For many mainland audiences, especially the younger generation, Jiang Meiyi is both familiar and unfamiliar - it may be difficult to accurately "match" her face when she hears her name, but whenever she is seen through pictures or film and television dramas, she will invariably sigh "it was her".
At the beginning of this year, 51-year-old Jiang Meiyi beat many powerful actors and won the Best Actress at the 2022TVB Thousands of Stars Awards Ceremony with "The Family", which is also the first time she won the Best Actress Award in 25 years since her debut. Not long ago, she scored twice and was once again shortlisted for Best Actress in a Chinese Series at the 36th Huading Awards for this work. Recently, the police and bandit drama "Invisible Team" starring her has just ended, and it has received a good response since it was broadcast in the pile, and she was praised by the audience for her famous scene of "five emotional changes in one play to play mother's love".
Jiang Meiyi won the Best Actress at the 2022 TVB Thousands of Stars Awards Ceremony for "On the Car Family"
Jiang Meiyi, who is shining in the spotlight now, used to appear more in film and television works as a supporting role, and sometimes even just a faceless and unknown little person. But whether it is "red flowers" or "green leaves", every role Jiang Meiyi cherishes doubly, in her opinion, the performance of an actor is always much more important than the number of scenes. "I think if I do well, even if there is only one scene, the audience will remember it."
From model to actor, from ATV to TVB, from supporting role to protagonist, Jiang Meiyi has broken out her own world in the entertainment industry with her resilience and her own strength. Along the way, she has also fallen to the bottom, ignored and criticized, but she will always have the courage to get back up after falling and start from scratch.
01 Actor "Growing Heart"
In 1997, the "100 Years of Hair" shampoo advertisement shot by Chow Yun-fat became popular all over the country for a while, and that classic advertising video still seems to be heartwarming today. And the girl with long black hair and beautiful face in the advertisement, who partnered with Zhou Yunfa was Jiang Meiyi, who was only 26 years old at the time.
Before becoming an actress, Jiang Meiyi has been active in the entertainment industry as a model. At that time, she was only 20 years old, working as a secretary in an office building, and because of her outstanding appearance, she received a business card from a talent scout, and began her modeling career. In a few years, Jiang Meiyi shot a lot of print, commercials and MVs, and got the opportunity to cooperate with superstars such as Chow Yun-fat, Li Ming, Andy Lau and so on when she was a newcomer.
Transitioning from a model to an actress was not in Jiang Meiyi's plan at first. She mentioned in the interview that she had actually immigrated to Canada before officially starting filming, but the work there was not as smooth as she imagined. It happened that she received a domestic filming invitation, and the audience also recognized her performance, which paved the way for her own actor. "It's actually good news for the audience that I can't find a job in Canada." Jiang Meiyi said humorously, "Otherwise, I may not come back and will not be an actor." ”
In 1997, Jiang Meiyi and Chow Yun-fat filmed the "Centennial Runfa" shampoo advertisement together
Jiang Meiyi's performance debut can be traced back to 1996. That year, she joined Hong Kong Asia TV and filmed her first TV series "The Story of Fat Cat" with Zheng Zeshi and Bao Qijing, which also became an important turning point in her life. Subsequently, she starred in plays such as "Rogue Lawyer", "Beautiful Legend" and "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes", and under the attention and love of more and more people, she became a veritable leader of ATV.
However, when she first came into contact with the performance in the early stage, Jiang Meiyi was not as good as she is now, and she was even a little unaccustomed to it. Compared with simply posing and saying a few words of dialogue when being a model, the things that actors need to grasp and take into account are more diverse and complex.
"Models usually just sit there and the photographer will get the best and most beautiful side of you. When shooting commercials, there are only a few lines of dialogue, so it is relatively relaxed. Jiang Meiyi recalled her first taste of acting, "But actors are different, you need to move around, you need to communicate with other actors. We were shooting with three machines at the same time, so you had to take care of it and make sure it didn't block the light. The lines basically have to be in place at one time, if others say well, and if you don't say it well by the time you come, you have to start all over again, so the pressure is still great. ”
Jiang Meiyi's first TV series "The Story of the Fat Cat", from which she played Kang Chunming
Although she is not from a professional class and has encountered bumps and obstacles on the road of acting, Jiang Meiyi has always cherished her passion for performance and her heart that is willing to learn and study. She would learn from each of the elders or seniors she played with and see how they acted and shaped the characters. When filming "Beautiful Legend", partner Ren Dahua once mentioned how she should deal with certain scenes, and how her emotions and states should be presented. Jiang Meiyi "grows" quickly like a sponge that absorbs moisture.
Not only that, at that time, in order to be able to complete the dialogue from beginning to end and in one go, Jiang Meiyi would memorize the script before starting work. Even without her role, she will concentrate on staying in the studio, either focusing on her role, or learning and feeling the performances of other actors on the spot to see how they do, which in her opinion is an important way to improve herself and improve her acting skills. "I think whether you have basic skills or whether you have received professional training is not too big a problem for an actor, the key is whether you really have the heart to do better in the actor industry."
02 Skim over the trough and fly again
As the development of ATV deteriorated, Jiang Meiyi was also forced to fall into the trough of her career. She left ATV in 2008, because she couldn't get a job in acting, so she could only do some part-time DJ work. "During that time, you were actually quite irritable, because no one was looking for you to film, and you would feel very useless, and you would feel that this circle did not need you as an actor."
Fortunately, TVB reached out to her who fell to the bottom. In 2009, Jiang Meiyi officially signed a contract and became a member of TVB. She knows that this opportunity will not come easily, and she is ready to start from scratch. Subsequently, in many popular Hong Kong dramas, Jiang Meiyi's figure appeared frequently again.
Jiang Meiyi played "Sister Head" Fang Ruijia in "Rushing to the Sky 2"
the mean, fastidious and ambitious Hong Coral in "Women Hurt the Most"; the daring, heroic and righteous Yuan Junlan in "Sneak Sniper"; the intellectually elegant and empathetic Fang Ruijia in "Rushing to the Sky 2"; Mo Xianqing, who is restrained and tolerant and has a traditional ideology in "The Apostle Walker"... Although most of them are supporting roles, the vivid and three-dimensional characters with diverse personalities have taken root in the hearts of the audience, leaving a clear and profound imprint. At the same time, with the shaping and interpretation of this series of roles, Jiang Meiyi was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the TVB Thousands of Stars Awards for five consecutive years, and finally won this award in 2013.
Whether it is the original heroine or the supporting role in various later works, the position of each role in Jiang Meiyi's heart is equally important. She clearly knows that as long as she has the ability, as long as her performance is good enough, even if it is an inconspicuous small role, even if there is only one scene, she will be seen by people one day. With such a mentality, Jiang Meiyi also returned to the "center" of the stage with the steady accumulation of step by step, won the best actress at the TVB 2022 Thousand Stars Awards ceremony at the beginning of this year, and broke into the top five of the best actress in a Chinese drama at the 36th Huading Awards.
For Jiang Meiyi, the award brings her indescribable joy, recognition and encouragement to her, but it is not the goal she strives for as an actress. In her heart, the value of the performance itself is far more precious than the honor. "I don't really have much desire for awards, I didn't go filming to win awards. Trying to do every role well is what I should be doing now. ”
Jiang Meiyi once won Best Supporting Actress at the 46th TVB Thousands of Stars Awards for "Rushing to the Sky 2"
Although she has been in the industry for many years and has played a variety of different characters, in the highly competitive Hong Kong entertainment industry, Jiang Meiyi has not actually "chosen" roles too much, she said in an interview that basically every time the director and producer say what role they want her to play, she will naturally prepare, even if it is some villains or unlikable roles. And the doubts and criticisms created by these villain effects will inevitably shift from the role to the individual actor.
At first, the negative comments on the Internet also stung Jiang Meiyi. Strangers who have never met and don't know her well can criticize her unscrupulously through some one-sided remarks and videos, "It's like a princess in a castle, everyone says you're nice and beautiful, and suddenly you walk out and people on the street will scold you and throw eggs at you, which is a very bad feeling." ”
Gradually, under the enlightenment of her predecessors and the washing of time, Jiang Meiyi's mentality became more and more peaceful. She told herself not to care too much, just that those speeches were a way for netizens to vent their dissatisfaction, and that she could become a "trash can" to recycle bad moods, which was a good thing to some extent. "And if you play a bad guy and they all think you're bad, doesn't that mean I'm successful?" Jiang Meiyi responded cheerfully, "I should be happy." ”
03 Every character starts from scratch
Although entering TVB gave Jiang Meiyi the opportunity to "fly" again, this road was not all smooth sailing. In the two or three years after 2017, she produced almost no film and television works, and only occasionally appeared in some variety shows. Now talking about that time, Jiang Meiyi does not shy away and can still admit her "mistakes" very frankly.
At that time, Jiang Meiyi, who had been working hard in TVB for many years, finally got the opportunity to play the heroine in the TV series "Kiss My Good Mother", and she hoped to seize this "olive branch" and show her best side in it. But sometimes the more you want to do a good job, the opposite effect will occur. Jiang Meiyi, who was under pressure, wanted everyone around her to cooperate with her and listen to her, coupled with her being too proud and confident at that time, so some people complained about her "strength". It is true that the ratings of that work are good, but the negative evaluation still has a lot of impact on Jiang Meiyi's work.
"At first, I didn't reflect on it, thinking that they didn't understand me and didn't appreciate me. Later, I spent more and more time at home, and at this time I began to reflect, feeling that I was too self-centered, you can't ask others to do the same thing as you, you have to respect others and pay for others. Jiang Meiyi concluded, "So those years were a good lesson for me, although they were at a low ebb, but for myself. ”
Jiang Meiyi played Fang Guoxi in "Invisible Team"
Compared with the mainland, survival in the Hong Kong film and television industry is much more difficult and cruel. In a variety show broadcast last year, former TVB student Wu Zhuoxi mentioned that he had not slept a full night for up to 7 days during filming, and could only use the short makeup time to take a break. Not long ago, the topic of #TVB actors being slapped 21 times in 30 seconds# also caused heated discussions among the audience, which further made people understand the dedication and difficulty of Hong Kong actors.
This kind of intensive and compact high-intensity shooting, as well as the various pains endured during the performance, has long become commonplace here in Jiang Meiyi. She clearly remembers that when filming the TV series "Jiujiang Twelve Fang", she filmed underwater scenes for two days in a row in a temperature of only a few degrees. The scene requires her to tie her hands, dive into an underwater pig cage, and wait for other actors to come to her rescue. In order not to wear a gang, she had no way to wear goggles, and there was only a thin wetsuit under the costume, so she shot for hours in low temperatures. The scene and feeling at that time are still vivid to Jiang Meiyi.
Among the many characters created by Jiang Meiyi in the past, each character carries her shadow to a greater or lesser extent, but each character is not her. In life, she is sober and independent, hearty and free. Growing older has never brought her anxiety, and she has always pursued what kind of things to do at what age and what kind of roles to play. Even after experiencing a failed marriage, she has never lost faith in love, and is still willing to wait for the spiritual partner who understands her and suits her in a natural state.
As an actress, Jiang Meiyi, who has been in the industry for 25 years, has gained great satisfaction from acting that other jobs cannot give. "The audience will tell you after seeing you, you are doing well, I like you very much, can you show us more, this satisfaction will make you addicted and will become the driving force to push you forward." And in the present and in the future, her goal is still clear and determined: forget the honors she has won, forget the flowers and applause, and shoot each of her roles from scratch.
Written by: Wang Xuening