White dress Chloé
In the popular TV series "Children of the Qiao Family", Mao Xiaotong played Qiao Sanli. Qiao Sanli is the third eldest among the five brothers and sisters of the Qiao family, because there are older brothers and younger siblings under the upper brothers, and Sanli has been sensible since she was a child. The shadow of childhood has made her always shrink in her "protective shell", she is gentle and tenacious and knows what she wants to live, always "sober in the world". Talking about the similarities between herself and Sanli, Mao Xiaotong said, "Carry clearly, this is also where I am more similar to her, but she is more tolerant than I can." This is the first time that Mao Xiaotong has played a role with a relatively large age span, and both the appearance and the inner shaping are challenges for her.
Mao Xiaotong didn't cry often, and if he did, it was mostly because he was upset with himself. Such emotions come and go quickly, "I feel that my performance does not meet my requirements, I will be very anxious, I will cry when I am stressed, but it will not be too long, I can wash my face and continue to do what I did before." 」 ”
She had some small scars on her body, most of which were left by work, not obvious, and she didn't care, and when she needed to give her arms and calves a little foundation, she could cover them clean. "The universe is big, we're small, do what's in front of you." I still want to be a good actor. ”
In Mao Xiaotong's logic, "very good actor" is not an energetic concept. "To be precise, I should be able to do my best to do everything I am exposed to, at least to reach the passing line in my heart, rather than having to set myself a 'punch' or 'blockbuster' first."
A WOMAN WE LOVE
At the 27th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Award for Best Supporting Actress, Mao Xiaotong stopped at the nomination, as she herself said, "Do not forget the original heart, continue to work hard." The night before the award, she said on Weibo that although it was a very important affirmation to be nominated, she was still as nervous as checking the results of the college entrance examination in the face of the award ceremony.
Time back to May this year, Mao Xiaotong's nomination for Magnolia Best Supporting Actress was announced on the day, the crew gave her a middle shift, and when she woke up, it was more than 12 o'clock at noon. "There was a lot of information in the phone, all kinds of blessings and congratulations, and then I read Weibo in detail to know."
Until the day of the interview, the whole team was immersed in a very simple and cheerful heart. Everyone agreed that the shortlisting was already a great affirmation, and if it did not win the prize in the end, it was "too normal", and if it won the prize, "it was really lucky".
The agent also laughed and said, "I have to remind her that she will have to be a little stretched and beautiful when the time comes." ”
Spring/summer pink short sleeves, spring/summer pink bandeau dress Isabel Marant
Not Sweet Sister
Mao Xiaotong is petite, with short and neat hair, and his eyes are bent when he laughs. During the interview, she sat in a larger chair with a backrest, and the chair was the same color as the clothes on her body, making people think that her legs could be retracted by the whole person. Coupled with a pair of big eyes and a sweet smile, many people's impression of Mao Xiaotong is a beautiful sweet girl.
"But I really don't. I was originally a very quiet person, before filming "Love Is Back", I spent three years in Hengdian, all of them were costume plays, and Wang Chuanjun saw me and felt like an ancient. At that time, I didn't take the initiative to talk to others, others talked to me first, I didn't know how to take it down, really, what kind of yinggui people I was. But The role of Bao Niannian required me to become a little girl with barbie powder all over her body and a blonde princess curly hair. So during the time when I played her, I mobilized myself to a very high emotion every day, constantly amplifying the lively and cheerful side of my personality, and when the scene was almost finished, Wang Chuanjun said that I became a lot more lively, like a monkey. ”
On the day of the shooting, the makeup artist who came to the scene after working with Mao Xiaotong for six or seven years also provided some supporting evidence: "The first time she made up makeup, she was still young, it was quieter than now, but her personality has always been particularly good, straight to the point, no change." ”
Mao Xiaotong tried to explore: How did Wen Wen's quiet self become the way he loves to talk and laugh today? She summed up the reasons, probably in her twenties, when her personality was developed, she concentrated on playing some extroverted and agile roles, which developed her current personality. For the stranger who interviewed Mao Xiaotong for the first time, chatting with her was comfortable, almost no sense of distance, easy to talk, kind and talkative. "But at that time, many people thought that I was Bao Niannian himself, and thought that I was the true color of the actor, and when I saw it in the interview or other occasions later, they asked me, why is your voice so low?" Isn't it the high-pitched one? ”
In the two years just after graduating from Chinese opera, Mao Xiaotong almost spent time in the "running group", with a resume to audition one group after another, fighting for roles, and the role of "Ying Guiren" in "The Biography of Zhen Huan" was tried back in this way. She can't remember exactly when she started, she no longer needs to run the group, and can start to play some more important roles. "If I remember correctly, probably after the broadcast of "Tianya Mingyue Dao", the first time (the drama side) felt that I was the right character, it should be Zhong Ling of "Tianlong Eight Parts"."
Mini dress Louis Vuitton
Ten years into the industry, Mao Xiaotong is basically in a state of "no gap work". On the online introduction page, she can't finish several pages of the roles she has played, but she seems to be able to clearly remember the details of each role she has created. Such details do not need to be recalled hard, but are always chatting and chatting, and naturally she uses them as examples to assist in expression.
"Sometimes I get anxious and my performance doesn't meet my requirements. The first month of filming "The Woman of the Knife Family" I was anxious, reading the script every day, thinking about it all the time... Let me act now, maybe with a bigger grasp. At that time, I was 24 years old, and the role of Mingyue, my experience, personality, and experience were far away from her. The only thing I'm similar to her is probably a little stubbornness in my bones. It was a period drama, Mingyue was also the daughter of a warlord, especially sassy, and could ride horses and shoot, and her marksmanship was still hugely accurate, from the time she was just married to the later pregnancy or something. The director hopes that this role has a time span change and the contrast of the character, looking at a thin little girl, but in fact, it is very courageous, and it is really quite different from me at that time. Later, I thought about it every day, and after thoroughly thinking about it, I slowly began to smooth it out. ”
To this day, such anxiety still occurs from time to time.
Not long ago, "The Ebola Front Line of Great Powers" has just been completed in Wanning, Hainan, and it was the first time mao Xiaotong wanted to "rest" since he started his career. This drama is based on the 2014 Chinese medical team aid to Africa as the background of the story, in order to restore "Africa", the art teacher of the crew set up a very realistic real scene, coupled with the African actors who came and went with prop guns, so that Mao Xiaotong was unconsciously nervous when he arrived at the crew.
"I thought it was comfortable to shoot in Hainan in the winter, and I didn't prepare heavy clothes at all. As a result, the sea breeze there blew up and I said that my lines were all mouthed. The story takes place in Africa, so the costumes are half-sleeved and short-sleeved, and I know that Hainan is quite cold in winter. But these were just "little accidents", barely worth mentioning compared to other accidents in her career, which she had rarely carried. What really made her anxious again was the large amount of English dialogue in the play.
He Huan, played by Mao Xiaotong, is a journalist who has aspired to report untold stories since childhood. Because of her profession, many times she needs to communicate with the locals in English. Opponents of the play partners are all foreigners who speak English, with the deepening of the plot, the amount and difficulty of English lines are getting higher and higher, these objective requirements increase the difficulty of the play, Mao Xiaotong while adapting, while allowing himself to familiarize himself with these English dialogues.
"Because you can't think about it when you're shooting, it's not right to think about the emotion, you have to say it directly." The agent later added, "She is not a person who speaks English very well, so basically except for filming and sleeping, she is constantly practicing and memorizing lines to practice pronunciation." She should still be able to dub in the end, she herself or may have a professional teacher, but the mouth shape should also be matched, she requires her pronunciation and emotions to be accurate, and then collapses many times. Of course, these are all deserved, I don't want to emphasize that she is very hard and hard or anything, but I can really feel that she is a person who loves acting from the bottom of her heart, is in awe of acting, and focuses on acting. The agent paused, "It sounds a bit pretentious, but I really think so." ”
The lucky ones who are not pretentious
Applying for the Chinese drama and becoming an actor was decided by Mao Xiaotong and his mother at once. Mom saw a recruitment message for the performance preparatory class in Tianjin's "Daily News", and the mother and daughter agreed: let's go to school first.
On the weekends when she was a child, many friends were either resting or playing, but Mao Xiaotong's mother always used a small red two-four bicycle to take her everywhere to class, and the weekend was lined up for two days. Electronic keyboard, piano, vocal music, dance... Neither of them had made long-term plans, nor did they expect that Mao Xiaotong would eventually embark on the road of acting.
"I didn't actually study step by step, then go to school, and then become an actor, so planned to come, as if unconsciously developed into this." 」 At first, my mother just thought that it was better for girls to learn to play the piano, and they could cultivate their personality to be quiet, so they let me learn to play the piano. Later, once I saw children of the same age learning to dance, wearing small high heels, I also wanted to wear, my mother helped me sign up to learn the national standard. By chance, I spent some time in the choir again, learned some vocal music, participated in the Little Angel Orchestra, the Cradle Art Troupe, etc., and more or less saved some performance experience. Overall I feel like I'm lucky, so I also cherish my life now and cherish every role I have. ”
In fact, before she went to the preparatory class, she thought about the retreat from the Chinese opera. She promised her mother that if she couldn't pass the exam for two years, she would re-prepare for the college entrance examination, take the law major, and become a lawyer. But she passed the test once, and she didn't shy away from it: "It's really lucky." ”
"But there are also a lot of people who are not so lucky, and many things don't necessarily work hard to succeed, would you persuade them to give up?"
"Then you still have to keep that 'dream.'"
The writer Hlabar once said a very moving sentence: "Although my road is full of weeds from beginning to end, I am the only one who bears witness to my life." ”
This sentence can almost summarize Mao Xiaotong's attitude towards "dreams". Even today, she still believes that dreams are distant and beautiful, and that they must be worked for. "No matter how hard it is, you try to do it well. The worst result is that you don't succeed, but the scenery you see along the way will become something you have gained, which cannot be erased. ”
Before the launch of "Thirty Only", the entire creative team knew very well that this would be a good drama without compromise. But later, the popularity of this drama was unexpected by everyone. Director Zhang Xiaobo told everyone at a dinner party with the actors: "I don't know how this scene (the reaction of the broadcast) is over, but I can guarantee that you, everyone involved in this drama, will not regret it." ”
In the end, this drama was acclaimed and popular, and when it was broadcast, it was a hot spot in public opinion, and later won a number of nominations for Magnolia in one go.
Mao Xiaotong told me her story while putting on makeup, and we looked at each other in the mirror. I noticed that when talking about this memory, for a moment she suppressed the impulse to heat her eyes: "At that moment, everyone's ideas were really pure, and we had no regrets about our efforts." That power is great, it is very touching to hear, it is very surging and surging. ”
But when asked questions like "what is a dream," "what do you want to do," or "long-term/short-term goals," she usually gives an answer that isn't surprising after a little thought: "Be a good actor." ”
The agent was not at all surprised by this: "Anyone who has been with her will know that this is her truest thought." She's not talking about it every day, but you get that reality in what she does every day, in her own hands, and she's really someone who's been studying acting. ”
Dreams are distant and beautiful things. No matter how difficult it is, you try to do your best, and the worst result is that you don't succeed, but the scenery you see along the way will become what you have gained.
The so-called pain
The agent then gave an example: "For example, she played that World of Warcraft game, which is very powerful, and is the vice president of the guild inside." But because she wanted to concentrate on filming, she said that she would quit. I don't play games, but I know it's not that easy, and I admire her for that. ”
Earlier this year, Mao Xiaotong asked for help on Weibo, trying to retrieve his ten-year-old game account. Later, with the help of the game platform, she quickly found her account, and was also ridiculed by netizens as "Krypton gold in 2012!" ”
Another member of the team said: "She is the kind of person who identifies the target and will die." Some time ago, she went to "Creation Camp" to perform with her brothers, and she felt that she should at least be very skilled at dancing the whole song before acting with her brothers. But because the time to practice dance was very short, she was in a hurry not to practice well, and she wanted to be strong, so she secretly cried herself. But I didn't cry for too long, and I quickly washed my face and continued practicing. ”
In the past, in order not to burden others and bring negative emotions, Mao Xiaotong would often "endure", "carry" and "boil", and choose silence when he found problems. Later, she found that this kind of treatment often put things into inefficient mode and did not help solve the problem, and she slowly began to choose to "speak directly".
"I don't like to bend over backwards, grinding for half a day is actually a waste of everyone's time." What information to convey can be said directly. As long as I am telling the truth, I can consider it from your point of view and position, and I am a person who can accept the truth and can also accept different voices. After work, I found that time is really precious, and adults will have a psychological endurance and acceptance of each other, maybe just say it and then this matter will pass, how to do things to continue to move forward, will not leave any mustard in the heart. On the contrary, the process of guessing each other's minds may breed some unnecessary misunderstandings, which is quite tiring. ”
"So if there's a misunderstanding, will you rush to clarify it?"
"Depending on the situation, the people around you may explain it, but it is generally solved naturally, and it is not very specific to explain."
"For example, for a while, the titles related to you could not escape the keywords of misery and bitterness?"
"There are also people who say that I am depressed and have committed suicide, saying that it is good to find out in time." I laughed at it, I obviously Weibo is also updating, and it is not missing. And I was recording the New Dance Forest Conference, and I was dancing every day, but someone still wrote it, or someone wrote it. I can't explain to everyone which one is the real me. But slowly, everyone naturally understood. ”
Such a misunderstanding more or less affected her, and if she did not have a good enough mentality, it was difficult to ignore it. Just like at the end of "Thirty Only", Mao Xiaotong wrote to "Zhong Xiaoqin" in a long Weibo: We must have a strong heart and be our own safe haven. She longs for what Junichi Watanabe calls "blunt sensitivity," but she asks herself that she is still in the process of "practicing", constantly making her heart stronger and stronger. "Because people's emotions can't be completely consumed, I still have to shoot scenes and express them."
An actress once said that a good actor cannot play in life. Mao Xiaotong also agrees with this point of view, "It seems that as long as I shoot a scene, I have always been able to do what the teacher taught me to really listen to, really see and really feel, and have the 'sensitivity' that I need as an actor." But it is very strange that in life, I have become more and more 'cultivating' myself very 'dull'. ”
Mao Xiaotong said he wanted to play a lawyer. "On the one hand, because I originally wanted to study the Fa, I had even begun to think at that time, if I helped others win the lawsuit, would the responsible party come to retaliate against me?" She couldn't help laughing. "On the other hand, I've always been interested in this kind of thing with strict literal logic, and I like this kind of very rational thing." She thought about it for a moment and then added: "But it can't be the kind of cute little white lawyer who loves no head, can't be very demented in order to highlight the genius of the opponent's role, if it is a very powerful, even if it is a villain role, it must be like Li Changru of "Splendid Weiyang", although the 'three views' are not correct, but there is a complete set of self-consistent logic. ”
Floral silk shirt Alice + Olivia
Based on Mao Xiaotong's obsession with logic, the staff told me that they privately said that Mao Xiaotong was "stainless steel", that is, "straighter than a straight woman in steel, what to say, straight to the point, get can't (many hints), completely will not turn a corner." Mao Xiaotong's English name is "momo", which means peach, and she recently bought herself a pink peach phone case with a soft and pinchable three-dimensional peach on the back. It was a silicone material that was easily dirty, and at first she cleaned it every day and powdered it. Within a few days she wouldn't have left it alone, letting it go so dirty.
Originally, Mao Xiaotong's remarkable "stainless steel" image has gradually become clear, but when we talked about her family pet, a cat and a dog, we suddenly broke the defense.
"My dog has been around for a long time, and the kittens have only been around lately. Some crew hotels do not allow pets, so I take them home and let my mother help keep them. Heck, I used to call myself 'Mom' to them, but when I came home, my mom was already a 'mom' and I put on little clothes that didn't quite match my aesthetics, and I was 'transformed' into a sister. She smiled helplessly and sighed softly.
I suddenly understood that perhaps gentleness is also one of the characteristics of a woman, after experiencing some clumsy, shaky but firm growth, accumulated over time, and became a huge energy stored in her small body.
Photograph by Howcan Studio
Interview, Author: Ye Qing
Coordinator, Editor: Warm small group
Makeup, hairstyle: Wan Yunfeng
Costume styling: Ao Han
Lighting Daisuke: Ni Binguo
Assistant: Shi Yue
Venue available: Circle Camp
Art Editor: Lee Chu Chu
New Media Editor: Neil