Wang Yaoqing: I have never played a domineering president

Author | Zhan Shibo

Edit | Lu Yiming

Title image & cover | Weibo @王耀庆Studio

Whether it is Wei Yiyi in "33 Days of Broken Love" and Jiang Haokun in "Mr. Good", or Ye Luming in "The Next Stop is Happiness" and Li Benteng in "Entrepreneurial Era", they seem to prove one thing: becoming a "boss professional" is the main theme of Wang Yaoqing's 28-year acting career.

But at the same time, if you carefully look through the resume of this middle-aged actor, you can find some abrupt surprises in it:

Before dabbling in film and television dramas, Wang Yaoqing has been appearing on the drama stage, "The Life and Survival of Gorgeous Office Workers", "War and Peace between Men and Women", "The Great Expectations of the Architect of Destiny", "The Fantasy World of the Matchmaker: In the West Chamber" are works at that time.

Wang Yaoqing has already become one of the queen male protagonists of Edward Lam's stage plays.

In addition to being appreciated by Edward Lin, he was also favored by Jiao Yuanpu and participated in the performance of "Peer Gynt". Wang Yaoqing played 22 roles by himself, and he became the first actor to stand in front of the symphony orchestra to perform, and a new genre called "symphony drama" was born.

In 2016, Wang Yaoqing gained a new identity - producer. He and his team produced a program called "Interview with Craftsmen", which was originally inspired by Wang Yaoqing's confusion: is the spirit of craftsmanship outdated today? More than 20 interviewees gave him different answers, and of course, more new questions worth thinking about. To this day, he is still running this self-funded show.

Last year, Wang Yaoqing released his first EP "Encore King", and after being commented by netizens as "greasy and cute", Wang Yaoqing also laughed at himself in the MV as "the chairman who has to come to the annual meeting".

Wang Yaoqing: I'm really not wearing a foot fitness. (Photo/Wang Yaoqing Studio Weibo)

can support performances and interviews, and can play music into jokes, compared to why Wang Yaoqing is good at playing "boss", we are more curious about why he is willing to play "boss".

The following is Wang Yaoqing's answer to us.

"Wang Yaoqing, when are you going to play a poor man?"

I've played a doctor, a lawyer, a sales manager, but I've never played a role called "boss". This is a label set by the audience, and it is not something I can control.

When I was a child, I really wanted to be a profiteer, this was not for the effect of variety shows, this was my true thought at the time. My father was a businessman, so when I was a child, I thought I should make a lot of money, but later I realized that the most important things in life have nothing to do with money.

(Photo/Weibo @Nanwang Entertainment)

A lot of people wonder why I don't take on other roles and broaden my acting path, but the reality is that this is a business society, and very few people are willing to spend money on trial and error. If you have made achievements in a certain field, others will want to continue to choose you.

Therefore, actors are very passive, and most of the roles they can receive are of the same type. There are three roles to choose from at the same time, which is already a very good situation, even if these three are what you call the "boss".

I have actually played a poor man, so poor that he robbed the dog for food, but few viewers know it, and everyone is still used to calling me "the boss professional". I neither hate nor like this title.

At first, I also had the urge to explain, but then I found out that everyone didn't give me this opportunity, so it was better to take it to the dinner table and laugh at myself.

In my opinion, every character is different. I'm curious, why don't you observe the differences and details inside, but think that he plays the "boss".

Of course, this is a problem of the whole era, and everyone is in a hurry to get information on the internet, so we will rely on tags. People may not really care about other people's lives, but are just expressing their emotions, so they will quickly make up their minds about one thing and form some kind of preconception.

In the movie "33 Days of Broken Love", Wei Yi, played by Wang Yaoqing, relied on the "concept of worry-free love" to get out of the circle. (Photo/"33 Days of Broken Love")

In addition to work needs, I basically don't play social software, not only am I not very interested in fragmented information, but I also don't care much about the question of whether it is popular or not, or rather, this thing is something that individuals can't care about.

Instead of worrying about the parts I can't control, I should spend my time and energy on the things I can change. I don't think much about what to do if I can't play it well, but how I can play this role well.

For example, it takes at least 10 years of professional training to become a doctor, but I usually only have a month or two to prepare for the role.

So, I'm used to doing a lot of interviews to find out what they really think. The second is to observe, what is their usual routine like? What are they used to wearing? What will they eat? Do they have a specific industry preference? You want to know as much as you can about the character you're playing, his whole way of life.

Depending on the needs of the role, sometimes they even have to eat and live together. For example, when I used to be an obstetrician, I had to stay in the hospital all the time, observe their reactions to meetings, executions, and decision-making, and imitate how they look when they are nervous and relaxed.

Wang Yaoqing plays the role of Xiao Cheng, the director of obstetrics, in "Obstetrician". (Photo/"Obstetrician")

During rehearsals, I occasionally feel that there is something unreasonable about the script, but I am the kind of person who will come up with ideas but will not ask for revisions.

Whether it is a film or television work or a stage play, all works are the result of collective creation, and if it is good, then everyone involved in it is good and created. I don't think one person should be able to influence the fruits of collective labor.

Performance is life

When I first started in the industry, the roles I played were relatively old, and someone asked me why I didn't do a good job, and I said that I was not a small face! I like that kind of actor with a sense of age, like Al Pacino. I thought this guy was so cool that he basically didn't need to make any facial expressions to play a role well, and there must be a story behind every wrinkle.

Al Pacino. (Photo/"Smelling the Fragrance and Knowing the Woman")

But now I feel that it is against nature to concave myself in a certain age group that does not belong to me, and comfort is the most important thing. I don't have any age anxiety, but I wish I could experience more negative emotions.

It is important for actors to learn to collect emotions. Stage plays are a good way to accumulate.

To put it simply, film and television dramas and variety shows are relatively commercial, you need to participate with solutions, it relies on your own stress resistance, from a certain point of view, this is consumption, but stage plays are different.

You can spend two or three months exploring different ways of expressing it. For example, if there is a change in the stage, sound, vocalization, and body movements of the same scene, it may produce completely different effects.

In the theater, you can get the answer right away. When you take the audience through the ups and downs of the protagonist's life and interact with them in the same space, this kind of instant feedback is addictive to me, and I don't have it in other forms of acting.

Wang Yaoqing: I don't really want to resist this impetuousness in society, but I can use this impetuosity to make some works. (Photo/"Peer Gynt" Yangzhou Field)

For me, Peer Gynt is a crossover art that I've always wanted to try, because it's a rare experience to be an actor in a symphony. I had to play 22 roles, and I had no choreography or props, so I could only use body language, voice, expressions, emotions, etc. to express different classes, genders, and races.

It didn't bother me, but the most uncomfortable thing for me was that I had to be tense in front of the melody and couldn't immerse myself because I still had something to do.

Wang Yaoqing: I'm not a person with a strong desire to express myself, I don't like crowded places, I don't like to talk to people I don't know, but if the conversation with strangers can trigger my reflection, I don't reject it. (Photo/"Entrepreneurial Times")

All these experiences from the theater have made me truly realize that a good performance needs a rhythm, and rhythm is breathing.

For example, when you are angry or nervous, your body knows that you are going to face some emergency, and it will give you blood oxygen and adrenaline. The tone of your voice is unconsciously raised, your shoulders are shrugged up, and your back will arch forward, because your core needs to maintain a state of force at all times, so your breathing will naturally be rapid. On the contrary, we can use our breath to adjust the rhythm of the acting.

"Rhythm is breathing", this is what Ms. Wang Shujuan told me, and she is also one of the people who has influenced my career the most.

In just six words, I have been enlightened for 10 years. Since then, I've often wondered if I'm just the kind of person who lives in my own information cocoon. Therefore, since 2016, my team and I have started to do "Interviews with Craftsmen" at our own expense.

It's not just a show, it's a way for me to satisfy my curiosity. I wonder if people who don't have the same profession as me have a different perspective on life, work, money, or time.

I've found that when a person reaches the pinnacle of an industry, they tend to have the same views on a lot of things, that is, you have to stick to the things that you think are right, and you have to be responsible for yourself to be the best you can do. I know it sounds like a bit chicken soup, but it's just the way it is.

I would also outline the interview, but it never seemed to follow the plan to ask and answer every question. Because the collision of values and ideas between different people is the most interesting part of doing this. But there's one question I'm sure to ask, and that's what your profession means to you, and everyone will surprise me.

When I made the 12th issue, I started thinking about this myself. My answer is: performance is life. If you don't do it well, you will die.

Well, life can't stand the seriousness

I really like to play games, especially in between filming, which can help me temporarily withdraw the emotions of the characters and become calmer.

Once, while playing, I suddenly wondered if the so-called "real life" would also be a game, and we might be NPCs, being watched by real players. So, the thing I'm most concerned about right now is how many possibilities there are. Is it our free will that guides us to make choices, or is it a command from a higher dimension that we are not aware of?

Before you find the answer, it is better to play the game of life with the mentality of having fun. Life doesn't stand up to seriousness, and I do like to tell jokes, so someone suggested that I go the path of comedian, but I know that doing comedy is actually a very difficult thing to do.

Wang Yaoqing once spoofed the cover of GQ. (Photo/GQ magazine cover screenshot)

The same joke, maybe the southerners will laugh, but the northerners will not laugh; Women laugh, men don't; Some people find it funny, some people feel attacked, and you need to find more commonalities to make a joke that more people like.

I don't say I'm a humorous person in public, but if my friend doesn't think I'm humorous, he probably won't be my friend (laughs).

The best state of performance is when three mes appear in the same time and space. One is the character itself, and the other is an actor named Wang Yaoqing; And then there's someone who is watching how I'm playing the role. (Photo/"Encore King" promotional photo)

I won't refuse things that make me happy, which is why I chose to participate in "Overcoming Thorns" later, singing and dancing can really easily make me happy.

Although I have to spend more time practicing dancing than professional dancers, it doesn't matter because people have been accumulating it for so many years, and I'm just starting out, so it's not a big deal to spend a little more time. For this reason, I put off a lot of work plans, but I was happy with myself the whole process.

Today, there are too many people in our lives to tell you: do this right/do that wrong, but why no one cares if you are happy when you do it, because it is really important to like yourself, and it will give you a reason to persevere when you encounter difficulties.

So, I can only do what I think is right, and whether it seems right in the eyes of others is not something I should think about. To put it mildly, everyone needs to have the courage to be hated.

Wang Yaoqing's performance in "Overcoming Thorns".

I believe that if there are 100 people who like me, there must be 100 people who don't like me. There's no need to get yourself into the mood of how to get people who don't like me to like me.

So, like, very good. Didn't like it, but it was also very good. That's what's interesting about this world.

(The pictures without indicating the source are all from Weibo @王耀庆Studio)

Proofreading: Yang Chao

Operations: Ono

Typesetting: Shen Zaohui