What is it like to play a role too deeply into people's hearts?
It's like when everyone sees Teacher Li Mingqi, they will think of Grandma Rong; when they see Sun Honglei, they will think of various villain roles; when they see Wang Lin, they will think of Aunt Xue; when they see Feng Yuanzheng, they can't help but think of "domestic violence man" An Jiahe...
In fact, they have all had similar experiences, that is, the role is more famous than the actor himself, even after a long time, he is often called the name of the character, and even affects the drama and restricts the development.
It is said that Ma Dehua, the "Eight Precepts of the Pig" in the 86th edition of "Journey to the West", although it has become a childhood memory of a generation, has also fallen into embarrassment.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" >01 Pear Garden A Dream</h1>
Ma Dehua is a native of Beijing.
Born on August 11, 1945, to a Muslim family in Beijing, his ancestral home was Shandong, and his parents went to Beijing in the early years to open a snack bar.
There are four brothers in the family, Ma Dehua is the third oldest, his original name is Ma Rui, because the name is always mispronounced, either "Ma Bing" or "horse meat", really can't stand it, simply changed to Ma Dehua.
Influenced by his father, Ma Dehua has been obsessed with martial arts since childhood, began to learn martial arts at the age of 5, and won the second prize in the junior group of the Beijing Amateur Wushu Competition.
At the same time, Ma Dehua was also fascinated by Peking Opera, and began to learn to sing with the conversation box at the age of three or four.
At that time, his idea was simple: when he grew up, he would be a hero and a righteous person. If you really can't do it, just take the stage and play those chivalrous men.
However, generations of people in the family are in business, and parents hope that several children will study well and be learned people in the future. Therefore, the discipline of Ma Dehua is very strict.
But in his childhood, Ma Dehua, most of his energy was occupied by martial arts and drama, and his interest was not at all in learning.
Therefore, in the second year of junior high school, Ma Dehua began to discuss with several people in the class who also loved literature and art, planning to apply for the drama school and the Chinese Peking Opera House.
In order to get the proof of the school, Ma Dehua and several other classmates talked to the dean of the Nationalities College several times before convincing him to open the certificate.
But if he wants to apply for the exam, he has to face another difficulty, that is, to get the household registration book locked in a small box.
No matter how Much Ma Dehua begged, his father just did not agree, and in the end, his mother was soft-hearted and secretly helped him take out the household registration book.
In this way, 14-year-old Ma Dehua took the 2 yuan he had saved, hid from his father, and quietly applied for the China Peking Opera.
One early morning in 1959, Ma Dehua received an acceptance letter from the Peking Opera House, but before he could celebrate, he leaked the stuffing in front of his father, who was still unaware.
All day, Ma Dehua only dared to stand in the courtyard and did not dare to enter the house to eat, because his father was angry as soon as he saw him.
After several persuasions, my father finally agreed, but the conditions were: no matter how much suffering he suffered, he could not go home and cry; no matter how much he suffered, he could not give up halfway; if he wanted to learn, he had to do a good job and could not let the Beijing Theater return.
At this point, Ma Dehua finally stepped into the dream pear garden.
Of course, he and his father's "Three Chapters of the Covenant Law" have never forgotten, and no matter how hard and tired the days in the Beijing Theater are, he gritted his teeth and insisted.
Every day, I practiced handstanding, sideways flips, shuttlecock jumps, shouting voices... Being beaten and scolded is a common thing, and the body is often blue and purple. My mother was heartbroken when she saw it, but he never wanted to give up, and he carried all the pain and tears alone.
Not long after, the China Peking Opera Theater merged with the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, Ma Dehua was transferred to learn Kunqu opera, and coupled with his lively and mischievous nature, the teacher began to arrange for him to play a clown.
Seeing that his dream of playing a martial artist and becoming a hero was gradually drifting away, Ma Dehua was unhappy in his heart. Or a teacher told him: "There is no small role on the stage, as long as you play it with your heart, the clown also has his cuteness."
Listening to this remark, Ma Dehua suddenly opened up, and slowly explored the skills of playing small characters, and his baggage on the stage was shaken just right, making the audience laugh.
During the "Cultural Revolution", the Kun Theater disbanded and all performances were stopped, and Ma Dehua had to start acting in model plays, from "Sha Jiabang" and "Wise Tiger Mountain" to "Harbor" and "Cuckoo", Ma Dehua accumulated some popularity by playing a "villain".
At the end of the decade of catastrophe, Ma Dehua continued to return to the Queen's Theatre to act.
In 1982, the Queen's Opera House was going to rehearse "Sun Wukong's Big Trouble in Basho Cave", and the 37-year-old Ma Dehua played the Eight Precepts of the Pig on stage for the first time.
It was also from this time that Ma Dehua's wonderful fate with the "Second Master Brother" began.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="178" >02 Fate begins</h1>
One day after the performance, a friend told him that he had a classmate, who was the assistant of director Yang Jie, and they were preparing to shoot the TV series "Journey to the West".
What is surprising is that a casual sentence from a friend has completely changed his fate.
At this time, Ma Dehua's career was at a low ebb, and he just hoped to find a turnaround and a breakthrough.
In addition, he loves film and television dramas very much, but he has been suffering from not having the opportunity to step into the film and television circle. Excited, Ma Dehua decided to try it.
After several twists and turns, With the help of friends, Ma Dehua finally contacted the crew.
It is conceivable that in the face of such a flattering role as the Eight Commandments of pigs, there must be a large group of people vying to compete for the role. At this time, director Yang Jie has interviewed countless applicants.
When Ma Dehua came to the interview, the director had already selected 3 favorite actors among many applicants.
At the interview site, the director asked Ma Dehua to perform a skit related to the Eight Precepts of the Pig, but there was a lot of difference between the performance of opera and film and television drama, and there was no advantage for Ma Dehua, who had never been in contact with the latter.
After a performance, the director did not clearly state his attitude, but let him continue to perform the fragments of the opera "Sun Wukong Makes a Big Fuss in Basho Cave", but he could not see the gong and drum of the opera.
After the performance, Ma Dehua originally had no bottom in his heart, but the director only said one sentence: "Come again next Monday and make a sketch of the Eight Precepts of the Pig." ”
After returning home in such a daze, Ma Dehua began to think about how to perform this sketch well, first found a comic strip called "The Eight Precepts of the Pig", and then found a text version of the book, which took a week to study repeatedly.
Fortunately, his vivid performance this time successfully made the director laugh, and Ma Dehua also entered the "Journey to the West" crew with the strength of a clown actor.
What he did not expect was that this TV series with only 25 episodes was filmed for 6 years, traveled to 19 provinces and cities, traveled more than 100,000 kilometers, and the filming process was even more tortuous, really like the Tang monks in "Journey to the West", after 9981 difficulties. Sometimes, actors even face danger to their lives.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="179" >03981 difficulties</h1>
In contrast, the shape of the Eight Precepts of the Pig is more difficult and the playing is more difficult. His "big belly" alone has more than 10 pounds, in order to make the stomach look bigger and rounder, the crew stuffed a lot of cotton into it, the summer heat is unbearable, prickly, moldy, hot he sweats like rain.
Not only that, but there was also a huge nose and ears, all of which had to be directly smeared on the skin with glue, and beads of sweat could only drip into his eyes and mouth, and the mouth was full of the taste of sweat and glue mixed.
In order to make it easier to apply makeup every day, Ma Dehua simply shaved off his hair. What is even more painful is that every time the makeup is removed, it seems to be pulled hard from the skin, and the pain is tearing the heart and lungs.
When it was time to eat, Ma Dehua, who could not remove his makeup, could only starve with the six-year-old child who played Sun Wukong, and waited until the overall scene was filmed before eating.
In order to play the role of the Eight Commandments of the Pig well, Ma Dehua can be said to have suffered a lot.
During a pressure, Ma Dehua's steel wire suddenly broke, and he was slammed to the ground. Fortunately, he was not very badly injured by learning martial arts since he was a child, and he was finally diagnosed with a contusion of his left rib.
When filming the scene where Sun Wukong burned the residence of the Eight Precepts of the Pig, in order to make everyone more realistic, after makeup, he also brushed napalm layer by layer on his body.
After the shooting began, the smoke master with the torch began to light a fire on him, and Ma Dehua later recalled that "at that time, I could smell the burning of his eyebrows", which burned him and jumped.
Until the camera is almost finished, the two can jump into the pit dug by the crew in advance, and the bystanders will use a shovel to bury it alive, and the rolling belt will climb to extinguish the fire.
During filming, Ma Dehua experienced countless times of fire, "buried alive", and even once, because the fire was too big to burn his fake stomach to a serious deformation, even after many years of recall is still terrified.
Pig Eight Commandments peeked at the famous scene of the seven fairies bathing, everyone must have seen it, but when filming this scene, Ma Dehua almost did not come up because the 30 pounds of cotton in his stomach sank directly into the water, thanks to everyone's pull, he escaped the disaster.
Falls, fires, floods, horse kicks... During the 6-year shooting period, in addition to these tests, Ma Dehua turned the original book over and over again to see the role of the Eight Commandments of the Pig in order to accurately interpret the role.
There will always be a reward for paying, and sure enough, as soon as the 86th edition of "Journey to the West" was broadcast, it spread all over the country, reaching tens of thousands of empty alleys and creating a ratings miracle.
So that every summer vacation after that, it will come as promised, becoming the collective memory of a generation.
In fact, in addition to the Eight Precepts of the Pig, Ma Dehua also played more than 10 roles in the play, such as the Eight Precepts of the Canopy Marshal Period, the Heavenly Soldier Heavenly General, the Mountain God, and the Robber.
Because of the role of the Eight Commandments of the Pig, for a long time, there will be people who will say that he is playing a "living monster"; even because the image is too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, Ma Dehua has no drama to shoot.
So that after "Journey to the West", Ma Dehua and the Eight Precepts of the Pig seem to merge into one, whether it is participating in activities, performing skits, or otherwise, Ma Dehua appears in the name of the Eight Precepts of the Pig.
Although he was also entangled and lost by this, he saw that the audience loved the Eight Precepts of the Pig he played so much, and he slowly let go.
After filming "Journey to the West", Ma Dehua joined the "Journey to the West" troupe organized by CCTV, performed all over the world, and stayed in the CCTV Film and Television Department.
Later, he participated in various variety shows in the image of the Eight Precepts of the Pig for many times, and also appeared on Shandong Satellite TV Spring Festival Gala in 2019, bringing the program "The Second Master Brother Is Back", and sang the first "Calories" with the cute Eight Precepts of the Pig.
In January of the same year, Ma Dehua's autobiography "Wu Neng" was officially published, and it can be seen that his fate with the Eight Precepts of the Pig is still continuing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="180" >05 Winner in life</h1>
Ma Dehua plays the eight precepts of the pig greedy, lustful, gluttonous, lazy, but in real life, he is low-key, single-minded, and has never broken any scandal.
As early as 1972, Ma Dehua introduced himself to Hou Yumin, who was 3 years younger than him, through a neighbor.
Although the first meeting did not bring the two together, the second meeting after 2 years finally made them enter the palace of marriage.
Ma Dehua's wife is not only beautiful as a flower, like a real-life version of Chang'e, but also very understanding and unconditionally supports his cause.
Just the day before he entered the "Journey to the West" crew and prepared to go to Hangzhou to start filming, his wife was admitted to the hospital due to a car accident, and the cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament were all broken.
Seeing his wife injured so badly, Ma Dehua was naturally distressed, and after the operation, the doctor told him that if he did not recover well, he was likely to leave sequelae.
Ma Dehua decided to endure the pain of cutting love and gave up the opportunity to play the Eight Precepts of the Pig to stay and concentrate on taking care of his wife.
Unexpectedly, she was strongly opposed by her wife, she said: "You can rest assured to go to filming, such a once-in-a-lifetime good opportunity can not be easily encountered, my legs let my sister take care of it..."
A few words touched Ma Dehua, and it was with his wife's support that he did not miss the fate with the Eight Precepts of the Pig.
This year, it is the 49th year that they have walked hand in hand, and the long marriage has not worn away their love, and the two are still in love as before.
And their son, who is also a talented and successful career, is said to have been worth hundreds of millions.
Life is happy and sweet, career is smooth, Ma Dehua can be described as a real winner in life!
Now 76 years old, whether it is love or the stage, he still maintains his original enthusiasm.
And all this is inseparable from his persistence, just like his summary of the word "enlightenment", not only the eight precepts of the pig, but also his lifelong belief: to understand what you can, to stick to the things you are good at, to do the ultimate, is to succeed.