From the movie "Gutian Jun" to the ongoing movie "1921", and the tv series "Hit the Water in the Middle Stream" that was broadcast not long ago, Wang Renjun played Mao Zedong in film and television works three times. In his view, every interpretation is a process of answering questions.
In the movie "1921", which is being screened, Wang Renjun plays the young Mao Zedong.
"After filming "Gutian Jun", I myself will have a lot of feelings and doubts, the Gutian Conference in 1929, Mao Zedong led a team of 3,000 people, defeated from Jinggangshan, evaded the Kuomintang's encirclement, blockade, and fierce pursuit. But twenty years later, he stood on the tower of Tiananmen Square and proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China. What kind of personality does he have? ”
With such doubts, Wang Renjun, whether filming the movie "1921" or the TV series "Hit the Water in the Middle Stream", will dig deeper into the story behind the characters and experience his state of mind at that time, which makes his worship of Mao Zedong more profound.
Movie "Gutian Jun"
The first time I played Mao Zedong, there was light in my eyes and compassion
In 2018, Bayi Film Studio and Fujian Film Studio jointly prepared to shoot the revolutionary historical theme film "Gutian Jun". At that time, Wang Renjun was filming the TV series "Do You Know If It Should Be Green Fat Red Skinny" in Hengdian.
When he was told to audition at the Bayi Factory, Wang Renjun did not know what to shoot and who he was going to play, until he saw a photo of Chairman Mao when he was young, and he vaguely felt that he might play Mao Zedong this time. "At that time, director Chen Li had just finished attending the two sessions, and we met and talked for less than half an hour, and she asked me to go back to prepare and said that I was ready."
Since childhood, the family has often told Wang Renjun the story of Chairman Mao, and the elders will also hang portraits of Chairman Mao in their homes, so playing a great man makes Wang Renjun feel both excited and challenging. This is also the first time he has played the image of a young Mao Zedong.
How to prepare? Wang Renjun was once confused, he remembered that the director had directed many films on historical themes, which had Chairman Mao's figure, "I think, in addition to reading some books, is it necessary to look at some previous artists (works), as well as the director's previous works?" But the director said to me: Don't, the character image that others understand is someone else's, and you have to experience the inner and spiritual world of the character from your own state. ”
After that, Wang Renjun read a lot of books related to Mao Zedong and the memoirs of those around him to understand the historical environment at that time and his growth experience since childhood. He will also find some video materials of Chairman Mao's later years, observe his movement habits, raise his hands and feet, look at his eyes, smile, and then infer his state when he was young, including the amplitude and frequency of his movements.
Although the director dismissed Wang Renjun and "it was good to play easily", he knew that he must not slacken off. "This is my idol, and I have to be reviewed by the people of the whole country." But the first time she played Mao Zedong, Wang Renjun still couldn't find a state for a long time, "Director Chen Li also made a lot of efforts, she is not the kind of director who must shoot according to her own requirements, she will inspire the actors, let the actors have feelings, and then record that moment, she feels that this is the expression of the actor's emotions." ”
The movie "GutianJun" is Wang Renjun's first appearance as Mao Zedong.
Wang Renjun still remembers two points that director Chen Li said and him, the first: In the youth of the chairman, there was light in his eyes. "I can feel this light, it is light, hope, so he can write that the spark of stars can burn the plains." Another point: there is always compassion in the eyes of the President. "He has compassion for the world, which is actually very difficult to grasp, both light and compassion, and the two are difficult to be compatible."
Because the full-time shooting of "GutianJun" was of great help to the actors, "We restored a lot of historical original appearance, saw that the people could not even eat at home, but also spontaneously unloaded the saved grain and door panels to the soldiers." In the middle and late stages of filming, the compassion in my heart will arise spontaneously. ”
After the release of "Gutian Jun", many young people left messages under Wang Renjun's Weibo, "I found that contemporary young people have no less love and respect for the chairman than their parents or grandparents," he said.
Movie "1921"
The love of great men is affectionate and like-minded
With the first attempt, the image and feeling of the young Mao Zedong began to take root in Wang Renjun's heart, and soon he ushered in a second opportunity to play Mao Zedong , the movie "1921", in this tribute film celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Wang Renjun once again played the young Mao Zedong, and this time it was the younger Mao Zedong.
"In GutianJun, I play Chairman Mao from 1928 to 1929, when his personal thinking and leadership experience were relatively mature. In 1921, Chairman Mao should still be a young man full of vitality, and there must be changes to reflect the growth of the characters. ”
Wang Renjun has been thinking about a question, great people cannot be born calm, wise and decisive, he must have a stage of youth and liveliness, when the style is flourishing, what is he like? With such doubts, Wang Renjun went through a large number of materials, including early manuscripts and biographies, and learned about a passage of Chairman Mao's early experience that is rarely mentioned now.
The story of the movie "1921" is set earlier than "Gutian Jun", so Mao Zedong in this period was still a young man full of vitality.
Before 1921, Mao Zedong went to Shanghai for the first time, and like today's young people, he came to a strange big city with a dream, and for the sake of his ideals, he groped on the road to changing the fate of the country while working down-to-earth. "He also worked, helping out in the laundry room, and asking for work-study assistance." Wang Renjun sighed, in order to achieve his goal step by step from small things, "This is the thing that great people and we are closest to. ”
With such understanding and feeling, he also found his own direction to interpret the chairman's youth. In the movie "1921", there is more of a vigorous Mao Zedong who struggles in the process of finding the way. "In the growth stage, I think it should be shown through all angles and multiple dimensions. Including what is the state of love between the great man, everyone knows the story between him and Yang Kaihui. What kind of tone they use to talk to each other, how he expresses his feelings to his lover, these are all blank in "Gutian Jun". "In order to better restore the revolutionary feelings of Chairman Mao and Yang Kaihui, Wang Renjun read a lot of biographies that recorded the past of the two men, and the most important path was to read the letters between the two men." I can feel the great man's yearning for love, his thoughts about his lovers, his guilt for his family, and his grand ambitions. They are more like-minded than the current young people, and their love must be inseparable from their ideals and careers. ”
TV series "Hit the Water in the Middle Stream"
Whoever can be a leader must have something superior
As the frequency of playing Mao Zedong increases, the imprint of Chairman Mao's thought will become more and more profound on Wang Renjun, who often laments that what Chairman Mao's spiritual world bears, as well as Chairman Mao's firm will, are difficult for ordinary people to achieve.
The TV series "Hit the Water in the Middle Stream", which aired in May this year, is the third time that Wang Renjun has played Chairman Mao. The play tells the historical process of the birth, development and growth of the Communist Party of China in the ten years from the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 to the victory of the Jinggangshan Huishi in 1928. "When I made "Hit the Water in the Middle Stream," it also answered some of my doubts when I played Mao Zedong before."
Stills from the TV series "Middle Stream Hits the Water"
Wang Renjun mentioned that there is a bridge section in the play about Mao Zedong and members of the Xinmin Society to Beijing to find his teacher Yang Changji, in order to learn Western culture, they ran a preparatory class for studying in France, after raising funds to send a group of classmates to study, Mao Zedong was originally on the list, but he chose to stay. "It's a question I haven't figured out before." The play explains Mao Zedong's thinking at the time, "He does not reject studying abroad or learning advanced cultural techniques, and it is a respectable method to take it back after studying and transforming his own country." But on the other hand, there must also be some people rooted in the homeland to understand the current situation of their own country, he said a sentence that made me particularly touched: The road to self-improvement of any country must be rooted in the civilized soil of its own country. That's it: how big a foot is, how big a shoe to wear, what kind of shoes to wear, what kind of road to take. ”
In the play, during the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the newly formed people's army was severely damaged by the enemy, and a soldier who had been following him by Mao Zedong's side was sacrificed. In the scene at that time, Wang Renjun, as an actor, was in a very depressed mood, especially watching the sacrificial warrior lying there, and also broke an arm, and the emotion was really a bit unbearable." But as an actor, I want to show Mao Zedong's state of perseverance and bravery at that time, his heart must be painful, but he wants to stabilize everyone's emotions and pull everyone back from pessimism. When that scene started, I felt like a god, but I couldn't do it immediately after shooting. After calming down for a long time, Wang Renjun couldn't help but sigh: To be able to become a leader, you must have superiority.
Another scene that impressed Wang Renjun was that after the death of Mao Zedong's mother, he returned to his hometown, talked with his father for a long time, refused to inherit the family business, and was scolded by his father. "Everyone knows that Mao Zedong and his mother had a very good relationship, and when his mother died, he was not around, and his heart must have been very uncomfortable, but at this time, the May Fourth Movement was imminent. In fact, I can also understand what his father said, his parents earned the family property: two mountains, 22 acres of land, as the eldest son, the younger brothers and sisters are still young, should inherit the family business. But I saw in Mao Zedong the dedication of the older generation of revolutionaries and their feelings, and he had to give up all this, because the greater responsibility in his heart was the whole country. ”
In order to show his father's incomprehension of Mao Zedong, Wang Renjun took the initiative to request that a scene of his own beating be added, "I felt the need for my father to vent his inner grievances, so I suggested that the director add such a plot." "The props are pipes in the hands of the actors who play the father, made of steel. At first, the actors were worried that it would hurt too much, but Wang Renjun insisted and took the initiative to kneel down to the "father" and say a line about the ideal, making the scene more realistic and vivid.
——Talking about performance——
If you want to make the character plump, you have to find the details from the character
Since high school, his love of literature and performance has been stirred in Wang Renjun's consciousness, and as the president of the school's student union, he often organized some club activities. Later, he chose to apply for the Beijing Film Academy.
"When I took the art exam, I felt that the candidates in the same examination room as me were very remarkable, they were all exposed to dance and music since childhood, but I was like a blank piece of paper, I wouldn't know anything." But it was precisely this point that made Wang Renjun finally selected by the teacher.
Once, in the eyes of "literary and art lover" Wang Renjun, filming was a very easy thing, and he thought that he could finish the work with his own interests and hobbies. After entering the university, he used his vacation to participate in a TV series, but found that filming was completely different from what he imagined, "for example, sometimes I have to shoot scenes where day and night are reversed, and there are summer scenes, outdoor 40 ° C, 50 ° C in the studio, can not turn on the fan, because I have to close the sound." These were completely unknown before. ”
Wang Renjun
At that time, he had hesitated, was this really his career to stick to for a lifetime? Since his sophomore year, he has had some performances on stage, and when he received applause, his self-confidence gradually built up. "I get a response from the outside world, and that response happens to be the most inspiring thing for me."
After graduation, Wang Renjun soon encountered a work that was very important to him - the TV series "China 1921". In the play, Wang Renjun tried to play the archetypal character for the first time, Xiao Zisheng in Mao Zedong's classmate and "Three Friends of Xiangjiang".
Subsequently, he starred in the movie "Xiao Hong", playing Xiao Hong's husband Duanmu Hongliang, which was also Wang Renjun's first time filming a movie. "The filming of the film is completely different from the TV series. Movies need to be carefully crafted, sometimes for two hours, just to shoot a look. And this is not only done on your own, but also with editing and music to help your performance reach a different dimension and depth. ”
In the TV series "Do you know if it should be green fat red skinny", Wang Renjun plays the eldest brother Sheng Changbai.
Another work that is very important to Wang Renjun is the TV series "Do You Know If It Should Be Green Fat Red Skinny". In the original work, the eldest brother Sheng Changbai, played by Wang Renjun, is excellent in academics, handsome in appearance, and single-minded in feelings, but he is silent and taciturn, "If this character does not speak, he cannot convey emotions, and he is too perfect, and when he performs, the audience will have a sense of substitution." So, Wang Renjun made some bold breakthroughs, "I thought, since he is a giant in thought, is he a dwarf in action?" "He referenced stories from scientists who weren't very strong, not very shrewd in life, and so on." Sometimes he might trip over his own clothes, get touched by a maid, and jump up, very angry. Wang Renjun said that if you want a character to become full of details, you need to find some of his "raw edges".
For the adjustment of the role, Wang Renjun was also very nervous, but when the drama was broadcast, he saw a lot of praise, and Wang Renjun was also particularly surprised, "For the first time, I felt that my bold breakthrough and innovation were recognized by the audience. ”
Zhang Kunyu, a senior reporter of the Beijing News
Chief Editor Wu Dongni Proofreader Zhao Lin