Author / Xiao Bao
Who is Xu Wenhao?
After sending out a Weibo essay expressing "goodbye" to past characters last month, the 28-year-old Northeastern boy who thought he was even eighteen lines was labeled a "retired actor".
Subsequently, Xu Wenhao seemed to be on fire - now every Weibo essay can easily receive millions of readings, but Xu Wenhao seems to have no fire - more than a month has passed, and he still has not received a new drama contract. For a time, ideals and bread, or the moon and sixpence, became apt metaphor for Xu Wenhao's plight.
However, in the eyes of most film and television industry practitioners, Xu Wenhao's story is not new. The overwhelming number of reports, the successive interviews, and the thousands of interpretations may only be a short walk through his life, and then record his traces.
Fortunately, records are also powerful.
[The following is the transcript of Xu Wenhao's dialogue with the Film Intelligence Office, slightly deleted]
Intelligence Jun: First of all, let's talk specifically about how you spent the two years of idleness, and what is the recent state of life after the publication of "withdrawing from the circle" has aroused concern?
Xu Wenhao: In fact, in those two years, I didn't really idle, and I have been filming intermittently. The most recent drama was "Armageddon", which was filmed in October last year, in which I played Zhang Shunzi; this play is a play that promotes the main theme, and Douban also received a 7.8 rating, so I feel honored to be able to star in this play. Before "Armageddon", it was "Two-Faced Detective", which was filmed for 7 days.
After sending out that "exit the circle" Weibo, I exploded on WeChat that night, hundreds of them, and I couldn't get back. Some people said they wanted to donate money and materials to me, some people said they wanted to give me a two-bedroom and one-room room in Changping, and some people even said that they wanted to give me 3 million yuan to invest in making movies.
But I dare to ask for it, if it is in the daily work everyone shares some snacks with each other, it is harmless. I never wanted to go out of the loop, and I explained, but no one watched; I hadn't received such heat and didn't know how to deal with it.
Recently, I have been interviewing almost every day, and I have also auditioned, but I have not yet waited for the right opportunity.
Intelligence Jun: Since this is the case, how do you view some of the negative comments of netizens? For example, some people think that you have too many worries, are not very practical, and even a little resentful. For example, some people do not understand why Wen Hao, who came from the class, still asks the teacher to learn acting, can you share the story behind it with us?
Xu Wenhao: First of all, I never felt that I was miserable, I felt that what I experienced was a normal life in North Drift, and there were people around me who were more miserable than me. Filming has really been better than a few years before, so my mental process has actually changed a lot after seeing everyone's evaluation. I thought: Isn't everyone living a different life than mine?
Asking the teacher to learn acting was something I was preparing for the audition for Ask the Sky. The competition was fierce, so I hired a teacher, and that teacher was also my friend, and he taught me how to play the role better, word by word, emotion by emotion. I feel like I have to learn all the time as an actor to make myself better.
Even after the successful audition for the role of Wang Fuqu, I did not slacken off. At that time, the director said, "It's okay to act OK, but there are still many points in you that you have to continue to work hard." ”
Intelligence Jun: Is there still this state of affairs?
Xu Wenhao: There is no more teacher, no money, but the study as an actor is lifelong.
A director once told me that actors before the age of 30 can rarely play others themselves, and this kind of actor is rare, and there may only be one out of ten thousand. So many actors will put the role on themselves, using the common ground between the actor himself and the script character to complete the role; put this point on myself, I think at least my life experience is rich, not floating in a vacuum.
Intelligence Jun: Wen Hao has worked with film and television amphibian actors such as Hu Ge, Ni Ni, Zhang Zhen and so on, what is the most impressive impression they have left on you in terms of work attitude and working style?
Xu Wenhao: They all acted too well and too handsomely. Before watching "The Legend of the Paladin Sword", I wanted to become an actor like Hu Ge, and later I was definitely lucky to be able to cooperate with him. Later, watching Zhang Zhen's "Embroidered Spring Knife", Zhang Zhen became my idol again, and when I first saw him in "Chen Xi Yuan", my hands were shaking, I was nervous, and my heart was also beeping, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa This feeling has never been, and they are all role models for me.
I have seen less of Ni Ni's works, but I was very impressed by the "Together" she and Lei Jiayin played, and the crying scene was too infectious. So from them I saw the brilliance of the actors, and I also saw the dedication of the actors.
Oh yes! In addition to them, I also like Stephen Chow and Zhang Jiahui, and I watch all their movies. It is difficult to act in comedy, and when I played Wang Fuqu, I was afraid that I would not be able to act well, but Stephen Chow's works gave me a lot of inspiration, and perhaps the performance method was also subtly subtly. As for Zhang Jiahui, his police films are too strong, and "Apostle Walker" and "Sweeping Drugs" are all too good.
Intelligence Jun: Is Chen Wuyi in "Two-Faced Detective" a situation that you are very satisfied with?
Xu Wenhao: Yes, you can't ask for it. After I saw the script, I felt that Chen Wuyi was myself, not someone else. The words in the script suddenly became concrete in my mind.
Intelligence Jun: I observed that Wen Hao recently opened a Douyin account to share the actor's life record with you, why did you have this idea?
Xu Wenhao: First of all, I still want to show you my real life. It's not a particularly formal response either, and I haven't thought about it that much.
There was a reason that I suddenly became on the vibrato hot search that day, and I thought it was strange that I had never experienced this feeling. So I wonder if the heavens have given me a new opportunity, I feel that I have seen the official attention of douyin to me, after all, not all the clockwork videos can be hung on the hot search list for two consecutive days. Then, since people have given me so much feedback, I will wonder if I can give them better works.
The second is to give some wake-up call to some students who are still daydreaming about big stars for no reason. I'm telling the truth, and at the moment I really don't know if I can survive the next month.
Intelligence Jun: Wen Hao recently sent a self-directed and self-acting 4-minute short video, is there any special creative reason? How was this video done?
Xu Wenhao: The reason for making this video is very simple, that is, I recently saw that "Classmate Zhang" was particularly popular, and after I watched it, I studied it at home for a long time, and I felt that this thing was not difficult to operate, so I tried to shoot it.
Although everyone says that the video of "Classmate Zhang" is very professional, I think it is a basic skill for actors. I've been acting for eight years, and it's not useless. In the past eight years, I have been shooting like this every day in the crew, and whenever I wait for the scene, I will stand next to the staff to see how to shoot; not to learn very carefully, or to learn a little bit, and after watching it, I will naturally form a muscle memory.
When the specific operation, I took the mobile phone and the bracket to shoot myself, and also asked passers-by to help and tell them how to shoot. I remember that the short film took half a day to complete, and there was no script written, starting at 1 p.m. and ending at 8 p.m. After shooting a total of 394 pieces of material, I used PR and cut editing until 3 a.m.
Intelligence Jun: After Wen Hao made his remarks on retiring from the circle, we also observed that many actors who had similar experiences to Wen Hao stood up and showed their lives to everyone. What do you think of this self-revealing scar "way of doing business" now? Are you worried that people will become disgusted in the future?
Xu Wenhao: I have seen what you said, and I think many people have a much better life than me.
Again, I posted a small essay at the time and didn't feel like I was revealing my scars. What I wrote is that I was under a lot of financial pressure and really wanted to give up that day. In 2013, I didn't want to give up after such hard work, but at that time, I did have the idea of giving up, and then I was revised by various netizens.
The word "business method" also disgusts me, and the three words of marketing, hype, and selling misery have now become my angry points.
Intelligence Jun: If you were to recommend some books, videos and videos to everyone, what works would Wen Hao recommend? Why?
Xu Wenhao: I am a relatively homely person, and with my life experience, everyone wants me to be high-end and I can't get high-end. And my life is really tight, watching movies is very expensive, so I haven't been to the cinema much in the last two years.
If you want to talk about the books and videos you like, I prefer to listen to "Zhang Zhen Tells Stories", not the actor Zhang Zhen, but Zhang Zhen who tells thriller stories. I always listened to this kind of story when I was a child, it was my personal preference, and now I fall asleep when I listen to it, which is very helpful for sleep.
Intelligence Jun: So if you were asked to play a thriller role, would you gladly accept it?
Xu Wenhao: Absolutely. But what you're assuming is that I have a lot of options, but the reality is that I may not be able to continue to live on this job.
An actor like me is not qualified to pick a script, and people say to you, "50 yuan a day to shoot or not", then do I shoot or not shoot? To be honest, I think such a price is unreasonable, most of the current encounters are in this situation, the company has no plan for me, it is a step by step.
Intelligence Jun: So do you still care about other people's eyes now? Are you afraid of the reader's interpretation after the interview is sent?
Xu Wenhao: It's okay, I'm not afraid, I don't think there is anything more terrifying in this world than being poor. All I can do now is do my best and be ashamed. The ultimate ideal of life, earn money to pay off your mortgage! I still long to run into the future.