In 1989, Emeishan Film Factory prepared to shoot the movie "Jiao Yulu" and prepared to invite Li Xuejian to play this role. However, Li Xuejian did not agree at the first time.
On the one hand, it was because the TV series version of "Jiao Yulu" had just been released at that time, and Jiao Yulu's character image had already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. On the other hand,is because Li Xuejian played an important historical figure 9 years ago, and this character is incompatible with Jiao Yulu's image characteristics. Li Xuejian is worried that once the performance is not good, it will affect the image of the whole movie.
* with Li Xuejian).
The character played by Li Xuejian 9 years ago is the most controversial ** in modern Chinese history. According to Li Xuejian's own recollections:After he finished playing **, **'s spouse Wang Guangmei refused to shake hands with her.
So, why did Li Xuejian play the role of ** when he was young, and how did this role affect his later acting career?
Today, this episode tells you about:A generation of drama bones Li Xuejian.
On February 20, 1954, Li Xuejian was born in an ordinary peasant family in Heze City, Shandong Province. In 1965, Li Xuejian, who was only 11 years old, followed his father and went to Guizhou to support the construction of the third line and studied in a local school. During his studies, Li Xuejian showed a strong interest in the arts, and because of his outstanding acting talent, Li Xuejian served as an actor in the literary and artistic propaganda team in both the middle school and the factory.
In 1973,Li Xuejian, who had a dream of acting, signed up for the army and was later transferred to the drama team of the Second Artillery Troupe of the Chinese People's Liberation Army。Li Xuejian, who is 20 years old, is surging in his heart and thinks that he is one step closer to his dream.
Young Li Xuejian).
However, the young and vigorous Li Xuejian soon ushered in the first setback in his life. At that time, the drama team was preparing a drama called "**Out of the Mountain"., the eight immortals who participated in the audition crossed the sea, each showing their magical powers: Pu Cunxin inlaid himself with a big gold tooth, and after Wang Xueqi was "shot" on the stage, he stumbled in place for a while before he was willing to fall to the ground and whimper.
Li Xuejian himself is not to be outdoneHe put a big mole on his face with mud, and he learned the movements well- However, when the head of the crew announced the list of actors selected, Li Xuejian, who was looking forward to it, did not hear his name.
Young Li Xuejian).
Li Xuejian, who was full of grievances, asked the leader of the crew that he had worked very hard, why he still failed, and the leader of the crew said: "You look too old, you have the taste of a peasant in the countryside, and you are not suitable to play this drama." ”
Hearing the explanation of the crew leader, Li Xuejian didn't say much, so he could only hide in the corner alone and sulk, but unexpectedly, an opportunity was quietly coming.
Young Li Xuejian).
In 1977, Su Ke, the deputy head of the repertory troupe, took a fancy to Li Xuejian, a new young man. When he was young, Su Ke had met ** in Yan'an, and when he first met Li Xuejian,He vaguely felt that Li Xuejian was somewhat similar to the ** when he was young.
However, at this time, Li Xuejian was still immersed in the shadow of his previous failure to run for actors, and he doubted whether his appearance was not suitable for being an actor at all, but Su Ke encouraged him"Everyone's image is suitable for playing different roles, and now this role happens to be suitable for you, you can definitely play it well! ”
Li Xuejian plays **).
With Su Ke's encouragement, Li Xuejian regained his confidence, he believes that with his love for acting in the past few years and the skills he has accumulated, he will definitely be able to play the role entrusted to him by the deputy head of the troupe!
However, on the road of interpretation, Li Xuejian, who has regained his confidence, still has to face many difficulties on the road of interpretation: the first thing that makes Li Xuejian feel a headache is his appearance.
Friends who are familiar with ** may know,**My face is very thin, giving people a cold, gloomy, and sickly look。And Li Xuejian was born in the countryside, with a round face, and a kind of roughness in the field under his honest appearance, which is incompatible with the temperament of **.
Li Xuejian plays **).
In order to make his face shape and figure closer to the twilight of his life, Li Xuejian did not hesitate to start customizing the amount of meals for himself, in just two weeksLi Xuejian, who tightened his belt, lost more than 20 pounds, and his chin bone showed a clear outline on his originally round face.
However, it is not enough to just "resemble", if you want to play a good historical role, you must also be "sound-like" and "god-like". To this end, Li Xuejian spared no time and energyI found a video of **once speaking, and over and over again*** the tone and demeanor of the speech, and imitated it.
Li Xuejian plays **).
Every dawn, Li Xuejian would wear a military coat and walk into the courtyard of the troops, bent his waist, stepping on small broken steps, and reciting words in his mouth, looking bitter and hateful. When everyone saw the back of Li Xuejian practicing actingThey all thought that Li Xuejian, who had been frustrated before, was "enchanted".
When resting in the house, Li Xuejian was not idle, he was full of ** in his bedroom and desk, and whenever he had spare time, he would stare at ** and look at **, and the scene of ** life appeared in his mind. Because the tone of the ** has been studied several times is not the point,Li Xuejian also specially invited a master who had practiced his voice, and asked him to read the speech in the ** video tape word by word, and tried his best to imitate the tone of **.
Li Xuejian plays **).
When it came time to decorate the mirror, Li Xuejian sat in front of the dressing table, looked at himself in the mirror, and then looked at the ** in his hand, no matter how he looked at it, he felt a little unsimilar. After thinking about it a few times, Li Xuejian realized that it was his eyebrows that didn't match. Li Xuejian gritted his teeth, and when he went home, he simply cut his eyebrows into the same triangular eyebrow shape as **.
When Li Xuejian, who had cut his eyebrows, slowly walked in front of everyone, everyone's jaws dropped in shock: This is simply the reincarnation of ** himself! Huang He, who was the head of the Air Politics Art Troupe at the time, said with emotion"After this kid puts on makeup, he walks to Tiananmen Square, and he can scare people to death! ”
Li Xuejian plays **).
However, everyone's surprised attitude just shows the success of Li Xuejian's own makeup.
Just as Li Xuejian was about to take the stage to play the role of **, there was another problem in front of him. At this time, he was notified by the directorHe was asked to sit there in the first act of the play and not move at all. This requirement stumped Li Xuejian for a while - this not only made Li Xuejian's previous action practice useless, but also such a static role requires the actor to reflect and express the character's character while being motionless, which is a great test for the actor himself.
Li Xuejian plays **).
By flipping through the video materials, Li Xuejian found that he had the habit of playing with matchboxes when he was young. So, in the first act of the play, although he sat motionless on the sofa, he played with the matchbox in his hand until the flames of the matchbox burned his hand with painHe extinguished the match - * The cold and gloomy and scheming character image was portrayed by Li Xuejian very well.
In the end, the drama played by Li Xuejian carefully achieved great successThe repertory troupe has toured all over the country and performed more than 300 public performances, which aroused a warm response in the society at that time. Before each performance,Li Xuejian will deliberately skip meals, and try his best to show a thin and weak posture on the stage.
Li Xuejian plays **).
In a performance, the spouse of **, Wang Guangmei**, played this drama. After the drama performance, Wang Guangmei was very happy to shake hands with every actor on the stage and say to them that they had worked hard, but when Wang Guangmei walked in front of Li Xuejian, who played **, Wang Guangmei's smile immediately froze, and she shook hands with the next actor.
This made Li Xuejian on the stage suddenly embarrassed, and later, Wang Guangmei explained to everyone:"I don't have any opinions on Li Xuejian as an actor, his performance is really good, so much so that I feel that the one standing in front of me is **. I just don't want to shake hands with **, it's not that I don't want to shake hands with Li Xuejian. ”
Wang Guangmei and ***
Li Xuejian, who is only 26 years old, became an instant hit by playing the role of ** in the drama, and in the end,Li Xuejian won the first Chinese Theatre Award - Plum Blossom Performance Award, the highest honor in the Chinese theatre industry.
Because Li Xuejian's role as ** when he was young has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, Li Xuejian hesitated for a while after receiving the invitation of the film crew of "Jiao Yulu" in 1989.
Under the repeated invitation of the crew, Li Xuejian finally agreed to participateIn this film, Li Xuejian plays Jiao Yulu, a selfless and good secretary of the people of Lankao County。The success of the movie "Jiao Yulu" changed people's stereotype of Li Xuejian's controversial role as **, and made Li Xuejian the most popular actor in China in the 90s of the 20th century.
Li Xuejian as Jiao Yulu).
In addition, the movie "Jiao Yulu" starring Li Xuejian also triggered a phenomenal movie-watching boom at that timeWith an average ticket price of only 3 cents, a "Jiao Yulu" won 1300 million yuan at the box office, creating an early Chinese movie box office myth.
However, not long after participating in "Jiao Yulu", Li Xuejian played another character, which made his image almost fall to the bottom in the hearts of the peopleThat is Li Xuejian who played the CCTV version of "Water Margin" in 1998
Song Jiang in the .
Li Xuejian as Song Jiang).
The 98 CCTV version of "Water Margin", the character image is not completely based on "Water Margin" written by Shi Nai'an, but adopts the idea and attitude of "Song Jiang", which was published in the 70s of the 20th century. In the 98 CCTV version of "Water Margin",Song Jiang, played by Li Xuejian, looked like a pretended and was bent on seeking office, but in the end, because he insisted on recruiting peace, he buried the lives and future of the Liangshan brothers.
This version of "Water Margin" also aroused enthusiastic responses among the people, according to Li Xuejian's recollection: Shortly after the release of "Water Margin",He received a lot of "threatening letters" from fellow villagers in Shandong, in which they scolded him for betraying Brother Liangshan, and once he, a native of Heze, Shandong, dared to return to his hometown, the fellow villagers would definitely let go of their fists and kicks to beat him.
Li Xuejian as Song Jiang).
Li Xuejian often laughed at these "threat letters" - he knew in his heart that it was precisely because of the success of the rolewill let the audience living in reality "enter the play" and have real likes and hatreds for him.
Unfortunately, Li Xuejian experienced ups and downs again in his subsequent acting career: in November 2000, Li Xuejian was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer during filmingAfter the operation, Li Xuejian's timbre was seriously affected, and sometimes it was very difficult to speak.
However, Li Xuejian did not give up his acting career. In November 2012, Li Xuejian participated in the movie "1942", playing the role of Li Peiji, chairman of Henan Province, and won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 50th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards for this movie "1942". In 2013, Li Xuejian won the "Annual Lifetime Achievement Award" in the first ** TV Chinese TV Drama Annual Star Ceremony.
Li Xuejian, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award, did not rest thereIn 2016, he participated in "Young Marshal" as the warlord Zhang Zuolin, for which he won the Best Performing Arts Award at the 28th Golden Eagle Awards。In 2019, he played the role of Lu Xun in the movie "Red Star Shining on China", which was also well received by the audience.
Li Xuejian as Zhang Zuolin).
Throughout Li Xuejian's life,He was able to break his likes and dislikes of historical figures and fully integrate himself into the interpretation of the characters, which made most of the film and television works he participated in become classics in the history of Chinese film and television。Li Xuejian's predecessors' dedication to art is an example for countless artists today to learn from and learn from!