The path of acting is like a never-ending spiritual meditation
A spiritual dialogue with Zhan Weihua
Author: Liu Lin
Zhan Weihua related information:
Name: Zhan Weihua Occupation: Drama (film) Actor Origin: Weihai, Shandong Height: 1.83m
Art Hobbies: Calligraphy, Poetry Graduated from: Department of Acting, Central Academy of Drama (1993 undergraduate class)
He is Zhang Dabiao, a battalion commander in "Bright Sword", and Zhang Datie, the commander of the sharp knife company in "Three Eight Lines". Big man with iron bones. His eyes were full of determination, and the courage of the soldiers was revealed next to his face, and when he walked towards him, he would definitely feel a murderous and puffy blood, a kind of heroism of charging into battle. He is Zhan Weihua, a man who struggles tenaciously in the film and television circle.
The road to acting is heavy and long, and he has played countless roles in running dragon sets, and he almost wants to change careers. But in the end, like a soldier, he stubbornly persevered on his favorite artistic path.
From 1997 to 2003, he played many soy sauce roles, and in 2004, he ushered in his first peak work "Bright Sword". In the play, he played the role of zhang Dabiao, who was iron-blooded and high-spirited, and the audience was widely known.
In 2016, he played Zhang Tieda, the commander of the sharp knife company, in "Three Eight Lines", which was very popular and deeply loved by the audience.
Recently, we have been talking for a long time. A pot of tea, half a pot of wine, admiring the soldier, he talked about his story like a warrior who cut through thorns, through the wind and waves, unswerving. He was so in awe of his profession that it was more like he was engaged in an orderly meditation: "Joy of the heart, righteousness, truthfulness, and breaking through."
Zhan Weihua said that I reminded me of a theme in today's chat, that is, "where a person's interest lies is where his talent lies." From this, the content of the chat begins with the story of his childhood life.
Joy: Interest makes a talent
How did I get interested in acting? It all starts with childhood. When I was about four or five years old, my parents took me to see a movie, widescreen, color, the name of the movie was "Three Laughs", starring Chen Sisi, filmed in Hong Kong. The first time I saw the image moving on the screen, I was fascinated by the special beauty of the film. Tang Bohu, Qiu Xiang,...... It felt beautiful. I still have tears in my eyes when I think about it, and it was from that time that I began to have a deep impression of the movie. I remember watching the afternoon show, coming out of the theater was still bright, and as soon as I came out, I told my dad that when I grew up, I would also become an actor. My dad paused and said, son, it's not so easy to be an actor, you still have to read well. He may not know that this movie has laid the foundation for the dream I have worked for all my life. Today is a very meaningful day, a watershed in my life, twenty-three years in Shandong, twenty-three years in Beijing, forty-six years old, I am forty-six years old. There will be more days in Beijing from today.
Now that I think about it, it was fate that I embarked on the road to acting. I didn't know much at the time, but I liked watching movies since then. It was in Zaozhuang, Shandong. Before that, our country had a grand strategy, the enterprise moved inland, and my parents moved from the coast to Zaozhuang from the coast to follow the enterprise. Zaozhuang is a coal city, life is very boring, watching movies is my only entertainment and spiritual enjoyment when I was a child, at that time, no matter how good or bad the plot is, every movie must be seen, and every time will be immersed in its plot, in today's words, very hi, very intoxicated. Of course, the cost of watching movies is paid by parents. This has a problem, how to make my parents willing to give me this money? It's about doing well, working more, doing well at home, and then getting a movie. Movie ticket prices I started with two cents, and then three cents, five cents, eight cents... Looked all the way over. There was a sign at the entrance of the theater that said what movies were going to be shown on Saturday, and then I went home and told my parents. Mom and Dad said that you perform well, and if you perform well, you will let you see. I helped my parents share the housework, found work for myself, and worked very hard, just to watch a movie. But once my mother changed her mind, and on Saturday, I didn't give it, and I cried in that pain, and I was really heartbroken. My father couldn't bear to see me so sad, and finally persuaded my mother to support my love of movies, so I took the money and ran away in time to see the second show. He did this until he was nineteen years old.
At the age of 20, I have graduated from vocational high school and started working as an electrician in a factory. I had a small hair, and that day I went to his house to play, and suddenly I heard that he was admitted to the drama performance department of Shandong Arts College. My little hair was slightly proud to tell us about his examination process, how to enter the Mountain Arts Drama Department, and he talked about the flying eyebrow dance, and I was envious of the side. He suddenly said Wei Hua you can also take the exam, your voice, height can be, your all aspects of the conditions are above me, I have no problem, you can definitely pass the professional exam. Sending a small sentence also strengthened my determination to take the exam! At that time, I didn't know that there was the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy, and I knew the Shandong Academy of Arts. The next year I went to the exam, a test of art passed, or the ninth place in the province, and then received a notice of culture class, you can participate in the college entrance examination, after the result of the exam, a check score, 191 points, the score line is more than 200 points did not pass, not only am not depressed, but also scrappy, because my professional course passed. I was suddenly full of confidence and high morale, and decided to repeat the study to prepare for the next year's re-examination. When I re-read, I began to inquire where to recruit art students in the country, Shandong Academy of Arts did not enroll students that year, and the Central Academy of Drama enrolled. This is the first time I heard about the Central Academy of Drama, a question, people only recruited junior colleges, but also the orientation committee trainees, the heart is a little entangled did not take the exam, only took the Shanghai Theater Academy, the result was not admitted. Then I heard the good news that the following year, that is, in 1993, the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy both recruited undergraduate classes. So I happily went home to review, and as a result, I took the exam the next year. Before the results were announced, my father couldn't help but call the teacher of the Acting Department of the Central Academy of Drama to ask about my grades. At that time, it was Teacher Liang Bolong, the head of the Acting Department, who picked it up. Teacher Liang checked and said that your son's professional class is the first among the boys, and my father was very excited when he heard it. Teacher Liang went on to say that as long as your son reports to our school, even if the culture class is not enough, according to the regulations of our Ministry of Culture system, the top two in professional courses can be specially recruited. We were both amazed to hear this news, and the joy was indescribable, so the first choice filled in the Chinese opera, and then the second choice was the Beijing Film Academy. I was really obsessed with acting, and before that, I had only studied for seven days in the pre-exam training class of Chinese opera. My training teacher is called Teacher Liu Libin, those 7 days are like a dream, special hi, special happiness, because I like this, I like this from the bottom of my heart, I feel like I am like the New Year every day. Now that I think about it, in fact, what I learned in those 7 days was a fur, and the key was that I was interested in it. I remember that my substitute teacher, Mr. Gao Jingwen, also wrote a line on my list: I hope you can fill in our school as the first choice. As a result, I was really admitted, and the culture class was also passed, but something went wrong when I adjusted the file, and the teacher recruited by Shandong Province directly transferred my file to the Beijing Film Academy.
In this way, I became a student of the 93rd class of the film school, and I was also the class leader. But I wanted to go to Chinese opera, I thought that Chinese opera is a place to learn to perform, and then I appealed to the relevant departments of the Education Commission, but I did not expect to succeed, and then I transferred to the 93rd class of the Department of Chinese Opera Performance, becoming the first person to transfer across departments since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and I transferred from Nortel of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television to the Chinese Opera of the Ministry of Culture. So I studied acting in Chinese opera for three and a half years and performing in Nortel for half a year. In particular, the three and a half years of study of Chinese opera laid a very solid theoretical foundation for my performance. Of course, this may have something to do with your own efforts. Because I myself was admitted after work, so the age seems a little older, Zhu Yuanyuan, Liu Mintao, Li Naiwen, Zhao Chunyang, Su Ke, Wang Qianyuan, etc. in our class, they are all younger than me, the oldest in age, facing a group of younger brothers and sisters, a little inferior in mentality. Because it came from society, at that time, it was like a sponge, and I strongly wanted to absorb more comprehensive knowledge, and you wanted to be admitted to it easily, especially cherished, and worked hard. The thought of being able to enter such a high theater hall to study acting is a great honor and a great effort, so most of my spare time stays in the library. In addition to reading books on drama, I also read books on psychology, Jung, Adler, Freud, etc., and these books of everyone in psychology have always been my pillow books, and they still are. This is what Teacher Gao taught, he said that if you perform, you have to figure out the character, and you have to understand the psychology of the character when you figure out the character. I am very grateful to my mentor, Mr. Gao Jingwen. At that time, he asked us to submit an essay every week, to write it ourselves, to be sincere, and to practice our writing ability. I had the habit of writing poetry before I went to school, maybe everyone's emotions have something he is good at or likes, I like poetry, I think poetry is more refined, closer to the reality of life, more philosophical. Although I envy people who write prose well, I want to show my interests and hobbies, so I write poetry. The first article I wrote was a long poem, Teacher Gao was very surprised, and then said, well, you write poetry, you must insist on writing. So I've been writing about it now, and I have almost 300 poems on hand now, and I hope I have the opportunity to publish them in this book of poems. In the year I graduated from college, my poem was published in the Shenzhou Times, one of the largest Chinese newspapers in the United States, and there was a sentence in the poem, "Smoke paints your body, constitutes the coat of pain, and the tip of the tongue of the mind flees to cultivate salt...", which is to write my inner feelings, I was influenced by the poetry of the Jewish poet Nelly Sachs (masterpiece "Escape"). In addition to Nelly Sachs, tagore, including the originator of Symbolism and the French poet Portrell (masterpiece "The Flower of Evil"), has deeply influenced my style of poetry. At that time, reading psychology, philosophy, and writing poetry directly laid a solid theoretical foundation for me to shape my character image in the future.
Zhengding: Acting first learns to be a person
There is a person in my life who must be thankful, and he is my righteous father and teacher Lin Liankun. In the words of the older generation, he was once the "boss" of the Beijing People's Art Theater.
There is also a story about the relationship with the elderly. My line teacher, Mr. Wang Mingya, once said it when he gave us a lesson. Saying that if you study acting, you must go to Beijing Renyi to watch the drama "Dog Grandpa Nirvana" when you have the opportunity, and you must see a large monologue by Teacher Lin Liankun, that is called true kung fu. Seeing the performance on the stage was immediately impressed by his acting skills, and the pure performance made you not admire. I secretly decided that one day I would take Mr. Lin Liankun as a teacher and learn the essence of his performance. I didn't expect to meet soon at our alma mater. In 1995, we celebrated the "45th Anniversary Celebration of the Establishment of our alma mater", and Mr. Lin also came. As soon as I looked at it, I rushed up to a school's address book and asked him to sign it for me, but at that time I didn't dare to propose to worship the teacher, I knew I wasn't qualified enough. Immediately after that, I met Lin Zhaohua, the director of Beijing Renyi, and I also took the address book and asked Lin Dao to sign my name. He said yes, he took the address book to sign, looked at it, saw Lin Liankun's signature, and immediately said, "Oh, this is our home!" He said that he wrote his name under the rules under the old man.
Soon after, there was a second chance to get close to the old man. My alma mater held a "45th Anniversary Celebration" performance in Poly Building, and Mr. Lin also had a program, and I saw him again backstage and immediately walked over. I said hello Teacher Lin, I want to learn acting from you. Old Master Lin said, "Oh, I don't dare to say that, where are you?" "I said that I was Zhan Weihua, a student of our Chinese Opera Acting Department (Class 93). Mr. Lin said, "Oh, then we can discuss the performance together." Well, you make a phone call to me. So Old Master Lin told me the phone number at Fang Zhuang's house. Since then, I have embarked on a teacher-student journey with my mentor Lin Liankun until his old man's death. Through slow contact, I deeply felt that Mr. Lin, such a respected performance artist, did not have any shelf at all, and was kind and kind like an ordinary uncle next door, so the more I believed that the more people with real skills, the less shelves there were, and the people who had shelves were often those who were half a bottle of water.
Since then, every Sunday I have been going to the old man's house, and for three and a half years the old man has opened a small stove for me to teach me the art of performance, and I will benefit for life. I remember the first time I went to class, the old man sat on the couch, and I sat on the stool opposite him, and there was a coffee table in the middle. The first sentence that Mr. Lin said was "learn to act first to learn to be a person", and doing a good job is the basis of acting. Now that I think that's really true, especially for us who are acting. You think, acting is to show the characters, you don't even know what is good and what is bad, how can you play a good character, how can your character enter the hearts of the audience? Mr. Lin told me how he experienced the character of the dog grandfather in "Dog Grandpa Nirvana", and why did the dog grandpa wake up when he was crazy? Tell how he went to the outskirts of Beijing to experience life and how to observe and ponder this character. Breaking open and kneading the lecture, I did not tire of it, and I still remembered that Old Master Lin's voice and smile were like all in front of his eyes, and the past was vividly remembered. Mr. Lin said that the character Chang Gui's experience in the drama "The First Floor of the World" he played was very good: he said that when he was a child, his family was very well-off, when he was a child, every day when he went to school, he was picked up by rickshaw, and every day at noon he packed food and ate at the Donglai Shun Shabu Shop. Dong Lai Shun had a running hall guy who impressed him with his every move to take care of his meal, laying a solid foundation for shaping the character of Chang Gui, based on which he played Chang Gui in the drama "The First Floor of the World".
Time flew by, through following Teacher Lin to learn acting skills, not only the acting skills improved, the friendship between teachers and students was increasing with the same father and son, and later was accepted by Teacher Lin as a righteous son, line four, there are three brothers on it. Later, old Lin Yezi suffered from cerebral thrombosis and half of his body, so I took care of the old man with my family until he died.
As a student who graduated from the Department of Chinese Opera Performance, I have always had a complex of dramas in my heart, and by chance, I met Ren Ming, the director of the Beijing People's Art Theater and a famous director. When chatting, I told director Ren Ming that I especially wanted to act in dramas. He said okay, I'll find an opportunity for you to act. Soon after, in the first original drama "Wangfujing" directed by Ren Ming, he played Xiao Manjin, a representative of the criminal and evil forces and the anti-number one. I devoted myself to rehearsals for two and a half months. To this day, I still deeply remember the Qingming Festival holiday in 2011, I bought myself a box of instant noodles, closed the door for three days, took the script of the drama "Wangfujing", and immersed myself in the character of Xiao Manjin, which can be described as a kung fu worthy of the heart, and it is precisely because of the efforts of Tiandao reward that Xiao Manjin finally made Xiao Manjin really "live" on the stage of the premiere of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. And became the soul of this drama, which was called by director Ren Ming: "Xiao Manjin's soul possession". Up to now, the drama "Wangfujing" has a total of 112 performances in 9 rounds. In the past five years, in order to perform the drama "Wangfujing", I have pushed out the starring role of 7 film and television dramas, although from an economic point of view, I have lost some income, but I have no regrets, because I fulfilled my wish to perform a hundred dramas when I graduated from college. For this reason, I am deeply pleased and secretly determined that as long as the drama "Wangfujing" is performed, as long as I live, I will not miss it and insist on performing it. It is the glory of my life to be able to catch up with such a big drama in my lifetime.
Director Ren Ming once told me privately twice about Mr. Lin, once at the end of the premiere, and director Ren Ming said to me at the celebration banquet: If Mr. Lin can give you guidance again when he is alive, your performance will be more exciting. Another time, I came to his house as a guest, and he said that he was very grateful to Mr. Lin, who had fulfilled his dream of being a director in Beijing Renyi, and in the first drama he directed, "Uncle Beijing", Mr. Lin picked up the beam and entrusted him with a hand. This sentence made my heart "cluck" a little, and immediately thought of the word "retribution". I was very emotional in my heart, one was to sigh director Ren Ming's righteousness and gratitude, and the other was to feel that director Ren Ming's reward for Mr. Lin had reported to me, and I had suffered the favor of Mr. Lin, so in this life I could not live up to Mr. Lin's expectations and love.
Later, in each round of my performance, I tried to make a breakthrough and improve in performance. As long as there is a performance, nothing, no mood will affect my inner stage. I felt like I was on stage with two words: addicted or loved. Performing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts I leave home three hours early every day, such as opening at 7:30, putting on makeup at 6:30, I arrive at 4:00, and then brew a pot of tea and wait to calm myself down, which is a kind of enjoyment, a highly concentrated enjoyment. I'm not for anything else, I'm out of love for the performing arts of theatre, out of reverence for my profession, and I think stage performances are a sacred thing. As an actor, I have been working for twenty-three years, and I still love this profession to this day, and I can really experience the meaning of the phrase "where a person's interest lies is also his talent."
Truth: Life is precious
What is the real meaning of being an actor? I think it's a desire and pursuit of the performing arts. An actor in the true sense of the word should not abandon the roots buried in the depths of the soul for money and fame. I appreciate some thoughtful and aspiring actors, carefully selecting the value of the script when choosing a play, carefully speculating about whether the role is suitable for themselves, and not giving up their pursuit for the price of a play. Only when the effort is recognized by the audience, he feels relieved and satisfied. And such meaning and value can rarely be seen in the "small fresh meat".
On the road to success in life, how can we covet shortcuts, how can we be full of impetuosity, how can we value superficial flashiness? If you want to succeed, you must be able to withstand the dullness, loneliness and suffering of taking root downwards. If we regard every difficulty in life as a challenge and opportunity to "root down", then what storm cannot survive?
Exploration: Art nourishes the soul
Mr. Xu Xiaozhong, president of the Central Academy of Drama, who is also the artistic director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, said at our graduation ceremony in 1997, "You students who study acting, in the future, you will not fight for acting, what is it, it is cultural literacy, I hope you can be a cultured actor in the future." I keep this sentence firmly in mind. He went to the premiere of "Wangfujing", and at the celebration meeting he took my hand and said, "Oh, where have you been all these years?" I miss you a lot. I hope you can pay more attention to the stage. I will always remember this sentence.
My mentor and righteous father, Mr. Lin Liankun, told me that you must learn a side branch art, he nourishes your performance skills because the arts are the same, he and Mr. Xu Xiaozhong said the same truth, let me act well, be a good actor. I told the old man that I was practicing calligraphy, and he said well, you have to stick to it. Performing arts is my lifelong pursuit and the arrangement of God in the dark. I benefited from my fate nobles, Lin Liankun, Ren Ming, Gao Jingwen, Xu Xiaozhong, including my father, etc. Why say my father, because I write calligraphy thanks to my father.
I started writing calligraphy at the instigation of my father. My father said that words are human faces, and they must be written well. Because when I was a child, I was very playful, idle, what to plant yellow eels, catch grasshoppers, take bird eggs, touch snails, catch fish, climb over the wall, go to the house to uncover tiles, take a slingshot to hit birds in autumn, touch river crabs in October. I'm full of energy. My father thought I couldn't sit still, so he induced me to ask me to learn calligraphy. I am a person who is more filial piety, and wants to do what my father is happy about, who knows that after practicing, I will slowly like this. The earliest thing to learn was Yan Ti, Yan Zhenqing's character, my father in order to make me sit still, took me to Xinhua Bookstore, said you can read at will, like which we learn which. I fell in love with yan body, and the first copy of the poster "Magu Immortal Altar". After practicing for a year, my father found me a teacher, Ji Zuotang, a librarian at the Shandong Museum of Literature and History. I think he's a hermit, really only eight buckets. One of the brothers who worshiped the master with me before and after was called Pan Mengshi, and now he is a trinity of young and middle-aged calligraphy and painting seal carvings. We are all disciples of Mr. Ji Zuotang. After visiting him, he began to teach me to write, to teach me how to use gas, and to come to his house every week to give me two lessons. That was it until I went to college in 1993. At that time, he laid a solid basic skill, he said that if you want to lay a solid basic skill, you must start from the inscription, let me study Ouyang Xun's "Jiucheng Palace" and "Emperor Fujun" inscriptions, and the reference book is "Huang Ziyuanjian Frame Structure Ninety-Two Laws". These books had a great influence on me, and while I had played a very good basic skill in those three years, he led me to a correct path to learn calligraphy, which was not easy. So he is also a very important teacher in my life. After I came to Beijing to study, I kept practicing the basic skills of zhengkai according to his instructions, and more than twenty years have passed.
I think I'm stupid, 27 years have passed since 1989, and it wasn't until this year that I felt that my calligraphy had made a breakthrough and formed my own unique writing style. At the same time, it is also a return for my father's original expectations. Before that, I had given up, wandered, wandered, because writing calligraphy was really boring, and for twenty-seven years, I had been practicing for my body, mind, and soul. In the end, it will be of great help to the tenacity of his own character. Since the beginning of this year, I feel that my calligraphy has entered a period of adaptation, intoxication, and enjoyment. I felt the saying again: the road to success is not crowded, because there are not many people who persist to the end.
I have a personal experience, that is, at the end of each round of drama "Wangfujing" performance, my calligraphy will grow, and I feel that performance and calligraphy are connected. In the future, I am going to write about personal understanding, that is, "calligraphy qi" and "stage qi" are connected. For example, in the second round of the drama "Wangfujing", I used the ventilation technique in calligraphy on the performance, which felt very applicable, and no one knew that I had exchanged breath in the middle. I have a lot of such innovations and experiences, and I think that when other actors play the role of Xiao Manjin in the future, they will also have to go through the transformation of these stage "breath and voices", so that they can bring voices with emotion, which is my personal experience and the experience brought to me by calligraphy. Although this is a rare point, I can feel the influence of calligraphy. This is also an innovation, and art needs innovation the most. For example, web dramas are innovations in broadcast tools, and have brought distinct changes and developments to film and television and stage art, and I believe that Internet dramas will become mainstream in the future. Just like the BB machine we used in college, who knew that one day it would be eliminated? As a new medium, the Internet is closely linked to the times, closely integrated, and will definitely be the mainstream of the times in the future, and we must learn to adapt and accept. I've recently planned to do a webcast, take an hour a day to upload and broadcast, broadcast what I think, and try these new things. Since there is such a good publicity platform, why don't we accept him? Although the drama on the Internet is still a bit mixed and uneven, I believe that in the future, it will return to the origin of true feelings, and those things that are fancy and contrary to the laws of nature will eventually be rejected by people.
Whether it is film and television, stage, or technical terms, it must be true - true feelings. At this time, an ideal state requires unswerving efforts and perseverance, just like a meditation in life, which needs to go through the stage of "joy, right concentration, truthfulness, and breakthrough".
I am pleased that to this day I have not deviated from this artistic path, and I will continue to move forward, forward, and courageously!