Sun Li (Nong Jian, Liang Shuyi/Photo)
In 2021, when the Qing Dynasty palace fighting drama "The Biography of Zhen Huan", which opened the era of domestic "big female protagonist", was broadcast for ten years, Sun Li chose to unload the aura of "Niangniang" and "throw himself into the pile of people". She played the ordinary cost engineer Su Xiao in the workplace drama "Ideal City", breaking out of the sky in a world dominated by men and unspoken rules.
"In fact, the actors are not as big as the public imagines to have as much choice, and I am not strong enough to manipulate the script and tailor a script for myself." I only have the choice, not the initiative. Sun Li told Southern Weekend reporters.
This time, she used her right of choice and chose Su Xiao. "Every time I shoot a type of scene, I have this ambition, that is, after shooting this one, I don't want to make a second one, I want to play this kind of role to the best." If I were to play a similar role repeatedly, I probably wouldn't have such a heart. ”
What she values is Su Xiao's ordinary person identity. "Whether I played Zhen Huan before or Mi Yue, they are all people with their own aura. But this is given to you by the character, and it does not mean that you are such a person. ”
A literary planner around Sun Li, who has followed her for more than ten years, before shooting any role before, Sun Li would ask her a lot of questions, but when playing Su Xiao, the two rarely discussed, this time Sun Li felt that there were many that could be self-digested. "I think that whether Su Xiao is a cost engineer or a stylist, there is no problem, the profession is just her shell, this play is more about modern people facing the dilemma of life, facing the ideal, facing the career, feelings, and her way of dealing with it." Just like you have a lot of friends, maybe their profession has nothing to do with you, but you can still understand him, it's all interchangeable. ”
When director Liu Jin asked Sun Li to star in "Ideal City", he had two worries. The first worry, this is a group portrait play, from the point of view, the amount of drama in this play is incomparable with the amount of drama before Sun Li, before a 1,000 scenes, at least 800 scenes were Sun Li's, but in "Ideal City", the amount of her scene was halved, that is, four or five hundred plays; the second worry, he hoped that Su Xiao was "thrown in the crowd and could not be found", which required Sun Li to show people with almost plain makeup, sometimes even gray-headed.
Neither of these concerns became a problem for Sun Li here. If one play is a big play, but let her pestle there every day, like a specimen without any emotional output, and the other play has fewer scenes, but every appearance gives people a refreshing feeling, she prefers to choose the second one. The original script of "Ideal City" was read by Sun Li four or five years ago, and the script was generally beautiful at that time. After a few years of polishing, and then taking it to her hands, she has a sense of amazement. "This is a realistic theme of the play, and it is a legitimate workplace drama, in today's jargon, that is, there is no cloak of love to talk about the workplace."
After taking over the script, Sun Li had in-depth communication with the director, screenwriter and staff, and in order to get close to the role, she even learned about Su Xiao's costumes from the costume designer. In her opinion, the shape of the character has other functions in addition to beauty. "Different people have different choices, just like when we meet a person, his appearance is actually very important, his dress represents his choice, his heart and personality." 」
Even if the character needs to face the sky, Sun Li does not hesitate. She recalled that when filming "The Biography of Zhen Huan", zhen huan got up every morning in the play, and aunt Qin Xi dressed her up. Outside the play, Sun Li had to dress up for the role of Zhen Huan for two and a half hours every time, from hair to face, not counting the time to change clothes. Clothes must also be worn by others, because they can't wear them, layer by layer, after wearing clothes, they have to trouble the staff to help put on shoes, because wearing heavy clothing can not squat down at all, walking still has to be supported, full of ritual. But Su Xiao is different - as a busy and hard-working office worker, she washed her face in the morning, in order to sleep for 5 minutes more, she was eager to eat bread, and as soon as the door opened, she went to the subway, and the pace of life was extremely fast.
After the broadcast of "Ideal City", the plain-faced Su Xiao and the brilliant Zhen Huan formed a great contrast, and the discussion of Sun Li's image became one of the initial controversies of the play. Sun Li was surprised, "A person who spends two or three hours a day to make up and a person who spends 5 minutes a day brushing his teeth and washing his face to go out, you say can it be the same?" Sun Li told southern weekend reporters, "Because I want to present Su Xiao, not Sun Li." ”
She was open to the real face, which was not covered by makeup. "Sometimes I see really good ads and I'll tell my colleagues, you look at that life-like face, her spots, her wrinkles, all the marks on her face, but you think she's alive. This is something that people naturally have, and people have pores, and we can't avoid them. The head is neck-striped because it is naturally wrinkled. I love these real things, and I think the real is the most powerful. She told Southern Weekend Reporters.
"If you really love this thing, you will give it for it without distraction"
Broadcast on November 17, 2011, "The Biography of Zhen Huan" has gone through ten years and has become a classic of costume palace fighting dramas. On the day of the premiere anniversary in 2021, the network spontaneously held various activities to commemorate the ten years of the launch of "Zhen Huan", and many fans sent private messages to Sun Li's Weibo to wish, and Sun Li was so excited that she wanted to lose sleep that night.
"I'm generally not easy to listen to good words, because there are too many people who say good things to me, and if I have to listen to everything, I am afraid that I will swell and live in a virtual space." People say how many times I have watched "The Biography of Zhen Huan", I like Zhen Huan's words, I feel as if it is the same as the feeling that everyone said to me , 'Happy New Year'. But when "The Biography of Zhen Huan" was ten years old, I suddenly realized that it was true, people really didn't give you polite words, they really liked it. Sun Li told Southern Weekend reporters.
Taking over the role of "The Biography of Zhen Huan" is a choice that Sun Li follows in her heart. She and director Zheng Xiaolong are related to the 2005 TV series "Happiness Like a Flower" directed by Gao Xixi, and Zheng Xiaolong is the executive producer of that drama. At that time, Sun Li's performance left a deep impression on Zheng Xiaolong. Five years later, Zheng Xiaolong was preparing to shoot "The Biography of Zhen Huan", and the first thing that came to mind was Sun Li. Before that, Sun Li mostly acted in period dramas and idol dramas, and had never acted in costume dramas.
After reading a draft of the script, Sun Li met with Zheng Xiaolong and screenwriter Wang Xiaoping at a Sichuan restaurant in Beijing's Third Ring Road. Originally, Sun Li was ready to ask the director and screenwriter with a bunch of questions, but before he could speak, they had already spoken out the questions first, which made Sun Li feel very comfortable. After that meal, Sun Li decided to star in "The Biography of Zhen Huan".
"The Biography of Zhen Huan" was filmed for 132 days, almost every day there was a scene of Sun Li, filmed to the last month, many actors have left the crew, leaving only Sun Li a starring role, the whole crew is practicing alone every day, the producer is particularly afraid of her illness, because as soon as she falls ill, the whole crew will stop. What impressed Sun Li was that there was a Guangzhou restaurant in Hengdian at that time, and the owner was good, and he changed the method to make food for her every day. In order not to drag down the crew, she did not care about fat or thin, first ensured that she was healthy and did not get sick.
Although filming is bitter, Sun Li is very happy every day, "it is the feeling that you take your understanding to the scene, you can feel it from the director's eyes behind the monitor, his reaction tells you (he is satisfied), the opponent actor will tell you that everything you give him is right, there is no wrong payment." It's a good feeling, that kind of joy is brought to you by the role, it's brought to you by your profession. Sun Li told Southern Weekend reporters.
When "The Biography of Zhen Huan" was broadcast, Sun Li's eldest son and so on were born. Deciding to have a child is also her active choice. Sun Li remembers that when she was pregnant, everyone felt that her career was about to end. She and Deng Chao seriously discussed the matter of having a child, which did not become a problem between the two of them, the worst result was that she was not an actor, Deng Chao continued to do, such a result they can accept.
Some friends around her reminded her that she could only take on the role of her mother in the future. Even playing a mother, sun li here has not become a problem. In the debut TV series "Jade Guanyin" when she first debuted, Sun Li played an anthone, who is the mother of a three-year-old child, "I don't think that playing a mother has any special psychological burden for actresses, I don't have such a frame, that is, how an actress must be, so it may invisibly make me feel that being a mother in real life is not a big thing." ”
"The Biography of Zhen Huan" became popular after the broadcast, Sun Li just came out of the confinement, work followed, she followed the crew to all parts of the country to do publicity. Later, many agents learned from Sun Li's team, how to plan the time, and how to have children and careers can be seamlessly connected. "We've never planned like this, and I believe more and more that you just do a good job of yourself and cultivate well, and everything is the best arrangement." Every time I choose, I sink my heart and ask myself, do I really like this? Speaking of a big topic, it is the power of love. If you really love this thing, you will be willing to give it with all your heart and no distraction. Sun Li told Southern Weekend reporters.
"In the end, it's the texture of the characters that come to mind."
Since starring in the TV series "Jade Guanyin" in 2001, Sun Li has been debuting for 21 years. She has hardly starred in "bad movies", and good roles seem to be actively choosing her, but Sun Li herself knows, "You feel like an inadvertent, in fact, it is not accidental."
When playing the single mother Anxin in "Jade Guanyin", Sun Li was 19 years old, and this role was spelled out by her. Du Yuan, who played the anti-drug captain in the play, talked about the play with Sun Li at that time in a previous interview, and he commented, "I have never seen an opponent actor who fights so hard, and the scene of shooting a needle at the mouth of the river really draws blood." He found that Sun Li's script was more annotated than the lines. Du Yuan had a premonition that the actress could succeed. After the broadcast of "Jade Guanyin", Sun Li began to be recognized by the national audience.
After that, Sun Li starred in "Happiness Like a Flower" directed by Gao Xixi, because of this drama, she met Deng Chao, who partnered with her. There is also a past that is not well known to the public about this drama: at that time, this drama had been started, the protagonists were not Deng Chao and Sun Li, and the main creative team was not the current team. The original Shi Zhongshan novel "Happiness Is Brilliant" is divided into two parts to tell the story of azaleas and poplars, the first half is the flying youth, the second half is the life after middle age, and the first half is the second half. Unexpectedly, after two or three weeks of filming, the crew stopped.
After several twists and turns, the script finally reached the hands of Ghosh, and the director said that if he filmed, he would not shoot the second half, and he felt that the first half of the life of Cuckoo and Poplar was more exciting. The script has undergone another rewrite. After rewriting, Gao Xixi found Deng Chao and Sun Li.
"Happiness Like a Flower" just started with an episode: "Cuckoo" just finished makeup, Sun Li was pulled to make a cameo in "Bright Sword", she played Zhao Gang's daughter-in-law Feng Nan in the play. Feng Nan and Cuckoo's hairstyle is exactly the same, that is, the Cuckoo hairstyle has just been done, it is too late to change the style, simply directly "moved" the image of the Cuckoo to "Bright Sword", after several scenes, Sun Li returned to the "Happiness Like a Flower" crew without stopping.
Because of the cooperation in "Happiness Like a Flower", Gao Xixi has successively filmed the TV series "Shanghai Beach" and "Sweet Honey", and Sun Li is his best actress candidate. She also successively participated in the movie "Huo Yuanjia" starring Jet Li, and starred in the TV series "Little Aunt Duohe" with Jiang Wu.
Sun Li remembers that he once starred in a Chinese-Canadian co-production film "Jinshan Railway", and director Hu Dawei initially searched for a candidate for the role of "Little Tiger", a young girl who went to Canada to find a labor father, and looked for a long time without success. Many years later, Sun Li learned of the process of his discovery, it turned out that Director Hu Dawei knew the producer of the movie "Huo Yuanjia", when he briefly edited "Huo Yuanjia", Sun Li's performance left a good impression on him, and later when the casting director recommended Sun Li again, he recalled it and quickly decided that Sun Li would play "Little Tiger".
But the movie is not sun li's main battlefield. In this regard, Sun Li thought clearly, "Maybe it (the movie) does not choose me more, and I do not pursue it too much." We have to tell you the truth, the film leaves less room for actresses than the TV series. But I don't reject movies either. I get some movie scripts from time to time, and I don't go to it because it's a movie, and I have to play her because it's a role I like. She said.
She has long jumped out of the box of the form of performance, no longer trapped by movies and TV series, if there is a good web drama looking for her now, she is also willing to star. "The audience ends up looking at the texture and state of the characters." She told Southern Weekend Reporters.
Sun Li had a rare pyrotechnic gas on his body. "Pyrotechnics don't smell the same as oil smoke, right?" Near the end of the interview, Sun Li joked with a wise face. She loves everything related to life, such as doing handicrafts, painting, writing, all things that can be touched.
She is also always preparing for the next role, "I am doing a lot of things now, others seem to think that I am not doing my job, in fact, I am always ready to let myself have a heart that loves life." 」 Every actor needs to love life so much that you're interested in everything and have a curiosity, because you never know what the next character will be, who you'll be next. ”
Southern Weekend reporter Li Yilan
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