At the age of forty, Zhang Tong finally became a "well-known actor". The popularity of the TV series "The Age of Awakening" has made countless viewers affectionately call him "Mr. Shouchang"; a large number of fans have come to watch his drama tour and applaud "Mr. Dazhao" offstage. After the Magnolia Award missed the shortlist, the topic of #张桐没入围 outrageous # landed in the top three hot searches, and the audience did not hesitate to use praise words to enshrine it as the pearl of "acting textbook".
Zhang Tong. Courtesy of the artist
Debuted nearly 20 years, filmed more than 40 works, won the Feitian Award for Outstanding Actor, but paradoxically experienced a night of praise. Zhang Tong calmly watched all this happen; more precisely, he seemed to be desperately trying to reject these false rewards. "I have received the love of the audience, and I am very touched, but I can't stand it." Acting textbooks are the business of seniors and teachers, I am only a student, and I will always be a student. ”
The seemingly excessively humble answer formed a highly speculative discourse field in Zhang Tong's low, serious, and logical and self-consistent dialogue throughout the whole process. After dropping out of higher education to switch to acting, he once had to eat the cheapest noodles due to financial constraints; after "Bright Sword" became popular, he once experienced being wrapped up by the market and the so-called rules of the film and television circle, obliterating his inner cognitive norms for performance and correct and wrong... It is reflection and absorption that allows Zhang Tong to look at the dilemma in a speculative way in every hibernation, and successfully stand up again and again.
After the popularity of "The Age of Awakening", he also calmly put forward reflection: "Where does the audience's love for you come from?" What do you get through? These questions seem meaningless to outsiders, but Zhang Tong must understand them.
In the TV series "The Age of Awakening", Zhang Tong played Li Dazhao. The picture comes from the official micro of the play
"I still thank the audience for their love for me, but I feel that this honor belongs to Mr. Dazhao. Actor Zhang Tong is just a carrier. From this point of view, the so-called traffic I dare not plunder. These flows should be given to Mr. Dazhao and those revolutionary martyrs. ”
(1) The whole process of groping, just to make Li Dazhao more real and vivid
Li Dazhao's spirit has continued to influence Zhang Tong in the years since the shooting. "As Mr. Dazhao, I was taught. We also often encounter people in our lives who accuse us of some words. Now I will first reflect on myself, what kind of morality do I use to restrain myself? ”
"I've been filming for so many years, and Age of Awakening is a special existence. Every scene still makes me remember it vividly. But in fact, Zhang Tong has repeatedly declined the invitation of "The Age of Awakening".
Li Dazhao was a key historical figure in the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, and Zhang Tong's knowledge of him was limited to a few words in school textbooks. At each stage of the crew's telephone invitation, the director's interview, and the audition of makeup, Zhang Tong is repeatedly thinking, how can this character be in line with history and real and vivid through performance?
"It's too hard." Zhang Tong said frankly.
He chooses his roles in a system of judging—actors must first be self-aware—and each character is viewed based on reverence, so as to judge whether his ability can shape it well. Especially great people like Li Dazhao. "If you don't have the ability to do it, try not to touch it."
Until he and the main creator of the crew conducted an in-depth discussion on character creation and shooting, Zhang Tong decided to bite this "hard bone". "The Age of Awakening" is a crew that Zhang Tong cherishes a lot - director Zhang Yongxin has a clear creative concept: "Upright narrative, down-to-earth storytelling". In the shooting, everyone can express their own opinions, and there is no so-called "one-word hall". Everyone will often discuss the accuracy of each line and each action under the leadership of the director.
"Scenes like this (of the crew) that give their all," are now rare. Often we will be hindered by some aspects of consideration, inevitably there will be laxity and compromise, but "The Age of Awakening", up and down, every day and every scene, do not dare to have any slack. ”
And Zhang Tong also opened his soul unreservedly to meet the arrival of another soul. Before filming, he had read Li Dazhao's anthology and autobiography, flipped through the Communist Manifesto and Capital, and also watched a large number of other predecessors' video interpretations of Li Dazhao.
But the basic homework seems to be far from enough for Zhang Tong. Li Dazhao in the historical record is gentle and elegant, but his bones are full of national passion. Sometimes the previous scene needs to be "plain and down-to-earth", but the latter scene is "awe-inspiring". How do you present these conceptualized words to the audience frame by frame through flesh and blood images?
After declining several invitations from "The Age of Awakening", Zhang Tong finally took over the role of Li Dazhao. The picture comes from the official micro of the play
Zhang Tongwan refused to use a certain scene to illustrate how he grasped Mr. Zhang's "sense of proportion". He listed the "Kang Mu Yi Zhai" propaganda with his "common experience", the promulgation of the Communist Manifesto, the appointment of "Southern Chen and Northern Li" to establish the party, and after the founding of the Communist Party of China, Mr. Li climbed the Great Wall and looked at the great wall... It is the layers of each scene that help him to approach Mr. Step by step. Until the last scene, he and the whole crew were still feeling the stones across the river.
However, Li Dazhao's spirit has continued to influence Zhang Tong in the years since the shooting. In the play, Li Dazhao once discussed with Mao Zedong in the Red Chamber of Peking University what is morality. Li Dazhao replied: Morality is used to discipline oneself, not to blame others; morality is used to practice and practice, not to shout emptyly in the mouth.
In Zhang Tong's mind, he often repeated this dialogue of time and space overlap with his husband. "As Mr. Dazhao, I was taught. We also often encounter people in our lives who accuse us of some words. Now I will first reflect on myself, what kind of morality do I use to restrain myself? Does this morality hold? Compared with the heat and flow brought by "The Age of Awakening", the torch of thought is the most important nourishment that Mr. Dazhao gave to Zhang Tong in his life.
After "The Age of Awakening", Zhang Tong successively played Li Dazhao in the TV series "Glory and Dreams" and the movie "Red Boat". But in fact, there are many similar scripts that Zhang Tongwan rejected. "I'm selfish." Zhang Tong said. The ink on Li Dazhao in "The Age of Awakening" came to an abrupt end in 1921, while "Glory and Dreams" filmed it until 1927. Zhang Tong hopes to make Mr. Dazhao's image life as complete as possible.
In the TV series "Glory and Dreams" (above) and the movie "Red Boat" (below), Zhang Tong once again played the role of Li Dazhao. The pictures are all from the official micro of the work
"At this stage, I don't want to touch the role again. Unless I may have a deeper understanding of mr. at a certain stage, I may make another report and exchange with the audience. ”
(2) Born "anti-bone", a "freak" who craves speculation
Have you ever regretted and reflected on the impulsive withdrawal from school? "Remorse. But if I didn't have these setbacks and experiences, I might die and wouldn't see myself from multiple perspectives. Isn't life constantly trial and error, falling down, getting up, summing up experience, and completing yourself? ”
If you reduce the awakening of Mr. Dazhao to every ordinary individual today, Zhang Tong seems to have the same talent - as early as the age of 19, he began to explore the value of himself.
In the summer of 1999, Zhang Tong was admitted to the Department of Computer Science of Nankai University. In this campus with a blossoming academic atmosphere, teachers and students from all over the world are freely sharing their thoughts on life and future values. By chance, Zhang Tong listened to a lecture at the Military Academy entitled "On the Value of Young People's Lives." The teacher talked about material and spiritual from the historical, contemporary, ideal, realistic, material and spiritual... After the lecture, Zhang Tong did not sleep all night.
"I'm only 19 years old, why is my future just like this?" Graduated from college, got married and started a family, found a stable job from nine to five, and lived your life unchanged? In the darkness, Zhang Tong was unwilling, "I always feel that my experience and the scope of my expansion should be more than this." ”
Rather than saying that self-speculation is Zhang Tong's innate talent, there are also many teenagers who rebel against tradition. Zhang Tong is a native of Tianjin, from his memory, when the family held a family gathering, the grandfather was respected, the father represented by Zhang Tong's father had to enter the table according to the rules, and the descendants needed to follow more rules. Grandpa rightfully guided the concept of life for his father, and his father also followed the family tradition and planned a smooth and smooth life path for Zhang Tong.
But Zhang Tong is born "anti-bone". He desperately, at all costs, wanted to break the shackles of the rules. At the age of six or seven, Zhang Tong would try to think about some "meaningless" topics, "Where will people go after they die?" "He will also deliberately work against his parents, the more he does not let him go out to play, the more he will go; he does not even consider right or wrong, only thinks about whether he wants to be different or not." This kind of rebellion, in fact, is more like a child's gambling, which is unreasonable. But I just want to prove that I am an independent individual. ”
It was this self-reflective rebellion and thirst for speculation that led him to withdraw from Nankai University on his own initiative in 2000 and choose to go abroad to see more ideological confrontations. Almost temporarily "informed" parents, with disappointment, anger, and confusion, broke out into a long quarrel with their son, but in the end they could only compromise. They sold the family house for their son to study abroad.
Where to? What to learn? Where do tuition fees come from? What will you do in the future? Zhang Tong almost did not think about it, the rebellion and stubbornness of the teenager made him only want to get away from his parents' protection as soon as possible and see the outside world.
"It was these experiences that led me to finally reach some kind of reconciliation with myself later." Zhang Tong recalled.
He came to France by mistake and was exposed to acting at the École de école d'état de Lyon. Zhang Tong realized for the first time that there are countless perspectives in the world, and everyone's ways and methods are completely different. But, "Why is everyone so sure they're right?" Why are many of my ideas wrong in the eyes of others? What is right and what is wrong? Zhang Tong was once again eager to get an answer.
For a time, he became a "freak" in the group. When he throws out these questions, he can only get: "You are admitting death!" "Why ask such a question?" "Just do what's right"... The environment of the crowds made Zhang Tong tired. He began to turn to books for answers. After reading a lot of philosophical and sinology books, he was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did he face these confusions, but even philosophical people like Socrates would ask some seemingly "illusory" questions: what is justice, what is injustice; what is honesty, what is hypocrisy...
"It turns out that I'm not a 'freak', I just think differently from others." During his two years in France, Zhang Tong gradually threw away the obsession with exploring right and wrong, began to understand the perspective of others, and shared his ideas with others, striving to achieve common ground while reserving differences.
When the reporter asked, in the following years, did he have regrets and reflections on the impulsive withdrawal from school? Zhang Tong paused, "Remorseful." But if I didn't have these setbacks and experiences, I might die and wouldn't see myself from multiple perspectives. Isn't life constantly trial and error, falling down, getting up, summing up experience, and completing yourself? If you've been in the greenhouse, suddenly fallen, and then say to someone, 'I was right to listen to you,' where is your ego? In this life, didn't you live a very unjust life? ”
(3) A year and a half of precariousness, waiting for "Bright Sword"
Zhang Tong sometimes misses the years of poverty that were unrestrained and waiting for opportunities: he was not dragged by any obsession, did not have to complete the goal, but lived as a child. He understands this state of affairs as "pragmatic."
The abundance of thought, but can not go against the conformity of life.
After two years away, life at home has become increasingly strained. In order to take care of his parents, the pursuit of self can only be temporarily stopped, Zhang Tong returned to China and became a "North Drift" actor with a few hundred yuan.
At that time, he shared a basement in Daxinghuang Village, renting 80 yuan per month. At 6 a.m., he crouched in front of the North Film Studio and waited for the opportunity. As soon as the crew came out of the doorway, he surrounded him with a bunch of extras. When a day of extras, you can earn 20 yuan, Zhang Tong can only eat very cheap noodles, or fill the hunger with steamed pickles.
Fortunately, the enrichment of thought and the dialectical attitude towards things have allowed Zhang Tong to find an optimistic way to deal with the world in the confusion of reality. When there is no drama, Zhang Tong plays chess and nags with the uncle for four hours; mingling with all kinds of people on the street, "everyone thinks about the problem from a different angle, which is very interesting." Sometimes, he would take the bus to a far away place, or get up early in Tiananmen Square to watch the flag raise; at one point, he hid in the house and wrote a script idly.
Zhang Tong sometimes misses the years of poverty that were unrestrained and waiting for opportunities - not dragged by any obsession, no goal to be completed, but lived as a child. He understands this state of affairs as "pragmatic." "Instead of making yourself restless and panicked, why not fill your heart?" It's not just a matter of how many tens of thousands of dollars a month is a success. Maybe I can't make much money, but I don't envy others or panic myself. ”
This precarious life lasted for a year and a half until he met the role of Wei Monk in the TV series Bright Sword. The crew was about to start, and he was the last to knock on the director's door. The director asked him if he would do kung fu, and he said hard, "Yes!" Without even thinking, he held out his fist to the director. This is actually only a few tricks he can do. Confident, ignorant, and even slightly reckless temperament, let him catch this "last train".
In the TV series "Bright Sword", a Wei monk who knows kung fu. The GIF is from Zhang Tong's Weibo
Although Wei Monk's role was not much, he was stunned but righteous and awe-inspiring, dared to fight kung fu with the regiment leader, and fought with the enemy with the red gun, and was one of the most vivid little people of that year. And everything seems to have become better after the hit of "Bright Sword". With this role, Zhang Tong knocked on the door of his career - at least, everyone in the circle knows that there is an actor named Zhang Tong.
Opportunities also change from passive to active. Scripts such as "Invincible For Humanity", "Misty Willow Town", "Iron Pear Blossom", "Wild Duck" and so on came and went, and in the following four years, he made at least 12 works. "I see every play as an opportunity for me to live again, a process of learning and absorption. It's more of a game, and I'm paying more and more attention to whether I can play it well or if it can play differently than before. ”
But this recognition of performance also made Zhang Tong quickly fall into prison in his busyness - all war dramas and period dramas came to invite, and the theme was repeated; he tried to seek different experiences many times, "Can you let me act?" "I can do the same kind of roles," but always back to square one.
"Very anxious. Sometimes I feel that this game is tasteless and it is a pity to abandon it. "But if he doesn't keep repeating it, he may return to worrying about food and clothing." Seek common ground while reserving differences. In the past two years, Zhang Tong has been constantly looking for a reconciliation with the market environment for himself, "try to find (performances) different under the premise of limited or homogeneous roles, even if the details are different, the tone is different, the temperament is different... This is my own experience, look for some differentiation. ”
(4) Be alert in "vanity" and self-struggle
Some time after the hit "Bright Sword", he still lived in a small bungalow, pedaling a broken bicycle and wandering the street. After "The Age of Awakening" aired, he had about three or five friends and played in the open-air basketball court on the street. "I'm a human being too, so why can't I play like that?"
At the end of May this year, Zhang Tong was starring in the drama "Lei Jingtian" in Shanghai. The previous day's rehearsal until two o'clock in the morning, the next morning, Zhang Tong heard the mobile phone vibrating constantly in the haze, and many friends sent a message of "condolences", "I don't know what's going on." In fact, on that day, the Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Award announced the shortlist, and Zhang Tong did not enter any awards. This matter quickly appeared in the top three of Weibo's hot searches, and the topic of #张桐没入围 outrageous # was even read more than 200 million times.
The large number of spectators seems to have surpassed the recognition of any award. Zhang Tong was unexpected, touched, and thankful. But he did not dare to take such a love and plunder the beauty as Zhang Tong's personal "traffic". However, there is no doubt that after the broadcast of "The Age of Awakening", Zhang Tong did become more and more busy - participating in various seminars and publicity activities with the "Age of Awakening" crew, participating in the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the literary and artistic performance "The Great Journey"; taking over the new script, the fans grew exponentially, and also won the favor of many advertisers.
Zhang Tong participated in the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in the literary and artistic performance "The Great Journey", playing Li Dazhao again. Image from Zhang Tong's Weibo
In fact, this feeling is not strange to Zhang Tong. After the broadcast of "Bright Sword", he also experienced "red". At that time, his concept of "red" was to walk on the street to be recognized, more and more drama, no longer have to rent a small house of only 10 square meters, go to the toilet and run far away, and earn enough money to change a place for parents and improve their lives.
But after the food and clothing were solved, Zhang Tong, who had calmed down, also quickly began to reject this "red" - he felt more and more uncomfortable. In the past few years, he was accustomed to a life of casual freedom, unwilling to "pay too much attention to the image", liked to wear a tank top and shorts, wandered the streets of Beijing aimlessly, loved to eat street stalls, and chatted for hours with anyone he was interested in. "I am willing to be a passerby, willing to be an ordinary person." But after "Bright Sword", more and more people will ask him, "You have to dress a little more decently" "Why don't you go out without washing your hair?" ”
"For me, that's fake." There was a time when Zhang Tong was always wandering between "vanity" and self-struggle. But he was steadfast in his choice of the latter. Don't perfunctory those superficial requirements, still go your own way, you should play the ball, you should walk the bend. Some time after the hit "Bright Sword", he still lived in a small bungalow, pedaling a broken bicycle and wandering the street. Sometimes some people recognize him and ask him for autographs, and he can happily chat with people for 10 minutes, and finally even the other party will invite him to "go drink another day!" ”
The popular TV series "Bright Sword" that year made Zhang Tong (the first from the right) experience for the first time what is "red".
Just as after the broadcast of "The Age of Awakening", Zhang Tong is still wearing a large vest, about three or five friends, playing in the open-air basketball court on the street. There were far more enthusiastic audiences coming and going than in "Bright Sword", and friends teased him, "You pay attention to the image!" Zhang Tong smiled, "What image do I have?" Isn't playing bare-chested and sweating? I'm a human being too, so why can't I play like that? A few days ago, he also invited the fans he met to play a game together.
"I'd rather live a real me. The real me is that I have a lot of respect for anyone, but I have my own ideas about life - casual, frank, simple, independent. I also don't want to lie to everyone and tell you what a delicate life Zhang Tong is. I'm just very casual. ”
In recent years, there have been too many things in the show business circle that Zhang Tong can't understand and doesn't want to understand, breaking Zhang Tong's existing cognition of authenticity, casualness, and even performance. For example, many young actors ask as soon as they meet, "Brother Kirito, how many fans do you have?" Zhang Tong couldn't figure out why actors should pay attention to the number of fans. The other party rightfully persuaded, "You have to buy a little, otherwise many plays will not look for you." ”
After listening more, Zhang Tong didn't care. The "red" of "The Age of Awakening" is essentially the same as the "red" of "Bright Sword", but the market environment in which it is located is very different. Actors gradually become products of capital, carriers of traffic. Zhang Tong brushed up the experience in the past few years, under the general trend of "actors" being impacted by traffic and capital, he was lucky to still shoot every year, and he always met a group of partners with the same values and mission, and could wait until the "Awakening Era" and "Desperate Defender Division" scripts. Although there are only less than half of the dramas that can be broadcast.
In 2018, Zhang Tong won the Outstanding Actor Award at the 31st China TV Drama Feitian Awards for "Desperate Defender Division". Image from Zhang Tong's Weibo
"Either you become a market product like them, or you are convinced that your proven value is really valuable and still be yourself." There is no point in refuting. All I knew was what I had to do. ”
【Fresh Q&A】
After entertainment was commercialized, it was terrifying to the actors and the industry
Beijing News: In recent years, the film and television market has gradually taken the lead in traffic, and there has also been a lot of chaos. In the more than ten years since your debut, have there ever been things that have broken through personal principles and disappointed or contradicted you?
Zhang Tong: Yes, and the impact is quite large. Because in our twenties, we were exposed to the idea that you put on your play well, you did your people well, and then you continued to develop on this. This is a set of value systems that we regard as truth.
But in the past five or six years, this concept has changed to make me creepy, that is, the so-called intervention of capital, the introduction of the so-called concept of traffic, has become a pure commoditized entertainment. This commercialization is based on the heat of pursuit, on the hype. It has nothing to do with its own value, or it is taken only from the circulation of parts of its own sought after value.
So when the actor becomes this kind of sought after value carrier, I just feel afraid. Because you emphasize this part, then the other two parts, "Be a good person" and "Act well", are bound to be reduced indefinitely. This is a dialectical view. Then when this part is no longer valuable, you are subverting the core value of the entire group. People who held this value in the past will be at a loss and at a loss. This is a terrible thing to impact and destroy the entire industry. But with this premise, do you have a way? You have no choice but to believe that your value system is still valuable.
Beijing News: Do you not understand the phenomenon that many young artists at present, after becoming popular overnight, may lose themselves after a long period of time?
Tong Zhang: I understand very well, after all, I also came from my twenties. But I just think that that kind of life will make me have a sense of vigilance - is that kind of life real for Zhang Tong? It's like I'm a straw rope, but if you're tied to a crab, people will have high expectations of you. However, you are a straw rope yourself.
I know exactly what I'm doing, and I know where I'm coming from, and I'm not going to say that because I made a play and became a public figure, I became no longer an ordinary person. I still choose my lifestyle.
Beijing News: You have also cooperated with many young actors, and when communicating with each other, will you share your understanding and experience of traffic and impetuosity with them?
Tong Zhang: No, because everyone has everyone's choice, and I have no right to interfere with anyone's choice. Unless they come to ask me, I will only share my choice with them.
In fact, I share the choice, that is, to share the value I think, but I will never have the right and do not want to export this thing to anyone, because I do not have this qualification. They all come from a young age, and I know that "peddling" this kind of thing may actually seem to others to be a different perspective. When I was in my twenties, I liked Jay Chou, and some people didn't like it, so they scolded (him), and I came to the fire. Growing up, (I understand) you have your choice. I've been through it, why am I still doing this?
I have no obligation and right to take responsibility for their growth, and I respect their choices, but there is only a premise, who chooses and who pays (and possibly) the "price" for it. This is an eternal truth.
Zhang He, a senior reporter of the Beijing News
Chief Editor Wu Dongni Proofreader Zhao Lin