With the popularity of the TV series "Crossing the Yalu River", Premier Zhou, played by Sun Weimin in the play, has also become the focus of heated discussion among the audience, and many people think that it is "not quite like".
In fact, Sun Weimin is one of the actors who play the image of Premier Zhou the most on the screen, with nearly 40 rough statistics, and some classics that the audience is familiar with, such as "Diplomatic Storm", "Begonia Still", "Orient", "Decisive Battle in Nanjing", the movie "The Great March", "The Great Turn", etc. In the play, the image of Premier Zhou is created by Sun Weimin.
"Across the Yalu River" was filmed in 2020, when Sun Weimin was 65 years old, premier Zhou was 52 years old when the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea broke out in 1950, although there is an age gap, but it is not very large, as an actor, it is completely possible to restore the character image at that time through makeup.
It is just that Sun Weimin may be older, although he accurately shows premier Zhou's gentle and elegant Confucian style, but his words are slow, and there is always a very deliberate meaning to express, which makes the audience sound a little awkward.
Naturally, people think of Wang Tiecheng, a famous old artist who first played Zhou Enlai on the screen, played Zhou Enlai all his life, and only played Zhou Enlai.
Wang Tiecheng was originally named Wang Tiecheng, and later in order to motivate himself and achieve success in his career, he changed "city" to "cheng".
Wang Tiecheng was born in Beijing in 1936, and this year he is 85 years old, so although people are very eager to see Premier Zhou played by Wang Tiecheng, it is impossible for him to appear on the screen as Premier Zhou because of his age.
Wang Tiecheng first played Premier Zhou in 1977, at the age of 41, and the repertoire was the drama "Turning Point" rehearsed by the China Repertory Theatre, which also became the first image of Premier Zhou on the stage in China.
The following year, Xie Tieli filmed the movie "The Great River Rushing", which needed Premier Zhou to appear, due to the successful experience of the drama "Turning", Xie Tieli specially invited Wang Tiecheng, which also became the first image of Premier Zhou on the screen in China.
Stills from "The Great River Rushes"
In particular, Chairman Mao also appeared in "The Great River Rushing", played by a famous actor, which is the earliest Mao Zedong on the screen.
In 1990, the famous director Ding Yinnan planned to shoot a large-scale epic movie "Zhou Enlai", and first found Wang Tiecheng, hoping that he could play the main role in the play.
In the end, the film was a great success, people were not only touched by Premier Zhou's home and country feelings, but also impressed by Wang Tiecheng's natural performance, the film box office reached 300 million, you know, the ticket price at that time was only 2 yuan.
Stills from "Zhou Enlai"
Because of this successful performance, in 1992, Wang Tiecheng won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor and the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actor that year, becoming a veritable double film emperor.
Undoubtedly, Premier Zhou, played by Wang Tiecheng, is not only very close-looking, but also has the demeanor of Premier Zhou in every move, including the demeanor and tone of speech, similar to the premier himself.
In 1978, after watching the movie "Newsboy", Deng's mother gave an 80-point evaluation, which is already very high.
After a few years, Deng's mother watched "Newsboy" and Wang Tiecheng's other film and television works again, gave another 90-point evaluation, and asked the secretary to write to Wang Tiecheng, telling him "don't be proud, be modest and cautious."
Wang Tiecheng said in a reply letter to Deng Yingchao, "I will definitely do this, I have nothing, I am single-mindedly presenting this image accurately to the national audience."
In 2017, when Wang Tiecheng was a guest on CCTV, he was very grateful about this, and once said that when he entered the door of his home, he hung a photo of him and Deng Yingchao, and the above one was a photo of Zhou Enlai.
In that episode, Wang Tiecheng also mentioned that once when he participated in the performance, Deng Yingchao knew that Wang Tiecheng had some situations in his family (Note: Wang Tiecheng's son had congenital mental disability), and deliberately found Wang Tiecheng after the performance and asked him to write about the family situation.
The next day Wang Tiecheng went to work at the unit, received a call from Deng Yingchao, a dozen is forty minutes, Deng's mother told Wang Tiecheng on the phone that the premier knew some doctors before he died, and he could be introduced to go there to see.
Wang Tiecheng hurriedly pushed back, saying that this was congenital, how many times he had seen it, and could not be cured.
Mother Deng insisted that Wang Tiecheng take the child to see it again, and arranged for the secretary Zhao Wei to take care of the children's hospital.
Although in the end, the child's illness could not be cured, but Deng's mother's friendship with Wang Tiecheng was touching, which also showed Deng Yingchao's high recognition of Wang Tiecheng as a special actor.
Since then, Wang Tiecheng has played Premier Zhou in many film and television dramas, becoming the most recognized Zhou Enlai actor by the public, so far no one has surpassed, and Wang Tiecheng has never taken over other roles since his debut, in order to play Premier Zhou wholeheartedly.