Shangguan: Most of the characters you show on the screen are down-to-earth and grounded, which is still very close to Zhang Fuqing in the eyes of the audience.
Guo Tao: Before, I learned about some of Zhang Lao's deeds through the news, and later when director Kang Honglei came to me, I was very excited. The director chose me to play Zhang Lao, on the one hand, because I felt that our temperament, appearance and personality were relatively close, on the other hand, because we were all Shaanxi fellows. But to play an old hero in people's hearts, from the 30s to the 90s, is still quite stressful. Fortunately, the director gave me a lot of help, and we did a lot of desk work together. Before filming, we also went to The home of Laifeng County in the Enshi area of West Hubei where Zhang Lao lived to experience life, see his daily life and state of life, chat with his children, relatives and people who have interviewed him in the past, and get first-hand information. In this way, little by little, I approached the old man's world and seized his image. This time, I also realized that we must do a good job in the preparatory work in artistic creation.
The elderly Zhang Fuqing, played by Guo Tao. Courtesy of the producer
Shangguan: After meeting Elder Zhang himself, what did you communicate?
Guo Tao: We have met With Elder Zhang many times before and after. After all, the old man is more than 90 years old, and we can't disturb him too much, so we will chat with him while he is in the yard and observe him while he is walking and exercising. Zhang doesn't talk much, but he is very kind and kind, and will make some small jokes with us to make the atmosphere more relaxed and dispel our creative concerns. After the boot, Mr. Zhang and his family came to visit the shift once, when he stayed in the courtyard next to the dressing room for a while, and when he saw us, he kept saying", "You are hard, hard."
I was deeply impressed that the old man was always smiling, his mouth was grinning, and his teeth were gone. Throughout his life, he was obscure and always did practical things at the grassroots level with an optimistic attitude. He was a native of Shaanxi, but he went alone to a place where ethnic minorities lived in the mountains of western Hubei. He is not afraid of dialects, but slowly uses his own actions to infect others and gradually integrate into the local area.
Zhang Fuqing, played by Guo Tao, loves to laugh. Courtesy of the producer
Shangguan: In order to show that Zhang Lao "always rushed to the front line, always doing the dirtiest, most tired and most dangerous work", I heard that you did a lot of work during filming, such as planting seedlings, building roads, climbing cliffs?
Guo Tao: For decades, Elder Zhang has been rushing to the front line, doing the hardest, most tiring and dirty work, doing practical things for the people and the country. In order to show his real experience, we have to do it ourselves, but in fact, it is a little bitter during the shooting of a month and a half, and it is really nothing. There are many scenes of work in the play, which at first glance is very ordinary, not magnificent, nor can it be sung or wept, but the old man has worked with such a working attitude all his life and practiced his faith, which is his most real side and the most touching side.
Zhang Fuqing, who rushed to the front line. Courtesy of the producer
Shangguan: This unit is not a style that makes people shout "explode" when they come up, and some viewers say that it is "gradually getting better, and the more you look at it, the more you feel moving.". Is this what you and the other creators want to achieve?
Guo Tao: I personally think the director and the main creative team have grasped a very good point. Compared with other unit characters, Zhang Lao is very ordinary, he is not a scientist who has mastered a certain technology and helped change the fate of the country, but it is such an ordinary person who dedicates himself day after day and finally does an extraordinary cause. He is an ordinary man and a pillar of the country. After watching Zhang Lao's extraordinary life, I believe that more audiences, especially young audiences, will have a deeper touch.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Wu Yue Title Map Source: Courtesy of the Interviewee
Source: Author: Wu Yue