"The Wind Blows Pinellia", among the good domestic dramas in 2022, has its place. This drama, which has just ended, maintains a rating of 8.2 on Douban. One of the strengths of the play is that it portrays the touching friendship of the "steel triangle" among the three protagonists. And one of the "Steel Triangle", Chen Yuyu, who died young, has also become one of the most regrettable characters in the show. Huang Chengcheng, who played Chen Yuyu, also starred in the workplace "old fritters" Yuan Hao in "County Party Committee Compound" at the same time, which also received a lot of praise. Huang Chengcheng is good at restoring the inner humble struggles of little people, and is also good at interpreting the extraordinary moments of the little people.

Stills of "The Wind Blows Pinellia"

In 2021, Huang Chengcheng is participating in the "Annual Comedy Contest", and he is still filming "Holiday Warm Ocean 2" in the middle. His agent brought the project "Wind Blowing Pinellia" in front of him and told him that there is a particularly good role , "Half the entertainment industry is staring at it", and hurried to see the director. Huang Chengcheng looked at the information and the biography of Chen Yuyu, "It is very complete, there is cause and effect, and the arc of the character is well drawn. This role must be won."

When I met directors Fu Dongyu and Mao Wei, they bluntly said that Huang Chengcheng was not sick enough, some were baby fat, and others were noncommittal. Huang Chengcheng went back and thought about it, and read a few more episodes of the script. He felt that this role was too good, and he wanted to play it so much. "As an actor, if I can play such a role, I would be very happy." So, while participating in While losing weight in the comedy competition, it happened that the comedy competition was very intense. After one month, Huang Chengcheng lost 15 catties. I tried to meet the director again, and it was done.

Stills of "The Wind Blows Pinellia"

The character Chen Yuyu, a pure low-level little guy, can't find anyone in the crowd. He also suffers from a hereditary blood disease. When he protects himself carefully, he also has the pride of being willing to gamble and admit defeat. There is a slippery side, but there is also a side that sticks knives for friends.

When he first got this role, Huang Chengcheng was afraid that the character would be too sad and heavy, so he thought, "How to make this very sad character more interesting". He did a lot of desk work and made a lot of designs for the characters, but after actually joining the group, Huang Chengcheng overturned almost all the previous designs. "These designs are superfluous. When I really read the script, I found that the main characteristic of Chen Yuyu is sincerity. If there are too many designs, the sincerity will be less. Too much design is on him. On the contrary, it will weaken the power of the play itself."

But the word "sincerity" is the most difficult to play. Huang Cheng made it clear that the sincerity of the role does not mean the actor's true colors, but the difference must be refined. "My sincerity is not equal to Chen Yuyu's sincerity. How can I achieve this difference without the design? Almost the entire shooting stage, I have adjusted my life state to the state that Chen Yuyu might have."

Huang Chengcheng can only adjust as much as possible from the small details of life, "A person who has a blood disease since childhood, how does he walk? How does he think about problems? What does he like to eat? For example, I am from Sichuan and want to eat spicy food, no way. , Chen Yuyu is from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, I have to eat some Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine." Huang Chengcheng will deliberately make himself close to the frail and sick Chen Yuyu in terms of physiology. Really staying up late, making myself look weaker, "adjusting the proximity of my physical state to help achieve a closeness to the character's psychological state."

"Chen Yuyu's charm comes from his character building, from the relationship with the people around him, Xu Banxia, Tong Xiaoqi, and Zhou Qian." Huang Chengcheng said. For Xu Banxia and Tong Xiaoqi, two good friends, Chen Yuyu is truly willing to risk his life for righteousness. The deep friendship between the three requires a natural chemical reaction between the three actors.

The first scene I met with Zhao Liying and Ou Haogang was that the three of them had dinner at a Russian restaurant. Originally, the script had complete lines, but the director said, "Throw away the script, and the three of you will just drink. It's ice-breaking." In that scene, The camera was set aside to shoot, the three of them should be drinking and chatting, Huang Chengcheng was really drunk, and on the way back to the hotel, he told the driver, "Please pull over for a while", and vomited after getting down. And after this ice-breaking scene, the three of them really got to know each other well, became acting partners who could trust each other, and also made some good improvisations in the play.

"Steel Triangle"

"The foundation given by the script is very good, and then there is enough trust between the actor and the opponent, then you can play. You know that no matter what you say, the opponent can handle it in the situation." For example, Xu Banxia came back from buying steel from the north. A good friend sat down to eat together, Xu Banxia said, our good days are coming, Chen Yuyu burst into tears. "Actually, according to the original script, I was very moved, and then everyone cheered together, and it was over. But I don't know why, I was emotional at the time, and I felt that it was too difficult. Finally, I broke through and cried all at once. The crying was special. Ugly." Huang Chengcheng said with a smile.

At this time, Zhao Liying Ou Hao, who was on the opposite side, caught his performance. Ou Hao answered, "What are you doing?" Zhao Liying touched his head and said, "Chen Er, don't cry, it's too ugly." The true feelings are revealed naturally because the actors have brought in the characters, and also brought in the relationship between the characters, "Naturally, the most authentic communication and reflection flowed out. In fact, there are many such performances and collisions in our play. This kind of thing can’t be designed, you have to design it, first, it will become cumbersome, and second, it will be distorted.”

"Steel Triangle" Poster

And another important relationship between Chen Yuyu and Zhou Qian, the "marriage trustee", is both true and false, and the intricate emotions. Huang Chengcheng said bluntly that the complexity of the relationship between Chen Yuyu and Zhou Qian is one of the most complicated relationships he has encountered in acting over the years. "The state of mind of these two people has been changing, deceiving each other repeatedly, and their emotions are complicated and unspeakable. There is sincere emotion between them, but also some reservations and selfishness. This is two very real people in love, simple and tortuous. "Huang Chengcheng concluded, "Although I jumped out after the play, but this time when I look back at these two characters, I feel really moved."

In private, Huang Chengcheng and Zhou Qian's actor, Wang Xi, have indeed reached a tacit understanding in performance. The two never talk about technical details when talking about the play, "Because there is no way to design emotional things, and there is no way to explain them clearly. I think it's more about feelings. Today I heard a piece of music, which can be brought into Chen Yuyu immediately, and I will send it to Wang Xi immediately, and tomorrow she will throw me a short poem or something." Huang Chengcheng said, "I Between Wang Xi and Wang Xi, to a certain extent, the understanding of drama and performance is the same, if they are not together, they will not be able to act like that."

Chen Yuyu and Zhou Qian took wedding photos

Huang Chengcheng thinks that he is very lucky to meet such a rival actor, "Everyone supports each other instead of repelling each other. We all accept each other's performance first." The words written on paper must be made alive , the actor must communicate, "Whether this kind of communication is verbal, physical, or conscious, it must be there, and things on paper will come alive."

Communication is very important in Huang Chengcheng's concept of performance. In his view, an actor is a person who conveys information, performance is to convey information to the audience, and a good performance is a subtle way of conveying. The step before "communication" is "understanding". "Comprehension is something an actor has to practice all his life. Only when he understands how many levels can he talk about how many levels he can convey."

In the interview, Huang Chengcheng mentioned the word "toukounai". He explained that "toukounai" refers to the creative concept and artistic aesthetics that the creator first came into contact with when he was on a blank sheet of paper, and that will become a creation. The artistic background of the reader's life. Huang Chengcheng began to act in dramas with director Lin Zhaohua in his early twenties, and has been on stage for more than ten years. What he left behind is his obsession with "good performances". "If you think that something is good from the bottom of your heart, you will think about it. Where is it, how is it going to get there, and it becomes something you've been fighting for your whole life."

He said frankly that what he enjoyed most when he was on the stage of a drama was being surrounded by the eyes of the audience, but now, he wants to "pick" himself out, make himself "smaller" and the world "bigger" to observe and Empathize with others. At the end of the chat, he particularly agreed with one point: an actor is a "container".

Stills of "The Wind Blows Pinellia"

【dialogue】

"Oral milk" is very important

The Paper : When you first saw the script, what attracted you most to Chen Yuyu? After actually putting in the creation and interpreting this character, has your perception of him changed?

Huang Chengcheng : Yes, there is a process. When I first got this role, I thought about how to shape the relationship between Chen Yuyu, Xu Banxia and Tong Xiaoqi, and how to make this particularly tragic role more interesting. After the script, I did a lot of desk work and made a lot of designs for the characters, but actually after joining the group, I overturned almost all my previous designs. I found that these designs were superfluous. When I really read the script, I found that the main characteristic of Chen Yuyu is sincerity. If there are too many designs, there will be less sincerity. Too many designs on him will weaken the power of the play itself. Chen Yuyu's charm comes from his character building, from his relationship with the people around him, Xu Banxia, Tong Xiaoqi, and Zhou Qian.

The Paper : You also participated in the "Annual Comedy Contest". Anyone who understands comedy knows that comedy is very difficult to act. Not every actor who can act well in a drama can perform a good comedy, and not all comedians can act in a drama. Talk about the differences and experiences between the two?

Huang Chengcheng : I didn't make a clear distinction between these two things. First of all, my creative philosophy is one size fits all. I regard characters as "people". If there is a character relationship, where does the character relationship come from? First of all, you have to be a real person before you can establish a relationship with another real person. No matter what I am playing, I will first play a person who is vivid, has a view of right and wrong, a worldview, and has his own ideas. Then integrate him into the play.

To be honest, I may be the person who can't "make faces" in the whole comedy competition. I don't know those skills. ", and I need their help to complete a comedy, so I feel that I met the right people at the right time in the comedy competition, and everyone helped me.

"Annual Comedy Contest" stills, Huang Chengcheng and Gu Yufeng collaborated on "Platform"

The Paper : Like Chen Yuyu, like Yuan Hao in "County Party Committee Compound", they are all characters with sufficient complexity, but some viewers are particularly easy to classify characters into simple categories, this is a good guy, that is a bad guy, simple The definition and the complexity of the character itself deviate, how do you think about it as an actor?

Huang Chengcheng : Every time I create a character, I have to think about the role of the character in the play, not the audience first. If you put the audience's point of view first, you are not serving the audience. I just have to think about what the script and the director are trying to express and meet that standard.

"County Party Committee Compound" character poster

The Paper : A good actor respects the audience the most, but this respect does not mean that at the stage of performance creation, he starts to think about what the audience thinks. This will instead become a distraction, right?

Huang Chengcheng : Yes, it will become distracting thoughts. Some media asked me before, do you consider the popularity of the audience when performing, which is actually similar to your question. As long as I consider the relationship with the audience, I am not acting. This is distracting thoughts. I want to have a real communication with the audience, not to please the audience. I am equal to the audience. My role is interacting with the audience. Communicating, not my character wooing, that's the essential difference. The black and white summary of characters is a simple dualism. If creators also use this dualism to guide creation, we will never be able to make good things. I think this is the case with any artistic creation. Once you deliberately please, we don’t talk about the expression of the play itself. Even if your personal expression of the characters is not from your heart, the audience will not resonate.

The Paper : But for creators, the feedback from the audience is almost the only mirror for you to face your own work. This mirror is not necessarily objective in many cases, so how do you maintain an objective understanding of your performance?

Huang Chengcheng : I think the audience's feedback is one aspect. For example, when I performed in theaters in the early years, the audience's feedback was immediate, and the "mirror" could give you feedback immediately. My initial confidence in acting was accumulated through real communication and feedback with the audience during my ten-year drama career. But actors can’t stay in the audience’s positive feedback. If it’s just to make the audience laugh and cry, then you’ll be done with acting for ten or twenty years, but I think acting has no end. I think that if you want to pursue a better performance, you must first know what a good performance is, and you may have to think about where the performance will eventually go. So you have to look at good things and find the direction you are pursuing.

Teacher Pu Cunxin wrote a book called "I Know Where the Light Is", which was very inspiring to me. You must know where your direction is. If you start with the wrong direction, your aesthetics will be wrong, and your creation will deviate from it. There is a saying in our industry that "breast milk" is very important. I am very lucky. Before I graduated from university, I acted in dramas with director Lin Zhaohua until I was in my thirties. My aesthetic concept and artistic orientation are all based on established during this process.

The Paper : Initially, the aesthetics and cognition of the performance are very important.

Huang Chengcheng : Yes, when you are a blank sheet of paper and you feel that something is good from the bottom of your heart, you will think about what is so good about it, how it can be achieved, and it will become something you will strive for all your life .

"Annual Comedy Contest" stills, Huang Chengcheng collaborated with Shi Ce and Wang Hao on "Walking the Flower Road"

To break up the experience, every role has to be overthrown and restarted

The Paper : You also mentioned just now that as a good actor, you should think about where the performance will eventually go? What kind of performance is a good performance? What are your current answers to these two questions?

Huang Chengcheng : I don’t think there is an answer right now. I’m still on that road. To be honest, I don’t think I’m doing well enough. I am a person who is very willing to reflect on myself, and I always wonder if this thing is not done very well, or if you used the previous method to do a new thing. And as for what is "good", everyone has a different opinion. Regarding the standard of "good", I think setting a standard is tantamount to the end. It is better to have a direction than a standard, and there is no limit to the direction.

The Paper : I think the word reflection just mentioned is very good. My observation is that the more experienced you are in acting, the easier it is to fall into a certain routine in acting, because you can often use past acting experience to interpret a new character. , that is a very easy thing. The more experienced you are, the more difficult it is to maintain a certain enthusiasm and breakthrough spirit?

Huang Chengcheng : First of all, I think that the only role of experience in acting is to relax you. Because I'm not a particularly relaxed person, it's the past few years that I've found that after you relax, you can not worry about what people behind the monitor think of you, and you can enter the soul of the character wholeheartedly. So experience does not directly guide performance. As an actor, you have to really perform. Maybe you have to see enough audiences and shots to be relaxed and natural enough, and then you can talk about acting.

But I will not use the experience of the last play to deduce my next role. Every play and every character you meet, its prescribed situation, all his situations, and all the relationships between characters are different. Why do you Use previous experience to derive the role? You have to break up the experience, the previous you can’t be used, if you use it, you will repeat yourself, if you use it, you will scold yourself. To be honest, I tried to be lazy when I acted in dramas before, wondering if I could use the experience of a certain role in this drama to act, but I found out that it was a mess. So every role must be overthrown and restarted, don't be afraid of trouble, or if you don't start again, you will always be in the circle, and I look down on myself.

Stills of "The Wind Blows Pinellia"

Comprehension is something that actors have to practice all their lives

The Paper : When transferring from a drama stage to a film and television performance, there should still be a process of adaptation. Can you talk about that experience and feelings?

Huang Chengcheng : Fortunately for me, I first acted in sitcoms. From dramas to sitcoms, sitcoms are also a three-in-one thing, and they are also concentrated performances, so I have a transition to acting in front of the camera. After I got used to performing in front of the camera, I then entered a more different film and television performance. My feeling is that the difference in the way of expression is based on the difference in the object of communication.

The Paper : As you mentioned earlier, such as the immediate feedback from the audience in drama performances?

Huang Chengcheng : Yes, because when I acted in a drama, director Lin Zhaohua taught us "you have to relax", don't use the so-called dramatic accent, how do you talk to people in life, the purpose of speaking is to express, right? What is expression? Expression is to convey information, and our acting is to accurately convey information to each other. For example, three people are chatting, and I look at one person and say, but I have another person in my mind, so it is the same as a line. The two chatting are definitely not the same. I am on the stage of a theater with 1,000 audiences in mind, and my intention is very clear, that is, to convey information to 1,000 people, so my way of speaking and tone of voice are naturally different from communicating with 3 people.

The Paper : A good performer is also a good communicator. He always knows who he is speaking to, how to say it, and what kind of information he wants to convey.

Huang Chengcheng : Yes, in fact, the purpose of your lines is to convey information, and the deviation is the accuracy of the information conveyed, whether the information is effectively conveyed to the audience's ears.

The Paper : In other words, the comprehension of the actors themselves is also very important. I need to be very clear about this line. What exactly does this scene want to convey? What does it say on the surface, what does its underlying logic say?

Huang Chengcheng : This is comprehension. It is something that actors have to cultivate all their lives. How much you can understand is how much you can communicate. You don’t know what the lines are saying. That’s terrible. If you can only enlighten to the superficial level, you should honestly express this level, at least sincerely. If you can’t reach the lower levels and still have to go there, then you are pretending. So you have to broaden yourself, the more people and things you can understand in this world, the more you can act. Now there are so many channels for understanding information. Maintain curiosity about the world and try to broaden your knowledge. You don’t need to know everything deeply. You just need to know it. Only when you know it can you talk about empathy. There are more handles in the performance.

Stills of "The Wind Blows Pinellia"

The Paper : Regarding the performance itself, what attracted you to the performance at the beginning? Have views changed now?

Huang Chengcheng : At the beginning, I thought it was fun to perform, and I thought it was very embarrassing to perform on stage, and then the roles I played at that time were also some crazy ones, and I felt that I was omnipotent. But now my understanding of acting is that you have to think about others. My current state is to keep myself as far away from some bad things as possible, and to live a simpler life, so that I can better understand what others are thinking. .

The Paper : I can sum it up as, when I first started this line of work, I paid the most attention to myself and enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by other people’s eyes. Now I don’t pay much attention to myself when performing, and I still want to empathize and understand more others?

Huang Chengcheng : Yes, I want to "pick" myself out, but in fact it is very difficult to do this. It is a direction. I just want to "pick" myself out and pay more attention to people and things that I can empathize with.

The Paper : Only by turning yourself into a "container".

Huang Chengcheng : Yes, actors are "containers".