The Paper's reporter Pan Yu
Cooks, models, variety stars, film and television actors, in the past two years, Zhang Liang, who is more and more familiar to more and more people, has also had more and more professional identities and labels. From "Where Daddy Goes" began to become a hit, to "Chinese Restaurant" and other programs loved by more people, Zhang Liang's life transformation seems to have not stopped at all in variety shows. In the past two years, he has filmed a number of film and television dramas, and since 2019, he has cooperated with Yanghua Drama and starred in the first drama work "Do You Still Play Guitar".
This year, Zhang Liang has appeared on the stage more frequently, and he has starred in the male protagonist Pang Qi in the musical drama "Ponzi Scheme" produced by Yanghua Theater, and the role of the earl of "Like a Dream", and has begun a nationwide tour.
Stills from "The Ponzi Scheme"
Stills from "Like a Dream"
Both characters are hugely challenging. In Zhang Liang's view, "Ponzi Scheme" has a precise structure like a Swiss watch, every rhythm and every detail is seamless, and the lines of the script are even more massive. And this role was previously played by Jiang Wenli male and female. In order to win this role, Zhang Liang made a "military order" to the crew, and even memorized the lines every day until he had a "nightmare", and finally won the script in the two weeks of "determination". And this complex and difficult character has also been unanimously recognized by the audience and Dai Jun and Wang Weiqian, who played against him.
The Earl of "Like a Dream" has Jin Shijie's version in front, and also has a lot of opponents with Xu Qing. And this role and Zhang Liang's own personality are even more different. However, after this new version of Yanghua traveled through Wuhan, Qingdao, and Chengdu for several stops, Zhang Liang's earl left a deep impression on the audience and many people in the industry with his unique aura and personality shaping. "Especially like the Earl", became the most evaluation of Zhang Liang's performance. And his friends around him exclaimed, "You can do this on stage."
On July 10 and 11, "Ponzi Scheme" will be unveiled at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. And the national tour of "Like a Dream" will continue. For the past two years to plunge into the theater, Zhang Liang frankly said that the profession of actor will be the focus of his future career development. In the past two years, his main energy has been focused on the drama stage. "For me, acting is an acting school. I'm learning here and slowly accumulating. ”
The Paper: How did you start to devote yourself to drama performances, and have also acted in many works over the years?
Zhang Liang: I've always had ideas about acting, and I told my team that I could find an opportunity to try drama and try a stage play, but the kind of attempt I'm talking about may be stringing a role and feeling it. Later, Keran (yanghua theater art director) came to me and said let me star in "Do You Still Play Guitar", The script of Teacher WanFang, the director is Lambney of Lithuania, he is also the director of Yanghua's "New Wilderness".
At the beginning I also asked, can I do it? But the producers say yes, why do I say no? It was really difficult at first, because when we were filming before, the limbs weren't that big, and we didn't have to be so big to schedule, and we felt a little uncomfortable. But then slowly, I felt that a theater as big as more than 1,000 people had to overcome these most basic skills. And then slowly on stage, I felt that one day when you could control the audience's emotions and breathing, it was a very magical thing. Especially when some of your character processing, breath processing or line rhythm processing, the audience can give you instant feedback, I think it is very exciting.
The Paper: So with the addition of "Like a Dream" and "Ponzi Scheme", almost most of the time in the past few years have been acting in dramas?
Zhang Liang: Yes, I acted in three consecutive films, and at the end of 2019, I also acted in a starry drama village drama "Love Regardless of My Body", so I acted in a total of 4 dramas.
Most of the time is in drama, and when I have time, I will do something else. Because if the drama is on tour, it must be taken out for the whole year, and the crew has set a time with the theater in advance. So these times are set, so when there are other jobs, it depends on whether you can avoid this schedule.
The Paper: Compared with variety shows and film and television, there may be a gap in the economic income of dramas, how do you consider this issue?
Zhang Liang: In fact, many people have asked, saying that a drama is only so much money, you have been in the theater for several years, I can't say that, mainly depending on what you want.
For example, I can go to filming or recording a show, and the salary is really different. But I may also spend a lot of money to hire an acting teacher to teach me a lesson, but I am now acting in a drama in Yanghua, and the whole team is a very experienced actor, and the director is also very powerful.
Every line in every scene, every line in each of our performances, there will be some slight adjustments after each of our performances. Then my understanding of a certain line by this character deepened. This kind of instant stage feedback is an effect that cannot be achieved by asking the teacher to teach the performance. I think these are very helpful for me to make film and television dramas to create characters in the future, and I can accumulate these experiences.
So go to school yourself. In the past two years of watching drama, for me, I have regarded it as a school, an acting school, or an acting laboratory. It has made me grow a lot and gained a lot for me.
The Paper: I feel that you are actually quite planned and idealistic about your acting career, is there any specific goal setting?
Zhang Liang: In fact, male actors really don't have to worry, male actors need to slowly precipitate and learn. I remember that I worked with Wang Qianyuan on a play before, and then when I was eating, he said, Liangzi, in fact, like your age, you don't have to be in a hurry, you learn slowly. An actor can play his role well at the age of 40, he is already very powerful, so he can slowly grope, and then experience life, watch more film and television drama works, and learn more.
I think the actor positioning of "light mature men" is actually not particularly much now. I think the market should be good in the future. So now we must first learn first, and when the opportunity comes, we will have the ability to seize it.
The Paper: Did you ever think that you would one day become an actor, and did you have a yearning for acting before?
Zhang Liang: In the past, I liked to study and study movies, for example, I used to watch films at home, which role I liked, I would think according to his emotional line, character line, go to think, there are some scenes or a certain scene will be very suitable, some will be very different, do not understand can go back and think again.
In fact, this is also an invisible learning, you start to study the logic behind the performance very early on. Of course, this can be explained now, but at the time it was just that I would pick a character I liked in a movie and silently recite the line. In retrospect, I was actually imitating and learning.
Rehearsal photos
The Paper: Would that be still modeling? Is there a big difference between being a model and being an actor?
Zhang Liang: Right. Models and actors are actually in front of the camera or on stage, but the difference is still quite large.
The biggest difference is that the model is based on the needs of the designer and the brand, and the 30 people present need consistency, that is, each of you does not even have your own characteristics, including your eyes or your walking posture, everyone basically requires the same.
Instead, the actor wants your uniqueness, your personality or your recognition. I think for the actor, whether it is the recognition of your voice, or the recognition of your body, or the recognition of the facial features, it is a great plus for the actor.
In fact, modeling work does not need to have his own thoughts, he needs some mechanical things. Pendulum POSE is how uncomfortable how to swing, how to twist how to come. But as an actor, you must be thinking in front of the camera about how to resonate with the audience, how to close the distance between the audience, so the difference is still quite large.
The Paper: In the past two years, you have been constantly transforming your personal image, including your career from modeling to variety shows, to the current film and television and drama, this transformation, do you feel that you have chosen it yourself, or is it a passive process?
Zhang Liang: In fact, every transformation I am passive. It's just that I suddenly encountered an opportunity, and it just happened that this person in the industry said, you can do it.
For example, at that time, from the chef to the shopping guide, someone else may have asked very casually, are you a model, I said which brand I am in as a sales store manager, and then the other party said that your conditions can be a model. Then the word "model" came into my head.
Including the actors, after participating in the show, and then someone came to me to shoot a play, I said I didn't learn it, and the director said he liked this blank piece of paper. When you say this, you can't return it, people say you can do it, you always say you can't do it, this is also too twisted, isn't it?
After filming, I met them, let me perform the drama, and was still a male one, I said I can do it? He said, you believe me, you can. Since the producers all said so, plus I had thought about trying drama, and then such a good team at that time, such a good producer, and then There was a teacher Wan Fang who was such a good script to come to me, I said I must be right, right?
The Paper: But these two roles in "Ponzi Scheme" and "Dream like a Dream" have been played by very powerful actors before, will you be stressed?
Zhang Liang: After all, I am not a professional actor, so I have a learning attitude. Barefoot people aren't afraid to wear shoes, aren't they? As long as we love this thing and work hard, I think it's good.
And when I saw the video of several teachers playing this role before, it gave me a lot of help and inspiration. Of course, because everyone's habitual movements are different, the pronunciation state of speech is different, and even everyone's age is different, so when you go to create a character, you must use this state of your own. So this is a process of breaking through the difficulties to complete, in retrospect the harvest is still quite large, if you have no obstacles at all, you will not cherish it when you complete this thing.
The Paper: Is there any special feeling about playing against Xu Qing in "Like a Dream"?
Zhang Liang: In fact, I started to be particularly stressed when I was playing with Teacher Xu Qing, because I had seen Xu Qing's "Like a Dream" at the Poly Theater. At that time, as an audience member, I felt that Qingjie was a soul of the play "Like a Dream".
Later, when I played against her, I was particularly afraid that I would not be able to do it well, but the more you tensed up, the more unnatural you became. Then slowly chatting, Qingjie told me a lot of characters, including the relationship between the two characters, the content of psychological state, talk about some very detailed performances, Qingjie is a particularly good contact person, every time she is encouraging me, saying that you are obviously different from the last scene and so on. With such encouragement, my self-confidence will increase again.
The character of the Count is actually very different from my own personality, and even on the stage, at the beginning I have to control my micro-expressions, because when others talk to me or others laugh with me, I will smile instinctively, but I think the character of the Count has to hide himself very deeply, and when I start rehearsals, I think the first week is very painful for me. Now that I am completely accustomed to some of the states of this character, I am more and more comfortable with the more I act.
The Paper: After you performed these plays, what feedback did your friends around you have?
Zhang Liang: They don't think they know me the moment I was on the field, and they don't even think it's their friend for so many years, or a colleague who used to work, and they think it's a big contrast with my life.
The Paper: Because most of the audience has known you because of variety shows over the years, are you in the variety show closer to you in your life?
Zhang Liang: Yes, I am basically in that state in my daily life, but it may be a little more "poor" than in variety shows.
The Paper: Where do you want your career to focus next? Variety shows, performances, or?
Zhang Liang: It is definitely a performance, and then we will focus more and more on performance. Because I think the performance vitality will be longer, and every script, every character, will give you a new feeling of life.
And the actor is really not afraid of getting old, if you really like this line, love this line, you can act for a lifetime. So if you have the opportunity next, you still want to contact a good director team and a good script. Anyway, there is no hurry, take your time.
The Paper: But will other work be done?
Zhang Liang: Yes, will I do, I can't live? In fact, I think I am a very lucky person, I can take over the drama or acting in the drama without too much concern, such as whether my family or life status will have a serious impact during this time. So that's a very fortunate thing for me. Because we are still our own team, we are relatively free to choose what we like to do.
In fact, my remuneration for each play is not enough for me to invite local friends to watch the play. But I enjoyed it. I will stand on the stage with 10,000% energy, enjoy the stage, enjoy this character, and don't have to worry too much about other things.
The Paper: After trying so many jobs and doing a good job, do you think there is any reason?
Zhang Liang: I think I still have to be careful. Anything that is successful or perfect is a matter of time and place, but in fact, we can't control the time and place, we can only manage people and people. People and people are to do themselves first. First of all, you have to work hard enough, or when you fail, you have to ask yourself first, have you put 100% of your energy on this matter, if you let this thing go and did not succeed, I think it is no pity.
Editor-in-Charge: Liang Jia
Proofreader: Shi Gong