She thinks "Wulin Gaiden" and "Latent" are "misplaced success", and now she finds herself in "All Very Good" and "Send Me to the Blue Clouds"
Our reporter Chen Juan
A rush of footsteps came, Yao Chen Go back to the second floor of the studio from outside. She leaned on the door, flicking her fingers on the phone, and her long hair fell, covering half of her face. Husband Cao Yu walked over and held the brooch of her jacket. "It's not easy to make a movie. You have to think about everything, and your head is big." She murmured, her voice sounding tired.
At this time, one day before the movie "Send Me Up to the Blue Clouds" was released to the public, Yao Chen’s time was divided into one announcement after another. Just half an hour ago, she had just recorded an episode for the movie channel and introduced herself as a producer and producer. Starring in this new film. The staff reminded her that the interview time was up. She quickly changed her clothes, touched up her makeup, and in the blink of an eye, it seemed as if she had changed a person-a neat, capable and aura of a woman sat in front of the camera, as if she was there. The roles in the film and television series: Li Jie in "Find You", Su Mingyu in "Everything Is Good", and Sheng Nan in "Send Me Up to the Clouds".
"They are all women who have faith in their hearts, or a sense of faith. I should be this kind of person too, otherwise I would not play them. I naturally have an emotional resonance for such women, and I appreciate them from the bottom of my heart. "Yao Chen told the reporter of "Universal People" that Sheng Nan was the only one who couldn't let go of playing so many roles. One and a half years after she played Sheng Nan, she posted on Weibo late at night, saying, "I miss Sheng Nan."
A defeated insurgent
Sheng male, a female journalist working alone in a big city, old and unmarried. After accidentally discovering that she had ovarian cancer, she embarked on a journey of seeking love and self-salvation.
Two years ago, producer Don He handed Yao Chen a script "Send Me Up to the Clouds". After reading the script for the first time, Yao Chen hit it off, feeling "like eating a cold watermelon in summer, cool and comfortable." She likes the sense of humor in the script, and uses a light-weight way to tell the ultimate problems of life. Regarding the heroine Sheng Nan, she has a strong desire to walk into this "unlucky woman", "She is a female version of Monkey King, repeatedly knocked to the ground by fate, and struggled to get up again and again, waving her nose and face swollen. The golden cudgel of "idealism" went all the way to Qingyun and made a big noise. Who of us struggled to spend our lives like this?" At that time, Yao Chen had just established his own film company, and "Send Me to Qingyun" was quickly approved. She is both a leading actress and a producer. The director and screenwriter is a newcomer Teng Congcong. Later, the two chatted about the script, only to realize that Sheng Nan's story contained director's experience. The script was written for about three or four years. The reason why Sheng Nan chose to be a journalist was because "the journalist has the tragic and tragic sense of collision between ideals and reality." This seemingly independent and self-owned woman did not live well. Ovarian cancer was a fuse. It was a series of reasons behind her pursuit, both physically and mentally.
Sheng Nan has almost encountered a dilemma that a woman will face in her lifetime: her mother is immature, her cheating father has no sense of responsibility, she grew up barbarously and pursues "checks" in everything. As a reporter, ideals are always shattered by reality. To perform surgery for treatment, she took a job with the help of her colleague Si Mao and wrote an autobiography for the father of a wealthy businessman. The old man lives in the mountains. Sheng Nan went to the mountain to interview. On the way, he met Liu Guangming, a literary man who "only shoots the clouds in his life". The two became ambiguous, and Sheng Nan took the initiative to court and was rejected.
At the beginning, Yao Chen was taken away by Sheng Nan, patted and felt that he "become her". In one scene, Sheng Nan took the initiative to confess Liu Guangming and boldly courted him. She went to the bathroom, and came back to find that the other party had run away... The original script set Liu Guangming to leave the hotel. When filming, Yao Chen felt that Sheng Nan should go one step further, "For Sheng Nan, Liu Guangming is her last one. Root of straw, she wanted to catch him, even if there was only one day of happiness. Besides, she didn't understand why Liu Guangming wanted to escape, and wanted to get to the bottom of it." In the end, Yao Chen discussed with the director and added a scene. In the film, Sheng Nan ran out of the hotel and chased Liu Guangming on the street at midnight.
In Yao Chen's memory, the two erotic scenes that entangled most during filming. "In an erotic drama with Si Mao, two humble souls hug each other and warm each other; after a erotic drama with Si Mao, Sheng Nan is completely immersed in self-consciousness. I have never filmed such a scene before, but These two scenes, especially the latter one, are the most important links for Sheng Nan to break through the dilemma.. "Yao Chen feels that this is Sheng Nan's observation of women's physical needs and inner heart, and also a search for the true self. At the end of the
movie, Sheng Nan enters the operating room under the watch of his parents. As the camera turns, Sheng Nan stands on top of the ruins. Standing next to the madman who appeared at the beginning of the film. When the madman said "I love you" to Sheng Nan, Sheng Nan relieved the burden of his heart and laughed three times at the distance "Hahaha". At that moment, she was like catkins. Similarly, take advantage of the wind to fly to the blue clouds. Before the release of
, Yao Chen conducted 11 "deep talks on film viewing" within 5 days. The guests chose very carefully, including "wonderful" queen Ma Weiwei, famous sociologist Li Yinhe, Self-media person Chang Mengran, writer Xu Zhiyuan, etc. The theme of the first conversation was "The breakdown and reconstruction of women". There was a female audience in her 30s who could not cry when she spoke, saying that Sheng Nan’s experience reminded her of her and her The relationship between parents, "If you can quarrel with your mother like Sheng Nan," the female audience cried and said.
is not only the collapse of women. Someone saw the desire of women in the film, and scholar Liang Hong said, "This should be This is the first time in a Chinese film to express the desires of the female body in such a natural, sincere and multi-directional way"; some people have seen the tragedy of women. Wu Qi, the editor-in-chief of "Single Reading", believes that Sheng Nan is "almost a defeated insurgency." ; There are still people who are arguing about whether the film "depreciates men"...
"Film is a mirror of reality, where everyone can see themselves. All beings are suffering, they are all humble dust, no one suppresses anyone. I only hope to bring comfort to those who are as lonely and brave as Sheng Nan. "Yao Chen said.
looking for characters, looking for myself
. Like the Sheng Nan in the movie, Yao Chen in reality is often in collapse recently.
"The editing of the trailer is OK or not, the music is OK or not, including posters, print it out There is a color difference with the color on the phone. Why is it so? In an instant, many bombs exploded in my mind. "As a producer, Yao Chen faces all kinds of trivial things related to movies every day when he opens his eyes. She is anxious when the theaters don’t arrange movies; some people tell her on Weibo that she can’t see movies and she is anxious; some people say movies.” "Against men", she was anxious... It was not until the movie was released and seeing the ratings continue to rise, she was relieved, although the box office was still not satisfactory.
This is something that Yao Chen as an actor has never encountered. In the profession of an actor She is talented. After graduating from Beijing Film Academy, she has not experienced too long waiting, she ushered in the highlight moment as an actor, because of the two roles-Guo Furong in "Wulin Biography" and "Latent "Cui Ping" in ". One is a pungent and funny female fighter, the other is a strong revolutionary fighter, but they are all steel and iron.
After "Latent" became popular in 2008, Yao Chen followed the crew to participate in the Feitian Award ceremony. Thousands of spectators stood up and applauded and called their names loudly. Later, when she went to the University Student Film Festival, the students enthusiastically called her name, "I was so shocked that I almost fell somersault."
, but then recalled the two Yao Chen always feels that this role is "misplaced success"-when she was in school, she positioned herself as Da Qingyi. Once doing the "liberating nature" classwork, the teacher said after reading: "If which group of you can help Yao Chen If you snatch it away, it will greatly improve the quality of your group's work! "Since then, every important play in the class, the most important role has been assigned to her. The most direct result of
's popularity is that the book of comedy and spy drama flew one after another. Yao Chen did not want to be bound by it. Want to break through her performance. Journalists, lawyers, hygienists in the tomb raiders, etc., for more than 10 years, she has constantly changed roles in film and television dramas, expanding her acting boundaries, "There are successes and failures, but each role will bring itself "Grow up". In 2017, after giving birth to his second child, Yao Chen took a play "Find You", directed by Lu Le. The film is about two mothers with different identities, whose fate is intertwined because of one child. Story. Her role is Li Jie, a lawyer. In order to give her daughter the best life, she works hard, but ignores family and affection. Just as she and her husband divorced and competed for the custody of their daughter, the nanny took her daughter and disappeared. From this, she embarked on the difficult road of finding a girl alone.
"On the one hand, she is looking for a child, on the other hand, it can also be understood as finding herself. "Yao Chen said. Li Jie is a typical middle-class working woman. She has three identities: mother, wife and lawyer. In the eyes of outsiders, she has an independent economy and personality.. But at the same time, she is also facing multiple issues such as marriage breakdown, child custody, and workplace sexual harassment, but she must control everything by herself. Yao Chen successfully portrayed an image of a middle-aged white-collar woman facing a dilemma-this is a long-missing role in film and television dramas, and was evaluated as "reborn".
Then, Su Mingyu, an "anti-elite" multi-faceted urban female character in the popular TV series "All Very Good" in the first half of this year, once again pushed Yao Chen to the peak of the topic. The "disappearance" of
middle-aged actress
met "Find You" and "Send Me to the Blue Clouds" that year, Yao Chen was 38 years old. At that time, she also faced the dilemma of a middle-aged woman: the balance of family and career, and the career crisis of a middle-aged actress. For a long time, she was anxious and confused until she finished the last scene of Sheng Nan.
There was a dense fog that day, and the fog was so big that the entire crew got lost and wandered on the mountain for a long time before finding the shooting location. After the machine was set up, Yao Chen walked up the hillside several times. On the last time, she passed through all the staff and went deeper. "In the fog, I was pulled by Sheng Nan, walking through the mists of life and walking forward." After that, she cried bitterly there alone.
Half a year later, Yao Chen stood on the stage of "Starry Sky Speech" and talked about "the awkwardness and confusion of a middle-aged actress". In her speech, she confessed humorously: "I was pregnant when I was going to have a big fight; after giving birth, I saw that my graceful figure was out of shape..." When she returned to work, the most asked question was how Both career and family? She wondered: "Why has no one ever asked my husband this question?" This speech by Yao Chen can be said to be the earliest and most powerful public discussion on this topic in the industry. Later, Liu Mintao said at the "Female Power" ceremony, "A 40-year-old woman's play is good no matter who plays it. As long as the play appears, it is good." Jiao Junyan, who was just over 30 years old, also appeared in a show. Feeling that I have "become the chosen dish"; netizens even made up a TV series "Lady's Character" starring Yuan Quan, Chen Shu and other middle-aged actresses... The topic of
continued to ferment for two years, but middle-aged Actresses still have only two ways to play mother and play as tender. And, when related topics reappear, public sentiment has changed from fresh to exhausted.
On the eve of the release of "Send Me to the Blue Clouds", at the closing ceremony of the 13th FIRST Youth Film Festival, actor Hai Qing gave a temporary speech on the career plight of middle-aged actresses after the awards. Before the speech, she called Yao Chen, Song Jia, and Liang Jing sitting in the audience to the stage, and also mentioned Ma Yili who had not been there. The words were thrown out, and soon ignited the public opinion field. Some people responded, but others criticized it.
"I think Haiqing's original intention is not that our few actresses have no play to play, but the current division of female roles in the market is polarized, either for girls, or for short and middle-aged women. The image is actually very singular, or facial makeup.” Yao Chen explained after a few days that in this market environment, those actors who really want to perform characters have a narrow choice of faces.
Facing the reality that there are fewer and fewer roles suitable for his age in the film and television industry, Yao Chen came up with a "curve to save the country" strategy: start a film and television company.
"It is to make the film by yourself, be responsible for yourself, and do something you want to express. Since it is difficult for society to provide you with such an opportunity, then you should create the opportunity yourself." Yao Chen said. Under the "asylum" of her company, she has greater initiative in role selection.
Now, Yao Chen is 40 years old and forty is not confused. In her words, it is a "very golden period". Occasionally, she would look back at her previous works, "Latent", "Divorce Lawyer", and then to the recent "All Very Good", to see as a bystander, which performances are good and which performances are regrettable. She talked about Kurosawa's autobiography "The Toad's Oil." There is a story among the Japanese folks that a toad with an ugly appearance that grows in the deep mountains, when he saw his unbearable appearance in front of the mirror, he couldn't help being frightened. Looking back on the past in his later years, Kurosawa described himself as a toad standing in front of a mirror. Yao Chen said that watching his previous scenes, I have similar feelings, but I feel fortunate, "This means you are growing."
