"Confident in life for 200 years, it will be like water hitting 3,000 miles"
When he was young, Chairman Mao made bold statements and was determined to lead the nation out of hardship.
Now, 48 years have passed since the chairman left, and in order to commemorate the chairman, many special actors have emerged in the film and television industry who specialize in playing the chairman.
Among them, there are many people who look like the chairman, such as Gu Yue, Tang Guoqiang and other old actors, as well as many young new generation actors.
In the "Avenue Torch" released by CCTV in September 2023, the actor of the young chairman made the audience marvel that "there is a successor to the image of the chairman." ”
So, who has been so affirmed by the audience, and who is the chairman in our minds?
The actor Gu Yue, who most resembles the chairman
You must know that the appearance of the chairman is almost engraved in the bones of the Chinese people, so the first point for actors looking for the image of the chairman at that time was to look alike.
In 1978, in order to prepare for the filming of the movie "Xi'an Incident", Marshal Ye Jianying personally selected special actors from thousands of actors' photos.
After all, as the chairman's closest comrade-in-arms, no one knows the chairman's appearance and temperament better than him.
But the photos in his hand are almost finished, but there is still no one who satisfies him.
Until he caught a glimpse of Gu Yue's photo in an inconspicuous corner, he was shocked at just one glance, like, it was too similar.
When Gu Yue learned from Marshal Ye Jianying that he wanted to play Chairman Mao, his first reaction was that he could play the chairman.
I am a serious cadre of the military region, and I am not a professional actor, you can let yourself speak on stage, but if you let yourself act, you still play the chairman. To him it would be blasphemy.
But at the insistence of Marshal Ye, Gu Yue finally decided to give it a try, after all, the idol he was going to play on his body, if he could really play it, he was designated as the ancestor who accumulated virtue.
Of course, he understood better the chairman's place in the hearts of the people.
In order to play the chairman well, Gu Yue found a lot of information about the chairman during his lifetime, imitated the chairman's smile and smile, and even carefully studied which foot the chairman habitually took first when he walked.
Later, in order to confirm his learning results, he specially found people who had contact with the chairman for advice.
In 1981, as soon as the drama "Xi'an Incident" was released, it attracted the attention of the people of the whole country, and the image of the chairman played by Gu Yue was indeed remarkable, and it was unanimously recognized by the audience.
Even the chairman's youngest daughter, Li Ne, was amazed by Gu Yue's image.
When Gu Yue was filming "Out of Xibaipo", Li Ne came to visit the class, and when she saw Gu Yue, she actually showed the posture of a little girl seeing her father, and threw herself into Gu Yue's arms and cried bitterly.
Seeing that the chairman's relatives recognized him as well, Gu Yue's determination to play the image of the chairman became even stronger.
In order to live up to the hopes of the audience, and at the same time he did not want to tarnish the reputation of the chairman, he made up his mind that for the rest of his life, he would only play the image of the chairman.
In this way, in the more than 20 years of his life, he just participated in more than 80 dramas about the image of the chairman, and he was a proper chairman "professional household".
In this process, the people only praised the image of the chairman he played, and there were no bad comments, and he was respected by the audience as "the first person to be the chairman image".
Unfortunately, in 2005, Gu Yue died of illness, and it is a pity that such a good actor left us.
Tang Guoqiang
Compared with Gu Yue, an uncontroversial chairman actor, Tang Guoqiang is definitely the most controversial special actor who plays the chairman.
With a predecessor like Gu Yue in front, who would dare to say that he could surpass him.
Tang Guoqiang doesn't think so, the chairman in his mind not only has the poetry and calligraphy of a literati, but also the courage of a military general.
Therefore, he believes that if you want to play the chairman well, you must not only look like you, but also look like you, but the most important thing is the aura and temperament of the chairman.
However, as an old actor who has been in the circle for many years, the roles he played before have nothing to do with the image of the chairman, which has to make people doubt whether he has the strength to play the image of the chairman well.
Therefore, before the release of "The Long March" in 1996, not only the audience doubted, but even the chairman's daughter questioned him.
Of course, the audience's suspicion of him is not only in terms of acting skills, but also in his accent, you must know that the chairman is from Hunan, but Tang Guoqiang is from Shandong, and his accent is very different.
Compared with Gu Yue, who also plays the chairman, she was born in Hubei and is close to Hunan, so her accent is almost the same.
Tang Guoqiang knew that he could not achieve a complete resemblance to the chairman in terms of accent, so he came up with a bold idea that he wanted to use Mandarin.
This idea is tantamount to a fantasy, which makes the audience even more suspicious of Tang Guoqiang, because in the hearts of the people, the image of Chairman Mao is deep-rooted and cannot be desecrated by others at all. Tang Guoqiang's move was really bold and reckless.
But Tang Guoqiang doesn't think so, he thinks that since it is a film and television drama, the chairman's accent should be Mandarin, which is more recognizable to the public, rather than the Hunan dialect. Such a chairman should be the image of the chairman of the myth in the minds of the Chinese people.
In order to perform well, Chairman Tang Guoqiang paid no less than Gu Yue, so after the release of "The Long March", everyone was surprised to find that the chairman in the play clearly spoke Mandarin, but there was nothing wrong with it, as if it should have been so.
And it was also after this time that everyone became identified with the image of the chairman played by Tang Guoqiang.
After that, Tang Guoqiang played more film and television dramas about the chairman, such as "Liberation" in 2009 and "Liu Deng Dajun" in 2015, which ushered in high recognition from the audience.
However, not everyone thinks so, in the 2023 "Volunteers: Heroes Attack", Tang Guoqiang is once again qualified for the role of chairman.
But this time there is a different voice, some people think that he acted too deliberately, a little contrived, and it simply tarnished the image of the chairman, of course, some people think that he is the best candidate to play the chairman.
Hou Jingjian
The image of the chairman played by the above two old drama bones is undoubtedly very perfect, but after all, there is an age limit, and it is a pity that they cannot play the image of the chairman in their youth.
Someone once said that with the presence of the two predecessors, there has been no successor to the image of the chairman since then, which shows that the two seniors have a deep skill in controlling the image of the chairman.
Until a young actor named Hou Jingjian appeared.
In 1994, Hou Jingjian, who was only 9 years old, planted the seeds of literature and art in his heart because of his participation in "Anti-Corruption Record", and in 2013, he starred in "Mao Zedong" for the first time, playing the young Chairman Mao because he was too vivid, and was well-known to the audience.
It was also from this time that Hou Jingjian became a special actor who specialized in playing the role of young Chairman Mao.
Later, in 2019, he played the young Mao Zedong in "The Great Turn", which once again aroused praise from the audience. It once won the first place in the ratings of the same period in the country.
"The Flame of the Avenue" in 2023 made him even more famous.
The Chairman Mao he played in the play is not as similar as Gu Yue's, nor is he as domineering as Tang Guoqiang.
But he showed the young and vigorous side of the chairman to the fullest, after all, vigor is a unique quality of young people.
The saint also has shortcomings, and with shortcomings, it is more pyrotechnic, and flesh and blood can better reflect the difficulty of the Anti-Japanese War back then. And Hou Jingjian really controlled this very well.
He not only deduced Chairman Mao's bold words of "self-confidence in life for 200 years, will be water for 3,000 miles".
At the same time, it also reflects the personality charm of the chairman with poetry and books, and once again sublimates the image of the chairman.
Therefore, many viewers said that after Gu Yue and Tang Guoqiang, he is the heir to the image of Chairman Mao. It can be seen that the audience recognizes his acting skills.
Epilogue:
Chairman Mao played by the above three people has their own merits, showing the different temperament and image of the chairman. So, who among the three is the chairman in your mind?
Chairman Mao's contribution to the country is indelible, and we must keep in mind that it is precisely because of the performance of these outstanding actors on the screen that we can fully appreciate the difficulties of those years. Hats off to the greats!!
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Information sources:
1. Beijing News2023-09-25 "Playing Mao Zedong for the 14th time, Hou Jingjian gave up performance design in "Avenue Torch"
2. Chongqing Times2005-07-05
3. Sohu Entertainment 2010-09-14 "Best Actor Nomination at the 19th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival: Tang Guoqiang"