Playing the role of Huang Wenxiu in "The Daughter of the Mountain" is like a "reborn" process for actor Yang Rong.
When the film crew was preparing, the producer found Yang Rong. Yang Rong was a little bit afraid. Although she also wanted to break through the shackles brought by her past costume roles, she had never acted in similar themes. "Huang Wenxiu has videos, she has experience, and she has colleagues. , She really existed, and she is a hero, how can she act so real and like that it resonates with everyone? It's difficult."

"The Mountain's Daughter" poster

Huang Wenxiu, from a poor family in Guangxi, relied on financial aid all the way to go to graduate school. After graduation, she gave up the opportunity of the State Grid and resolutely chose to return to her hometown from Beijing. In 2017, she became the first secretary of Baini Village in Guangxi. In just one year, 88 poor households in Baini Village were lifted out of poverty. In the early morning of June 17, 2019, Huang Wenxiu was killed in a flash flood on his way back to Leye from Baise at the age of 30.

The scene of Huang Wenxiu's work during his lifetime. (Photo courtesy of Leye County)

Before seeing the script, Yang Rong had only seen Huang Wenxiu's deeds in the news. By the end of the performance, Yang Rong had already been deeply moved by Huang Wenxiu. She followed the broadcast to watch the drama. She boasted that her tears were not high, but it was the first time that she cried when she watched her play, and even watching the trailer couldn't help but want to cry. .
In the interview, when talking about the scene where Wenxiu was engulfed by the mountain torrent, Yang Rong couldn't help choking, "It's not how well I acted, but the fact that Wenxiu is really touching." She even wanted to go to the mountains and go to Frontline, see what more you can do to help the people there.
Before filming started, Yang Rong's biggest worry was "playing a fake role". Huang Wenxiu walked out of the mountains and went to Beijing for the exam. She has friends and classmates and a bright future, but she chose to return to the poor village where she grew up. Yang Rong also came from a local town, she asked herself, she couldn't do it herself.
"I keep asking myself, why did Wenxiu go back? I went from a small town in the southwest to Kunming to study, from Kunming to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Beijing, I really didn't think about saying I was going back. Why did she go back? , this is a core point. To convince everyone of this character, first of all you have to show how she thinks, she is a real person, has she ever struggled, and finally how did she decide to go Who made this decision? I have to understand it myself, fully understand it, and then through the creation and performance, through the director's lens, let the audience really feel that the girl made this decision is reasonable and reasonable."

"Daughter of the Mountain" stills

Not only Yang Rong is worried, but director Lei Xianhe has only seen Yang Rong's costume scenes before, so he is not sure if she is suitable for this role. The two sides met with apprehension. Yang Rong recalled that she chatted with the director for several hours and communicated very thoroughly about the script and characters, "At that time, "Shan Hai Qing" was on the air, so I told him that our performance direction should be in that direction. He heard it right. In the end, in the field of aesthetics, we finally reached an agreement on what state Wenxiu should be in and what style of performance should be.”
After reading the script and reading the more detailed information, Yang Rong has more confidence in playing Huang Wenxiu well, "Wenxiu is a practical person, she has really done a lot of things, the script provides A very solid foundation."

"Daughter of the Mountain" stills

"She is really alive in my mind"
After deciding to take over the script, Yang Rong started to prepare for this difficult role.
The director told Yang Rong that there are not many dialects in film and television dramas, so this time I want to bring some dialects, and she needs to speak Guangxi in the drama. But Yang Rong was also a little bit troubled, "The director is from the Northeast and doesn't know much about the South. He thinks that the South speaks the same thing. The Yunnan dialect is very similar to the Guangxi dialect. In a language, I have almost no experience in acting in dialect dramas, if I deliberately accentuate, the authenticity of this character will be greatly reduced in the minds of the audience."
When she actually went to school, Yang Rong had an even more headache. Guangxi is a multi-ethnic province, and even two villages that are very close to each other may have completely different languages, "I said to a language teacher, how do you pronounce this sentence? I asked another teacher, and he said something completely different." After some tossing, combined with her own life experience, Yang Rong suggested to the director that Wenxiu should speak Guangxi Mandarin more appropriate, "After all, she went to college, and she is also outside. After staying for many years, there is actually a change in the language." In the end, Yang Rong focused on the big and let go of the small, "For example, it is hungry, for example, there will never be a child's pronunciation." More importantly, she Ask yourself to speak Guangxi Putonghua even if you communicate privately during the crew, and turn that speech into subconscious, so that language will not become an obstacle to performance. At the end, Li Changfeng, the actor who played Meng Changlong, asked Yang Rong, "Can you speak Mandarin?"
After passing the language barrier, Yang Rong began to really get close to Huang Wenxiu, and watched all the texts, videos and audios that the crew could find about Wenxiu. More importantly, go to the place where Huang Wenxiu lives and works. Yang Rong recalled that after she went to the local area, she and Wenxiu's father, the villagers she had helped, the people in the Shatangju District, and the secretaries who worked with Wenxiu... all chatted for days. Before each visit, she would Write down any questions or questions you want to know ahead of time. Huang Wenxiu came alive in Yang Rong's heart little by little.
"When I chatted with her father, many of the answers were not given by an ordinary father. I felt from her father that Wen Xiuhui was such a girl, and it was inseparable from her family education. After several hot searches, Dad Huang said about the interpretation of money. Before I met him, I was very impressed. Dad Huang may not have received too much education, but his own pattern, his care for the poor people, and his The country has a high sense of mission to the people. It is only when Wenxiu grew up that he grew up under his educational environment that he would have the choice of Wenxiu.”
Yang Rong recalled that the deepest impression was when she stepped into the dormitory where Huang Wenxiu lived, and now it has been made into a similar memorial hall, and everything she used has remained the same, "When you walk in, you see the clothes on the dressing table. Cosmetics, shampoo, the badminton she bought for the children in the corner, shoes, umbrella, she is alive in my mind."
Looking back at the previous "why Huang Wenxiu wants to return to Guangxi", Yang Rong no longer thinks it is a problem, "She actively joined the party after entering university, and she cared about the poor people because she came from such a family. , she knows how to be grateful. Second, her family has always been taken care of. She hopes that one day in the future, she will tell her father that I will be a civil servant when I go back. This is a very honorable thing, and even makes her feel that I have The ability to take care of others and help others.”
In the play, there is a scene in which Huang Wenxiu just entered Baini Village. She got out of the car. The village party secretary played by Liu Yijun brought other village cadres to greet her, and the first thing she said was to clean up the village branch. The small square obviously ruined the welcoming atmosphere, and the village party secretary seemed very unhappy, but at this time Huang Wenxiu insisted on sweeping the floor first, and took the lead in picking up the broom. As soon as she sat down for the meeting, she said solemnly to the village party secretary who was lighting a cigarette that smoking would be banned indoors in the future. Because most of the village cadres are men, in order to express their resistance and dissatisfaction, they have excused themselves to go out to smoke. But Huang Wenxiu still did not compromise, insisting on smoking cessation indoors, preferring to move a stool and go out to have a meeting with everyone.
This was the first day of filming when she joined the group. At that time, she still felt that it was not good to be so "different", "The villagers are all standing on one side, they are very harmonious, I really feel that I am even in that minute. As an actor, it is also a bit out of tune." While acting, she discussed with the director, does Wenxiu need to be so persistent? The director insisted on doing this. Wenxiu is like this. The emotions are really embarrassing, so let the embarrassing emotions stay there, it is very real, "The part of the smoking ban was a bit blunt, unlike Wenxiu who dealt with everything later, she would use A very gentle and beneficial way to solve it. But on the other hand, I feel that Wen Xiu has just arrived in such a place, and she also needs to grow and change."
Yang Rong feels that this clip really reflects Huang Wenxiu's character well, and what makes her different and respectable, "She is a very ordinary girl who came out of a family with not very good conditions, but she She also has very unusual qualities, she is kind and smart, she can find a solution wisely when she encounters a problem. When encountering difficulties, we may sometimes just let it go. That's it, she won't, she's very good at it. Firm, there is something very firm in her bones that supports her."

"Daughter of the Mountain" stills

"I have done everything Wenxiu has done, and I have experienced it all "
When it comes to the filming process, Yang Rong said with deep emotion, "I planted mangoes, pipa, sugar oranges, built roads, built benches, planted cigarettes, and hoeed the ground. I have done everything Wenxiu has done. I have experienced it all once, and of course I just went through it all at once, but I really feel that it is not easy, these things are difficult."
Although through Wenxiu's efforts, Baini Village has undergone earth-shaking changes, building a kindergarten, building roads, and greatly improving living conditions, but Yang Rong still felt real poverty when she went deep into the mountains. Filming brought difficulties.
"When we filmed there, we borrowed the house from the villagers. The villagers were also very happy. They said that because of the performance of Wenxiu, they were also very happy, so they lent the house to us. Later, we used their water and maybe props. There was a villager. They said that the filming was not allowed. The reason for not allowing the filming was because we used their water. Their water was not tap water, and they had to fetch water. Finally, when the crew heard it, they quickly fetched a lot of water for them. ."
Yang Rong recalled that the filming of the village committee was very laborious. The village committee took about an hour to drive from the hotel in the town, and it took two hours to drive back and forth every day. The road was extremely dangerous, and there was no way for two cars to meet. , with mountains on one side and cliffs on the other. At night, the dew on the mountain is heavy, and the fog is heavy, and the visibility is extremely low. "Every night, when the work is over, everyone lined up the cars, and all the roads on the side of the cliff are covered with small flags, so that everyone has a sign. ."
During the filming, Yang Rong felt how important Huang Wenxiu was to this village while acting. In the eyes of the audience, she is an actor, and Huang Wenxiu is an ordinary person, but in the eyes of the villagers, Huang Wenxiu is the most important person, "There are villagers who know that we are filming, but they don't know who is acting, so they will open two or three times. It took me an hour by car to come to the filming site to see who is playing Wenxiu? I want to see if my Wenxiu looks like it." The crew invited local villagers to do a group performance. Yang Rong wore glasses and said The vest of "First Secretary Huang Wenxiu", the villagers who acted in the group naturally called her "Secretary Huang", "It's not that the director asked them to be like this, and they don't know if they are actually filming, anyway, we are walking. When I was there, they were very active and enthusiastic, that thing couldn't be acted out, and they even asked me to go to their house for dinner."
In the middle of the filming, Yang Rong gradually became better, "When I really entered the role bit by bit, I saw who was carrying water, it was an instinct for me, I would go to help him, see who was going to bind his legs or If it is injured, I will definitely help. I don’t need to think about everything, or whether I want to have a so-called performance, no, it is completely subconscious.”
Before the start of the film, the director invited more than a dozen secretaries to communicate with Yang Rong and talk about their daily work. Later, Yang Rong had become very friendly with these more than ten secretaries, "I really want to be like this. Let’s go to the mountain village and see what I can do to help everyone.”
Don't deliberately be great, don't deliberately provocative
Even so, Yang Rong still has something to think about. For example, this kind of heroic character. In the past, playing a hero might reflect greatness and selflessness, but Yang Rong didn't want this. Wenxiu is a 30-year-old young girl. She hopes that the audience I can see a real, living Wenxiu, "I love Wenxiu, I don't want my Wenxiu to resonate with everyone."
In a few scenes, she made changes to make Wenxiu more real. For example, in one scene, Huang Wenxiu just learned that her father had liver cancer and wanted to go home. On the way home, she received a call from the village and asked her to go back to work. In the original script, Wenxiu immediately turned around and went back, but Yang Rong felt that it was too much. It's not normal, "I think there are some emotions here, there will be a kind of I can't tell others that my father has cancer, but she is anxious, and others say no, you hurry back. She has some tantrums, can you please? Waiting for someone else to solve it? Are you so anxious about this matter? But when she finished speaking, calmed down and vented her grievances, she still told the party secretary to turn around and go back to the village. I think this is Wenxiu, which is what a normal girl would do reaction."
The other one is also related to the father. Huang Wenxiu's father just finished the operation, she rushed into the ward, and then the leader went to visit, she sent the leader out, and the leader proposed to let her stay to take care of her father temporarily, which is equivalent to changing positions and letting someone else take over. The script says, "Wenxiu said no without thinking." Yang Rong said frankly that if she were Wenxiu, she would definitely hesitate, "That's Dad, Dad just had an operation and was lying in the hospital bed, I don't think I can leave, it must be There will be struggles. Because I think this happened to me, I must not be able to directly say that work is important, which is really a bit false." Later, the director made a rough cut of the scene as Yang Rong said, and after the rough cut, the director It was confirmed that Yang Rong's judgment was correct. "The director is very experienced in shooting realistic themes, and I am a person who has never acted. In fact, we created it in a collision." Yang Rong said.
She emphasized what she liked the most about this show, that is, not deliberately going to the great cultural show, not deliberately provocative, "Many heroic film and television works can't help but deliberately provocative, deliberately how to slow down the rhythm, so that everyone feels moved , but in life, you are by my side and I am sad, my first reaction is that I have to hold back, I don't want to cry in front of you, this is a normal emotional logic, but often when we are acting, I just want you to see that I'm sad, for fear that you won't see it. This is actually contrary to emotional logic. An actor with good emotional logic can act with restraint. That's what's moving. So I didn't make myself sad for the whole show."
And the most important scene in the whole play is Wenxiu's final engulfment by a mountain torrent. Yang Rong recalled that although she didn't want to be deliberately provocative, she couldn't stop crying in this scene. As an actress, she has to feel the bad natural environment outside the car. The water is almost flooded into the car, and the front is dark, and she also knows that it is written in the script and in reality that Wenxiu will never come back after leaving. .
"I was sitting in the car, and finally we decided that Wenxiu resolutely wanted to go to the direction of the village, so she walked slowly and disappeared, and I was sad while acting. Very complicated emotions, have collapsed, and are not what they should be in the play. The director was also a little stunned, he didn't know whether to stop or what to do, I was crying, and the cameraman was crying while filming in the back seat, After a long delay, I started filming again." Having said this, Yang Rong was a little choked up again. What she feels even more regrettable is that when she visited Huang Wenxiu's father, she also said that the show could be seen on TV in the future, and more people would know about Wenxiu, but unfortunately Huang Wenxiu's father left before he could see it." This is one of the biggest regrets about this work in my mind.”

"Daughter of the Mountain" stills

Wenxiu changed me
The process of playing Huang Wenxiu is very important to Yang Rong, not only because she broke through the comfort zone of the role and played a challenging role, but also because Huang Wenxiu herself has a huge influence on her, "Let me start to look at my career again. "
Yang Rong felt that Huang Wenxiu started her work when everyone was preconceived and didn't want to communicate with her, which was very inspiring to her, "I am not as determined as her, she has dedicated and paid, but she has not been recognized by everyone. Even if others misunderstood her, if I had encountered this situation before, I would have thought it would be fine, I would have a clear conscience, and I would not do this thing. But Wenxiu did not, I think there is still a belief to support , her attitude in life is that you really tried your best? Do you want to try again? As an actor, after so many years of learning and doing in my profession, what else can I do? How can I shine , to influence others, to help others?"
Yang Rong came from a small place and came to Kunming to learn dancing. The original intention of becoming an actor was to wear good-looking clothes and beautiful ancient decorations. When she was 14 years old, she was admitted to Xie Jin Hengtong Star School. Yang Rong recalled that at that time Xie Jin The director asked her, why did you come from such a far place? Others said that they are dedicated to art. Yang Rong's answer was: "I want to be a star." When Xie Jin actually entered the school, Xie Jin invited many older generation artists to give lectures to the students. ." In the heart of 14-year-old Yang Rong, this has nothing to do with her original intention of taking the exam here, the idea of wearing beautiful clothes. But this learning experience reshaped Yang Rong's concept, value and path to be an actor, "I am very grateful to these teachers of the older generation."
After entering the entertainment industry, for a while, Yang Rong has been acting in costumes and villains in costumes, and she suddenly got tired of it.
"I don't want to do this anymore. When I was filming non-stop, it was definitely because some of your types of works were effective, and everyone thought that your performance was not bad. Find you again, find you basically It's all the same type of play, with the same type of characters, you can't make a big breakthrough at all. And sometimes people have inertia, performances have inertia, similar characters, similar lines, what do you break through? All I can say is, look for some changes depending on the big story or some small details of the characters, but it's extremely subtle."
She tried to slow down and stopped taking so many scenes. Of course, this kind of behavior has advantages and disadvantages in a Vanity Fair like the entertainment industry. The team felt that Yang Rong should not be like this, because the market is very cruel. Once you stop and have no works, you will gradually withdraw from the audience, or even the producer's attention. But Yang Rong still insisted on pressing the pause button. "I think I have accumulated a lot of thoughts on my own performance and a lot of reflections on my actor's career. I am very clear about what kind of path I want to take."
I prefer my 40 year old self
Some people always say that Yang Rong's career is short of a hit drama.
"I have been passive in my acting career for more than 20 years, and I am still passive to this day, but the roles you can play are changing." Yang Rong said, "We have worked hard to create a drama that may be broadcast to the audience. I don’t think so, so it’s over, and then everyone thinks it’s okay for a certain drama. In fact, it’s finished just like that. It’s just that the right time and place are right for people. Control, let alone actors, producers and platforms, sometimes have no way to predict, so we can only say that we can do our best in the role and leave no regrets.”
Yang Rong started acting at the age of 15. She debuted very early. She watched many people around her go from obscurity to popularity, to silence, and then to popularity. "I've watched too much. Those who stand at the top want to continue standing, worrying about being surpassed, and those below want to go up again. People are always greedy, but no one can always stand on the commanding heights. Why do you think so much? ? It doesn't make sense to me."
But no matter whether it is explosive or not, Yang Rong has always insisted on learning and thinking about acting. "When we first graduated, we were more exposed to Hong Kong and Taiwan dramas, and the mode of performance was one. For example, to show that I was sad, the makeup artist would put two drops of eye drops on you, and the director would slowly shake the camera and blow some more Feng, you are very beautiful." She gradually felt that this was not good, "If you perform too much in that state, and perform too many exaggerated performances, you will leave a lot of bad marks on you. This is a It's a terrible thing." She mentioned that the popularity of realistic themes in the past two years has actually increased the requirements for actors. "It is relatively easy to create overhead things, but whether the realistic themes can be played so that everyone feels so friendly is it? Easy."

Yang Rong in "The Young Son of Heaven"

But Yang Rong believes that a really good performance is not outdated, "When I was filming "The Young Son of Heaven", Hao Lei's performance at that time, I thought she was very good, and today I look back and watch, I still think she is very good Great, good performances will never go out of style. Like Teacher Li Xuejian, his films in his early years are still great when I turn around and watch them today.”
She likes to observe and figure out her emotions by watching documentaries. "The things in the documentaries are real, and the emotions are real." For example, when she watched Huang Wenxiu's video, she found that she always had two legs crossed. When she opened the station, she had a little hunchback. She paid attention to maintaining such a posture when shooting, rather than keeping her chest and back straight for the sake of beauty.
Last month, Yang Rong just celebrated her 41st birthday. For actresses, age is a sensitive word, not only the state, but also the difference in energy and physical strength. Yang Rong has a deep understanding of this.
"When I was 40 years old, I obviously felt that my physical fitness was much worse than before, including my body's metabolism. Sometimes you would get swollen easily, or it would be easy to gain weight. Really these are some inevitable problems. I need Maintain a better state and do more exercise. Your body may not be able to shoot 24 hours a day like you did when you were young. When choosing a job, I may feel more cautious. I want to focus on more I don't want to waste something meaningful."
But Yang Rong feels that she prefers her 40-year-old self to her 30-year-old self.
"At the age of 30, I signed up for the Yuzheng studio at that time. At every stage, I felt that I was very mature now, and I knew what I wanted, but in fact, I was not that progressive. So I think I would like my 40-year-old self more. I am more transparent. For example, I sometimes want to insist on my own at the scene, but I am afraid of hurting others. Maybe others will think that Yang Rong is stubborn, but it is actually not good. Now that I have a problem, I will talk about my own. Speaking of him, if you can convince me, I will listen to you completely. If I can't convince you, it doesn't matter, we don't have to argue so much. In the end, when we watch it on the editing table, I feel more comfortable. I am also right. I have more accurate judgments in my own judgment, live a life of self-awareness, and be able to live with the world more freely.”
As a more comfortable self, Yang Rong recommended the documentary "Justice Ginsburg" to young girls, "I think girls should watch it, don't make everything absolute, don't say what women should do, don't What should it be? She didn't give up her family when she was the most stressed about her studies. Her husband was suffering from cancer at the time. She had children to take care of, but she still excelled in her studies. Don't say that women can only be housewives, or that modern women can only be housewives. Yes, you must be a career woman, not absolutely."