There is a very strange law in the entertainment industry.
Whether an actor is popular or not, it is not to see how many people hold him, but to see how many people scold him.
The more he is scolded, the hotter this actor is.
Zhang Yi should have experienced this law recently.
During this time, he was scolded miserably.
In the past, Zhang Yi was an extremely low-key actor.
He is not good-looking, always plays supporting roles, has superb acting skills, and does not steal scenes.
Everyone praised him, saying that the distance between him and the old drama bone was one "old" word.
The subtext of the full praise is: he is good, but he is not popular.
But in 2020, everything has changed.
Zhang Yi shocked four people in "Eight Hundred" and crushed Wu Jing in "King Kong River".
Subsequently, he was selected by Zhang Yimou and starred in "One Second", "On the Cliff", "Sniper" and "Man Jiang Hong".
At the same time, Zhang Yi also quietly entered the 10 billion box office club.
From 10,000 years of supporting roles overnight, he has become a mainstay who can carry the box office alone, and in 2020 he was even called "Zhang Yi Year" by fans.
Some people begin to be unable to sit still.
In the past two years, the number of black Zhang translators on the Internet has increased significantly, and it has reached a blowout during the Spring Festival this year.
Originally, this Spring Festival, Zhang Yi was a big winner.
The movie "Manjiang Hong" starring him won the box office championship of the Spring Festival file, and "Crazy" starring him became the hit drama of the year.
Movies and TV series have blossomed, which was originally a highlight moment on Zhang Yi's acting road.
But Zhang Yi was criticized by verbal criticism.
Some people turned over his old black materials, some people questioned his character, and even his most proud acting skills were looked down upon by everyone.
It seems that overnight, Zhang Yi was expelled from the ranks of the "acting school" and fell off the altar with one foot in the air.
In just 2 years, how did Zhang Yi suddenly squeeze into this step?
Today, Pico will have a good chat with you about this topic.
01、
The starting point of the controversy is the explosive "Crazy".
Different from the heat of "Crazy", Zhang Yi's performance in and out of the play is particularly calm.
In the eyes of many, even "indifference".
Let's start with the play.
In this drama, almost all the acting skills are online.
Supporting roles such as Li Xiang, Gao Qisheng, Gao Qilan, Chen Shuting, Li Hongwei, Dragon and Tiger Brothers, Killer Lao Mo, Secretary Wang and so on are quite outstanding.
A large number of "waist actors" are also well known to the audience because of this drama.
Not to mention Gao Qiqiang, he is another classic black boss image.
His actor Zhang Songwen was also completely popular, and the popularity during the Spring Festival even overwhelmed big coffees such as Wu Jing, Shen Teng and Andy Lau.
On the other hand, Zhang Yi is obviously a "leading actor" embodied separately, and he is also acting as a "duel between good and evil".
But the popularity is less than one-tenth of Zhang Songwen.
Some people say that good people are difficult to act, and bad people are easy to shine.
But the problem is that An Xin is not as strong as the villain Gao Qi, and his popularity is not even as good as supporting roles such as Li Xiang and Lu Han.
These are standard good people, which is really weird.
So someone pointed out that Zhang Yi's acting skills were wrong.
They gave a few examples.
For example, he played a second-generation official in the early stage, and he acted a little deliberately.
For example, the white hair he dyed later was not natural enough.
For example, when he speaks, he has a hard concave southern accent and sounds very dramatic.
And in the direct confrontation with Zhang Songwen, Zhang Yi's performance was also disappointed by some audiences.
For example, there are many scenes in the play where two people "eat noodles".
It should have been a close contest, but some viewers thought it was "one-sided crushing".
Even commented that "Zhang Yi's acting skills were completely exploded by Zhang Songwen".
Let's talk about outside the play.
When Zhang Yi was a hit on "Crazy", he did not send a single dynamic promotion throughout the process.
After the end of "Crazy", he directly deleted the only propaganda from a few months ago, as if to completely distance himself from this show.
The crew's celebration banquet, everyone gathered together, only Zhang Yi did not go.
Director Xu Jizhou also obviously avoided talking about Zhang Yi in an interview.
In addition, the actor of the policewoman Jiang Chao in the play hinted that Zhang Yi was "difficult to serve", saying that he "did not want to see Zhang Yi in his life".
Although she later said that these responses were misunderstood, the words were too colorful to make people think.
So much information, taken together, seems to prove that Zhang Yi is "not easy to get along with".
In stark contrast to this, "Manjiang Red".
Zhang Yi is the villain supporting role in this movie, ranking after Shen Teng and Yi Yangqianxi in the cast list.
But when the movie was hot, he had been participating in publicity through social media, which was in stark contrast to not promoting "Crazy".
When Zhang Yi was filming, he was also conscientious, and there was nothing to say about his business ability and professional attitude, otherwise Zhang Yimou would not have been able to cooperate with him so many times.
Some people mocked: Zhang Yi, you face a small director like Xu Jizhou, showing your true colors of "drama bully".
When it comes to the old man, he can only become honest.
02、
So, is that really the case?
Let's take a closer look.
Let's start with the play.
In the past, in this kind of anti-black drama, the villain was easier to shine.
20 years ago, "Conquest", "Black Hole" and "Black Ice", 6 years ago in "In the Name of the People", all of them were the villains in the play.
In contrast, decent performance can only be regarded as decent.
In "Crazy", Zhang Yi got this role, and he suffered a loss at first, which is everyone's consensus.
Secondly, Gao Qiqiang, these villains, all got up from the bottom.
They have obvious growth clues, and they can reflect the most real side of human nature and society, so it is easy to resonate with the audience.
Among the positive characters, Li Xiang and Lu Han are also from the bottom.
In order to find out the big tiger Zhao Lidong, Li Xiang went deep into the tiger's den as an undercover agent, and finally failed to succeed, not only killed, but also tragically destroyed;
Lu Han was alone, investigating the shooting and murder, and finally died tragically in a cement mixer.
Both characters have the fearless spirit of "knowing what cannot be done", which is liked by everyone and easy to understand.
And Anxin is different.
As soon as he appeared, he had his own aura.
His parents are martyrs, the two big leaders in the bureau are his uncles, and there are big beauties like Meng Yu outside the police station who love.
The characters also have obvious characteristics, some tendons in character, and they are not afraid to confront the city leaders head-on for justice.
But taken together, these present an "obvious hero," or "stylized hero."
In recent years, everyone has seen too many heroes in film and television works.
In film and television dramas, heroes are needed, but only righteous heroes are loaded in their hearts, which is also easy to make people "aesthetic fatigue".
Let's compare and look at Li Xiang, we can understand.
He also had justice in his heart, but he tried to bring down Zhao Lidong by sacrificing himself.
This characteristic of "good and evil" will make the characters different.
Of course, An Xin is a decent male number one, and within the current review mechanism, An Xin is destined to only be the An Xin we see in the play.
But it is under such restrictions that the role of An Xin has been processed by Zhang Yi, and there are also many highlights.
There are three lines in the whole play, the first two lines, An Xin are direct participants.
Whether it is an undercover play close to a crazy donkey, facing Meng Yu's mouth is poor.
When receiving commendations, he woke up "ringing" by phone and shouted Zhao Lidong in front of a group of leaders.
As well as pulling the cordon and forcing Gao Qiqiang to retreat.
These treatments actually add a lot of color to this character on top of the main melody.
And many of these scenes were conceived by Zhang Yi himself.
As far as Pige's viewing experience is concerned, in the first two lines, An Xin and Gao Qiqiang have their own characteristics, which can be regarded as "complementing each other".
However, in the third line, above the role of An Xin, some changes have occurred.
Originally, the audience expected An Xin to complete the Jedi counterattack, but for various reasons, Xu Zhong was noisy, and the most crucial scene of persuading Yang Jian was also completed by him.
It is equivalent to the role of An Xin, who was disgusted in the early stage, but finally became a tool man.
From the audience's point of view, there is obviously some disappointment.
Compared with Gao Qiqiang's multi-layered, An Xin, as a positive police image and a firm idealist, focuses on performance much less, and is more difficult to shape.
It's just that when the audience watches the drama, they often directly compare the two roles of good and evil, and "stylized heroes" such as Anxin are naturally not as stunning as the villain.
But Zhang Yi still used many creative ways to complete the performance well, and performed the characteristics of the character in the waves.
From a performance point of view, Zhang Yi is not bad at all.
03、
Let's talk about outside the play.
To sort out these controversies, we also had to draw our attention to the filming scene of "Crazy".
When "Crazy" was a hit, a lot of behind-the-scenes footage was released, and the actors in the play also shared a lot of creative details online.
From these contents, we learned a news -
Zhang Yi is not only the starring actor, but also the artistic director of the whole play, and many highlight scenes in the play were thought up by him.
For example, at the commendation meeting we mentioned earlier, An Xin connected with Li Xiang.
For example, An Xin used a cordon to force Gao Qiqiang back, and Lao Mo finally took a bomb with his backhand.
These shots have also become famous scenes that are talked about by everyone in the play.
In the tidbits, in addition to guiding adult actors, Zhang Yi also taught young actors how to play the juvenile version of Gao Xiaochen.
An action with a toy pistol, he demonstrated it himself, smiling the whole time.
At the end of the whole play, many actors sent small essays to recall the shooting experience, among which Zhang Yi was the most thanked.
Zhang Songwen called Zhang Yi "Zhang Yi teacher", Tang Xiaolong's actor Lin Jiachuan thanked Zhang Yi for guiding his performance, and Zhang Biao's actor called Zhang Yi "a lifelong benefactor".
Xiao Wu and other actors revealed that Zhang Yi took the initiative to add drama to himself on the set, and Xiao Wu's tone of slowly swallowing and speaking was designed by Zhang Yi, and the effect was excellent.
So why are there so many rumors about Zhang Yi's "playing big names" on the Internet?
In fact, from these in-the-play tidbits and extra-the-play remarks, we can roughly guess the reason.
First of all, Zhang Yi is an actor who has extremely high requirements for business performance.
For example, when filming "Man Jiang Hong", he took the initiative to lose more than ten pounds in order to cater to Zhang Yimou's film texture.
Between filming, everyone else was resting, and he was still pacing back and forth to study the expression of lines.
"I don't want to betray Zhang Yimou's trust."
In "Crazy", his high requirements can also be observed in many ways.
For example, as we listed earlier, the details of some scenes;
For example, in the play, the criminal investigation team and the anti-drug team have a confrontation in the conference room.
Zhang Yi felt that the anti-drug team's rebuttal tone was too rational, and he used an emotional way to demonstrate it himself.
But the crew is a small society.
He is for the good of the play, but what will the other cast members on the scene think?
If you are also a good actor, you will feel Zhang Yi's professional attitude, feel sympathy for each other, and be grateful.
But it is inevitable that some people will "not get used to it", so the rumors of Zhang Yi being "proud", "good teacher", and even "playing big names" came out.
If there is a difference between his creation and the director's idea, how will it end?
We can't know what happened on the filming scene, before and after.
As viewers, we taste works.
When you see this work, the ingenuity in many details, and the excitement of the confrontation between the pros and cons, it is actually enough.
When the show was popular, there were constant rumors on the Internet, but Zhang Yi remained silent throughout the process and did not add chaos to "Crazy".
After the show was finished, he issued a statement to counter some false information, and then remained silent again.
An actor faces so many bad comments, it is not easy to do this.
04、
Looking back at Zhang Yi's mental journey along the way, we can see Zhang Yi more clearly.
Zhang Yi did not have a leading role since he was a child, and until he was 27 years old, he was only a marginal actor in the Beijing Comrades-in-Arms Repertory Troupe.
To say that he is an actor is already a euphemism.
He just entered the drama troupe, and finally had a chance to appear, but because of the nervous performance, he was beaten into the cold palace.
Zhang Yi's real job is to do miscellaneous, performing sketches at the troupe's evening, occasionally making guest appearances as hosts, and helping to disassemble the stage after the end.
Until someone told him that an actor was not yet in his primes when he was 28 years old, this life was like this.
So at the age of 28, he took the initiative to write a 3,000-word cover letter to director Kang Honglei, titled "My Petition", and finally successfully won the role.
This drama is "Soldier Assault", Zhang Yi is familiar to everyone with the role of Shi Jin, and the scene of crying in front of Tiananmen Square in the play has touched countless audiences.
Cao Baoping's evaluation of Zhang Yi is one word: "stable".
Later, Zhang Yi's acting career can be summarized with this word.
The soldier oil son in "My Regiment Commander My Regiment", the father who lost his child in Chen Kexin's works, the five-star killer in "The Chaser", and the coward in "Eight Hundred" all left a deep impression on the audience.
Among them, in "Operation Red Sea", he played very few roles, but he was nominated for the Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actor, which shows that his acting skills have been recognized by the industry.
The only regret of those years was that he had not been popular.
It was his misfortune and his luck.
Zhang Yi is not without opportunities to be popular, and as his fame grows, invitations to variety shows also come in.
Each invitation quote is as high as 10 million, which is a shortcut to popularity for actors.
But Zhang Yi came out of the trough, and he cherished his feathers.
Zhang Yi guarded his bottom line and did not take the opportunity to ridicule his peers.
In the past two years, Zhang Yi can be regarded as popular.
In the face of one calamity after another, Zhang Yi chose to respond to all changes with no change.
Friends familiar with Zhang Yi know that he rarely uses social media and rarely promotes his work.
Personal accounts are even handed over to the team to operate, in order to keep a sense of distance from the public, so that every work and every character brings freshness to the audience.
Zhang Yi is not without grievances, not without complaints, but chooses to endure.
Zhang Yi didn't seem to respond, but he was already responding.
As of 2025, he still has at least 10 unaired film and television works, including many S+ level dramas, for an actor, is there a more powerful fight back?
Let's ask, aren't you ashamed to pull such a good actor off the "altar"?
Zhang Yi, you have to be good, please continue to persevere like this.
The more he was scolded, the more firmly he stood and waited for the storm to pass.
Your next spring is coming.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Office: A Chicken
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