Sally moved back to Macau last year and created her own company, The Red Studio, focusing on workshops and training programs in acting and other areas of the performing arts
When thinking of forging her acting career, Australian-born actress Sally Victoria Benson thought Beijing could be an improbable yet effective choice. The hurdles of learning a complex language or getting a grasp on a very peculiar film industry did not seem to be enough reasons for discouragement and Sally managed to spend six years living away from home; acting in Chinese films right in China’s capital.
Last year, she decided to return to her roots and relive some of her childhood memories here in Macau where she grew up. Although now based in Macau, Sally is still on Chinese movie screens as two of her latest films were just released there last month, namely “A Murder Beside Yanhe River,” where she plays the role of a Russian journalist, and “Love on the Cloud.”
“A Murder Beside Yanhe River” was shot in Mao Zedong’s home town, and tells the story of a soldier who murdered a young woman after she refused his marriage proposal. The soldier thought he would be granted amnesty from Mao Zedong but ended up being executed.
Sally moved to Macau at a young age to join her father, but would eventually move back to Australia at the age of 16 to finish high school.
After high school and with a minor in journalism under her belt, Sally focused on furthering her career in acting, and decided to head to Beijing in 2008. “I tried to do some acting back home but one of the things I realized was that if you’re gonna be a success at anything, you kind of need to go somewhere where you can be unique, particularly if you don’t already have family or connections in the industry and my connections were in Asia. It didn’t make sense to try and struggle in Sydney,” she recalled.
It took her about two years to gain a sound knowledge of Mandarin, although she was able to take part in a commercial within one week of arrival. “It took me a good two years to get the language. A lot of people could act in movies speaking Mandarin, as you can memorize the lines and deliver them quite well. The problem comes with working with the production and crew on set. How can you live there if no one speaks English?” she stressed.
In 2011, Sally got her first breakout role in a big TV serial in China. “That gave me a name in casting circles. I am by no means famous in China (…) as a foreigner there you might not get to the height where you will be really famous, but you can definitely be a successful working actor and have good stable jobs,” she assured.
The TV series role was one of her favorite and most memorable jobs: “It gave me my first break. I was on a TV show for four months, which was really hard; it was a hard acting job.”
Another opportunity that made Sally affirm that she had made the right choice to move to Beijing came in 2012, when she was cast for the lead role in the Romanian-Chinese production “A Song for Autumn.” She recalled: “I was lucky enough to be the lead and went to Romania to shoot the film for six weeks. It was by far my best role to date for two reasons: I had the pleasure of being the main character and it was shot in Romania, which was amazing,” adding that the movie was released about one year ago.
Sally moved back to Macau last year and created her own company, The Red Studio, focusing on workshops and training programs in acting and other areas of the performing arts.
Living outside Beijing, she believes that it’s possible to seek projects as an actress in mainland China, as a great part of films are not shot in China’s capital but rather in Shanghai or in the South.
There’s plenty of inspiration and talent from which artists and actors can draw from in Macau too, she assures. She’s also trying to write her own stories here, but acknowledged that it is hard, as sometimes she still feels like a foreigner. “My memories of Macau are very much of an old Macau. So when I am trying to create a story I’ve got to resist the temptation to set it all the way back in the 1990s,” she recalled.
She recognized that many cinema professionals from Macau have actually left town to further their careers elsewhere. “It’s a shame because if you come to Macau and say I’ve got a great idea for a feature film, the best local cinematographers or directors or actors are not here because they’ve gone abroad because they’re good. There needs to be a way to draw people to stay here,” she said.
Acknowledging that the government has been investing in subsidies for local artists and cinematographers, Sally added that there needs to be “a way to keep the talent here and ensure that they can be employed… This will happen eventually. Perhaps foreign companies will be interested in shooting here; what the government did in Australia to encourage production was to offer tax rebate to American productions if they shot films there,” she stressed.
Indeed, it was while growing up in Macau that Sally first became interested in films. “I loved films before I even thought about acting (…) I had probably watched hundreds of films by the time I turned 18,” she said.
Considering Macau her home, Sally sees herself living in Asia forthe long term. “It’s the best place right now for business, to be an actor, especially given my history in Asia.”
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