Recently, the film and television drama "The Long Season" won an award and became the highest-rated Chinese drama in Douban's 2023 annual movie list.
The drama has been aired for more than 8 months, but the misfortunes and twists and turns of the protagonist's fate in the plot are still endlessly memorable. This drama still maintains a high score of 9.4 on Douban, and has been watched by 933,000 people so far.
Destiny is unpredictable, people dodge, and only the northeast wind travels endlessly through the world. This play always reminds people of the north, the wilderness and the long winter, and it has a bleak flavor. Wang Xiaoyu, who played the role of "Little Stammer" Sui Dong in the play, recalled the play and mentioned his life when filming on the set.
He believes that actors are actually a relatively passive industry. For example, the filming of the series will be in 2021, but the broadcast will be in 2023. Before it is officially broadcast, no one knows whether the series will be popular. There is a long time gap between work and fame, and actors need to endure a long period of "on the bench", especially "little actors".
After "The Long Season" became popular, Jiupai News once contacted Wang Xiaoyu. At that time, he said that it was not particularly easy for "little actors" like himself to get jobs. As long as he could act well, he would not be picky no matter how big or small the role was. . For the future, he hopes to have good roles and wants to play every character well.
One year after the series became popular, in January 2024, Jiupai News found Wang Xiaoyu again. In Wang Xiaoyu's imagination, his life will change a lot after the series becomes popular, but in fact there is not much chance. When he was not filming, he opened a restaurant and worked as a waiter in the store in his spare time. Fortunately, he has found the focus of his life and will continue to make good movies.
【1】The performance comes from life
The wealthy boss Brother Hai smashed the girl Shen Mo in the face with money and drove out of the nightclub. A long-haired young man riding a motorcycle deliberately clashed with him, but no matter how insulted or even moved his hands, the young man just stuttered with a smile. Until the large troops arrived, the young man remained calm and composed, showing his wilting and slightly cold character.
In "The Long Season", laughing, stuttering, and being beaten are the standard features of Sui Dong (played by Wang Xiaoyu). In the whole drama, his only output of force is to break Wang Xiang's (Fan Wei) nose while escaping from the police station. Due to his young age, having lost his parents since childhood, and struggling to make a living at the bottom of society, Sui Dong's only connection in the world is his brother Fu Weijun (played by Jiang Qiming). Many fans call this character "a person without a sense of direction."
In May 2023, when the show was on the air, Jiupai News had a conversation with Wang Xiaoyu, the actor of Sui Dong. At that time, he interpreted the character as a little man with no father or mother and on the margins of society. He was with Fu Weijun in an orphanage. grow up. The two escaped when they were adolescents. Although they were young, they already understood the laws of the jungle in society.
Fu Weijun is mute, and usually "stutters" Sui Dong takes his place to communicate with everyone. In this scene, Sui Dong chose to use laughter to make others lower their guard. At the same time, this smile was another signal telling Fu Weijun that he was capable of this matter.
There is also a scene where Sui Dong was beaten, and Fu Weijun held his face to examine it. The audience said it "looked like two stray cats licking each other's wounds." But Wang Xiaoyu said that he discovered this design only after it was broadcast. He didn't feel this way in the play. "When acting, we mostly acted out the reaction to a sentence, the relationship between the characters, and many things presented were... It’s an on-the-spot reaction.”
still, Sui Dong (right) and Fu Weijun. Picture/Douban
When the drama was aired, due to his precise acting skills, many viewers had doubts about whether the actor Wang Xiaoyu who played Sui Dong was acting in his true character.
Wang Xiaoyu is a native of Shandong. He was born in 1995 and graduated from the Performance Department of Wuhan University. He currently lives in Wuhan, Hubei and claims to be quite destined to this city.
As an artist, he believes in the word fate. Looking back on his growth experience with the details of "The Long Season", you will find that many of the plots in the plot have rules to follow in his life.
In life, Wang Xiaoyu has kept his hair long for 10 years, initially because he was preparing for the college entrance examination.In his senior year of high school, he told himself, "Count down 100 days and start from scratch." It has become a habit to this day. With his flowing hair, kind smile, and gentle appearance, some fans call him "Sweet Girl."
But Wang Xiaoyu is actually a tough guy at heart. He has many friends in life. In high school, he had a friend who hung out in front of the school every day. This guy is different from the ordinary gangsters who show their teeth and show their cruelty. He is the kind of person who smiles very innocently, making people feel defenseless against him, but at the same time, he is also very cruel when he is cruel.
"He has the kind of character that says, 'You pissed me off, even though I laughed at you, but when I hit you, I will never be merciful.' The character Sui Dong is also based on this prototype." Wang Xiaoyu explain.
When he was in college, he was obsessed with bands. At that time, he would try to write songs, play guitar and sing. He met many friends who liked music, and also liked to go shopping for clothes in second-hand markets. This experience imbued him with an artistic, free and easy boy, and the real life experience used in the character formed the vivid character Sui Dong.
Sui Dong appears. Pictures/screenshots of stills
[2] Recognize yourself as a "little actor"
In "The Long Season", Sui Dong's outstanding characteristic is his stuttering. Although this character lacks lines to express emotions, Wang Xiaoyu believes that the most important thing for an actor is the basis and belief in acting. It would be untrue to only pick out a single line and struggle with how to interpret it. "The best actors are children and dogs, because They are not acting at all."
Wang Xiaoyu is the kind of actor who tries not to design too many details. Before filming, he would sort out the past and present life, birth, old age, illness and death of the character Sui Dong, and then put them evenly into each scene.
There is a scene in "The Long Season" where Wang Xiang (played by Fan Wei) comes to see his son Wang Yang (played by Liu Yitie). As a teenager of the same age as Wang Yang, Sui Dong is a bit indifferent and indifferent to his parents, and the atmosphere is subtle. Wang Xiaoyu explained that it was because in the timeline after the incident, Shen Mo, Fu Weijun, and Wang Yang went for revenge without Sui Dong.
Fu Weijun didn't want his friends to get involved in his family affairs, but Sui Dong believed that if his brothers didn't take him with him, they just didn't want to play with him, because in his heart, the only person who had anything to do with him was Fu Weijun, and Wang Yang and others were just passers-by. Totally disdainful. In the original unedited plot of
, Sui Dong entered the Public Security Bureau for petty theft after being released from the hospital. 18 years later, he had a wife and children, and opened a barbecue restaurant called "Dongzi BBQ" at the original site of the video hall. Wang Xiang came to him to ask about what happened that year, but he said, "I can't remember these things. After all, it happened when I was a child. Who can remember these things? It has been so many years."
In the end, Sui Dong My hair was cut, and my personality and way of speaking were no longer smiling, they were very dull. Wang Xiaoyu believes that it is not that Sui Dong has forgotten what happened in his adolescence, or that Fu Weijun is no longer in his heart, but because he has struggled hard and has his own barbecue restaurant, family and new life, and has embarked on a righteous path. We also have to "move forward and don't look back."
Sui Dong would rather be beaten than bow his head and apologize. Picture/Interviewee Weibo
The drama has been airing for nearly a year. Looking back on the role of Sui Dong, Wang Xiaoyu only feels that "The Long Season" is hard to come by, and he wants to film a similar drama again.
When filming in 2021, he found that this crew was particularly relaxed, and all the staff were young and unique. If he met them on the street, his first impression would be that they are very unique and interesting people. Have a chat with them.
In addition, during the filming of the series, the camera, performance, costumes, equipment, lighting, props and other aspects were very careful, and it can be seen that a lot of effort was put into it.
"Many times, the studio will be tight on scheduling due to various issues such as time budget. Some scenes may just pass by without paying special attention to the details. Therefore, it is difficult to have such a careful production. There are many quality dramas in the industry, but there are very few that are as thoughtful as "The Long Season"." Wang Xiaoyu said.
However, he also admitted that although "The Long Season" is one of the most popular dramas in 2023, his life has not changed much after participating in it. It is just that he has more filming opportunities than before, but It's not as good as I originally imagined.
Wang Xiaoyu. Picture/His Weibo
In an exclusive interview with Jiupai News, Wang Xiaoyu, who is over 28 years old, seemed relatively "sober in the world". He not only said that he had never thought of being a "little fresh meat", but also considered himself a "little actor" It’s not particularly easy to get a job, and there’s a big gap. It’s too late to be happy if you can act well, no matter how big or small the role is.
The accumulation of time during the gap and the determination of his masterpiece made his mentality particularly stable. Before the broadcast of "The Long Season", Wang Xiaoyu would take the initiative to seek some opportunities and add many casting directors' WeChat accounts to submit his information, but now he mainly follows the circumstances and will not be obsessed with a certain opportunity. He believes that he needs to make some more down-to-earth efforts before he can audition properly.
【3】Finding the focus of life in filming and opening a restaurant
Faced with questions such as "whether the film and television industry has been in recession in recent years" and "whether you are interested in entering the short drama industry", Wang Xiaoyu told Jiupai News that the film and television industry is the same as the catering industry. , the ones who do well are always the top ones. These 5% will do well no matter what time they are. The situation of big industries is actually irrelevant to the situation of a "little actor" like me.
He said that although the short drama industry will be very popular in 2023, he does not want to enter this industry for the time being, but still wants to film well. "The short drama industry is not very mature at present, and some dramas still have the problem of being very rough. "
Looking back on the eight-month hiatus after the broadcast of "The Long Season", Wang Xiaoyu said that he mainly participated in the filming of the online drama "Black Island Purgatory".
This is a drama that revolves around prisons, and the background of the story is set in Southeast Asia. He plays the role of Hu Xi, a prisoner lurking in the prison. He has a glib personality and loves to brag, but he hides many secrets and will have a series of stories with the male protagonist.
In addition to this drama, he also guest-starred in several dramas intermittently last year, which is urgently awaiting broadcast in 2024. "I have played several small roles, and also played a school bully. When he grew up, he became a real estate agent. A very arrogant person turned into a very smooth person. He called everyone he met brother and sister."
Recently, it just ended Wang Xiaoyu, who is filming a new drama, returned to Wuhan, Hubei, and his daily focus is on running his own fusion restaurant "Climate".
This is a new store. The problems encountered every day when doing catering work are different, and everyone needs to do it personally. When Wang Xiaoyu was working in the store, there would be drama fans offline who would greet him and call "Sui Dong", and he would say with a smile, "I'm here to be a waiter."
Wang Xiaoyu. Picture/provided by the interviewee
He is quite satisfied with his current living situation and has found a balance between his side business of opening a restaurant and his main business of being an actor.
In this conversation with Jiupai News, Wang Xiaoyu mentioned that the life of an actor is relatively passive. For example, "The Long Season" was filmed in 2021 and broadcast in 2023. When filming, he could not imagine whether it would be in the future. Fire, there will always be a time gap between giving and receiving.
Therefore, if an actor has his own focus in life, his mentality will be more stable, and he will no longer care about when he will become popular, or when he can continue to make good movies.
"I am very happy to have such an exposure in 2023, and let some people know me. This is a good thing, it makes me more peaceful, rather than making me pursue fame and fortune more. If my mentality is unstable, or I don't have If you have a side business of opening a restaurant, you will blame yourself when you fail... In fact, many people in this industry are depressed and slowly lose themselves," Wang Xiaoyu said.
Regarding the future, he still hopes to have good roles, but he will never force it. He just wants to play every character well. “Even if some opportunities fail, there will be other opportunities to cooperate in the future, as long as I still have something to do."
At the end of 2023, after "The Long Season" won various awards at multiple award ceremonies, Wang Xiaoyu logged into Yuegeng Weibo and posted that he was happy for director Xin Shuang, because director Xin Shuang was his idol before.
He still looks forward to cooperating with Xin Shuang, but believes that "his next film should be far away, because he pursues quality and is making high-quality products." In the future, he plans to continue to make good films, and plans to release "The Long Time" in three to five years. "Season" Take it out and savor it carefully.
Jiupai News reporter Zhou Yuhe
Editor Wan Xuan Wu Di
[Source: Jiupai News]
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