Run! Run! Run!
Wang Ju had been expected to represent those who were not within the scope of mainstream aesthetics, she was not the most outstanding, but the crowd was enough to stand out.
When she was a child, Wang Ju felt that she looked as beautiful as the people on TV, and after being examined by the camera, she quickly realized that the truth was not like that at all.
In the face of external expectations and demands, how much to accept, how much to give up, how much to insist, how much to compromise, this is wang Ju and all women's life's work.
Two worlds
Wang Ju has been fat and thin, so she clearly feels two completely different worlds: when you are thin, a strange shopping guide is more likely to be pleasant to you, and the fat version of you is more likely to encounter the impatience of the shopping guide.
After entering the show business circle, Wang Ju heard the most advice, which was also "to be thinner a little more.". When taking photos or videos, someone said this to her. Another time, the director said: "Your head tattoo is a bit strong, pay attention to expression management." These details made Wang Ju feel that the industry was not particularly accepting of herself in the first year or two.
For the public, Wang Ju's label is very distinct, but it is not so distinct in the show business circle, and people in the circle are not very clear whether she wants to be a singer or an actress, or a short-term celebrity. Since she doesn't have a clear positioning, she is often crammed into a template that most people like, so that at least nothing goes wrong.
Wang Ju judged how the industry viewed herself through the job offers she received, and the invitations were various, and she speculated that everyone's understanding of themselves was neither clear nor uniform. There were many singing and dancing performances at the party, some let her sing her own songs, and some let her sing other people's songs with others. The types of variety shows I found were various, but they all had the same core appeal, that is, to ask Wang Ju to express, to ask her to speak, and to produce golden sentences.
Seeing that many scripts read, "This paragraph is well prepared, I hope there is a golden sentence output", Wang Ju would be a little angry before, "I don't want to refine the golden sentence for everyone, let others think this sentence is wonderful." I'm not at this stage in my life. All my expressions are sent with feelings, and if there is no feeling, I can't say it. ”
Four years ago, many of the words Wang Ju said in "Creation 101" caused heated dissemination and discussion, involving issues such as women's independence and aesthetic diversity, and these remarks, coupled with her distinctive appearance and temperament in the growth program of the women's group, led to her presenting a unique and three-dimensional female image. But she thought that what she said at that time was felt in the context of the show, and she did not think in advance to contribute a golden sentence in front of the camera.
So, how to express to this industry that "what I want to do is not a golden sentence manufacturing machine"? Wang Ju couldn't think of any effective way, except to take the initiative to mention "I want to be an actor" on variety shows again and again. Fundamentally, the really convincing approach might be to come up with a work that is visible to everyone, and until there is no convincing work, all she can do is hold on, not explain it to others.
However, even though surrounded by so many troubles, Wang Ju still felt that it was better for someone to know than not to know.
Aesthetics are out of sync
Until now, Wang Ju has not finished watching the broadcast version of "Creation 101", but she has gradually found that the vast majority of the public's cognition and understanding of herself comes from this girl group growth program, or even just some clips in the program, or the discussion caused by some of her own performances in the program. One of the misreadings that Wang Ju most wants to explain is that when she said to the audience, "You hold the power to redefine China's first women's group in your hands", some people understand that Wang Ju wants to define China's first women's group, but now she can't say clearly, in fact, she never thinks that this decision is in her own hands.
She tried to analyze why she was liked and why she was hated from a broader perspective, "Like is nothing more than two situations, you have a very similar place with me, or you have a part of me that I want to be." 」 Hate someone, either because you're the opposite of me or you have a part of you that I don't accept myself. Therefore, she deduced that some people who like themselves are similar to nature, they may have dreams, they may not meet talents, they want Wang Ju to succeed, which is what they want to fight for themselves.
Director Chen Zhengdao also met Wang Ju through some clips in "Creation 101", and then wanted to invite her to star in Xia Meng in "Love Is Delicious". At the beginning, he said lightly to Wang Ju: I was thinking of a story recently, three girls, one of whom has been losing weight, tried a variety of weight loss methods, and finally chose the ketogenic weight loss method, her career is relatively smooth, but the feelings are not very smooth, and finally do not lose weight, because they accepted themselves. After hearing this passage, Wang Ju said: Yes, yes. Her decision seems to be based on a simple one— for many years, she, like this character, has been cycling the subject of weight loss.
Not long after, Chen Zhengdao encountered resistance, and someone suggested that he change actors. Wang Ju said to Chen Zhengdao, "As long as you need it, I will definitely come, and I will set aside time." "Because that's what she wants to do the most." In addition to filming, other jobs are not an accumulation of works for her. In this regard, she gave an example: the creative planning of advertising companies obviously has done a lot of cases, but they can't come up with a few of their own works, because many programs are for Party A, and they can't fully represent their professional standards and aesthetics.
Of course, there is a more ideal solution ⸺ Party A is also satisfied, but also its own expression. Wang Ju found this difficult to implement, "very, very difficult", debut in the past few years, "Love is Delicious" is the only expression that Party A and herself recognize. The difficulty lies in the aesthetic out of sync, this aesthetic is not only the appearance level, but also the expression of personality, values, because all aspects of the work of this industry are aesthetic presentations.
Wang Ju deduced that some people who like her are similar to themselves, they may have dreams, they may not meet them, they want Wang Ju to succeed, which is also what they want to fight for themselves.
The logic of love
Sometimes Wang Ju will also chase the drama, but seeing some plots in the love drama, she will have such a confusion: how did the plot develop in such a way?
For example, a couple has a misunderstanding, the boy says "you listen to me to explain", the girl says "I don't listen to me", while running away, the boy quickly chases after the girl, in a somewhat exaggerated way to admit the mistake, so they reconcile.
Wang Ju didn't quite understand. Two people have a misunderstanding, first deal with the emotions, and then to explain the misunderstanding clearly, otherwise coaxed for half a day, the misunderstanding has not been eliminated, the problem has not been solved, the heart knot is still there, how can it be reconciled? Run away when you make a fuss, waiting for your boyfriend to chase after you, anyway, Wang Ju has never seen anyone in real life fall in love like this, if someone really operates like this, the ending may not be as good as ever.
Wang Ju, the fairy tale of the prince and princess, has also seen and once believed that girls should dress up like the heroines of idol dramas to look good, and that they will be loved by men until reality tells her that this is not the case.
In "Love Is Delicious", the two loves of Xia Meng, played by Wang Ju, can be simply boiled down to one sentence: If the boyfriend does not like the real you, instead of transforming himself into the ideal type of the other party, it is better to change to a person who likes his true face. Xia Meng is a professional woman with excellent work ability, and her boyfriend and she always feel that the pressure is high and her self-esteem is frustrated, so she breaks up. When she met Lu Bin, a fitness coach, she was worried that her excellence had scared away a man, so she lied that she was unemployed. After a series of misunderstandings, she found that Lu Bin liked her strong and powerful figure, but also admired her clear thinking, ideas, ability to do things and courage, in the eyes of this man, how can there be a girl so smart and so energetic, completely different from those soft and weak girls, she is too cute and charming, she is my ideal type. The same woman, the traits that the ex-boyfriend considered to be a minus, were all shining points in the eyes of the other person.
In the second half of the performance, Wang Ju felt that Xia Meng's second love affair was sweet and refreshing. In her opinion, self-acceptance is already a very difficult thing, if you have to spend time in love to let the other party accept themselves, it is a waste of time. The premise of two people being together is to accept each other and respect each other from the heart, whether it is the appearance, personality, work and social status of the other party.
The premise of self-confidence
All along, Wang Ju has been praised the most is "you are very confident." Wang Ju hopes that everyone will understand that the premise of the two words of self-confidence is to accept themselves, otherwise they are just arming themselves.
When she was a child, Wang Ju was full of doubts about herself: Why are my ideas and the things I like always different from others? When studying, she didn't know how to work hard, spread out the textbook and stared at the problem for ten minutes, or she didn't know how to solve it. But if she changes to various performances such as singing and dancing, rehearsal drama, etc., she will have a lot of ideas, and even if she encounters problems, she can always find a way to solve them. However, the teacher said, "It's not important, and it won't give you extra points during the exam." ”
Since kindergarten, Wang Ju has loved to dress up and pick out her own clothes to wear every day. In high school, she began to use her mother's makeup, and put on makeup on herself on days when she was not in school, and her mother said next to her: "It will stink and it is useless." Again, she thought, as if all I was good at was what others thought was useless.
After work, she is still an outlier in the crowd. As a primary school teacher, you can't dress up exaggerated, you can't wear nail polish, you can't wear earrings, you can only wear earrings, rings can only wear wedding rings, your hair can only be black or dark brown, your clothes can't be too short, you can't show your navel, in short, you must look like a people's teacher. Wang Ju went to school in hot pants, and the principal said, "Don't wear these pants in the future." She wore a pair of torn jeans, and the female colleague ran over to touch the hole: "There are no pants in it, is it cold?" Most of her colleagues were more than ten or twenty years older than her, and had hardly ever seen pants like this.
At that time, Wang Ju began to tan, because she had seen other girls tanning in the university cheerleaders before, and she thought it was very good-looking and wanted to try it. Colleagues saw her and were shocked: "Oh yo, everyone's little girl is white, why do you want black?" You sunburn less, and the freckles on your face are heavier. She said, "I think freckles look good." ”
Her teaching philosophy is also different from others. At that time, she taught music and art, and felt that many of the lesson plans had changed little from what she had learned as a child. She has always wanted to perform some nursery rhymes in a younger, time-in-date way to make children more receptive. She made a teaching plan, replaced the piano with ukulele to accompany the nursery rhyme, was denied, the leader said: "Only the piano tone is the most accurate, the most able to cultivate children, this set of lesson plans has been used for so many years, has its educational significance, can not be easily changed." ”
Repeatedly unsupported, Wang Ju wanted to find the same kind. It wasn't until she joined a model agency that she was finally no longer seen as an outlier. She dyed her hair gray, some people said "pretty good, where is the dye", she wore hot pants to work, colleagues said "pants are good", "lipstick number is very good".
At the beginning, seeing that the models were dressed very well and walked on the stage with big legs, Wang Ju was particularly envious. When she watched the model take pictures, she exclaimed in her heart: Wow! How can someone look so good without repairing the film! The jaw line is so perfect! The legs are so thin and so long! Over time, she found that the model is actually very hard, all they have to do every day is to maintain their appearance and figure, even so, they will still be rejected by the customer because they are two or three centimeters taller or two or three centimeters shorter, other reasons for rejection include but are not limited to "he is a little taller than we expected", "he is not the kind of skeleton we need to be enough to support the suit model", "We need some models with a more three-dimensional nose", about any personal traits in the model's life, such as personality, conversation, hobbies, No one will care.
Wang Ju felt that this was too miserable. She gradually realized that models are only a small number of people, most of them are ordinary looks, ordinary height, but so many so-called ordinary people have an extraordinary temperament and professional ability, and live a prosperous life, is the appearance really so important?
Irreplaceable
Wang Ju received a role, and the character biography read "Iceberg Beauty". Seeing the director, Wang Ju said: "This role is definitely not suitable for me, not because I feel that I am not beautiful, but if I am allowed to play such a role, you may have to convince the audience through many ways to make everyone think that she is a very beautiful person. ”
Before the plane shoot, Wang Ju used to make up for herself, and before doing the hairstyle, she watched two sets of samples for demonstration, shooting two sweet and lovely young actresses, she said "this has no reference value", and then made a hairstyle that she thought was more suitable for herself.
An important reminder comes from Chen Zhengdao. He once said to Wang Ju: Don't feel that a lot of work is difficult to communicate without communication, just do it according to other people's ideas, you must know that all your work is shown in your image, whether your plane, your stage or the drama you shoot, everyone looks good and thinks it is good, and may praise the people around you, but if people feel bad, they will accuse you. Wang Ju found that he had compromised a lot in his previous work. Now, if the other person's needs deviate too much from her aesthetic, she will try to stick to it.
Some people suggest that Wang Ju focus on the road of fashion, and she also thinks that this road is very good, but dressing up beautifully seems to be not enough to support a lifetime. After the broadcast of "Love Is Delicious", many people in the acting industry said to Wang Ju: I finally know what you are doing.
Wang Ju believes that just as Chen Zhengdao insists on choosing himself to play Xia Meng, there are directors in this industry who choose safe actors, and there are directors who prefer to take risks and use actors that they feel are more suitable, and there are always majorities and minorities in the world, "If I am a minority, as long as I find a like-minded minority, I can make what we want." ”
Is showbiz an industry that can prove itself by strength? Wang Ju, who has been debuting for more than three years, feels that he is "half and half". The other half is not appearance, but luck. She believes that the actors show the audience not only beautiful, but also an emotional resonance. In the future, she hopes to become an irreplaceable person, every role and every job she receives, the other party will not think of other people, that is, Wang Ju, only Wang Ju.
One day, she remembered the different feelings of Fat Wang Ju and Thin Wang Ju, and found that perhaps it was not the difference in treatment of others caused by the figure and appearance, but the feeling that "I am not good-looking" when I was fat, and "I am so beautiful" when I was thin, to some extent, the feedback from the outside world was a response to her inner monologue.
Perhaps women can not completely get rid of body anxiety in their lifetime, and self-confidence is the process of constantly finding a balance between other scrutiny and self-examination. Wang Ju feels that she is quite balanced now, of course, she hopes to be a little more beautiful and thin, but she also wants to live, and it is good to find a balance between the comfort of the audience and the comfort of the self. As she spoke, she held up the takeaway milk tea that she called in the middle of the shooting: "This, I will still drink." ”
Photography: Zhang Liang
Interview, Author: Maggie
Planning, co-ordination: warm small group
Makeup: Wang Ju
Hairstyle: Zi Yue
Styling: Proud
Styling Assistant: Shi Yue, Chun Sheng
Venue Acknowledgements: COMO-STUDIO
New Media Editor: Neil
New Media Execution: Gao Chang