Old Friend
Shanghai Studios. More than 30 people in the theater were drawn by the invisible current like a school of swimming fish and walked in one direction. The silence was mixed with nervousness and excitement, and everyone's eyes converged on one place - it was Tony Leung who came. Dressed in a trench coat, he slowly walked to the dim light, and the shooting began immediately, he looked at the camera, sometimes looking left and right, making people wonder if he was in the scene of "In the Mood for Love" at this moment. There's always a sound at your side: the photographer compliments the quality of the person in the shot, and the crew quietly confirms the location of the next shot...... Tony Leung listened, did not react, calm, and peaceful.
Thirty minutes later, it was still the same theater, and the one who appeared at the press conference of the third season of Martell's big movie "Life is a Flying" was Tony Leung who changed into personal clothes, a light purple cardigan, an army green T-shirt with an exposed collar, and a square scarf around his neck. At this time, he was relaxed and casual, although he still didn't say much, but it was not the "social phobia" of the crowd that the public imagined, and he looked at the eyes of the audience with joy. Maybe it's because, after a while, the movie "Goldfinger" will begin its first screening in Shanghai.
"Goldfinger", as the name suggests, tells the story of a man who turned a stone into gold. Tony Leung played the role of the "gold" man, exchanging 100 yuan for Cheng Yiyan, who was 10 billion yuan. The role can be regarded as his wildest attempt since the film, and some film critics described it, "Cheng Yiyan's smile has a kind of greasy and indulgent that cannot be concealed, and he looks like a villain's nouveau riche." It is precisely because of the big difference from his previous roles that Tony Leung considered taking over the movie.
"I often want to challenge some characters that I haven't tried before, so I think this role is more special, and it is a rare villain. When the collaborators are Zhuang Wenqiang, a close friend for many years, and Andy Lau, a familiar partner, it becomes more and more logical to act. To the outside world, this means that the creators of "Infernal Affairs" are working together again, and for Tony Leung, this symbolizes a "secure" creative environment, where he can save time for communication and running-in - in front of old friends, the quiet Tony Leung will become cheerful, talkative, and even naughty.
The film is adapted from the real Jianing case, in Hong Kong, China, this is a well-known strange case, involving tens of billions of funds and many lives, leaving many mysteries to this day. In the process of studying the background of the case, Tony Leung was deeply incredible. "In the seventies and eighties (of the last century), there were loopholes in regulation, the financial system was not perfect, including corruption was also very serious, and all these factors combined to create such a person in that era. ”
Forty years ago, "The Legend of Deer and Ding", twenty years ago "Infernal Affairs", until today's "Goldfinger", Tony Leung and Andy Lau seem to have cooperated once every 20 years. However, in the process of filming, it is important to "forget the past", and the two reached a consensus to "do something different from before". "Of course, Andy and I would think about the past, and occasionally we would talk, and it has been decades in the blink of an eye, and time flies quickly. ”
Director Zhuang Wenqiang said that after writing the script, he handed it to Liang and Liu, and they called back together: Is the opponent Tony Leung/Andy Lau? Asked why Tony Leung guessed, he replied to the director: "It is written so obviously, how can it not be Andy Lau? If it weren't for Andy Lau, I wouldn't have filmed it." ”
This reply contains both an innate sensitivity and a conscious protection of sensitivity. The coexistence of the two has built Tony Leung in the eyes of his collaborators, and Zhang Lijia, director of "Fox Hunt", once said: "He looks very good at talking, but in fact, not many people can enter his heart." And Zhuang Wenqiang also revealed, "Many directors asked me how to persuade Tony Leung, he is actually very demanding and sensitive to the script, and if one or two scenes don't fit the eye, he won't take the film." Frankly speaking, it is not possible to give him so many scripts over the years. Of course, some of our cooperation in the process was successful, but he didn't look at whether it was successful, but whether the play was played."
artisan
Perhaps only this sensitive person knows what it means to choose to take on a film. In order to play Wei Xiaobao in "The Legend of Deer and Ding", he read the original book at least four times; for "City of Sadness", he finished reading the one-foot-high book, and practiced martial arts hard for "The Grandmaster", and studied Ip Man's life materials - a lot of reading in the early stage, building a three-dimensional and multi-layered character image in his mind, and forming a road to the character's heart, so that the character does not appear vain. However, even so, he still finds it difficult to understand and express the characters 100%, "just starting from my own feelings and adding my imagination to express them".
This Xi was established from "City of Sadness". At that time, Tony Leung was still a wireless actor, Xi to Hong Kong film-style expression, deliberately ostentatious and exaggerated the dramatic effects of expressions and bodies. Hou Hsiao-hsien's footage made him aware of this, and it also gave him the motivation to work hard to study historical materials to construct characters. Discovering Tony Leung's avid reading Xi habits, Hou gradually introduced him to Japanese, Chinese, and Western literature, and the vast differences between literature and popular fiction. "The former has a more nuanced narrative and more room for imagination, and from then on, I fell in love with literature. It was only later that I realized the profound impact of literature, which was an important source of inspiration for me. Yukio Mishima, Thomas Man, and Shen Congwen are all writers Tony Leung's favorite.
At the 80th Venice Film Festival last year, director Ang Lee presented Tony Leung with the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in his speech, he mentioned: Tony Leung is a director's dream. His eyes, his acting skills, and even more so because of his shining soul, he was able to make his eyes contain something that touched people like lightning. With just one look, Tony Leung is able to express more than a long monologue interpreted by many actors. His soul can lead people to dream, to imagine with Him, and we all dream with Him.
What is "that lightning-fast thing that touches people"? It is not so much a flash of inspiration as it is the complex emotional depth that literature can evoke, showing his most delicate and profound perception of the world and human nature. It is also for this reason that the sentimental actor in Wong Kar-wai's films, the gentle and elegant Zhou Muyun in "The True Story of A Fei" and "In the Mood for Love", the 663 police officer in "Chongqing Forest", the carefree Yaohui in "Happy Spring", and the solemn and calm Ip Man in "The Grandmaster" are enough to move people's hearts and constitute Tony Leung's most representative screen face.
But this "lightning-fast thing that touches people's hearts" has never been obtained in a relaxed state of mind. has been in the film industry for 40 years, no matter who the director is, Tony Leung, who is in the crew, is always under tension and pressure, he once said: "How can you finish a movie comfortably and effortlessly? There is no such thing." The process of any film is basically the same, and everyone wants to be on my side like a tug-of-war. ”
So, the pressure is all self-inflicted. "I often do this to myself, you see I seem to be fine, but in fact I am not very confident, especially when trying something new, confidence needs to be built slowly. Every time I film, I was trembling at the beginning, and it may take two or three weeks before I slowly entered the situation. I don't know, it's a good thing or a bad thing. ”
Correspondingly, the time to praise yourself is no more than a month. To this day, Tony Leung has received numerous international accolades, including the most recent Golden Lion, other prestigious awards at the Cannes Film Festival, the Asian Film Awards, three Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan and five Golden Trophy trophies in Hong Kong, but these trophies are usually put away in the cabinet after a month. "Winning an award has never made me feel like it can change my life. Of course, it is happy to win the award and get the affirmation of others, but the happiness is only over in a week. Because I usually put the prize in the study for a period of time, I put it in the cabinet and don't let myself see it, because I don't feel the need to remind myself of my achievements, so that I can't improve, on the contrary, I will remind myself of the areas that need to be improved. The pursuit of improvement washed away the aura of this famous actor, making him more like a craftsman who carves acting skills, showing humility and clarity in his gestures.
The meaning of acting has also slowly changed over time: at first, acting for Tony Leung was a "job that can release all suppressed emotions", and later, because playing different roles required reading a lot of books, the joy of learning Xi made him marvel at "greatly broadening his horizons", and finally, acting became indispensable, because it was the shy and reticent man "to communicate with the audience and everyone", only by hiding behind the characters and wearing the mask of the characters, Tony Leung would feel "a little safe, and it is more relaxed to stand in the crowd." ”。
children
A sense of security – Tony Leung sought this for the first thirty-seven years of his film career. The cooperation with Wong Kar-wai and Hou Hsiao-hsien, which lasted for nearly 20 years, was first based on a familiar environment where they could understand each other without using words, and naturally generated a kind of freedom and freedom to let them play. Four years ago, things slowly turned. Tony Leung said in an interview: "I feel like life has really just begun when I leave my comfort zone. I'm 57 years old this year and I don't want to be like this again, I want to make some mistakes and do more crazy things. ”
As a result, a series of "mistakes" appeared: cooperating with director Cheng Er, appearing in the music video of the South Korean girl group New Jeans, and even choosing to jump out of the Asian film industry, exploring the Hollywood industry by starring in Marvel movies the year before last, and officially watching how European directors shoot next year - it is hard to imagine that Tony Leung, who has been praised by the three major European film festivals, is actually participating in the production of European art films for the first time. Next year, he will work with Hungarian surrealist film master director Iltiko Inyeti, who won the Golden Bear at the 67th Berlinale for "Flesh and Spirit".
The new film "Dumb Friends" is set in the botanical garden of the medieval German university town of Marlborough, and tells three stories related to a tree for more than 100 years. As the protagonist of the third story, Tony Leung will play the role of a famous neurologist who came to Marlborough from Hong Kong, and is tailor-made by Inyeti. After receiving the script and reading through, Tony Leung watched the two previous director's works of "Flesh and Spirit" and "Words of My Wife", "I think it looks good and I feel very good", so he made a video call, communicated with Inyeti several times, and settled down under the impetus of intuition.
The character he played studied early cognitive development, and it didn't take long for Tony Leung to receive neuroscience books and botany books from the director. According to Tony Leung's usual reading speed, he can read a heavy literary tome in two or three days, but the professional books are obscure, and after reading a thin book for a month, he still can't figure out how much he understands. Speaking of this, his body moved a few points towards the seat, as if he was about to wrap himself in a cocoon, "I don't know if it will go well, I'm really not sure......"
A similar mood recurred before heading to Hollywood to shoot a Marvel movie — to be exact, the entire filming process was almost insecure, "I got on the plane after the last day of filming...... Tony Leung took a big breath, as if floating from the dark, high-pressure underwater. But looking back, I will be glad that I still did it. Then, going to Germany, as he thought, will be a new experience with mixed tastes.
In fact, while still preparing for the play, Tony Leung has already experienced the change in the way of cognition brought about by the role. Reading books on botany, he was amazed by the wisdom of plants, "They can turn insects that used to eat plants into meat, and there is a huge network of mycelium under the trees, and people send signals to each other...... These are things I didn't know before." Tony Leung continued to think deeply: Is human beings always self-centered and distinguish the world around them? Does the concept that human-like creatures are intelligent also symbolize the arrogance of human beings themselves?
He has always liked to go into nature, and when he has nothing to do, he has played diving, mountain biking, mountain climbing, sailing, skiing, and all kinds of sports connected with nature. In the first two years, he was obsessed with sailing for a while, walking on the water, and the invisible and changeable wind made him unpredictable, "I thought that the east wind blowing today is the east wind, but in fact it is not like this, it has to change many times a day, and it often blows from different directions." "When you see the water, you see where the wind is coming, how strong the gust of wind is, and how long it will take to change direction", which makes him lament the impermanence of the nature of the world, and human beings must change with the changes. On the way to a sailboat, the wind stopped suddenly, and the boat without a motor stopped in the middle of the sea and could not return, so it had to call for help, "You don't know how long you can wait over there to wait for the wind, but you can only wait for the wind to come."
Recently, Tony Leung picked up water skiing again. He said that his interests are often hot for three minutes, a bit like a child, fiddling for a while and then putting it down, in addition to sports, he has also played violin, piano, guitar, classical guitar...... It doesn't matter how well he learns, he is a freewheeling and casual person, who does not care about the result and only enjoys the pleasure of the process. Another example is the love of drinking, like Martell's cognac, "drink if you want, don't drink if you don't want to." Drink more when you're happy, and drink less when you're unhappy." However, learning Xi new things "from scratch" always reminds him, "Don't forget the most basic things, especially acting, and don't forget what the original basic skills are."
Tony Leung during the interview, he was not unfamiliar, he was often shy and lowered his eyebrows, but more often, he showed a friendly and subtle enthusiasm, unreservedly sharing experiences and opinions in the face of problems, and even repeating "sorry" because the interview was carried out in sections. Some people say that actors, as carriers of fictional immersion, break the sense of proportion in the play, and be measured outside the play. Perhaps we have to quote Ang Lee: Tony Leung is different because he is like water, flowing to its lowest point without a fight, guiding his talents, like a calm river, flowing gracefully and powerfully wherever the performance is needed.
摄影 Nick Yang
采访、撰文 Patricia
Styling Sherry
Edit Elva
化妆、发型 Candy Law
Produced by Oolong
Assistant Doris
黑色翻领大衣来自 Prada