The author | APo
As an actor, Xu Kaicheng's most impossible to ignore is his 187cm tall and angular Zhou Zheng's appearance, which is the standard male protagonist of many romance novel idol dramas, so it is natural to become a sweet pet drama in the escape hegemony, and from time to time will be "caught" back to play this "old line" role.
Almost ten years ago, he originally debuted as a sunshine boy role, and experienced the role change of almost every actor in the middle, but just in the most popular years of sweet pet drama, Ling Yizhou, the "overlord" of "Why the Boss Wants to Marry Me", achieved an impressive personal representative work that poked at the audience's "Su Point". Until the just-finished costume sweet pet drama "Guozijian Came a Female Disciple" (hereinafter omitted "Guozijian"), the outside world will directly describe his role in the play with the label of "hegemony".
But Xu Kaicheng himself actually does not reject this kind of "label", he believes that actors can first obtain a kind of recognition based on labels, people are in motion forever, and then each step can rely on their own efforts and abilities to open up new situations and new cognitions.
Just like the audience can roughly label some dramas and character types as common before watching the play, but after really watching it, they can perceive the difference between the characters. Then the premise must also be that the actor himself can clearly extract the unique charm of each character from the performance and enlarge it, which is the real test of skill.
Unlike Yan Siye Yan Yunzhi on the Guozi Supervisor Hall, and Qing Mo Dye of Dali Temple and Junlinyuan, the Holy Son of Junwu, Xu Kaicheng gradually found his own actor methodology in "actual combat" again and again.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > "I was a hilarious person in "Guozijian"</h1>
Xu Kaicheng, who debuted nearly ten years ago, until the start of filming "And Listen to Fengming" in the autumn of 2019, basically did not shoot any very formal costume dramas. However, the profession of actor often has an almost "metaphysical" inertia, you shoot a type of drama, and then there will always be many knocks on the door of the same type, "Guozijian" is what he met last summer when he was shooting "Lady Huozhu" in Hengdian.
The fate of the actor and the character always starts with the choice of the double arrow.
For example, "Guozijian", a drama that is mostly post-95 and post-00 actors, found Xu Kaicheng, who was the right year at the time, hoping that through his maturity in age and Zhou Zheng in terms of appearance and temperament, he could play the teacher Of Yan Yunzhi Yan Siye, who could suppress the young students.
Another example is Xu Kaicheng himself, a rare contact with the relaxed theme of adding more comedy components to it, plus the opponent actor is Zhao Lusi, who is already very good at light comedy, so he is a happy big boy on weekdays, and naturally does not hesitate.
With the heart to try, you must quickly take that step to make a decision, do not miss the opportunity, even if you may find that you are not so similar to the role when you really act, but this is the most challenging professional charm for actors.
"I have 6 points of similarity with Yan Yunzhi, that is, in terms of the three views, the attitude toward teaching and educating people, the pursuit of the truth, and others are not the same." But in his view, the fit of the three views is the focus, and it is the actor's identification with the core of the role.
There are many challenges beyond recognition, first of all, from the role of a king with a city heart and a pattern in a relatively heavy drama such as "Lady Hu Zhu", he immediately jumped to the role of a teacher of the Guozijian in the spring wind and rain, and it was still a little difficult in a short time, and some eyes between the hands and feet and even a turn inadvertently retained the king's temperament in the previous role, which needed to be corrected together with the director.
How to jump out of the role of Di Xu in "Lady Hu Zhu"? And how to distinguish it from the costume sweet pet dramas that I have filmed before? His methodology is based on the background and relationship of the characters. He has played the official Dali Siqing who focuses on investigating and judging cases, the noble son in the immortals, the king of a country with extraordinary dignity, the teacher is still the first time, the teacher has the teacher's stability and more constraints, and he needs to put away many of the original things in his own personality.
"I usually love to be funny personality, the scene to see everyone play so relaxed and cheerful, I sometimes can't help it, the tidbits are often laughing, it is difficult to suppress." Although SiYe has his own more exclusive humor, compared to others, he still has to suppress himself more and do a good job of being a teacher first, so I will go to see the portraits of the masters hanging in those schools from the beginning, learn their posture and etiquette, and deliberately push Yan Yunzhi in that direction. ”
Some of the characters are performances that can be integrated into the self, and Yan Yunzhi is the performance that Xu Kaicheng needs to be detached from himself. Become a teacher, become a light comedy protagonist group to hold a serious frame, and then work with the opponent actors to complete the relaxed atmosphere of expression.
"I'm more of a cheer in 'Guozijian' and play a role in setting off everyone."
Fortunately, the plot has gone through a third, the teacher-student relationship has "deteriorated", Yan Yunzhi and Sangqi have gone to another layer of lovers' relationship, Xu Kaicheng can also "take the opportunity" to gradually put down the teacher's shelf when he is alone with Sangqi, integrate into the relaxed atmosphere in the tone of the story, and create some hilarious plots with the opponent actors.
"There was a scene where I and Zhuo Wenyuan Yan Xiaolang were stuffed under the bed by Sang Qi and hid, and I was more comfortable to play, because Yan Yunzhi was very afraid of being caught, and his cramped feeling could let me release some of my own things out without having to hold it all the time."
The most fun part of light comedy is nothing more than the natural release of laughter, there are collective efforts and impromptu play.
There is a drama that reads "Sang Qi carried Yan Yunzhi", but when the actors were in place to audition, where could the 160cm Zhao Lusi bear the 187cm Xu Kaicheng? As a result, the two people came and went directly to play in a pure funny way. These are his own special favorites.
"Except for Jim Carrey's comedy, which has a very strong control over facial expressions, I have absolutely no problem with all kinds of other comedies, I know, just because the roles you see now may not be suitable for comedy, and the actors need to respect the characters."
After taking on a challenge and getting an experience, Xu Kaicheng was still full of confidence, "If I can meet a similar role or theme next time, I will definitely take it better." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > "I spiral up during the performance"</h1>
"It's not easy to talk about, but the psychological barrier is gone." In three years, with the appearance of the face bully, I have also filmed a lot of sweet pet dramas, there are dog blood dreams, there are light and funny, when I first saw the script when filming "Why the Boss Wants to Marry Me", I also called out "shy" men who have cleared up their own set of practices.
The audience always thinks that the sweet pet cool drama should be simpler than more serious and heavy themes, but they do not know that the actor's professional knowledge is constrained by him.
Sweet pet gives people a sense of dream, the sense of dreaminess is a certain degree of distance from reality, he always wants to think about every plot close to reality when he sees the script, it seems that it is not so smooth, and the "big straight man" has been confused for a while. Later, I also practiced a lot, and finally understood the plot that was needed to create a sense of fantasy in those sweet pets, sometimes it did not need to be promoted by strong logic, but how to control the story in a sense of appropriate suspension of proportions, which was the unique style of this type of subject.
Therefore, there is a logical basis for tracking the characters from Yan Yunzhi's master identity setting, although he always believes that as an actor, it is still difficult to change the rigorous thinking of the story logic, but it is also a professional embodiment to adjust the tightness of the logic according to different drama themes.
"Actors still have some good habits to stick to." Maybe it's about his dedication to the logic of the script, or maybe he's talking about respect for different story themes and character types, and of course, he remembers the habit of greeting everyone when he first entered the industry.
He still remembers that Xu Kaicheng at that time was particularly nervous, did not know what to show in front of the camera, the director arranged his first shot to send flowers to girls with a warm man's smile, he was only completely scripted, and even lost himself and laughed stiffly. However, the humble attitude of learning from all the staff in the audience cannot be forgotten.
"You can always learn something new on set."
To shoot "Late Night Canteen", even if it is a cameo, it is also moved by the canteen owner played by Huang Lei and every actor who will produce a rival play, even if there is no way to immediately absorb and then feedback on the performance in a short period of time, but as long as you think about it every day, over time the natural digestion, the future performance can also be proud of this.
"I just finished filming "Police Glory", directed by Ding Hei, Jing Chunge (Wang Jingchun), Zhao Yangge, Ning Lige... So many good actors and good colleagues, they are talking about the scene, talking in advance, shooting and talking, everyone talking together, this atmosphere is very beneficial. ”
Every time the benefit is a refinement, and there is a big psychological gap like Di Xu in "Lady Hu Zhu", with extreme, heavy, complex things in the character, once immersed, there is pressure, but also very comfortable.
That is, starting from the filming of "Madame Hu Zhu" in May last year, and then filming "Guozijian", and finally until the "Moon Zhaoji" in April this year, Xu Kaicheng stayed in Hengdian for a whole year, every day in the ultra-long standby work, each cycle is also very long, "of course, it will be very tired, physically and mentally exhausted." "But it is also a pleasure to be able to nibble down the role you like and make your own satisfactory effect."
"The state I enjoy the most is that I am very satisfied with the scene I just filmed, I can harvest happiness for a long time, and become more confident, at that time I will feel that the whole state, including acting, will also have several steps of progress." If you think you don't act well, from the mentality point of view, you will take a step or two back, I have probably been in the process of performing in this way in a spiral. ”
Fortunately, he has always been a happy worker, as long as he is given a month's rest, how tired, will naturally heal.