Tao Xinran on the closing red carpet at the FIRST Youth Film Festival (provided by the interviewee/photo)
In February 2023, Tao Xinran decided to take out the time that he had planned to rest at home and spend with his children to make a movie with a young team.
In July 2024, this "Sally's Memories" (hereinafter referred to as "Sally") was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the FIRST Youth Film Festival, with Tao Xinran as the starring, producer, and one of the producers. At the post-screening event of FIRST's world premiere, 38-year-old Tao Xinran and a group of main creators stood in a row, director Dai Si was the first time to be a feature film director, Lei Yuxi was the first time to be a feature film producer, and Wang Pingfan was the first time to be a director of photography for a feature film. The audience raised their hands and asked Tao Xinran what it was like to work in such a young team. She smiled and replied: I am also a young man.
We met after the premiere of "Sally", Tao Xinran changed out of his high heels and crossed his legs on the sofa. She spoke crisply and decisively. "Such a drama is more in line with my professional pursuit, I am especially eager to present characters that are closely related to the lives of ordinary people, (I hope the audience) will see me in the film (will think), this is not the eldest sister of the family? Or my aunt, my mother. ”
The character she plays is called Wei Ying, a frustrated middle-aged woman who has a son who died and her ex-husband remarried, and she lives a life without waves like an assembly line every day.
"I don't need to play a person with a very perfect design, beautiful and strong, rich, I just need to fall in love." She prefers "flesh and blood, living people who come out of reality" - real, alive - on the 10th anniversary of the broadcast of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", Tao Xinran wrote a letter to his character An Lingrong, and also had similar words: "Because you are the real in reality, because you are alive." ”
"The Legend of Zhen Huan" broadcast in 2011 is Tao Xinran's most well-known masterpiece, the sensitive and thoughtful An Lingrong, carrying the burden of the family's draft into the deep palace, because of her humble background, she was ignored and used, and she sank step by step in the complex palace fight. This is a negative character, but also a tragic character, Tao Xinran performed the pain and cruelty of the loss of innocence.
However, director Dai Si didn't know Tao Xinran, and he hadn't even watched "The Legend of Zhen Huan", and when the script was written two-thirds of the way, he saw an interview with Tao Xinran, introducing himself as the chief producer of a movie. This man must be very fond of movies, Dai Si has this instinct.
In February 2023, the "Sally" team handed the script to Tao Xinran's agent by inquiring. Producer Lei Yuxi remembers that the feedback from the other party is very fast. After reading the script, the agent thought it was good, and said that Tao Xinran would read it that night; Tao Xinran liked it very much after reading it, made an appointment to chat, and heard that the main creator of the crew was in Hangzhou and was going to come to Beijing to meet her, and said that it would cost to fly over and live there, so she read the script again to make sure she really liked it.
The meeting time was agreed, and Tao Xinran's agent asked, who is the director? Lei Yuxi introduced that he is a new director who has made commercials before, and this is the first feature film he wrote himself. The other party didn't ask anything more.
When they met, Tao Xinran had already made a lot of notes on the script. Dai Si was originally worried that many details of the script were buried deeply, and the actors might not necessarily understand it. But when Dai Si said a line, Tao Xinran immediately said, do you mean this? Dai Si agreed, yes, yes.
"I think about it this way, who is the biggest victim and who is the most painful person in the larger social context? My first thought, Mom. That's why the character of Wei Ying came to my mind. Dai Si analyzes the disciplined woman he created. Wei Ying is a woman who tries to exchange her overflowing love and sacrifice for the attention of her husband and son, and in her family of origin, she is also the eldest sister who takes care of all household affairs. Dai Si and Tao Xinran discussed, what should be the tone of Weiying, who lives alone? "It's complicated and bland," Tao Xinran is very sure.
Next, they discuss the timing of the shooting. In the second half of 2023, Tao Xinran has already made an appointment for two plays, and in the first half of the year, she wanted to spend more time with her daughter. But she still gave 4-5 months: "If it's that time, I'll give it my all." ”
The crew's funds are limited, and Tao Xinran starred for free. No problem, she said, it's a pleasure to meet a character who is destined to do so.
Tao Xinran on the set of "Sally's Memories" (provided by the interviewee/photo)
actor
"Sally's Memories" is filmed about the three Dragon Boat Festivals that Wei Ying spends, taken from her three life stages. Tao Xinran divided it like this:
Stage 1 (5 years old): Longing. "She is very satisfied with her family life, her children, her husband, everything."
Stage 2 (her son is about to graduate from college, and both father and son are separated from her): I don't know it.
Stage 3 (three years after the son's death, living alone): complex and bland.
The structure of the play results in a lot of blank space in Wei Ying's life story. The plot of the movie is broken, but Tao Xinran's performance is coherent and full.
In the family, Wei Ying is always a cook, and there are many cooking scenes. It stands to reason that if the art has a good grasp of the Tao and the actors are on the stage, it will be fine. Tao Xinran said, hand over the dishes to her. Regardless of whether she shoots or not, when the dishes are ready, she cuts and cooks. She wants Wei Ying to be in a state of flux.
About a week after the filming of the film started, through the lens, director of photography Wang Pingping found that Tao Xinran's throat and jaw were tense, and his lips were slightly pursed. "There is a kind of exhaustion in a long-term state of unconsciously depressed women, a woman who has lost her voice, just like Wei Ying." He turned off the record button, Tao Xinran was no different from the camera, it seemed to be like this.
On the day of the finale, Wang Pingran was shocked that Tao Xinran was so cheerful and relaxed. He didn't know whether Tao Xinran relied on skill mobilization or experiential school, and could naturally flow such a performance.
In the three stages of the movie, Dai Si gave Tao Xinran three key words. In the second stage, the key word given by Dai Si is "sister". He hopes that Tao Xinran can show a sense of authority in the family, and at the same time be a role model and caregiver. The family allocates limited resources to other members, and she is aggrieved, but used to it. "She naturally understands that she plays this role with a feeling that she is not completely relieved and has some regrets, but it seems that 'the past is over'." Dai Si said.
In this play, Wei Ying's most emotional scene is three years after losing her child, she walked by the canal with her blind date, and the only time she talked about herself: When she was a child, the head teacher gave her a very beautiful costume, and she was reluctant to wear it once, and later, she grew up. Tears flowed down her cheeks.
"Is she crying clothes? Definitely not. There must have been a deep sorrow in her heart. When Tao Xinran sat at the Qinghai Grand Theater and watched that scene with the audience, "I was in a lot of pain." ”
Director of Photography Wang Pingping was very impressed by this scene. They successfully finished filming Tao Xinran's close-up, and turned their heads to shoot a lonely back. The bridge on the canal is like the treasure cover of "home", Tao Xinran stands under the bridge hole, three or two white birds fly in the distance, and a fisherman just casts a net into the river - just to form a "home" word. Wang Pingping feels that this God-given shot is the luck brought by a good actor.
Wang Pingfan likes Wei Ying played by Tao Xinran very much. "It's the kind of person who is genuine, works hard, but doesn't get the corresponding feedback; If you don't play tricks, you can't die for the truth; There are things that I haven't thought through, and I get lost in the process of searching for the truth, and I don't know what to do. Tao Xinran's performance of the state of nothingness is very accurate, spanning the time and space of the movie "Sally", even if the audience is not of this gender and is not in this situation, it can resonate. After being broken, can people accept that life is meaningless, and will they rebuild themselves? He felt that Tao Xinran had brought this modern person to life.
(Provided by the interviewee/photo)
Mom
Weiying's wrist is often plastered, which is Tao Xinran's design. After giving birth, Tao Xinran hiccuped her daughter - she made a fake gesture of patting, "Such a fast action has to be done countless times." When the child was half a year old, suddenly one day, she felt a rattle in her right shoulder, "a bit like a feeling of a tendon out of a groove", she suffered from frozen shoulder, and now, her shoulder hurts 24 hours a day. She went to the hospital to take a film, and the bones were fine, but they were strained. When the pain was severe, she applied a plaster. She felt that Wei Ying, who had been doing housework all year round, would also suffer such a strain.
If the audience is more careful, they may find that after losing her child, Wei Ying's cooking and housework are slower than when she was young, and she is not as good as in the past. "It's because her zest for life has waned. She didn't have that anchor anymore. ”
"In East Asian cultures, we women are often taught to be sensible, well-behaved, obedient, to be virtuous when we grow up and get married, to take care of the big picture, and so on." Tao Xinran analyzes her understanding of Wei Ying. Such a woman has actually lost herself, and in the family, she has no way to give higher guidance, so she has been a caregiver and uses her own sacrifice to control her son. She hardly treats her son as an independent individual, but she is very hardworking, and there are many such mothers in our society. ”
There is a scene where Wei Ying hopes that her son can take the civil service exam and takes the initiative to buy the public exam materials. My son said he wanted to be a translator. She quickly asked, what is the translation? Is it a diplomat's kind of translation? And the son said, No. Which kind is that? She followed. Tao Xinran's lines were picked up quickly. Although my tone seemed to be gentle, it was just oppressive. Control in all directions and gently. ”
"There are a lot of chickens and ducks in the movie, and the words don't reach the meaning and the words are insincere. I love those misalignments. Misplaced love, misplaced giving, misplaced cognition, misplaced understanding. "Tao Xinran's own concept of parenting is completely different from Weiying's." No. The child is not an extension of our life, she is a living individual with her own independent judgment. ”
As a teacher's child, Tao Xinran has been given extremely high expectations since he was a child, and he will be beaten with a score of 98 in the exam. By the time she was a teenager, she finally reached a period of violent rebellion, escaping from the path of honor students, running away from home, and entering art school; The university resigned from the glamorous internship of Hunan Satellite TV and drifted north alone.
In order to take the lead in his life, Tao Xinran and his mother started a tug-of-war for more than ten years. Over the years, she became stronger; After a long time, she no longer seeks to "win" in the mother-daughter relationship to prove the error of her mother's education method. She resisted her mother's suppression of her, and also saw her mother's unconditional dedication to her, and she reconciled with her mother.
In the mother-daughter observation variety show "Is a Daughter is a Mother", she was asked if she wanted to be like her mother?
She replied, no, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love her mother. Raising a daughter made her understand her mother better, she understood her mother's nagging and control, and wanted to participate in the child's life, but she couldn't find any other way. "I can be more tolerant of anyone and anything now than I used to. Because I know I have a lot of questions. ”
Becoming a mother and entering a new stage of life, Tao Xinran found that she especially wanted to play a complex woman. "We have to try to show the incompleteness of the characters, what is the strength of the perfect person?" The superposition of identity has made her world wider, which also feeds back her creation.
In November 2023, Tao Xinran went to Hangzhou to watch the first cut of "Sally". "I'm an extremely strict person with myself. In terms of performance, I think I am satisfied. In such a short time, I did my best. I've lost some of my past experience. ”
She took the initiative to ask, "I don't know if you've watched other dramas, but An Lingrong have you seen them, right?" You compare, what do you think? ”
Tao Xinran (third from left), director Dai Si (second from left) and other creators at the world premiere of "Sally's Memories" (provided by the interviewee/photo)
producer
When "The Legend of Zhen Huan" was broadcast, Tao Xinran was 26 years old.
In the next half a year, she received about 20 scripts, and asked her to play roles similar to An Lingrong, she pushed them all down and went to play literary soldiers, spies, forensic doctors, and teachers, eager to jump out of the shackles of An Lingrong. "I feel like she's framing me, restricting the market's judgment and perception of me, thinking that I can only do that, but I know that I can do more than that." However, none of the influences of those later characters surpassed An Lingrong.
As the chief producer, preparing to make a realistic movie, this is the second time Tao Xinran has taken the helm by himself. Ten years ago, her mother told her on the phone about a case of left-behind children committing crimes in her hometown, and she thought about making a movie.
Is it because the actor is in the position of being selected and wants more say that he went to be a producer?
"I don't rule out the possibility of this, but the intermediate process is complicated, and I had a story I wanted to tell before, but why didn't it take shape? Is it just because my wings are not hard and I can't copy such a big deal? Not really. It was as if everything happened naturally. At that time, I especially wanted to tell a story like that, and I felt unhappy not to vomit. Tao Xinran said.
In 2017, Tao Xinran gave birth to a daughter. Because of childbirth, she left the set for three years. came back again, the creative habits of the crew and the mode of getting along with the main creators have undergone some changes. "Film and television actors don't need to play themselves as a coffee," she once bluntly said that she was not used to the phenomenon of the industry. Around 2020, Tao Xinran began to work on a team to adapt the story that happened in his hometown.
"Some people may understand it as a curve to save the country. Because the roles on the market are very unsuitable for me, I don't want to play the roles I want to play. Tao Xinran's style of doing things is not internal friction, and he sees tricks. Who are you looking for? Then look for it. She would honestly say, I'm inexperienced, I don't understand. There's a problem, okay, take the time to fix it.
After being introduced by a friend, directors Guo Dalu and Tao Xinran met. Tao Xinran talked about the case and the prototype characters, took out a lot of materials, and expressed his desire to make a good-looking story related to this. Guo Dalu has children, and he feels that it is very meaningful to pay attention to left-behind children, and proposes to go to Tao Xinran's hometown to have a look. He lived in Anhua, Hunan Province for more than a month, and every day he walked around the county seat or followed the driver to the mountains to observe and interview left-behind children. He found that many of the parents of left-behind children were the children of migrant workers who broke into the south during the wave of reform and opening up, and they stayed in their hometowns, grew up, went out to work, and had children, and their children inevitably fell into the same fate of being left behind.
It's always raining in Anhua, and the buildings of the new century are very close to those of decades ago, and Guo Dalu seems to be shuttling through different time and space. He thought of Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Murder" and wanted to make a movie with crime and detective elements. He spent a week or two writing an outline, and the protagonist of a line is a single mother (played by Tao Xinran) who works in a coastal city, and is in a predicament, is she putting her child back in her hometown and becoming a left-behind child like she was back then? Or do mother and son return to their hometown together and give up working their own? Or did she find someone in the big city to marry? On the other hand, in the county seat of the southern inland province, the police solved an old corpse case. The two lines gradually converged, and the scars of the past were slowly revealed.
Tao Xinran recognized this outline and used PPT to find investment. Guo Dalu doesn't care about money, and writes scripts.
First of all, due to the control of the new crown epidemic, the start time of the movie was postponed by one year. In 2021, there is still a month to go after leaving the machine, and the crew has entered the location scouting stage, and the original investors have withdrawn. "All the investment in the early stage has gone in, can you do this stall? If you don't have money, what are you shooting? ”
Then keep looking. The host Li Jing introduced an investor, and on the day of the meeting, the other party was sick and wearing a mask, and Tao Xinran didn't see his appearance clearly. After chatting for less than 40 minutes, the other party decided to participate in the investment.
"I firmly believe that I can meet someone who is destined." Tao Xinran said.
Before the start of filming, she prepared all the documents, handed them to the production team, and explained the budget. During filming, she concentrated on being an actress. "It's this money, you have to do this, as for how you spend it, I don't care, the water is clear, there are no fish."
"Xin Ran is a very hard-working person. There will be various problems in filming, and you need to choose, which ones can be compromised, and which ones you should try to stick to. From the beginning to the end, I encountered too many ups and downs, and I relied on Xinran's fighting spirit to pass through one pass after another. She really has the tenacity of Hunan women, and her thin body contains a lot of strength. Guo Dalu said that when writing the script, he integrated Tao Xinran's stubbornness and tenacity into the image of that single mother.
In 2023, Tao Xinran will take this movie called "Between the Cracks" to participate in the Shanghai International Film Festival and Xiamen Golden Rooster Film Festival. On the day I interviewed Guo Dalu in September 2024, the movie was just scheduled to be released in early November.
"Just acting like a fool"
Before the start of "Between the Cracks", Tao Xinran was filming in Shenzhen, and when she was free, she went to an urban village, sat on the side of the road, and watched the comings and goings of migrant workers. She tried to tan spots on her face, wearing splint slippers, and the clothes set by the director for the role, and showing the color difference between the clothes and the skin on her body.
The actor of the movie is a small-town policeman, and Tao Xinran also asked the actor to experience life for a month and a half, to tan and lose weight. Actor Zhao Bingrui has cooperated with director Guo Dalu, and one day, he went to see Guo Dalu and Tao Xinran. "Very capable, very accurate in telling stories and describing characters." Zhao Bingrui talked about the first impression Tao Xinran left on him. After receiving the role, Zhao Bingrui went to Hunan a month in advance, trained for more than two hours on an empty stomach and equipment every day, basked in the sun, went to the local police station to soak, and finally became a southern policeman with a body fat rate of 8% and a thin and swarthy south.
When he is not filming, Tao Xinran likes to visit the vegetable market and wander the streets. A few years ago, she was stuck in work and was not familiar with the prices of vegetable farms. Mom told her how much ginger is a pound today. She was confused, is this expensive or cheap? She realized that it was not right. "What about playing a housewife? Temporary make-up classes? There was no time. ”
In 2023, before the start of "Sally", Tao Xinran went to Hangzhou. The crew prepared Weiying's costumes, Tao Xinran felt that something was wrong, so he went to the clothing market alone to shop and buy. What texture and style of clothes does the character wear? What height heel to wear at what age? She debugs herself.
"In the past, maybe more often than not, I only had the right to play my character well, and I didn't have the right to talk about art and costumes. I think this character is like this, but it has to be according to other people's people. If you are a little twisted and uncomfortable, it is difficult to present a character that you admire. In the small crew of "Sally", some of her ideas have been fully displayed. Dai Si said that from the preparation stage to the filming site, Tao Xinran did a lot of non-actor work; After the film was completed, the festival was reported, and Tao Xinran also helped.
On July 28, at the FIRST Youth Film Festival ceremony, the crew of "Sally" sat in the second row, and Tao Xinran was dressed in a costume - she won the best actor award in the media room catalogue released earlier in the day - but sadly, the play did not win the award that night.
The film festival closed, and the crew dispersed. The next day, sitting on the train home, Lei Yuxi saw a message sent by Tao Xinran in the WeChat group of the crew, comforting everyone that it doesn't matter if they didn't win the award, and @daisi, ask him to continue writing, she will pull sponsorship in the next play, the original team, and cooperate again.
In an interview, Tao Xinran talked about his heart for participating in such a movie: "I received such a role, and I devoted myself to it. Tao Xinran's progress lies in the fact that he doesn't seem to be coerced by the world, which affects the judgment of taking over the play, and he still just does what he likes like like a fool. ”
"I can't act like that anymore" - dialogue Tao Xinran
Southern People Weekly: What do you think is your progress in acting in "Sally's Memories"?
Tao Xinran: I may not have any distractions than before. There are three stages of actor acting, looking at the mountain is a mountain, looking at the mountain is not a mountain, and looking at the mountain is still a mountain.
In the first stage, watching yourself act, you will feel so uncomfortable and fake. I started filming in 2006, and I was very devastated when I watched me play Tanchun's "The Legend of Daiyu". About a month after filming, I went to the editing room to watch the replay, and when I got back to the room, I lay on the bed and cried, I thought how could I act so badly? It's all bugs. Later, others said that the acting was very good. We see ourselves differently than others see us.
In the second stage, I felt that I could see it, and there was nothing wrong with it. Starting from "The Legend of Zhen Huan", I didn't feel embarrassed or uncomfortable after watching it, but I didn't appreciate it. An Lingrong has become a classic figure, a collective creation. She is just a possibility for me, but because "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is so popular, I can't decide, everyone keeps seeing her. Other roles (I played) may be forgotten after watching them.
The third stage, when I start appreciating myself, is not that I am fascinated by it, but that I can present the characters in this way. "Between the Cracks" and "Sally", these two movies are very different from all my previous films.
Southern People Weekly: What impact did being a mother have on you as an actor?
Tao Xinran: I'm not a person who has problems with acting, I used to act, and others thought it was very good, but I think it's so mediocre. After becoming a mother, I thought like this: looking at the growth of characters, we must open up the overall situation. Then you can't play every scene very hard, every scene is full, that's not right. If every scene is on the ceiling, there is no climax. I can't act like that anymore.
Southern People Weekly: The popularity of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and the audience's emotions towards An Lingrong have affected you. Has your feelings for the character changed?
Tao Xinran: She has always been a very good character in my heart. Now someone asks me, "(In "The Legend of Zhen Huan") which actor do you choose? "I still choose her, she is not easy to act, it is difficult to grasp, it is a very precious opportunity for an actor.
Southern People Weekly: You don't want to take off the label of An Lingrong?
Tao Xinran: The label is given by the market. Don't try to pick this thing up, shoot it for another ten years, maybe it's still this label. So reconcile with yourself.
Southern People Weekly: You said that at a certain stage, the role in the market may not be very suitable for you, and the role you want to play may not be given to you.
Tao Xinran: I don't belong to the people who are good at selling themselves, and my social circle is very narrow. But that's not my dilemma. And I will deliberately do subtraction, maybe now I am more and more only with people who have just needs.
I don't like to give my own mind to others, people are not interested in me, I don't want to express myself. I like to talk to people who are interested in me. For example, I might be working with two very good directors who have been telling me about the film since the end of last year, meeting with me from time to time, videotaping, watching me, being very interested in everything about me, adjusting the direction of the script and so on. When I meet such people, I am willing to express myself, and I also observe them.
Southern People Weekly reporter Zhang Yuxin
Editor-in-charge: Yang Jingru