In the Northeast martial arts sitcom "The Legend of Que Daomen", which ended with 8.1 points on Douban, Wen Song played Jiang Yulang, the little junior disciple of Que Daomen, who had a family feud. Compared with the other characters in the play, Jiang Yulang looks handsome, and there is a melancholy in the vicissitudes, which is similar to the "exciting" comedy image created by Wen Song in his previous sketches. Many viewers were surprised by this - the original Wen Song can still "change" like this.
On the road of performance, Wen Song is always trying to change and different. Photo courtesy of interviewee
Before playing "The Legend of Que Daomen", Wen Song had apprehension, worried that "closing the acting" would make the character have no sense of existence. Master Zhao Benshan gave him a reassuring pill - "If you want to act like this, it's appropriate." Duo turned actors rarely try to play decent roles. This is a challenge for you and a new beginning. After the play was broadcast, he found that the master saw it accurately, and playing a complete character in a serious way could better reflect the value of the actor, and the drama path would be wider.
Looking back at the acting experience of 37-year-old Wen Song, from a waiter who mops the floor and serves dishes in Yingkou City to a singer who runs the field, from a duo to an actor, the overall champion of "Happy Comedian", and then to playing a decent role... Along the way, the ability to change himself and adapt to new environments has become a distinctive characteristic of him. At this stage, he is still changing, and he hopes to have more opportunities to try to play decent roles and try to create behind the scenes of film and television dramas. "If you act, I will definitely act when I encounter a good script. If there is no good script, I want to build a good script myself. ”
Keywords: Jiang Yulang
Worried that it was not brilliant enough, Zhao Benshan gave him a reassuring pill
In "The Legend of the Magpie Daomen", Jiang Yulang, played by Wen Song, was originally the son of General Leng. At that time, General Leng was framed by a traitor and beheaded all over the door, and Jiang Yulang, who had just reached the full moon, was rescued, and was rescued by Ximen Changhai (played by Zhao Benshan) on the way to escape. When he grew up, he came to the Que Dao Gate by mistake, and because of this experience, he worshiped under the Ximen Changhai Gate and became the junior disciple of the Que Dao Gate. Jiang Yulang has a tall figure and a good look, and he is the most important person in the Magpie Dao Gate. Because of his years of wandering the rivers and lakes and carrying family feuds, he often looks a little depressed. On the past sketch stage, Wen Song was well known to the audience for his "sissy" performance, but Jiang Yulang in "The Legend of Que Daomen" is a decent and masculine character. Compared with the master brother Hao Meng (played by Cheng Ye) and the second senior brother Zhao Dezhu (played by Song Xiaofeng), Jiang Yulang basically has no comedy scenes, but he still makes the audience remember him.
In "The Legend of Que Daomen", Jiang Yulang, played by Chinese Song, a group of senior brothers, is the most decent character (from left: Wen Song, Song Xiaofeng, Zhao Benshan, Ge Shanshan, Cheng Ye).
Talking about the feelings of playing Jiang Yulang this time, Wen Song said: "I myself am a very masculine man, playing Jiang Yulang just needs to go there, just like in my life, just talk seriously." But he is actually a person who loves to "play treasure" in performance, and he feels a little clueless about playing such a role that cannot be "played". He confessed that he was very repulsed to play Jiang Yulang at first, and he was always worried that he would act too peacefully to leave an impression on the audience, and he was very depressed. During the filming, the crew members, including director Tang Tiejun, as well as Cheng Ye, Song Xiaofeng, etc., continued to cheer him up every day and praised him for being really handsome. But he felt that everyone said this in order to coax him to continue acting. "I'm not handsome at all, I'm just an ordinary ordinary person. But under the background of my master, Brother Feng, and Brother Cheng Ye, wouldn't it be wasted if I didn't have the appearance to take on the responsibility? ”
Wen Song specifically asked his master Zhao Benshan to confide his worries for this reason - he was worried that if he closed the performance like this, Jiang Yulang would become a "air" that was difficult to be noticed by everyone in the play; People who are worried that the audience will think that Wen Song is usually so funny, why is there no meaning at all in this play? Zhao Benshan reassured him and told him that it was just enough to hold on like this and continue to perform. Because so far, few of the duo-turned-actors have dared to play decent roles, which is both a challenge and a new beginning for him. "'Whoever is air, Jiang Yulang can't be air. If this drama is popular, Jiang Yulang must be the biggest highlight. This is my Master's exact words, and he sees them accurately. After the broadcast of "The Legend of Que Daomen", Jiang Yulang really became the focus of the audience's attention, which made Wen Song feel that the original performance "closing the performance" would also have a good effect.
Wen Song was very apprehensive when he played Jiang Yulang, and he was always afraid that the performance effect would not be good, but Master Zhao Benshan was sure that Jiang Yulang must be the biggest highlight in the play.
Keywords and experiences
From waiter to actor, he was confused by his good looks
Wen Song is not from a professional background. His first job was as a waitress at a bathing center in Yingkou, Liaoning Province, where he did the dirty work of cleaning the floor and shining shoes, and sometimes delivering fruit plates to customers. At that time, the bathing center in the northeast was also an entertainment venue, and the performing arts hall on the third floor regularly invited singers to sing, and Wen Song knew that singing could earn money. He remembered that when he was a child, his family bought a set of discs, and he often sang along and learned, imitating the singing voices of Jacky Cheung, Zhang Yu, and Andy Lau. After going to the third floor to listen to the song a few times, he told the manager that some singers did not sing as well as him. At the end of the year, the company held a staff meeting at one of the largest KTV in Yingkou City, and Wen Song sang a few songs on the spot as a representative of the waiter, which immediately calmed everyone. "The manager said on the spot, don't be a waiter in the future, sing."
At that time, the singer who sang in the bathing center performed once a day in the morning and afternoon, and received a remuneration of 280 yuan. The manager asked Wen Song to sing on stage first, practice while singing, and gave him 60 yuan a day, 1800 yuan a month, several times more than when he was a waiter. After working for half a year, an agent invited him to sing in other venues, giving 120 yuan a day, which gradually rose to 240, 400, and 800 yuan. After two years in this way, he met his later wife and duo turned actor Liu Meiyu, so he changed his studies to Liaoyang to perform, and then to Shenyang to perform, and then was recommended to join the Liaoning Folk Art Troupe and worship Zhao Benshan as a teacher. The competition between the two turned to the stage is very fierce, Wen Song is not superior in terms of looking right in the duo to turn actor, and he has to learn while acting. "They are all forced, and if they don't learn, they can't stand on the stage, and they have no food." He paid attention to observing and absorbing the advantages and fresh things of other actors, and slowly formed the familiar stage image of a little "sissy" little character.
On the stage of "Happy Comedian", the classic shots in the sketch "Things on the Road" in which Wen Song participated were also made into memes.
More viewers know Wen Song because of his performance in the variety show "Happy Comedian". "Happy Comedian Season 3" (2017), he beat Chang Yuan, Zhang Xiaofei and Guo Qilin to win the championship. Wen Song recalled that he was not very confident before he went to "Happy Comedian". Before performing on the stage of the duo, he had a bottom in his heart, knowing that as soon as he took out the character, the audience would burst into laughter, but "Happy Comedian" was a stage he had never experienced, and at that time, he just thought about not making mistakes and not dragging the team back, and the audience could be satisfied with a little applause and laughter, and he didn't think about whether it would be hot at all. "To let the audience remember me on that stage is actually borrowing the light of my senior brothers, and my master has provided such a good platform, and there is also a certain element of luck. Maybe someone else from our family (Liaoning Folk Art Troupe) will participate, and it will also be famous. ”
Keywords, performances
The two turned on the stage, and no one laughed for half an hour was a failure
After becoming "famous" because of his participation in "Happy Comedian", the stage of Wen Song's performance has become wider and more diverse, expanding from duo transfers, sketches, and variety shows to the camera of film and television dramas. He starred in the movie "Sewing Machine Band" (2017) directed by Dapeng, starred in the movie "How Do I Believe You" (2018) with Liang Tian and Yan Ni, and cooperated with Cheng Yi and Lin Xue in the movie "Rescue Wang Xingren" (2019)... He has acted in many TV series and online movies, and this time he changed his inherent drama path and starred in "The Legend of Que Daomen" with Master Zhao Benshan, as well as Cheng Ye and Song Xiaofeng. The audience's feedback on the role of Jiang Yulang made him realize that if he could create a complete character, even if there was no comedy baggage, everyone would like it. "Sometimes a serious character is played, and running this character through it can better reflect the value of the actor, and the drama path will be wider." He hopes to have the opportunity to try this kind of performance in the future and challenge more roles similar to Jiang Yulang.
In the movie "Sewing Machine Band", Liu Xiaoguang, Song Xiaobao, Wen Song, and Song Xiaofeng (from left) made cameo appearances in a metal band.
The hit of "The Legend of Que Daomen" allows the audience to see another side of Wen Song's handsomeness. Returning to the stage of the duo and sketch, he can still easily switch back to the original funny harlequin mode, without any "idol baggage". "Our actors on stage for many years have zero contact with the audience, and whether the performance is good or not, you don't have to wait for it to be broadcast on TV, and you can be verified on the spot. In the half hour of performing a duo on stage, if the audience does not laugh, it is a failure. So I've long been accustomed to amusing everyone, and I'll do everything I can to achieve this, and I don't have any baggage. Years of stage experience also gave Wen Song the opportunity to observe the changes in the audience's comedy aesthetic up close. He feels that the audience now has a deeper understanding of comedy, the laughter point has become higher, and the requirements for comedy performance have also increased. In the past, the audience would laugh when they grinned and grimaced, but now everyone is more looking forward to seeing a comedy with a beginning and a tail and expression.
In recent years, he has become more and more aware of the importance of scripts for actors. When he is not acting, he takes people to make scripts, and also moves from front of the stage to behind the scenes, trying to write, direct and act in the online movie "Northeast Beast" (2023). "I know the actors well. For actors, what is more important is not how much money to make, but to cherish and maintain their 'feathers', and to have a good work presented to everyone. I want to create a good script, at least everyone thinks it's okay after reading it, it's not a superficial farce. "He regards making a script as a small dream of himself at this stage, and he pays more attention to the script when performing." When I come across a good script, I will definitely act it. If it doesn't come across, I'll build a good script myself. "Talking about the distribution of energy in the future, he said that film and television dramas, duo transfers, and sketches will take into account." When the two turn, I will definitely perform during the festival, because that stage is my starting point and I can't throw it away. If it's a sketch, I'll definitely polish it myself and go through the script from beginning to end. ”
Beijing News reporter Yang Lianjie
Chief Editor Wu Dongni
Proofreader Zhao Lin