There are mountains outside the mountains, and there are heavens outside the heavens, which is the truth that Ning Li learned later.
| Author: Xu Xiaodi
iQiyi's self-made drama "Rival" came to an end on the first day of 2022. The biggest villain in the play, Lin Yu, finally fell into the net, which made many viewers sigh: "The sin deserves it, it is really gratifying!" ”
To say who is the most fierce in this hot spy war drama, of course, it is Lin Yu.
In Lin Yu's world, there are no children, no rules of the game, as long as he can complete the "task", he can give up anything, including his own daughter. The audience has long hated what he has done, and every day they hope that he will "go offline" as soon as possible.
Playing the role of Lin Yu is the actor Ning Li, who has played many "villains" in recent years. In "Undocumented Crimes", he is the vicious and vicious perverted killer "Li Toyota"; in "The Silent Truth", he is "Zhang Chao", a professor of political science and law who commits crimes with high intelligence; in "Sweeping Black Storm", he is the arrogant black boss "Ma Shuai". From the killer to the underworld, he has acted almost repeatedly, and has been named a "prison system" actor by netizens.
At a boot ceremony, an actor whispered to the producer: Is that person Ning Li's teacher? Life is not so vicious, it feels very kind.
Spy trio
In August 2020, Ning Li returned from abroad, and when he was quarantined in Shanghai, his agent called and said that there was a play, the script was good, and the theme of espionage was war. At first, he didn't pay attention, "Maybe let me play a secret agent of the Kuomintang Secrecy Bureau." He flipped through the script casually, without thinking about "flipping it in": "It's very energetic, I want to pick it up." ”
18 years ago, Li Tang from the other side, code-named "Taoyuan", Ding Meixi from "Hualien", and Lin Yu from "Hsinchu" came to Xiamen in Chinese mainland to carry out a mission. Under the wrong circumstances, Li Tang and Ding Meixi stayed in Xiazhou and became husband and wife, except for performing tasks, no different from ordinary people.
Li Tang is a taxi driver, a middle-aged man, a body of extra flesh, parked the wrong car and was fined, lost teeth and no money to make up. Ding Meixi is a middle school Chinese teacher, who was reported for opening a cram school, invested in P2P results and thunderstormed, and used the "beauty plan" to obtain intelligence and was entangled. Mainland citizens can get a bonus of 500,000 yuan for reporting a spy, and the couple is "worth millions" but they are destitute. They worry about chai, rice, oil and salt, worry about their daughter's early love, and have to advance money to carry out tasks.
After running away with money on the line, the "Million Couple" ushered in his old friend Lin Yu. Compared with Li Tang and Ding Meixi's chicken feathers, he is a cold-blooded villain and a killing machine, and only when he hears the old songs of his hometown, he reveals a trace of fleeting sentimentality.
In "Opponent", Lin Yu, played by Ning Li (left), formed a "spy trio" with Li Tang (right) and Ding Meixi.
When setting the scene, Lin Yu's home borrowed a private house and put books on it. Ning Li suggested that the crew should not do anything, "it is a place with four walls and empty doors." Unlike Li Tang and Ding Meixi's chai rice oil and salt, chicken flying dog jump, Lin Yu's life is only work, no life. "He has his own emotions, but he will use all his strength to suppress them."
Ning Li felt that the cleverness of "Opponent" was to put the common dilemma faced by middle-aged people in the extreme environment of espionage warfare, just like the warm water of boiling a frog, which suddenly became boiling water. "They are 'villains' who have done a lot of bad things; but they are also ordinary people, and when their tasks and lives contradict each other, they fall into great confusion and sorrow." Ning Li told the "Global People" reporter.
Lin Yu's role is not much, "like the needle in the sea, often invisible." But from the beginning of the shooting to the full elimination of the whole team, Ning Li has been in the group. He asked the crew for two scripts, one to take notes, one to split up, and paste them all over the walls of the hotel, so that he knew where today's scene was in the whole play and what measure to grasp. Sometimes, Guo Jingfei and Tan Zhuo photographed until eleven or twelve o'clock in the evening, and after finishing work, they called Ning Li to talk about what they were going to shoot tomorrow, and put the previous one again. "We all have a heart, that is, this play must not be smashed in our own hands."
A week before the start-up, everyone read the script and seriously discussed the accent issue. "A few of us are particularly reluctant to act in any play, but when we speak Taiwanese Mandarin, we will jump to Taiwanese idol dramas." They found a scene, Zheng'er Bajing used "Taipu" to perform it again, while shooting, laughing at the same time, the most complete one when the tidbits were released, the comments were "laughing can't live."
"Li Tang, you are really funny." "The above is really stupid, looking for such a locomotive person to be the leader of the group." A few sentences said by Ning Li were evaluated by netizens as "the purest", "A listen is a serious study and study, and the accent of the guests on both sides of the Straits is like this."
In 2021, Ning Li's screen image is mixed with the southern cavity and the northern tone. In "Ebola Frontline", he speaks Tianjin dialect, and his dialect temperament with humorous attributes does not cover the deep love between father and daughter; in the recently released movie "Love Myth", he makes a cameo appearance as a shoe repairman, and a group of Shanghainese food men and women - Shanghainese Xu Zheng, Ma Yili, Wu Yue, Zhou Yemang - soared in Shanghainese, without any sense of violation.
There are mountains outside the mountains, and there are heavens outside the sky
· When Ning Li (back row middle) was in the third grade of primary school, he took the stage to perform a drama.
"I don't know why, but I'm particularly sensitive to language and learn very quickly." Ning Li said. At the age of 19, he was admitted to the Shanghai Theater Academy. "In the physical fitness class, I learned very slowly, I couldn't remember the movements, others would learn three moves and five styles, and I couldn't get it for half a day." But he is very good at language, after one semester, he can basically understand Shanghainese, and after graduating 4 years later, he has spoken fluently. ”
Before entering the play, Ning Li had no concept of being an actor. When he was in his 10s, he left Beijing with his parents and was sent to Anhui, where he did not study well and wandered around. He likes to watch war movies, Walter Defends Sarajevo and the like, but he always feels far away from him.
Once, he saw Jiang Wen and Lu Liping's graduation drama "Family Affair" on TV. "They had just graduated at that time, in their early twenties, playing a pair of old men and women in Beijing, just like the uncle and aunt I met in the hutongs when I was a child, the surface was cold, and the heart was warm." Ning Li said that he looked stupid at once, "the young mind was completely conquered."
After entering the play, Ning Li especially admired Jiao Huang, So Zhi, and Zhu Xu, a group of old actors, imitating their voices and movements, and saying "Eat?" So what's up, oh, please be safe for you." He recalls his campus days, most of the time immersed in love and food, the beef fried bun at the entrance of the school, you can eat 10 at a time, and then a bowl of beef soup. As for the performance, "I found a little external little skill, and I made the audience laugh and I felt that I was very good."
There are mountains outside the mountains, and there are heavens outside the heavens, which is the truth that I learned later.
After graduating from university, Ning Li was assigned to the Shanghai People's Art Theater (now shanghai Dramatic Arts Center), did not run the dragon set, and directly began to play the leading role. In 1992, Wu Yigong's "Que Li RenJia" was released, Zhu Xu played his grandfather Kong Lingtan, and Ning Li played his grandson Kong Weiben. "Someone asked me what I learned from Mr. Zhu Xu, I can't describe it, that kind of inner strength of creativity is simply unparalleled, I can only look up, I can't learn the law."
A year later, "Beijingers in New York" was all over the country, and Ning Li was a little unwilling and restless in his heart. In 1996, he resigned from the "iron rice bowl" and went to the United States alone, hoping to work hard there to create a new world, but found that "I pursued you for thousands of miles, but you did not care", which was a cold reality.
Because of the lack of money, Ning Li only ate canned food for a long time, and after opening it, he got some water and soup; clothes were always bought second-hand, more than 5 pieces of jeans, and more than a dozen pieces of sweater jackets. He worked in various types of work: delivering newspapers, working as a real estate agent, studying jewelry appraisals, working as a post office employee...
Talking about this experience, Ning Li said that his biggest gain was "breaking the blind worship brought about by the mystery." "The world is the same, people are the same, there is fear of what is afraid, there is a thirst for love, there is hope for life. Why have the classics been passed down through the ages? Because it is a matter for our people, not for a certain country or race. It's like you don't know which country Eugene O'Neill and Dürrenmatt are from, but when you look at the works "Beyond the Horizon" and "Old Woman Returns Home", you like it. Eating and drinking Lasa, tangled pursuits, fearful desires, the most universal human nature, are all common. ”
In 2000, Ning Li was admitted to the University of Minnesota to study filmmaking. He applied to be a "second landlord", helping the landlord to take care of the house and shovel snow and mow grass to offset the rent. "It's a cold winter in Minnesota, and I can hear my feet squeaking on the snow along the way, and I have a very pretentious feeling that I'm working on my dreams." Years later, he recalls the freezing morning when he walked from his residence to the school editing room.
Reverse smoking, low-key shoe repair
In 2017, Ning Li played the killer Li Toyota in "Undocumented Crime", and netizens commented that this man made the winter in Harbin colder.
10 years ago, Ning Li returned to China. He was in his 20s when he left, and when he returned, he became the "uncle and uncle" of other people, and he did not reach out and play the main role, went to audition again and again, and was eliminated again and again. "At first there was a big loss, and then I wanted to open." Ning Li said, "This circle is originally a pyramid, and it is not sincerely rushing at you alone." "In the case of not having to pick, what role is given, he will try to enrich it and play it well."
So 10 years, Ning Li waited for Li Toyota.
He did not conform to the public's impression of the killer, with a torn cotton jacket, halterneck cotton gloves, greasy hair, and a beard, just like the ordinary people who sweep the streets, collect the rags, and burn the boiler every day. It is such a person, who smashes the little bastard with an ashtray, wipes the blood with the pennant above his head nearby; after a group fight, he spits out the half-pulled ear in his mouth without expression; while nibbling on the chicken leg, he uses a shovel to chop the corpse; he asks for money from the black boss and carries the strawberry environmental protection bag used by the big mother to buy vegetables; after killing people and sending text messages, it is a cute emoji...
· In "Undocumented Crimes", Ning Li played the killer Li Toyota.
The classic "reverse smoking" comes from Ning Li's design. He can't smoke, specially bought a box of research, pulled out the cotton wool in the filter mouth, held it in his mouth, lit the remaining paper, and the flame burned his beard, illuminating the face of "Li Toyota", which was particularly vicious.
With "Li Toyota", Ning Li won the title of "Human High Quality Villain". Since then, he has starred in "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth", also adapted from Zijin Chen's novels, from a perverted murderer to a slippery little citizen to a barrister who sacrificed his life to atone for his sins, one person spanning the "reasoning trilogy".
For Ning Li, everything was the same as before, "at that time there was no more effort, and now there is no easier."
In the recently released "Love Myth", Ning Li made a cameo appearance as a small cobbler who repaired shoes. He deliberately found a shoe repair master and studied seriously for half a month. When the actual shooting, there is no time for him to show, "but you stand there, facing the shoe stall, the leather apron, the machine in your hand, people are not nervous, even the feeling of sitting on the maza is different." 」
This shoemaker, who has been repairing shoes for others for a lifetime, can distinguish the style of life of the owner when he looks at the shoes. He has his own COFFEE TIME (coffee time) every day, eats the bento in the aluminum lunch box and holds a fork; can recognize Jimmy Choo at a glance, and also talks about art and women in English.
· In "Love Myth", Ning Li (left) made a cameo appearance as a shoemaker.
Some time ago, Ning Li read a book "Looking for an Expert", a German reporter interviewed a lot of experts, there are researchers on particle colliders, there are midwives, plumbers, and so on. He sighed: "When a person chooses a profession, obsesses over it, and studies it, it is really very happy." ”
He remembered his father. "When I was a child, my father was sent to the Anhui Tannery and cut the skin every day, which was oily and smelly. But he likes machinery, so it is not painful at all, and he is an advanced worker every year. "Ning Ideal, when you don't act in the future, you can try to be a carpenter." When the children grow up and get married, they may be able to give a set of furniture, and if they are not good, they can also make a chopstick holder.
Every time he entered the group, Ning Li would bring some books to read. This time from Shanghai, the luggage was overweight, and the fine was 360 yuan. When he was idle, he stayed in the house, reading books and blowing holes.
Music occupies an important place in his life. At the age of 11, his mother died in a car accident. My father bought a hand-cranked phonograph, and the family returned to normal life with the soothing of music. Growing up, Ning Li fell in love with the Beatles, fell in love with Lennon, fell in love with Elton John, Bon Jovi, Gunflower, Coldplay... "When I was a child, I listened to it and liked to read lyrics when I grew up. Ning Li said. The love you take equals the love you make", which is his favorite sentence: As much love as you give, you get as much love as you want.