Hong Kong ― Navigating through office politics is not an easy task. Even if you are not interested in it, others will drag you into it. Former TVB actor Ngan Kwok Leung experienced it first hand.
He recently revealed why he left the Hong Kong broadcasting company in 2008, after spending 28 years over there. It seems that someone had spread rumours that Ngan was leaving the company as soon as his contract was over, regardless of whether his work was completed.
Speaking in an interview with the online talk show Good Good Buddy, the 68-year-old told host English Tang that the misunderstanding began when he took time off to attend a referee course.
Back then he was a tai chi practitioner (and still is) and the course required Ngan to attend classes once a week for a few hours. When Ngan was preparing to film an upcoming drama series, he informed the production coordinator about the classes, so she could schedule around it.
According to the actor, at first, they asked if he could attend fewer classes, but he said it was hard as he might not be certified. More than a month after the incident, something strange happened, reported Asia One.
He said: “Another executive producer called me and told me, ‘Someone said you’re leaving once your contract is up. They said you’ll leave even if your scenes are not finished.'”
During that time, he had two more months left on his contract. Ngan was confused after that conversation as he did not say anything of that sort and there were no negotiations on the renewal of his contract.
A few days later, he got a call from the artiste management team which got him really angry. Someone told Ngan to finish shooting his scenes and wrap everything up nicely instead of leaving immediately when his contract expired.
When English asked why he didn’t clarify the situation, Ngan replied: “Actually, I only had one scene left to film… and I had more than a month left in my contract. I waited for over two weeks but didn’t receive the notice to shoot. So I told the person, ‘This is the current situation and I’ve not received the notice from the team. I’m still waiting to shoot [the scene]… I’m waiting every day.'”
All he got in return was an “Is that the case?”, but he received the notice to shoot two days later.
Ironically, just a day after he left TVB, someone from the company called him about a potential role, but he rejected it.
“I said I’m done. The feeling wasn’t very good. I didn’t know who backstabbed me and hurt me. If I went back, I would run into that person,” he said, adding that since he didn’t know the identity of that person, he might unknowingly end up being friendly with them and becoming a laughing stock.
Ngan then became a tai chi instructor and relocated to China.
/TISG