Bella Marie France, or more recently BMF The Aesthetics People, has been a pioneer when it comes to wellness, self-care, and finding confidence in one’s own skin. In celebration of its 42nd anniversary this year, BMF welcomed award-winning actress Sisley Choi (蔡思貝) onboard as their new brand ambassador.
As a renowned Hong Kong actress, Sisley has captivated audiences around the world with her timeless beauty and allure on the small screen – having won the Best Actress award at the 2020 TVB Anniversary Awards for her role in “Legal Mavericks 2020”. With BMF’s theme – Be Mighty, Be Fearless – in mind, having Sisley Choi as the ambassador seemed like an obvious choice.
“It is such a wonderful privilege to have been given the honour of representing BMF as their new ambassador. I’m beyond grateful and excited for this new chapter in my life. In fact, I’ve been BMF’s client for as long as I can remember – their CFU Ultima treatments in particular are my all-time favourite. I am extremely committed to upholding the brand’s values and vision, and to help more women feel beautiful and confident in their own skin,” said Sisley Choi during the media conference at Intermark Mall recently.
Sisley, you’re from Hong Kong so how did you learn how to speak English so fluently?
I actually went to school in New Zealand, if you guys (the audience) knew about me. I was there for 5 years and I also went to school in Germany so for half of my life, I had to speak English.
I see. So how many languages do you speak besides Cantonese and English?
I speak Mandarin and I used to be able to speak German but I’m not so fluent anymore because of lack of practice.
Welcome back to Malaysia! When did you arrive in Malaysia? I believe you were just recently in Singapore.
We were in Singapore for one and a half days and we just arrived (in Malaysia) two days ago. We’re here for three days only so there’s not much time to go around the city and explore. At first, we were only shooting the commercial and then suddenly it became this big trip, visiting Singapore and now, in Malaysia. We’ve had a good trip and the people have been so nice to me.
How many times have you been here already?
I’ve lost count already! I have been here many times because we would come here to promote our dramas and stuff for TVB. So it actually feels familiar, it feels like home when I’m here.
Congrats on being the ambassador for BMF! As someone who embraces beauty and wellness, what is your beauty routine like?
I’m so happy (to be the ambassador)! It’s such a fantastic brand. Since I joined the BMF team, I have gone there and get treatments regularly now. I’ll get the laser treatments and all the different facials and body sculpting treatments just to try and look my best. In my own time, I don’t slack off either. I eat healthy, I exercise, I sleep well and maintain my well-being.
What’s your favourite beauty treatment from BMF?
I really love the CFU (treatment) machine because it helps with almost everything. You name it: fine lines, boosts collagen, face lifting and body lifting. The CFU machine is amazing, I love it!
Can you share your exercise tips or healthy diet tips?
I keep a high-protein diet and I try not to eat carbs at night. I still eat carbs because you need it to have the energy to go through your day and to go to the gym and stuff. So I’ll eat carbs in the morning and at lunch but I don’t do it at night. At night, I just eat more protein, like meat and tofu.
You also travel a lot and that can get tiring. How do you deal with jet lag?
I don’t handle it *laughs* I just sleep whenever I want and eventually, my body’s clock will become normal again.
Are you able to sleep anywhere? That’s actually a beneficial “superpower”, especially on set.
Yes! I’m well trained to do that because when we’re filming, the schedule is always so crazy so if you don’t know how to sleep anywhere, it will be so tough for your body. So I learned to just sleep anywhere I can, like when I’m sitting and getting my hair and makeup done, I’ll go (doze off). Also, when I’m in the car, travelling, I’ll sleep. Just to get any time you can (to rest).
Mental wellness is important to you. At what point did it become a huge importance in your life?
Well, at first you’ll ignore it and don’t think that it’s important and just keep doing what you do and keep working. Until one day, you realise that your emotions are screwing up your daily life and your work. It affects your work and then it’s something that you can’t ignore and you’re forced to face it and deal with it. When I started realising it was affecting my work, that was when I started taking care of my emotional state.
You’re always on the search for inspiration. Has anything inspired you lately?
Actually, when you travel the world, you’ll see how big the world is. That itself is already a huge inspiration. You see a lot of different people and you encounter a lot of different events. You’ll see people on the street and you’ll automatically dive into a different kind of mindset and you’ll get a lot of different feelings from what you see. I can’t really explain it, it’s very abstract.
Of all the times you’ve been to Malaysia, maybe you can name a few things you like about Malaysia.
The food and the people, mostly! The people here are super friendly!
Would you say it’s similar to Hong Kong?
No, not at all! The Hong Kong audience is not as friendly and welcoming, they’re more cool and laid back. But the Malaysian audience, they’re always excited and showing me love. And the food here is really good as well because I like spicy stuff.
Have you had any spicy food lately?
For lunch, I had ‘yee mee’ and that was spicy. I don’t know what it was but it was spicy and I really liked it.
Did you have spicy food when you were in Singapore as well?
I had laksa.
How do you compare the two?
It’s different! It can’t be compared – it’s different. But I’m looking forward to trying (Malaysian) bak kut teh. I like the bak kut teh here.
I understand that you currently don’t have any film or television projects, throughout this whole year.
Yeah, this year, I’ve just been preparing myself and taking a break. I think the universe heard me, that I need a break. Plus, I need some time to absorb more inspiration from the world so then, for my next role, I can have more to pull from. So this year, I’ve been travelling a lot more.
Do you have a favourite character so far?
I’m a person with no favourites, to be honest. When people ask me, “What’s your favourite colour?” – I don’t have one. I love pink, I love white, I love all that. But I don’t have a favourite because I feel like I’m a person that’s ever-changing. I change depending on my mood. Character-wise, I appreciate a lot of the characters that I’ve played but I wouldn’t say there’s a favourite.
I really the Chinese doctor that I’ve played recently, in “Let Me Take Your Pulse (你好，我的大夫)” because for that, I experience a 10-year period in the drama. I played her as a university student until she was in her 30s. So that was a great role to play, I love that character. There are also a lot of other different roles, like “Line Walker: Bull Fight (使徒行者3)” with Raymond Lam and “Legal Mavericks (踩過界II)” with the teeth. I love all those characters so it’s hard to pick one.
When it comes to new projects, do you still need to audition? Or are you usually offered the role right away?
I’m usually offered the role but I’ve also done auditions for other projects but not a lot because I mainly film for TV.
Do you prefer TV over movies?
I would love to try out for a movie because I feel like I’ve done a lot of TV already. I also really appreciate the TV drama industry but I haven’t done a lot of movies yet so I would love to explore more of that world and get to know more of the movie world.
Any specific genre? Like action? Or do you prefer comedy?
Comedy, action, romance – I want to try them all!
What attracts you more to a project? Is it the script? Director? Or something else?
I think that the character itself and the script are the most important aspects. Sometimes, we’ll say things like “If I find a script that touches my heart, I can do it for free” because it’s so precious to have a good script, story and character.
