Most of the characters played by Tian Yu are comedic, full of the bitterness and wisdom of small people. But they are not the same, and each character has a different style and memory points. His performance is very accurate, anyone's play can be catched, and he has become an indispensable golden supporting role in domestic film and television works.
Produced by | Blog World Big Cultural and Entertainment Reporting Group
Author | Huang Yu
Edit the | Ding Yu
Actor Tian Yu transformed again.
In the new drama "The Great Game", he plays Liu Bi as a market trendsetter, as the chairman of a private enterprise group, he is well versed in the operation of the market and plays in the wave of business.
Liu must be quite happy as soon as he appears. The secretary said that he was receiving an important guest, and when the camera turned, he was kneeling on one knee to write a guarantee letter to his wife. At this time, comments from netizens appeared on the barrage: It turns out that you are such Wang Qinian!
Tian Yu plays Liu Biding in "The Great Game"
The audience is far more familiar with Tian Yu's character than he is. In the past two years, as long as a new work is broadcast, someone will always call him by the name of a past character. Wang Qinian in "Qing Yu Nian" and Teacher Wang in "Charlotte Troubles" are the most frequent, of course, there are others, such as the nurse Liang Yongcheng in "Miracle Stupid Child", the chattering lawyer He Sai in "Elite Lawyer", or the driving school instructor in "Flying Life" that is memorable in a few scenes.
Tian Yu plays Wang Qinian in "Qing Yu Nian"
Most of the characters played by Tian Yu are comedic, full of the bitterness and wisdom of small people. But they are not the same, and each character has a different style and memory points. His performance is very accurate, anyone's play can be catched, and he has become an indispensable golden supporting role in domestic film and television works.
However, Tian Yu himself seems to be more serious than his role. On the other end of the phone, he was extra serious when talking to Blog World about acting and creating. Even after a long time, he still remembers many details of the scenes and the mental journey of shaping the characters.
Comedy has layers
Tian Yu described Liu Biding in "The Great Game" as follows: "Dancing on the tip of the knife, finding fun in danger".
He does not play his cards according to the rules, although he is arrogant but cunning. Sun Heping (played by Qin Hao), the new director of the North Machinery Factory, went to him to borrow money for turnover, on the surface it was a harmony between old classmates, but what he thought in his heart was: If you want to borrow money, no way!
As an experimenter of reform and opening up, Liu must face countless possibilities in the ever-changing situation, which are both opportunities and challenges. Although the TV series has not been broadcast for a long time, the plot is still in depth, but Tian Yu has given Liu Biding's character temperament is already very distinct.
He continued the previous harmonious and weight-lifting performance style, and his comedy style made netizens hit a string of "hahahahaha" on the public screen of "The Great Game". But this kind of comedy, in this realistic TV series, will not seem frivolous, because Tian Yu also performed Liu Biding's ability and courage as an entrepreneur.
He believes that comedy should be layered, not performed for the sake of being funny. To create a character with comedy, you should first eat through the fate of the character, and then the vivid energy will naturally come out. This may explain why the characters played by Tian Yu are interesting enough, not because of how good he is at comedy, but because he understands the characters deeply enough.
Just like he told "Blog World" about Wang Qinian in "Qing Yu Nian": "Wang Qinian has both the side of rivers and lakes and the side of small officials. He has fireworks and a sense of justice, which also determines that he pursues a simple way of survival. ”
Wang Qinian loves money and cares for his family, and as soon as the character appears, he treats "this reputation as dung to Wang; For Wang, this money is more important than his life", but when justice and money conflict, he will actually choose to defend the former without hesitation.
In order to play this role well, Tian Yu refers to the images in some classic works, such as a scene where Wang Qinian pays from the sole of his shoe to invite Fan to eat noodles, which is the inspiration he found from the money-greedy Grandet in Balzac's novel.
After the broadcast of "Qing Yu Nian", there were various netizens editing and producing Wang Qinian's funny collection on the Internet, and the playback volume was very high, which shows the audience's love for this character. In this regard, Tian Yu told "Blog World": "The audience is also participating in (creating) each character, because everyone has a different Wang Qinian in their hearts. ”
Tian Yu won the 26th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role of Wang Qinian, which also made him really out of the circle.
In fact, in 2015, Tian Yu had already appeared in the circle once with Teacher Wang in the movie "Charlotte Troubles". In the movie, Teacher Wang loves to receive gifts, and physically punishes students, only the theory of achievement, which is a dramatic contrast with the four words "being a teacher" on the fan he does not leave his hand.
This is the first time Tian Yu has worked with the Happy Twist team. In order to make the performance style closer, he watched some of the scenes that other actors had already filmed in advance, and found that although the tone of the whole picture was simple, the performance was biased towards the stage style.
Therefore, he deliberately used an upward tone to deal with the coda when saying his lines, and in the face of former students who entered the society and became punks, his tone was filled with anger that hated iron but not steel. Tian Yu also used the observation of the teacher in life into the play, after Teacher Wang was beaten by Charlotte, when he attended the school assembly, several purple marks appeared on his forehead and neck, Tian Yu said, so that it was more obvious that he was on fire.
Tian Yu plays Teacher Wang in "Charlotte Troubles"
In fact, Tian Yu's exploration of comedy style can be traced back much earlier. In 2010, he played Wang Kangmei, a former steel mill worker, in the movie "The Piano of Steel" directed by Zhang Meng.
He is a microcosm of the laid-off workers of the 90s, watching the doors of the school and living alone because he is widowed. He barely grasped the initiative of his fate, just because he secretly put the daughter of his friend Chen Guilin (played by Wang Qianyuan) into school to practice piano, and lost his job.
But in this movie full of black humor, Wang Kangmei is a little romantic. He looked forward to love and immersed himself in joy all day after being with Shuxian (Qin Hailu). The reverse appeared when he bumped into Chen Guilin, who had an ambiguous relationship with Shuxian, but he did not step forward, but left the bicycle and ran away.
Tian Yu feels that this is the cautious side of Wang Kangmei's personality, and he always has untimely embarrassment, so he presents a comic effect.
The bottom of the drama stage
Tian Yu mentioned a performance method in the interview, called "mental image theory", that is: analyze the characters through the content of the script, imagine the characters, and finally form a performance after having an image in mind. This is the theory put forward by Mr. Jiao Juyin in Beijing Renyi, which has a deep influence on him.
Since college, Tian Yu has studied and practiced these theories, and practiced them through the drama stage.
In 1995, 20-year-old Tian Yu was admitted to the Performance Department of the Central Academy of Drama. He remembers being busy throughout college. The freshman year is to observe animals and do life exercises, the sophomore year begins to do novel fragment practice, the junior year rehearses a one-act play, and the senior year prepares for the graduation play.
Novel fragment practice involves taking a certain passage of a novel and adapting it into a fragment of a stage performance. The text of the novel is different from the script, which focuses on constructing dramatic conflict through language, and the novel has a detailed description of the environment in addition to the description of the characters' language, behavior, and psychological activities.
At that time, Tian Yu found a novel in the "Novel Monthly" to complete the homework. The novel focuses on the artistic conception, and it takes a lot of effort to set the scene, and he uses a flatbed truck to pull his grandmother's coal-burning stove to the school as a prop. After acting his homework, there was a lack of actors in his classmate's play, so he ran to make another cameo role.
It was a busy but happy time. Once, Tian Yu helped the students of the dance and art department to make a set model together. Everyone was doing and chatting, and when dawn came, they ran to the roof to watch the sunrise. Tian Yu described the whole city as a small house, and the sun is like a light illuminating the stage.
When he was free, Tian Yu went to the disco with his classmates to dance. At that time, there was a teacher who was the art director in the discotheque and would give students a few tickets from time to time. In the evening, as soon as the rehearsal hall closed, they would take their tickets and sit on the yellow noodles that cost 10 yuan to run 10 kilometers to dance.
In 1999, after graduating from university, Tian Yu entered the former China Youth Art Theater. It was also this year that he starred for the first time in the movie "Sincerity", playing the young Wu Dengyun in the film.
It was a grueling shoot. The filming location is in the Pamirs, and each transition involves traveling hundreds of kilometers, and altitude sickness is also very strong. But the rigorous work attitude of the older generation of filmmakers has made Tian Yu unforgettable to this day. Due to the high cost of making film films, the main creative staff had to go to the scene to rehearse a day in advance, and every time the shooting started, everyone focused their attention, and the whole set heard the sound of "brushing" the film running like a money counter.
"Sincerity" became the only work in which he played the protagonist in his early career. Tian Yu was not surprised by this, he said: "It was small at that time, and there were not so many expectations, in fact, it was to complete the director's requirements. ”
More time he was running in the theater. When acting in the drama "Chin Chao Minister", Tian Yu plays a child who delivers a letter, and he can get off the stage after crossing the stage, without lines. Although there are few scenes, it is not without performance. Tian Yu asked the makeup artist to dot small freckles on his face, holding a small towel in his hand, and after taking the stage, he dusted his shoes before running quickly to deliver the letter.
At that time, Tian Yu's monthly salary was not high, and after removing rent, telephone bills and living expenses, there was almost nothing left at the end of the month, but the feeling of freedom and concentration made him nostalgic. He lives in Wukesong and takes the subway to the theater every day to rehearse. Once, an old actor in the group drove him along the way in a Cherokee, and he joked that the ground was so interesting. Later, he bought a second-hand bicycle and rode more than ten kilometers from Wukesong to the rehearsal ground in Dongdan every day, and then rode back from work.
In 2001, the China Youth Art Theater and the Central Experimental Theater merged to form the National Theater of China. Tian Yu works at an average pace of one drama a year. As his stage performance experience increased, he began to play important roles in many dramas.
In 2006, he played the roles of Lao Tao and Boss Yuan in "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Garden" directed by Lai Shengchuan; In 2008, he starred in the play "Ming" and participated in the Shakespeare Festival; In 2010, the drama "Chopin" starring him won the Outstanding Performance Award issued by the Ministry of Culture.
These roles have grown up on Tian Yu, and he has a unique affection for each drama. In 2013, Tian Yu used his leisure time from filming to watch a "Secret Love Peach Blossom Garden". From the first scene, seeing Jiangbin Liu and Yun Zhifan swinging by the Huangpu River in Shanghai, Tian Yu was already in tears. He said that he had acted too many times and watched it too many times, and knew how the fate of the characters would change, but he was still very emotional when he saw the scene of separation.
Life is a blind box
Although drama is a relatively niche art, in this field, Tian Yu's acting skills have been recognized. The film and television industry is different, when he first entered the film and television industry, his development was not smooth, and he was often in a situation of not being chosen.
For a while, as soon as he heard that someone around him said that a crew was interviewing actors, he hurried over to try it and then took the bus home. Sometimes, Tian Yu, who has seen twenty or thirty crews, can't wait for a news, until he later finds out that the scenes he tried have long been started.
Due to his mature appearance, Tian Yu often played the roles of father and brother during college, but when he went to the crew in his 20s, he was said to be too young to play anything, so wait for the age of 30. But a few years later, Tian Yu went to the audition again and found that the market demand had changed, and the idol drama had become a popular drama, and he was said to be too old to act.
"Only a few people can meet the right role when they are young, and they didn't understand it at the time, but they all came through, and it was actually a slow process."
Tian Yu was not in a hurry. He first played small roles in a series of realistic film and television works, and he accumulated a good reputation after playing one role after another, and he gradually became a recognized trustworthy actor in the industry.
Looking through Tian Yu's film and television resume, you will find that there are many actors and directors who have cooperated many times, such as Shen Teng, Jin Dong, Zhang Meng, etc. In recent years, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou have also thrown olive branches to him and cooperated with him.
Wen Muye also invited Tian Yu to star as early as when preparing "I Am Not the God of Medicine", but due to scheduling reasons, the two missed the cooperation. Later, at a film festival, the two met, Wen Muye took the initiative to mention the role of Liang Yongcheng in "Miracle • Stupid Child", and after chatting carefully, Tian Yu decided to star.
Liang Yongcheng is a caregiver in a nursing home and a foreigner. Tian Yu has a deeper understanding of the characters, because he and his wife have no children in the movie, so he has emotional sustenance beyond blood for the Jing Hao brothers and sisters, and is willing to help Jing Hao regardless of salary.
Tian Yu plays Liang Yongcheng in "Miracle • Stupid Child"
This spring, Tian Yu completed a new drama called "The Right Way to Open Life". He partners with Huang Bo and plays a good friend in the play, and the two support each other and grow together in the trivialities of life.
They want to play the powerlessness and confusion of middle-aged people who are overwhelmed by responsibility. Tian Yu described that the living state of middle-aged people in that drama was like passing through layers of clouds and fog, but they did not reach the ideal state of clearing the clouds and seeing the sun, and some were just embattled on all sides.
Tian Yu, who is also entering middle age, is also facing problems that cannot be solved in life. Due to going out to film for a long time, he regretted that he did not have more time to accompany his family, and he missed many beautiful moments of children's growth.
The eldest daughter has had more than a dozen teeth changed, and he has only seen one of them changed; The youngest daughter asked him if he could go home to spend her birthday with her this year, and he could only say that he would try to go back. During the filming days, he could only watch the daily life of his daughters from the videos sent by his wife.
Although Tian Yu also wants to take a break, he likes acting too much, and when he encounters good characters, good scripts, and good cooperation teams, he is still reluctant to let go of wanting to act. He feels that this is a contradiction that needs to be faced in life, which is difficult to solve and difficult to plan. "Because life is like a blind box, I don't know what kind of blind box is opened every day, and then another blind box."
Therefore, when going out to film, Tian Yu used to bring some ancient objects with him, which made him feel quiet and peaceful. Now I am carrying with me a statue of an arhat that is about 100 years old. It was a few years ago when he was filming the movie "Yunshui" in Anji at a cultural relics market near the hotel. He felt that this arhat was innumerable, and people were like children in front of it.
He also likes to visit museums and temples because they allow him to think and understand where we came from, how our fathers, grandfathers, grandfathers and generations lived, architecture and artifacts that make people imagine. As an actor, he wanted to preserve his curiosity about a field.
Tian Yu felt: "Filming is like drawing a picture, after the drawing is written, the year, month and day are written, and the rest is handed over to the director." By analogy, a person's life is like painting, and to judge a person, you have to wait until the person who paints the painting completes his work.
When asked what kind of painting she would use to describe her life, Tian Yu hoped to be as rich as a kaleidoscope. The kaleidoscope is colorful and full of variations, with countless possibilities. It's like what he expects as an actor - to try more roles and break through to a bigger self. He feels that if he can make those characters more beautiful and ugly through performance, it is also a sense of happiness that can be experienced in acting.