Author | Zhao Shuhe
Fan Wei himself is not at all the same as the character.
Anyone who has seen Fan Wei's own interview will feel that Fan Wei in life has a temperament and behavior more like an elegant intellectual——
Wear a scarf and hat, set up a pair of black-framed glasses, speak Mandarin without a hint of accent, slow and methodical, and the tone is not high.
Not like he was on stage.
But for many audiences, for a long time, Fan Wei's image has been "big head, thick neck, either big money or a guy"; His mind is "fate, thank you"; His character is "a famous ruthless man in northern Liaoning".
Fan Wei played Fan Debiao in "Ma Dashuai"
His personal history happens to be the history of a Northeast rural comedy entering the public's vision.
In 2005, Fan Wei collaborated with Zhao Benshan and his two apprentices on the sketch "Kung Fu". As a result, in the first sentence, Fan Wei said the wrong word, he paused, and completed the opening without haste.
At this time, Fan Wei's skill can already make mistakes become classics, but the live broadcast stared at by hundreds of millions of people has brought too much pressure, and he can't pass this hurdle, and he has never performed a skit at the Spring Festival Gala since then.
Almost until 2016, everyone suddenly found that Fan Wei, who had been away from the Spring Festival Gala for more than 10 years, "had someone else."
That year, Fan Wei won the Golden Horse Award for actor with a pale black-and-white literary film.
On the podium, he wore a suit and a slightly restrained bow tie, and said 19 thank you in a calm voice.
At this time, 11 years have passed since he last appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala in an image familiar to the audience.
After leaving the Spring Festival Gala, Fan Wei spent more than ten years doing one thing - becoming an actor.
In 2023, a "Long Season" is the answer sheet that Fan Wei handed to the audience after refining gold. More young audiences reacquainted themselves with Fan Wei outside the universe of "Fan Debiao" in the ghost animal area of Station B.
He is not Zhao Benshan's partner, not Biao Ge on the road, not a comedian with a northeastern accent, but a real actor.
After decades in the industry, the most vivid story he has told is about himself, "the birth of an actor".
01
Past events of the Spring Festival Gala
In 1993, Fan Wei met one of the most important nobles in his acting career, Zhao Benshan.
Zhao Benshan found Fan Wei in a crosstalk performance and chose him as his partner, and in 1995, Fan Wei followed Zhao Benshan to the Spring Festival Gala for the first time and starred in "Uncle Niu Tigan".
Sketch "Uncle Cow Tigan"
The appearance of Zhao Benshan and his partner on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala became an important cultural event that influenced Chinese popular culture for decades - even at the time, Fan Wei, who only wanted his sick mother to see him at the Spring Festival Gala, did not realize that he would become an "icon" in the future.
At the beginning, Fan Wei was responsible for "cushioning" Zhao Benshan in the sketch, which played a role as a green leaf. Later, he gradually played a heavy role, and in the end he could be equal to Zhao Benshan. After withdrawing from the Spring Festival Gala, Zhao Benshan once wanted to call Fan Wei back, but Fan Wei refused. For several years, there were rumors that Fan Wei and Zhao Benshan were at odds, and Zhao Benshan even complained about him in an interview, "People are now wrists."
Fan Wei began to look for opportunities to change careers in the film industry from a very early age, and looking back, the differences between Zhao Benshan and Fan Wei were actually determined by their different artistic pursuits.
In 2003, Fan Wei got the opportunity to play the actor of Beijing Film Studio's new film "July of the Car Watcher", and with this role, he won the actor of the Montreal Film Festival. Then, Fan Wei made wonderful cameos in popular movies such as "No Thief in the World" and "Mobile Phone".
Fan Wei played the fat robber in "No Thief in the World"
Zhao Benshan later understood, saying that even though he and Fan Wei had some differences, they "did not have a bad disease."
In 2019, Fan Wei made another guest appearance in the "Liu Laogen" series, and Liu Laogen, who was mentally ill, called in the medicine box: "You have never seen you for seventeen or eight years." In the play, the medicine box received a call to return to Longquan Villa and hugged Liu Laogen.
Later, Fan Wei borrowed a line from the sketch to express his gratitude to Zhao Benshan for his grace: "I don't want to know how I didn't have it, I just want to know how I came." ”
Fan Wei and Zhao Benshan have cooperated on the Spring Festival Gala stage many times
He knows how to be grateful, but in his artistic pursuit, he is a bit of an "axis".
Fan Wei knows his status in the minds of young people as "Brother Biao". Although he spent more than a decade since then to break free from the confinement of comedy roles and break the public's misunderstandings, he still accepts the young people's love for his past roles: "Post-00s" can still call you brother, but don't call you uncle, it's good.
The director of "The Long Season" Xin Shuang is undoubtedly a "Biao Xue" family. He will wear a cultural shirt full of Van Debiao's head in his life, and even in the play, he has buried many "Ma Dashuai" memes.
Fan Wei played Wang Xiang in "The Long Season"
In a way, "The Long Season" is the fruit of the "Northeast Renaissance".
Its text itself is a response to the Northeast writers group and Northeast literature and art in the new era, and we can see from this drama the similar character settings to "Shengtun", the literary temperament similar to "Moses on the Plain", and the era care that is similar to "Tiexi District". At the same time, its comedy style and compassion inherit the unique humor of the little characters in the northeast created by Zhao Benshan and Fan Wei in their early years.
Fan Wei courageously overturned his comedy past, but never denied it.
Since 2005, it was clear that he wanted to go further in art.
02
Framing life
In 1962, Fan Wei was born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. His father was a publicity officer at the Shenyang woolen mill and hobby of submitting articles to literary magazines, but he was never recorded.
Fan Wei once told a small thing, saying that he was busy and had no time to read the "Novel Monthly", and asked his father to help him fold a corner of the more wonderful and worth seeing, and then Fan Wei looked at it, and the corners were relatively poor articles, Fan Wei laughed and said, "So he (father) has a bit of a problem with the whole aesthetic."
This observation and humorous refinement of the life around him was later repeatedly used in his performances.
In "The Long Season", Wang Xiang instructs his son to write poetry, and he says to rhyme, "Snap your fingers and blow the trumpet." This teasing detail is an improvisation of Fan Wei, who takes scenes from his own father to make his character believable.
A still from "The Long Season"
Fan Wei's mother was a salesman at a state-run mall, and his brother worked as a worker in Tiexi District. At that time, workers always had to speak with dirty words, Fan Wei went to ask his brother, and his brother said, everyone else talks like this, if you are different, you will be bullied.
The people in the factory have a little temper, and their attitude towards the family has certain limitations of the times. Acting in "Long Season", his wife said that he would go to the hospital to make a film, and Wang Xiang said: "What kind of film to shoot, shoot a cucumber." ”
Some comments called him too "daddy", in fact, this is the true portrayal of the "head of the family" of that era. Many viewers said that they saw their father's shadow in Wang Xiang.
A still from "The Long Season"
When he was 16 years old, Fan Wei envied his uncle who sang opera and ate white-faced steamed buns every day, so he worshipped Chen Lianzhong of the Shenyang Quyi Troupe as a teacher and learned crosstalk. From this time, Fan Wei embarked on the road of acting.
In order to speak Mandarin well, Fan Wei worked hard, walked and ate all the practice, "practiced the tongue swollen", and had a kind of hard work and persistence like a devil.
Later, he applied this spirit of "no madness, no life" to every stage and every role.
After bidding farewell to the sketch, Fan Wei's biggest thing is to delve into the role. Taking over "The Happiness of the Boss", Fan Wei locked himself in the room to read the script, screenwriter Gong Kaibo went to see him, Fan Wei looked a little enchanted when he came out, and saw the screenwriter asking, "Where is the toilet?" ”
Fan Wei played the foot massage master Jixiang in "The Boss's Happiness"
In "No Thief in the World", his lines did not exceed one page, but he still treated these few minutes of the scene harshly, perfectly starring a somewhat fierce stupid thief, and the most popular lines in this movie were all Fan Wei's, "IP, IQ, IC card, all tell me the password", "Fight ... Robbery", "I'm going to rob" - all remembered by the audience.
When making a cameo appearance in "Mobile Phone", he needed to play a Henan farmer, he went to Zhengzhou in advance and learned Henan accent with people one by one; When playing against Ge You, he bites the big brother's antenna open with his mouth - this is simply a stroke of God, and when you see such a performance, you will feel that he has perfected the realm, and with the most general details, he can restore the section of an entire era.
Fan Wei played the brick brother in "Mobile Phone"
"Aromatic Journey" is his first stop in literary films, in order to play a good model worker, Fan Wei did not eat staple food for three months, in order to make his image look less bloated, because he felt that model workers should not be a fat person.
Fan Wei played Lao Cui in "Aromatic Journey"
Later, Fan Wei frequently appeared in domestic literary films, no matter how long he appeared, the performance he came up with must be exquisite and stand up to scrutiny. A tear wiped away when eating at the same table with the devil in "Railway Heroes", Situ Xie's "French Eating Method" in "The First Incense", and the perverted stepfather in "Broken Bridge" who scolded Wang Junkai's character as a "little rascal"... He really became what he wanted to be, "acting like something".
Fan Wei played Zhu Fangzheng in "Broken Bridge"
Getting the script of "The Long Season", Fan Wei was inspired by his desire to create, and he liked this book.
He researched that Wang Xiang's role had three stages: in 1997, the train driver holding the iron rice bowl was respected by the factory, he was spirited, but also a little authoritarian and machismo; The story took a turn in 1998, Wang Xiang, who was in the shadow of layoffs and homicides, was restless, he already felt that his time was about to pass, and he wanted his son to listen to him, in fact, everything was hard; By 2016, Wang Xiang, who had been tortured by life for twenty years, was no longer proud, but just a "little old man" with obsession.
"Live like this for thirty years until the edifice collapses". Fan Wei accurately grasped this emotion.
Fan Wei allows these roles to "fall to the ground", and everyone thinks that he plays well because he can see real life from him.
Fragment of "The Long Season"
However, he does not like to use words like "explosive" and "drama" to comment on acting skills. For example, for the role of Wang Xiang, he discussed with the director to sing tragically, he said, such an old man in a very tragic situation, if you still act along and act with a particularly high mood, this play is not good.
The enchanted study momentum, this is "lifting weight", and the final emotion is faint, this is "if light".
Fan Wei not only acted really and well, but he also found a "Fan Wei-style" performance style in his long-term exploration.
03
People play together
In 2016, relying on the role of Ding Wuyuan in "No Problem", Fan Wei won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor, which is the most important "actor" in his acting career.
When Fan Wei delivered his acceptance speech, he said that he thanked the organizing committee for carefully watching this somewhat stuffy film, but in fact, the organizing committee not only understood the movie, but also understood Fan Wei, and there were four words in his comments on his performance, "still water flows deep", which is the best interpretation of Fan Wei's performance style and skills.
Fan Wei played Ding Wuyuan in "A Problem Not a Problem"
When he encountered the script of "No Problem", Fan Wei did not have high expectations. His idea is just that he also acted in Lao She's novel for the last time. The film's director, Mei Feng, is a professor of literature at the Beijing Film Academy, and before directing films alone, he often partnered with Lou Ye. Mei Feng is watered down and peaceful, and even the entire crew has a bit of literary temperament, and everyone can understand Fan Wei.
Fan Wei himself is not "Biao" at all, on the contrary, he is sensitive, introverted, self-contained, he never participates in the drinking game, which seems a little rare for Northeasterners, and over time he has become the most unsocial one. Mei Feng loved to drink, but he knew that Fan Wei was not sociable, so he tacitly never called him.
Fan Wei's character is exactly right with this movie.
By this time, Fan Wei ushered in the realm of the unity of human drama, and his acting skills were highly consistent with his own personality. Fan Wei came from a background in opera, did not have a teacher inheritance in performance, and relied on his own research, and winning the award was a recognition for him, indicating that the style he had figured out - life-oriented, restrained, "faded acting", at least for him, accurate and effective.
Fragment of "Chang'an Thief"
Director Huang Jianxin commented on Fan Wei: "Sensitivity, subtlety, body odor, these are the most vulnerable parts of human emotions, Fan Wei has these characteristics, so he can express the subtle things in the little people." Fan Wei said that he loves to ponder, love is more true, is "a manifestation of low self-esteem." ”
This personality brings him closer to the world of small people.
At the end of "Blessed Ears", Fan Wei was knocked down on a bicycle, and the thermos was broken, and in the face of the misery of the workers, Fan Wei lay on the ground and sighed deeply. Just like that, he doesn't do more dramatic treatment.
Fan Wei played the train repairman Wang Kangmei in "Blessed Ears"
In "The Long Season", Wang Xiang dreamed of holding his son's hand at the dinner table, this time was originally a sensational point, Fan Wei's way of dealing with it was laughing, he did not cry, did not shout, but provoked the audience to cry.
This time, Fan Wei's acting philosophy finally became flesh through this Northeast past. After that, people will no longer say, "Fan Wei's acting skills are underestimated", but will say, "This is one of the best actors in China".
Fan Wei, who is 60 years old, is a sensitive person who quietly tastes the role in the impetuous entertainment industry. Those little people who struggle in the ups and downs of the world, dejected, with a little humor, they can't understand this era, but they live a real and committed life, and in the frustrated life, they have a kind of endless greatness.
Recording their history with performances is Fan Weizhi's endless pursuit as an actor.
The pictures in the article come from the Internet
Edit | Wu Qing
Typesetting | Eight pounds
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