For actors, there is a challenge called playing a great man.
In addition to special actors such as Gu Yue, Tang Guoqiang, Lu Qi, Wang Wufu and so on, they are easily accepted by the audience because of their high similarity with the great man.
Many other actors are often afraid when they receive the role of a great man, just as Zhang Tong of "The Age of Awakening" first refused when he was invited to play Li Dazhao:
"I don't want to act, it contains the element of rejection, the element of awe, and the element of not being sure about myself."
However, it is precisely because of this sense of awe that Zhang Tong has brought Li Dazhao to life, as if Li Dazhao in real history should be like this.
In addition to Zhang Tong and other starring actors, as a TV series with all the staff "drama throwing faces", there is an actor who also deserves a name -
He is Xia Dejun, who plays Premier Zhou Enlai.
This time, he played Premier Zhou again in the new drama "Hundred Refining into Steel" and continued to shine.
Since its broadcast, the drama has won the first place in the ratings of the two networks for the first time, and since then it has ranked first in the ratings of satellite TELEVISION for 3 consecutive days and has received a lot of attention.
Director Mao Weining, who has previously won the China Television Feitian Award and the Golden Eagle Award for many times with dramas such as "Oath is Silent" and "Ordinary World", has his own unique grasp of the realist theme.
Unlike many other tribute plays, the play will connect the glorious course of the past century through eight classic songs.
"International Song", "Long March", "The Yellow River is Roaring", "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China", "The Loveliest Person", "Singing the Motherland", "Toasting for Hope", "Young Friends Come to Meet"——
A series of familiar songs, hummed out minute by minute, history and singing blend together.
In the starring lineup, in addition to Mao Zedong, played by Wang Lei, Qu Qiubai played by Chen Xiao and other roles, the most eye-catching in the play is Zhou Enlai, played by Xia Dejun.
Xia Dejun, who has thick eyebrows, big eyes and a correct face, has an extraordinary temperament as soon as he appears, giving people a bright feeling.
In fact, for Xia Dejun, who was born in 1981, he has played Premier Zhou five times in different works, and the most recent interview about him was reprinted by Xinhua net because of "The Age of Awakening".
Seeing this, I think many people will think at first glance - Xia Dejun is not very similar to Zhou Enlai!?
In fact, actors playing great people always pay attention to "both form and god", and when it comes to the actors of Zhou Enlai, who are the most deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, there are three actors who cannot be avoided.
One is Wang Tiecheng.
Wang Tiecheng, who was born in Beijing in 1938, played Zhou Enlai in "The Great River Rushing" in 1978, becoming the first film after the founding of New China to appear as a leader of Zhou Enlai, which is of pioneering significance.
Wang Tiecheng's "god restoration" of Premier Zhou not only received Deng Yingchao's affirmation, but also brought countless audiences to tears and became one of the most classic actors.
(Premier Zhou himself in the picture above, Wang Tiecheng in the picture below)
One is Sun Weimin.
Born in 1955, Sun Weimin has played Premier Zhou in dramas, TV series and movies since the 1990s, and from "Four Days and Nights of Zhou Enlai" to "Crossing the Yalu River", he has gradually become a special actor of Premier Zhou.
Recently, in the program "28-year-old you", Sun Weimin, who played Premier Zhou for the 71st time, still showed superb acting skills, which made Wang Yuandu on the side look red.
Another is Liu Jin.
Born in 1963, Liu Jin has since played Zhou Enlai in "Zunyi Conference" in 1996, and has since embarked on the road of special actor.
Whether it is the Beijing "30 Years of TV Drama Brilliant Years" Classic Screen Image Award for "Long March" or the Golden Eagle Award for "Audience Favorite TV Drama Actor" with "Yan'an Song", Zhou Enlai, played by Liu Jin, is also well received by everyone.
And Liu Jin, who played Zhou Enlai for more than 20 years, even named his daughter Liu Lai'en, which shows that this role has a great influence on him.
After talking about the above three special actors of Zhou Enlai, have you found any characteristics?
Most of Zhou Enlai's classic screen images are concentrated in premier Zhou's middle-aged and elderly period, while the screen image of young Zhou Enlai is actually relatively blank.
And this is difficult and easy for the actor who plays the young Zhou Enlai.
The difficulty is that compared with the middle-aged and elderly periods when there are video materials to verify, everyone can only understand the image of the young Zhou Enlai from photos, depictions of books and other materials.
What is easy is that precisely because there is no video data to compare, it also gives the actor a certain space to play, which can interpret the image of the young Zhou Enlai with the characteristics of the actor himself.
Before xia dejun, there were actually some different versions of the young Zhou Enlai, but the audience's interpretation of the actors was mixed.
The first, Zhu Yawen.
In the TV series "Our French Years", Zhu Yawen's role as Zhou Enlai can be said to be "god-like" better than "shape-like".
Although Zhu Yawen's own appearance has a certain gap with that of the young Zhou Enlai, he grasped the spirit of Premier Zhou, interpreted the heroic posture of a young man dressed in fresh clothes and angry horses, and exuded charm between his hands and feet.
Perhaps because of the interpretation of this drama, Zhu Yawen continued to play Zhou Enlai in the movie "The Great Undertaking of Building an Army".
However, due to the fact that this film follows the commercial film model of adding many traffic actors, many castings have caused heated discussions.
Like in the film, Zhu Yawen itself plays steadily, but when the camera turns to see that the opposite is Si Li, played by Chen He, it is still easier to make people feel dramatic.
It is worth mentioning that Chen Kun also played Zhou Enlai in the movie "The Great Cause of Party Building", because there were not many scenes and did not attract much attention.
In addition, when the casting of the upcoming movie "1921", which will be released in July, Zhu Yilong playing Zhou Enlai also caused discussion, and the image of the great man seems to have a natural gap with the flow of artists.
Second place, Huang Xiaoming.
In the tribute drama "Glory and Dreams", although Liu Jin played the middle-aged Zhou Enlai, the young Zhou Enlai played by Huang Xiaoming failed to conquer the audience.
Although Huang Xiaoming, who won the Golden Rooster Award for his film "Heroes of Fire", has a tendency to "succeed in oiling" in recent years, the "hegemonic" temperament he has revealed intentionally or unintentionally is still a way out with the elegant and calm Premier Zhou.
Whether it is the smile of the fans, or the hunchback posture, Huang Xiaoming's interpretation has not been able to grasp the details.
It can be said that although there is "plastic surgery acting", if the image and temperament of the casting itself are very different from the role, and the acting skills cannot make up for the gap, it is not similar to the gods, then such casting is undoubtedly a failure.
Third place, Kim Jing-seung.
In 2016, the CCTV documentary "Rebirth" was broadcast, and Zhou Enlai, played by Jin Jingcheng, made the director "astonished" as soon as he appeared, becoming the "actor most like young Zhou Enlai" in the hearts of many people.
However, Kim Jing-seung, who deprecated himself as a "leg actor", had no lines in the film until the new drama "Xiang Police" broadcast by Yangba became more and more.
However, in the play, Jin Jingcheng's sense of acting dubbing is obvious, and the state of moving and speaking seems to have no static photo image, and the acting skills are still worth waiting to see.
After saying the above three, xia Dejun has to be mentioned here.
Born in 1981, Xia Dejun actually started out as a drama actor, and in 1999, he starred in the drama sketch "Ah, White Snow", and won the third prize of the "Cao Yu Cup" National Drama Competition.
In 2005, Xia Dejun, who entered the entertainment circle, was selected by Er Dongsheng and starred in the drama version of "New Love" with Tong Liya, gaining some popularity.
It was not until 2013, in the TV series "Mao Zedong" directed by Gao Xixi, that Xia Dejun played the young Zhou Enlai for the first time, and everyone found out at this time that this young man had some of the charm of Premier Zhou.
Although he has been working hard in the show business circle for more than ten years, Xia Dejun's real out of the circle is the "Awakening Age" broadcast in 2021.
In the play, the young Zhou Enlai, played by Xia Dejun, wore a white suit on his debut and read Chen Duxiu's "Greetings to Youth" in the small auditorium of Tianjin Nankai Middle School.
As soon as he appeared, he was brushed by the bullet screens such as "male god" and "the most handsome man";
Many netizens also said:
"I didn't watch the drama to see at a glance who premier Zhou was, and the casting was too powerful."
It can be seen that most of the audience's first impression of Zhou Enlai, played by Xia Dejun, is still in line with expectations.
The appearance is in line with expectations, and Xia Dejun also deduces the unique temperament of Premier Zhou.
Everyone knows that Premier Zhou is brilliant in literature, but in fact, Zhou Enlai's sports achievements in his youth were also leveraged.
When he was studying in Nankai, Zhou Enlai was not only the captain of the basketball team, but also the third place in the high jump competition, and Xia Dejun, who was passionate about fitness, gave Zhou Enlai more sense of fitness and youth in his youth.
Although Xia Dejun was close to 40 years old when he acted, it was not contrary to the harmony at all
However, since "The Age of Awakening" mainly focuses on the history from 1915 to 1921, Zhou Enlai's role is not much.
Finally, in the new drama "Hundred Refining into Steel", the story of Premier Zhou spanning 48 years will be presented, which is undoubtedly a challenge for actor Xia Dejun.
Judging from the currently broadcast episodes, we can see that when Zhou Enlai, played by Xia Dejun, was a fledgling, he listened carefully to Li Dazhao's teachings and could not suppress the state of a little fan;
When persuading the two brothers Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian, Zhou Enlai at this time had some brotherly demeanor.
Later, during the Whampoa Military Academy, during the First World War in Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, Zhou Enlai resolutely persuaded Chiang Kai-shek, and his words were resolute and brave;
At the congress, Zhou Enlai's steady speech revealed the self-confidence and affinity of the leaders.
40 years old, for an actor, is a "golden age" with certain experiences and experiences in life;
For the 40-year-old Xia Dejun, he can grasp the vitality of the young Zhou Enlai, but also the steadiness of the middle-aged Zhou Enlai, and the interpretation is delicate and layered, restoring the image of a Premier Zhou who can write and fight.
However, after talking about so many interpreters of Premier Zhou, I can't help but think that someone once asked a question:
"In history, has anyone as close to perfection as Zhuge Liang?"
Below the question, premier Zhou Enlai's answer was echoed by 37,000 people.
Whether it is Jin Jingcheng or Xia Dejun, "they all say that he looks most like Premier Zhou in his youth, but he only has three points of charm."
It seems that in our hearts, no one can perfectly play the Premier Zhou who has been determined to "study for the rise of China" since he was a teenager, bowed to this goal all his life, and died.
The actor is handsome but himself, and he is talking about Premier Zhou Enlai!
Next, "Hundred Refining into Steel" will also stage the Long March of the Red Army, the establishment of new China and other major historical events, Xia Dejun may bring us more surprises.
So, in your minds, what should the young Zhou Enlai look like?
Bluestone Film Editorial Office | Morning
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