Karena Lam found shooting Home Sweet Home a horrible experience. To look like a vagrant with a scarred face for the film Home Sweet Home last year, she had to endure make-up which took up to nine hours to create each day.

On the first day of filming, the demure Lam was soaked in water for more than 10 hours.

"When I removed the make-up, my skin was sensitive and I had rashes on my face," she recalls in a phone interview from Hong Kong recently.

To complete the hideous look, she wore a special contact lens coated with white paint-like substances in her left eye for more than 20 hours at a stretch.

The actress looks pretty scary in the horror flick.
No wonder she says now that she has had enough of horror movies, never mind that her role landed her a Best Actress nomination in the 25th Hong Kong Film Awards held on April 8.

In her role as a vagrant who kidnaps a boy thinking that he is her long-lost son, she was up against Zhou Xun, Sylvia Chang, Karen Mok and Sammi Cheng. The award went to Zhou for her role as Sun Na, an actress involved in a love triangle with Jacky Cheung and Takeshi Kaneshiro in the movie musical Perhaps Love.

The Canadian-born Lam, 28, should not be unduly upset, given that she says she is more interested in the process of acting than winning Best Actress. "I particularly enjoy the interactions with director and cast during filming."

She is no stranger to netting prizes, though. Starting out as a singer at 15, she shot to fame with her role as a student infatuated with her teacher in debut movie July Rhapsody (2002), co-starring Jacky Cheung and Anita Mui. She won Best Supporting Actress and Best New Performer in both the Hong Kong Film Awards and Taiwan¡¯s Golden Horse Awards in 2002.

She has gone on to act in thrillers like Inner Senses (2002) with Leslie Cheung, and Koma (2004) with Angelica Lee.

You will never see her in nude scenes, though, the down-to-earth Lam says. She also does not enjoy the red-carpet experience during award ceremonies. "I'd rather stay home in pyjamas and watch television."

In the upcoming months, she will be busy with a musical at the Hong Kong Children's Arts Festival in July.

And she hopes to team up with Ann Hui, director of July Rhapsody, again.

"I would like to see what it is like working with her after five years and how different the chemistry between us would be like."