Zhang Shaohua died of illness, "I don't have any worries about playing ugly"

Actor Zhang Shaohua died in Beijing at 11:10 a.m. on March 23, 2021, at the age of 75 due to illness.

The name Zhang Shaohua may be a little strange to many young people. But many of the works she has participated in are synonymous with "traffic".

When she was young, she and Zhao Lirong played on the same stage and starred in well-known drama works such as "Flowers as Media" and "Yang Sanjie's Complaint". Later, she acted in popular film and television dramas such as "Lan Yu", "May Locust Flower Fragrance", "Halfway Couple", "Mei Lanfang", "The North Wind That Blows", "The Gate of the Great Mansion", "The Legend of Wulin" and so on.

In 2005, zhang Shaohua won the Best Actress Award at the Shanghai TV Festival "Magnolia Award" for her outstanding performance in the TV movie "Secret". Prior to this, director Ang Lee had invited her to play the role of the mother of Yujiaolong in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", but eventually missed it.

A few years ago, when "Mother's War" was broadcast on the TV drama channel, a reporter from Jiefang Daily interviewed Zhang Shaohua. She told reporters bluntly: "I don't have any concerns about dressing up ugly. I wasn't pretty when I was younger. ”

Perhaps because of her looks, or perhaps because her "mother" role is deeply rooted in people's hearts, many people are accustomed to calling her "old drama bone". In that interview, she also explained through this newspaper that she was actually a "post-40s", not a "post-30s" who has been misinformed on the Internet.

Now, the old actor is gone. May heaven be free of sickness.

Interview with Zhang Shaohua: "Ugly" Mother's "Beauty"

When she was young, she and Zhao Lirong played on the same stage, and she was a famous critic actor, who starred in "Flowers as Media" and "Yang Sanjie's Complaint" and other drama works.

Later, she was the cow mother in "Lan Yu", the Feng mother in "The Fragrance of The Flowers of May", aunt Jiang in "Halfway Couple", the Song mother in "Mei Lanfang", the mother of the cow flowers in "The North Wind That Blows", the mother of Li Xiangxiu in "The Gate of the Big House", and the mother of Li Dazui in "The Tale of Wulin".

After playing a lifetime of supporting roles in film and television dramas, she finally played an absolutely leading role in a popular drama called "My Ugly Lady", still playing "Mother".

Recently, "Mother's War" was broadcast on the TV drama channel on Shanghai Television. In the play, she and Xi Meijuan staged a "big war" between two "mothers". Of course, it is still playing "Mom".

She is deservedly known as a "mother professional household", and every "mother" does not repeat it.

"Changeable mother", only for recognition

Reporter: In "Mother's War", you play a mother who picks up garbage, how is it different from your previous role as a mother?

Zhang: "Mother's War" is a good drama, and it is also the third play that I and director Liu Xin have cooperated after "Empty Nest" and "Family Portrait", which is said to be according to the script I wrote. Director Liu Xin is a very smart and intelligent director, and the filming is very rigorous, and I admire him very much. If I acted well this time, it is all his credit. Nowadays, in society, famous directors have a lot of publicity, and directors with almost no fame are very snubbed. When a play comes out, it is also based on actors as a publicity selling point, which is quite unfair.

Reporter: In this drama, you and Xi Meijuan played a rival play, how do you think about this drama that belongs to "Beijing Mother" and "Shanghai Mother"?

Zhang: Xi Meijuan and I also met through Liu Xin's "Empty Nest", in which we only encountered one scene, which is a bit of a pity. In "Mother's War", the director looked for this point, which gave me a chance to learn from Teacher Xi Meijuan. My own feeling is that southern audiences will prefer her role as mother, and northern audiences will be more recognized for my role as mother. I hope that after this drama is broadcast, the audience in the south will like me a little more, and the audience in the north will like her a little more.

Reporter: The industry calls you a professional mother, what do you think? After playing so many "moms", what do you think is the biggest difficulty?

Zhang: I've always played my mother, or my grandmother, my grandmother, and I can only play these roles at my age. I don't think it's difficult for myself, I just hope that the audience I play loves to watch.

I've played a lot of mother roles, and all mothers have commonalities, such as kindness, ordinariness, and selfless dedication. But every mother is different, because the story is different and the face is different. I like each of the characters because I put in the hard work. I don't have a choice, I have to be worthy of the trust of the directors who chose me. As long as you trust me, I will try to complete the role. I never wanted to play so many "moms" is not a repetitive question, I value opportunities more. An actor meets a good book and is a very happy thing.

Reporter: "My Ugly Lady" was a hit last year, and you acted very well. What do you think about being ugly?

Zhang: The ratings of "My Ugly Lady" can be so good, which I did not expect. When I went to Guangzhou, the Guangzhou audience recognized me and was very enthusiastic about me. I originally thought that this play probably had a market in the north, but I didn't expect that the southern audience also recognized it. That gives me a lot of motivation.

I don't have any concerns about dressing up ugly. The reason why the director chose me is because I look ugly. When I was young, I was not pretty, and now I am thinner and smaller and more vicissitudes (laughs), and I am closer to my ugly lady in appearance. Of course, I am not a rural person myself, and I deliberately blackened a lot when I put on makeup.

Reporter: What makes the audience shine is that you played a noble and domineering mother in "Iron Pear Blossom". What do you think of this character?

Zhang: Before the filming of "Tie Pear Blossom", the director and the investor had a conflict on the selection of Mrs. Zhao, the investor wanted to find an old lady with a similar appearance to play, and the director felt that if the role of Mrs. Kuo was played by some actors, it was too typed, he said that Zhang Shaohua could also act, and insisted on finding me to act. I don't know the director, he trusts me so much, I think I must also fight for the director, can not give him a deduction. So I also did a lot of preparation, memorizing lines, copying scripts, which is a stupid way. But I'm old, and that helps with memory.

Critic actor, "job-hopping" film and television

Reporter: Why did you study drama criticism in the first place, is it because you have had a talent for acting since you were a child?

Zhang: At that time, I didn't know what acting was, what it was to comment on drama. In our time, it was impossible to have the money and environment to read any interest classes for children as we do today. At that time, it was because my family was poor and needed to reduce the burden on my family, so I went to the drama school. I didn't expect to be admitted. I was 13 years old.

Reporter: Why did you "jump ship" to act in film and television dramas later? Judging from the network information, your film and television drama works seem to start from "Wuyi Immortal World" in 1993, have you been acting in commentaries before?

Zhang: The first time I was "electrocuted" was in the 1970s, when my critics theater funded a film on film, which was a play rehearsed by the theater itself, and then made a lot of film and television dramas. The performance forms are similar, Li Baotian, Chen Xiaoyi, etc. are all opera actors.

Reporter: In 2005, you won the Best Actress Award at the Shanghai TV Festival. What does that award mean to you? Has there been any change in the work since the award?

Zhang: Nothing has changed. There was no difference between before and after I won the award, I was an old lady, and no one wanted to catch up with me and write about me. In 2008, I also won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the Monaco Film Festival for a Sino-Japanese co-production film "Pure Love", which was brought back by the director and given to me at the dinner table in Beijing. The outside world hardly knows that unlike the time When Jiang Wenli won the award, the media began to report all the way from the moment she got on the plane. How to say it, my old lady is relatively simple, there is a scene to shoot, other things do not matter.

The Best Actress Award won at the Shanghai TV Festival is actually a supporting role. My first female lead role was in "Always Go Home and See.". Our film and television creations rarely have scenes in which the old lady is the protagonist.

Reporter: Do you think that we are too short of such film and television dramas from the perspective of the elderly?

Zhang: I didn't think about that. Film and television drama creation is first used to meet the audience's viewing needs, followed by the return of investors' interests. If it is all the drama of old men and old women, from a commercial point of view, it will also lose the middle-aged and young audience, which should be the mainstream audience. How do you get back the money that people have thrown in?

Reporter: After "Mother's War", do you have any new arrangements or plans for your next work?

Zhang: At present, the big job has not been picked up, so I will record some programs in Beijing or give some dramas as a string of characters. I never had a specific plan for my work, I just went with the flow. The actor's line is originally freelance, someone looks for you to shoot a scene, and no one looks for a rest.

Just actors, not stars

Reporter: As an actor, you have neither an agent nor an assistant, why is that?

Zhang: When I started in the 1970s, everyone had no assistants and no so-called brokerage companies, so I didn't have that habit. Didn't the old saying say that life is in motion? I'm getting older and older, and if I don't do it myself, I really can't do it more and more. In addition, calling the assistant, the assistant's round-trip fee and the degree of food and accommodation during the crew, etc., all increase the burden of the crew, and I am not willing to add trouble to the crew. Of course, I am not saying that I will definitely not look for an assistant in the future, after all, I have gone up in age, so I will look for it when I need it later.

Reporter: Do you have any advice for young actors today?

Zhang: There is nothing special to suggest. Today's young people are exposed to a lot more things than we are, more comprehensive than we are, they know more things, and they have more advantages in shaping characters than we do.

Reporter: It is said that you had the opportunity to participate in Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and play the mother of Yu Jiaolong, why did you miss it? Pity?

Zhang: At that time, director Ang Lee I met, the costumes were also ready, they first went to Xinjiang to shoot a play, my role was in Huangshan, said that they would notify me when they finished filming in Xinjiang in two or three months. I'm excited myself. But at that time, I didn't sign a contract, and I didn't know what day they would come back, and when they came back and temporarily informed me to shoot, I happened to shoot a movie in Beijing, and I had signed a contract, and my role was very heavy, and the crew didn't let anyone go, so they had to miss it. This shows that the blessing does not belong to me.

Reporter: You are still healthy in your long life, and some people have concluded that you are a twelve-character health sutra "good mentality, do good deeds, exercise often, and are not picky eaters", is this right?

Zhang: At the beginning of September, I had pneumonia, and now I am very well, but I am still in a semi-rest state. Good health may be because I have a better mentality, I am a more typical northern old lady, nothing goes to the heart, according to the rougher saying is "no heart and no lungs." I also don't like to compete, and if others want to fight, I will let it. There is no desire, and it is more contemptuous of fame and fortune. Besides, fame and fortune are things that you can't run, and it's not that you can fly when you get there.

There is incorrect information on the Internet that says that I am a "post-30s", but in fact I am a "post-40s". I don't want to say what year, month and day I was born, because now as soon as I enter the crew, it is popular to ask about the genus and constellation to predict whether it is compatible. I don't understand the constellations, nor do I mean to use the genus to have a "disagreement" with anyone, if I have to say, then I belong to the elephant, and I and everyone just want to cooperate well and act.

Reporter: After acting in so many plays, many audiences also remember you, do you have the feeling of a star?

Zhang: I don't feel like a star, and the evaluation I most want to get is that the audience says, "You're a good actor." The profession of actor is only relatively different from the work content of most people, but if you distinguish yourself from ordinary people just because you are an actor familiar to the audience, it is too wrong. Be a man, or don't find the north.

(Originally published in Liberation Daily, December 24, 2010, reporter Li Junna, intern Li Yinan)

Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Zhang Yi Title Image Source: Jin Dinggen Photo Infographic Photo Editor: Xiang Jianying

Source: Author: Junna Li