Produced by Beijing News
The wandering eyes are always observing, like a wild horse crouching in the jungle. He would observe a stranger passing by in his life, every move, every smile, it seemed that an interesting story would happen; he had many books, recording what he saw and heard at different stages, a certain sentence that hit the heart when he was exercising, reading, watching movies, or his own rapidly changing mood and thoughts. Occasionally insomnia, he will mobilize some of his memories, these vivid trivialities of life make him feel at ease.
Life is also the background of the performance of traveling. From liu Wenqin, an unruly teenager trapped in his original family and forced to step into society early in the TV series "The Sky of the Wind Dog Boy", Zuo Kun, who constantly collided with dreams and reality in the movie "Wild Horse Mane", to Zhao Wei, an impulsive, enthusiastic, upright and righteous police officer in the TV series "Mist Tracking" that ended tonight... In the eyes of these low-level people, you can always gain insight into the perception of the world and the ambition of expression. However, in 2020, after Zhou You won the best actor at the Pingyao Film Festival with "Wild Horse Mane", the first thing he did was to "hide" back to his hometown and refuse the exposure that most actors flocked to. He was afraid that the "circumnavigation" would be explored. "It's okay to be hot on the character, but I can't," he said.
The jury of the Pingyao Film Festival once gave Zhou You the following award: "... He erases the traces of performance to the maximum, completely immerses himself in the role, and makes people believe that he is the character, and the role is him. "Circumnavigate is still a wild horse, just hiding behind the character forever.
Character photography / Beijing News reporter Guo Yanbing
There is no methodology for acting, only "integration" into the character
Zhou You's first time as a policeman dates back to the 2017 movie "Lobster Police", in which he played a rookie criminal police officer Who just graduated from college. Nowadays, Zhao Wei in "Mist Tracking" is also a criminal policeman, but it is difficult for Zhou You to simply classify him by how much experience. He carefully counted the differences between the two characters from various aspects of character personality, drama setting, script rhythm: "Chen Kasa showed a feeling of being a little more stunned, not understanding anything too much, and has been learning and growing stages. But Zhao Wei was completely different. The overall rhythm of "Mist Tracking" is close, and there are many characters, and Zhao Wei wants to show more experience and professionalism. This is actually a relatively large contrast. ”
Set photo of "The Mist Tracks"
For Zhou You, each character is a unique life experience. For example, Zhao Wei. Zhou You believes that the fit with this role is not high - Zhao Wei is hot-blooded but calm, good at controlling the overall situation, and can calmly support the entire serious case team in the face of hasty scenes. But when a mature criminal police officer keeps tracking down the case without success, will it collapse, will it calm down, will it be lost, or will it have any physical reaction? Every time he plays an unfamiliar social role, he needs to reinvent his "subconscious".
Before filming "Mist Tracking", he observed the emotional changes and every move of the criminal police through a large number of films, coupled with the director's signal during the shooting, the clues provided by the acting teacher, and his understanding of the characters, which constituted the most real judgment of "Zhao Wei". "If you think about what to do at the moment of the tour, I have made several judgments before, but it does not seem to be very accurate."
Even Liu Wenqin, who has a similar experience with himself and a closer personality (the character played by Zhou You in the TV series "The Sky of the Wind Dog Boy"), Zhou You also needs to get along with "him" and then integrate "he" into his blood. He once wrote a short biography of Liu Wenqin, who did not have much role: "The harm brought to him by his original family, or the passive face of society at a very young age, some things he uses is the most primitive method (to deal with). In this role, he is holding himself, becoming more mature, more calm, more able to face life, but he is forced. As a Nanjing native, Zhou You, also so that Liu Wenqin can "subconsciously" speak an authentic Chongqing dialect, specially with the language teacher from morning to night to learn, whether it is eating, sleeping, fitness, insist on using Chongqing dialect to communicate with the teacher.
Last year, Zhou You participated in the TV series "The Sky of the Wind Dog Boy".
It is only the simplest "walking in" role, but it has achieved one small person after another with the mark of traveling. "Do you have any way to get yourself better into different roles?" Zhou You directly denied this question, "You seem to think that there must be specific steps to enter a role, I think I am not." "There is no methodology for Zhou You's performance, and he is not good at summarizing experience and talking to the outside world. He believes that the most interesting thing about acting is that with the accumulation of experience in each work, self-ability can constantly think, evolve, and improve, and naturally grow.
He once recalled such a scene in the "Wind Dog" in a media interview - Liu Wenqin lost a 50 yuan lottery ticket and kept rummaging in the trash can late at night. This is a scene filmed before the end of the year. Zhou You said that he did not think about how to enter the emotions, but Liu Wenqin was Zhou You, and Zhou You was Liu Wenqin. The director shouted to start, and Zhou You followed Liu Wenqin's heart.
Become an actor and learn to reflect on yourself
When I was a student, I enjoyed observing all kinds of people around me. Sometimes on the bus, the car is stop-and-go, and the people on the side of the road are also stop-and-go; sometimes after school, sitting at the station and chatting with classmates forget the time, until everyone is gone, he is willing to go home with peace of mind.
On the day of the interview, he inadvertently chatted with reporters about the topic of "working mothers", "why do you have a baby at such a young age" and "it will be very hard to take your own children". His questioning was sincere and caring, and people did not feel the slightest offense. "For people, for you, for the staff, I am interested, I think it is very interesting."
Observation, which almost became the actor's instinct to travel around, also formed the peripheral nerves of his performance. His brain seems to have an analytical system that inputs life observations, and the system generates some memories of people's experiences, from movements, behavioral details, clothing, to what happens around him at that moment; he can call it up at any time during performance to make up for the judgment of unfamiliar characters.
But trying to observe the circumnavigation through dialogue is mostly in vain. Because he was about to stand in his thirties, he couldn't seem to give himself an accurate definition, and even he began to consciously observe himself only since 2012. That year, he starred in the TV series "All Family Treasures" and became an actor.
In his view, becoming an actor is chosen by fate, just like the psychology produces a signal, "I don't know exactly why I have to do it, or what I will do when I do it." It's a feeling that I want to do. But if you describe the pre-2012 zhou travel, still rootless duckweed, running in different cities, sleeping in the last subway car, serving plates in restaurants for a living, opening Taobao shops, and also rooted in the wholesale market, "actor" does make Zhou you have a socially recognized identity, but also let his life train add destination, "where my ideas come from, my personality, my heart, what my emotions are, I will think." He was desperate to get to know himself and change the parts that the "bystander" seemed bad about.
Stills from the movie "Mustang Mane"
For example, emotions. Circumnavigating like a wild horse, speaking directly and not very softly; he prefers to be spontaneous than self-disciplined. Wei Shujun, the director of "Wild Horse Mane", once talked about the reason for choosing to travel around in an interview, "The role of Zuo Kun still has some resistance, and his kind of resistance, to a large extent, in addition to the environment, he himself is also a bit of a state of competition. This is more demanding for the characteristics of the actor. ”
But after becoming an actor, Zhou You had to face a lot of heavy announcements and exposures every day, and he was not allowed to lose control for any moment. Occasionally, when he had a bad attitude because of exhaustion, he began to learn to remind himself of restraint, like a game between a wild horse and a tamer. "Every day is reflection." He laughed and said, "This is what the actors have brought me." Once you don't restrain yourself in any industry, there will be some problems in life and work. I don't feel like I'm that good most of the time, so I try to change as much as I can. ”
After getting the award, I only hope that everything will "return to zero" as soon as possible.
On October 16, 2020, Zhou You won the Best Actor at the 4th Pingyao International Film Festival for his film "Wild Horse Mane". It was the recognition he had longed for.
The team celebrates, the carnival. But the next day was calm, and Zhou You rushed back to his hometown in Nanjing alone for nearly a week. He told the team that he did not want to return to Beijing for the time being, nor did he arrange any work for him, or expose the topic. He needs to get everything "back to zero" as soon as possible.
Last year, Zhou You won the Best Actor at the 4th Pingyao International Film Festival for his film "Wild Horse Mane".
The same "resistance" occurred after the successive broadcasts of "Wind Dog Boy's Sky" and "Mist Tracking", and his number of fans increased significantly. At that moment he went to cut his hair, and the person sitting next to him called out his name. He just said hello and seemed slightly cramped.
He was afraid that the outside world would notice the travels. "To be honest, there's nothing to observe. Everyone has a different career, my profession is an actor, it is for everyone to see these roles, I personally have nothing special to explore. ”
"Does the profession of an actor, including being recognized by awards, give you a sense of stability?"
"Nothing." He did not hesitate on this question. If the insecurity of traveling in the past came from drifting zero, the confusion of the present comes more from ambition. Jack Gyllenhaal, Christian Bell, Leonardo DiCaprio, traveled around wanted to be such actors. "Characters (on the hot search) can be, I can't."
Beijing News reporter Zhang He
Character photography Guo Yanbing
Edited by Wu Dongni Proofreader Zhao Lin
Source: Beijing News