In the play, Shi Hongxing failed to complete her breakthrough; but returning to the performance level, Yan Ni completed her own breakthrough.
The author | Guo Tie
Edited | Ding Yu
Is Shi Hongxing a good guy or a bad guy? Soon after the TV series "Breakout" began broadcasting, this topic was on the hot search.
On October 21, "Breakout", written by Zhou Meisen, directed by Shen Yan and Liu Haibo, and starring Jin Dong, Yan Ni and Huang Zhizhong, was officially launched. The realist drama kicked off, and Shi Hongxing, played by Yan Ni, was one of the most subversive.
In the play, Shi Hongxing, as a female executive of Jingzhou Zhongfu Group, has no light, and it is difficult to see the city government. She is fiercely inward, flattering, two-sided and three-knife, and also stabbed at the male protagonist - but this role is not hated, but also makes people anxious for her, Weibo netizens commented: "Why doesn't she stand up and step back on Lin Manjiang?" ”
In Yan Ni's view, the role of Shi Hongxing is "pathetic, angry, pitiful, and ridiculous". On October 31, Yan Ni posted a letter to Shi Hongxing on Weibo, dissecting each "decade" in her life. From the childhood when both parents died and was insecure, to the girlhood time when the love sinus first opened, looking up to the adoration of the master and brother, to the year of power-chasing, and finally lost herself at the age of forty.
This is another memorable role that Yan Ni has encountered in her acting career. In the play, Shi Hongxing failed to complete her breakthrough; but returning to the performance level, Yan Ni completed her own breakthrough.
When screenwriter Zhou Mason came with the script of "Breakout", he just said that the character's name was "Shi Hongxing", and Yan Ni was attracted. She imagined a picture of a red apricot growing in a stone, unwilling to fall into the mud, wanting to climb upwards, wanting to be appreciated. She thought, "This man is very mature and restless. She thought. And the name is installed on a female executive of a state-owned enterprise, which is even more interesting.
Previously, Yan Ni played the awe-inspiring county party secretary Xiang Xiuyun in "National Action". Zhou Mason told her that a hundred kinds of people have a hundred faces. He hoped that Yan Ni would abandon her past experience and other references to create a new image of female leaders of state-owned enterprises.
Zhou Mason worked in a coal mine, and when he was young, he met many "miner orphans", whose parents died in the mining accident and grew up under the organization's arrangement. For decades, he watched some of these people become model workers, some became leaders, and some went to prison, and a creative impulse arose.
Zhou Mason said that the characters in "Breakout" have no prototype, but these fictional images have been in his mind for many years. This time, he and the drama party named Yan Ni to star, hoping that she could play a completely different female executive of a state-owned enterprise with rich feelings and human fireworks. After the broadcast of "Breakout", Zhou Mason said again in an interview: "I chose Yan Ni, and now it turns out that I chose her right." ”
This is indeed a character that subverts the audience's perception enough. Shortly after the launch of "Breakout", #Shi Hongxing is a good person or a bad person# on the hot search. As the general manager of Jingzhou Zhongfu Group, she appeared strong and domineering, and when she encountered an incident, she was not guarded; she targeted Qi Ben'an one after another, but her means were childish and inferior; she was fierce and inward-looking, flattering and deceitful, and her wisdom, city government, and courage did not match her identity - a strong sense of mismatch was like a crack, vaguely revealing the secret behind it.
In an interview with Blog World, Yan Ni said: "The audience will ask, how can a person like Shi Hongxing achieve such a leadership position? Then this is her luck and misfortune. ”
Talking about this role, Yan Ni has a lot to say, but the beginning of the topic is still back to the name of "Shi Hongxing". Yan Ni likes to study character names, which belongs to her acting habit of entering the characters.
This time she repeatedly chewed the intention of "red apricot" countless times.
Red apricots, swaggering. Shi Hongxing is a person who will not hide, and all his calculations are exposed. She was the only brother in her life, Lin Manjiang, and she hung a portrait of Lin Manjiang in her office and home, and carried a notebook with her to write down "Lin Manjiang Quotations". She is a gun in Lin Manjiang's hand, and it is also a target that stands in the open.
Red apricots are also the most difficult to withstand the wind and grass. Niu Junjie scolded Shi Hongxing for "encountering something, the ghost cried wolf howl; as soon as he saw the light, he was immediately proud and delicate" was appropriate. Wang Ping'an had an accident, and Shi Hongxing frightened the six gods and no master; Lin Manjiang came forward to "level", and she turned from worry to joy and did not doubt that there was him- just like the red apricot in the wind, it was unbearable to the wind, it could change direction at any time, and it could be blown to pieces at any time.
Yan Ni said: "True master, what wind you come, he does not move, that is, what wind is in front of his eyes, he does not blink, that is a really powerful person." But she wasn't, she couldn't do it with a little bit of wind. ”
In Yan Ni's view, Shi Hongxing's body has places that make people laugh, and there is also a side that makes people pity. She saw the weakness and simplicity in Shi Hongxing's bones. "In fact, the kind of strength she seems to be, is a kind of thing that comes up from the bottom. This person seems to be very complicated, and she also has the most simple things. ”
Placed in the character relationship, the name "Stone Red Apricot" is more chewy. The three brothers and sisters of the protagonist of "Breakthrough", Lin Manjiang, the brother of the master played by Huang Zhizhong, are full of momentum and ambition; Qi Ben'an, the master and disciple played by Jin Dong, stick to the fundamentals and live in peace; and Shi Hongxing is "the courage of two rooms and one hall, which contains the heart of the big villa". The number of lives of the characters is written in the name.
"The name represents the intention of the screenwriter, the author's imagination of the character." This is the reason why Yan Ni likes to study the character's name repeatedly.
When filming "Loading Stage", Yan Ni initially thought that Cai Sufen's role was called Cai Shufen "in line with the name of the village woman in the city", and after discussing with the director, she carefully considered the three words "Cai Sufen", "Her surname is Cai, it is green, and she is connected with Su, but not only 'Su', but also 'Fragrant' in it." So Yan Ni captured the "simple fragrance" feeling of the characters and presented them in the performance.
In September 2018, "Breakout" was launched. Yan Ni soon found that the creative atmosphere of this crew is strong, the script itself is solid, the characters are three-dimensional, the creators have no other interference, and they only need to think about how to play the characters in the play every day, and it is best to "add points".
Every night, Shen Yan and Liu Haibo, two directors, would go through the next day's scene in the room and start shooting after careful consideration. Therefore, everything in the "Breakout" crew is in order, and there has been no on-site change of script or temporary adjustment.
One of the things that impressed Yan Ni the most occurred when filming the scene where Shi Hongxing and Lin Manjiang finally confronted each other. Before filming began, the director suddenly made a request to them: Lin Manjiang hugged Shi Hongxing like a sister.
Yan Ni and Huang Zhizhong originally did not want to do this, but after trying, there was an instant dramatic tension. "The two of us have never hugged together like that moment in our lives", that is, at that moment, Yan Ni really approached the heart of this character, the lifelong spiritual idol collapsed in front of his eyes, And Shi Hongxing finally saw through him, and then slowly pushed him away.
After this scene was filmed, Yan Ni was particularly happy and especially grateful to the director. This is a way of acting that she would not have considered before, "Sometimes as an actor, you may think of Shi Hongxing, he thinks of Lin Manjiang, but the director stands in another position, he can think of something else."
The director is also very supportive of the actors to play themselves. Shi Hongxing finally accepted the fate of her abandoned son, and Yan Ni thought: "When people want to end their lives, they always have to have a kind of encouragement. She imagined that Shi Hongxing would rummage through boxes and cabinets before that, looking for clothes from her workday—the clothes that should be hard to find, but she would definitely stay at home—and then put them on, as if to go back to a certain point in her life—"When she was with Lin Manjiang and Qi Ben'an, it was the happiest and warmest time in her memory."
She consulted this idea with the director and the screenwriter and got it. The director deliberately found a set of old, factory clothing shoes and hats that have been preserved for decades. Wearing this dress, she lay on the bed, and the director was also startled, "as if wearing a birthday coat", which implied the fate of Shi Hongxing.
When filming "Breakout", Yan Ni did not want to let people visit the class, she wanted to devote herself to this role. "Because I think it's so rare to have such a script, to have such a team." She remembers that when filming this scene, she and Huang Zhizhong, Jin Dong, and Geng Le often had some business discussions, "What are the characteristics of each of us, and how do we integrate this feature with the role."
There are a lot of flashing details in "Breakout", but looking back, it can make people figure out the delicate relationship between the characters. For example, when the three brothers and sisters were eating at Lin Manjiang's house, Lin Manjiang made any eye movement, and Shi Hongxing rushed to Qi Ben'an and immediately handed him a tissue. Yan Ni's performance in this scene was completed in one go, and she recalled in an interview that in the crew, as long as Huang Zhizhong was present, "I will focus on Lin Manjiang the whole time."
In front of Lin Manjiang, Shi Hongxing's posture was always tense, but not in front of her husband Niu Junjie. In the scene where the husband and wife argue to "go to the Civil Affairs Bureau tomorrow for a divorce", the two are tit-for-tat, and the body language is loose and unguarded.
She was only most relaxed in front of Niu Junjie, and only spread herself out in front of him. That means that home is still home, and they can't be separated. Yan Ni said to "Blog World". Shi Hongxing looks down on Niu Junjie and only marries him in order to gamble with Lin Manjiang, but after decades of married life, he will give them a little affection silently, which is also although they put "divorce" on their lips, no one believes that they will really leave. "You don't know when the web of feelings comes together." The audience also loved to watch their rivalry, and even named them "Red Bull" cp.
This is the third time she has played a husband and wife with Geng Le. Geng Le had not read the script of "Breakout" at that time, but only listened to Yan Ni say that she had recently watched a play, "The script is particularly good, the production is also particularly good, and there is a role you can play" and agreed. He believes in Yan Ni's vision, and there is also a tacit understanding of cooperation, and Yan Ni said that a good script is trustworthy.
Shi Hongxing has a large office, and he is reluctant to give it to Qi Ben'an, who "parachuted in", which has caused many troubles. The office contained her dreams of power and a safe notebook of "Lin Manjiang's Quotations." It wasn't until the end of her life that she had no choice but to pack up the notes and move out of the office.
Yan Ni only acted this scene once, and the director said it. It was a very memorable moment as an actor, and she felt that Shi Hongxing was "on the body" and the whole soul was gone.
Screenwriter Zhou Mason once said: "Shi Hongxing is very similar to Yan Ni. Yan Ni didn't feel it at first, "I've never been a leader in my life, and I've never been a person who can command anyone." His friend Geng Le also felt strange: "Shi Zong has so many tricks and all kinds of calculations, where does she (Yan Ni) have this brain?" ”
But as she acted, Yan Ni herself gradually felt some similarity. For example, Shi Hongxing has always worshipped the spiritual idol Lin Manjiang, and Yan Ni has also had a spiritual idol. As she learned more about the character, she saw more vivid parts of Shi Hongxing's body. In the whole story of "Breakout", men occupy the main role, and the characters that appear are mostly unfathomable, and in such a group of people, her plans, desires, moods and sorrows are very simple and clear at a glance. Shi Hongxing is closer to a pyrotechnic abacus and a confused layman than a cold power machine.
Yan Ni wrote down the four words "sad, angry, pitiful, and ridiculous" when thinking about Shi Hongxing, she believed that "performance should have space for the audience to imagine", and she was always attracted by this role of "imaginative space" - it has not yet been defined, and there is still a vast space for interpretation and discussion.
Among the actresses, Yan Ni belongs to the category of late bloomers. She ran through ten years of dragon sets, and by the age of 30, she could play more and more roles. In an interview, Yan Ni just finished from the crew of "Eloping Grandmother", in which she played the elderly twin sisters and embarked on an unknown journey.
Li Fan, the chief writer and executive producer of this play, has known her for many years. When we first met many years ago, Li Fan mentioned that many movies, Yan Ni and Geng Le had not seen it, so they went to the bookstore to buy a lot of dishes, Geng Le divided half, she took the other half, and went home to see it. She usually has a hobby of reading books and watching movies, "but compared with him (Li Fan), he reads too much and reads a lot of books." ”
Later, the three of them often chatted together, talking about movies and creations. In the two years since li li created "Eloping Grandmother", she has also continuously shared various performance clips, movies, and performance theory books with Yan Ni.
But when they got to the shooting scene, they still couldn't help but quarrel when discussing the role, as if many years ago, Yan Ni was still the person who was more real for the script.
"So most of the time, who convinces whom?" Blog World asked.
"He convinced me more." Yan Ni laughed with some embarrassment. Her voice was soft, and from time to time between conversations, she was warmly "um" and "right", making it hard to imagine what she looked like when she argued. But whenever she talks about acting, she will have her own persistence and show a little sharpness.
"It's like being addicted," she describes as exploring a role— "Breakthrough means creating, it means constantly thinking, practicing, practicing and rethinking, thinking and practicing." It is only through the role that other qualities of the actor can be tapped – of course this is conditional and requires the right opportunities. ”
In her nearly 30 years in the industry, she will summarize the meaning of performance for herself: "It makes me know myself better, understand people, and understand the world. "Every time you go deep into the role, it's a "breakout."