Recently, Zhang Yi ushered in a wave of "not very peaceful" traffic.
On the one hand, in the past month, whether on the big screen or the small screen, Zhang Yi has ushered in a small climax -
In terms of movies, he starred in "Manjiang Red" became the biggest winner of the Spring Festival file, and in TV series, "Crazy" starring him became the first work to trigger phenomenal discussions at the beginning of the year. This drama pushed Zhang Songwen, who was also starring, to the peak of traffic, so that Zhang Yi, who played An Xin, seemed to be ignored by the traffic of this carnival.
On the other hand, some things that seemed unusual to netizens also surfaced.
Not long ago, "Crazy" ushered in the finale, and all the leading actors wrote long farewell to their roles, in addition to Zhang Yi, and in Zhang Yi's Weibo, he also deleted the only copy promoting "Crazy".
This is unusual, after all, Zhang translates the information promoted by other films and still hangs on his homepage.
Under such an "unusual", speculation about Zhang Yi's discord with the crew began to emerge, and even though the crew publicly stated that these speculations were false, the discussion was still not suspended.
As expected, Zhang Yi did not reply publicly.
After entering the industry for many years, even though his acting skills are well-known and traffic continues to gather, Zhang Yi has always refused to really enter the "entertainment industry" system.
He defines himself as "habitually inferior", insisting that he is only an actor, not a star, saying: "I am not thick enough to withstand too much consumption".
After all, in Zhang Yi's 44 years of life, he has long understood that some things are difficult to change, just as some things will not change.
Zhang Yi was born in Harbin in 1978, and walking out of his home, it took about half an hour to reach the Songhua River.
His parents were both teachers, his father taught music, his mother taught art, and in addition to that, he had an older sister who was 9 years older.
Zhang Yi when he was a child
When he was four or five years old, because his mother was not in good health, his father asked Zhang Yi not to speak loudly at home, so his greatest pleasure at that time was to quietly read villain books alone and fiddle with his sister's porcelain doll toys.
Growing up a little more, Zhang Yi's greatest pleasure became watching TV while his parents were not at home, and in order to prevent detection, he also invented a set of methods -
While watching, put the lunch box full of ice cubes on the TV to dissipate heat, and after watching, I will scan the TV screen by hand to eliminate static electricity, and finally put the remote control board back in its original place.
But even though he was so meticulous, he still couldn't escape his father's detection - every time he returned home, his father would look at the electricity meter once, and after reading it, Zhang Yi would be beaten.
Zhang Yi when he was a child
For his father, Zhang Yi once commented: "He just wants to train me to be a replica of him." ”
For a while, his father felt that Zhang Yi was not in good health and worried that he would not grow tall, so he would pull Zhang Yi to play badminton as soon as he had time.
At that time, his father asked Zhang Yi to walk while playing badminton, the distance was from home to the Songhua River, during this half-hour long journey, the ball was not allowed to fall, if it fell, he had to return to the starting point and play again.
After playing like this for several years, Zhang Yi couldn't bear it anymore and folded the badminton racket into two at once.
There was also a period of time when his father tried to discover some talents related to literature and art from Zhang Yi, and he put accordions, pianos, gourds, pipas and other musical instruments in front of Zhang Yi and asked him to choose, but Zhang Yi was not interested.
At that time, Zhang Yi's dream was to become an announcer.
When Zhang Yi was in the fifth grade of primary school, he participated in the school's radio competition for the first time, and the moment he heard his voice coming out of the microphone, Zhang Yi fell.
Since then, he has aspired to become an announcer.
Zhang Yi when he was a child
In 1994, the Beijing Broadcasting Institute held an entrance examination for professional courses in Harbin, and Zhang Yi, who was in his second year of high school, planned to "test the waters" to prepare for the second year.
In this exam, although he passed the professional course, because he could not participate in the college entrance examination, as expected, Zhang Yi fell off the list.
The next year, Zhang Yi officially launched an "attack" towards Beiguang and successfully passed the professional course exam again, who knows, in the college entrance examination, Zhang Yi missed the Beijing Broadcasting Institute with the second place due to a one-point difference.
On the day he learned the news of his defeat, Zhang Yi sat on the bed in his bedroom in a daze, and his mother walked in and said to him: "If you want to cry, cry, don't hold back."
But that day, Zhang Yi never cried, and for the first time he knew that when people suffered a huge blow, they actually lost all their expressions.
Zhang translates old photos
After failing the college entrance examination, Zhang Yi became an unemployed young man at home, and there were only two paths ahead - repeat studies or work.
At this time, it coincided with the Harbin Theater Troupe recruiting students, and at the suggestion of his father, Zhang Yi also went to take the exam and was finally admitted as a self-funded student.
At that time, Zhang Yi had no interest in acting, and the reason why he entered the troupe was purely for a college diploma.
But the story is always full of surprises, and Zhang Yi did not expect that his later life would be "entangled" with acting for many years.
After entering adolescence, Zhang Yi began to develop a strange but common sense of "self-esteem", commonly known as "asking for face".
For example, every time he goes out, he must iron his pants straight, and if the pants are not straight, he will resolutely not go out.
For example, at that time, Zhang Yi's school was some distance from home, and he had to cycle to and from school every day, and in those days, the most popular among boys was mountain biking.
Zhang Yi was very envious and wanted to have one, but at that time, Zhang Yi's family, who lived in a semi-basement house, were not rich, and his parents were even less likely to buy a new car for him for no reason, so Zhang Yi was always one of the few people among his classmates who rode the old two eight bicycles.
Comparison to others is the source of most misfortunes in life.
Zhang translates old photos
After being admitted to the Harbin Theater Troupe, Zhang Yi needed to ride more and more often, and once, he really couldn't stand the bicycle, so he found a dark and windy night and left the old 28 bicycle in an alley without locking.
When he got home, he told his parents that he had lost his bike. After hearing this, his father did not blame Zhang Yi, but immediately wore a cotton jacket and braved the wind and snow to go out to find the bicycle.
Looking at the figure of his father going out, Zhang Yi suddenly woke up and recalled again, he said: "At that time, I felt that I was really a bastard. ”
In Zhang Yi's life, this kind of moment that was suddenly changed at a certain moment was more than once.
In the winter of 1996, Zhang Yi, who was studying in the Harbin Theater Troupe, watched two plays, and at the scene, he was moved to tears by the stories on stage.
Since then, he fell in love with drama and the profession of "actor", and he also spent more than a dozen yuan to get an actor card that was useless, and he couldn't wait to take it out everywhere to show it to others, telling everyone:
"Look, I'm an actor."
Zhang Yi when performing dramas
Seeing that Zhang Yi liked drama, a teacher said to him: "You can go to Beijing to try it, you can watch drama every day in Beijing." ”
In 1996, 18-year-old Zhang Yi left Harbin and went to Beijing alone.
After going to Beijing, Zhang Yi applied for the People's Liberation Army Academy of Art, but did not get an interview because he failed the physical examination; After that, he applied for the Chinese opera exam, but was recognized by the teacher as "not very suitable for being an actor in appearance".
In his first year in Beijing, Zhang Yi constantly hit a wall, and under the difficulties, Zhang Yi heard that the Beijing Military Region's Comrades-in-Arms Cultural Troupe was recruiting actors, and he immediately signed up for the exam.
Six months later, Zhang Yi received a notice that although he passed the exam, because of his low grades, he could only enter the literary troupe as a self-funded student.
In this way, in 1997, Zhang Yi entered the Military Region's Comrades-in-Arms Cultural Troupe and began a 10-year military career.
The moment he put on his military uniform, Zhang Yi felt that his dream of being stranded on the real beach as an actor seemed to be gradually waking up.
For a while, Zhang Yi was keen to post selfies on social networks, and the angle of the photo was always very strange, either looking up or down, and sometimes he would use some strange big head effects.
In this regard, his friend Shen Teng commented: "If I look like Zhang Yi, I will never post selfies on Weibo or in the circle of friends, and I will even destroy all the photos released by the media, Zhang Yi's actions, I don't understand very well." ”
Zhang Yi was the first to understand more than anyone that as an actor, his appearance is a "deduction item", and he described himself: "There is no face that will make the audience interested in paying to see it in the cinema." ”
For a period of time, Zhang Yi even firmly believed that if he wanted to act, he could only play the image of a hooligan who stood behind the protagonist and bent over to speak.
Looking back, this perception of his inferiority has accompanied Zhang Yi almost throughout his acting career.
In that year, the cadets in the regiment held an ugly selection contest to select the three ugliest looking people in the regiment, one of which was Zhang Yi.
Zhang Yi during the period of the army literary corps
At that time, the person who shared the dormitory with Zhang Yi was Xiao Jian, who later played "Yan Xiaoliu" in "The Legend of Wulin", and Zhang Yi recalled many years later, he said:
"The two will become more and more similar after staying for a long time, maybe I can look better without him at that time."
Xiao Jian, who played "Yan Xiaoliu" in "The Legend of Wulin"
Although he is not outstanding, in the army, Zhang Yi still talked about love, the other party was the representative of the acting class in Zhang Yi's class, and at that time, the army explicitly forbade love, and the two talked about underground love.
This two-year relationship left a far-reaching impact on Zhang Yi's life, in the girl, Zhang Yi learned tolerance and courage, he took a plane for the first time in his life, and when he didn't know how to ride, it was his girlfriend who taught him step by step.
However, the relationship eventually had to end because the woman's family did not agree.
Zhang Yi talked about the reasons for breaking up in the interview
After being hurt, Zhang Yi put more energy into the performance, every time the troupe organized a skit, Zhang Yi was the most active, from the baggage buried in the script to the design of the scene in the performance, Zhang Yi always made enough preparations, looking forward to bringing wonderful performances on stage.
But the strange thing is that no matter how hard Zhang Yi tries, he will always cause jokes as soon as he stands on the stage.
In those years, Zhang Yi received the most evaluation in performance, "introverted, no acting talent".
As soon as he performed on stage, Zhang Yi's nervous movements were stiff, with the same hands and feet, and the lines were spoken in one mouth, which was a thick broadcast cavity, and coupled with his face that did not grow, Zhang Yi himself commented - "It was simply a disaster".
Once, the members of the group drank together, and after three rounds of drinking, a director grabbed Zhang Yi's shoulders and said to him: "Don't you dare to act anymore, you are a dead man when you act." ”
Can't be the protagonist, Zhang Yi is also willing to do a supporting role.
Because he studied at his own expense twice, Zhang Yijia owed a lot of debts. At that time, in the army, although the allowance gradually increased from 20 yuan to 120 yuan, it was still not enough to pay off the family's debts, Zhang Yi heard that filming could earn money, so he began to run around for group interviews.
In those two years, his crew ran hundreds and scattered thousands of resumes, but he never got a real role.
Once, Zhang Yi finally got a chance to play a historical hero, but was replaced before the start-up, because the hero's descendants found the crew and refused Zhang Yi to play, on the grounds that he did not look qualified.
His acting career has been repeatedly frustrated, and Zhang Yi has also thought about giving up acting.
In 2003, he switched careers as a screenwriter and wrote many screenplays, the closest to success was when a script he wrote was almost filmed, but the agreement was finally terminated for various reasons.
Faced with wrestling again and again, Zhang Yi was a little frustrated and began to seriously think about whether this line was really suitable for him, and at this time, he received a phone call.
Director Kang Honglei always remembers how Zhang Yi looked when he first entered the crew.
It was 2004, Kang Honglei was preparing to shoot a TV series called "Migrant Worker", and during the preparation, he saw a photo sent by Zhang Yi's running crew.
The director felt that Zhang Yi was suitable for the role in the play, so he called and invited him to star, this year Zhang Yi was 26 years old, as an actor, he had no systematic performance experience.
After entering the crew, Zhang Yi found Kang Honglei and told him that he had no confidence and did not know whether he could act well, and Kang Honglei told Zhang Yi: "As long as you act well, you will definitely become a good actor." ”
In the subsequent filming process, he never urged Zhang Yi, but let him act slowly and slowly enter the role. In this performance, Zhang Yi gradually regained some confidence in acting.
Zhang translation in "Migrant Worker"
A year later, Kang Honglei was preparing to film the TV series "Soldier Assault", and after Zhang Yi found out, he immediately wrote a cover letter of more than 3,000 words, which listed 16 reasons why he was suitable for the protagonist "Xu Sanduo" in the play, and his words were sincere.
The next day, he gave the letter to Kang Honglei, and that evening, he received an invitation call from the crew, asking him to play the role of "squad leader Shi Jin" in "Soldier Assault".
Although he did not get the coveted role of "Xu Sanduo", Zhang Yi was still very happy, he ran to the army to ask for leave, but found that his shooting time coincided with the team's task, and after thinking about it, Zhang Yi submitted a transfer application report.
This year, Zhang Yi was 28 years old, in his 10th year as a soldier, standing at a fork in the road, he made a choice and ushered in a change.
The squad leader played by Zhang Yi in "Soldier Assault"
Coincidentally, on the day the transfer report was approved, Zhang Yi happened to be filming the last scene in "Soldier Assault" - the retired Shi Jin passed by Tiananmen Square in a car, looking at the scenery outside, Shi Jin finally couldn't help crying.
On TV, Shi Jin said goodbye to his status as a soldier, and outside the TV, Zhang Yi also officially took off his military uniform.
That day, after filming, Zhang Yi squatted on the ground and cried for a long time, and he clearly felt that everything was different.
After starring in "Soldier Assault", Zhang Yi finally became popular.
Walking on the street, he began to be recognized by more and more people, and some people even began to secretly photograph him while walking on the road.
Once, Zhang Yi went out to buy eggs in big pants, but was recognized by a girl at the door of the market, Zhang Yi panicked, ran with the egg, but did not see the front clearly, hit the tree, and the egg broke into a pocket.
In fact, although the fire of "Soldier Assault" made more people know Zhang Yi, it did not become a "pass" for his subsequent acting career.
A few years after "Soldier Assault", Zhang Yi starred in two military works "My Regiment Commander My Regiment" and "Life and Death Line", and also acted in several urban romance dramas, with more opportunities, but often hit a wall -
He experienced several times that he had already signed a contract, but was told that the role had been removed before filming; I also experienced that before the start of shooting, the other company directly broke the contract.
Zhang Yi in the TV series "My Regiment Leader My Regiment"
After another three years of stumbling, it was not until 2008 that Zhang Yi finally felt that he was "not poor", this year, he was just 30 years old.
At the age of 27, someone said to Zhang Yi: "If the actor doesn't come out at the age of 28, wash and sleep", but Zhang Yi proved with his later life -
Experience, while valuable, can also be broken.
In 2013, director Chen Kexin found Zhang Yi and invited him to play the role of "Han Dezhong" in the movie "Darling".
In the movie, Han Dezhong's role is set as an "upstart", so when he first received the invitation, Zhang Yi was a little frustrated: "Why have I worked hard to study literature and art all these years, but I still have to play an upstart." ”
He went to ask Chen Kexin with questions, and the answer was: "We just want to find someone who is not like an upstart." ”
Zhang Yi said: "After hearing this sentence, I am very comforted. ”
Zhang Yi in the movie "Dear"
With this appearance, Zhang Yi won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actor, which is the first professional award he has received, standing on the stage, he said 17 thanks in a row.
Before going on stage, Zhang Yi also thought about whether he could just say "thanks" coolly if he won the award, and then step down, but after thinking about it, he still decided to express his gratitude in place:
"Maybe this will be the only time I've won the prize."
Looking back, since his first appearance in the movie "Party Founding" in 2011, Zhang Yi turned from the small screen to the big screen, began to appear in many movies, and cooperated with many famous directors.
In Jia Zhangke's "Mountains and Rivers Departed", he plays Zhang Jinsheng, the coal boss who is very rich; In Chen Kaige's "Search", he plays Zhang Mu, a scheming lawyer; In Feng Xiaogang's "I Am Not Pan Jinlian", he only appeared in the last 20 minutes of the film, playing the presiding judge, Jia Congming.
In these movies, although Zhang Yi is not the protagonist, his acting skills have left a deep impression on the audience.
Zhang Yi in the movie "Mountains and Rivers Departed"
Taking "Soldier Assault" as a starting point, Zhang Yi seems to have suddenly opened up his sleeve in acting, and in subsequent works, no matter what kind of role, he can always accurately shape.
Behind this, perhaps Zhang Yi's talent has finally been discovered, but more importantly, he has done his best in the performance:
When playing "My Regiment Leader My Regiment", the role played by Zhang Yi is lame most of the time, in order to shape a good role, when not filming, Zhang Yi also walks with a limp, after the filming, Zhang Yi's left leg is two centimeters thinner than his right leg;
When filming "One Second", for the sake of the role, he lost 20 pounds in 20 days, and his lowest weight reached 110 pounds;
Zhang Yi in the movie "One Second"
When filming "Above the Cliff", there was an electric shock scene, director Zhang Yimou proposed to use a stuntman, but Zhang Yi refused and insisted on starring in person, after which he really accepted the electric shock.
In the acting, Zhang Yi, who was born in Harbin, often changes his accent, in the acting, he spoke Yunnan dialect, Shanxi dialect, in order to shoot the movie "Thousands of Miles Home", he specially learned Arabic, in the recent hit "Crazy", Zhang Yi spoke Henan dialect again.
Zhang Yi in the TV series "Crazy"
In this process, Zhang Yi also entered his own golden age.
In 2017, Zhang Yi won the Golden Eagle and Magnolia Double Vision Emperor with the TV series "Chicken Feathers Fly to the Sky", and to this day, the pictures of him carrying the baggage in the play are still popular on social networks in the form of emojis.
In 2018, 40-year-old Zhang Yi finally ushered in his first film "Operation Red Sea" starring. Those days of tricks, those unbearable frustrations of the past, as the years go by.
The filming location was selected in Morocco, North Africa, the conditions were extremely difficult, there was only meat and no vegetables in the nearby market, and during the filming process, in order to improve everyone's food, Zhang Yi planted vegetables for three months.
In the end, this painstakingly filmed film received 3.6 billion box office that year.
After that, he became a "resident actor" on the big screen, from "Eight Hundred" and "King Kong River" to "One Second" and "Above the Cliff", Zhang Yi became the fifth actor in China to break the 10 billion box office mark.
However, as his popularity grew, Zhang Yi seemed to gradually disappear.
In the early two years, he would occasionally give interviews to the media, and in the past two years, he has given fewer and fewer interviews, never participated in variety shows, and rarely endorsed products.
He said: "I'm just an actor, not a star, and my life is not thick enough to withstand being consumed. ”
Zhang Yi talks about traffic
After experiencing too many ups and downs, Zhang Yi knows very clearly what he wants - to become an actor, and only to become an actor.
So far, even though he has become a movie king, Zhang Yi still says that he is a person with low self-esteem.
The difficult family conditions of his youth, the military career with little communication with the outside world in his youth, and when he grew up, he became an actor, but he did not have the opportunity for a long time, was not recognized, and suffered successive failures.
These experiences were mixed together, leaving Zhang Yi in a habitual state of inferiority for a long time.
Later, even though he became more and more popular and his acting skills were constantly recognized, this inferiority was never removed, and Zhang Yi did not want to remove this inferiority.
In his opinion, this inferiority can put him in a more sensitive state, and it also allows him to better shape the character and observe the environment.
Zhang Yi talks about inferiority
At the beginning of last year, Zhang Yi participated in the movie "Manjiang Hong" directed by Zhang Yimou, and on the set, he witnessed a rookie actor acting in a movie for the first time, Zhang Yi sat on the side and sighed:
"This is the first movie shot in her life."
After the actor's performance, Zhang Yi took the lead in applauding her, and at the moment of applause, perhaps he also remembered the year he first acted.
It was 1996, Zhang Yi filmed "Snow Country" on the outskirts of Daqing City, playing an armed police soldier growing vegetables in a plastic greenhouse, although he only had one scene and three lines that day, but Zhang Yi was still very happy.
He was 18 years old that year, ate the crew's box lunch for the first time, and faced the camera for the first time.
In the years since, he has eaten many crew box lunches, and has long lost count of how many times he has faced the camera, he is no longer the hairy boy who can't act at the age of 18 and speaks stiffly, but has become a movie star with tens of billions of box office, an actor who can always shape roles almost perfectly.
Time has almost updated Zhang Yi's life, but some things have not changed.
Back 26 years ago, Zhang Yi left his hometown for Beijing. On the day of leaving, sitting on the train, Zhang Yi looked at the snow on the Harbin platform and secretly made up his mind in his heart:
"To be an actor, you must be an actor."
Later, the snow in Harbin melted and accumulated again, but Zhang Yi's dream never melted again.
Now, for Zhang Yi after "Crazy", the traffic coming from hearing the news is just the icing on the cake, and he does not need to deliberately praise. If a person can humbly face the ridicule of the past, he can calmly look down on today's applause.
Many people, perhaps like Zhang Yi, have an ordinary starting point, a bumpy process, and have been repeatedly tricked by fate, but even if life is as humble as a chicken feather, they can fly into the sky.
Chicken feathers can fly into the sky, first of all, we must be grounded.
Zhang Yi, did it.