In the last issue, we talked about the difficulty of shooting "Longing", time constraints, and financial constraints, so the director and crew explored a way to shoot "indoor scene dramas" and successfully set a precedent. In addition to filming, the casting of "Longing" also has many stories.
When Song Dacheng found Li Xuejian in this role, he did not want to take it very much.
After all, Li Xuejian was only in his twenties, and when he was young and vigorous, he had some heroic dreams. At that time, Li Xuejian was already a pillar of the drama troupe, and he had played many heroic characters, and this Song Dacheng was just an ordinary man with an honest wooden ne, and the gap was too big.
But he took it anyway. Who told him to owe the director's dad a favor?
In 1977, Li Xuejian, a young man who belonged to the Yunnan Amateur Propaganda Team, was seconded to the Second Artillery Cultural and Labor Troupe in Beijing to run a dragon set for the drama "A Thousand Autumns and Great Undertakings", but he did not expect that this drama was suddenly stopped. When I first came to Beijing, my family was proud of myself, so I didn't do anything and went back, so how can the young man be willing?
Fortunately, the director of "A Thousand Autumns" had a discerning eye and wrote a letter of recommendation to recommend Li Xuejian to the Air Politics Repertory Theatre.
The director of "A Thousand Autumns" is Lu Xiaowei's father.
So Li Xuejian came to "repay the favor". Unexpectedly, he became more and more into the drama of this role, and he also put forward a lot of innovative ideas with the director, and finally played a supporting role into the protagonist!
The role of Wang Husheng was originally also chosen by Lu Xiaowei in his heart, Pu Cunxi of the Air Politics Repertory Theatre. It's just that the other party has no schedule.
Lu Xiaowei then found his good friend, Sun Qingrong, the director of the office of the experimental drama troupe, and asked him to introduce the actor.
Unexpectedly, Sun Qingrong recommended his son Sun Song.
This is a "related household", Lu Xiaowei originally did not hold out hope, but did not expect that the next day in the case of torrential rain, the young man still went to the appointment as scheduled. Lu Xiaowei then looked at Sun Song differently.
As for the heroine Liu Huifang's mother, Aunt Liu, it is simply effortless. This happened to be a very coincidental thing, Lu Xiaowei just happened to go to Sun Song's house as a guest that day, and as soon as he entered the door, Sun Song's mother Han Ying warmly welcomed him. Han Ying spoke fluent Beijing dialect, and was capable and generous, Lu Xiaowei looked at it, isn't this the Aunt Liu he is looking for?
As for Xu Yuejuan's role, it is even more rare.
At that time, Lu Xiaowei heard that Yang Qing played a woman with emotional ups and downs in the Qingyi drama "Social Image", and acted very well, so he went to Qingyi to see Yang Qing's file, and he couldn't see it: Yang Qing's family origin was exactly the same as Xu Yuejuan!]
Lu Xiaowei went to the door to find her, at that time Yang Qing was still filming in Xi'an, Lu Xiaowei did not achieve a second time, until the ninth time to meet her.
Yang Qing was impressed by Lu Xiaowei's sincerity, accepted the script, and watched it on the way back to Xi'an the next day, and became interested in the role of Liu Huifang. However, when Yang Qing went to the studio of "Longing" and found that Liu Huifang's role already had the master, Sun Qing was a little disappointed and resigned. Lu Xiaowei hurriedly shouted, "Don't go! You play Xu Yuejuan. ”
Yang Qing originally did not like the role of Xu Yuejuan, but perhaps he was touched by Lu Xiaowei and took over the role.
The role played by Huang Meiying in "Longing" is Wang Yaru, the "evil sister-in-law". Before this, Huang Meiying generally played a female image of Virtuous and Virtuous, and Wang Yaru was such an unpleasant role, Lu Xiaowei was afraid that she would not want to play at that time.
Lu Xiaowei played a trick, he only showed the first ten episodes of the script to Huang Meiying, these episodes Wang Yaru has not yet begun to "make bad", the scene is mainly to chase love. Huang Meiying was "deceived" in this, she said in the interview: "But this thief can't get off the ship, Wang Yaru's image has a certain degree of difficulty, the actor has a lot of room to play, I want to play her well." ”
Wang Yaru is a contradictory character image, she is good and evil, sometimes sincere and sometimes against her heart, what Huang Meiying has to do is to use performance to find a reasonable explanation for Wang Yaru's ambivalence. In order to play this role well, she even moved to the studio and left her 5-year-old son at home.
The casting in "Longing" has a story. Director Lu Xiaowei was sincere, and everyone was touched by him, so the performance of this drama was still based on artistic dedication. Although the crew has limited funds, the film remuneration is not high, and the filming conditions are not good, everyone has persevered, and after 30 years, this dedication is still worth learning.
Series Review:
Behind the Scenes of "Longing": How a TV series that was forced out became a classic
"Longing" Li Xuejian hindered the human feelings of playing Song Dacheng, originally a supporting role, looking for a director to add a role to the protagonist
Behind the scenes of "Longing": Zhang Kelly got the role because of a bowl of noodles, and halfway through the performance, she begged the director to write death
Without a single actor, the premiere hit 92% of the ratings, and the show was so great 30 years ago