Preamble:
What kind of actor is worthy of the reputation of "old drama bones"? Can he be called an old drama bone when he is old? Or do he need strength to match it?
If an actor's acting skills stagnate or even regress, can he still be called an old actor? These questions are worth pondering.
黄磊:从出色才子到单一慈父
Huang Lei, born in 1962, an actor in Chinese mainland, what made him famous in the entertainment industry was the movie "April Day on Earth" starring him in 1986, playing the young talent Xu Zhimo, portraying the multi-faceted nature of a literati to the fullest, allowing the audience to see that this young man has great potential.
Huang Lei was only 24 years old that year, and it was the time when he was full of momentum.
In order to interpret the image of this literary and artistic youth, he studied Xu Zhimo's works with relish, and reproduced a sensitive and thoughtful soul on the screen.
Huang Lei interpreted his frowns tightly and thoughtfully, as if the young Xu Zhimo was in front of the audience.
This made many viewers sigh: "This is simply Xu Zhimo himself!"
It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, after Huang Lei gradually faded out of the film circle and focused more on TV series, his acting skills seem to be changing with age, gradually moving from excellent to mediocre.
In the recently hit TV series "County Party Committee Compound", Huang Lei, who is 60 years old, is completely reminiscent of the young talents of the year.
He plays a county party secretary, and as soon as he appears, it is impossible to figure out what he is playing - big belly, frowning and preaching, and the breath of life between his gestures, where is the demeanor of half an officialdom?
It seems that in the next second, he will pick up a spatula and start stir-frying, which makes the audience sigh, is this a middle-aged man who is playing at home?
In fact, in the past decade or so, Huang Lei's role has been completely stereotyped in a kind of "father" image, first playing a considerate father in "Little Huanxi", which is deeply loved by young audiences, which has become a turning point in his acting route.
After that, in one family ethics drama after another, he continued to play similar middle-aged men, all of whom were kind and kind-eyed, acting as a mediator of the family and a good man who was obedient.
The most representative of these is the divorced middle-aged man he played in "Xiaomin's Family", which is almost the same as every previous father role.
When this kind of "copy and paste" has been going on for about ten years, the audience can no longer tell which drama the person in front of them is in, is it a reenactment or is it messing around?
If the title of "Old Drama Bone" is only based on past achievements, it is difficult to continue.
Today's Huang Lei really needs to re-examine himself and bring richer acting skills to the audience, instead of tying himself to a role framework again.
Ni Dahong: It's a mess after the superb turn
Ni Dahong, who is the same age as Huang Lei, also reached the peak of his acting skills in middle age, but unfortunately the good times did not last long.
The famous work of this 1963 born is the wonderful role of Sima Yi in the costume drama "Three Kingdoms" released in 2010.
In the play, Ni Dahong interprets a seemingly docile and cowardly student into a thoughtful and unfathomable politician.
In the close-up shot, he squinted slightly, and the corners of his mouth seemed to be smiling, and he performed Sima Yi's famous "pretending to be crazy and stupid" in the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the fullest, so that the audience was impressed by his "intoxication" - this is really a resourceful man!
With his outstanding performance in the play, Ni Dahong won the crown of Best Actor in a TV Series in 2011.
This is undoubtedly the peak moment of his acting career.
But the good times didn't last long.
In the urban emotional drama "It's All Good" broadcast in 2016, Ni Dahong played Su Daqiang, an old worker with a temperament and strong self-esteem.
was originally the sharpness of the character's personality, but Ni Dahong's performance could not let the audience experience this psychological activity.
A face was dull and wooden, and he couldn't feel the ups and downs of Su Daqiang's heart at all, as if he would only have one expression and one state, and he was like Sima Yi in the past.
This NN face performance has since become Ni Dahong's new normal.
In many of the dramas he participated in later, he used the same dull and mechanical way to interpret different characters again and again, which made the audience feel bored.
In this year's hit "Hurricane", Ni Dahong once again challenged the villain boss, who was originally a cunning and treacherous character, but in the end he only had a dead face, and did not show the twists and turns of the character's heart at all.
Today's Ni Dahong, his acting skills are not only stagnant, but he is simply regressing, what qualifications do he have to continue to register on the list of "old drama bones"?
Zhang Tielin: The prime minister with great ups and downs
If people are asked to evaluate the ups and downs of Zhang Tielin's acting skills, there must be extremely rich words.
, an actor born in 1964, has experienced too many ups and downs in his nearly 40-year acting career.
In the 90s of the 20th century, Zhang Tielin played the roles of emperor and prime minister in a series of costume court dramas, and the most impressive thing was his interpretation of Cheng Yaofa, a talented son of the Qinglou in "Huanzhu Gege".
"Blowing the beard and glaring" has become Zhang Tielin's signature expression, but the exaggerated elements seem to be too heavy.
This may be the reason why Zhang Tielin has not been able to really become a powerful actor, he always likes to amplify his emotions in his performances, and when the script is not deliberately arranged in this way, he makes his own decisions and adds his own "private goods".
Fortunately, the 2001 costume drama "Iron Tooth and Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan" temporarily smoothed out the thorns in Zhang Tielin's acting skills.
Acting side by side with the superb Wang Gang and Zhang Guoli, Zhang Tielin barely reached the level of the group, which can be regarded as a short-term return to the light in his career.
However, there has not been much improvement since then.
In a series of costume dramas, Zhang Tielin continued to interpret his roles as prime minister and emperor in an exaggerated way, making the audience dizzy, and it was completely a performance that felt good about himself, and he didn't feel the ups and downs of the characters' hearts at all.
What's more, this old actor has also developed a bad Xi of being late, so that the crew has long been Xi to waiting for him for two or three hours.
This kind of unprofessional attitude makes people can't help but ask themselves - could it be that Zhang Tielin, who is over the age of six, only has the skin of acting skills, and the core has long been empty?
In addition, the various scandals in Zhang Tielin's private life also make the title of "old drama bone" even more unworthy of the name.
This old artist needs to judge the situation and change his mind in order to regain his former glory.
Zhang Kaili: What a "stagnation".
When the name Zhang Kaili is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the most unforgettable masterpiece of the actor born in 1964 - the movie "Desire" released in 1989.
Zhang Kaili, who was 25 years old at the time, played the role of nanny Pan Hong in the film, a girl from the countryside who yearns for urban life.
She used a delicate and restrained way to vividly portray Pan Hong's fragile and thin psychology with a longing for love, which moved the audience - that shy and cautious look, as if it was the young girl herself who was working hard in the city for her first mistress.
With this role, Zhang Kaili won the crown of Best Actress at the Chinese Film Golden Rooster Awards that year.
However, time has passed, and now this little girl has also entered the age of sixties, but her acting skills seem to stay in place.
In the recently hit annual drama "The World", Zhang Kaili once again played the role of a mother in a family ethics drama.
As soon as she came on the stage, she shouted and shouted in an exaggerated way, directly destroying a serious dramatic atmosphere.
Take a closer look, this has been her standard in recent years - all kinds of mother-in-law roles, the performance methods are the same, even if the identities of the characters are different, she prefers to use the same routines and models to perform.
But is this the posture that an "old drama bone" should have? Has Zhang Kaili forgotten her original dream and eventful years? Now that her mind is old, should she also let her body enjoy her old age in peace, instead of continuing to confine herself in a comfort zone and then draw the ground as a prison?
Chen Jianbin : The gap between history and reality
When the name Chen Jianbin is mentioned, the first work that comes to people's minds is "The Legend of Zhen Huan".
This person born in 1978 made a name for himself in the film and television industry by playing Zhen Huan's confidant Li Jiachun, and for a time made the role of "eunuch" plump and three-dimensional, which was widely recognized and praised by the audience.
In fact, during the filming of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", Chen Jianbin put a lot of effort into accurately interpreting the details of the language and behavior of different eunuchs.
He changed his body movements and the way he spoke, showing the subtle differences between the two eunuchs vividly.
With such professionalism and performance details, people can't help but think that he has a promising future, and is even expected to be among the well-deserved "old drama bones".
However, the reality is often full of accidents - out of the environment of costume dramas, Chen Jianbin seems to be powerless.
In later modern TV series, Chen Jianbin frequently appeared as "president" and "domineering boyfriend", and judged the two with ancient eunuchs.
For example, in "Don't Think Too Much If You Love Me", he completely applied the previous costume drama model, with a blank face and a serious reading of the lines of being the CEO of the company, but it backfired, and the whole person was out of place in the modern background, which could not arouse the audience's resonance at all, revealing a contrived and stiff atmosphere.
An actor whose acting skills are becoming more and more mature must continue to break through himself and expand the depth of richer drama and character portrayal.
Chen Jianbin seems to have fallen into the misunderstanding of standing still, if he is not corrected in time, he is afraid that the reputation of "old drama bones" will not be his life.
Zhang Chenguang: The "Depth" That Never Fades
Among the questions raised at the beginning of this article, the most difficult one to answer is-is Zhang Chenguang worthy of the title of "old drama bone"?
, an actor born in 1965, has been in the film and television industry for more than 30 years and has been active in the audience's field of vision.
However, looking back on his performance, it is difficult to think of the words "maturing day by day".
Because, from beginning to end, Zhang Chenguang's acting skills stayed at a relatively low position.
As soon as the actor appeared on the stage, he performed with a calm and introverted attitude, as if he was born superior and did not eat fireworks in the world.
This temperament is indeed very suitable for the image of the ruthless president he often plays, but there are too many problems in his acting skills: taste carefully, Zhang Chenguang's performance only stays at the level of external packaging, and cannot reveal the inner world of the characters to the audience.
He is just pretending to be deep, and he does not really understand the ups and downs of the character's heart.
This kind of performance has long made people aesthetically tired.
Even if he occasionally tries to transform and jump out of the role of a successful person in the past, Zhang Chenguang only changes the soup but not the medicine.
For example, in "Our Marriage", he suddenly transforms into a middle-aged rock star, which is very different from his previous image.
However, as a musician who likes to have fun, Zhang Chenguang is still expressionless, reading his lines seriously, so that the audience can't perceive the optimistic and transparent inner world of such a character at all.
As an old artist who has been in the entertainment industry for decades, if Zhang Chenguang's acting skills have been stagnant, then it will be difficult for him to achieve new development.
Recently, his helpless and vulnerable side exposed because of his emotional loss of control in the live broadcast has unexpectedly revealed a little realism.
But how long can this last?
No matter from the perspective of the delicacy of the performance or the three-dimensional degree of the character portrayal, Zhang Chenguang is difficult to associate with the reputation of "old drama bones".
Hopefully, he will face up to the problem, adjust his state, and not let the passage of time sink into the comfort zone he has created.
As an actor, only by constantly striving for progress can we achieve transformation and sublimation in the true sense.
Epilogue:
To sum up, as an excellent veteran actor, he not only needs years of precipitation and experience, but also keen insight and enterprising spirit to break through.
Once an actor is stuck in his own experience and does not move forward, it is easy to be ruthlessly abandoned by the wheels of the times.
The entertainment industry is advancing rapidly, and the standards of acting skills are constantly innovating.
Those "evergreen" veteran drama bones in the field of vision are precisely because they always maintain a heart of learning Xi and constantly surpass themselves.
This is also worthy of reflection and reference for all actors at the moment.
It is hoped that this article can bring some inspiration and alertness to the industry by taking care of the acting skills of new and old artists in the entertainment industry, and promote China's film and television industry to embrace progress while inheriting experience.