Beijing Daily
Gong Lei: Actors have to learn to wait
Li Xiang
The anti-drug drama "Icebreaker Action", which won the award and won the soft hand, brought together a group of actors whose acting skills exploded. Among them, the role of Lin Zonghui, played by Gong Lei, does not lose warmth in the cold, and there are countless fans.
Gong Lei's performance in the popular variety show "See words as Faces" is also amazing, and he has repeatedly appeared on the topic list. In the program, he read a letter written by Tang Bohu to his friend Wen Zhengming - Tang Bohu has risen and fallen several times in his life, tasted the impermanence of life, but he is an optimistic person, even if unprovoked disasters come in the blink of an eye, he can also face it with grace.
Tang Bohu and Gong Lei's lives are completely different, but their mentalities are very similar. Gong Lei, the chief of the army, had a heroic dream and accidentally bumped into the show business circle. He tried to integrate each character into his own understanding and play it more naturally. Compared with those traffic stars, he has not yet become popular, but the audience is willing to call him a "good actor".
"I don't have any desire to perform." Gong Lei said that just as he never presets roles before coming to the scene, he does not preset what he will look like in the future before every knock on the door tomorrow.
Played Lin Zonghui in the anti-drug drama "Operation Icebreaker".
Feel the atmosphere of the scene first and then decide how to perform
"Take it easy, just like a normal show." In the middle of December last year, when he came to the studio of "Seeing Words Like Faces", Gong Lei met director Guan Zhengwen. He glanced around—a standard little theater where the audience was so close to the actors that he could see the facial expressions of the audience in the front row.
"During the conversation with Guan Dao, I secretly made a decision." Before that, how to read several letters, Gong Lei had overthrown himself countless times in his heart. This decision gave a clear answer to the hesitation of more than half a month, and also let people see the ease of an actor.
It was at the end of November last year that Gong Lei received 6 letters from the "See words as faces" program team. This show specializes in reading letters, and the actors lead the audience to relive the time and memories in the letters, opening up a little-known story.
One of the letters was written by Dostoevsky to his wife Anna. "Toshi is no stranger to me." Gong Lei talks about Tuoshi as if he has been friends for many years, from the controversy of Tuoshi's works, its contrast with Tolstoy, and then to the ups and downs of his life, as if Chinese student's reading report. "His life is actually not easy", but this letter reflects the author's joy, like a first love.
"This letter was probably written between the ages of 45 and 50, the golden age of his life." Gong Lei said. Dostoevsky was born into the nobility, while his wife Anna was only a stenographer, and the two were 25 years apart in age. The two people, who seem to have a huge difference in status, love blazingly. This love comforted him throughout his life's suffering.
The surface of the text is rational, but the inside of the line is hot. Gong Lei inevitably hesitated: how to convey that affectionate money through simple words and limited reading? He thought of two ways: one is to take the perspective of the bystander, similar to the literal translation, without adding personal elements; the other is to present it like a drama by jumping in and out. In other words, I felt as if I was in the middle of the audience, making everyone in the audience become a toss. It is possible to go a little further and put yourself in a little bit, but then there is the question of how much to put in. ”
In the interval between filming, Gong Lei continued to polish these 6 letters. "Every time it feels different, I can't tell which is better." When I wake up in the morning, I think this smell is more appropriate, and I feel that another taste is more suitable at lunch; when I watch young people fall in love, I think of this letter, watching the elderly couple go away, and also thinking of this letter... "Both methods can be used, especially the second method, which gives me a variety of possibilities." "For half a month, Gong Lei has been hovering between multiple possibilities.
On the evening of this day in mid-December, Gong Lei completed the day's work in Ningbo. When the plane back to Beijing gradually climbed, Gong Lei recalled the letter in his heart. The snow that had fallen a few days ago had not yet melted, and the cold in Beijing in the second half of the night caught him off guard. Coupled with the fact that he had to go to Hunan to shoot another costume play after that, this night, Gong Lei did not rest well. Of course, the most important reason is that he did not make a good decision, "you have to feel the atmosphere of the scene to decide how to perform." ”
When he saw the director, the audience and the whole scene the next day, Gong Lei had a bottom in his heart. "In a way, I'm acting with the whole environment." According to the arrangement, after the actor Ye Xuan read Anna's letter, Gong Lei read Tuo's reply. However, director Guan Zhengwen had a sudden idea on the spot and arranged for the two to interact on the stage.
"My wife, my priceless treasure, my angel." At the beginning of the letter, Gong Lei turned slightly, and his hand reached out to the actor Ye Xuan, who smiled. During the few minutes of reading, the audience seemed to see the two sides in love playing and playing..." After reading the first letter, I felt that the environment of the scene entered a more immersive state. Subsequently, Gong Lei continued to read the remaining 5 letters.
Every letter has a surprise. When reading "Gautz's letter to his wife Dolina", Gong Lei also added his own understanding. Couples who have been together for decades wrote this farewell letter when facing a terminal illness, but Gonglei did not choose the sadness of tears.
"You have always been richer than me, you have bloomed in all spaces, you are on the same level as your life, and I am always in a hurry to the next task, as if life is always just beginning later." 」
Reading to the turn, Gong Lei shrugged his shoulders and smiled, paused, closed his eyes, and sighed. "I think this comedic contrast can leave more room for imagination in the words of the letter."
Played Zhao In the TV series "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an".
His initial career dream was to join the army from the police
"If it were not for the good scenery of Baguan, why should I live in Qingdao in this life?" Every early summer, the eight major passes make Gonglei reminisce for a long time. This is the place that best reflects Qingdao's "red tiles, green trees, blue sea and blue sky", and also collects the heroic dreams of his childhood.
Gong Lei was born in the army compound and grew up there. The style of seriousness and tension invisibly permeates every corner. "The greatest pleasure of being a child was watching movies." Since early summer, every weekend, the two auditoriums in the compound have become cinemas. "There are so many people that every time my parents carry me into the cinema, I'm afraid I'll get lost." In junior high school, in order to watch movies, Gong Lei even embezzled lunch money to buy tickets.
Gong Lei, who often watches movies in the first row, has watched the plot of many movies ten minutes after the opening ten minutes more than once. In particular, some classic imported films, such as "Superman" and "Boxer" such heroic movies deeply attracted him. "I often fantasize about being a hero in it. The real and sensible heroes around you are the police or the soldiers. These two identities became my original career dreams. ”
But he never imagined that the ultimate impact of hero movies on him was "movies" rather than "heroes". The turning point of the dream occurred in the high school where Gong Lei studied, Qingdao No. 39 Middle School. As a recruitment center for the Art Academy, this secondary school is exempt from the initial examination. In the year when Gong Lei was preparing for the college entrance examination, the recruitment teacher of Shandong Art College came to him.
"I didn't think I had to. Because I am a blank piece of paper, I don't know anything, it is purely an instinctive performance. But since I came, I learned to act boldly like in the movie. Gong Lei performed a skit as required in the re-examination. The delicate style was recognized by the teachers. In the end, Gong Lei and two other students were left behind.
Gong Lei's excellence lies in the accumulation outside of his performance. My mother loved to read, and my grandmother was one of the few girls' academy students. "So my family naturally formed the habit of reading." After the tea and dinner, when many families were chatting, Gong Lei saw another way of leisure.
"But at that time, the number of books I could read was limited, and my parents locked up many books for fear of delaying my studies." With the increase of age, simple books can no longer satisfy Gong Lei's curiosity. Finally, he put his hand on the drawer where the books were stored.
Seeing the drawer that was pried open, Gong Lei's parents did not make too many accusations, but guided them with the trend. Through his reading of literary works, Gong Lei has a deeper observation and understanding of human nature than his peers. "The influence of words on people is silent and invisible. I think it may be because of this understanding that I can easily navigate the re-examination. ”
Soon, gong Lei, a freshman in college, went to study mountain art and walked into a door that had inadvertently been opened to him.
The acting industry needs to be summed up by itself
The layman who was still a zero starting point is now a thousand miles away, and this transformation is still very intriguing.
"Before I went to college, I went to the beach just to have fun." Gong Lei said that going to the beach during the winter and summer vacations of college is to do homework. It turns out that the sea is endless, and the waves crashing on the shore also bring a noisy environment. Avoiding the crowd and putting down his backpack, Gong Lei began the basic skills training of vocalization. The inventor of this method was the speaker Demosini. In order to correct the problem of ambiguous pronunciation, he once practiced recitation with pebbles in his mouth and facing the sea.
Such a boring, strange and hard training method is common in the undergraduate education of the acting department. "We also learned to breathe in dogs, also to train breath adjustment." The study of lines, shapes and art theories has made Gong Lei's performance more and more professional, "just think of practicing these theories and training after work." ”
After graduation, Gong Lei became an actor in Qingdao Drama Theatre. But what he saw at work made the graduate fall into deep doubt. This seemingly glamorous job hides behind the scenes a hardship he never imagined.
In the first performance, Gong Lei, who had just got off the bus, was taken by the teacher to the side of the truck to unload the prop box. Take the dressing room, stage, load the car after the show... In addition to acting, actors also work part-time as "miscellaneous servants". In the subsequent work, the drama theater has a lot of tasks to perform in the countryside, the conditions are difficult, and the manual work is even heavier. In the cold winter moon, the fingers are frozen unconscious; the summer is hot, and the back of the box of props is already wet...
The young actor Gong Lei also had a puzzled face. No matter how experienced the actor, after doing these jobs, he will sit down in a corner of the backstage to play silently. "What is the meaning of those lines that cannot be wrong in dreams, and repeated memorization? What else is there besides rigor and responsibility? The young Gong Lei sat with his colleagues and played silently, and there were countless questions in his spare time.
Such doubts are always interrupted by the opening bell. "As soon as the opening bell rang, everyone was as excited as if they had entered a wartime state."
Every time the performance ends, in the face of the empty audience, Gong Lei will recall: "Obviously it is the same scene, but it seems that each presentation is slightly different." ”
What is the purpose of the boring training, theoretical study, and post-work experience during college? This made Gong Lei ponder for a long time. "A lot of people have influenced me, but no one can give me a definitive answer. I think the acting industry needs to be summed up by itself. ”
It wasn't until one day when he was playing Go that Gong Lei suddenly understood that all this was just a training of fixed posture, but specific to the presentation of each play, just like every game of chess, it was impossible to preset. "Our training, our silent play, is trying our best to complete the fixation. In a play, there are not only actors, but also the audience, the environment, the staff, and so on. As the class says, we broke the 'fourth wall' of drama. ”
After figuring this out, Gong Lei was very successful in his performance. In order to further improve, he decided to break into Beijing. With his own summary and vision for the future, Gong Lei entered the Central Academy of Drama for further study. Less than two months after entering school, he participated in the filming of "Love on the Edge of Life and Death". Thus, we entered the new field of television dramas.
"An actor is a profession that loses his job after filming"
"While the dish is still hot, take it down and eat it!" In the nearly four-minute opponent scene, Gong Lei only has this line. Questioning, recalling, and thinking can only be expressed through the rise and fall of eyes, chest, eyebrows, and lips.
A year ago, the TV series "Operation Icebreaker" met the audience. Originally, most of the audience's attention was attracted by ren Dahua, Wang Jinsong, Wu Gang, the three old drama bones, but with the development of the plot, Lin Zonghui, played by Gong Lei, began to be concerned.
"Good actor", many media and netizens have commented on Gong Lei. This evaluation is more about the roles he has created than about summarizing his achievements.
"My habit is to eat through every character. I won't play roles that I can't eat. Gong Lei said.
In "Operation Icebreaker", overseas multinational drug cartels colluded with local lawbreakers in Dongshan to carry out large-scale drug production. The anti-narcotics police represented by Li Fei desperately tore open the underground drug network woven by local drug dealers and protective umbrellas to clear the way for the "Thunder Anti-Drug Special Operation." Lin Zonghui, played by Gong Lei, is a leader of local outlaws. But he finally rebelled against the water, providing the police with a list of drugs made in Tazhai and ending the "ice-breaking operation".
"He is actually the person who woke up in the iron house written by Mr. Lu Xun." Speaking of "Uncle Hui", Gong Lei talked about it, and seemed to be telling the story of an old friend. "Everyone is drunk and I am awake", this is the despair of Lin Zonghui, who soberly sees the end of the road and is powerless, so in the end he can only seek liberation with death. "The hardest and most interesting thing is the change in his thinking."
"The character of Lin Zonghui is very representative of the embodiment of clan culture." Because this role does not play much in the play, many viewers mistakenly believe that his status is not as good as that of the protagonist Lin Yaodong, which is actually not the case. "The director likes the role very much, because it can show a person's mental journey, which is very interesting. But the other members were worried that they would not be able to present this feeling. The expectations of the crew members contributed to Gong Lei shouldering this burden.
It turns out that the director did not look away, and Gong Lei played this role that was almost deleted as indispensable. For every role he has ever played, Gong Lei has exhausted all his strength to dig and understand, but such efforts have not been exchanged for "big hits" many times. "Maybe I don't understand the profession of an actor differently."
Twenty years ago, Gong Lei was an ordinary actor in Qingdao Drama Theatre. At that time, the theater was very busy, and sometimes I had to go to school to perform children's plays. In Gong Lei's memory, the most performed in one day was four. "Usually we act in adult dramas, because at night, we also perform one a day. But the children's dramas are all daytime, and I don't know who I am anymore after four scenes!" Gong Lei laughed and said that children's dramas are simply the nightmares of the troupe: children's movies have many accidents, not to mention, just the action of jumping up and down on the stage will make people unbearable.
After a scene, all the actors find a place to sleep, and they don't care about any decency. Even lunch is a casual burnt cake to deal with. "In the afternoon performance, there was an actor who was physically weak and threw up when he got off the stage."
There have been many such overload experiences in the work since then. "But it is also the actors who grow up in this experience that will put their minds at ease." This is an ordinary profession. Popularity is not inevitable, and it requires many conditions and opportunities. A lot of actors don't have a chance in their lifetime. At that time, looking at a messy backstage, Gong Lei, dressed in colorful cartoon costumes, figured out: If you want to engage in this business, you can't lose your heart too much.
Dingfeng Dan took it, and the banana fan was in vain. Although the understanding of the profession of an actor has nothing to do with acting, it also dominates a complete public lei. "I'm glad I came to Beijing after I understood this. Although the struggle for fame and fortune is everywhere, fortunately, my heart is like water. Grasping the role well is one thing, and grasping the mentality is the other. ”
Whenever faced with a new role, Gong Lei will do his homework. He is the driver Zhao Dali in "By the Jinshui Bridge", which perfectly presents the fate development and life changes of the small people in the city, and is full of the sorrows and joys of the little people. He is Director Xu on the stage of "China in the Story", and together with Liu Ye, he performed "Eternal Life in the Fire", showing people's struggles in faith with small details. At the same time, he is also the Zhao Junjun who lives clearly in "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", the calm and sharp Wei forensic doctor in "Burning", and the Ma Jun who likes to toss and turn in "Ten Years of Husband and Wife"...
Wait, Gong Lei has a unique insight. "Acting is a profession that is unemployed after filming, and it is constantly unemployed. Not noble or mysterious at all. ”
In addition to the chai rice oil and salt, the most comforting thing for him is the books lying on the shelves, which have always been the resting place of his soul.
"If I were the president of an art school, the first class I would set up would be waiting. Actors have to learn to wait, the scene will tell you how to perform, and the situation will tell you how to live. ”