Jiang Wenli, a man lives in my heart

She played a variety of Chinese wives. This time in the musical "Ponzi Scam", she wore a suit and a bowler hat to reverse the financial scam Ponzi

, a reporter from this magazine, Chen Juan,

, a famous actor. Graduated from the Acting Department of Beijing Film Academy. In 1989, he participated in the first TV series "Cliff Lily" and started his acting career. His representative works include TV series "Chinese-style divorce", "Golden Wedding", "Little Lady under Zhengyangmen", and movies "Li Chun" and "Master". He once starred in the drama "Let Me Hold Your Hand", "This Time Next Year" and so on. Recently, he played back the actor Charles Ponzi in the annual drama "Ponzi scheme" of Yanghua drama.

18 long gray tables are neatly arranged in the center of the rehearsal hall. On both sides of the rehearsal hall, there are 4 push-pull hangers parked with top hats and performance costumes. The director announced in French a "20-minute rest", and everyone dispersed. The music was still flowing in the room, and after a few minutes, the actors who had changed their costumes came back one after another—then there will be a whole row from beginning to end. Some people twist their bodies to follow the melody, some recite their lines loudly, and some whisper to discuss something.

When Jiang Wenli appeared in the rehearsal hall again, she had replaced her T-shirt and sweatpants, replaced by a white shirt and black trousers, adding a touch of coolness. She walked across the long table like a gust of wind, checking the positions of the costumes and props one by one, and from time to time she reminded the actor who played the opponent: "All the clothes are ready", "The hat must be in the right direction when handing it to me, and it will be too late to adjust until the performance. It doesn’t look good if you wear it upside down.”... At this time,

was three days away from the premiere of the musical "Ponzi scheme". Twenty or thirty people from the crew gathered in this small rehearsal hall, rehearsing vigorously. Jiang Wenli's role is the actor Charles Pounds-100 years ago, this person planned the financial scam that swept the entire Western world. She and 10 actors, including Jiang Yingrong and Dai Jun, shuttled between the long tables, changed their costumes, climbed up and down, talked and sang and danced. In just two hours, they pieced together the 67 years of sorrow and joy for Ponts. life.

Looking for the male in my heart

"Before I acted in the movie "Li Chun", Wang Cailing who always wanted to'sing to the Paris Opera' once said, "Silk is not as good as bamboo, and bamboo is not as good as meat", which means that string music is not as good as wind music. Wind music is inferior to human voice. I learned opera for a while during the performance and found it too charming to sing on the stage." Jiang Wenli told the reporter of "Universal People", since then she has been eager to perform a music one day stage show.

When Wang Keran, a drama producer from Yanghua, came to Jiang Wenli with the script of "Ponzi Scam", she felt that the opportunity had come, and joked that "play the challenging Ponzi if you want to act", but she didn't expect it to come true. Director David Lesgaard made the final decision in just 3 seconds and ordered her to reverse Ponts. "In fact, we are all hermaphrodite on the theatre stage," Lesgaard said witty. Since 2012, "Ponzi scheme" directed by him has been performed in France for 7 years.

The story of "Ponzi scheme" took place in the United States in the early 20th century. An Italian named Charles Ponzi came to Boston. Previously, he worked as a grocery store employee, sewing machine repairer, insurance salesman, painter, bank clerk, etc., without accomplishing anything, and also went to jail. After failing to start a business in Boston, he stumbled upon a kind of "international return vouchers". Taking advantage of the difference in international currency exchange rates, Ponzi began planning a financial scam. He spread his investment plan to the outside world, claiming to achieve a 50% rate of return within 45 days, but in essence it is "removing the east wall to supplement the west wall." This plan allowed Ponzi to become a millionaire within a year and cost 40,000 people more than $15 million. In the end, Ponzi went bankrupt and was sent to prison again. And his so-called plan was called a "Ponzi scheme" by later generations. Before rehearsing

, Jiang Wenli watched the TV version of the French show. "When I watched it, I was shocked by the director's imagination. The entire stage is empty, with only tables and chairs as the props. These tables and chairs are like building blocks to build various scenes, ships, bank offices, prisons, hospitals... …It can become all the worlds you have imagined, but it collapses in an instant and there is nothing left." Jiang Wenli said. But when the actual acting is performed, those tables and chairs become less cute. On the stage, the actors need to constantly move the tables and chairs to change scenes, climb up and down, shout and jump, and the whole scene is extremely exhausting. "This is probably the most tiring play I have ever played."

Lesgao pays special attention to the "rhythm", and the music keeps going from beginning to end. In order to practice rhythm, the director askedDuring the rehearsal, even if the actors are not acting, they must keep in the rhythm of the music when they go to pour water.

For everyone, this is a brand new experience, and Jiang Wenli is more difficult than others in that she wants to act as a man. In order to get into the role faster, she read Ponzi's autobiography and wears unisex clothes. During the rehearsal, walking, sitting, and speaking all imitate men. But it is clear that the shaping of a character is not only external. She went to discuss with the director again: Do you want me to play a man or myself? The director told her: Rather than imitating men deliberately, I hope you will play in your true colors and find your inner man in the rehearsal.

"Ponzi is a complicated character. He is greedy and shameful in creating scams to grab wealth. But there is another side. He donated skin to a nurse who was injured by a gas tank to save lives. He was very gentle with his wife. "Jiang Wenli said, although she has been rehearsing for more than a month, she still hasn't fully grasped the person Ponzi, and the advantage of the drama is that it allows you to get close to the character infinitely and go deeper into his heart.

"Jiang Wenli is an actor"

Jiang Wenli said that the process of acting is exactly the process of her self-opening, release and transformation. "Actors create roles and slowly discover themselves".

There is a scene in "Ponzi scheme". Ponzi, who is already wealthy, serves as a director of a bank. He has a meeting with other bank executives. At first, four people sat at the table and said lines. The director said, "You can be more free and crazier." When it was time to perform again, Jiang Wenli patted the face of the person on the left, grabbed the hair of the person on the right, laughed wildly, then climbed onto the table and sang a sad love song. An arrogant, ecstatic, but somewhat romantic Ponzi appeared, and the director clapped his hands and praised him. After that, she replayed the paragraph in her mind, and she blushed and heartbeat: Was that person me just now!

Before becoming an actor, Jiang Wenli was introverted and inferior. She lived with her grandfather since she was a child, and because she changed schools many times when she was in school, she seldom had any company and was always alone. “The members of a class moved away before they knew everything.” After her grandfather passed away, she always wanted to escape from her hometown. "I don't know what I am going to do in the future. I have a fire in my heart, unwilling to fate, and youthful rebellion. Living in one place for such a long time is very depressing." After failing the college entrance examination, she chose to go to a water conservancy and electricity company in a neighboring county. Going to school, I thought I could finally leave the place where I lived for many years and start another life.

However, fate is always unpredictable. After graduation, Jiang Wenli returned to her hometown and worked in a water company. She is not good at interpersonal and often embarrassed her when dealing with leaders and colleagues. She still has the same thought in her heart: Must leave here. At that time, the leaders saw that she had literary and artistic talents, so she was in charge of the unit's theatrical performances, and later she was sent to the province for performances. At the moment of the rehearsal, a stage director greeted her and said: "Your stage performance is very good, you can try to go to the Film Academy."

In 1989, 20-year-old Jiang Wenli applied for the Beijing Film Academy. The topic of the performance test is "After the Earthquake": One month after the Tangshan Earthquake, you finally returned home. Now, you are in front of the ruins of your house, and there is a piece of rubble under your feet... After getting the questions, many people performed it. Weeping with old things, there are also bold and creative classmates who perform secretly searching for valuables in the ruins. Only Jiang Wenli was sitting in the corner of the stage quietly, watching her classmates walking around in front of her, and suddenly raised her head with tears in her eyes. She had never learned acting and had no dream of acting, so she entered the acting department.

"I have almost no'girlhood'. When I first entered university, my teacher said that I was a Tsing Yi type actor, but a girl can also be a young woman, and it is best to play a young woman." Jiang Wenli recalled. Her first outstanding role is the "Little Bean Girl" in "Farewell My Concubine", a woman who has fallen into the dust. There are not many scenes, only 7 minutes. In order to play this role, Jiang Wenli asked her senior teacher Lu Zhong, "She said that the way women look at people is generally not looking straight, but diagonally." When the filming came, the mother and son went to the theater, Jiang Wenli sat in a chair and interceded with the master, hoping that he could accept his son as his apprentice. She kept squinting at the master talking from the corner of her eyes, crying and talking. After the master refused, she slanted and knelt down beside the table. This kneeling has become one of the classic scenes of the film, as long as Jiang Wenli's acting skills are mentioned, it will be brought out to talk about it.

is indeed as Jiang Wenli herself said, she has almost no youth on the screen, and she transitions directly to a young woman. From Xia Xiaoxue, who does housework and raises children in "Holding Hands", to "Chinese StyleLin Xiaofeng, who became hysterical due to marriage in "Divorce", from the petty bourgeoisie and willful Wen Li in "The Golden Wedding" to the shrewd, capable, intelligent and free Xu Huizhen in "The Little Woman under Zhengyang Gate", Jiang Wenli performed different types of performances. "Chinese Wife".

has acted in dramas for 30 years. Jiang Wenli’s experience is that the greater the contrast between the roles, the more she can discover her potential and the other side. Her most representative role is Wang Cailing in the movie "Li Chun", an idealist who lives in a small remote town and is alienated from reality. She insisted on her singing ideals and wanted to sing all the way from the county town to Beijing, and the final destination was the Paris Opera. Singing is not Jiang Wenli's advantage, let alone opera. In order to play this role, she specially found a professional teacher, followed by learning singing, piano, Italian, German, and Czech. When she actually performed, her mouth and manners were the same as a real opera actor. Nowadays, between rehearsals of "Ponzi scheme", she occasionally puts on a pose and sings a paragraph.

In appearance, Jiang Wenli gained 30 kilograms of fat and put on makeup that was "unrecognizable". Her face was full of freckles, her mouth was full of buck teeth, the corners of her eyes were drooping, and she was walking with big characters... After the first cut, director Gu Changwei invited When Wang Shuo came to see, Jiang Wenli was also sitting nearby. After watching, Gu Changwei asked: What do you think of the actress? Wang Shuo said it was good, where did you find it.

"The role of Wang Cailing made me realize that the performance is a mountain, and I'm crawling at the foot of the mountain." Jiang Wenli said. When filming, someone advised her to wear a fat jacket, but she thinks that 30 pounds of meat on her body is completely different from wearing a fat jacket. "If you want to build a good character, you have to walk into her soul. Outside. I don't care about beauty and ugliness, Jiang Wenli is an actor."

"I will be free when I live at my age"

Jiang Wenli is nearly fifty years old, but looks much younger than she actually is. She wears neat short hair and always has delicate makeup. In addition to

actors, Jiang Wenli's life is also very rich. Making tea, reading books, painting, and learning English, "I am a lazy person and don't like work that much", she said with a smile. She likes to clean up the house, and a few seconds can make her son's messy room tidy. When asked how to maintain such a peaceful and comfortable mentality, her answer was "I will be free when I live at my age."

She also had periods of confusion and anxiety. This probably dates back to 16 years ago. She made 4 dramas a year, non-stop, from one crew to another. When I filmed "Chinese-style divorce", "The whole person is basically about to collapse." "At that time, I felt like an ant on a hot pot. The pot was always hot, and the ants had to keep spinning. I couldn't Stop, you can't stop even if you want to stop." In the second year of

, she stopped taking the show, and began to think about her life and what regrets she had. "Grandpa, childhood... these words got into my mind." So Jiang Wenli returned to the desk, recalling her hometown, grandpa and childhood, and wrote them down. I wrote it for 3 years, and later it became a self-written and directed movie "See you in the sky."

In the movie, Xiaolan and grandpa depend on each other. Whether it is windy or rainy, grandpa accompanies Xiaolan to practice gymnastics every day, and personally sews gymnastics suits for Xiaolan; when grandpa is sick, Xiaolan bathes grandpa, feeds grandpa to dinner, and coaxes grandpa to be happy until grandpa closes his eyes and passes away. ...These almost all come from Jiang Wenli's childhood memories. "Think of childhood, when the material was not rich, but the spirit was very full. I wanted to tell people when I made a movie that you can be happy without too much material in a hustle and bustle environment." In 2010, when the film was released Jiang Wenli said. Grandpa and childhood are her "spiritual home", and looking back on the past, let her know how to proceed. After

"See you in the sky", Jiang Wenli's pace really slowed down, probably at the pace of one drama a year, occasionally acting in movies and plays. There are not many acting roles, so the choice of roles is extremely cautious, "most of them are not easy roles." In the hit drama "Little Women under Zhengyangmen", she played Xu Huizhen, from her 20s to her 70s. Because she was playing a girl with two braids in the play, she was "played as tender" by complaints. In the face of the controversy, she was calm and said that she was not bothered by age. "I think that when I was young, performing young and wonderful, and when I was older, I also performed the kind of trust and distress of older people. Each has its own advantages."

has passed through half of her life. Some people say that Jiang Wenli seems to always "take a breath", always reluctant to admit defeat, with the demeanor of a big woman. Jiang Wenli said, this probably comes from the experience of life, and the role of one after anotherExperience, "Only by relaxing your mind, magnifying your mind, and letting your mind go empty can you not be troubled by old things and limited by the environment, and let yourself find new power for a happy life in the trivial and mediocre daily life."