is a presence in Chen Hao that no one can ignore. She has starred in the alluring Diao Chan in "Three Kingdoms", the most beautiful A Zi in "Dragon", the drunken Chen Bailu in the drama "Sunrise", and the charming "heartthrob" in "Pink Girl" " Chen Hao himself said that these roles, especially the "heartthrob", are the most difficult to play, "because they are not me after all, and there is a distance from my experience and living conditions."
Chen Hao, who returned to the human world, co-acted with Zhang Jiayi as an old couple in the hit drama "Happy Parents", "I don't have to act or design the role this time. I have never played with me before. Such a relatable character." In the play, the two have many conflicts in their life with their children.
In "Happy Parents", Chen Hao plays Dai Jing, a working mother. He has a fiery personality and has to carefully plan various matters at work, while also taking good care of the daily life and studies of his two children. Photo provided by interviewee
After watching the show, Chen Hao’s friends all said that it didn’t look like acting, it was simply a portrayal of Chen Hao’s own life.
The last time Chen Hao and Zhang Jiayi were in the same drama was twenty-seven years ago. It was Chen Hao's first drama.
For a long time, it was difficult for the audience to see Chen Hao on the screen. She took the initiative to step out of the public eye and enter the academy. Over the past ten years, Chen Hao has gotten married, had children, and became a university teacher.
In March 2024, Southern Weekend chatted with Chen Hao, who continues to act, about different identities in life: mother, teacher and actor.
"I have never acted in such a down-to-earth drama"
Southern Weekend: What kind of opportunity made you decide to take on the drama "Happy Parents"?
Chen Hao: There is a distance between the characters created before and my experience, including some of my states in life. When you get a role, you always have to think about: Where do I want to enter the role? What kind of character do you want to portray her as? How can we better highlight the character’s personality traits?
The character (Dai Jing) in "Happy Parents" is quite similar to my age, situation, and the entire background of the character. Another reason is that I have never acted in such a life-like and down-to-earth drama. After reading the script, I felt that this character was very real, and I even felt that I didn’t have to act or design it specially. This kind of role that is close to my true nature is also a gap in my acting career. I really want to try it and experience different creative feelings.
Southern Weekend: Did you encounter any challenges when filming this drama?
Chen Hao: There is no difficulty in character creation in . The only thing that was a little difficult was the cooperation between me and teacher Zhang Jiayi. Twenty-seven years ago, although we collaborated in a play, we had no opposite roles. In "Happy Parents", we are an old married couple. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the tacit understanding of an old couple, and to achieve a tacit understanding that can be understood without speaking, just with a look or a movement. Therefore, I need to get into the role quickly.
Southern Weekend: Zhang Jiayi is a very calm actor. You will relax when you play with him, right?
Chen Hao: Acting as an actor is like playing ball. You must be in the same rhythm as your opponent to be able to come and go, so there must be mutual influence and interaction between the opponent actors. In addition, the stories and scenes in the play are the living environments we have to face every day. So, I asked my friends around me, and they felt that the two of us didn't look like we were acting. They may even say: "Isn't this who you are in life?"
"I'm not the kind of particularly curly mother"
Southern Weekend: Compared with Dai Jing in the play, how invested are you in your children's education? ?
Chen Hao: Dai Jing and I have quite similar educational philosophies in some places. Not a particularly curly kind of mom, not a "chicken mom"! I have been "diving" in the parent group.
I also hope that the children will have a happy childhood. Happiness is okay, but it must not be the worst. This is the same as Dai Jing's request for Guo Ning in the play.What I care about is not scores or IQ, but being able to cultivate their emotional intelligence and more personal hobbies. Every child is different and everyone excels in different areas, so there is no need to use scores to determine everything.
When it comes to education, I think there is no absolute right or wrong. It just depends on the couple, what kind of growth environment they want to create for their children, and what kind of growth path they want to design. This requires a tacit understanding. We are also crossing the river by feeling the stones.
Of course, when a child says, "Our classmates are all making up lessons," if we don't make up for the child, we will also worry about whether they will lose at the starting line, and there will be some vacillation. At this time, the opinions of the husband and wife are more important. Be unified, strengthen your confidence, and strive to exclude external interference.
In Chen Hao's opinion, when it comes to education, he is still trying to cross the river by feeling the stones. Photo provided by interviewee
Southern Weekend: Will your children attend extracurricular classes?
Chen Hao: Currently, they are learning painting, piano and tennis. At the beginning, I would take them to try many things, such as piano, taekwondo, Latin dance, etc. Let children find their own interests and hobbies.
Interest is the best teacher. I don’t want to force them to learn. I want to help children find what they like, and they will naturally be interested in learning. I have a child who studies piano and has reached grade 8 this year. I have never had a single practice with him. Now he often downloads the scores he is interested in from the Internet, practices them by himself, or adapts a few measures, and says, "Mom, what do you think of this, I adapted it?" He is interested in this, so there is no need to urge him to practice it. Just sit by the piano whenever you have time.
Parents cannot replace their children. So I am willing to be a lazy mother. Let them solve everything by themselves. If you really can't solve it, come back to me. I won't rush in and do a lot of things for them.
"How many actors can stand on the top of the pyramid and be watched by thousands of people"
Southern Weekend: When did you act in your first play?
Chen Hao: is in the second grade of high school. That movie happened to be shot in Qingdao. At that time, the chief director was Huang Jianxin, and the executive director was Yang Yazhou. When director Yang Yazhou went to choose actors, he chose me.
Southern Weekend: When you first started acting, was it by chance, or did you just like to perform by nature?
Chen Hao: because I like it. My mother also liked literature and art when she was young. But there were no such conditions at that time. So when I was in elementary school, my mom would train me a little bit. For example, learn to dance or take a class for young journalists. My own personality is also a relatively outgoing and generous child. Don’t worry about whether you know someone or not, just let me perform and I will immediately dare to sing and dance for you.
In fact, as long as it is something you like, you can persevere no matter how difficult it is. But if you don’t like it and encounter a little setback, you will give up quickly. I always tell my students that you must love the profession of acting enough. If you don’t love it, you will find the suffering involved and you simply can’t stand it. Don't think that as long as you become an actor, you won't have to worry about food, clothing, or drinks. You will live in the spotlight and receive praise and love from the public. How many people can really stand on the top of the pyramid and attract the attention of thousands of people? Famous actors are only a handful. Many more actors are struggling to pursue their dreams because of their love. Like ordinary people, they are also worried about tomorrow's rent and the next meal.
has many actors, but they actually persisted and finally succeeded. Like Zhang Songwen in "Hurry Up", as well as Yu Hewei and Huang Bo. Therefore, love is the key to success!
In the movie "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog", Chen Hao stands in the layers of rice fields. With his outstanding performance in this movie, Chen Hao entered the public eye. Data map
Southern Weekend: The previous "Pink Girl" was a crossroads between your acting career and life. The "heartthrob" you play is young and beautiful.Was this role challenging to perform? Is it difficult?
Chen Hao: Looking at it so far, I think "Heartthrob" is the most difficult role I have ever played. Because she is so different from me. When I was 22 years old, I went to play "Heartthrob". "Heartthrob" has a very mature outlook on love, values, and life, and has a clear understanding of the relationship between men and women. She has the feeling of a big sister, everything is calm and calm, and everything feels under her control. But at that time, I had never been in a serious relationship. I was very ignorant about love and life, let alone the relationship between men and women.
Moreover, I am the youngest among the four actresses. But I also want to perform the feeling of "you can come to me if you need anything". The gap is simply huge. I think it was because I was young and impulsive that I took this role. Now you want me to act, I'm really a little scared. At that time, I was young, had nothing to fear, and I had no reputation. It didn't matter if the role didn't work out, so I took on the role of "Heartthrob" with a rush of motivation.
The TV series "Pink Girl" (2002) is adapted from Zhu Deyong's comics, and Chen Hao plays the "heartthrob" in the drama. Data map
My own life trajectory is very different from that of the "heartthrob", but because of my profession, I have tried to play such a character, which has enriched my life. After the performance, I was able to appreciate the joy of being an actor even more. I am also very grateful to this role, which has given me greater confidence in myself and expanded my possibilities as an actor. Like a rubber band, it stretched my toughness all at once.
“You won’t pick on all the beauties just because they are beautiful.”
Southern Weekend: In 2010, you returned to your alma mater, the Central Academy of Drama, to continue your postgraduate studies. After graduating in 2013, he stayed at the school to teach until now. In your opinion, what can college study bring to actors?
Chen Hao: After graduating from undergraduate degree, I filmed movies for almost ten years, but there was no particularly good opportunity to settle down. I think actors need a period of time to settle down, summarize and think. And going back to school gave me such time and space.
Professional Academy teaches performance methods. If he is an amateur, he can only play his true colors at best. Many times, the director feels that he is suitable for the character and has the characteristics of the character, so he chooses this person. But as a professional actor, you can't just play yourself. In this case, the actor's career will be too short and the audience will soon get bored. Also, it’s your first time standing in front of the camera, aren’t you nervous? Do you know how to say your lines well? Do you know how to organize effective stage actions? These require professional study. In addition to acting methods, young actors must also be taught to have good artistic ethics and respect the profession they are engaged in.
Southern Weekend: For you, what is the difference between studying in drama school and studying in film and television shooting?
Chen Hao: Movies and TV are performances in front of the camera. Their sense of proportion is different from performances on the stage, but in fact their roots are the same.
There are many excellent drama actors who have a background in drama, and they will also become very good film and television actors. Because the basics for getting started as an actor are the same, they all require real listening, real seeing, and real feeling, good sensibility, strong explosive power, good expressiveness, and rich imagination. I think the most basic requirements for actors are the same in these things. It's just that one of the ways it is shown is on the stage and the other is through the camera, but this does not affect the essence of the actor's performance.
I think that the stage can actually give actors a larger training space, because the performance on the stage is done in one go. After the curtain opens, no one can pull the actors off the stage. It is impossible to say stop, let’s do it again. . However, film and television dramas are actually episodic, and sometimes they are jumpy. The filming of film and television dramas can be repeated. I think drama performance may be more difficult.
Southern Weekend: Now is the video era, and audiences are more picky about performances.In your opinion, what kind of performance makes a good actor?
Chen Hao: I think a good actor is what he acts like. If you ask him to play a bad guy, he can play a particularly bad person, and he can play a good guy very well. His own characteristics are particularly weak. I always like to compare an actor to a piece of plasticine. If you give him any mold, he can immediately blend himself into it. In other words, when an actor enters a certain role, he completely becomes the character and cannot find his own shadow. This is a good actor.
In addition to his professional shaping ability, his conduct as a person is also very important. If you are an actor with artistic ethics.
Southern Weekend: What courses do you mainly teach on ? What is the teaching system and plan of Chinese Opera? Are there any specific teaching materials?
Chen Hao: I now teach acting classes. We have unified teaching materials and unified teaching plans. The acting profession does not have a fixed teaching template, and there is no standard answer. Some of our students have been exposed to acting before entering school and have some of their performance concepts. But for us, it may be wrong, and we still have to correct it. Everyone has different problems and characteristics, and teachers will provide different guidance. I believe that what I teach may be different from what other teachers teach. Because every teacher will have his own understanding and his own way.
In addition to teaching tasks, Chen Hao will also go to the studio to film, bringing first-hand experience and insights back to the classroom. Photo provided by interviewee
Southern Weekend: In the past ten years, is there any difference between the children who have been selected for the National Theater and the children of your era?
Chen Hao: Today’s children are more self-centered. There are many ways to become an actor these days, and it doesn't necessarily have to go to drama school. There are more opportunities out there than there were in my time. There will be various opportunities to find them. The amount of information they are exposed to is larger and more diverse. I think they need to resist this temptation, be more determined, and focus more on learning.
Southern Weekend: The discourse field of network pays special attention to the annual enrollment of China Theater and Nortel. In most people’s minds, only “beautiful people” are selected. Will ordinary-looking students be selected?
Chen Hao: Of course will. We can't all be handsome guys and pretty girls. In addition to appearance, what we value more is whether they have performance qualities. Maybe the outside world pays more attention to the faces that were photographed and posted online because of their beauty during exams. But in fact, among the students in each class, there are young actors of different types such as old students, Huadan, Xiaosheng, Qingyi... When we choose, we will not pick Huadan and Xiaosheng just because they are beautiful.
Southern Weekend staff writer Xiang Yang Tong Jinyang
editor-in-chief Liu Youxiang
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-