Original Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ZBEzuNDL85OMHzbOJCxDSg
Original Author: 肉英
Translator’s note: The original author is part of Yuli Studio, this article is published in Yuli Studio’s Weixin Official Account on 30 Mar 2022 as a part of “Behind the Screens” Volume 843.
In the weekend afternoon, it was a rarity that Xiao Zhan had some free time, he telephoned his family, he said he is closer to this family, but it’s just that he could not spend much time with them in the recent years.
Starting from 2019, Xiao Zhan’s life entered a new phase, in these 3 years, “Joy of Life”, “The Wolf”, “Douluo Continent” and “Ace Troops” aired, the “A Dream Like A Dream” tour completed, and recently “The Oath of Love” arrived on the silver screen.
With the upcoming “The Longest Promise” and the currently still filming “Where Dreams Begin”, the busy work has almost occupied all of his time.
“Then, I would sometimes feel that it was very tiring, and wanted to relax a bit, but then there would be two persons in me arguing with each other, one would say cannot, cannot; another would say relax a bit, it’s so tiring, there’s no harm in relaxing a bit, just take it as it comes.”
Now that one that tells him to “take it as it comes, rest a bit” no longer exists, Xiao Zhan said calmly from the other end of the telephone.
“You really don’t feel that it’s too tiring?” Upon hearing his strict expectations on himself, Yuli could not help but ask.
“I feel tired, but I’d rather be tired.”
01
That day, my grandma laughed as she said to me, “Dr. Gu, I’m having a headache, take a look and help me.” When speaking of his interactions with his family while watching the drama, Xiao Zhan would keep laughing as well, during the airing period of “The Oath of Love”, there were plenty of such warm moments.
“The Oath of Love” was the first officially announced project after the new phase of Xiao Zhan’s life began, from period drama to contemporary drama, he himself was also not so confident. The day when he met chief producer Wu Tiandan and director Lü Ying, Xiao Zhan’s first question was, “Why me?”
Then, Xiao Zhan was still filming “Douluo Continent” in Xiangshan, in his trailer, the 3 of them discussed the script and the role of Gu Wei from “The Oath of Love” for the first time, “Firstly, I don’t think that Gu Wei’s role is a common trope of a cold and dominant doctor, I feel that he should not be crafted with such an image.” Xiao Zhan attempted to speak his mind.
The result was that the 3 of them had an immediate common understanding of Gu Wei, and that was the moment that Xiao Zhan’s confidence in a contemporary drama and portrayal of Gu Wei was established.
During the script reading, Xiao Zhan realized that Gu Wei’s sense of distance and aloofness came from his environment growing up and his career, the role’s growth and logic comes from his life rhythm, “He is a living person, a man who would appear next to us.”
From the text in the script, Xiao Zhan saw the vividness and warmth in Gu Wei. Coincidentally, Wu Tiandan and Lü Ying also saw the same warmth and possibility in Xiao Zhan.
Although he had recognition and confidence, when he started filming, Xiao Zhan was still not accustomed. Then, he had just completed filming “Douluo Continent” as the male lead, and was also doing the promotion for another period drama, although he wanted to quickly blend into the new role, but he still needed to slowly search for the correct condition.
Many of Lü Ying’s works were delicate in emotions and detailed in foundation, under the cover of youth and idol dramas, there were many expressions of realistic and down-to-earth emotions, hence during the process of filming, the director was very mindful on the control of details.
“During the filming, the director would do takes over and over again to adjust. Towards the end, I myself would be uncertain as to whether I had done any mistakes in my portrayal, but the director would not tell you where the problem lies, he would just say a feeling, and then do it over again.”
It was just these grinding takes over and over again, bit by bit of adjustments. Finally when reviewing the scene in the monitor, Xiao Zhan’s uncertainty during the filming would be resolved, actually, the feeling that the director was talking about, was actually a type of subtle change.
The subtlety could be down to the gaze of Gu Wei looking at Lin Zhixiao, the action of opening a door, the director would also tell Xiao Zhan, “Zhanzhan, have more sorrow in your eyes.” Xiao Zhan would also have some uncertainty, but would still say, “Alright, we can do it again.”
Everyone had a different interpretation on the role, the work and the script, the director was the overall controller, “I feel that actors just need to do their best to adjust themselves, to complete their role.”
02
The role of Gu Wei was not considered as particularly difficult to Xiao Zhan, but he was more mindful of how to portray it such that the audiences would believe it.
The scene where his teacher had passed away influenced Gu Wei a lot, that represented why Gu Wei became an enclosed person, it was the crux of the entire character, but the script described this segment very simply, just some lines and some description of Gu Wei in a trance, probably just 0.1 page long.
Although the volume is small, but this was an important scene for Xiao Zhan, before they filmed the scene, he continuously discussed with Lü Ying, about whether Gu Wei should try to resuscitate his teacher, and what kind of character status would be suitable when he sat before his teacher’s bed, from the text in the script, to the imagery during filming, requires the cooperative work from the scriptwriter, actor and director.
Like the warm and relaxed atmosphere the drama gives the audiences, the atmosphere in the set was also influenced by the content, when meeting Yang Zi for the first time on set, Xiao Zhan, the director and producer jokingly greeted her: “Good day Yang Laoshi (TN: Laoshi could mean teacher).” Xiao Zhan remembered that Yang Zi was especially funny as she said. “I guess I’m teaching you language, or teaching you mathematics, all of you are calling me teacher?”
“Then I thought that this person was quite interesting.” Xiao Zhan reminisced.
Later on, when all of the crew and actors were familiar with one another, both of them began their “self-complaining” modus operandi, and started talking about those tropes from older idol dramas that had become GIFs, and everyone would remind one another jokingly “please don’t film as such”.
The “little drama time” liked by audiences originally had “grand props”, “Initially, the producer, scriptwriter and director said fervently, Zhanzhan, Zizi, this little drama time needs dreamy lighting, all kinds of camera angles, romantic scenes.” Both the actors were looking forward to them.
In the end, they could not make the lighting, there were problems on set, until one day, Wu Tianxu gave Xiao Zhan and Yang Zi a mobile phone each, and the script outline and lines prompt, “The both of you do it, film it yourself.” In the end what the audiences saw were just two of them filming each other using mobile phones, it was all natural lighting on their faces, but it was because such coincidences, allowed the audiences to see the sweetness between Gu Wei and Lin Zhixiao.
Xiao Zhan had the habit of taking photographs as and when, liked to record his life, but yet he did not often show them, before the airing of “The Oath of Love”, he casually flipped to the photographs then, and some memories came before his eyes again, “I guess that building would have completed restoration, and little calico is probably plump too.”
The little calico cat was a chance encounter in a cafe from the filming area during filming, that day when the filming ended, Xiao Zhan went downstairs, and met it at the cafe on the first floor, the door to the cafe was closed, the little calico cat was just before the window, “I couldn’t resist to tease it, I went left it went left, I went right it went right, I teased it, it meowed, I just felt that it was so affectionate, so cute.”
In the moments of remembering these valued memories, Xiao Zhan exclaimed, “Time flies really fast, it’s almost 3 years, looking back there were many things, actually people and circumstances, were all having major changes.”
03
Such changes were of course happening on Xiao Zhan himself, now when he reviewed his performance in 2019, he would always use a self-criticizing angle.
“In my heart, in these 2 years I had a better concept on performance, such as the improvement in lines, I would analyze the psychological status of the character in a scene, when speaking the line to my partner, I would also be clearer on the meanings hidden within the lines.” Every actor would have a deeper understanding of their profession as time progresses.
There were long passages of narration in Gu Wei’s lines, the contents were even mixed with a lot of professional jargon, even if it was performed by the Xiao Zhan of today, it would also be a very difficult thing, “To say such lines like they were something that were said 100 times a day, is actually very difficult.”
“But difficulty does not mean you cannot do it well, this is something I’ve always believed.” Xiao Zhan continued immediately.
Of course, he also had a lot of habits he always maintained, such as before the start of filming, Xiao Zhan would always like to arrive on set beforehand, to get accustomed to every detail in the environment, and finally squat in a corner to observe and experience the space, to an actor, when they enter a space for the first time, they would need to display the familiarity of being in that space for many years or even decades, Xiao Zhan used this method to accustom himself.
If we were to really let the current Xiao Zhan to act as Gu Wei, perhaps there would be a lot of improvements, but there would possibly be a lot of flaws in crucial and core points, as a actor would use his senses and techniques to manage some performances, but the emotions and inspiration at the then moment might be lost.
In “The Oath of Love” that we see currently, we can see the sincerity and emotions when Xiao Zhan was performing then.
Just like he would envy the love between Gu Wei and Lin Zhixiao, “Actually my views on love are similar to Gu Wei, we’re both more traditional, and we would devote ourselves.” But as to the future family, he had not thought of this step which is so far away in the future, “But happiness would be top priority, stable happiness is more suitable for me.”
Having this kind of thoughts probably came from some kind of similarity, the Gu Wei in the drama always placed his job at the forefront, when meeting his love, he would not directly speak everything, there would be a lot of probing hidden in his words, most of the time he would be in an ambiguous status, a lot of thoughts in his mind, as though he knew everything, but yet he would be playing the fool, and be a bit devious once in a while.
This kind of status would be most familiar to Xiao Zhan, many times, at least about work, his choice would be the same as Gu Wei — endlessly being strict on himself, placing work at the forefront.
Xiao Zhan could feel tired, but he said, he would rather be tired, “Feeling tired comes from having places for improvement, when the public is still focusing on you, you can go forward. This kind of tired is a good thing to me. If there is really one day, everyone tells you that you don’t matter, you can do whatever you want, then I probably need to do some self reflection (laugh).”
When one think of that, what is wrong with being a little tired? If time could reverse back to 2019, Xiao Zhan still wanted to tell himself, “It might be better to not relax.”
