LOCATION THE LANDMARK MANDARIN ORIENTAL

Bollywood Actress Tabu: A Suitable Woman

 One of the most gifted Indian actresses, her disinterest in fame, but her innat thespian skills are at constant battle within her. Such a joy to write about the reluctant star Tabu. See the entire feature online at SCMP/Style here. 

The hunt for exquisite Jade

For a profile of Hong Kong designer Barney Cheng, I did an extensive multiple day interview and shoot, marking the 25th anniversary of his eponymous brand. The popular designer has several celebrity fans, including Michelle Yeoh and model turned actress Celina Jade.

Between her packed film shooting schedule, I interviewed the actress regarding her long-standing collaborations with Cheng and we did several looks featuring Barney Cheng couture and jewellery, as an accompanying piece to the main article. Everything you see in the left picture is from Cheng's design house. While photographer Ruby Law was taking perfect snaps of the perfectly poised Jade, who was studded with rubies and glittering diamonds, I was taking BTS shots in my often blurry phone camera. I posted this picture on social media for my.. 10s and 12s of followers!

What followed was... unprecedented on the account. An avalanche of trolling and hate speech, the likes of which I have never seen, bombarded the page. A mixture of bile filled comments in both Chinese and English. Apparently some... crazy person... in China? In some God-forsaken artery in Kowloon?.... slammed us for the shoot and feature as they hated Celina Jade for dating or breaking up some guy. Allegedly. We would delete the comment and three more would pop up the following day. Someone very unemployed who had time to write near-essays of virulent trolling.

For the record, Jade was a wonderful interview, a thorough professional at the shoot and lovely to work with. So the spewing that we read online was shocking.

We don't know if it was a bot or some aggressive person with severe mental issues, but it was relentless for weeks on end and we had to turn off the comment section on both the official account of the magazine and my personal account. Oyve.

The perils of fame, fandom with a pinch of cray cray.

On the plus side, the normal somnambulism of our social media account has never seen so much fire and ire. ..

On set with Hsieh Ling-ling

I met Hsieh Ling-ling long before Elly Lam [Lifestlye cover girl], for a feature and shoot with the magazine. We've shot a lot of celebrities for the magazine and paper, but I've never seen my usual crew fan out completely for someone like they did when the legendary actress came in for a portrait shoot. Having done several films as a child star, teenager and leading lady, she's been the part of everyone's childhood and teenage years as they've all seen one or several of her movies.

She was magnificent. We were all in awe of her and kept a healthy distance. Such a graceful and gracious lady who made time for everyone on set who wanted a selfie with her - after the shoot and interview.

You can read the entire interview and see the shoot by Until Chan here at PrestigeOnline.com

These outtakes from the shoot - she is so exquisite; mother of five, and a few grandchildren included! 

KAREN & ME & A DOG NAMED DEE

The Prestige fashion squad arrived for our cover shoot with Karen Mok prepped with so many voluminous designer-label-embossed garment bags it would make a sartorial savant squeal. Our dashing photographer Paul Tsang (to Mok’s right) and his crew were on set prior to that, as lighting tests and background colours were being honed to perfection. Then the men in black, armed bodyguards carrying boxes of jewels, arrived in uniform. And yes, we were told they could outrun us no matter how potentially malfeasant our intentions may be, as trays of treasures emerged from puzzling locked-and-stocked containers. Finally, the star herself (and her entourage!) as she dashed straight into hair and make-up. Between shots, we were all mesmerised by the fast changes, the myriad moods and the on-camera ease Karen Mok displayed. It could have been a stressful shoot – timelines and deadlines – but Dee Dee was our blissfully ignorant, bright eyed and bushy tailed mascot, who elevated the mood at every turn. Puppies make everything better. Including this behind-the-scenes shot.


Read the full cover story and see the gallery of pictures here!

Lifestyle, 2016: Cover with Hong Kong icons Rosamund Kwan and Helen Ma

In the Eyes of
the Beholder

Stress and delight reared their heads in equal measure as we put together this year’s edition of Lifestyle, the annual tome published by Prestige Hong Kong. Though, with the theme of this year’s issue centred on our modern vision of beauty, both outside and in, we’ve tried our best to present to you only the glamorous final product, rather than the sweat, tears and deadline discussions endured in achieving it.

That said, it was a joy to interview and watch Hong Kong beauties Rosamund Kwan and Helen Ma at work in front of a camera. On the eve of Christmas Eve, as the skies showed us 50 shades of misery, the ladies brought their own brand of sunshine to our set. Former film star Kwan will be no stranger to cinephiles, and there are reels aplenty revealing her talent, none of which are able truly to capture her self-effacing demeanor in person. Ma, a charming presence on the society circuit, is such a picture of elegance that it’s a rare month we don’t see her within the pages of Prestige. Flip to page 66 for stunning portraits of the duo by our photographer Olivier Yoan. His French lilt applied to our leading ladies’ names had them in giggles, though his work is certainly no laughing matter – and neither is theirs. They tell us the story behind their brand, RK Beauty, in “The Power of Two”.

It turns out there’s no shortage of beauty-business entrepreneurs within Hong Kong society, though lining them up for “The Business of Beauty” (page 80) came with its own rewards and challenges – particularly over the Christmas season, with our subjects scattered around the world enjoying holidays in Aspen and Singapore, California and Sydney.

We have also, but naturally, the usual suspects lined across the pages: the ever-popular “A List”, our editors’ top recommendations for hotels, spas, bars and restaurants (page 132), our dreamy destination and travel features (page 168 onwards) and features highlighting the most glamorous of jewellery and watches, wheels and whisky. We also reminisce over the top events that we attended in 2015.

I hope you find the beauty we witnessed captured within our pages, and in the year ahead.


Read the cover story here: Prestige Online

Play List: Sarah Lian

What I’m listening to: I’m loving Sam Smith, Sia and The Weeknd. Last year I was really into female MCs such as Iggy Azalea, Azealia Banks and Angel Haze.

What I’m reading: Essentialism by Greg McKeown helped me look at my task-oriented schedule and put everything in perspective. Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour by Ori and Rom Brafman was also fascinating.

What I’m watching: Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. His style and storytelling are so original. And I’m so glad Game of Thrones is back.

What artists I’m following: I have been following style bloggers and fashion brands on Instagram. I like to get inside the heads of creative minds – this curation process helps me look at the latest trends and gives me an idea of what to obsess over.

Where I’m surfing: I’m an avid Facebook user, but Instagram allows me to spend hours looking at images. I enjoy design sites such as Thedieline.com or SmashingMagazine.

(As told to P. Ramakrishnan) 

Notes: Through an introduction from my friend and colleague, stylist Tasha Ling, I met the drop-dead gorgeous actress Sarah Lian. A great fun chat with her for the weekly column The Playlist, that runs in SCMP (in The Review section!).

Play List: Maria Chen, Actress

What I’m listening to: I’m open to everything from Indian music to K-pop. Recently, I have been enjoying Gin Wigmore, Birdy, Ellie Goulding and Lorde.

What I’m reading: at the moment, Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. I will also reread my favourite book as a teen, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.

What I’m watching: I watch everything from Game of Thrones to Big Rich Texas. I enjoy Orphan Black and Hello Ladies. I love talk-show hosts such as David Letterman, the two Jimmies and Ellen DeGeneres. I watch anything by Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Robert Rodriguez, the Wachowskis and Tim Burton.

What artists I’m following: I’m intrigued by Yayoi Kusama, her art, her life, perspective and, well, psychiatric problems.

Where I’m surfing: I’m a Googler, and I can live on Facebook and YouTube. I also love watching Japanese TV dramas and variety shows online. I think I was Japanese in a previous life.

(As told to P. Ramakrishnan)

A quick chat with one of my fav people in Hong Kong, the lovely television actress Maria Chen.

Peta Lily

Peta Lily and P Ramakrishnan

One of my fav stage and theatre actresses, directors, writers... the multi-hyphenate Peta Lily.

Thrilled to catch up with her over brunch at Classified down Hollywood Road.

She's brilliant, funny and fun - and above all, a great interview. We spoke for hours and I didn't want our chat to end - sadly, she had a flight back to London the same day so we bid adieu far too soon.

Maiden Italy: Monica Bellucci: Interview with Italian actress and icon for Kee magazine: A Hong Kong exclusive

Temptation, thy name is Monica Bellucci. Actress and celebrated beauty, not necessarily in that order, P.Ramakrishnan was in conversation with Italy’s hottest export. In a Kee magazine exclusive, he finds a reluctant sex symbol who’s happier at home coaxing her new baby to sleep, than coquettishly cajoling cine-goers to sleepless nights.

American cinema, indeed the world film arena, has long been fascinated with Italian actresses. Since the perfectly petulant pout of Sophia Loren protruded off the celluloid in Quo Vadis (1951) and Aida (1953), audiences have had to close their gaping, gawking mouths, and lick their dry lips back to life. Scorching screen presence that eclipses everything else in the frame, Monica Bellucci is very much like her pulchritudinous predecessor and yet so different.

“I am not crazy enough to compare myself to Sophia Loren!” laughs Bellucci, in that soft breathless chuckle that has thrilled her fanatics in the past decade that she’s blossomed under the arc lights in.

“Oh my God! It’s too much. She’s the person I wanted to be. When I was little, I dreamed about Sophia [Loren]. I always wanted to be an actress because where I was, we used to watch classic Italian movies and there was no one like Loren. I haven’t met her yet but I really want to and tell her, she’s my dream! I cannot compare with her. There will never be another Sophia Loren.”

True as that may be, Bellucci pours into the curvaceous mold left vacant by the legendary Loren as no one else hitherto has – her reluctance withstanding.



Tempting mortals to mortal sin, as Persephone in the Matrix series, Cleopatra in Astérix & Obélix and even in her maudlin role as Magdalen in Passion of Christ, she brought her devilish good looks to her saintly role. She’s donned the role of the belle of the ball often, but give her role she can bite into, and she’ll chew up the scenery.

Starring as Malena Scordia in the (often sepia-toned-) epic Malena (2000), it was her first taste at a gravely serious role, and ours of the full potential of the stunning actress. The world caught only a glimpse of her in the American film Dracula (“A cameo really, it was a very small role but I was asked by Francis Ford Coppolla and who says no to Coppolla?”) but it was an Italian film that hit global theatres, where a collective gasp erupted in the aisles as Bellucci appears on screen.

Raw emotions, naked flesh, gut-wrenching violence, palpable tragedy and, merciful  redemption. It had it all.

“Malena was a very difficult role and I’m so proud of it. It’s been four years since the film and I look back and I’m glad that I did it. Beautifully shot, it was the vision of the director Giuseppe Tornatore – who also made Cinema Paradiso – that made it wonderful. I always pick my movies according to the director. The box-office, the role, the money, all else is incidental!” she confesses.

There were some graphic scenes of violence depicted against Bellucci’s character. Set in World War II, she is lynched by the village for having slept with a German soldier. She’s left bloodied and bruised, her hair pulled out in clumps and she appears in an unflattering crew/lobotomy-cut. Were there any fears of appearing ugly – especially when you’re listed amongst the most beautiful women in the world?

“No. It was an education for me. Perhaps an American actress would have been afraid to look ugly but I am European don’t forget,” she laughs, tongue in chic. 

“Listen, all this magazine covers and the beautiful lists, it means nothing. How many women are on the planet? Did they meet all of them? It’s flattering of course – better the magazines say I look good than I look bad all the time! I don’t take all that too seriously. In a movie, I am a character and what my director says, I do on film. I learnt new sides of myself when I did and saw that.”

Suddenly breaking into a tangent, she says, “I am surprised that Malena was shown in Hong Kong? Really? Well, that’s the power of having a distributor like Miramax. You know in Italian cinema, or European, there’s no budget for exhibitors so only a few people can see the rare, wonderful films. Not like American movies which the whole world can watch.”

She’s proud of her cinematic heritage and dutifully recognised so by the Italian foreign press association, which awarded her the European Golden Globe cinema gong on July 2nd, for her contribution in bringing awareness of Italian cinema to the globe. But she’s concerned for the ailing industry too.

“How many movies now get made in Italy? 10? 12? Fifteen at most. There’s no encouragement for young, new talent. No support. Not like France where cinema is in the culture. They make 200 movies a year and a dozen are made in Italy. I hope there’ll be more done with government or corporate investment in films. How else will they find the next Fellinni?”

How indeed.

Passionate though she is about her hometown, currently, she resides in Paris with her husband actor Vincent Cassel. The couple met in 1996 on the set of the French film, L'Appartement, and they went on to star in eight films in the following years. The duo recently starred together in the French film Agents Secrets, but their joint production of now 10-month-old baby girl Deva is what Bellucci’s most thrilled about.

“Deva, it means creature from heaven in Sanskrit. I loved the sound of it, just four little letters but it means so much and it sounds like an old Italian name. She is surrounded by Italian, French and English (my agent is American and always with me!).”

Not uncommon with new moms, she gushes about her new baby, “Her birth was of course my biggest moment of my life…” she suddenly pauses. “Can you hear her in the background? Most incredible thing for a woman. That is of course if a woman wants it to be. I know many women who don’t want to have children and they’re so happy with it. It’s not the same for everybody and it is about choice. Which is very important.”

This freedom of choice isn’t a phrase that she’s belted out as a pseudo-feminist overture. Bellucci strongly feels for her sisterhood – all too visible when she was among the protesters speaking against the Vatican not long ago.

Bellucci posed nude and pregnant in Vanity Fair (Italy) as a remonstration against the new Italian laws, which allow only married couples to use in-vitro fertilization (Ivf) and prohibits the use of donor sperm. With a group of doctors who went on strike, supported by Nobel prize-winning scientists, Italy’s premier actress marched and famously demanded: "What do politicians and priests know about my ovaries?"

A quote that, predictably, landed in all the papers and infuriated a few papal caps.

She continues in the same vein, “There’s too much integration and interference from the Church in Italy. It was such a horrible moment when we lost. We’re going back in history. Italy’s the only place where there’s such a close relation between Church and state and that’s very dangerous. The state should dictate the law, not the Church but that’s not the case. This law is against women. I’m mostly worried about poorer women. If you’re rich, this law doesn’t affect you – you can just fly off to Switzerland or France or anywhere else and get IVF, no matter what your age. But what options do poor women have? They can go to church and pray for a miracle!?

Indeed, the efforts to overturn laws on fertility treatment in Italy failed because of the dramatically low turnout in a two-day referendum. A victory for the Vatican, which had called for a boycott of the campaign, and a personal loss for her.

“I am not a political actress. I went to speak as a woman. I was pregnant at the time when I saw what was happening and I had to do something about it. But… what was the point I think now. I didn’t change anything. I was just another woman there against this stupid, stupid law.”

Take a, pun intended, pregnant pause. The voice of dissent against the Vatican comes from the same woman who starred in the mother of all Christian films, The Passion of Christ! The iconic role of Magdalen which she portrayed was seen by billions, the movie went on to gross more than US$600 million worldwide and set a DVD release record for the biggest debut for a live-action title in history!

“Well, let us not confuse the actress with the person!” she grins, a saucy smile playing on her lips. “Any decision I make about films, it’s always about the director. As soon as I met Mel Gibson, I saw his passion for the film, his incredible energy, what he wanted to say. A film in Aramaic, I thought it would be a small little movie, which a few people might see. People told me, why are you doing the movie? Without distribution, it will go nowhere – Mel had to distribute it himself you know? It was a nice working experience for the actress in me, I was crying from the beginning to the end of that film! Always sad, always in that emotional state, the idea of playing something classic, the role of Magdalen was interesting. But it was just a role!”

The press went on to…

”Oh the press is always the same!” she interjects, all too familiar with the direction of the aborted question. “In those times, life was very violent. It was part of the game. It was reality. Life of Jesus was very different at the time, there was torture, there was suffering. When you take a subject like this, religion in general, whether it was Scorsese’s movie (The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988) or anyone else’s on the subject, it inspires people to write and talk a lot about it a lot. I knew there would be a reaction – but I didn’t think the movie would make so much money!”

Sci-fi thrillers, religious epics, historical dramas, within a short span, her career already orbits alongside luminaries in her space. What would tempt this new mom on to a set again?



“Comedy! The last comical role I did was Cleopatra’s for the Asterix movie in France. That was a lot of fun and I am told it is one of the biggest blockbusters in the country. Now, I’m so happy to play the evil queen in the Grimm film!”

The Brothers Grimm, with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, hits Hong Kong in November, where the tale of Will and Jake Grimm unfolds. The two travelling con-artists encounter a genuine fairy-tale curse which requires courage instead of their usual bogus exorcisms. They meet the evil Queen Mirror, essayed by Bellucci with nefarious glee in the most outrageous costumes.

“It was so much fun to really ‘play’ this role. Gilliam (director) is such a visionary on film – I just saw it a few days ago and it looks wonderful. Such a talented director, he’s made incredible films like Brazil, Twelve Monkeys so I knew the film would shape up well. And it has. I have the role of a very old woman but with a magic spell I curse myself – yes, I become young but very mean. This evil person, to play that was so funny. I enjoyed it completely.”

You have one life to live they say, well, seven life cycles according to Hinduism (not to divorce from Bellucci’s newfound love for Sanskrit!), so why not enjoy it right?

“Right! Each movie, my modelling, my studies, everything I’ve done was an experience for me. Any movie that didn’t make any money, that was also an experience for me. The memories last. There’s this flow to my life that I go with - I loved my life in Umeria (where I grew up, a few miles away from Tuscany) but I wanted to be an actress. I went to the city as student but I didn’t want to study anymore so I became a model. Coppolla some pictures of mine and offered me a part, then I became an actress. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to focus on it. In films I met my husband and now we have a child. I’m sure that there’s so many things to learn with each thing I do, life is just a work in progress. I’m just it’s a work in progress,” she concludes.


NOTES:

Full disclosure; deep, mad love for Monica Bellucci. At the time, a life and career-saving interview for me! She is/was/will forever be DIVINE!