On the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the party, the Beijing News launched a series of interviews on "Sparks of Fire - The Image of Party Members in Film and Television". Assembling three generations of actors, old, middle and young, they have all been associated with party members because of their roles, baptized by the spirit of party members, and thus formed a lifelong belief in self-conscious pursuit, strict self-discipline on the road of performance, and forge ahead. Spanning a hundred years of time and reliving the years of burning passion, through the narration of the actors, we try to restore that period of glory, with the establishment of the image of excellent party members, and carry forward the spirit of a new generation of party members.
In the TV series "Big Waves and Sands" broadcast this year, Liu Cong starred in the role of Yang Kaihui.
Among the actors who play Yang Kaihui, Liu Cong may not be the most well-known to the outside world, but she has starred four times in eight years, which makes her have an indescribable affection for Yang Kaihui.
From the TV series "Mao Zedong", "Communist Liu Shaoqi", "Big Waves and Sands" to the movie "Founding General Shuai Awarded the Medal of 1955", every interpretation of Liu Cong brings people's thoughts back to the struggle era of "Huxiang Female Jie". In addition, Yang Kaihui's identity in the work is not only Mao Zedong's wife, but also a daughter and mother, but also a revolutionary full of mission, and a communist party member with firm faith.
Playing the same role four times, Liu Cong believes that this is the greatest luck as an actor, which can allow her to experience Yang Kaihui's life over and over again, and with richer experience, Yang Kaihui's film and television image will be perfect again and again. In these eight years, Yang Kaihui's party spirit has also subtly influenced Liu Cong, "I think it is a firm belief, and people engaged in any industry need to learn." ”
The female empathy allowed her to be caught in the eyes of the director
Yang Kaihui's room was small, with only a table and a small bed with a drapery hanging from it. The first time Liu Cong stood in the room, tears poured out uncontrollably.
Eight years ago, Liu Cong had just finished his last work and was taken by his agent to meet the casting director of the TV series "Mao Zedong". Although he has not rested for three consecutive months, the agent told Liu Cong that Yang Kaihui's role has interviewed thousands of people, but the director still wants to meet her after reading Liu Cong's information.
As a gift work for the 120th anniversary of Mao Zedong's birth, the TV series "Mao Zedong" presents a panoramic view of the brilliant life of a generation of great Mao Zedong. As Mao Zedong's wife, Yang Kaihui has many scenes in the play, covering almost most of her life course from falling in love with Mao Zedong in her teens, having three children, and ending her life at the age of 29. This is also the first time that Yang Kaihui has been almost completely presented in film and television works.
At that time, 27-year-old Liu Cong was married and had a 3-year-old daughter, similar to Yang Kaihui's life experience. When the director heard her introduction, his eyes lit up. That time, Liu Cong did not audition for the play, but only talked about the life of children and working mothers. After the end, the director gave her the script directly.
Many artists are returning home, and Liu Cong is the first to get the script. The broker was thrilled. "Maybe the director considered that I was a young mother myself, and it was no problem to play the state of a teenager, and there was no sense of violation when I was 30 years old."
Soon, Liu Cong cut his hair short, set makeup, and visited Mao Zedong and General Mao Xinyu, a descendant of Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui, before entering the group. Chairman Mao's family did not say much, but stressed that actors must not use plastic surgery. Then, Liu Cong consulted a large number of Yang Kaihui's historical materials on the Internet, read the letters left by Yang Kaihui, and followed the crew to Yang Kaihui's hometown of Changsha Bancang, Hunan. Nowadays, Bancang has been renamed Kaihui Town, Changsha County, and many local restaurants, photo studios, and many shops are named after "Kaihui". There are too many marks of Yang Kaihui there.
As a gift work for the 120th anniversary of Mao Zedong's birth, the TV series "Mao Zedong" is Liu Cong's first appearance as Yang Kaihui.
The crew of "Mao Zedong" built a house where Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui lived in Bancang as a filming location. The courtyard of this old mansion is large, but Yang Kaihui's room is very small, with only a table and a small bed with a drapery hanging from it. The first time Liu Cong stood in the room, tears poured out uncontrollably. At that moment, two women who were nearly a century apart seemed to feel sorry for each other in the same space. "I suddenly felt Yang Kaihui's difficulty. The husband is not around, and you must stick to the rear. As a mother, as a wife, I seemed to understand her feelings. ”
The "sense of proportion" of multiple identities is the most difficult to grasp
"The pursuit of the revolutionary cause, the waiting for her husband, and the unswerving perseverance of her feelings, her heart is actually very entangled and complicated."
In Liu Cong's understanding, Yang Kaihui is not only a revolutionary, but also a Communist Party member, but also a woman with flesh and blood, who is both a daughter, a wife, and a mother. How to grasp the "sense of proportion" of multiple identities is the most difficult part of the performance.
In the play, Yang Kaihui's lines are not many, and his personality is not very distinct, and he stands by Mao Zedong's side most of the time. At the beginning of the shooting, although Liu Cong only needed to stand there, he could not find the inner support of the characters. Then she visited the former residence of Yang Kaihui martyr and the Yang Kaihui Memorial Hall, which left many of Yang Kaihui's notes and letters from that year. There were no telephones in those days, and the only way people could convey their thoughts was by writing letters. Some of Yang Kaihui's letters to Mao Zedong were sent out, and some were not sent. At the beginning of the letter, most of the poems were written, and the poems were drawn; but it is said that there were also some resentments later. Until the end, the enemy kept coming to check yang kaihui and Mao Zedong, and the letters she wrote to Mao Zedong could only be hidden in the wall. "Really (she) waited too long. Feeling hopeful and hopeless. Liu Cong sighed.
In her understanding, Yang Kaihui is often talked about as the woman behind Mao Zedong. But in fact, Yang Kaihui, who came from an intellectual family, also has unlimited ideals for revolution, for his career, and for his faith. It was that era, a woman's poetry and far away. "The pursuit of the revolutionary cause, the waiting for her husband, and the unswerving perseverance of her feelings, her heart is actually very entangled and complicated."
As a wife, mother, and revolutionary, Liu Cong believes that Yang Kaihui's multiple identities are the most difficult part to play.
One of the scenes that Liu Cong remembered most in "Mao Zedong" was Yang Kaihui and Mao Zedong quarreling. In 1922, Mao Zedong established the Xiang District Committee of the Communist Party of China in Hunan and served as the secretary of the district party committee. At that time, Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui's first child had been born. In the script setting of the TV series "Mao Zedong", Yang Kaihui has also had a son and is pregnant with a second child. Mao Zedong was busy with official duties and it took him a long time to return home. The scene shows that Mao Zedong had not yet returned home for half a day, and because the Central Committee wanted to transfer him to Shanghai as the secretary of the Central Bureau, he bought a ticket in advance and decided to leave immediately the next day. Yang Kaihui wanted to pack her bags, take her children to Shanghai, and help Mao Zedong take care of official business, but Mao Zedong refused, thinking that it was not appropriate for her to go. For a time, Yang Kaihui exploded the long-accumulated resentment and grievances of a wife and an ambitious revolutionary.
Also as a woman, at that moment Liu Cong's heart seemed to be completely standing with Yang Kaihui. He often did not meet with her husband, and every day she was afraid that her husband would encounter danger; the revolutionary cause could not help if he wanted to help, and at home he helped Mao Zedong write a lot of materials on the table, especially hoping that he could take a look, but he did not see it.
Liu Cong deeply perceives the anxiety of women who want to balance their careers and families. In fact, Yang Kaihui's strings have always been very tight. Also as a woman, I could feel Yang Kaihui's heart at that time, the feeling that the value of women was not understood by the society at that time. ”
Firm faith is worth learning from everyone
"After so many years of having the opportunity to play the same role four times, I can have such an experience, experience, and perform the same clip differently."
After "Mao Zedong", Liu Cong starred in Yang Kaihui three times, each time with a completely different experience. The second time was in 2018 in the TV series "Liu Shaoqi the Communist", her role was very small, mostly around the pot platform, or to help Mao Zedong who was in a meeting, and the characters were more grounded. In 2020, she successively participated in the TV series "Big Waves and Sands", as well as the film "Founding General Awarded 1955" directed by Tang Guoqiang. This time, she felt a huge change in her heart more obviously.
Stills from the TV series "Big Waves and Sands"
It was in the last stage of Yang Kaihui's life, when she was arrested by the warlords, and the enemy pressed her to ask her where Mao Zedong was going, and asked her to publicly announce her divorce from Mao Zedong. Yang Kaihui firmly said: "Sacrifice me is small, success is big", "I want mao zedong and I to break away from the husband and wife relationship, unless the sea is dry and rotten!" ”
Eight years ago in "Mao Zedong", in the same bridge section, Liu Cong's interpretation of the emotion has always been calm. No matter how the interrogators interrogated her, she preferred to die and not say a word. "At that time, I understood That Yang Kaihui was still quite stubborn, but this personality was not exposed. The play is more relaxed, the plot is laid out there, and the audience's feedback can also be. "In "The Great Waves and Sands" and "The Founding General Awarded the Medal 1955", the same interrogation scene, Liu Cong played a completely different feeling from eight years ago." Compared with the past, I may be too superficial, not as close as Yang Kaihui's heart now. ”
She starred in Yang Kaihui four times in eight years, and Liu Cong believes that she is lucky to be an actor.
After experiencing Yang Kaihui's life four times in eight years, now in Liu Cong's understanding, although Yang Kaihui was calm on the surface when he faced the interrogation of the enemy, in fact, his heart was overturned. She knew she was about to die and die, but she still had three children, a husband, and an unfulfilled revolutionary cause. In such a complex but restrained psychological activity, and then starring in this scene, Liu Cong sensed that his eyes, heart, including the rhythm of breathing were different.
Liu Cong always considers himself a lucky actor, "So many years can have the opportunity to play the same role four times, I can have such an experience, experience, and perform the same clip with a different feeling." In these eight years, Yang Kaihui's party spirit has also subtly influenced Liu Cong, "I think it is a firm belief, and the spirit of not forgetting the original heart, people engaged in any industry need to learn." ”
Zhang He, a senior reporter of the Beijing News
Chief Editor Wu Dongni Proofreader Zhao Lin