Christy Chung is best known for being the spokesman for Marie France Bodyline after giving birth to her first daughter, Yasmine, in 1998. Ten years later, Christy is again the face of the slimming brand for losing the pounds after giving birth to second daughter, Jayden.

After six weeks of treatment and looking after herself during and after her pregnancy, Christy's baby weight was lost in no time. But the mother of two is not just about looking svelte and slim, as Diva finds out. She's still looking out for that perfect role that will show off her versatility as an actress, while keeping herself busy with her latest project - a girl band.

Diva catches up with Christy and find out where she has been and what she has been up to in this time.



DIVA:   We have not heard from you since the last time you had your first daughter and was spokesman for Marie France. What have you been busy with between then and now?
 
Christy:   Since I'm now based in Beijing for the past 5 years, I've been doing a lot of work in the Mainland - and probably been out of all the gossips

magazines in Hong Kong. I've shot two TV series in China (Tian long ba bu and Jiang hu qiao jia ren).
 
My recent work is to put together a girl-band - there are three of us - called "GODDESS". We've been performing all around China already, although our album
is not yet finished. I believe that the public will be able to listen to our single next month, "Hao jie mei " as it is the credit song for the TV series called "Wo de nin chuan...Wo zhui ju" directed by Zhao Bao Kang.

I've been trying to put this band together since 2005. It's not easy to find two others that can sing, dance and have a good chemistry (I’ve changed 14 girls).

We have ballads, pop rock but mostly dance as we LOVE to dance and perform on stage. I feel really good when the audience is reciprocating our love for music and it's very gratifying.

I always get excited and can't believe that our performances on stage is over - it usually last two to three songs - and I want to go back on again!

As for movies, I haven't been moved emotionally by a good script or role.

I just want to find a role that I didn't play in all of my previous movies. It would be so boring as an actor to replicate the same character over and over again.

I think that in the past decade, I had the chance to experience life at its fullest and that's extremely important for an actor because we are supposed to feel all kinds of human emotions and to be able to transcend it as organically as possible on film.

So if you're asking me WHAT kind of roles I want to play?

If some directors can finally move away from their perceptions of me as the "femme fatale", I believe I can play any challenging roles. In fact, I also don’t mind shooting something a la "Ugly Betty".

So I will keep on finding the more suitable roles for my taste. This means that I am definitely not giving up my career as an actor.


DIVA:   Do you think your beauty hinders you from getting the kinds of roles you wish to play as an actress?

Christy:   That's an excellent question!

I think that when I first started my career as an actor in Hong Kong, I had accepted almost every job and role that were offered to me.

Most of them were cute roles - innocent, beautiful, student, teacher, policewomen, etc. I'm still very grateful until this day to have had so many opportunities at that time of my life, but thinking back, I should have chosen more versatile roles so that I wouldn't be so stereotyped.

For example, we all know Cameron Diaz in her first role with Jim Carey in the "The Mask", she was a blond bombshell - a flower vase in the movie, and a very beautiful one too. And right after she was picked to play in "Being John Malkovich" and she was really ugly in it.

So she was respected for being able to act and not just be beautiful. She had different colours in her! That's what I've should have done.

I hope it's not too late and some directors will eventually see that I could be pretty ugly.
 

DIVA:   Besides going for slimming treatments, do you exercise and/or watch your diet while you were slimming down post-delivery?
 
Christy:   I was on a diet that had plenty of steamed vegetables and lots of egg white and hard boiled eggs. And I would try my best to eat before 8pm every night. I also drank plenty of water (2,000 cc/day) and green tea only.

Another thing that I did was to call all my friends and told them not to bother inviting me for lunch or dinner as it was easier to have home-cooked meals with
minimal salt, sugar and oil. So I was glad that my family and friends really supported me and didn't try to tempt me with all the delicious food that we have here in Beijing!!!
 

DIVA:   Are there things you do to help relieve the daily stress of looking after a new baby?

Christy:    Something that my "yuet sau" (confinement lady) taught me was to give myself a "ginger bath". I would boil a very huge pot of water filled with about 10 pieces of ginger, then soak it with towels and cover any part of the body that's tense and tired (usually the whole body) and you do it sitting in the bathtub.

Just be very careful not to burn yourself. The outcome is pure bliss and you feel so relaxed and serene as the tension in your body melts and you also get rid of your pregnancy water.
 

DIVA:   Is there any advice you can give to new mums who may be battling weight or image problems and struggling to cope with their new babies at the same time?

 
Christy:  I do feel that's important to make some time to take good care of yourself.

Do make some time for yourself by asking the grand-parents, friends, nannies to step in for a couple of hours to babysit the newborn baby.

You must take good care of yourself BECAUSE you are the role model to your kids and you mean the world to them. So when you know how to love and care for yourself, you transfer that love to them!

Personally, having Marie France Bodyline to help me has certainly saved me a lot of time as I get maximum results in minimum time with their slimming expertise, plus I get my relaxing “me” time during treatments.

See also:
» Christy Chung through the years