Wu Jingjing, chief reporter of Elephant News Oriental Today
The opening of the Winter Olympics is imminent, and the inspirational sports competition drama "Beyond" is also being broadcast on Oriental Satellite TV. This work, which focuses on the key project of the Winter Olympic Games, "short track speed skating", allows many viewers to understand the past and present life of China's short track speed skating. Hu Jun, Sha Yi, Tu Songyan, Ma Li, Mei Ting, Tong Yao, Zhang Guoqiang, Li Gengxi, Gao Zhiting, Liu Yitie and other new generation actors performed the story of three generations of short track speed skaters. In the play, young actor Gao Zhiting plays Chen Jingye, a young athlete in the 90s, as China's first generation of short track speed skaters, he surpasses himself with sweat and will, and strives for honor for the motherland. From Wu Baisong in "Little Beautiful", Xiao Wu in "Humble City", to the young Chen Jingye in "Beyond", the character type of Gao Zhiting is almost no longer repeated, and this time playing a short track speed skater is a big challenge for Gao Zhiting, and he has successfully demonstrated the arduous struggle history of the first generation of Chinese short track speed skaters through hard training. In an interview with Elephant News, he shared quite a few behind-the-scenes stories, in fact, he couldn't skate at all until he played the role.
Play the same person as Hu Jun
"Probably the skin color that we are most similar to!"
"Beyond" focuses on the key event of the Winter Olympics "short track speed skating", telling the inspirational story of short track speed skater Chen Mian (Li Gengxi) with his indelible love and strong will, from a member of the qingdao team to a national team athlete, and finally stood on the winter Olympic field. The play adopts a dual-time narrative, focusing on the 1980s when China's short track speed skating rose, showing the moving feelings of the first generation of short track speed skaters and coaches who struggled under difficult conditions and went out for the country. On the other hand, it focuses on the contemporary era, depicting the inspirational spirit of the new generation of athletes represented by Chen Mian bravely chasing dreams and winning glory for the country. In the two time and space lines of the 1990s and the present, the chronicle of three generations of short track speed skaters surpassing themselves and winning glory for the country is portrayed, and the inheritance spirit of athletes is also shown.
"Beyond" brings together many powerful actors, such as Chen Mian's father Chen Jingye is played by Hu Jun, which is also a retired athlete of the older generation, while Zheng Kaixin, played by Sha Yi, is the head coach of Chen Mian and the main person in charge of the qingdao speed skating team. The role of Chen Jingye runs through the two time and space lines of the 1990s and the present, the passionate struggle of Chen Jingye (Gao Zhiting) in his youth for short-track speed skating, and the further inheritance and selfless dedication of Chen Jingye (Hu Jun) in middle age, which are portrayed by the two actors as the same and clear.
In Gao Zhiting's view, he played the young Chen Jingye, the captain of the short track speed skating team, responsible, moral, in the training field and equipment are particularly rudimentary, he led the team to win the first gold medal in short track speed skating for China. Compared with the middle-aged period played by Hu Jun, Gao Zhiting's interpretation of the same role is obviously more enthusiastic and eager to "transcend", and he has overcome his physical conditions and constantly challenged the limits in training again and again. Speaking of Hu Jun, a predecessor who played the same role, Gao Zhiting laughed and said, "The most similar is probably the skin color, haha, but Teacher Hu Jun was taller and more powerful than me when he was younger, more mature, and more flavorful."
Q: What was the opportunity to take over "Beyond" this time? What do you most appreciate about Chen Jingye?
A: At that time, I also went to audition, the drama side wanted to find a darker actor, at that time I did not know that it was the youth of Teacher Hu Jun, probably because it was more similar, through the audition, it was tried. When I first got the script, I still liked Chen Jingye, because he was a more complicated person, his mind was very heavy, and the sense of fate he carried made people feel sad and distressed.
Q: What are the similarities between you and Mr. Hu Jun?
A: It may be that the skin color is more similar, haha, but when Teacher Hu Jun was younger, he was taller and more powerful than me, more mature, and more flavorful.
Q: If different people play, will you discuss how to complete the unification of Chen Jingye's role?
A: I think the director here has the greatest credit, the director will help me and Teacher Hu Jun to complete more of the unity of the role, such as the coherence of the script, etc., mainly the director's coordination and deployment in the middle.
Q: This time, Ma Li played Wu Qinghong, the founding coach of the first generation of mainland short track speed skating team, which also made people shine, she is your coach in the play, how does the cooperation feel?
A: The cooperation with Ms. Ma Li is very pleasant and very happy, she is my sister, the communication is very smooth, Ms. Ma Li has also helped us a lot, it is really this kind of emotion between the coach and the team members. I think the emotion between the character and the coach is that she is a teacher and a friend, Ms. Mary is like a mother, everyone is really a family, she is a big parent, we are all children in the family, everyone is for the good of this family.
Q: With the Winter Olympics just around the corner, what is the difference in mentality in taking over a work on the theme of "Beyond"?
A: It's more intense than shooting other scenes, because the Winter Olympics are coming, so I hope to be able to act well, show the spirit and style of our Olympic athletes, and don't shame them.
Wear short sleeves in the snow and ice
"It's nothing, it's a shame to play a role like this"
Chen Jingye in the play is a hard-working player, in the context of the times at that time, short track speed skating was not taken seriously, there was no professional venue and facilities, Chen Jingye only insisted on it with a passion. Gao Zhiting's interpretation of this role is also very outstanding, through his pure and resolute eyes, and professional movements without dragging mud and water, he perfectly presents a young Chinese athlete with lofty dreams and does not want to be trapped in the status quo. In addition, Gao Zhiting also successfully deduced the multi-faceted nature of the young Chen Jingye as a young man dressed in fresh clothes and angry horses - Chen Jingye has the responsibility of a captain, and in the face of the evil forces, he will not hesitate to face it bravely and insert a knife for his friend's two ribs; and in the face of the person he likes, unlike the fierceness of desperate efforts on the ice, the shyness and helplessness of the teenager add a cuteness to this character.
In addition to the performance, recalling the filming situation at that time, "cold" is everyone's deepest feeling. He still remembers running in short sleeves in the ice and snow of Harbin, "There is a scene where the train comes, everyone is wearing short-sleeved shorts and wearing down jackets, waiting, as soon as the train comes, everyone takes off and starts running." But this kind of physical torture is nothing in retrospect," and now I slowly liked this sport, standing on the podium during the filming process, and seeing the moment the national flag was raised, the national pride really came out of nowhere, and I felt that everything was worth it!" ”
Q: In the scene, the ice knife is loosened by the opponent, resulting in a heart-wrenching scene of injury, what was the situation when filming?
A: I was still quite impressed by that scene. Because my screw was loosened and injured, Zheng Kaixin wanted to find the qitaihe team member theory. Before filming began, the director told Zheng Kaixin, "Let's really fight this scene, and you will really fight in a while." Zheng Kaixin was more hesitant, the director said "you don't want to fight, you can't get your hands off, today we have been fighting here", so when they clashed in the scene, the fist was really strong and smashed on the opponent's face, of course, he also apologized to the other party, and the other party also said that it didn't matter, it was all for the good of the play.
Q: Did the filming process encounter difficulties or challenges in the performance?
A: What impressed me more was the scene where Jiang Hong was injured, because Chen Jingye and Jiang Hong's feelings were very deep, and after Jiang Hong was injured, Chen Jingye pushed him to the ice rink, and at that time, he needed very full and rich emotions to perform this scene. But when shooting, the emotions were not so full, and I couldn't get out of that emotion all the time. Everyone was very anxious, I was also very anxious, sitting there calmly for a long time, Zhu Jiaqi, who played Jiang Hong, was always by my side, because the ice was very cold, he had to lie on the ice waiting for me. Because of me, he lay several times on the ice. There was one I saw him lying there, I felt particularly helpless, I went over to hug Zhu Jiaqi, hugged for a long time, Zhu Jiaqi later told me that he was the first time to let a man hold him for so long, haha. But it is also in the process of helping each other that everyone is familiar with each other, and this brotherhood is slowly revealed.
Q: Seeing that you are running in the snow in short-sleeved shorts in the scene, is it really filmed by the Pine Flower River in winter?
A: Yes, we probably took a few scenes on the banks of the Songhua River, and I remembered that one was outside the road and the other was on Sun Island. It is really on the side of the Songhua River, running in the ice and snow of Harbin, there is a shot of the train driving over, everyone is wearing short-sleeved shorts and down jackets waiting, as soon as the train comes, everyone takes off and starts running.
Q: In fact, short track speed skaters are a more professional role, what are the more profound feelings and experiences after acting?
A: I feel that short track speed skating is a very challenging sport, and I feel very lucky to be involved in this show. Through continuous training, the speed skating gradually skilled and slowly like this sport, in the filming process standing on the podium, see the moment the national flag was raised, that kind of national pride really came out of nowhere, think everything is worth it, so the overall is still more bloody, more burning that feeling, I also feel that I can play such a role is very proud.
Training for 70 days
Start from scratch and train short track speed skating
In the play, Chen Jingye is an excellent short track speed skater, and outside the play, Gao Zhiting is a layman who can't skate – although he grew up in the northeast. So for this role, this rare tough guy type student in the entertainment industry participated in the 70-day intensive training before filming, training for up to seven or eight hours a day. Starting from scratch, you can imagine how badly you fell during the practice. Later, after gradually getting acquainted, he began a long period of ice training, and because he was too devoted, his feet also trimbled several times and three times. The director of this drama once revealed in an interview that when shooting outdoor wild ice rink scenes, the northeast only had a low temperature of minus ten degrees, and the actors needed to work more than 15 hours a day for several consecutive days.
Gao Zhiting said that thanks to this arduous shooting experience, he further resonated with Chen Jingye 30 years ago - under the same bad weather conditions and high-intensity psychological pressure, the athletes at that time could maintain excellent results, constantly surpass themselves in the training repeated every day, and he also hoped that every scene of his would be able to go all out and perform more brilliantly than the last time. Whether it is competitive sports or ordinary people's lives, only a very small number of people can go to the top, but "surpassing themselves" is something that every ordinary person can get through hard work, which is probably the spiritual connotation that "Beyond" wants to convey to the audience.
In fact, during the filming process, Gao Zhiting was also touched by the dedication and love of the Olympic athletes for their dreams several times, "I hope that through the role of young Chen Jingye, more audiences can feel the fighting spirit of the athletes passed down from generation to generation, as well as the unremitting pursuit of dreams." ”
Q: How long have you been training for this role? Is there anything you find particularly difficult?
A: Before shooting, we probably did a short track speed skating training for almost 70 days, because I couldn't skate before, everything started from scratch, and slowly now everyone sees this state. Skating was still very difficult for me at the beginning, it was not only a kind of training for physical fitness, but also mental and willpower, although our training volume did not reach the level of athletes, but it was also our limit. The previous understanding of short track speed skating is some wonderful replays of world champions such as Wang Meng, Zhou Yang, Wu Dajing, etc., but through this play, I will understand more and more deeply.
Q: In addition to the need to learn ice technology, in terms of character building, what similarities or differences do you think are with Chen Jingye that need to be more accurately grasped?
A: Maybe I have also been a class leader, Chen Jingye as a captain, this feeling of being a "leader" may be easier for me to grasp, including the relationship with the coach, in fact, the relationship between Chen Jingye and Coach Wu is very similar to the relationship between me and my teacher. The difference is that maybe I have no heart and no lungs, and I don't have as heavy as Chen Jingye's mind.
Q: As a Harbin native, are you familiar with ice and snow and ice sports before?
A: In my impression, the people in our hometown will play some ice and snow games on the ice surface of the Songhua River in winter, smoke ice, climb plows, etc., and also go skiing on the snow field. Most of the crew of "Beyond" are northerners, just like Liu Yitie and Zhu Jiaqi I came into contact with, they are all northerners, so they have a certain understanding of ice and snow, but because this year just caught up with the freezing rain in Harbin, the trees are hanging on the ice, and after they arrived in Harbin, they were still quite shocked.
Q: In your previous works, you have created different styles of characters, and you have also been well received by many audiences, what kind of characters and themes would you like to experience next?
A: Next, you may want to experience the theme of military service, playing a soldier.