In fact, everyone has always had the illusion that "learning to bully" and "actor" are two things that are very contrasting and cannot happen at the same time.
But friends who like European and American circles will also find that it is not uncommon for people who are both "school bullies" and "actors", and one of the representative characters is "Jitterson" Tom Hiddleston -
At the age of 13, he was admitted to Eton College, and after graduation, he entered Pembroke College, Cambridge University, majoring in classical literature, graduating with excellent "double first" results, and finally entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts to study acting.
In the impression of most of us, Chinese art schools have very "low" requirements for candidates' "culture class" scores, but it is not easy to say that this is wrong.
First, learning and acting can actually not conflict. If you don't believe me, please look back.
Second, if the student's knowledge level does not reach the master's or even doctoral access line, why force the pursuit of a degree? Pacino didn't graduate from high school, De Niro barely graduated, and they both started out at acting training school. Yes, there is no "undergraduate diploma" and no doctoral dissertation.
Third, performance originally emphasized practice and application, and the highest degree in such disciplines abroad is generally the "Master of Fine Art" (MFA), while the doctorate points to theoretical and scientific research.
If an actor wants to further improve himself, he can study film, drama or humanities such as literature and history, and sometimes we see what is the "doctor of acting"? Pacino, who has a "junior high school education" in his sixties, can also act in "The Merchant of Venice" and get a Tony Award nomination.
Fourth, for any actor, a good cultural cultivation is certainly of great benefit.
Conversely, if the "culture class" is so important, why is the admission score line still so low? Why do you mass-produce uncultured traffic stars and cut-out film queens here? Why do dr.s still write the name of the supervisor?
So why can someone else's bully become an actor (and not the other way around)?
First of all they have enough opportunities.
European and American schools have always attached importance to drama education, from primary school to middle school, they will often organize students to rehearse drama - this is undoubtedly a good way to cultivate humanistic literacy and stimulate creativity, and now some domestic schools have begun to learn from it.
It was in this process that many actors developed an interest in acting, such as Meryl Streep, who acted from junior high school to high school, then entered Vaasa College to study drama, and then went on to Yale to pursue a master's degree in theater.
Of course, not everyone will aspire to the show business at a young age. More people only take it as a hobby and don't enter professional acting schools. This article mainly discusses this kind of "halfway monastic" school bully actor.
As for those who were already actors before they entered school, or who went back to study after becoming famous, they will not elaborate on the limitations of space - sorry, Emma Watson and Natalie Portman!
Which student drama club is stronger? Oxbridge Race Lan Xiang
I like to perform, but let's get into a prestigious school first! In this way, the school bullies entered the elite academies as they wished. At this point, their eyes will light up – because a large wave of student drama clubs are waiting!
Student drama club, we are here is a side business of the club, but if it is left in Oxbridge, it is "a century of tradition and cultural inheritance". No kidding, as early as 1855, during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, Cambridge established the first university drama club in Britain, the Cambridge Amateur Drama Club ("CUADC").
At first, the play club only rented a few rooms from a hotel in Cambridge town for performances, and after continuous renovations, in 1883, the members jointly raised funds to buy the hotel, which is the ADC Theater that is still in business today.
Don't look at the old and small here, only about two hundred seats, there are many big characters who have taken the stage here.
Generally speaking, any student of the university can apply for membership. Although the threshold is low, some student drama clubs are close to the professional level in both hardware and software.
In addition to acting, students can also dabble in directing, writing, producing, stage design, costumes, sound and light, props production, and even painting posters... It can be said that everything is available in front of and behind the scenes.
The company organizes several performances, events and even off-campus tours every year. Put it this way, when everything is really like that, no one can do anything wrong.
Both Cambridge and Oxford have a number of long-established student theatre clubs. But overall Oxford is slightly inferior. Mainly because they have never had a theatre run independently by students (the Cambridge-born actor didn't take the joke next door).
What's even more envious and hateful is that there is a small bar in the ADC Theater! Whenever the lights go out in the dead of night and the whole school closes, only the ADC bar is still full of people and staggered.
Among the Cambridge student drama clubs, the "Footlights" founded in 1883 are the most famous – this has to start in the 1960s. It can be said that until the 1960s, the "student drama club" was just a child's trick, and no one looked at it squarely.
However, with the loosening of the post-war social atmosphere, some Cambridge students took the lead in setting off changes. The Footlight Club already has a comedic tradition, and the new generation of members is more focused on acupuncture and ridicule of conservative ideas. It is said that the British are good at cold humor, and the beginning of British satirical comedy is also from them.
The representative figure was Peter Cook, whom the Guardian praised as "the father of modern irony".
He studied French and German at Cambridge and wanted to be a diplomat, but made comedy his life's work.
He was best known for his ability to spoof political dignitaries, notably Harold McMillan, then British Prime Minister. Once, when he was performing on stage, the prime minister sat in the audience, cook did not make a mistake, and even intensified the play of the current hanging, the other party can only dare to be angry. This scene was recreated in the British drama "The Crown" and became an important footnote to the times.
Peter Cook later joined the four-man comedy group Beyond the Fringe, a group of the best Cambridge and Oxford writers of the time, and was once popular throughout britain and the United States.
To elaborate on the inspirational effect of "beyond the bottom line" on comedy performance, I am afraid that I would have to write a book — but if you want to put it simply, two words are enough: python.
What is a Python? If you like comedy and haven't seen a python, if you like British culture and don't know about a python, you're in vain.
Unfortunately, there is no time to carefully examine Amway, the "first god in the history of comedy", or first post his academic qualifications. Monty Python first appeared on the BBC in 1969 and consists of six members, including:
John Chris, a cambridge law major, personally told him when he graduated: "Your misconduct as a lawyer is a loss to the British legal profession." ”
Studying medicine at Cambridge and London Medical College, Graham Chapman, who was about to get a practicing physician but gave up.
Eric Edel, who majored in English in Cambridge but was very good at writing songs, was the president of the Footlight Club and the first to allow girls to join the club.
Eric Eder (one from left), yes, the two on the right are...
There are also two from Oxford, Michael Palin, who majored in modern history, and Terry Jones, who majored in literature.
Isn't there still one left? Well, compared to the above guys, Yankee Terry Gilliam is simply a semi-illiterate. Although he is also from a prestigious school, after all, he can't compare with those British guys. He is rarely involved in the creation, and there are not many characters with lines, mainly responsible for animation.
The Monty Python Theatre Company can be described as an "upgraded version" that goes beyond the bottom line. They moved satirical comedy from stage and radio to television, breaking new ground, both in terms of popularity and reach.
They also devoted themselves to the film, leaving behind insurmountable classics such as "Python and the Holy Grail" and "The Magic Star of the World". In short, the metaphor of "beatles in comedy" is not an exaggeration at all.
The first time you come into contact with a giant python, you may be impressed by its brain hole, and you will also be impressed by the vulgarity and vulgarity of some passages. But look a little more, and the horse's foot of the school bully will be exposed - casually making up a sketch is "Ancient Greek Philosophers Play Football with German Philosophers", and making a movie is "Deconstructivist Version of the Bible"...
In fact, when these people play word games or historical and cultural memes, we contemporary audiences who are not native English speakers may not be able to catch it.
Laughing Star, Shadow Queen, Engineer
There are successors to the Cambridge Footlight Society. Especially in the late '70s and early '80s, there were a few big bulls in the crowd — led by Stephen Frey, Emma Thompson, and Hugh Laurie— so they didn't need to be introduced, right?
These two people are contemporaries of the Footlight Society, and they are also very good friends with each other. Like their predecessors, they all started by acting in comedy, making a splash at the Edinburgh Fringe, then doing TV comedy shows, and then movies.
Interject "Edinburgh Fringe": This is an art event held every year in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the biggest feature is that it is fully open, censor-free, no threshold, anyone can perform, and if you can't find a venue, you can play on the street.
It is particularly suitable for young people to try their hand at it, and has thus become an "incubator" for the British comedy world.
In 1981, the Footlight Society's show won the Best Comedy Award in Edinburgh, and guess who gave them the award? "Bean"!
Rowan Atkinson debuted earlier than Uncle Hugh— not a few years earlier, but was qualified enough to be the guest of honor.
He graduated with a master's degree in electrical engineering from Oxford. Yes, a comedian with a Master of Science degree (MSc)! Therefore, in the future, the pseudo-academic bullies should not brag about their partiality in the open and secret, making it seem as if all the people engaged in art are liberal arts students. Think bean. Not to mention the directors who study philosophy, the astrophysics doctors who play rock and roll, and the writers who learn programming!
Don't look at Atkinson as a household name for "Bean", in fact, he is the standard wisdom and foolishness. Just look at his early British drama Black Jazz for the BBC.
This comedy spoils hundreds of years of British history in ridicule, both sour and elegant, especially the dialogue is very skilled in literature (isn't he an electrical engineer), like telling a passage in the tone of a Shakespeare play.
After graduating, Stephen Frey and Hugh Laurie formed a comedy duo that was popular for many years and also starred in "Black Jazz" together.
Hugh Laurie's antics in Black Jazz
Later, Frey continued his casual days of hosting, writing books, and occasionally filming, and Hugh Laurie concentrated on being an actor, and went to Hollywood, and finally became the beloved "Dr. House".
And Emma Thompson is definitely the most "bug" of all the school bullies. She is not only the most acting bully in history, but also one of the best actresses. Two Oscars and five nominations are enough to illustrate the point. And that's not all, she's the only Oscar-winning actress who has won the screenwriting little golden man! Is cambridge English department read in vain?
The brightest "products" of the Footlight Society in the 90s were two: Richard Ioard, who starred in "IT Maniac" and is now a brilliant director;
The other is John Oliver, a talk show host known for his poisonous tongue, who was president and vice president.
Counting further down, it's the turn of "Downton Abbey Big Cousin" Dan Stevens.
There are also many Cambridge scholars from other drama clubs (many of whom will also be part of the number club). For example, Ian McLean is a member of The Marlowe Society, and Jitterson, Rachel Weiz, and Rebecca Hauer are friends with him.
The seemingly insane "Borat" Sasha Byron Cohen graduated from Cambridge in 1993 and is also a member of the "CUADC".
And Tilda Swindon is a little different, she joined at Cambridge with... Communist Party of Britain.
Of course, we can't fail to mention little freckles, he and Jitterson are double alumni of Eton College and Cambridge, and Prince William is the same year as Eaton, and the road to acting has begun since middle school.
Can you find out Little Freckles and Prince William?
Later, he was able to play Cambridge's proud Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything", which was a special honor for him. Interestingly, Filisity Jones, who plays Hawking's wife in the film, happens to be from Oxford – this is called the "elite school group".
Fast-food pudding, Neuro Doctor
Famous American schools also have a long history of student drama club culture. For example, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Its history can be traced back to 1795, initially an ordinary college fraternity, and then gradually evolved into a drama club, the program is dominated by musical comedy, the most important reserved program is the male and female anti-string thigh dance.
Fast food pudding has a lot of well-known members of the community – the president of the United States alone is a whole bunch. Showbiz celebrities include legendary Hollywood joker Jack Lemon and comedy actress Rushda Jones.
In addition to their own performances, members are awarded the "Fast Food Pudding Male/Female Star of the Year" award each year, and the winners of the 2019 year are Blythe Dallas Howard and Milo Ventimiglia.
Harvard also has a famous humorous publication, The Harvard Lampoon, founded in 1876. Many famous writers, screenwriters and comedians have been part of the magazine.
From "Saturday Night Live" to "Late Night Show", from "Seinfeld" to "Friends", behind almost every popular talk show or comedy, there is no screenwriter from "Harvard Satire Society", it can be said that Harvard is "American TELEVISION comedy training base".
There are two other odd people on the American side that deserve to be highlighted. One is Ken Zheng, the Asian geek who is crazy and obscene in films such as "The Hangover".
But he graduated from the famous University of North Carolina School of Medicine and had been working as a doctor before officially becoming an actor!
The other is Maim Bialik, Shea's girlfriend in The Big Bang Theory. But Xie Er is a person in the play, and she is like a fake bag in and out of the play - UCLA, Doctor of Neuroscience!
And she has been a child star since she was a child, except for taking a two-year break from school to shoot a drama during her doctoral studies (she herself said that it was for medical insurance), she has been reading while acting. How did she do it? I am afraid that it can only be explained by the word "prodigy".
What did you say? Matt Damon is also a Harvard school bully? Yes, it is a pity that he dropped out of school to become an actor before graduating...
Reading and acting, you can also row
It's time to ask this question that has been confusing for a long time. Who doesn't know how hard it is to get into a prestigious school? Who doesn't know it's harder to graduate from there? Can these guys do shadow splitting and rehearse the play while learning?
Hugh Laurie, for example, used to be a member of the Cambridge rowing team, sometimes training for eight hours a day! How did he have time to read? ?
If it weren't for his illness, he would probably have inherited his father's business (his father was also from Cambridge and had won the Olympic championship) to become a rower.
Admit it, the so-called school bully originally refers to those who seem to have never worked hard, but they can get the first place in every exam.
It's not that no one has asked them, but the answer can kill you alive —
"Studying, writing papers and the like, it's the easiest thing for me, just a little bit harder... Isn't any science all about learning? And I'm really good at learning things, as long as it's not a creative thing, it's easy. It's hard to write a script. ”
The above quote comes from Monty Python member Graham Chapman. In addition, here are some of his courses during his time at Cambridge: Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Biochemistry... He then went on to study clinical medicine at the London Medical College for three years. If you have a relative or friend studying medicine, ask him how "easy" these things are.
"I thought Oxford was a place where everyone was smarter than me, but I came to realize that it was just an illusion. I'm not a big fan of Oxford. Terry Jones, another member of Monty Python, said.
"My college was really laughing and mixing up. I only studied at night, and during the day I had to write scripts, write paragraphs, and act out sketches. Another member of the Python, Michael Palin, said.
Maybe we can only attribute everything to "talent". There are indeed people who are very good at learning, just as there are people who are very good at "Glory of Kings", which is not surprising.
Emma Thompson, for example, showed great intelligence when she first joined the Footlight Society— even though she was already surrounded by a group of spirits. "It was clear that she had the best future," Stephen Frey recalled, "and we all called her 'Genius Emma.'" ”
In 2017 she returned to Cambridge to give a lecture in which she mentioned several vivid little stories from her studies, including (children please avoid it first):
Stephen Frey had a very failed group P party, and she went to attend it, but flinched and ran away.
She walked away from the ashtray in the hall when she came to Cambridge for an interview. She once "came and went" in the school toilet.
She used to grow marijuana in the back garden of her dorm room.
Don't really think that the school bullies just know nonsense. Also in that speech, Emma Thompson told her late generation that without college there would be no later acting career: "Cambridge gave me a safe place to learn how to think. ”
Finally, there are these actors who are also school bullies:
Kate Beckingsale, Oxford, French, Russian literature.
James Franco, Master of Fine Arts in Writing graduate program at Columbia University.
Lisa Cudjo, Vaasa College, Biology.
Rooney Marla, New York University, Psychology, International Social Policy.
Natalie Portman, Harvard, Psychology.
Judy Foster, Yale, Literature.
David Duchouni, Princeton, English Literature.
Freddie Hammer, Cambridge, majoring in French, Spanish and Arabic.
Emma Watson, Brown University, English Literature.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Columbia University, Literature, Eastern Religions.
Paul Giamati, Yale, Master of English and Drama Studies.
John Krasinski, Brown University, Dramatic Arts.
Ritz Ahmed, Oxford, Philosophy and Political Economy.
Chris Pine, University of California, Berkeley, English.
In short, these school bullies are the kind of talented, eccentric elves, who can be distinguished at a glance in the pile of people, I am afraid that no matter what they do, they will not be ordinary, and they choose to be actors, which is the luck of us as the audience.