Huang Zhizhong plays the economic investigation policeman Cui Tiejun in the movie "Trident". Picture provided by the film crew
Actor Huang Zhizhong will admit that his body is frail due to his growing age. Compared with his tough-as-nails image on screen, Huang Zhizhong off-screen is easy-going and down-to-earth.
If every actor has his own temperament, Huang Zhizhong is always associated with words such as integrity, iron-blooded, and tough guy. This depends on the fact that many of his past deeply rooted roles are extremely heroic and positive characters. Hai Rui in "Ming Dynasty 1566", Yuan Longping in "Service", and the big-backed Cui Tiejun in the new work "Trident", Huang Zhizhong all portray those "powerful characters" in multiple dimensions.
Regarding his "awe-inspiring righteousness", Huang Zhizhong believes that this is related to the fact that he was once a professional basketball player. The charge and struggle of competitive sports shaped his spirit. Huang Zhizhong is not angry but is proud of himself. Everyone who has met him will feel this way. When he participated in the variety show "First Grade" many years ago, Huang Zhizhong served as a line teacher. He would angrily scold students who were late and speak out if they did not understand the behavior. And these are all annotations for the roles he has played.
Huang Zhizhong played the role of "Ming Dynasty Sword" Hai Rui in the TV series "Ming Dynasty 1566" (2007). Data picture
Regarding the role of Big Beitou, director Gao Qunshu said that Huang Zhizhong was the one who came to mind at the beginning. The three protagonists in "Trident" have the universality of old policemen, but also have their own personalities. Each of the three people has a label and a shared mission. In Gao Qunshu's view, both Huang Zhizhong and the other two leading actors Jiang Wu and Guo Tao are experienced actors with no problems with their acting skills. But the important thing is how to become the character in the film, including the eyes, muscle reactions, and mentality, so that you can truly achieve that kind of integration. This requires a little grinding and a little touch.
Huang Zhizhong has never regarded his past experience as a diamond that "can do anything". He is still nervous when facing a role, and almost every time he breaks his past self and reshapes it. In the understanding of most people, at his age, actors are no longer afraid of playing any role. He can handle the role with ease just by relying on his rich experience and accumulated life experience.
Huang Zhizhong felt "dare not": "I feel that I have to be careful in every role and every job, especially for a police officer like this. That day we played a show for active public security officers, and I was particularly worried about that show. You are really a police officer. Do you think you can pass? If you think it is like that, I will feel at ease. "
I always have to be well prepared.
Huang Zhizhong's appearance in the movie "Trident". Picture provided by the film crew
Southern Weekend: A conventional police film is about two groups of police and gangsters, but "Trident" is particularly complicated?
Huang Zhizhong: I think the structure of this drama is still different from the foreign police and gangster films we have seen, or some domestic police-themed films. Because many of the events written by the author are true and were obtained from interviews with comrades around him.
Southern Weekend: Almost every character in this drama has his own life history, and it is very complete.
Huang Zhizhong: is right, so I think it is particularly useful. It not only gives you a strong sense of professional identity, but also gives you a lot of words in life. Cui Tiejun, a character with a big back, has to go home to accompany his father who has Alzheimer's disease after taking off his uniform. He has to go shopping for groceries, go home to cook, and then help his old father wash and wash himself. He is extremely down-to-earth and has a pyrotechnic spirit.
Southern Weekend: What kind of character do you want this policeman to be?
Huang Zhizhong: First of all, director Qunshu thought that maybe my temperament was more suitable for Cui Tiejun. This is my first time playing an economic investigation police officer. I really don’t understand it, but thanks to the original author of the novel, Mr. Lu Zheng, he provided us with a very good text and a very good soil. This character served as a seed. Able to grow very smoothly.Of course, as with previous creations, I interviewed some police officers and people doing economic investigation work in advance to understand the nature of the work.
Southern Weekend: What preparations do you need to get into a role?
Huang Zhizhong: Isn’t that what just said handy? No, no, no, it’s really not. I think I need to be fully prepared every time. This may also be one of my creative habits. I spend a particularly long time doing desk work, so I feel confident. Collect the script, interview the police, and then spend more time alone in the room, thinking, talking to the character, and pondering these lines over and over again. I think it may be possible to start by being proficient in it, and then slowly squeeze out the flavor from it.
Southern Weekend: How do you three actors (Guo Tao, Jiang Wu) get along?
Huang Zhizhong: is an old friend in life, and we have known each other for many years. The filming lasted three months, but it didn't feel like it was long and I couldn't bear to leave. It’s rare to encounter such a solid subject matter. Although it has been more than four years since it was filmed in 2019, it is still fresh in my memory every time I mention it. There is something very touching in it.
Southern Weekend: I heard from the director that your first scene was the three brothers drinking at the beach. Do you remember any adjustments during that process?
Huang Zhizhong: We shot the scene in for three days. These three days were not shot continuously, but maybe at intervals. First, the scene was shot shortly after the filming started, and everyone was still a little unfamiliar with the relationship between the characters. There was still a difference between the private state and the character's state. The first time is considered a warm-up rehearsal. During the second filming, Teacher Gao (referring to the director) said to drink some wine and feel better, but he ended up drinking too much, so the filming couldn’t be completed and he called it a day. But the characters are becoming more and more solid, and the relationships between the characters are becoming clearer and clearer. The third shot went very smoothly, and it passed after a few times. This is also a normal creative rule. Sometimes I would also suggest to the director that some scenes may not be ideal at the start of filming. If I have time, I can reshoot them. My current sensibilities and perceptions may be different.
Southern Weekend: Looking back, which part of the whole movie was the most "exciting" for you to shoot?
Huang Zhizhong: I think is just the few times the three brothers have appeared. One was drinking at the beach in the opening scene, and the other was going out to sea. On the boat, the three brothers felt that they had to show their swords and fight against the criminals. It was also very exciting and there were a lot of fun things. The wind and waves were huge that day. After taking the shots on the boat, we had to take panoramic shots. The photographer took the shots from another boat. After a while, the director said, oh, where did this lens go? Where are people? The cameraman was vomiting like crazy, and then the sound engineer also fell down while holding the pole. It was indeed quite hard. After the filming, some people kept vomiting and some got seasick on the way back. At this time, the staff who reacted were sent back first.
There is also a scene where our three brothers are also at the beach. Big Stick (played by Jiang Wu) exposed the little ones in my heart and said that you were taking personal revenge by solving this major case. It was because of your brother's incident at that time that I If you were just whipped up to work as a detective, you would be so bad. I don't like you as a young man. That's probably what he meant, and then he beat him up. I felt particularly deeply about that line, (I said,) I am not being kind anymore, I tricked you, I harmed you, it was my fault, and I will admit it even if I kowtow to your face and plead guilty after this is over. But we are faced with criminal gangs, so many people have been cut off from leeks, and so many people have been harmed by illegal fund-raising loans worth 30 billion. I said that we are about to retire, and the three of us are here just to fight for these hurt people. Isn’t it worth it? The lines are quite powerful and the mood is very high.
The role of conspiracy with the audience
The character played by Huang Zhizhong (left) in the TV series "Home Cooking" (2011) is very different from most of his previous roles.Data chart
Southern Weekend: Will the experience or training in stage plays bring anything to your performance?
Huang Zhizhong: I graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, and we were trained on the stage. Now sometimes I actually have a sense of stage when I create. For example, in the current scene, the place where the two of us are sitting may be the stage entrance. There are side curtain strips on both sides. There may be a panoramic (camera position) and a medium and close-range camera position. So I always have a subconscious idea that when you set up the camera, I think this is the fourth wall, which is the audience. How do we break through this wall through character relationships and bring the audience in? So it’s a habit. For a camera, I know roughly what the scene is, what the scale of my performance is, and which camera is needed for this scene. This is all subconscious.
Southern Weekend: What are your own criteria for choosing movies? The plays you have performed seem to have a lot in common.
Huang Zhizhong: I think the emotional concentration should be higher, and the fate of the characters should have greater ups and downs. I prefer this type. This is why they don’t ask me to act in some modern dramas, and there are relatively few of them. In fact, I also want to try it, and act out the feeling of being in an office building every day. Lin Manjiang, who acted in "Breakout", including the earliest "Home Cooking", is quite down-to-earth. So when directors come to me, they tend to look for characters who are tough, straight, and powerful. Numb repetition, to be honest, there are some, but I try hard to find some changes here.
Southern Weekend: You played a villain in "The Point of the Knife". Was it your own choice?
Huang Zhizhong: is also the director’s choice. This character has a lot of twists and turns. He is an octopus with several boats on his feet. Many things are under his control. In fact, actors of our age have experienced this in past creations. My current mentality is to ensure physical health first. You have to adjust the workload according to your physical condition. There are some very heavy scenes and very big scenes. To be honest, it is very difficult to support them. Basically, I don’t choose such a workload. Because you hurt the characters, you are also irresponsible to the producers.
Huang Zhizhong plays the villain-Lu Jingyu, director of the Wang Puppet Security Bureau, in the movie "The Point of the Knife" (2023) directed by Gao Qunshu. Data map
Southern Weekend: Do you have a preference between movies and TV series?
Huang Zhizhong: The working mode of movies seems to be more suitable for my current physical condition. Don’t be too full of this character in TV series. Or if it is full, the cycle can be extended a little longer, and I think it may still be able to do the job.
Southern Weekend: There are quite a lot of fighting scenes in this drama, can you physically handle it?
Huang Zhizhong: is very difficult. In fact, Jiang Wu fought the most. If you think of it as a criminal policeman, he would be the first to charge into battle. When we had our last battle, I played that scene for a week. Every day when I go home, I scream, my whole body hurts, and I'm bruised and bruised. Our kind of fighting scenes are all real fights, that is, whatever you see on the scene can be picked up as a weapon, and then it is all hand-to-hand combat, where you have to roll and react. Of course, you have to bring your own protective gear. It is true that the young guys who play the villains like you and Ou Hao all have quick reactions and agile movements, which give you a lot of power at once. It is indeed quite a challenge. This part is the hardest for Jiang Wu.
Southern Weekend: The female role in men’s dramas is actually particularly important. When choosing a film, do you care about how many romantic scenes there are between men and women?
Huang Zhizhong: This age group is not very exposed to such emotional lines. You said that at my current age, I want to fall in love with a man in his twenties. I can’t accept it. I think it’s too embarrassing and visually uncomfortable. But as a film and television creation, it is an important line that supports a drama, so I think it is just right and choose effectively.
Southern Weekend: You have acted in the new version of "Bright Sword". Do you have any taboos about filming such a classic?
Huang Zhizhong: Teacher Li Youbin’s Li Yunlong is a very classic creation and cannot be surpassed.But I love such a military image very much, so when I had this opportunity, they chose me to play the role. I actually struggled for a long time, but I still couldn't let go of my love for this character, so I gave it a try.
Huang Zhizhong plays Li Yunlong in the TV series "Bright Sword: Iron-Blooded Soul" (2011). Data map
Southern Weekend: What do you think of the relationship between actors and audiences?
Huang Zhizhong: I think the audience is also changing from generation to generation, and performance forms and performance concepts must also keep pace with the times. I filmed the film 20 years ago, when these children were still young. "Ming Dynasty 1566" was filmed in 2007. If you close your eyes and do the math, it has been almost 20 years, and that generation of audiences has also grown up with us. But now a new generation of viewers has emerged. With the changes in society and the advancement of technology, their horizons are getting wider and wider, and they collect more and more information. So, can you share the same channel with them? So I think empathy used to be from a perspective, which means you accept what I give you. What about collusion? It’s another angle, let’s just say that when you look at Huang Zhizhong’s performance, it’s the same as what I think. When you look at what he said, this is what he said, and this is how this presentation must be. So I think we need to constantly adjust and make continuous progress.
Southern Weekend staff writer He Doudou Tong Jinyang
editor-in-chief Liu Youxiang
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