After Lawrence Ng (吳啟華) lost hope for his acting career after starring in several soft porn films in the 1990s, he never imagined that he would be given a second chance. That was until he came across the defining role as Dr. Paul Ching in TVB’s Healing Hands <妙手仁心>. In fact, his portrayal of a doctor was so well-received that he won the “My Favorite Television Character” and “My Most Memorable Male Lead” at TVB’s Anniversary Awards in 1998, 1999, and 2001. In an in-depth interview with Lawrence, he revealed, “It was an extremely rare opportunity to receive a script like Healing Hands. In the past, I mostly played the role of a villain, until Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍) asked me to return to TVB to star in Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre <倚天屠龍記> and Healing Hands where both characters carried very positive images. At that point, it wasn’t about winning the awards but how comfortable I was playing those roles. From then on, I no longer accepted playing villain characters. “I was struggling in my early days at TVB to the point where I had to borrow money from my family. Then, I started acting in movies and made a little money, so I decided I didn’t want to play the villain roles anymore. Because of that persistence, I ended up with no scripts at all! “Shortly after, I returned to TVB without much hope. To my luck, I was asked to replace Gordon Lam (林家棟) in Outburst<900重案追兇> to play a kindhearted cop. Then producer Gary Tang (鄧特希) saw my acting in Outburst and recognized my potential to play more complex roles. He then recruited me to portray an undercover cop in Files of Justice V <壹號皇庭Ｖ>. With the positive feedback from that role and because of a great working relationship with Gary, it opened the door for Healing Hands. And because of Healing Hands, I was able to put my less-than-desirable acting past behind me. “Dr. Ching’s character and positive outlook has affected me as a person too. When I first entered the industry, I had a bad and snotty attitude. A lot of the crew members didn’t like me. But it was hard to control my anger because I was working such long hours, so I would have these angry outbursts – especially towards the personal assistants. Now I feel so horrible when I reflect upon my behavior because we’re colleagues after all and it’s not like I’m the boss – I don’t have the right to yell at anyone! With my portrayal of Dr. Ching, I learned to think like him and respect how others feel.” Creds: Oriental Daily
