The total box office of the 42-year-old Ma Li's movies has exceeded 18.1 billion yuan, ranking first in the box office of actresses in Chinese film history. In addition to "Article 20", the movies she starred in also include "Walking on the Moon Alone", "This Killer Is Not Calm", "Iron Fist of Shame", "Charlotte's Troubles", "Keep You Safe", "Unfamiliar with Life" and so on.
This Spring Festival is a busy and fulfilling holiday for Ma Li, she not only co-starred in the sketch "Cold" with her old partner Shen Teng at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, but also played roles in two Spring Festival films "Article 20" and "Hot and Hot". In "Article 20", her wife Li Maojuan has both the boldness and pungency of a Northeast woman, and the love and strength of a mother.
She said in an interview that she was very unconfident at first whether she could use comedy to create this role, but with the encouragement and cooperation of Zhang Yimou, Lei Jiayin, Zhang Yi and others, she quickly found an accurate performance state, "This time director Zhang Yimou opened a completely different Ma Li, which the audience has never seen, and I have not seen it myself." ”
Perform a sense of joy on the basis of realism.
There is no actor who doesn't want to work with Zhang Yimou, and Ma Li is the same. When receiving the invitation from the crew, Ma Li's excitement was difficult to express in words. "How did this kind of good thing happen to me?She laughed. After meeting for the first time, she found that Zhang Yimou was a very kind person and relaxed all of a sudden. During the filming, she was moved by the positive energy exuded by Zhang Yimou every day, and she made up her mind that she must show her best state and create the role of Li Maojuan.
The first time I saw the title of "Article 20", Ma Li was still wondering what this meant?When she learned that this was a story about criminal law regulations, she had doubts and worries in her heart: will the audience love to watch such a story similar to popular law?It's so important that such a story makes the audience feel interesting and real after watching it!But when the film began, her doubts quickly disappeared.
In Ma Li's view, the biggest difficulty in the performance of "Article 20" comes from the comedic effect of performing a realistic story. The background of the script is undoubtedly serious and even cruel, as an actor, you can only play freely under the premise of following the story line, which poses a great challenge to the actor's performance. Ma Li knows that the audience especially wants to see a vivid character, if it is performed in a realistic way of acting, she can play it very life-like, but in this way, it is far from the comedic effect required by Zhang Yimou, "Because the joyful things need to have some performance traces, such as the setting of the character's personality, the way of speaking, the rhythm of language and the expression of the body, etc., must be designed a lot to present the comedic effect." ”
Fortunately, Li Maojuan's personality is more similar to Ma Li, "In life, I am a person who can't see anyone being bullied, and when I see something unfair, I have to take action." Ma Li laughed. As the wife of grassroots prosecutor Han Ming and the mother of Han Yuchen, a senior high school student, like most mothers in northern families, Li Maojuan is not the kind of woman who is bird-like and submissive, she has a strong personality, occupies an absolute position in the family, speaks fast, has an anxious temperament, and is a little nagging, "She controls the lifeblood of the whole family, whether it is a child or a husband." Ma Li clings to Li Maojuan's characteristics, when her son faces the punishment of detention for breaking the nose bone of the teaching director's son because of his "legitimate defense", and her husband gets too close to his ex-girlfriend, her balance is broken, and the layering and joy in her personality are stimulated.
Ma Li feels that every scene in "Article 20" is very difficult, especially in the sense of proportion and grasp. The highlight of the quarrel between Li Maojuan, Han Ming and the teaching director at the dinner table in the film still makes Ma Li a little excited in retrospect, "This scene is really fatal." Originally, the three of them had been discussing for a long time and were a little sure in their hearts, but Zhang Yimou suddenly adjusted the role of the teaching director, which suddenly disrupted the rhythm. "We were all confused, no one knew what to do. Fortunately, Zhang Yimou helped everyone sort out the relationship between the characters and find out the key points of the performance in time the night before the start-up, and the scene finally adopted the method of "improvisation" to allow the actors to play freely. Unexpectedly, when filming the next day, "almost one passed", which made Zhang Yimou also feel very pleasantly surprised.
After acting in this scene, Ma Li's hands kept shaking, and she couldn't get out of the character for a long time. Li Maojuan felt that the teaching director was too unreasonable, and the more she talked, the more excited she became, and with all her strength, she actually smashed the small wine glass, and then she scuffled with the teaching director. Ma Li said that in this scene, her emotions and rhythm are constantly escalating, Li Maojuan firmly believes that her son is righteous and courageous, "May I ask if you want to be arrested after doing good deeds, who will dare to do righteous and courageous things in the future?" This is the heart of the film. At that moment, Ma Li felt that she had really become Li Maojuan, and many lines and actions were blurted out, completely releasing the explosive power on her body. "We are not preaching, but presenting real stories to the audience, so that they can emotionally accept some knowledge of popular law. ”
Ma Li used to be very reluctant to improvise the show, "I never go because I don't think I can do it." But after acting in this scene, she felt that she actually had this ability, "So director Zhang Yimou is very good, and he sees a lot of possibilities in us." ”
If you change Lei Jiayin, you may not be able to play the effect.
Article 20 is the first cooperation between Ma Li and Lei Jiayin. At the 31st China TV Golden Eagle Awards ceremony held in November 2022, Ma Li and Lei Jiayin won Best Supporting Actress and Best Actor respectively for "Transcendence" and "The World". Someone asked Lei Jiayin, who is the actress you want to work with the most next? Lei Jiayin replied that it was Ma Li. Unexpectedly, the two soon had the opportunity to cooperate.
Whether my play is good or not is not a matter of one person, it is the effect that can only be produced by all the actors cooperating with each other. Ma Li believes that she and Lei Jiayin both belong to the kind of actors who "don't fight or grab", they are both from the Northeast, they are both very homely, and they are also very similar in terms of language, "Fortunately, the role of Han Ming is played by Lei Jiayin, and if I change to another person, I may not be able to act like this." Ma Li laughed. Han Ming is not a perfect man, he has the shortcomings of ordinary people, such as being at ease with what he encounters, liking and mud, etc., but Lei Jiayin uses a relaxed performance to show the humor of the character, making the character intimate and real. Especially at the end of the film, Han Ming made a large impassioned statement, clarifying the theme of the film in a sincere way. Ma Li revealed that for this scene, Lei Jiayin has been "preoccupied and not very happy" in the two months of filming, every time he sees him, he is worried about this scene, this scene is the same as Lei Jiayin's anxiety in "Man Jianghong" in order to play the real and false Qin Hui, "I am particularly able to understand him, it is not a matter of more words and fewer words, but you have to make this character empathize with the audience, which is very difficult." ”
In addition to Li Maojuan, "Article 20" also created the female image of prosecutor Lu Lingling and the mute mother Hao Xiuping. Ma Li admires Zhao Liying's efforts to play the role well, "In order to practice the sign language of the hearing-impaired, she has been practicing hard there, has been immersed in the role, and is very dedicated." Ma Li said that the three women in the film have three completely different personalities, but the common point is that they are all kind, brave and warm, "I think society needs such women, and needs movies with such themes." ”
From joining the "Happy Twist" stage comedy team in 2005, to gradually growing into an excellent stage comedian, and then to becoming an instant hit in 2015 with "Ma Dongmei" in the movie "Charlotte's Troubles", becoming the most sought-after actress in comedy movies, counting "Article 20", the 42-year-old Ma Li's total box office has exceeded 18.1 billion yuan, ranking first in the box office of actresses in Chinese film history.
Ma Li said that when she first debuted, she had the idea of "not wanting to be framed only by comedy as an actress", but when she reached middle age, after experiencing a lot of things, she gradually had a normal heart and began to look at life and acting with a relaxed and relaxed attitude, "Now I hope to be able to immerse myself in the role and make the audience laugh in a down-to-earth manner, instead of deliberately spoofing." She told reporters that the biggest gain of acting in "Article 20" is that she has learned to live, "This film allows the audience to see the normality of a lot of husband and wife life, very funny, very humorous, this feeling of being alive is too important, and this is also the biggest gift that director Zhang Yimou gave us."
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