original title:
Zhongxin Character丨Zhang Yi: Use the ruler of life to measure your performance
China News Service, Beijing, November 25 (Reporter Shangguan Yun) In November, the movie “Priceless Treasure” was released. The whole story is filled with tenderness and laughter, and coupled with the down-to-earth performances of the actors, the film quickly gained a lot of popularity among passers-by.
In the film, actor Zhang Yi plays Shi Zhenbang. This is an “atypical” ordinary person who lives an ordinary life but seems to be a bit too frustrated: he opens a hardware store with a friend, but the business is not improving; he wants to pay back his debt, but accidentally needs to take care of the debtor’s debt. Daughter; even if she disagreed, she was slapped hard by her ex-wife.
There were some problems that Shi Zhenbang couldn’t solve smoothly, so he got a tattoo on his arm and told himself to “endure”. His downtrodden life has not eroded the kindness in his heart. Even though he knew that he could not help, he still chose to lend a helping hand, then lowered his head and muttered, “Good people suffer the most.”
For ordinary people under the tide of this era, Zhang Yi is very good at acting, integrating Shi Zhenbang’s hesitation, entanglement and gentleness into the plot of the story, showing it in every detail. After watching the movie, someone commented: “I feel like Shi Zhenbang is standing in front of me alive.”
As an actor, Zhang Yi was familiar to the audience earlier through roles such as Squad Leader Shi Jin in “Soldier Assault”. Although there are not many scenes, Shi Jin, played by Zhang Yi, contributed many classic scenes, including a crying scene when he was discharged from the army. There were not many lines but it made him cry.
After “Soldier Assault”, Zhang Yi handed over an outstanding report card: Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actor, Magnolia Award for “The Emperor”, Golden Eagle Award for “The Emperor”, Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor, Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actor Actor, Huabiao Award for Outstanding Actor…
Zhang Yi, who became the “Best Actor”, is no different from before, working step by step. At the premiere of “Priceless”, every time someone asked a question, he would raise the microphone, lean forward slightly, maintain a listening posture, and then answer seriously.
Some people always think that Zhang Yi is a bit shy. He said: “I have social anxiety, but because of my professional responsibilities, there is nothing I can do about it. I separate working time and non-working time as clearly as possible in my mind. I can do whatever I want during work. Outside of work, I am even afraid of taking pictures.”
He is able to switch freely between life and work, constantly “breaking” himself into new characters. Like the “young master” Meng Fan in “My Captain, My Group”, Chen Jianghe in “Chicken Feathers Flying to the Sky”, Zong Dawei in “Ten Thousand Miles Home”… they never make the audience feel the same. .
Zhang Yi hopes that in future performances, he can earn the audience’s love for the entire work through hard work. “I also hope that the film and television works I participate in can do something for our society and our era, so that it is meaningful.”
Stone, “smelly and hard”
When he first saw the script, Zhang Yi fell in love with the story told in “Priceless Treasure”. “It gives me a familiar warmth, the kind that is cold on the outside and hot on the inside, a warmth common to northerners. Shi Zhenbang is a particularly typical example of this.”
Zhang Yi grew up in the north. “I am familiar with people like this. Their first impression is often not good, ‘smelly and tough,’ but they work hard to live a life and can help others at critical moments.”
At the beginning of the story, “Stone” Shi Zhenbang and his friend Yang Wu opened a hardware store in partnership, and their lives were somewhat tight. Someone owed them money, and the two of them went to collect the debt, only to find that the debtor’s family was impoverished, so they had to return in despair.
But Shi Zhenbang is really a good person. He and Yang Wu helped take care of the debtor’s daughter Qianqian. When the child was taken away, they keenly noticed something was wrong. After all the hardships, they rescued the child from the fire pit and raised her.
Some people say that “Stone” is quite free and easy, but Zhang Yi doesn’t agree with it. “Are you free and easy? At the beginning of the film, Shi Zhenbang’s first line was ‘I’m going to die now’, then he got divorced, then he was beaten, and then he was trapped after failing to collect debts.”
In Zhang Yi’s eyes, Shi Zhenbang’s emotional intelligence was not high. Because he looked down on Brother Bao, he gave up the good opportunity to go into business and never made any money in his life. The more he did this, the more “stinky and tough” he became.
“But he can treat an unrelated person as his biological daughter and send her to a prestigious university. This person is quite great.” Therefore, Zhang Yi described Shi Zhenbang like this: a hard, soft, broken but beautiful stone.
Audiences have different understandings of the “priceless treasure” the movie talks about. Zhang Yi thinks that this movie is very interesting, but the story is not that profound. “I later suggested adding two voice-over lines, which clearly told everyone that the stone and the daughter are priceless treasures to each other.”
“Dancing” is the most enjoyable performance
Audiences who have watched “Priceless” will always have an inexplicable sense of familiarity: those unique store furnishings from the 1990s, the signboard of the hardware store, and the sunset by the river in the township can easily remind people of their hometown.
The same goes for the storyline. There is a clip in the film: Shi Zhenbang was riding a dilapidated bicycle, with Qianqian sitting on the back seat. The two were talking, and suddenly a cry came out, and the child’s foot was stuck in the wheel.
Many people commented on this detail as “real” and then recalled the “fear” of being dominated by the rear wheel of a bicycle in childhood. Zhang Yi integrated his own experience into the performance, “The plot of ‘Bicycle stuck’ came from my dad and me, and the state of the character Shitou also came from my dad.”
“The fragment of copying English books for children comes from my mother.” Zhang Yi recalled that in the 1990s, English review materials were expensive and difficult to buy. “My mother helped me borrow a review book that was said to be very good. Just She, who knew Pinyin, copied the entire English book, but my English was still not very good. When I grew up, I realized how sorry I was for her.”
In the whole movie, the most enjoyable scene played by Zhang Yi may be “dancing”. In “Priceless”, he did a few rare dances. In this regard, director Zhang Dapeng’s interpretation is: “The stone is actually very aggrieved and needs a moment to fly.”
“I can’t dance. The teacher in the group taught me for several days, but I couldn’t learn it. Later, I danced according to my own feelings and emotions, and now I think the effect is okay.” Zhang Yi described it this way.
Measure performance by the yardstick of life
Having been an actor for many years, Zhang Yi has his own insights and understanding of acting.
“Performance comes from life. The simplest way for us to work is to use the ruler of life to measure our performance.” Zhang Yi believes that states, language, and expressions that do not appear at all in life should not be included in performances. Otherwise, the performance will become exaggerated or even false.
How to establish this invisible ruler? The answer he gave was “observe life.” “These four words are themselves a course in our acting major. With this skill, it is enough to perform life with sincerity.”
Of course, experiencing life and practicing are also important. Zhang Yi is very lucky that “Stone” is from the Northeast, because he himself is also from the Northeast. “The director and I joked before that I seemed to have been preparing for the role of Stone for more than 40 years.”
Including “Priceless”, Zhang Yi has released three new films starring Zhang Yi in more than a month. He explained that these three movies were actually not shot at the same time. “The Edge of the Knife” was completed five years ago, and “Priceless” was completed two years ago. It can only be said that they appear to be very productive.
But Zhang Yi’s work pace will inevitably speed up. Premieres, road shows… a revolving door usually runs from one screening room to the next, and many interviews can only be conducted in the gaps. For actors, this kind of busyness is a common state.
In fact, after stepping into the entertainment industry, Zhang Yi clearly realized the changes that becoming an actor brought to his life: busyness and idleness, love and depression, but for a while, he couldn’t explain these changes. Where is the clear line?
“The subject of acting requires more external parts than the actual performance, and it is difficult for actors to purely enjoy the performance. Therefore, the personal feelings this profession brings to me are complex and contradictory. It is normal, and it is not normal either. .” Zhang Yi said.
What remains the same is his love for performing. Regarding work, Zhang Yi’s thoughts are pure and simple, “I just hope that the audience will not dislike me. I hope that through hard work, the audience will like the whole work. I hope that the film and television dramas I participate in can do something for our society and our era.” What, that makes sense.”
