Yu Haolei played Jin Zhide, a cadre detective of the Kuomintang Secret Service Section, in the movie "On the Cliff" (2021). (Infographic/Figure)
Yu took out of his backpack his e-book reader, Kindle Oasis, the most expensive of the Kindle's full range. He showed his library slightly shyly, "The Great Qin Empire", "Explaining Words", "History Under the Scalpel", "Kitano Takeshi's Tavern", "The Blade of Ghost Annihilation"... There are also many martial arts and suspense novels, Yu Haolei quipped as he flipped through, "I bought that ParperWhite (editor's note, another Kindle reader) generation, in fact, can still read, but I really think, I should not spend some money on reading (more)." ”
In the 24 years since his debut, Yu Haolei has starred in nearly 40 TV series and 30 movies, which is considered a "prolific" actor, and almost all old audiences will say "familiar eyes" when they see his face.
But he wasn't known much.
Even in the "On the Cliff" released some time ago, "Old Jin" has received so much attention, he is still very ignorant, bluntly saying "do not understand why", because before taking over the shooting, he has never designed how to "red", "Old Jin" is just one of his countless roles, Yu Haolei only wants to play him well.
He does not go on variety shows, rarely takes interviews, travels, exercises, plays games when he is not filming, and suddenly indulges in "Super Marie" and "Dragon Quest" during the epidemic quarantine, but even he himself says that these games are "not exciting at all".
Fewer people know that he is a true book lover.
Yu Haolei was born in a Kochi family, for this too naughty "demon king" son, his parents locked him in the home and had to cut off the battery of the semiconductor radio, and the only thing that could accompany his childhood was his parents' collection of books. In addition to all kinds of classical masterpieces, it is wuxia novels that open up the breadth and breadth of his reading. Yu Haolei was recently reading Jia Pingwa's "Qin Cavity", and he especially liked the language in it, "reluctant to read it all at once", and when he was excited, he also read a passage in Shaanxi dialect:
Qingman quarreled with her, stupid and noisy, saying that men don't fight with women. Wang Laojiu's wife was angry, so she looked for a rope to put it on the door frame and said I would hang a meat curtain for you. ”
<h3>"A lot of reading will at least give you feelings."</h3>
Southern Weekend: What was your early reading experience like?
Yu Haolei: When I was fifteen or sixteen years old, it was still popular to rent a bookstore. I mixed well with the people who rented the bookstore, and finally I didn't have to spend money to rent books. Every week, another friend and I took the money given by the bookstore owner and went to the Nanjing Shanxi Road Book Wholesale Market to help the boss enter and pick books, because the boss himself did not like to read, we loved to read. After reading it, you can also help people who come to rent books to recommend.
Southern Weekend: Do your parents still appreciate your love of reading?
Yu Haolei: Yes, I still accept that I love to read, but then I was beaten up. Because for your parents, you see the owner of the pearl house, and then later you see Jin Yong and Gu Long just don't learn well, and then look at Ni Kuang, you are completely going to be a rogue. There is a book cover that I remember very clearly, it is Wesley's "Blood Curse", the cover draws a silhouette of a half-naked woman, beaten by her parents, and the book is torn.
Tragedy, that book is more than 7 cents for 1 piece, and I have to pay someone to rent a bookstore. In the past 10 years, I may have only read Xu Haofeng's martial arts novels, and I think they are very distinctive and flavorful martial arts novels. Before that, I liked the works of the middle of the ancient dragon the most. Mr. Jin Yong's works are relatively biased, some people like "Deer DingJi", some people like "Smiling Proud of the Rivers and Lakes", I especially like "Lian Cheng Tips".
Southern Weekend: The story of "The Secret of the City" is related to the story of his own childhood.
Yu Haolei: That old servant, the depiction of human nature in "Lian Cheng Ti" I think is too advanced.
Later, I also liked Furuhata Renzaburō very much, and the actor died two days ago. He can let the audience let go of all the exciting plot they want to see, and tell the (audience) who the murderer is as soon as he comes up, come on, let's push it back a little bit, that's the reasoning technique.
That's too high-end, for the screenwriter, for the director, the actor, there are extremely high requirements. If there's such a story, I'd love to get involved. In fact, Keigo Higashino basically stopped watching after "three laughs", including "Relief Grocery Store", because his routine was already too familiar to me. How clever do you say his trajectory is? It's not that clever, including The Dedication of Suspect X, and that reasoning actually has bugs sometimes, but he just grabbed you with that character relationship. So later I preferred to see Miyuki Miyabe, including the early Matsumoto Kiyoharu, who was more social, and he was talking about a phenomenon, including looking at Kyogoku Natsuhiko's reasoning. In fact, now that I have bought the Agatha, Agatha is really quite interesting, and even better than Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes".
Southern Weekend: What does your performance have to do with reading?
Yu Haolei: There should be a relationship. I also used to talk to some young friends, and I said that I really read more. Why? Let's say you get a script, why do you read it so bluntly, because you don't see more meaning. A lot of reading will at least give you sensuality, and you are not afraid of that word in the first place. Some people take the script, ah, how to pronounce this word; half-written and half-white, he can't find the rhyme, this kind of dialogue is a special test for an actor.
So you have to read a lot. Of course, it does not mean that you have to read ancient texts, there are many, many choices, but at least you have to read, you can not be willing to brush the public number, see a small joke. It is used to pass the time, but it can't be called reading, it can't even be called spiritual fast food, it may be a snack. Eating too many snacks will break your entire digestive system and cause your endocrine system to become disordered.
Southern Weekend: What are your current habits or reading habits?
Yu Haolei: My habit is particularly strange, I may not read a book for half a year, I may play games all month, and then even watch cartoons for half a year, not watch a movie. But suddenly for a while I couldn't do it, so I could only read.
"Great Qin Empire" is because my book friend Mr. Cao Dun recommended me to read, I bought a set on the kindle, 11 copies, I said that if this is not good, you reimburse me. Grit your teeth and start looking, because there is nothing unusual about the general bar in front of it, that is, a regular number of such historical novels. But I really finished reading the first book and gradually got better.
Yu Haolei played the Dali Temple commentator Yuan Zai in the drama "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" (2019). (Infographic/Figure)
<h3>"I was particularly resistant to this role at first."</h3>
Yu Haolei has a special love for books and plays on historical themes, and his last highly discussed role was Yuan Zai in "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an". In order to play this role well, he read Ma Boyong's original work in its entirety and consulted a lot of historical materials - this is the homework that Yu Haolei must do to take on costume plays and period plays. If there are too few historical materials left, Yu Haolei will also ask the crew to help, and even through old photos, a little closer to those distant blurred figures, until they meet and coincide.
Southern Weekend: What was the opportunity to receive "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" at that time?
Yu Haolei: At first, I was particularly resistant to this role, and I said that I couldn't play it. Chang'an's first beautiful man, this is indeed a little too "punching the face". According to crosstalk, you have to be "red lips and white teeth". I turned it down a few times back and forth. In the end, the director called me, and he said to me: I am now parked on the side of the road with a double flash, just opened all the way to think, my heart is very indignant, why do you reject me?
He actually didn't say a reason why I had to, he said that he trusted you so much with me, shouldn't you come? In the end, I was from. I really didn't expect that the subsequent broadcast response was still quite good, of course, it may be more scolding, but the audience scolding Yuan Zai is actually right.
Southern Weekend: It's the character that scolds you, not your performance, right?
Yu Haolei: It doesn't matter, you can't ask everyone to have the same taste. When I was shaping this character, of course, I couldn't have a liking or dislike for him, I had to tell myself, now I play this role called Yuan Zai, Tianbao four years, that year Yuan Zai in Chang'an City, the family disciples four walls, has been about to turn 30 years old, in that era the average life expectancy of what years? If I can't cross the Eight Grades before the age of 30, I won't be able to go up in my life! What face do I have to meet my hometown father and elder! He had no roots in the capital, and all this caused his drill camp.
This is the character setting behind the Yuan Zai that I have been thinking about, not that everyone is talking about a phoenix man and a bubble girl. If I think about that, this character will definitely be facialized, I have to be particularly sincere, because the chaotic world is out of the tyrant, the infinite scenery is in the dangerous peak, at this moment everyone sees a crisis, but Yuan Zai he feels that this is just an opportunity, if this opportunity is seized, I may stand in front of the Golden Ruan Hall, to see the saint, must be seized! I can meet Wang Yunxiu, this opportunity is given ah!
Southern Weekend: How can the directors and writers in the crew help you, and will they give you anything other than the script? Will character analysis be for you?
Yu Haolei: No, I remember that when I made "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", there were some relatively good things, we would have a lesson, and this small class was not for actors to participate. We invited historians, involving the system of props, the etiquette of the on-site extras, such as a banquet, who is advanced, who is backward, how many palace women are advanced, how many musicians are backward... We were able to listen, and these lessons were of great help to our performances.
Often young people will say, what do I act, is there a word, can I divide my sentences? Or maybe I can't see me standing on the side and panic. In fact, you are in a scene, there must be a reason why you are here, why as an actor you do not know what to do in the picture, it is because you do not want to understand what your character is. If you don't understand, you have to keep adding, adding all kinds of background information in it, and you know what you should do.
<h3>"Play a person, figure out, what is that person?" </h3>
Along the way, Yu Haolei has not been smooth sailing. He was originally a computer major, and he mistakenly stepped into the show business circle. Due to the loss of image, it has also suffered a lot of denial. He squatted in the North Film Studio, and in order to live, he also did almost all the work in the crew. But Yu Haolei never takes "bad dramas" and is not willing to repeat himself, and when he participated in "Six Groups of Serious Cases" many years ago, he played a boy who killed his parents, when he was still a very young junior. He plucked up the courage to say to the director, "Can I not perform according to the performance requirements of the script", and finally, he reversed the performance mood of the two scenes.
In the matter of acting, he has his persistence.
Southern Weekend: How did you understand your character Lao Jin when you played "On the Cliff"?
Yu Gaolei: "On the Cliff", it doesn't matter whether it is a shell of a spy story or a workplace story.
Importantly, what convinces the audience is the character relationship. Character relationships determine how I speak and behave at this moment. We now have a lot of scripts that audiences don't like to read because all the creators are ignoring the character relationships, just reading the dialogue that seems to express clues, and it feels like everyone is listening to a particularly boring radio drama. "I love you so much", "I hate you so much", "I'm going to kill you", and then it's gone.
Southern Weekend: Wang Tianxiang, who you played in "The Sound of the Wind", is still a little similar to Old Jin.
Yu Haolei: Yes, before I took that play, I had already seen Teacher Wang Zhiwen's version, and I was actually under a lot of psychological pressure, I couldn't reach the height of Teacher Wang, and I was thinking about how I could find another way to approach this role. Some actors use themselves as supporting roles when creating a supporting role, so he is just mechanically speaking dialogue. From God's point of view, the audience, whether it is the choreographer or the director, is very clear that such a supporting role is to promote the development of the event, create obstacles for the protagonist, and eventually let the protagonist and the audience release their emotions and watch him "killed". But for those of us who play supporting roles, we can't think like this. We have to be particularly clear about why I should exist in this story, how I live in this parallel space-time, not a pure instrumental person. Even if there is no space to show it, I want to know it in my heart.
For example, in "On the Cliff", a friend asked me what kind of setting "spraying wine" is. I said there was no setting, it was written on the script. The script also writes that when I shot Xie Zirong (Lei Jiayin), the gun got stuck, and went in to find Zhou Yi (Yu Hewei) to get the gun, and Zhou Yi took the gun out of his arms and said, It's too cold, your gun has to be put in your clothes. I asked rhetorically, don't you think there is a problem? I couldn't be stupid enough not to even know that the gun would freeze. My role is that of a secret service agent who has been working for many years, otherwise it would not have been possible to bring so many subordinates. So what's the problem? I said, from the moment you kill the first person, it's a play. We're all acting. So I smashed the window. At the point, I didn't fire a shot, I changed my gun, and then I didn't kill a shot, why should I spit twice, why should I nag there, all of us are doing a scene, show this Xie Zirong, to let his fear, his wait last to the longest, let him collapse. But the script doesn't write these.
Southern Weekend: Are these thoughts accumulated over the years of art, or were you clear from the beginning? It seems that you are naturally fit to do this - your first play in the circle was nominated for best actor at the Beijing University Student Film Festival.
Yu Haolei: Yes, "Summer Warm Yangyang", directed by Ning Ying, played as a taxi driver. In fact, I also thank director Ning Ying, who selected me from a student who audited in a refresher class at the Film Academy.
I was doing a job that actors of that era would do, which was to experience life.
In 1999, just inside the Andingmen Bridge in the North Second Ring Road, there was a taxi company called Saidafu, and I and a bunch of big brothers, and two big sisters, one fat, one shorter, every Tuesday afternoon to have a regular safety meeting, a piece out of the car, sometimes about a sauna, scrub a big bath. After rubbing, then carry two bottles of beer in the lounge, cut a pig's ear, chat for a while, and sometimes eat fast food under the overpass... Little by little, these things seep into your body. In the beginning I thought I had to try to observe, I had to learn to act this. After a few months, you find that you don't have to act, you are.
In the process, I realized that acting is complicated. Whether it's a wild example or a variety of genres of theoretical knowledge, in the final analysis, you're playing "people." It cannot be said that the bad guys don't eat and drink Lasa, and the good guys don't vomit when they drink more. Play a person, figure out, what that person is.
Yu haolei played Dezi, a Beijing taxi driver, in the film Summer Warm Yangyang (2001). (Infographic/Figure)
<h3>"When you ask for nothing"</h3>
"Acting and directing", it seems that writing a script and being a director is the next way he should go, but in the past ten years, he has written no less than five "books", but none of them have been put on the screen. But Yu Haolei very much wants to be open, just like he can't read "Dream of the Red Chamber", and he doesn't feel ashamed, "You don't have to force yourself, you frankly admit that you don't like it, I think there is nothing, no shame." ”
In terms of reading, Yu Haolei does not despise flatteringly establishing contact with others, and in the script, he has the same attitude.
Southern Weekend: Have you considered turning behind the scenes?
Yu Haolei: In fact, before I was 30 years old, some people advised me to go behind the scenes, but I have always been reluctant, because I think I am avoiding the fact that I can't eat enough to eat in my own acting, people say that it is because your image is not good, I said no, or I did not do the best, so that others have to use you. And another reason is that I don't think I'm even 30 years old, what am I going to say? I didn't have a word to convey to the audience.
I feel that now that I am in my 40s, I want to convey my attitude towards life more and more strongly, and I want to shoot it and discuss it with the audience. But if you keep giving me formulas, giving me recipes, I won't be able to tell the story seriously. You tell me who needs to act, how to implant the advertisement first, there is no need to find me, since the judgment (wants) this project, I think we should give the creators enough creative space and permissions. Of course, this is very idealistic, and in the end it can't be done. So I said I am very happy now, the last are all written by me, I have finished shooting in my mind, I have been particularly happy, if you want to make up for the next day is also very economical, you may lie on the bed, the lights are turned off, this is not particularly good, re-shoot!
Southern Weekend: Haven't you ever struggled or been anxious in your life?
Yu Haolei: Actually, I went through that stage of life that was particularly passive and indebted economically, but this was not the most painful thing that I felt. The most painful thing was that my debts also began to be paid off, and I also began to walk a little bit towards the front of the screen, and suddenly realized one thing: did I deviate from my original intention - it was difficult to get back to the front of the curtain from behind the scenes, was it really because I liked acting, or did I want to prove something? I will also be proud of who watched my play, at which event came to greet me, some audience recognized me, do you want to take a picture with them... These thoughts began to flood my brain, and I began to be afraid, which could deviate from my original intention and become: You like to see this, don't you? I'll give you 10 in a row, feed you enough, and I'll definitely be able to raise the price. No way. This was a particularly painful point for me at that time.
Southern Weekend: How did it jump out? Figured it out?
Yu Haolei: After figuring it out, I started to go out and play like crazy, randomly going in one direction and trying all kinds of different things. Because I realized that the root of all this pain was that I wanted to be artistic too much, too much to prove that I was different, and too clear to myself. I'm nothing. It was also because of this that I realized a more terrible thing, I have never lived, and the accumulation and accumulation of all those lives of mine stems from my poverty, and I have to live like this. You have to completely struggle out of the subsistence line, and then go back and choose to taste this kind of life, that's right, not "I have to". We can't be frogs at the bottom of the well, you have to be able to walk into the world, and then maintain a relatively calm distance from the world, that's great.
Southern Weekend: What is your current state of mind? Do you have to give yourself a limit to filming in a year?
Yu Haolei: First of all, it is not to say how much benefit this play can bring, whether it is status or money, it is not within the first consideration, I hope that I can have new changes every time. Shooting for half a year is a particularly good wish, which is quite difficult to achieve, but try your best to achieve it. Because I just want to have time to live the life of an ordinary person. For example, I try very hard to prepare for a play, work out, work out, stay in shape, but sometimes I have to be a greasy middle-aged man, I have to string in the middle of the night, and then I have to stroke for a week.
Yu Haolei played Qin Yiming, a student who killed his parents, in the TV series "Six Groups of Serious Cases" (2001). (Infographic/Figure)
Southern Weekend: Did you develop this idea now, or was it what it was then?
Yu Haolei: Maybe I'm all like this in my bones, and I don't like to fight too much. I don't give myself a particularly detailed life plan, such as how much money I must earn before how old I am, what awards I get, and where I stand in the industry. First of all, I feel that I don't have those conditions, and setting such a goal for myself is first of all a very embarrassing thing, and I will be very unhappy in this life. I always say that when you don't ask for anything, in case you come, it's fine, it's a surprise.
Maybe all the time our kind of chicken soup for the soul, full of our bookstore, always tell you what success is, you must have a good plan,...... In fact, if you live well, abide by the rules of society, love your family and friends, you have already made a contribution. One by one, they all make themselves like scholars, and they always feel that they are holding back to do great things. Naturally there are some geniuses, and we are all ordinary people. It was a coincidence that I got into the business, and then I was able to eat and dress warmly, which was fine. I was selected by director Zhang Yimou this time to participate in this movie, so I will play this role well. Don't keep thinking, oh my words are not much, why don't I fight for that role, this is not something to think about.
Southern Weekend contributed to Xiangyang Yang Linan