(Southern People Weekly reporter Jiang Xiaoming/cover photo)
Red is not red
Actor Qi Xi is still somewhat confused about his fame.
This is not out of a quick-to-win mentality, but rather the courage of professionalism and the almost regretful introspection. In recent years, at the FIRST Youth Film Festival Venture Capital Conference, young directors have always appeared on the proposals of young directors, and everyone says that she is the "Queen of PPT", which means that she is in line with young creators, which makes her happy, and then thinks, "I also hope that one day I can have market value, help to choose my team, and be able to do something for them, in addition to acting." For example, more people will see this work because of me. Qi Xi said, "Being seen by more people is something we have to do in this line of work, otherwise why shoot it?" ”
Directors who have worked with her describe her plays as natural, enjoyable and radiant. But these recognitions and fame are not directly proportional, and the market has its own selection criteria.
2012 The Mystery of the Floating City
From 2011, when he was selected by director Lou Ye to play the role of Sanqi in the movie "The Mystery of the Floating City", Qi Xi has been acting for 11 years. In the past 11 years, she has contributed many outstanding performances on the big and small screens: Sanqi, a mistress with strong lust in "The Mystery of the Floating City", maintains her weak and false family; bailu, who is so controlling that she shows some neuroticism in "Everything Grows", finds that her boyfriend breaks into it when dating others and swears sovereignty regardless of the image; Jasmine in "The Long Day", intervenes in other people's families and finally leaves - director Li Gang later sees the scene: "She looks back on the bus, and at that moment you will feel, Whatever color this character is responsible for in this story, it will be very (heart-wrenching). ”
Most of these characters have distinct personalities, fierce emotions, and are at a moral disadvantage, and they all carry the same breath that Qi Xi has - life force.
However, Qi Xi was once considered an undesirable actress. Appearance seems to have become a kind of discourse power.
"I'm lazy. You can't choose things that make you unhappy, and make yourself a look that you can't make. Saying this, in fact, the heart is full of doubts - shouldn't the actors be tall, fat and thin with their own characteristics?
Looking back now, I feel more sighing: "The change of the times, the change of aesthetics, who knows when to sing the main tune." In fact, there is no right or wrong in the actors themselves, we are all being chosen by the times. Then when the era that belongs to you comes, you should perform it well, and precipitate it well when you do not belong to your own era. ”
People who can move with the times strive to be seen and loved in every trend, and how to choose is a problem that everyone needs to face.
"In fact, if you only use a set of words, everywhere you go, it is not easy to make mistakes, it is not easy to forget, and you will not let others think that you only said this yesterday, and said so today, and feel that this person is not in tune." But I don't remember much of what I said before, I forget it, and I do change it a lot, and I try to produce something new as much as I can, and I don't want to repeat it, like every act. Qi Xi said.
variation
In 2019, Qi Xi decided to act in director Li Gang's first work, "If One Day I Will Leave You".
2022 "If One Day I Will Leave You"
Three years ago, they met on the set of "Love and Affection", Li Qiang is the assistant to director Zhang Aijia, well-behaved, young, and everyone said to him like a child: If you can write the story of being an exchange student in Japan, then we will go with you to shoot it - including Qi Xi.
Three years later the script matured, but everyone's lives have changed. Before leaving for Japan, Li Qiang went to find Qi Xi, and frankly said that she had worked with so many big directors, played so many tough roles, and was a new director, which may not necessarily bring her progress in this group portrait play.
"I have to stand on top of you for reason." Qi Xi said.
Qi Xi wants to play the only guan is the manager of a Chinese restaurant Nanguo pavilion, a short hair, everything is in front of people, want to have children but face uterine diseases, apply for permanent residence but has not landed, life is like the house along the tram line where she lives, strong and lonely.
Qi Xi did a lot of detail design, and Li Qiang pursued a more restrained aesthetic, so it needed to be run-in in the first few days.
"I said very firmly Sister Xi, I don't want this, I think what to do, you are how to do." At that time, I was indeed in a state of killing red eyes, and I did not pay attention to the mutual respect between the director and the actors, and I was too direct with her. Li Said.
But this incident is described in Qi Xi's description as follows: "At the beginning, I was a bit arrogant, and when I was shooting, I designed the character and some small requirements to satisfy my own selfish desires, such as wanting to have more close-ups, were all understood and rejected by the director. The director may see that I am his sister (the two have a good personal relationship, Qi Xi often regards Li Gang as a younger brother) the first two times he did not say me, and waited until the third time he grinded and ran over and said, Xi Sister, this seems to be a bit much, let's try not to do this. I blushed all at once, people broke out in a cold sweat, I knew that I did more, the reason I did more was because I thought too much, and the reason I thought too much was because I wanted too much. ”
Li Gang later realized that this was two people protecting each other, "I always felt that she was such a person, always trying to protect the people around her."
It was almost the third day that a consensus on the performance was reached. "There will be a button between the actor and the director, and when you hear the 'snap' buttoned, you will no longer be afraid to see the announcement that says that the actor was filmed today." After that, Qi Xi no longer needed Li Gang to think more, "She is already taking more points for me." ”
One day Qi Xi bought small gifts for everyone on the set, and wrote everyone's name on the wrapping paper. Qi Xi often said that Li Gang was the one who "gave him ten and gave back a hundred", and Li Xi saw Qi Xi as well.
As a result, Qi Xi completed the role of the reclusive and tenacious Guan Wei. Unlike the previous hard characters, Guan Wei is more soft.
In recent years, the Qi Xi in the story has indeed changed.
In Song Fang's "Calm", Lin Tong, a documentary director played by Qi Xi, broke up with her boyfriend who had been with him for many years and experienced a long period of pain. Qi Xi adjusted the rhythm of his body's movements, including breathing—inhaling in a long breath and slowly spitting it out, as she demonstrated during the interview—to find the steps of the characters, watching and staring at them for a long time with the characters, as if "I had a piece of ice in my arms, but I couldn't cover it up." Film footage records the passage of time, and time brings calm.
Qi Xi has always regarded this role as a big gift to herself, and after playing so many fierce roles, she can finally sink down. She said that she completely threw away her shadow in this performance. Another acting practitioner saw the movie and told Qi Xi, this is your best performance.
sentiment
In fact, restraint is not Qi Xi's way, emotion is.
In the past, she loved to write articles, "as soon as she has a feeling, she will write immediately", especially fast, do not change, and forget it after writing.
Before filming the film, she has been acting in dramas, and is the heroine of director Meng Jinghui's masterpiece "Rhinoceros in Love", mingming, who is in a good mood and acted well, and acted badly if she is in a bad mood. Acting to a hundred or so, her knee ligaments broke two, after a few days of recuperation, wear shock-absorbing shoes, do not make a mistake; acted to three or four hundred times, after saying the lines, she felt disgusted, and when she got off the stage, she willfully told Meng Jinghui that she did not want to act, and was scolded.
Then to the movie "Floating City Mystery", she did not know how to prepare for a role, Lou Ye did not say, she was nervous there alone, repeatedly reading the script, covered in a state of ignorance, but the advantage is "I have no other state", Sanqi's grievances are also her physiological feelings. By "Everything Grows", BaiLu broke up with her boyfriend, crying, arguing, and begging in the yard, and she regarded the opponent actor as her boyfriend and slapped her many times.
2015 Everything Grows
The emotional result is uncontrollable, "sometimes I run out, sometimes the character runs out", and in retrospect, almost all the clips that play well are characters running out. Those who have no experience to speak of, are all based on intuition and feelings.
Thinking about it again, Qi Xi felt that he was too strong before, the actor could not forget himself, and the role could not come out, which was related to the experience of acting in drama. Qi Xi said: "Because you have to have a very high 'self' on the drama stage, so that you can stay awake, take care of the lights, scheduling, positioning, opponents, audience, the situation of each scene is different, too many things have to be objectively and rationally controlled at that moment, often like standing in a very high place, watching all this." And when performing dramas, people are quite confident, they will feel that they are still quite attractive, and the stage will create a charm. ”
But the movie is different, and once the mood is broken, it will be chaotic. In "Long Days on Earth", Qi Xi and actor Wang Jingchun have a rival scene, the two meet in a small hotel, and the emotions flow secretly. Qi Xi is a little afraid, her personality is not confident, she cares about other people's opinions inside and outside the play, does not know how to grasp the measure, and is afraid of communicating with the opponent actors.
2019 "The Earth Is Long"
After that, she realized that "good performance is fluid, every moment is almost filled with the emotions of the characters, the atmosphere and the language at the time, I am a little unsmooth, not flowing, which has to do with experience, concentration and a lot of things."
Later, she played with the actor Yi Qianxi in "Miracle Stupid Child", "Qianxi, he is very young, but he is very alert. Some things have to be thought of before doing, really can not do first and then think, to think first, not to rely on a strong force. It's not bad, but a lot of times it's better to save some strength. "I also thought that when I was young, I didn't like to work hard, and occasionally heard her collaborators praise her for her talent and keen feelings, but everyone knew that the talent would be consumed one day."
Acting for more than ten years, Qi Xi thought, if I don't think about it again, I may be very mediocre.
diligent
"Who cares so much when they're young?" We didn't have to work hard when we were young, and the whole world was yours. Yang Ting smiled on the other end of the phone, she and Qi Xi were once actresses in Meng Jinghui's plays.
After turning director, Yang Ting went to the Krakow Theatre Festival, was shocked by the performance of polish actors, and came back and said to Qi Xi, I want to train you to be a "Polish actress". She arranged a play "My Sister, Anna", which was born out of Tolstoy's novel, Anna Karenina in love to pursue herself, and Qi Xi is the heroine of the second version of this play.
At that time, Qi Xi was still filming the TV series "Hey, Child", and the theater on the set ran at both ends, "everyone is strong", one wants to train each other to become Polish actresses, and the other wants to become Polish actresses.
The two were full of fighting spirit, almost reckless. Everyone on the rehearsal field competed, Yang Ting's concept was that when rehearsing, she didn't think about anything but this play, so she always felt that Qi Xi didn't use 100% of her energy on the stage, "If someone who has the ability has a number of their own abilities, she will not show you how diligent she is every day." She would think, look, it's going to be different on stage. But what I want to see is that every day is guaranteed to be in one state. ”
"She will say Qi Xi you are too lazy, Qi Xi you have to be on time, and you obviously dance so well, why don't you dance for me?" Why be ashamed to show off your strengths? Qi Xi also laughed, "Director Meng Jinghui spoiled me infinitely, and he thinks that everything I do is fragrant and good." Sister Yang Ting told me that sometimes good medicine will be bitter. I'm really lazy and run out to play without a problem, so I need her to me too. ”
Anna has a long monologue, Yang Ting turned off the lights in the rehearsal hall, let Qi Xi read it over and over again, as long as the state is not right, immediately interrupt, reprimand, and start again.
"The more you go forward, the more you can't see the road under your feet, you can't see the light in front of you, the more you walk, the more you are afraid, the more you walk, the more you see your own smallness." When a person feels small, he will be very cautious and careful, cherish every opportunity, and continue to absorb nutrition for himself. Yang Ting said.
In 2019, Qi Xi returned to the drama stage and played a new fictional character in Meng Jinghui's "Tea House", just like the psychological world of "Tea House". This time, she spent a lot more time in the rehearsal hall, pulling the rehearsal opponent together to think, taking notes, repeatedly practicing the lines, others went to dinner, she studied the scheduling on the stage, "If you just keep relying on feelings, feelings and inspiration, things may be OK, but it will be better to work hard." 」 ”
"Tea House" ended in Wuzhen premiere, Qi Xi stepped down, Yang Ting hugged her, said, especially good, radiant. "Before, her state may have been a little more casual, and now I can feel that her heart is all on this play, on this role." Time changes people, "it makes the mind more calm, the vision wider, the tentacles more acute." ”
The people around him never seemed to worry that Qi Xi would be consumed.
"Qi Xi is the kind of actor who can act for a lifetime." Director Degna said that Qi Xi was an "author-type actor". In Degna's eyes, the traffic economy is virtual, it is a commercial number, and it is separated from creation, and she also faces this dilemma: she wants to spend her time on works that interest her, and wants to make art films from a female perspective, but it is difficult to be sought after by the market, and it is not so easy to find investment. But she decided to go in that direction. "Film is an art medium that is easy to become obsolete, but we always want to make a film that people are still watching thirty or forty years later." She thought that Qi Xi had done much better than she had.
"She began to enter a golden stage, able to complete the transformation of various roles and art forms with ease, which is the beginning of a stage that is most cherished by an actor." Producer Wang Hongwei said.
"In my conception, she's not an actress who's going to be buried. Some may glow early, some may have to be a little later. There's nothing to worry about, it's just a matter of time, right? Yang Ting's tone was firm, asking the reason, saying that it was "unique, professional ability", and more importantly, "there is a kind of strength, unless she leaks (drop this strength), others can not leak."
Yang Ting still clearly remembers the 2011 "Bride", and finally, four men and four women married four couples, and at the wedding, four girls wore wedding dresses on stage. Qi Xi was the last to walk out, and the audience exclaimed, "At that time, it was really vigorous." "She had the courage of Anna Karenina," the kind of courage that didn't live under the scrutiny of the crowd at all. ”
2022 Miracle Stupid Kid
pause
Qi Xi mentioned more than once that he didn't want to make himself experienced. She hopes that she still has momentum and fierceness, and has intuition, and this momentum needs to be accumulated in stages. She decided to pause.
"Probably because of the epidemic, the whole person is more muddy." She watched a lot of movies at home, but the more she watched, the less she wanted to work, "Movies had very glorious times, there were many possibilities, exploratory times." In the past, movies were so good that they would ignite a certain dream of a certain person, but I was ignited by the movie, inspired by the movie, and I would choose what I wanted to do. But now the movie seems to have become... I don't know what turned out. Theaters are shrinking, cinemas are shrinking, industry confidence will be lost, and audience confidence will also be lost. What ignites other people's dreams? It seems that even the burning of dreams will be said to be good chicken soup. ”
"How do you motivate yourself to work?" This is also a problem that has always plagued us. We asked her.
"So to convince yourself repeatedly, screw the bar, the consumption in the middle is particularly large." You don't find that our generation is prone to self-disintegration and entanglement, and they are constantly standing up, sitting down, standing up, sitting down, in fact, time is spent on this matter. My time is also spent on this matter. Qi Xi smiled. It's fun to sit down all the time, and it's fun to stand up all the time. So if you had to choose one, you'd have a great time. Let's spend less time and encourage each other. Isn't it just a gesture to stand up when we come out to meet today? ”
Last year, she served as a judge of the "Youth Jury Honor" at the Pingyao International Film Festival, and talked about movies with a group of people who loved movies every day, saw good films, and met young directors. ”
On the matter of market value as an actress, "She has actually brought us a lot. Li Gang said, "She didn't really care about this before, and I think she was a little too free-spirited." We went on a roadshow that day, and I saw her take a transparent suitcase and I could see what was in it. I wondered what kind of person would use a transparent box, either because I wanted others to see her inside, or because I didn't care too much, and I thought she belonged to the latter. ”
Wang Hongwei feels that expanding market influence and adhering to certain bottom lines are sometimes not contradictory. "First, if you can live, you can live; second, when you have a choice, you will be finished by nature."
Qi Xi's mother told her daughter's childhood this way: as long as she saw a good picture on TV, she would twist it, and whenever she heard good music, she would sing along. So, in the second grade of primary school, Qi Xi transferred to an experimental school that taught art classes, and at the age of 11, he was admitted to the People's Liberation Army Art Academy, leaving Guiyang and coming to Beijing.
As a result, strict management and boring training flattened adolescence. "I didn't want to dance at that time, but I enjoyed dancing, I didn't like dancing, but I really liked the stage."
After that, she entered the literary troupe, in addition to going to the countryside to perform, most of them were accompanied by dances, which was far from the stage she liked. So I was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama and have come all the way to today.
"If I started as an actor to get out of the predicament of my original life, then what was the purpose of all these years?"
"To be happy for yourself, indeed to be happy for yourself, is not for you." Qi Xi ate the last bite of cake, picked up the long winter school uniform of the Chinese opera from the sofa, no makeup, wore a pair of glasses, said goodbye to us, and rushed to see the last performance of the drama "Red and Black".
Southern People Weekly reporter Meng Yiyi Zhang Yuxin