Stills from "Sweeping The Black Storm". (Infographic/Figure)
Actor Wu Yue's voice is very recognizable.
She speaks softly and brightly, making it easy for people to relax. When she laughs, she sounds like a little girl, and it's hard to tie it to the age of 49. Wu Yue said that this is the inheritance of the mother, the mother and daughter sound very similar, sometimes people call to find Wu Yue, chat a few words before finding out that it is her mother to answer the phone.
But He Yun couldn't talk like that. He Yun is the deputy director of the Luteng City Public Security Bureau and the director of the Anti-Gang Crime Office in the TV series "Sweeping The Black Storm", and is also the mother of Sun Xing, the "evil boy" who does nothing evil in the play, and she has gradually become the umbrella of the criminal and evil forces from a good policeman of the people.
"I'm an extroverted person, and talking shouldn't give people a heavy feeling." But He Yun is not an easy person, so I have to wrap her up. Wu Yue said. Instead of looking for a voiceover, she "changed" her voice herself, "She should be speaking a little lower than I usually am, and go down a little further." ”
He Yun is a mother who shields and indulges her children to do evil, and is a good policeman in the eyes of outsiders, Wu Yue's complex eyes and details in the play, intercepted by netizens into various short videos, as a "textbook-level performance".
The last time she received such large-scale attention was in 2017, in "The First Half of My Life", she starred as a less glamorous third party, Ling Ling, who invaded the families of Chen Junsheng (Lei Jiayin) and Luo Zijun (Ma Yili). She endured a lot on behalf of Ling Ling — because of playing Ling Ling, Wu Yue experienced a long period of online violence, vicious curses and insults, so that she had to shut down Weibo comments. Friends enlightened her, which is a recognition of her acting skills, which she is difficult to accept: "What kind of recognition can not be with flowers and applause?" ”
Wu Yue has been an actor for 26 years, debuting as a heroine, she is the beautiful girl Chen Xiaofeng in "The Story of Late Autumn in Beijing" who made Chen Baoguo and Li Yapeng emotionally entangled, and wen Lu, a pure military reporter in "The Age of Peace". So far, she has new plays broadcast every year, but each play has a different fate.
"The First Half of My Life" was her first female number three, when she was 45 years old. Acting as a supporting role gave her the freedom of expression to some extent, and she has taken on a variety of roles since then. In the movie "Young You", she played Zhou Dongyu's mother, and in just a few scenes, she played a sad and lovely mother who loved her daughter and did not know the essentials.
Now that the hustle and bustle has passed, Wu Yue's life has returned to calm. She returns to Weibo and often shares her favorite music, words that touch her, and various things that she feels beautiful. She recently shared a song by Xu Jun, "Myself", which sings: "Remember not to be the enemy of your own ordinary, and there is no need to make yourself less like yourself", and she also quoted a sentence from the monk Shia Rongbo Khenpo: "The 'first' and 'the best' are all for others to see, but who will always be there to see you?" Everyone is busy living their own lives, and you don't have that many audiences. ”
"After all these years, I'm not young anymore. I have come all the way ups and downs, all kinds of sweet, sour and bitter tastes all the way over, but who is not? I myself will have some very fixed fans, there are not many people, it seems that they still appreciate each other, just like friends, we communicate and share on a public platform, it is also a bit like finding friends. Wu Yue said.
The following is Wu Yue's self-statement:
In September 2020, the assistant director of 500 directors came to me and sent me the outline of the script of "Sweeping Black Storm", saying that the director hoped that I would play He Yun, deputy director of the Luteng City Public Security Bureau. I worked with Five Hundred on a suspense drama in 2019 called "In the End," and we worked together very well, and the trust between us, including all kinds of aesthetics, was very compatible.
Also, the way I look, people who are not familiar with me will think that I am quite serious, and if you want to play the police chief, you have to feel particularly right. I've made a film called "Night Ming" (a 2007 Chinese-Malaysian co-production that tells the story of Sun Yat-sen's fundraising experience in Nanyang during the difficult times of the revolution, and his little-known emotional story with Ms. Chen Pufen in the side room, Wu Yue plays Chen Pufen), malaysian actor Li Xinjie said, Wu Yue, when you don't speak, you look very serious. I think I'm pretty outgoing and lively, and I've been like this since I was a kid.
After reading the outline of "Sweeping Black Storm", I sent a WeChat message to the director, and I said: "Director is good, He Yun who watched "Sweeping Black Storm", this character is really horizontal and fierce, and her experience and pain are difficult for a woman to swallow. You said before that everyone in life needs to act, and indeed, He Yun wants to act, she wants personal face, and there are really many roles that need her to play in life. Poor she desperately played the role, none of them really belonged to her, and even more pitifully, she did not have an audience that really belonged to her. It's like licking honey on the tip of a knife, a character who can't figure it out without picking up a snack or digging up a little liver. "That was my first reaction after reading the synopsis. I am an actor, no matter what kind of role, I want to make her a little more complicated, from another point of view, if her complexity is reasonable, within logic, the more complex such a role, the more exciting it is for the actor.
Many viewers said that He Yun had a prototype, which shocked the whole country in the "Sun Xiaoguo Case", but Sun Xiaoguo's mother was not the director of public security, just an ordinary policeman, so here, He Yun has no prototype. But they both have one thing in common: they are both mothers who shield their children and mothers who indulge their children to do evil.
For me, this character doesn't need to look for an archetype. In the script, her identity is that of the deputy director of the Public Security Bureau, but she has done something against her identity, and this person is a very balanced character with 50% good and bad accounts for 50%. And the director's setting at the time, if there was no incident of her son, with her ability, should be a very competent deputy director of the Public Security Bureau. She used to be like this, from a good policeman to the deputy director of the public security bureau, it was based on her step by step to work hard, such a setting is rare in domestic TV dramas.
Before filming, I went to interview a public security bureau chief, who was a female chief and used to be the principal of the police academy. She is very gentle and will tell you which bread is good to eat, sharing a lot of interesting details in life and we talk a lot. But for me, her experience is not the focus of my attention, I am more concerned with our state when we are chatting, all her treatment of people, the way she looks when she talks to other people, her expression in the surrounding environment, I want to capture these.
I remember the first scene I shot in "Sweeping The Black Storm" was the detention center interrogating Ma Shuai. That scene was very, very difficult for me, because what happened to an actor at that time was that I suddenly couldn't say the lines —maybe it was because of my teeth, or some sudden malfunction in my pronunciation, and I hadn't found a very specific reason until now, and the result was that it was difficult to pronounce, and when I said a sentence, it was inexplicably broken, and if I broke it, I panicked, and it affected my expression of the character as an actor.
However, in this scene of judging Ma Shuai, He Yun must speak very slippery, not only to slip, but also to have a deterrent power, but also to be on the top, so it was very difficult for me at that time, and it was really desperate to act.
In my last scene in the play, chasing my son Sun Xing, there was no line, and I played normally. We shot that scene one night, and I was acting at 4 a.m. My face was 4 a.m., my body was completely disobedient, and I could see that my body and soul were fighting, a little out of control. But that's a good play, when your heart is very full of experience of this feeling, acting will be like tap water, as long as the faucet is opened, it will come out, very comfortable. Unlike some plays, people can't experience it, even if the script requires you to play an excitement and elation, your heart is empty, you can't fish out anything, then it is really tired to shoot.
In fact, He Yun is not the most difficult role I have ever played, I filmed the drama "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" directed by Wang Xiaoshuai as a producer and hua jing in May and June this year, if He Yun's pain is very solemn, the pain of that role is ten times stronger than her. I have not eased up since I finished acting, and I have not been able to pick up a similar role for nearly a year, and that role is really too bitter.
In 1995, I starred in "The Story of Late Autumn in Beijing", which was also my first play to officially enter the show business circle. My luck was great. At that time, I had just graduated from the Shanghai Theater Academy and was assigned to the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, and the lover of Director Teng (Wen Ji) came to pick the actors, and the teacher Zhang Xianheng of our troupe recommended me. He said there was a little girl in our troupe, you go and see, she is now performing a play in our troupe. Teacher Wen (Teng Dao's lover) came to see it, and not long after watching it, he asked me to fly to Beijing on a Sunday to meet Teng Dao. When Teng Dao came to the airport to pick me up, it was equivalent to me getting off the plane and going outside, and he saw me. He said that when I looked at you, I thought this little girl was very similar to the role I was going to choose (Chen Xiaofeng, a bank loan officer). In this way, I became the first actress in the play to be fixed. After fixing me, the next day I went with the director to select other actors, in today's words, to see if there is a sense of CP with other actors. Later, I returned to Shanghai to continue rehearsing the drama, and when the drama was finished, I entered the group to shoot the play.
The next year, I acted in "The Age of Peace" with Zhang Fengyi, in which I played Wen Lu, a female military reporter, and had a relationship with Qin Zixiong, a soldier played by Zhang Fengyi. Many viewers remember me, probably because of Wen Lu.
(Southern Weekend reporter: When I was watching it, in a military-themed TV series, I saw a feeling of idol drama. I'll tell you a secret, and your feelings are super right, because before I did this play, there was a popular idol drama called "Tokyo Love Story". Nanami Suzuki played Akamei Lika, I especially liked it, I wanted to become her in my role - The role of Wen Lu is also very cute, I melted my love for Akamei Lika into it, Wen Lu has one of her seeds on her body.
I remember there was a scene in "PeaceTime" where I was riding a bicycle, and Zhang Fengyi came to apologize to me, and I ignored him all the way. In fact, I liked him very much, but deliberately ignored him, and finally he said that he invited me to dinner, and I immediately said OKAY, then let's go. At that time, I actually had the template of "Tokyo Love Story" in my heart.
I've been acting for 26 years, and I feel that every role I take seriously, there is no bias, and if a role I look at is particularly disgusted, I will not take it.
Looking around, Wen Lu in "PeaceTime" was really quite happy, because I had just graduated from college at that time, and I was lucky enough to shoot "The Story of Late Autumn in Beijing", and I didn't expect to shoot this "PeaceTime" even better, all of which were very strong lineups. I played a military-themed drama "Far Away Love" with Tong Dawei, I played a military doctor, that character is a cold person, talked about a sister-brother relationship, that we acted quite well; including me and Geng Le, and Guo Jingfei, we acted in a "If Life Deceives You", I played a sister, the fate of a family. In fact, in that year the ratings were quite high, we also shot quite well, that character is completely different from He Yun, Ling Ling, may be a little close to Wen Lu, and that year I was 40 years old, I was still playing a 20-year-old girl, I myself looked at it and felt that it was quite passable, but after that I didn't want to play a young role, I wanted to play a role that matched my own age.
I now take over the standard of playing, more free. When I was young, I might say that there was a play, and it was a very good play, and I would go to the act and didn't want to let it go. But now I don't want to force myself too much, go with the flow, don't try too hard, so I may be a little more relaxed.
"The First Half of My Life" was the first supporting actress I played, the first female number three in the true sense. Because after the actor reaches a certain age, no one can guarantee that he will always be the female number one and the male number one, and the evergreen tree is extremely rare. I'm not made of special materials either, so I must be the same.
There will definitely be a psychological gap between them, but the way I choose is not to resist, but to accept. I was lucky enough to meet "The First Half of My Life" for the first female number three, so the transition was fairly smooth and landed safely.
After playing the third party Ling Ling, everyone said that I was "on fire", but the fire I felt was endless and vicious insults on the Internet. Some people say that this is a recognition of my acting skills, but I would like to ask, who would want to accept a form of recognition that is vicious insults, and what kind of recognition cannot be done with flowers and applause? You give flowers and applause to others, and your world is the world of flowers.
Now I don't care, as an actor, the message I received from my professional circles and my most trusted teachers was: You're acting well. I've got this thing in the past. Because I am a relatively healthy person, I hope in my heart that I will become a person who loves a little more, does not hate more, and does not hate more.
In fact, from the perspective of an actor, I look at this third party Ling Ling, I think she is very common, I play a woman who falls in love with a husband with a wife, there are many such people in life, and there are many such things. When acting, I just want to restore the appearance of that person as realistically as possible, because there are many such things in life, and you sometimes say that you don't know whether to sympathize with this wife or sympathize with this "little three".
There are some plays that require functional roles, no way - you want the role function of "Xiao San" not to appear, how does Luo Zijun, played by Ma Yili, turn over this mountain, how does she play herself from a full-time wife to an independent woman? Ling Ling is a necessary, functional character.
In most of the other scenes, I cooperated with the director and Lei Jiayin to try to portray her as a kind of person who is believed and real in life. Ma Yili played a full-time wife who was worry-free at the beginning, because she had no worries about food and clothing, she slowly forgot that the emotions between husband and wife needed to be managed, and then she became a tragedy, Ling Ling took advantage of the void, and then, she faced herself again, and there were many such women in life. If all our homework, in the end, the evaluation of Ling Ling is only simplified to the difference between good women and bad women, in fact, we are disappointed.
If we look at the world's famous works, if according to the current judging standards, Anna Karenina is also a "little three", how did this novel become a world famous book? Jia Baoyu, that is the "scumbag", how did "Dream of the Red Chamber" become famous? From the perspective of artistic creation, it cannot be simply divided into "little three" and "scumbag". I'm looking at it entirely from the professional point of view of an actor, if you're going to play a third person, you have to do your homework and show the motivation behind her series of actions.
If I were to take a class, I would definitely say this: What are good guys and bad guys? Have you ever encountered good and bad people in the pure sense of life? In fact, I dare say no, because you can always meet a real person in life, there are advantages, there are shortcomings, you have no way to define whether he is a good person or a bad person, you can say at most which shortcomings of this person make you intolerable, but anyone who is more mature will say so. After this opening is opened, the performance has room for it to be performed.
After I got the role, I always determined that she was a person, and I wanted to make a lot of places to establish, and then put her good and evil sides on the basis of people. When she comes out of the good things, when the evil things come out, the more evil things come out, the more she becomes the so-called bad person.
Now I don't think Ling Ling is a villain, I just think I play a very real person, because I really heard some of my friends of the same age talk about lingling-like characters around them, saying, "I sacrificed everything for him, because I love him very much." I really did act this way, but the audience said you are a bad person, which is equivalent to judging this thing in the moral court, but in the river of human nature, sometimes morality does not count.
After "The First Half of My Life," I started playing various supporting roles. In fact, the types of supporting roles are diverse, and I have been completely free for several years, so you will find that from 2017 to the present, I have played a variety of roles. After entering a role, if you play her every day, go to the scene every day, naturally you will become more and more familiar, but if you only play this role for one day today, and tomorrow that role will only play for one day, you are not yet familiar, the role will leave you, I will not pick up such a play, unless a good friend must help you. I take over the role, usually choose a complete role, can let me enter, mature, it is still in the degree of acting. I grasp it well in this degree.
If you evaluate myself, then I am average looking, and I can't talk about good looks. However, the audience's taste is also improving now, and they are very accepting of the role of He Yun in "Sweeping The Black Storm", and they also see the value of our "uncles" and "big mothers". But I think everything is not so absolute, not necessarily old is good, young must be bad. There are 100 points everywhere, but most of them may be 60 points, 65 points, all walks of life are like this, talent is a pyramid structure; it is not that I am now old, I have become a good actor, an old drama bone, from a professional point of view should not be judged in this way.
In the final analysis, or "curative effect" is king, this play shows this work, you can not catch it, the role you play is not vivid, this is the most important evaluation criterion for good actors.
Southern Weekend reporter Li Yilan