In 1991, Zhang Yimou was casting for "The Big Red Lantern Hanging High", and Cao Cuifen wanted to win the role of second aunt.
After talking with Zhang Yimou, he was not very satisfied with her, feeling that she was not beautiful enough, and it was difficult to become popular in the entertainment industry with her appearance.
But she didn't give up, and after she went back, she mailed some of her materials to the director team.
Unexpectedly, I received a call from the assistant director the next day, inviting her to play "Second Aunt".
After joining the group, she worked hard to study the role, analyze the script lines, and conquered all the people in the crew with her acting skills.
And she did not believe in fate, this persistence is 27 years, until the age of 74 finally spread all over the country.
It seems that Zhang Yimou's evaluation is also inaccurate.
After the fire, Cao Cuifen has played a very famous role in recent years.
She participated in the 2018 super popular costume drama "Know It or Not".
The well-made film and television pictures all make the audience marvel, which is really a conscience drama.
Liu Lin, a big lady who is straightforward and spicy and not very smart, and Gao Lu, who is a young lady with a deep heart and finally retribution, have quickly become popular with this drama.
Of course, the role that moved the audience the most was Sheng Minglan's grandmother "Old Lady Sheng", which is the role played by Cao Cuifen.
The acting skills of this old drama bone portrayed mrs. Sheng vividly, especially the scene where Minglan Yatou was married, which made many people can't help but cry.
In addition to the drama "Know It or Not", another drama in which Cao Cuifen participated, "Qing Yu Nian", was also popular, even to the point of phenomenon.
This time she played Fan Xian's grandmother, when sending Fan Xian out, her eyes were gentle and implicitly worried, making many viewers involuntarily think of their families.
Her every move in the play reveals her natural nobility, her mind is transparent, and it makes people feel that she is very trustworthy for no reason.
It is also because of the success of these characters that the audience calls her "the most beautiful grandmother".
Cao Cuifen began to study acting at the age of 16 and had the opportunity to shoot at the age of 29.
At the age of 48, he won his first award in his life, and at the age of 74, he became popular with "Know It or Not".
Her life is both ordinary and extraordinary, and she is a well-deserved powerful actor.
Even a famous director like Zhang Yimou has commented that she looks ordinary and it is difficult to become popular, how did she get rid of the identity of the Ten Thousand Year Dragon Set and become a flying shadow queen?
Today, we will take a closer look at the life of the old drama bone Cao Cuifen".
01
Born in 1944, Cao Cuifen grew up in an ordinary family in Shanghai.
In that era, the situation was turbulent, and the smoothest way for girls was to find a good man to marry and be able to settle down.
But Cao Cuifen does not think so, she has always had an "actor's dream".
Even food and clothing have become a problem, but Cao Cuifen is in love with acting and dreams of being on the big screen.
In 1960, Cao Cuifen was one step closer to her dream.
She was admitted to the preparatory class of the Beijing Film Academy and successfully transferred to the undergraduate after two years of study.
For her dreams, she has always been the hardest one in college.
Every homework assigned by the teacher, every rehearsal in the class, Cao Cuifen strives to do her best.
We sometimes imagine the future, and Cao Cuifen is naturally no exception.
She often thinks about her future life at night.
Can you interpret the flavor of life on the screen like those famous actors?
Each character has a soul for Cao Cuifen, and showing these in front of the audience will make her feel happy and happy.
But it backfired, and fate always joked at crucial times.
After graduating from school, Cao Cuifen did not step on the stage of great attention, but received a notice to go to the countryside.
Her life came to a turning point.
What should have been the brightest star on the stage was planted in the fields.
Farming itself is a hard thing, but what bothers Cao Cuifen the most is that the distance from her dream is far away.
Even in the fields, she never wanted to give up.
Whenever she has the opportunity, she will desperately hone her acting skills, afraid that she will forget the knowledge in school.
After more than ten years of such a day, Cao Cuifen changed from a child who did not understand anything to a big girl who was in the industry.
This rural experience tempered her mind and created a tenacious character.
Her persistence pays off, and when you want to do something, no difficulty can stop you.
The activity to go to the countryside was finally over, and she came to the Beijing Film Studio and began her career as an actress ten years late.
02
Fast forward to 1973, and Cao Cuifen's deduction road also began here.
At that time, the movie "Southern Expedition and Northern War" was being cast, and Cao Cuifen, who had been waiting for the opportunity, heard the news and directly rushed to audition.
Her performance is very prominent, the performance is vivid and vivid, so that the characters live from the script!
The director also made a decision at once, letting Cao Cuifen play the role of "Yonggui Sister-in-law".
Her first screen role was settled.
Other actresses debut as girls, and the 29-year-old Cao Cuifen debuted at the level of "daughter-in-law".
Although she had missed the golden period of development, Cao Cuifen was not discouraged.
She knew that the role was not easy to come by, so she spent a lot of time thinking about acting.
She also knows that she has no outstanding external conditions, nor does she have an advantage in age, and the only thing that can be done is acting.
During that time, she held the script every day to study, like to the point of going crazy.
When it came time to shoot the scene, the director was indeed not disappointed, and Cao Cuifen was simply the "Yonggui sister-in-law" in reality.
But these did not make Cao Cuifen's acting path smoother.
Since this role, Cao Cuifen has not received a good role for nearly twenty years.
In the crew, she is always a small dragon set, and even some of the characters have no names.
Such a "green leaf" career did not make Cao Cuifen despair.
Acting has always been a dream for her, not a tool for fame and fortune.
As long as she can shoot, she is happy.
Such an idea may be difficult for us to understand.
But Cao Cuifen really thought so, and silently worked hard.
The role she takes over, no matter how small, will be carefully pondered, carefully considered, and interpreted with her understanding.
Fate will favor those who have been working hard, and Cao Cuifen will once again usher in a turning point in her life.
03
In 1990, Zhang Yimou's "Big Red Lantern Hanging High" began casting.
The other roles were quickly set, but the role of the second aunt has not been found to be a suitable actor.
The assistant director of the crew immediately thought of Cao Cuifen, who has excellent acting skills, and wanted her to send the photos to Zhang Yimou for a look.
But Cao Cuifen refused this request.
She believes that her appearance is not an advantage, and if she only looks at the photos, the odds of being selected are too low.
She wanted to come to the crew and communicate with the director face-to-face.
Sure enough, Zhang Yimou did not choose Cao Cuifen at first glance.
He thinks that Cao Cuifen's appearance is too ordinary, unlike an actor who eats with his face.
If such an evaluation is given to others, it may have been hit hard in their hearts long ago.
But Cao Cuifen did not, she knew her own shortcomings, but also knew her strengths.
All she has to do is conquer everyone with her acting skills.
She provided the crew with a video of her past performances, hoping that the director would be able to see it.
Within two days, Cao Cuifen received good news that the role of the second aunt was hers!
This is the best news That Cao has heard in 46 years.
What a rare opportunity to participate in the film directed by Zhang Yimou!
Also participating in the "Big Red Lantern Hanging High" actors are Gong Li and He Saifei, both of whom are about twenty years younger than Cao Cuifen.
Success is indeed won by herself, Cao Cuifen does not let go of any opportunity, every time she seriously shows herself, and finally gets the reward.
She knew that such an opportunity was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so she put a lot of effort into the role of "second aunt".
Cao Cuifen constantly reads works related to the script, and understands the hidden meaning of the characters from the times.
Everyone who has seen the script or the movie thinks that the second aunt is too mouthy and disgusting.
Only Cao Cuifen understood that the "bad" of the second aunt was just for survival.
The background of the second aunt's life is the old society, and she was extremely harsh on women.
Only the birth of a son in a large family has half a foothold.
There was an undercurrent surging between the rooms, and Cao Cuifen showed the second aunt's smile to hide the knife very well.
Let the audience see more deeply the internal struggles in the feudal family.
But unfortunately, the second aunt has no son, and her waist bar naturally cannot stand up straight in front of other aunts.
Cao Cuifen's dream is to perform, and the dream of the second aunt is probably to have a son.
So she took the initiative to find a director before the film started.
She thinks adding a sentence like "Lord, I want to give you a son" to the script will highlight the role more.
Everyone in the circle knows that Zhang Yimou has a habit of basically not changing the lines of the script.
After listening to Cao Cuifen's serious advice, he accepted.
As a talented director, he naturally knew that such a change would be good for the script.
It is also true that this line is like a finishing touch, making the second aunt too alive.
The second aunt played by Cao Cuifen is an old social woman who looks gentle as water on the outside, but in fact has a vicious mind.
Zhang Yimou also praised Cao Cuifen after the shooting was completed.
"She's a good actress, and her biggest advantage when performing is that there are no traces of performance, as if she is integrated with the role."
It was also with the role of the second aunt that Cao Cuifen won the first award, the "Golden Phoenix Award".
Although this is a milestone on Cao Cuifen's performance road, the actors who are with her contemporaries have already gone further than her.
Zheng Peipei was named a martial arts film queen twenty-five years ago, and Gui Yalei has long won the Golden Horse Award.
Compared with these actresses, Cao Cuifen's road is obviously more bumpy.
04
For Cao Cuifen's award, the outside world has also shown certain concern.
Director Liu Miaomiao said that Cao Cuifen's current state is the best.
Although she did not receive flowers and applause from most people, she was not shocked and has been pursuing her dreams farther and farther.
Playing a good role for her is not to gain fame and traffic, but to better realize her dreams.
In 1992, Cao Cuifen received an invitation from the crew of "Miscellaneous Mouths" to play a rural woman in the northwest.
In order to interpret this role more perfectly, Cao Cuifen, who has been living in the south, came to the Loess Plateau.
It took half a year to communicate with the locals and observe their living habits.
Cao Cuifen carefully found that the pronunciation of some Northwest dialects would change in lip style.
The northwest is not densely populated, and when people are far away from each other, they will shout loudly.
This renders the lip type as an "O" shape.
Even such details were not spared, and it could be seen that Cao Cuifen had worked hard for this role.
After the film was broadcast, many viewers thought that this was the actress that the director team was looking for in the northwest.
From the side, it can also be seen that Cao Cuifen's image has been successfully shaped.
Also in 1992, Cao Cuifen played Qiao Zhen in "Shanghai Family", which won an important award at the Feitian Awards, the Best Supporting Actress Award.
"Shanghai Family" adopts the most simple white painting technique to show and restore the life of the low-level people in Shanghai to the audience.
As the heroine's mother, Qiao Zhen, she portrays herself as one of the most ordinary working women in Shanghai.
In 1995, Cao Cuifen played the role of "Orphan Tears".
Different from the previous supporting roles, this time Cao Cuifen is the well-deserved protagonist in the play.
She plays the role of a peasant woman, Geng Er, kind and gentle.
The film "Orphan Tears" can be seen from the name of the story around a group of orphans and welfare homes.
The film is tragic and heart-wrenching, and the cinema conditions at that time were not good, but it coincided with the atmosphere created by "Orphan's Tears".
After watching the movie, many viewers felt inexplicably uncomfortable in their hearts.
In particular, there is a scene in the movie where several disabled children cry in the car, which makes people feel unbearable when they see it.
The reputation of this film is extremely high, and Cao Cuifen also won the Huabiao Award for Best Actress with this film.
But this year, Cao Cuifen is 53 years old, debuted for more than 20 years, and the hard work she has paid in this long period can be imagined.
How many people in real life can be like Cao Cuifen, always pursue their dreams, and never deviate?
Cao Cuifen's speech at the award ceremony of the Huabiao Awards was also impressive.
"I always knew I was a good actor."
She doesn't need the praise of others, she doesn't need the fans to pursue, she just wants to be herself.
Be able to walk down-to-earth on the road of their dreams.
Doesn't the entertainment industry lack such a spirit now?
Many actors don't deserve to be called actors, because they rely on traffic and popularity, not acting skills.
In this era where traffic is king, it seems that acting is superfluous.
Some actors never memorize their lines, replacing them with one-two-three-four, and then dubbing later.
Some actors do not go out on location, all the pictures on location are solved with cutouts, and it is strange that such an attitude can get 80 million yuan in remuneration.
In such a contrast, Cao Cuifen's conceit is particularly outstanding.
She uses her own deductive path to prove that as long as she works hard, her dreams will be realized.
05
Cao Cuifen's success is also inseparable from her serious attitude towards acting.
In her eyes, "the drama is bigger than the sky", and nothing can stop her from acting.
In the previous hit costume drama "Know It or Not", Cao Cuifen showed a very serious attitude.
Seventy-four years old, she is still as careful as she was when she was young.
Every line savors the emotion in it.
With such efforts, she presented the Grandmother of the Sheng family in front of the public.
Gentle and domineering, able to give her granddaughter guidance at key times, the audience has a good impression of this role.
Even because she performed very realistically, everyone called her "Kind Grandma".
In the lines of "Know It or Not", many of them are semi-literary, and it is very difficult to memorize.
It's a difficult task for a lot of young actors.
Seventy-four-year-old Cao Cuifen's memory was not as good as when she was young, and it was naturally more difficult to carry it.
Many actors recite their lines on the spot and perform directly.
But this method did not work for Cao Cuifen.
She started preparing in advance each time, when the shooting season was summer, but the actors were wearing winter costumes.
The thick prop suits made many actors unbearable.
But Cao Cuifen was the first to come to the crew every time, wearing thick clothes and began to recite lines.
During the high-intensity shooting, Cao Cuifen never fell behind.
She not only memorizes her lines, but also studies the way the characters in the play get along, so that she can be more outstanding when performing.
Zhang Kaizhou, the director of "Know It or Not", has also publicly stated that Cao Cuifen is the most dedicated actor he has ever worked with, and he can "carry" more than many young actors.
Sure enough, with the broadcast of "Know It or Not", Cao Cuifen received great attention.
Everyone was very fond of this kind old lady.
She won the praise of everyone with her superb acting skills and the artistic virtue of the actor.
Looking back at Cao Cuifen's deductive road, the middle is full of bumps and thorns, but she has never thought about giving up.
Many people say that Cao Cuifen is lucky to be popular at the age of seventy-four with the title of "National Grandmother".
But they didn't see the hard work behind Cao Cuifen, where did the luck come from.
The late success of the big instrument is just the result of Cao Cuifen's persistence and efforts all along.
In fact, Cao Cuifen is the epitome of each of us.
Who can not dream? It's just that everyone persists to a different degree.
Cao Cuifen never yaws on the road to pursue her dreams and maintains her original intention.
So Heaven did not fail her and let her succeed at the age of 74.
And have we really done what Cao Cuifen did?
If you think about it carefully, you may find that we always choose to give up when the outside world interferes, and we are getting farther and farther away from our dreams.
Gradually, it became a look that did not match the dream self.
Cao Cuifen also expressed her views on her own deductive life.
From the time she debuted at a young age, she began to act, and when she was old, she still had roles to play, which was happiness for her.
In the analysis of the character and the shaping of the character, it is also a happy thing to use your heart and get the recognition of others.
Acting this matter, Cao Cuifen spent a lifetime to study thoroughly.
Life is a long road, who can guarantee that there will be no setbacks and difficulties? We should be like Teacher Cao Cuifen and keep our original intentions.
In the future journey, may you live up to Shaohua and work hard for your dreams!