On the evening of May 19, at 10:30 p.m., the performance at the Chongqing Cathay Arts Center had been dispersed, and the theater was quiet and empty. On Monday, after removing her makeup, washing her face, she simply cleaned up, held a thermos cup, and came to the VIP room interview room.
About fifteen minutes ago, the drama "Pillow Man" starring Monday Wai came to Chongqing for the first time and ended perfectly. The large-scale performance of up to two hours and three quarters of an hour did not have an intermission, but the audience on the three floors of the full floor insisted on sitting until the end, and the warm applause was full of heartfelt greetings from the audience in Shancheng to all the main creators such as Monday Wai.
Monday Wai on stage seems to make the audience forget that Catulan's actor in "Pillow Man" is Monday Wai. He has said he wants to be a great actor like Oscar-winning Daniel Day Lewis. At least in Pillow Man, he proved himself. He enters the role thoroughly, lines, actions, expressions, aura... The strong tension, between the hands and feet, even controls the breath of the audience.
Now, having finished with the audience, Monday sat in front of the upstream news Chongqing Morning News reporter. Compared with the struggle and distortion when interpreting the characters on the stage, he seems to have changed into a person after the play, the T-shirt and jeans are refreshing and refreshing, and the appearance of a sunny teenager.
Although it was very late, he was very happy to talk. He admitted that starring in "Pillow Man" was actually purely accidental, "originally I lost interest in the stage"; he also seriously said that every time he came to Chongqing, he was very relaxed, because "Chongqing is my home".
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: "Pillow Man" is a black humor drama, how do you think about the black humor in it?
Zhou Wei: Since it is black humor, it is certainly not a story that everyone is happy about, nor is it a story that can directly see the answer, in my opinion, the black humor is certain, and humor is to find their own fun in a bunch of bad places, but it is not simply to provide funny paragraphs, of course, it is really interesting, really can make everyone find happiness and laughter in it.
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: I feel that this work does have a lot of happiness and laughter, but there are also a lot of crazy bridges?
Monday Wai: Oh hehe, very normal, life... We can all believe that these things may have really happened, indicating that Mr. Martin's script is a success, not a contrivance, but a distillation of something that may not be happening to us but must be in a corner of the world, which is his skill, refining the appearance of life and putting it in front of the audience.
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: The Internet has a high evaluation of your starring in "Pillow Man", what do you think is the reason?
Monday Wai: Uh... I really don't know, what everyone sees is what it is, I will not analyze whether everyone likes it or hates it or where they like it in detail...
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: I really like...
Monday Wai: (squeeze your eyes, grin) Where the audience likes it is, what they see is what it is, like it... (Laugh happily)
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: The audience is also very curious, why did you not open everywhere when "Shangyang Fu" was at its hottest, but returned to the stage and chose to star in such a drama?
Monday Wei: Doing this play is actually the worst time of the epidemic last year, when everything was suspended, the film and television crew did not start, just when Ms. Yang Duo of the Drum Tower West Theater called to invite me to participate in the play, I said at the time, I have no interest in the stage, but if there is a work like "Pillow Man", it is not impossible for me to return to the stage, she said, then you come to play "Pillow Man", I listened, well, "Pillow Man" I am interested! (Two eyes glow)
We began a small-scale rehearsal when the epidemic was relatively not so serious, I remember that it was rehearsed at that time, that is, the part of my brother and me, and then the epidemic suddenly ended, I received the task to shoot the anti-epidemic theme work "Together", the rehearsal of the drama stagnated, in fact, at that time, the performance market had not yet recovered, the situation in the west of the drum tower was very bad, and even fell to relying on selling cherries to maintain, at that time "Shangyang Fu" just finished broadcasting, the west of the drum tower was also rehearsing the performance plan for the new year, I moved my heart of compassion, I think it's okay that they can't live up, so they act out a bunch of help, so it's quite accidental. [Laughs]
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: You just said that you were no longer interested in the stage at that time, can it be understood that you lost confidence in the stage?
Monday Wei: No, not to lose confidence in the stage, just no interest in returning to the stage, I always think that the stage has always had its charm, but for us actors, we invest the same energy and effort, through the film can affect more people, such as Jia Ling's "Hello, Li Huanying", filming can get so high box office, of course, box office revenue is only one aspect, more importantly, the box office is good means a wider range of moviegoers, and the stage, such as today's Chongqing field is full, In total, only a few hundred people can see it, and I feel that the influence of the drama may be a little small, and I tend to focus more on the film, maybe this is also my personal little selfishness.
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: Drama and film are very different in audience, so how do you think about the relationship between actors and audiences?
Monday: First of all, the actors need the audience, they are sharing with each other, whether it is a 90-minute movie or a 120-minute drama, or even a longer literary and artistic work, in fact, in essence, everyone is sharing a period of time in a dark "small box", this time is expensive, because this time the actors have paid their hearts, and the audience has also paid a part of their precious lives, only this balance, this time has not been wasted, I think that movies can be shared with more people in the same equal time, and can influence more people, which is my starting point.
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: Just now this period of time is close to three hours, you actually pulled a full breath, how do you feel at this time?
Monday Wei: (Blurted out) hungry, because did not eat dinner (bitter smile), we four actors basically ate something at three or four o'clock and did not eat anything, this play does not eat dinner every time, because every time after performing such a high-intensity work, the flesh is very excited, basically to slowly cool down, to get close to dawn to sleep, wait for me to wake up again, in a daze, it is afternoon, eat a "breakfast", enter the theater, carry out some simple run-in, rehearsal, return to class, on stage to perform, the so-called "full blowing and hungry singing", I didn't eat before the show, so at the end of the show, in addition to being too excited to be a little confused, the first feeling was that I was hungry. [Laughs]
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: You have achieved quite a bit today, why are you still fighting so hard?
Monday Wei: (Seriously) This is the requirement of our profession itself, not to talk about fighting or not to fight, itself is like this, how good the thirteen yans in "Mei Lanfang" said to Wanhua, "What a good play"... (Yo-Yo Recitation)
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: I feel that you are in a good mood and relaxed when you come to Chongqing this time, why?
Monday Wei: (Without thinking) This (Chongqing) is my home, I am a Xiangxi native, my hometown belongs to the border city of the entire Yunguichuan River, in fact, it is the junction of ethnic minorities and Han China, Southeast Chongqing, QiandongBei, Xiangxi actually belong to a cultural system, since I was a child, I am talking about the dialect of this side, eating the same food here, so coming to Chongqing to perform is completely home feeling.
Upstream News Chongqing Morning Post: Chongqing is also the "drama nest" in the southwest region, do you know anything about Chongqing literature and art?
In 2007, Monday was filmed in Chongqing for the TV series "The Mystery of the King of Lou"
Zhou Wei: I don't know much about the development of literature and art in Chongqing, but I also got acquainted with Chongqing literature and art very early, when the Chongqing Repertory Theatre commissioned a student in the Chongqing class trained by the Shanghai Theater Academy called Li Yunliang, who was originally an actor in the Chongqing Repertory Theatre, and later transformed into a director, and in 2007 he invited me to Chongqing to shoot a play "The Mystery of the King of Lou".
I remember that nanbin road was just starting to start construction, I lived in Shapingba, I liked the city of Chongqing, every day in the taxi listened to the song singing, "Once upon a time there was a mountain, there was a city on the mountain, there were a group of Chongqing people in the city, men are very straight, women are very fit", which is my initial understanding of Chongqing when I first met.
I like a city like Chongqing, I also enjoy eating and drinking in Chongqing, like to speak the same dialect as Chongqing, including yesterday I took my friends to visit Chongqing, we set off from the Liberation Monument where we stayed, I took them on the ropeway across the river, and then walked to the Ma'anshan community on the south bank, where I told my friends, across the river is today's Chongqing, I take you to see the old Chongqing here, there is really no change from that year, we looked at the church, hospital and other old buildings, and then drilled out and walked back to Nanbin Road, I said we are back to the present, After dinner, back to the Liberation Monument, the whole journey is smooth.
One of the important reasons why I like Chongqing is that it has always been like the film and television works presented, it is a city that has been retained from the past to the present, which represents today's rapid development of China, but also still retains the old taste of the place as before, really like my home, I think the urban culture must maintain the local taste, drama is also a truth, the drama itself is powerful, the city has a theater, with a drama, there is a soul. Chongqing has a soul.
Upstream News Chongqing Morning News Reporter Text/Video Zhao Xin Picture Zhang Jinqi