This summer, after the TV series "Rose Story" was launched, actor Tong Dawei got an additional nickname, Huang Peony.
When walking on the street, some people would call him this directly, while others would call him uncle. Because of his role as Huang Zhenhua, Tong Dawei became the actor with the longest period of development in the eyes of the audience. This character is the brother of the legendary woman Huang Meigui. He is humorous and can talk endlessly. At the same time, Huang Zhenhua grew up in the courtyard of Tsinghua University and worked in the construction industry. His similar background reminded the audience of Lu Tao in "Struggle", and he described Tong Dawei as "the eternal son of an architectural family."
Less than a month after "The Story of a Rose" ended, the suspenseful online drama "Dislocation" starring Tong Dawei was also aired. The male protagonist of the story, Gu Jiming, is gloomy and unambitious. He wants to create great works and will do whatever it takes to do so. For Tong Dawei, this is the first time he has played a villain who is quite scheming and has killed people. Tong Dawei did a lot of planning and homework on how to break away from Huang Zhenhua's simple kindness and figure out Gu Jiming's psychological changes and present them in the short play.
Around the millennium, Tong Dawei starred in many urban life TV series related to youth stories, such as "Jade Guanyin", "Days Related to Youth", and "Struggle". For a long time, he has been the representative of urban niche. He can make jokes and use humor to resolve the wrinkles in relationships. He can also be calm and composed, being a stable person.
A producer said that Tong Dawei has a trustworthy face. To a certain extent, this is a talent but also a limitation. A few years ago, more and more good father roles in life dramas came to the door. He would not refuse. He only wanted to do what kind of things at what age. The same was true for the characters. He doesn't feel that he has ever been in his comfort zone. Even in life dramas, there are different ways of acting. For each role, he put into thinking, designed the details, formed his own understanding, and finally formed a rich performance. This process is a sign of respect for oneself and the audience, which is difficult to erase.
In Tong Dawei's view, acting is a profession that pays attention to moderation. Over the years, he has maintained a stable schedule, regular exercise and moderate eating habits, which have allowed him to meet the public's image requirements for an actor in appearance without "getting out of control." In recent years, he has found his own comfortable filming rhythm, working eight or nine months a year, filming two or three movies, giving himself some blank space, and making full use of this buffer period to recharge and recharge before entering the next role. Go and think about it, and "there will be no tricks." These may be the duties of an actor, and they are also one of the reasons why the so-called "flowering period" is long enough.
After he passed 40 years old, Tong Dawei also had anxiety because of unknown roles and unknown difficulties - "I never knew how to deal with this matter. I crossed the river by feeling the stones and slowly learned how to deal with such things. I drew conclusions from this." Some methods, this is growth”.
After "The Story of Rose" was broadcast, when we interviewed Tong Dawei by phone, he was filming on the crew in Nanjing. On the phone, his voice was relaxed and relaxed. He said that after finishing the project, he planned to take his children to visit the grottoes in the country.
That morning, he had a rare few hours of free time. We talked about his first experience as a villain, his restrained daily life, and how to maximize the flowering period of an actor.
The following content is narrated by Tong Dawei -
text | Ling Yi
editor | Chu Ming
The first villain
Gu Jiming was the first villain role I played.
During the time when I was acting, I would often dream at night. I dreamed that there was a scene that I couldn't perform, and I suddenly got excited and killed someone. When you wake up a little, you will realize that it is not true, and you will be glad that you did not kill someone like Gu Jiming and make such a wrong choice. When
got the script of "Dislocation", first of all, I thought that it broke away from the category of life drama and was a suspense type, which was quite fresh. I tried another drama before called "The Lost Child". Although it was also a suspense drama, I still played a father in it. It was not until this time that I met a serious villain.
Gu Jiming is quite different from the roles I played before. He is no longer a good guy who makes jokes, but is gloomy, scheming and has secrets.
I have had several contacts with Dai Ying, the producer of this film. She said that she wanted everyone to play different things and let the actors open up the boundaries, so that the boundaries of the work can be opened up. I was very touched after hearing this. In our industry, finding people who are good at what they do is the safest bet for producers. So in many cases it’s not that actors don’t want to try something, it’s that you don’t have the chance to try.
Art is meant to be an adventure in the world, rather than becoming a risk management for actors to copy and paste themselves. I hope there can be more producers like Dai Ying in the industry.
I have talked about it in interviews before. In the first week of acting, an actor is like a fool. He is separated from the character. On the contrary, in the process of playing Gu Jiming, this sense of separation is actually not very strong. After
got this character, I drew a broad outline of him. At several critical moments in his life, he made wrong choices, made big mistakes, and killed innocent people. Gu Jiming is a different kind of "Phoenix Man" from He Chunsheng in "The Family" that I played before. He Chunsheng went to the other extreme to give up on himself, but Gu Jiming had a smooth life since he was a child. He had confidence, and this self-confidence caused him to have an unobjective understanding of himself and felt that he was just unappreciated. I have grasped the general direction of this character.
In the past two years, there has been an obvious change that there are more and more exquisite short plays, which is a product of the current era. Audiences are accustomed to receiving higher visual stimulation in a concentrated period of time, which is a change to a more efficient viewing form.
Long dramas have a short story. In fact, the lines make the play exciting, but the excitement of a suspense short play does not depend solely on the lines. Short plays are somewhere between long-form TV series and movies, and the requirements for creators and actors are actually higher. It is best if there are no useless plays, and each play must have its own dramatic mission. The advantage of it is that it can outline the entire arc of the characters without piling up so much dialogue. The story can be unfolded step by step through characters and events. It is a very comfortable state for the audience.
In this way, there are a lot of things to think about. My mind keeps spinning every day, and I still have to figure out some details. The day after
joined the crew, we filmed a scene in a parking lot. It was the biggest change in Gu Jiming's life. The original statement in the script was to change the focus to the previous scene where Su Zhenzhen's good friend threw Gu Jiming's novel to the ground with disdain, which triggered his "blackening". Behind him, Gu Jiming walked to the parking lot and saw the narrow space between two cars. He left a shot of his back, which meant that he walked into a very narrow alley in life.
But I did my homework in advance and felt that the place was not enough to achieve the impact, and this kind of scene has also been shown in other scenes. I told the screenwriting teacher that if it is a movie, there is no problem with this kind of blank space. It will make the audience think and imagine. But after all, it is a web drama, and we still have to slightly enlarge some points and details.
I thought of many years ago, in a parking lot, someone wanted to ask the driver of a luxury car next to him to help move the car. As a result, the driver of the luxury car said, "Do you know how much my oil is?" "
I used this scene in the play. What I want to express is that at such a party, no one can think highly of Gu Jiming. The pressure on him comes from all directions, which is a heavy blow to him. He originally longed for success, but when he encountered such a situation, he felt that he must succeed and let those who looked down on him see that he was capable. These people are the biggest boosters to change him.
Life dramas and life itself
In the past few years, most of the dramas I acted were family life dramas, such as "Tiger Mom and Cat Dad" and "Little Shede", where I played a "loving father". They act as white faces in the family and are weaker in momentum. Sometimes they can resolve conflicts and embarrassments with humor and a few words of teasing.Including Huang Zhenhua in "The Story of a Rose", some netizens said he was a "waste hero".
There are many characters like this, and the audience will feel friendly when they see me. On the one hand, the audience pursues an equal perspective when watching the drama. In addition, I think the most important thing is that the characters in the drama value each other. Only with love can there be such expression.
I have seen a piece of text. A foreign writer commented that the Chinese people have great wisdom, one word - transformation. Isn't it good to reduce big things to small things and sometimes get things done without going to the extreme of losing face?
Actually, I think those good fathers I played in the past will teach me back. Like a mirror, I will see where I have fallen short when dealing with children. There is a lot that I can learn from the character, and what the character has done incorrectly. I will put an end to these things in my life.
I have also expressed in some previous interviews that I am usually quite gentle with my daughter, but if she really does something wrong, I will still be strict. When it comes to educating children, we will set some rules for them, and some things must not be done. When facing my daughter, I still hope that I can occasionally have the image of a "strict father", but usually I only have the "powerful" skill of speaking loudly, and I can't help but love her again afterwards, because she is so considerate. ,so cute. My daughter gave me a 1 yuan coin on my birthday one year. When I asked what happened, she said that she earned it from doing things for her mother. She probably got 1 yuan and 50 cents in total. But she gave me the 1 yuan piece. Although 1 yuan is a small amount in simple terms, it was equivalent to giving two-thirds of her income to my father. At that time, I felt very warm in my heart.
I thought a lot after I finished filming "Little Willing". Xia Junshan is a somewhat special father, he is very caring about his family. The director filled in a lot of details to fully portray Xia Junshan's appearance as "someone else's father." Huanhuan is usually the apple of the couple's eye, but sometimes she can make people angry, so how to let a half-year-old child accept the teachings of his parents is actually a matter of knowledge. You can't just force your child to do anything, but you can't just follow the child's temper either. I think children's happiness and learning should be balanced, but they should not be too extreme. If they are too extreme, problems will arise. After filming
, my change is that I want to be more involved in children's learning life and accompany them as much as possible so that they can grow richly. If I am filming outside, I will coordinate with the crew on things that are important to the children, such as parent-teacher meetings, sports meets, and children's performances, and try to coordinate these times in advance.
I take them to play with them every summer, and they are almost unstoppable. Recently, I finished filming and planned to take the children to experience our historical sites and visit several grottoes.
After playing many life dramas, this time I played Gu Jiming. Some netizens commented that I broke through my comfort zone. To be honest, I don’t think playing a negative role like Gu Jiming is a breakthrough. I don’t have any ambitions, and this kind of attempt should be what every actor wants to do, just to see if what they have learned can be used. One use.
Even if people in this industry think that I can play roles in life dramas well, I will never be able to do these things well just lying down and not doing my homework.
I have to think about many details in life and then integrate them into the performance. For example, if it rains and there is no basement at home, and you drive home without an umbrella in the car, where did you get wet when you entered the house? How far is this parking location from the door of your unit? The other one, where did you come back from? Are you coming back from work, or are you coming back from socializing with clients?
Some people will say that those things are not important, so don’t think about them in such detail. But I feel that if I don’t want to be so detailed, my acting will not be detailed. Because people's states are different under these different circumstances. So even if I am filming a life drama, I must take into account similar details and do enough homework.
It’s really not like to say “comfort zone”. This word describes this matter too easily and simply. If I were an audience member, I would feel that this person filmed this scene without even thinking about it. But that’s really not the case. The more things we present in the camera are more comfortable for the audience, the more effort it takes to complete them.
Youth
After "The Story of a Rose" was aired, I have been filming in Nanjing. When I was filming on location, I met a lot of enthusiastic viewers. A lot of them called me "Uncle Brother" and "Huang Mudan".
Many people say that I have been away for half my life, but I am still Lu Tao when I come back. Others say that I have been deeply involved in the construction industry. To be honest, I do not exclude the shadow of Lu Tao. I think it’s quite fun to be able to connect everyone. First of all, in the original work, Huang Zhenhua works in an architectural office in Hong Kong. In this scene, Huang Zhenhua naturally does the same thing as Lu Tao. I think it is normal for the audience to think of this. But the plays are not the same anyway. They are not of the same age, they are talking about different things, and the relationships between the characters are also different.
To be honest, Lu Tao and I have completely different personalities. I am a pretty typical i person. You can see how much I can say on the spot, but when I was doing interviews in the past, I couldn’t speak like this at all. If you talk too much, all you talk about are concepts. When doing some exclusive interviews, the reporter asked a lot of questions, and I might just answer, yes, no, is there? (Laughs) When
played Lu Tao, I was at a similar age to him, and I acted at that age. Now when I go back to see Lu Tao, I feel that he was at an age when he thought he could do anything. Many of the things Lu Tao got were too easy and his life was too smooth, so he always felt that there was a discrepancy between reality and ideals, which would cause trouble.
I have previously filmed "Struggle" and "Days Related to Youth". Each film has its own atmosphere, but they are all youth stories of young people from different eras.
"Days Related to Youth" actually talks about the youthful past of people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those children basically had no parents around them and grew up wildly on their own, so their youth was more wild. When they are a little older, they will feel that there is absurdity, squandering, and hesitation in this growth process, and all kinds of experiences are the richest.
I am a member of the post-80s generation, but I may not be as carefree and free as people imagine. I grew up in Fushun, Liaoning Province. Looking back now, it was a very happy childhood. What impressed me deeply is that every summer, I soaked in the outdoor swimming pool. After lunch, I went to the swimming pool to stay all afternoon, and then went home for dinner in the evening. Therefore, after every summer vacation, I became particularly dark.
My father is a policeman. When I was very young, he was injured accidentally while performing a work mission and became paralyzed and became a vegetative state. After my father had an accident, it took half a year before my mother told my sister and me what happened. During the whole time, she kept saying that he was on a business trip. I watched my mother go back and forth between the hospital and home. I grew up learning by myself. I learned how to cook at the age of 7. In the third grade of elementary school, I could move a gas tank and carry 50 kilograms of rice. At that time, I still held a grain book. Go to the grain depot to buy food.
I don’t think it’s because I’m sensible. I was very naughty at that time. When children were young, they didn’t think of so many things. Cooking was an instinctive reaction of hunger. At that time, I was still playful and had the little thoughts of a child. I would go to the hospital and mix some chocolate and malted milk to eat. Those were rare things. After
, I may feel that I don’t want my mother to be too tired, so if I can do some things, my mother will do less.
In my impression, my mother hardly smiled during that time. She had to go to work, cook, and take care of all of us. My sister and I eat like hundreds of families. Sometimes she stayed at one relative's house and I stayed at another relative's house for a day.
My mother is quite optimistic. When I was a child, one day my mother and her work unit went out for a spring outing. In order to have one more day with us, she didn’t go, but took my sister and me to Shenyang. At that time, the work unit would also distribute the money for non-group travel to each of them individually, but she did not bring that money with her.After we got on the bus from Fushun to Shenyang that day, she realized that she had brought 10 yuan with her. After two or three stops, she didn't bother to go back to get it. We were in Zhongshan Park in Shenyang, holding the few dollars and counting them on our fingers. My sister and I rode in a lamb cart and took photos. Before we came back, the three of us ate two bowls of cold noodles, and we had a little money left to go back. Fushun. We found this experience very happy and sweet, and we still remember it to this day.
When my father had an accident, my mother was only 34 years old, which is equivalent to the age of a person born in 1990. According to my current understanding, she can also pursue her own happiness in life and realize her personal value. But she didn't, and continued to support the whole family. In terms of material things, my mother has never been inferior to my sister and me. When I was in junior high school, a brand-name travel shoe was popular. There were more than 60 people in a class and few could wear it. I asked her for the shoe, and she agreed. I said she would buy it for me if I got into the top fifteen of the class. In the end, I got over twenty, but she still bought it for me.
Thinking about it now, she must have encountered a lot of difficulties at that time, but we never saw her cry, and she tried not to mention it in front of us. When she grew up, when we were chatting, she Only then will he talk about some moments that he found particularly difficult.
When I was taking the college entrance examination, I once thought about majoring in broadcasting and hosting. I am a person who particularly needs stability. I think it would be good to be a host, director, etc. and have a career editor back home. Later, I was admitted to the acting major of the Shanghai Theater Academy. I didn’t like going out much when I was in college. Especially when I was in my first or second year of college, I really wasn’t in the mood. I started filming commercials and used the first advertising fee to buy a pair of shoes for my mother. As a gift, I can later earn my tuition without having to ask for money from my family. After
entered the industry, he felt popular for the first time, not because of the role of Lu Tao, but because of Yang Rui in "Jade Guanyin". I remember very clearly that I was filming a scene in Shenzhen, and I went to the same supermarket every day to buy food. After a few days of airing, people came to me and called me Yang Rui, and people started asking me for autographs. I signed it for people, but they still couldn't tell me my real name, but this may be a kind of recognition on a certain level.
Understanding
After I became a father myself, I calmly accepted that I would play the role of a father. An actor of a similar age to me mentioned before that he was struggling when he first played a father: opening this door, there is another vast world, but maybe there is no way to go back to play a role of a certain age.
I have almost never had such worries. I can play roles that I can perform well at any age. If you still have love in your heart, you can take on love scenes. When you have to play a family, you can play a family. Once you become a parent, you will have experience in how to play a good parent.
A role like this came to me last year, and I was asked to play a young man in his 20s. I went back and played a college student. I asked how to play this, because I couldn’t do it with my own sense of belief. In fact, the quality and expression of these characters I have encountered in recent years are just right for me at this age.
I have never been on variety shows, and I feel that I am not suitable. Like many colleagues with E-type personality, they are more suitable than me.
"If You Are the One" is one of the few variety shows that I have participated in. I recorded more than ten episodes in 2014 and several more episodes this year. I think it’s just to be a moonlighter for others. This may be a task given to me by God.
Being at the scene was a good opportunity to observe the young people today. I watched them get to know each other from acquaintance to each other. It was a very interesting process, and it was also a way to stay connected with the world.
Last year I saw a public account saying that many young girls nowadays will rent a house together. For example, seven or eight girls rent a big house and divide the work among each other, such as cooking, washing vegetables, and cleaning. They are not allowed. When the boyfriend comes, they will go out together to play together during the holidays, and they will also sign an agreement to bind each other. This phenomenon is very interesting. When
was recording "If You Are the One" that day, a male guest said that the way he wanted to fall in love was that a few buddies rented in a house, and the buddies' girlfriends rented in the opposite door.He said, I wish my girlfriend could live with my buddy's girlfriend. My first reaction at the time was, isn't this the utopian form of "Struggle"? He said no, what he wants is that when we are in love, we will be together. When we are not in love, boys will play games with boys, and girls will play with girls. Moreover, many female guests present agreed with this view. This is completely different from the situation ten years ago when people wanted to be together every day and couldn't live without each other. In the
program, they will turn off the lights at different points. Some people will turn off the lights as soon as they talk about their emotional experiences, or when they suddenly talk about a certain paragraph, so that you can see what they care about. of. Therefore, you will know what today’s young people are thinking, their way of getting along, their concepts, what they like and what they don’t like. Nowadays, in addition to pursuing the same views and preferences, young people also pay more attention to self-feeling and experience. This is a new knowledge for me.
It would be a good thing if we could observe, understand and learn from other people's life experiences.
moderation
Now, I am filming for eight or nine months of the year, and I film two or three films a year. Acting is a bit like practicing. If you stop for a long time, you have to pick these things up from the beginning, and it will be slower to adapt. But there must be a buffer between each play. The transition from one character state to another requires adaptation and adjustment in advance.
I am quite satisfied with the intensity of my current work. I also need time to absorb nutrients, calm down and concentrate on reading and watching movies. Buffering is also about preparing for the role below and allowing yourself to recharge. Otherwise, it is really hollowing out, and there are not so many tricks.
I have been reading a children's book recently, which talks about the history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. I originally read it with my son, but later I became addicted to it myself. I found that although I had learned about that period of history, I couldn’t remember the names or order of the people. This book is different. It regards Emperor Zhou as the class teacher, and the rest are students in the class. In this way, it suddenly determines who is first and who is last, where is the State of Yue, where is the State of Wu, and where is the State of Qi? , it is clear who are there and where they are.
It's hard to say what impact a book like this will have now, but it's not a bad thing if it accumulates.
was filming "The Story of a Rose" last year, and we had to do a fitting one week before filming started. It turns out that in the script it was written that Rose's brother looks like a bear, so I thought he should be a fat man, at least slightly fat.
The director saw me on the day of the fitting and asked, "Dawei, why are you so fat?" I said, isn’t there a belly in the play? He said that since you are going to fall in love in the movie, you need to lose weight. Oops, it was only a week away and I was a little worried about losing weight. The crew even had dinner together that day, and I didn't eat much either.
lost 7 pounds in 6 days after returning, and then joined the group.
Acting is a profession that requires moderation and restraint. My current life is very regular and stable, that is, going to bed early and getting up early, exercising every day, and going to bed before 11 p.m. Like yesterday, I went to bed at 11pm and got up at 6pm today to review today's drama and have breakfast. Every day for dinner I eat some protein, salad, or sometimes just eat vegetarian food. I mix some carrots, celery and cooked peanuts, cook some green vegetables and tofu, and mix it with some soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil.
Everyone is like this, this kind of moderation is basic. Just like Director Wang Jun said when filming "The Story of a Rose", if you want to fall in love in the film, you have to make the audience believe it. If you are a fat man, if you fall in love with Wan Qian or Chen Yao, the audience will believe it. ?
The process of losing weight is not uncomfortable. I found some things that can replenish the spleen and stomach. Losing weight will not hurt the spleen and stomach. I made some biscuits at home using poria powder and yam flour, as well as some biscuits using buckwheat noodles and black beans. To be honest, the taste of that thing is very average. There is no oil in it, just a little salt. It is not crispy when baked, but it is better than being hungry all the time.
After so many years, I know that if you lose weight quickly by starvation, you will regain weight as long as you eat normally afterwards, so I will eat less and more meals.I won’t eat if I’m not hungry when I get up in the morning. If I’m hungry, I’ll eat some biscuits I brought with me to keep myself slightly hungry throughout the day. The advantage of this is that you won’t overeat out of control when you are particularly hungry. I try not to let myself get out of control.
When I am over forty, I will no longer have the expectation of "I hope everything will be smooth sailing in the future." As an actor, you will encounter a particularly difficult role and you will suddenly get stuck and have to think over and over before you can figure it out. In life, you will also encounter emergencies, and unexpected difficulties will disrupt the order and stability of life.
But isn't life just about all kinds of unknowns appearing suddenly? We never know how to deal with it. We cross the river by feeling the stones, and slowly we know how to deal with it. Can we summarize some methods from it?
I seem to have something going on all the time and rarely have a break. But there is a gap between what you see and reality. What you see is that the works are coming out. When you don't see them, we will also go through a lot of waiting and selection processes, which is also very difficult.
But this is also the homework of being an actor - working quietly is actually the norm. When you are not filming, just make enough reserves and be cautious.
