The first theatrical movie in 2024, I am looking forward to it and can't wait to dedicate it to Jia Ling. And the second film still made me look forward to it, with tears in my eyes, dedicated to Zhao Liying. You may ask, why Zhao Liying? She is not the protagonist, and even played a small role in "Article 20" directed by Zhang Yimou, a deaf and mute who was tortured. But her acting power is amazing. In just a few seconds, she can make the audience feel the shock of her heart with her authentic expression. Zhao Liying always brings surprises. Although the box office of "Article 20" is only 56.4 billion, far behind the films with a box office of more than 4 billion during the Spring Festival, but this did not hinder Zhao Liying's brilliance. In the movie, she dresses plainly and without any whitewashing, her hair is messy from the wind, her face is full of wrinkles, her eyes are red and swollen from crying, she gestures with sign language in pain, and the bruises on her neck are exposed, expressing her inner excitement.
Even though viewers may not be able to understand the meaning of her sign language, they can easily feel her anxiety, despair, and brokenness. This silent performance seems to make people hear the poor mother's cry of suffering. Over the years, the audience has praised Zhao Liying for "acting like and filming what is popular", but her success is not hard-won. Zhao Liying stood out in the fierce competition with her sobriety and tenacity and created her own path to success.
Zhao Liying was born in an ordinary family in Langfang, Hebei Province, her father is a police officer at the police station, and her mother is a salesperson. Since she was a child, Zhao Liying has had a dream of becoming an actress. However, her ordinary family background did not support her dream, and even after she completed her flight attendant studies, her family could not support her to apply for the flight attendant examination. In order to make a living, Zhao Liying had to work in sales in a small company and constantly looked for opportunities to get closer to her dream. In 2006, at the age of 19, she participated in "Yahoo Star Search" and finally officially debuted as the first place in Feng Xiaogang's group.
Subsequently, she participated in "Golden Wedding" starring Zhang Guoli and Jiang Wenli, playing the rebellious third daughter Duoduo in the film. At that time, Zhao Liying didn't know anything about acting, and simply imitated the quarrel between herself and her younger brother, but she didn't expect to be recognized by the director and successfully completed her first drama work. This experience made Zhao Liying fall in love with the way of integrating real emotions in life into her performances, and laid the foundation for her "experiential" acting skills in the future. After completing her debut, Zhao Liying may think that her dream of being an actor is about to come true, but in the highly competitive entertainment industry, she has no background and an ordinary appearance, even if she is backed by Huayi, she is just a small artist. Compared with the 85 flowers at that time, she still seems much ordinary. Yang Mi has attracted much attention for her performance in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Liu Yifei has become Bai Yueguang in the minds of many Xianxia fans with Zhao Linger, Tang Yan was selected to participate in the "China 8 Minutes" Olympic performance directed by Zhang Yimou, and Liu Shishi signed a contract with Tang Film and Television, ready to meet the peak of her career.
And Zhao Liying shuttles between the major crews, playing some maids, sisters, or lovers of the male lead. With a baby-like immature face and acting skills, Zhao Liying has suffered a lot of criticism. Looking back on this fledgling experience, Zhao Liying said with a wry smile: "At that time, my self-esteem was hit hard, but I didn't cry, I just felt too fragile, but I will prove that I can do better." ”
On the road of chasing your dreams, you can never back down easily in the face of challenges. Zhao Liying, known as the "big pie face", was not discouraged by this, on the contrary, she chose to reduce swelling by ** to make her face more slender. Similarly, when someone questioned her acting skills, she did not choose to give up, but studied and practiced more diligently to improve her performance. Zhao Liying has a strong heart, able to digest criticism from the outside world, and at the same time able to motivate herself to continue to grow.
In 2011, she played Qing'er in "New Huanzhu Gege", a role that showed her gentle and agile side. Especially in the scene where Qing'er cries in the play, Zhao Liying's moist eyes make people feel pity. Through such a performance, she showed the results of honing her acting skills, which also caused heated discussions. However, some people questioned whether Zhao Liying's face shape was suitable for playing the heroine. Zhao Liying disagrees with this, she believes that the value of an actor should not be limited to appearance. Although she didn't understand, she chose to ignore these voices and continue to focus on filming and improving her acting skills. She once said: "Give me a chance and I will definitely give it my all." That opportunity finally came after seven years of waiting so hard.
In 2013, Zhao Liying's "The Legend of Lu Zhen", in which she played the heroine for the first time, was broadcast, which received extremely high ratings, making her a popular actress.
The following year, she was named the "Goddess of the Golden Eagle". Zhao Liying, who firmly believes that "my life is up to me", finally gained her place in the entertainment industry.
Zhao Liying has gone all the way, and she knows that her only hole card is her own strength. She clearly understands that the key to long-term development in her acting career lies in her value and works. Therefore, in the next ten years, she focused on acting, working on the set for more than 300 days almost every year, and her colleagues called her "desperate Sanniang". In addition to filming and necessary promotional activities, she hardly participates in other variety shows or red carpet activities, so she is nicknamed "Zhao Liyin" by netizens. Over the past decade, she has continued to try out various different types of roles, trying to find breakthroughs. She does not act blindly, but has a unique understanding and clear judgment of market demand. For example, when the Qing court drama was popular, she starred in the movie "Palace Lock Agarwood".
In the film, she is no longer the gentle and innocent image of the past, but plays the role of a villain full of resentment and deep scheming, and her performance has been well received. When the Xianxia drama was popular, she starred in "Flower Thousand Bone", and successfully created a cute and aura character with her image of a "round-faced sweet girl". In addition, when the sweet drama became a hit, she starred in "Shanshan is Coming", adding more cute elements to the sweet pet atmosphere in the play. And when the theme of the big heroine became a hot topic, she starred in "The Legend of Chu Qiao", which vividly interpreted the identity of a **. Zhao Liying is considered to be "what is hot", which is not only the result of luck, but also due to her rigorous choice of scripts and deep understanding of the role.
Compared with whether the character is young and beautiful and has a perfect personality, Zhao Liying pays more attention to the inner world of the character. Each character she portrays has its own commitment, courage, wisdom and determination, which echoes her own personality traits.
By playing these roles, Zhao Liying not only allowed herself to grow, but also was able to reflect on the problems she encountered at different stages of her life. She once said that she found the answers to life's problems in the characters. Her understanding and empathy for the character's situation has become a kind of nourishment for her in real life. She integrates her own life experiences and perceptions into her works, shaping the souls of her characters and presenting a more complex human nature.
In an interview, Zhao Liying shared why she always challenges herself and constantly jumps out of her comfort zone: "Staying in my comfort zone, I feel uncomfortable. In each character, there had to be something new that I was looking for, something new that attracted me, and I just happened to be able to complete her. "She never deliberately confined herself to her comfort zone. So from TV series to movies, from Xianxia, ancient costumes, modern dramas, to realistic themes, all of them have become her comfort zone.
After a decade of slowing down and running at full speed, Zhao Liying has reaped immeasurable growth. Each work bears witness to a certain stage of her life, blending with her circumstances. In 2018, Zhao Liying met "Do You Know If You Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin", which became a turning point in her life. Sheng Minglan, who she plays in the play, is beautiful and intelligent, strong and independent, forced to survive due to the environment in the early stage, and finally grew up to be the mother of the Houmen who guards the family. Different from her previous roles, Sheng Minglan responded to all the turmoil lightly, showing the restraint and harmony of the housewife. At this time, in addition to the tenacity and frankness of Zhao Liying, she gradually revealed an indifferent and tranquil charm, which belongs to a mature woman.
Zhao Liying is an "experiential", she said: "Every time I break and reshape, the process is to let a character's soul forcibly enter my own life, and I want to feel her experience with this character." ”
However, the full devotion of the "experiential school" is also consuming Zhao Liying's own energy. During the filming of "Palace Lock Agarwood", she fell off her horse, and her back was raised, leaving her with a back injury. When filming "The Legend of Chu Qiao", some of the "flying away" scenes were all in person, and she was dragged in the sand for several hours, eating a mouth full of yellow sand. When filming "Do You Know", the time was tight for many scenes, and he often stayed up late to film, resulting in back injury**. The long-term high-intensity output hollowed out the body, and Zhao Liying finally decided to slow down.
In the days of slowing down, Zhao Liying began to return to life, and her long-tense nerves were finally stretched. She had time to settle down on her past perceptions and let go of her accumulated anxieties and fears. It's like a leather ball, if you hit it too much, it won't bounce high, and you're worried that it will blow up at any time. Let go of some and leave some margin, but you can charge up and touch the ground higher. Zhao Liying's rest also carries the power of calm.
She likes to walk on quiet streets and feel at ease; I also like to do moxibustion in the health center at my doorstep to feel the warmth.
Ordinary days have given Zhao Liying a new understanding of inner growth: "The heart is full, not necessarily when it is busy. There are many gains in ordinary life. Perhaps moved by the power of the ordinary, or perhaps the pace of challenge has not stopped, Zhao Liying began to pay attention to realistic themes. From the hard-working, brave, honest and tenacious "village girl" He Xingfu in "Happiness to Ten Thousand Homes". to "The Wind Blows Banxia" to overcome obstacles and brave the pioneering strong woman Xu Banxia. still has Zhao Liying's background, dares to think and do, and is even more "reckless", more persistent, and more courageous than Zhao Liying. Fu Dongyu, the director of "The Wind Blows in the Summer", later talked about the original intention of filming this drama, but he was kicked to the front line by Zhao Liying. At the beginning of the project, the director was very hesitant. The book is very good, but it is very difficult, and the director is worried that he will not be able to shoot it well.
Zhao Liying persuaded him: "Aren't you just afraid that you won't be able to shoot well?" Even if you can't shoot well, you have to make yourself shoot badly, and you can't let others shoot badly. These words sounded like they came out of Xu Banxia's mouth. Xu Banxia, who was a fledgling and had no resources, said to the seniors: "I will respect the opinions of the seniors, but I must have the final say in this steel mill". The little girl who said when she participated in the debut show, "It doesn't matter if the actor's dream is broken, I will start over when I have the opportunity" has become her own queen. The initiative in life is always in my own hands. After the broadcast of "The Wind Blows in the Summer", the popularity exploded, setting off a wave of retro trends. Zhao Liying's actual performance in various types of TV series is far ahead of the other 85 flowers.
Slowed down, but faster.
Zhao Liying has dabbled in three films this year, and "Article 20" is the beginning of her pioneering field in the film industry.
Director Zhang Yimou, who worked with her for the first time, was full of praise for her performance: "I am very satisfied with her performance. "She broke through her ceiling. At the premiere, Zhang Yimou told the origin of Zhao Liying and Hao Xiuping, the character in the film. In the original script setting, Hao Xiuping's role was not the current setting, only her daughter was hearing-impaired. After reading the script, Zhao Liying had a **call with the director, ** character setting. After listening to the interpretations of many directors, she was silent for a moment and asked a question: "Why is the daughter hearing-impaired, but the mother is not?" I think mothers can be too. After hearing this, the director suddenly realized: "Some of the ideas that bothered me in the past have all been solved at once." As a result, Hao Xiuping's character setting was modified and integrated into Zhao Liying's understanding. Such a character setting is a double-edged sword for actors. On the one hand, the special setting gives the characters more suffering and emotional color; Silent performances, on the other hand, rely entirely on expressions and body language, which increases the difficulty of character building.
In order to better understand the living conditions of the hearing-impaired, Zhao Liying went deep into the lives of the hearing-impaired in front of the film, studied and lived with them, and observed their demeanor. Under the guidance of professional teachers, Zhao Liying learned sign language from scratch and was gradually able to use sign language to communicate with others. Once in the crew, she would put on earplugs, remain silent, and silently crouch aside during breaks, immersed in the state of the hearing impaired. At first, Zhang Yimou thought that Zhao Liying didn't like to talk in the first place. It wasn't until she was playing on the set that she didn't speak, just gestured, that the director found out that she had been entering the role state. Other actors are also full of praise for Zhao Liying. Lei Jiayin joked: "She once spoke on the set, which scared me. Then I realized, ah, she can talk. Ma Li spoke of Zhao Liying's interpretation of the role of a mother with deep sympathy: "When she fought against the evil forces, I felt that there was a very strong maternal love in her small body. ”
After Zhao Liying's performance, Pan Binlong always asked the director nervously: "Was my performance okay just now?" Can it match Zhao Liying's performance? "Zhao Liying's full devotion is to understand the character more deeply and figure out the character's mentality. Liu Wei, a veteran actor who has collaborated with Zhao Liying in "The Wind Blows in the Summer", once praised her: "Zhao Liying, this child, is very interesting to act. If she doesn't understand, she won't act, and she won't act blindly. Zhao Liying always believes that only when she truly understands the role will the performance be better. She will be fully immersed in it to bring out the best results. In addition to challenging more novel roles, Zhao Liying also pinned her little heroism in her career as an actress. She once said in a public speech that she does not want female characters to be limited to petty love, and they should also have a richer inner world to pursue their beliefs. As an actor, Zhao Liying interprets new perspectives, expresses new perspectives, and leads new directions through her roles.
As a woman in the new era, Zhao Liying defends her ideals with her sincerity, persists in struggle, and transmits positive energy. This is Zhao Liying's heroism: "If a man has a heroic dream, why can't a woman?" In the end, Zhao Liying was nominated for the Magnolia Award three times, and each time it was at a turning point in her life. From "Flower Thousand Bone" to "Sheng Minglan", and then to "Xu Banxia", Zhao Liying has completed the transformation from ideal to reality with the role, and also completed her transformation from immaturity to maturity. As a star, Zhao Liying may be a little clumsy. She is not good at words, she is not very good at self-promotion, her emotional intelligence is not very high, she is straightforward and honest, and sometimes she is a little persistent. But as an actor, Zhao Liying is wise and tenacious. Far from the audience, she maintains a sense of mystery, focuses on her work, and moves forward soberly and firmly on the path to becoming a quality actress. I really like Zhao Liying like this, her seriousness will infect me and move me.