Original Article: https://weibo.com/ttarticle/x/m/show/id/2309404727314511692345
Original Author: 中新文娱
“Do not be proud or anxious, work hard to discover my own problems, find the places where I need to improve, and fight towards that direction.”
China News Entertainment asked Xiao Zhan: What status do you hope your future to be?
The answer he gave was: Calm.
Reporter: Zhang Yi / Ren Siyu
In the recently ended popular military drama “Ace Troops”, many audiences saw a different side of Xiao Zhan.
This side of Xiao Zhan had an added portion of toughness, there were internet users who said: “Like the male lead who walked out of a military novel, perfect both mentally and physically.”
After the final episode, China News Entertainment asked Xiao Zhan, why did he take on a military drama, and what were the similarities between him and Gu Yiye?
Table of Contents
On taking on Gu Yiye: “There was a little lack of confidence”
Xiao Zhan felt that a soldier was a very sacred and noble identity.
Hence, when he received the invitation, while Xiao Zhan was excited, he was also nervous, with “a little lack of confidence”. Because to Xiao Zhan, taking on “Ace Troops” was simply a “journey to fulfill a dream”.
In order to be closer to the image of a soldier, so that the audiences could see a Gu Yiye who “forges the army soul with his passion, dedicates himself to the protection of this country”, Xiao Zhan did a lot of prior preparation quietly.
He watched a lot of military genre movies and drama, interviews beforehand, and also followed the drama crew to the military zone before the filming, stayed within the army, trained together with real soldiers, woke up at 5.30am for morning exercises, holding military posture, and even participated in their daily training for gun handling.
Xiao Zhan placed a lot of emphasis on true experiences such as these.
He said, actually the army to him was foreign and familiar since childhood: he sees them in news, or meets them in his life, but many people actually do not understand the details of their daily lives and daily training. But if he needed to portray them well to the audience as an actor, then he needs to immerse himself into a soldier’s work, action, missions, including their experiences as well.
On Gu Yiye: “Full of admiration but also makes my heart ache”
In “Ace Troops”, Gu Yiye was born in an military family, with a firm foundation in military theories and outstanding skills, when he first appeared, he stood quietly reading a book in his hand in the midst of the crowded train station, and the audiences remembered him at once.
When Xiao Zhan first read the script, his first impression of Gu Yiye was “too proud, too cold”, it almost felt that he was without empathy, he laughed as he joked: “I wanted to stay away from him.”
But when he thought about Gu Yiye joining the army when he was just 18, Xiao Zhan felt, no matter how mature a person is, you still had to think about him in his age range so as to find the brilliance in the role that belonged to that age range. Hence he analyzed and discussed with the director for a very long time, injecting more details into Gu Yiye so that the role became more vivid.
When everyone thought Gu Yiye was about to sing a love song to confess his love, he instead sang “My Country and I”, and in fact he wanted to confess his love to his country – this was the other “mischievous” side of Gu Yiye.
After filming started, Xiao Zhan admired and felt for Gu Yiye more and more, “He was dependable, responsible, he had very strict expectations of himself, hence he always carries very, very heavy burdens. Of course I admire such a person very much, but at the same time my heart aches a lot for him as well.”
At the end of filming for the crying scenes, I had no strength left”
From the beginning of the airing of “Ace Troops” until the end, one after another climax scenes evoked heated discussions from the audiences.
And the most outstanding scene was the scene where Gu Yiye was notified that his most trusted platoon leader had sacrificed himself to save him, and he had lost control of his emotions in howling cries.
This scene, not only did Xiao Zhan cry, the director behind the monitor also cried, even the audiences before the screen cried in spite of themselves too.
Xiao Zhan still remembered that the challenge this scene brought to himself. Because the sequence of filming is always jumbled up when filming TV drama, the first scene that day was the hug with the female soldiers before setting off to the battlefield and the exchange of their names, the scene for finding out about platoon leader Zhang’s death was filmed in the evening.
The emotional differences between these two scenes was huge. In addition, they had to catch the sunlight during the filming then, and the time given was very tight. “The director told me, we’ll just capture the scene in one take, I won’t shout stop.” Hence Xiao Zhan did the setup in his heart in a very short period of time, and pushed the emotions to an explosive point. He remembered that the scene was passed after he only filmed the scene 2 or 3 times, and because he was too immersed in the scene, he had no strength left at the end.
When recalling the memories of filming, Xiao Zhan frankly said that the atmosphere during filming was especially good, “Very happy to be able to complete a work like ‘Ace Troops’ that we liked very much with Jingyu and Chuxi, the 3 of us were very happy on set, everyone was very serious actors, when we were going through our scenes on the set, everyone would say some of the ideas they had, they would discuss with the director, to rationalize every scene.”
“It is really an honor to be able to bring people strength”
From his debut until now, while walking forward, Xiao Zhan would also look back frequently. He felt that he had many places of inadequacies, and also believed that he would become more and more at ease in the future.
As a young actor with a certain amount of influence, Xiao Zhan felt that he should take on the social responsibility to convey positivity, “while being strict with myself, at the same time, I should also do well in my profession, create more impressionable characters, so that everyone can learn useful things from them.”
Just like the sincere and natural camaraderie in “Ace Troops”, which moved many audiences. This was the biggest meaning behind the existence and growth for the role of Gu Yiye.
Some time ago, he had a very warm interaction with China’s female basketball player Han Xu. Han Xu expressed that she felt the “strength of an idol” from Xiao Zhan, whereas Xiao Zhan immediately reposted and encouraged her the moment he saw it.
With regards to bringing many people strength, Xiao Zhan was straightforward as he said that he was very honored, “In the future, I would be more careful in my work, more serious, and more proactive in conveying this responsibility and strength to everyone.”
Xiao Zhan said, he would do all he could to do everything even better, and hoped that he could convey this spirit to more people, “I believe that as long as I use all of my strength to do what I like, there will be returns for all the time and effort.”
At the end of the interview, China News Entertainment asked Xiao Zhan, what status do you hope your future to be?
The answer he gave was: Calm.
“Do not be proud or anxious, work hard to discover my own problems, find the places where I need to improve, and fight towards that direction.”
Xiao Zhan é Maravilhoso
I will miss Gu YiYe.