Returning to being an actress 20 years later, she was effortlessly popular
Author | Zhan Shibo
Edit | Yan Fei
Title Map | "The Long Season"
Lin Xiaojie was interviewed by us on his stomach because of a recurrence of his back disease.
"It's not a big problem, it's actually a lack of exercise." After the series was broadcast, the influx of interview invitations and the filming of the next American drama occupied the time she originally allocated to sports. It's hard to imagine that the sick mother in "The Long Season" is actually a retired Australian businessman addicted to yoga and tennis.
(Photo / "The Long Season")
After the episode was broadcast, most netizens not only did not know Lin Xiaojie, but even did not remember the name of the character "Luo Meisu". More often, Lin Xiaojie is known on social platforms as "the one who plays Wang Yang's mother".
Until the age of 22, she was trained in a science class. From the municipal review troupe in his hometown in the northeast to the talented play, Lin Xiaojie tasted the taste of being praised by the spotlight earlier than his peers. But at the peak of her career, she chose to go to Australia.
From a popular artist to a working woman in Chinatown, on the road of life, she can always seamlessly connect multiple contrasting roles. Just like her in the play, from the Northeast aunt to overseas Chinese, Lin Xiaojie can support it.
Looking back on Lin Xiaojie's more than 40 years of acting career, there were two obvious stops. But the two restarts that allowed her to climb higher peaks.
After 20 years of resting films, returning to the domestic film industry from the overseas film and television circle, he played a rustic aunt of a northeast state-owned enterprise as soon as he made a move, what does Lin Xiaojie rely on?
Before the horn: there is no shortage of sugar gourds and no shortage of beatings
Lin Xiaojie when he was a child is the kind of girl you must be familiar with. She likes to play pranks, is good at imitating teachers, and is always surrounded by a bunch of boys who listen to her commands. People coming crazy is the biggest impression of her neighbors.
Lin Xiaojie's sister is one year older than her, and when the two go to perform shows at the same time, everyone will praise her sister for acting well, but only praise her good personality. Lin Xiaojie was even more energetic when he heard it, seeing that he couldn't play his sister, he would make trouble for his sister.
(Photo/"The Long Season")
Speaking of the origin of the two acting, it has to be traced back to the popular Peking Opera in the northeast in the 60s of the 20th century. At that time, her parents would often take her to see it, and she liked the people in the stands and envied the group of people called actors.
After being a little older, she joined the city jury troupe. Get up at 6 a.m. every day and practice holding big tops and handstands, each time for half an hour. After taking the top, I have to start turning my head again, and I keep turning it. As long as the movement is slow, the teacher will pat their legs with a knife blank made of wood.
To this end, Lin Xiaojie created his own lazy way - pretending to step on the laces so that he could catch his breath while tying the laces. But she couldn't overcome her fear of training. Every night, Lin Xiaojie did not dare to sleep, because as soon as he woke up and opened his eyes, he would be carried out of bed by the teacher to the practice room.
(Photo/"Farewell My Concubine")
Lin Xiaojie said that every time her mother went to see her in the municipal review troupe, she ended up crying and walking, and her mother couldn't watch the training intensity at all. So much so that when I listened to this story, my mind was full of the plot of the little actors being beaten in "Farewell My Concubine".
Singing opera, practicing voice, practicing body, practicing martial arts, practicing dance, none of them falls. After 5 years like this, Lin Xiaojie's love for traditional opera has also run out. She found that modern opera performances seemed more in line with her appetite. Going to the play has become Lin Xiaojie's new goal.
At that time, even if there were only 8 girls in a class, Lin Xiaojie could become one of them. Unexpectedly, after being admitted, the city review troupe refused to release people. The leader also wrote a long letter to the play, to the effect that "Lin Xiaojie's voice and physical condition are very good, so we cultivate her according to the standards of 'Jiao'er', and easily let her go, and our efforts for so many years will be in vain."
Interestingly, since she was a child, her parents told her that "never let the family help you find a relationship, if you really have the ability, you will not let you go anywhere", and she couldn't imagine that she would become a saying when she grew up. For this reason, parents had to "reverse" to seek various doors, but unfortunately the city review troupe refused to let go.
Someone came up with an idea: "Your regiment leader has high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries, and you go to their house every morning at 4 o'clock to knock on the door, and it will work." Lin Xiaojie did so. On the third day, the wife of the regiment leader opened the door: "Okay, don't knock, you go, we agreed." ”
"At that time, it was the shaft, and I had to do what others didn't let me do." Lin Xiaojie recalled, "Now that I think about it, I feel a little guilty, but the teachers in the group are actually very attentive to me. ”
Become a drama face,
And run away
Lin Xiaojie believes that for actors, the body is a part. The better the ability to understand the character, the greater the ability to "assemble" parts, and the better your acting skills.
If the Municipal Review Troupe taught Lin Xiaojie to "polish parts", then in the 4 years of playing, Lin Xiaojie learned the process of "assembly".
In the play, Lin Xiaojie's expectation is to become a character actor, in today's words, "drama throws face". Her acting teacher, Wei Shuxian, has always asked her to "try all kinds of people of all kinds and personalities, and don't repeat yourself."
Later, in the "Fifteen Divorce Cases" rehearsed by Lin Xiaojie in the play, one person played fifteen divorced women of different ages and personalities, and Wei Shuxian remembers that play to this day.
After graduation, Lin Xiaojie went to Guangzhou and entered the Pearl River Film Studio. "Life Has No One Way Road", "Villagers", "Happiness Is Not a Drizzle" and "Business Circle" were filmed at that time.
"It's not to go here to act, or to dubbing, and usually toss to do production." During that time, Lin Xiaojie was often asked for photos and autographs, and she could always see herself on the cover of magazines at street newsstands.
In the early years, Lin Xiaojie became one of the actresses of the Pearl Film Studio's wall calendar.
After 6 years of repeating this life, Lin Xiaojie suddenly decided to go to Australia.
She once said that she went abroad because she followed the herd, "In fact, I didn't like foreign countries much at that time, but many friends around me went out." This time, she told me about her recent reflections: "I was just too smooth at that time, and I did one thing into another, probably because I didn't cherish it." ”
In her first few years in Australia, she cut thread in a garment factory and sang as a DJ at a cultural club in Chinatown. After friends in China learned that she had also worked as a nurse in a dentist's office, they were frightened a lot - how could a person who was mentioned by the Golden Rooster Award not want to run to Australia to pick up the spit of others?
"One of my obsessions at that time was that since I came, I would spend the money I earned abroad." Lin Xiaojie said. At that time, Chinese students tended to rent houses near the railway. Although noisy and remote, the rent is cheap, which allows them to save time and go to work. Therefore, they always laugh at themselves as "railway guerrillas", and Lin Xiaojie is also one of them. But she earns money from manual work and sleeps deeply every night.
Two pauses, two restarts
In the Golden Globe-winning American film "Don't Tell Her", you can see Lin Xiaojie, who plays the mother of the heroine, speaking English with a slight accent but quite fluent English. But Lin Xiaojie, who grew up in Harbin, actually spoke Russian from elementary school.
(Photo/"Don't Tell Her")
In this play, Lin Xiaojie has become a vigorous mother again, and she loves to scare about everything.
Like the cliché inspirational narrative you can imagine, Lin Xiaojie's English was taught to himself after going to Australia. But dramatically, the language school she had planned to attend in Australia soon closed.
In order to create an environment for self-study, she asked her then-Guangdong roommates not to speak Mandarin at home, but only English and Cantonese. She will also use every opportunity to go out and practice. At the time, half of the passers-by on Australia's streets were Chinese-faced, but she usually only asked locals questions. In her opinion, it is a free tutoring class that is the fastest to improve her speaking.
(Photo/provided by interviewee)
Lin Xiaojie also shared with me the embarrassment she caused by not being good enough in English: it would be more favorable to take a train in Australia and buy a round-trip ticket at the same time, but Lin Xiaojie didn't understand how to say a return ticket, and heard that the one-way ticket was a single ticket, so she told the conductor that she wanted a married ticket, and the people at the station were amused.
Lin Xiaojie's first play in Australia was an international student story created by his senior brother - "Black Eyes". 6 people, including her, rehearsed between part-time jobs and starred in 0 salaries, and finally put this Chinese drama on Australian theaters.
Of course, the audience is almost all Chinese, and they are not "out of the circle overseas" as touted on the Internet. But it still made a local director notice Lin Xiaojie, and she also won the shooting invitation for the TV series "Under the Skin".
That was her first time working with an overseas crew. Perhaps during the rehearsal, I heard a lot of comments that "this Chinese man can act", and after officially entering the group, Lin Xiaojie was not nervous. Looking back now, she can't remember any friction and discomfort caused by cultural differences, "It went well."
(Photo/Douban screenshot)
Lin Xiaojie is the only Chinese face in "Under the Skin", which makes her truly enter the Australian film and television industry.
Later, Lin Xiao's outstanding Australian drama won an award. When I went to Melbourne to receive the award, the screenwriter praised "This is Diana, she is sensational".
Many agencies want to sign Lin Xiaojie, and she has also appeared in Australia's well-known magazine "Women's Weekly". It's a pity that even if he is seen by the local film and television industry, Lin Xiaojie still can't avoid the emergence of a career gap.
After all, in those days, there were still too few overseas scripts suitable for Chinese actors. Between 1996 and 2016, Lin Xiaojie's acting career was almost blank.
(PHOTO/2020 STILLS FROM THE DRAMA "TORCH THE PLACE")
In the past 20 years, Lin Xiaojie has not been idle, she has shifted her focus to the business - selling swimwear.
This is not a momentary hot head. Having been in Australia for several years, she found that swimwear was in high demand. For Australians, you can't get through the summer without buying a few swimsuits.
The short supply gave Lin Xiaojie the courage to enter the game. Before there was the tempering of making films in China, and then there was the practice of working in a garment factory, and opening a factory to make clothes by yourself became a natural thing.
At first, she could only outsource to other brands, and slowly she had her own brand. When the brand matured, she had so many orders that she needed to outsource to other factories.
"I look at you, I know what kind of swimsuit and size underwear you are suitable for, and I am more professional in this line than acting." She admits that the sense of accomplishment in business is greater than acting.
Lin Xiaojie is not a very materialistic person. "But I also have to survive." She knows the plight of overseas Asian actors, "many actors are serving plates while waiting for opportunities. Lin Xiaojie felt that this choice was not wise.
(Photo/provided by interviewee)
She also became a mom. She remembers not working for the first few months after giving birth, and her only task every day was to push the baby to the park, feeling that she had lost her sense of worth.
In the past 20 years, Lin Xiaojie has been busy making ends meet. After the business stabilized, Lin Xiaojie finally got empty and began to think about his life.
She remembered when she was 10 years old, lying in bed and thinking, "If I can't be an actor in my life, what else can I do?" Later, she naturally had the answer, but she couldn't forget the self who couldn't think of an answer.
"There is no financial pressure, and it seems that I have finally reached the stage where I can act and have fun." Lin Xiaojie found the screenwriter of his first play in Australia and soon acquired a new role - Maisy in "Luo Family".
(Photo/Douban screenshot)
Back on the screen, Lin Xiaojie never worried about his performance, only worried that he didn't play 100%.
I heard that the biggest problem for ordinary people to return to the screen is that they can't remember the lines, and she has worried about herself. But when a shot came down, Lin Xiaojie knew that she was still the same she was back then.
61-year-old Lin Xiaojie calls himself a ticket holder, "Every time I shoot a play, I am re-adapting to the profession of an actor." At the age of retirement, Lin Xiaojie feels that his acting skills have just "just developed".
Compared with TV series, Lin Xiaojie feels that the biggest challenge is the drama "Little Emperor" in Australia. This drama has high requirements for posture, the whole play is performed in the water, and there are several scenes that require the actor to lie directly in the water.
（图/《Little Emperor》）
As soon as the performance was over, several foreign actors gathered around her and asked, "Where are you come from?" Who are you？ Everyone was curious about why a raw actor had such skillful acting skills, and Lin Xiaojie had to admit that she was an old actor from China, but she hadn't acted in 20 years.
Later, the drama was shortlisted for a lot of awards, and Lin Xiaojie and his agent were happy: they had not fought for many years, and they were nominated as soon as they came up.
Lin Xiaojie believes that "things can't just be done halfway, and it must be done to the best." In her account, you can hardly find any trace of "failure", "Maybe I have a lot of failures, but I just can't remember." But Lin Xiaojie also admits that this seems to be the confidence given to her by the times, after all, in that era, "there will always be many dramas pushed in front of us, and we don't even need to audition." ”
The afterwarming is also long
Lin Xiaojie now rarely watches his early plays and dubbing. "The kind of dubbing that takes the tone is beautiful, but even the best drama is quite fake." She now prefers unprocessed, pristine live radio, "I just think it's right, it's great." ”
Although many acting schools emphasize "imitation" above all else, and Lin Xiaojie happens to have excellent imitation ability, in the matter of acting, Lin Xiaojie is still a firm "unskilled school":
"I like to feel it sincerely, and I prefer that the opponent actor can help me in front of the camera, and I feel that the scene will be more realistic and detailed."
(Photo/provided by interviewee)
After "The Long Season" was broadcast, she only took a cursory look, "If you watch it carefully, you will feel that you can act better." But she was more afraid of returning to that emotion than delving into acting.
She still remembers that after filming the scene where Wang Yang died, she was in a state of hypoxia for several days. "I was always controlling when I was shooting, and I didn't have a chance to vent it later, so I really had a feeling that I couldn't get angry."
The broadcast of the show did not bring much change to her life, "no one will recognize me when walking on the road". Her cognition of the popularity of this drama comes from the feedback of relatives and friends and the comments of netizens.
Someone forwarded her a manuscript, which was full of praise, to the effect that "how beautiful Lin Xiaojie was back then, many people were chasing her, but she refused."
"Where it comes from, it's all written by that group of self-media." Lin Xiaojie doesn't think he looks good. In that year, the acting teacher did not allow students to wear makeup to class. When students pass by the window while shopping, they will be said by the teacher. She also accepted this concept very early, and the most afraid of getting the drama was just because of the "good image".
Some netizens commented that "Lin Xiaojie is a good actor, but she won't make you think that she plays well, but makes you think that it's her, so that there is no discussion in the play", so this type of actor will also suffer a loss.
But Lin Xiaojie didn't care. When she was young, she certainly had an obsession with "being seen". How many people who have stayed in that circle can hold on to fame and fortune? But now at this age, she just wants to get her own approval.
This planet, named Lin Xiaojie, finally returned to the heavy universe at the age of 61. Fade the utilitarian of youth, rely on interest-nourished performances, and after "The Long Season", exude a longer residual warmth.
Proofreading: Xiangyang
Operation: Hee-hee
Typesetting: Xiong Ziyu