The Paper's reporter Yang Kaiting
"Together", which was highly discussed a while ago, told the story of the new crown epidemic in the form of a unit drama. Cao Dun directed one of the units " Rescuer "Rescuer", telling the story of the most dangerous time in Wuhan, medical staff from all over the country rushed to Wuhan to support, in the face of the new virus, there was no particularly effective treatment plan at the beginning, and more and more patients had to be faced every day, and the medical workers were physically exhausted to the limit, but also under great psychological pressure.
"We wanted to show how they (the paramedics) adjusted their mental state in this cruel situation." Actor Yu Haolei said that the crew reached such a consensus when reading the script.
Stills from "Together", Yu Haolei plays Wei Li
In the play, Yu Haolei plays a doctor who supports Wuhan, after the sudden death of a patient who has clearly improved, learns that the patient's child has just been born, and a person quietly collapses in the corridor. His performance was very restrained and moving, and some audiences recognized him: Yuan Zai in "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", Yang Yuting in "The Young Marshal", and Brother Cang in "Rescue Mr. Wu". In the industry for more than two decades, he has created many memorable villain roles. The villain he plays can also resonate with the audience, such as the "Yuan Zai" who is good at seeing the wind and making the rudder, the villain is a villain thoroughly, but Yu Haolei's performance is delicate enough to make people shocked at some moments: Such a villain's side, don't we have it?
Screenshot of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", Yu Haolei plays Yuan Zai
In domestic film and television dramas, the functionality of the villain role is often too large, but the humanity of the character itself is lost. Therefore, it is easy to be "bad" and thin and false. But Yu Haolei can always portray one villain after another into vivid and real. "From the moment I started, I realized that playing any role can't be forgotten: any role falls into life, he is a person, he can't define himself: I am a bad person." 」
"You can't just come up and say: I'm just willing to do bad things, and I've got great satisfaction in doing bad things." This kind of person has, antisocial personality, but our film and television works rarely appear. In many works, including some of the characters I have portrayed, he has all kinds of compulsions, or excessive desires, and he chooses to get what he wants through immoral behavior, illegal behavior. Then what I play must not be 'I want to work hard to be bad', I want to play the desire itself. "The director and screenwriter often create the role because of the functional needs, but the actor wants to think: the character does not exist for the function, he should live in the parallel universe of the story, must really exist in the universe, and the task and function should be hidden behind the character's life, Yu Haolei thinks so.
Always playing the villain, Yu Haolei is also a little helpless, "Actor is a chosen profession, itself I do not have a strong market awareness, so it is even more impossible to have the right to choose, can only say that I think it is not suitable for me, refuse, but can not refuse too much, then there may be no job." "But for him, the so-called decent villain, it doesn't make much difference." For me it's actually the same as creating positive characters. ”
Stills of "Young Marshal", Yu Haolei played Yang Yuting
Because it is always possible to interpret the supporting roles to be divine, some self-media have labeled Yu Haolei as a "god green leaf". He didn't pay much attention to the word "green leaves", but he didn't mind a little about the praise of "God". "It seems that everything must be labeled now, this makes me feel not particularly comfortable in my heart, I can't move the acting skills will 'explode', I can't move on the 'God', this fixed sentence is placed in front of me, I feel a little embarrassed." 」 Yu Haolei said it sincerely.
Yu Haolei, who came from a science major and studied computer science, was a friend of his parents' dry drama who recommended him to play a small role in a drama. Yu Haolei originally did not take it very seriously, but when he auditioned, he had never been trained in acting, and he was so nervous that he could not say anything. The director gently asked him to leave, and then told people: This child can't do it, you can't see him walking. Yu Haolei looked at himself: "I am very angry, this anger is not for others, but from looking down on myself." He forced himself to practice repeatedly, begging the director to give him another chance, and finally got the role: a bookstore clerk with few lines.
During the performance, Yu Haolei slowly realized that he liked to perform, "every day I was thinking about how to make this role more reasonable and more organically integrated into the whole story." It became fun. And after the final performance, the director also sighed with Yu Haolei's parents: this child really did not expect, The first day was like that, but now it is like this, too this child. With the encouragement of this director, Yu Haolei was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy.
However, what followed was not a smooth road, and in a group of beautiful and smooth children in the acting department, Yu Haolei's appearance was indeed not outstanding. "People are self-aware, I know that I am really not good-looking, whether I can survive on the job of acting, that is a question." 」 After entering the industry, this contrast is even more obvious. Yu Haolei said to himself, sometimes he was really depressed to the point of not being able to eat, but he also gritted his teeth and gave himself a set of chicken blood. The audition was brushed, "the truth is only in the hands of a few people"; the heart was uncomfortable, "The heavens will descend on the Scythians, and they will first suffer their hearts, work their bones, and starve their bodies..."
Many years ago, Yu Haolei starred in the movie "Summer Warm Yangyang", and one day, someone gave him a copy of the Beijing Evening News and said: You are shortlisted. Yu Haolei did not believe it, and took a closer look, he was really nominated for the best actor at the Beijing University Student Film Festival. Yu Haolei was in a trance, followed by a sigh of relief, he did not expect to win the award, he felt: Well, I can indeed do this line of work.
Screenshot of "Summer Warm Yangyang", Yu Haolei plays Dezi
【Dialogue】
Everyone has their own tastes, there is no need to denigrate others
The Paper: In some of your interviews, there are always titles like "God Supporting Character" and "God Green Leaf", what do you personally think of these statements?
Yu Haolei: I just saw this kind of statement before, and there must have been a little awkwardness in my heart in an instant, and there was also a little bit of bitterness in saying that the sentimental point was also a little sour. But from another point of view, film and television is a group of creative works to achieve, even if a mass actor, without him can not do, there must be someone to do this thing. "God" is not "God", which is what makes me a little mind, not the words "green leaves". It seems that now everything must be labeled, there must be a setting, this makes me feel not particularly comfortable, the acting skills will "explode", the acting skills will be "god" at every turn, and I feel a little embarrassed to put this fixed sentence in front of me.
The Paper: You seem to have said that the label of acting is equally terrible as the label of no acting. I think this sentence is quite interesting, now the industry, public opinion are revealing a deification of "acting", deification of the so-called "drama bone" trend, especially can not look at the traffic, but rely on traffic. You don't seem to care much about this kind of certification about acting skills, or whether it's praise.
Yu Haolei: Maybe because I am a science student, there are many things I like to think about on my own. What is acting, what is traffic, I also thought about this problem in the first two years, I felt at that time, this may be a way of bringing goods in the commodity economy and society, a way of shouting. They simply divide the audience into two groups, one is that I want to see the face, I want the flow, I love it badly; the other is to look at the acting skills, to see the so-called "show". With a forced division of camps, merchants can go and sell different actors.
Now I think that maybe the labels of "acting" and "traffic" are not all given by businesses, but people are naturally divided, because people will divide their own kind through ideology or speech, so that everyone will have common topics, will form small groups, to obtain spiritual pleasure and sense of belonging, which is actually a blameless thing. But to attack each other and scold fans, I think it is not necessary. Everyone has their own tastes, there is no need to denigrate others.
Regarding acting and no acting, both of these labels are terrible, and what I said at the time is that the label of having acting skills is terrible because I will not dare to fail. But the acting thing, or the creation thing, its fun sometimes breaks through, even if it fails, at least I have accumulated the experience of failure. Don't get to the end is inertia, everyone says that the acting is too good, this type of acting is too good, just want to see him play such a person, that has been playing such a person, and ultimately is copying himself.
Screenshot of "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an"
The Paper: I also saw that I didn't mind being a "green leaf" and was willing to "hold" them when I met young actors. In fact, it is quite a rare thing, because now everyone is willing to publicize what "drama bones" crush "traffic" acting skills.
Yu Haolei: Yes, I may be a little bit different, I really don't approve of the way of "crushing" the opponent's performance. The play is completed by everyone together, your role is good-looking, other people's is not good-looking, you play the collapse, nothing will be lost, then what is the meaning of the whole play collapse?
So why don't you talk about stand-up comedy or talk shows? That is the form of performance that only shows personal charm. I remember when I was performing "The Merchant of Venice" last year, the director gathered the actors in the theater the night before the performance, and then stressed: The actors only need to do one thing on the stage, that is, to love your opponents, to trust your opponents, because all the glory and glitter on the stage is given to you by them. This is very much in line with my philosophy, because when you selflessly throw everything to your opponent, so that he can stand in front of the camera or stage in a flash, he will naturally return his best things to you, which completes a so-called "color" scene. If I say with contempt, disdain, and crush everywhere, what will come out in the end? I don't quite know, he may have nothing to do with the play, nothing to do with the character.
And we have the word "traffic", and the audience that likes "traffic" is mostly young viewers. Seriously, how about young people liking young "traffic"? It's like when we were young, our parents said that martial arts novels and Hong Kong and Taiwan romances can't be read, they are all poisonous weeds, and they will ruin their lives after reading them. Parents are relishing the reading of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and the like, and we think this thing is too boring. But when we reach the age of 40, it is really good to watch "Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin". You can't force a young person who doesn't have so much life experience to like more mature literature and art, everyone has their own preferences, and this preference will change with age, there is no need to force others, it is acceptable, what cannot be accepted is completely disengaged, that is unacceptable, but you want to say that there are shortcomings in acting, there is room for growth, who is not growing little by little?
Yu Haolei
Acting is a process of constant denial and affirmation
The Paper: You came into contact with drama performances by chance and embarked on the road of being an actor. Last year, I returned to the drama stage, performed "The Merchant of Venice", and returned to the drama stage after many years.
Yu Haolei: Of course, the feeling is much more mature than 20 years ago. When I got the offer, my first reaction was that of course I wanted to go, and the second was deep uneasiness: Can I do it? Shakespeare is a giant, and when you want to stand on the shoulders of giants, even if you can't get a high score, you can't be like a flea on the shoulders of a giant, right? Disgusting, right? So I was very anxious, but I liked to challenge myself, so I kept telling myself that I must do this thing, even if I was scolded, I had to do it, and I had to do something different, and interpret the character of Sherlock in a new way.
People portray Sherlock as a vitriolous Jewish businessman, and everyone has the stereotype that Sherlock is a shameless person, and I don't want to reverse this, I just want to find a reason for his actions in the relationship between the characters, not just to be a clown and win the laughter of the audience.
Judging from the results, I think I did it anyway, because I read some reviews and some viewers said that when I finally collapsed in the center of the stage, I couldn't help but cry. I was right to say that, because he was actually a poor man too.
So I reluctantly satisfied myself first, maybe in a few years and then have other experiences, looking back, I may "look down" on myself again, no way, this is a process of constant denial and affirmation.
The Paper: So you keep watching past performances and denying previous performances?
Yu Haolei: Occasionally, I look back, maybe because when a new role enters, a certain detail or moment makes me flash back to a role from many years ago, I may suddenly think, in fact, how I played it at that time was better.
Stills from "Together"
The villain made me more cruel to myself
The Paper: After playing so many so-called villains, do you think they have any impact on you?
Yu Haolei: Maybe, because I did play a lot of fierce characters (laughs), and the impact was that when I faced some things, I became more determined, I would be more cruel to myself, and there was nothing I couldn't do.
The Paper: Can you give me an example? Is this determination or is this situation that makes you decide?
Yu Haolei: I remember once I was diving in Malaysia, I fell on a trestle, and the forefoot of my foot rubbed off a piece of meat the size of a thumb nail cap, and then I threw away my sneakers, bought a nail clipper, a bottle of alcohol, and took care of it myself. When I perform this kind of "small surgery" on myself, I will joke with myself, create various "desperate situations" in my head, and tell myself what is this? Not only did it lose a piece of flesh, but it didn't hurt the internal organs, and it wasn't a broken leg.
There is also a more detailed idea: whether it is the pain experienced in life or the events, it is all material that you can use at any time when you create different characters and enter different story environments in the future. For example, under the condition of suffering, how does your whole body act? How does pain affect facial muscle activity? How should I convulse under close-up shots? What's the difference between a broken arm and a broken lock? It's so interesting.
It is impossible to say that I received a script to say that I should experience something, there is no time for you, to accumulate a little bit in daily life, play the needle, you know what is going on with a needle. For example, go to the hospital for surgery, say that you must measure an temperature, a person has this experience for the first time, there must be all kinds of entanglements and embarrassments in psychology. If you were to act in such a play, what would you be in? What will the audience see? We can't shoot private parts, only actors, right?
The Paper: That actor is also not easy, bad things, we ordinary people will choose to forget and ignore, but as an actor, you have to experience some painful situations, you have to take the initiative to be aware of this physical and mental pain process.
Yu Haolei: No one in the world is easy, even the second generation of the rich is not easy. In addition, I would like to mention that I am actually a little reluctant to expose a lot of things to myself. Because my work actually "sells" my own "flesh", my face, my body, are exposed to the camera or stage of the "medium of expression"; more importantly, I am "selling" my "emotions", taking my past life experiences to build a credible character. I have "pulled out" so much, outside of work I want to stop, some contract requirements of the publicity to participate in it, you can not go, quiet life, because the accumulation of materials, is a lifetime to do.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Liu Wei