Courtesy of the artist
Stills from "Dragon Ridge Labyrinth"
Stills from "The Tale of Wulin"
In the web drama "Longling Labyrinth", Jiang Chao plays one of the protagonists, Wang Fatzi, which is a super IP drama that he has been in the industry for 28 years and has starred in more than 100 works. This peaked his satisfaction, "For a man in his forties, it's the greatest fortune of an actor to be able to work with such a professional, large-scale team." ”
When it comes to Jiang Chao, the audience prefers to call him "Li Dazui" or "Little Jiang". The successive popularity of the sitcom "The Story of the Cooking Class" and "The Tale of Wulin" has made Jiang Chao, who is full of joy, get out of the poor days when he needs to rely on running dragon sets and acting as a drama worker to make a living. In the past fourteen years of "The Legend of Wulin", most of the other actors have become popular in half the sky, but Jiang Chao still sticks to the front line of golden supporting roles. "To be able to get to this day and let so many viewers know, I am already lucky to burn high incense, what else do I want a 'bicycle'?"
A Let Wang Fatzi be more cute
He was just a real, down-to-earth ordinary man
Jiang Chao is good at playing small people, he also likes this kind of role, he believes that there are big heroes in small people, "just like myself, life is a small person who does not want to show his face." But now that I can act and be paid attention to by so many people, I think this kind of life is very good, this kind of talent is real. ”
Before "Longling Labyrinth", including Huang Bo and Jiang Wu, at least eight actors had played "Wang FatZi" in different versions of "Ghost Blowing Lights".
Wang Kaixuan in "Longling Labyrinth" is a standard "fat man" figure, smiling and cute, loving money and gluttony, just like he just came back from Panjiayuan in Beijing. In contrast, Wang Kaixuan in the original work is more "mixed". This also makes this version of the witty Wang Kaixuan fall into a bipolar evaluation. Some book fans believe that Jiang Chao's version of "Wang FatZi" has too many small people in the city, preferring to take advantage of small advantages and never suffer losses, and when things happen, they will be broken and chattering. In other words, it's like "Li Dazui".
But Jiang Chao instead believes that Wang Kaixuan and Li Dazui do have similarities - true and flawed, but equally rigid and soft. "Everyone has a different understanding of Wang Kaixuan, just like Wang Kaixuan and I are both from the military compound, we are more reasonable, we don't cause trouble and we are not afraid of things, and we are never bad at critical times." Moreover, No matter how powerful Wang Kaixuan is, in the whole tide of history, he is still an ordinary person. Jiang Chao hopes that the Wang Fatzi he has created can have more real and grounded small characters, and try to act as cute as possible, so that everyone can accept it more easily.
Be content with a life of drama
"Wulin Waichuan" has been broadcast for fourteen years, during which many people have repeatedly asked Jiang Chao, the co-actors of "Wulin Waichuan" have become popular, only he is still playing supporting roles and small characters, do you mind that popularity is compared? Jiang Chao never shied away from this slightly offensive question, "What's the mind?" Sister Yan Ni, Yao Chen, and Sha Yi are very good, and 'fire' is what it should be. ”
For fourteen years, Jiang Chaowu enjoyed himself in the state of "having a drama". He always recalls the hard days of fetching water and doing drama in the troupe, "Now there are roles for me to pick, and when others invite me, they call me 'Teacher Jiang'." I couldn't have imagined this kind of thing for two months. He hopes that whether it is the protagonist or the supporting character, he can stick to the field of the little people and work intensively, always reminding himself of how to climb from the well to the ground step by step.
B has done drama work and carried the track
Earn a few hundred dollars a month and get by
Even though life was difficult, Jiang Chao did not feel the slightest confusion. He has only one goal - to do everything possible to survive in Beijing, "people who consider survival are never confused, and only by surviving can they have the opportunity to be confused about life." ”
Before "The Story of the Cooking Class", Jiang Chao had a seven-year career as a dragon set.
In 1992, at the age of 17, Jiang Chao was admitted to the cadet class of the Air Force Repertory Theatre, inherited the ambitions of the military family, and became a literary and artistic soldier. In the same year, because of his strong stature, he quickly got his first role, the general Wei Xu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Although there were only three scenes, Jiang Chao was in a state of excitement the whole time. However, this became his most dramatic role for the next seven years.
In order to make money and make a living, in addition to occasionally taking on some dubbing work to earn extra money, Jiang Chao spends most of his time in the troupe doing chores, opening the water and carrying tracks, and relying on a few hundred yuan issued by the troupe every month to barely survive. He once revealed in an interview that he once followed the crew into the mountains to shoot a scene, and when the large troops all went back to eat, they found that a track fell in the mountains. Jiang Chao ran for forty minutes to turn back from the mountain road, and as a result, he did not even give him a single yellow cauliflower left after he returned, only one person handed him half a steamed bun that had been nibbled.
Even so, chores don't happen every day. Once idle, Jiang Chao soaked in the Sanlian Taofen Bookstore next to the art museum. It was the first place in Beijing to allow readers to read books for free. For at least three years, Jiang Chao often bought a loaf of bread and a bottle of mineral water, and rode his bike from the troupe to the bookstore early in the morning, trying to mix a pier where he could sit and read a book, and stay all day. From reportage, everyone's prose to classic masterpieces, all-encompassing reading has opened doors for Jiang Chao. "I still benefit from those years of studying. Your outlook on life and world will become more open, and your experience as an actor will become richer. ”
C Shang Jing is a career nobleman
Small ginger and large mouth are remembered as lucky
In each interview, he would politely call the reporter "teacher"; at the end, he would sincerely express gratitude. Whenever someone on the street blurts out "little Ginger" and "big mouth", even if the other party can't shout "Jiang Chao" for a long time, he is happy to nod his head in response. "A lot of actors have masterpieces, but it's rare that people remember the role I played!"
Jiang Chao's three turns in his career are inseparable from director Shang Jing.
In 1999, the Air Politics Repertory Theatre rehearsed the drama "Wings of Peace", with Shang Jing as the director, Wang Xuexi and Wang Chao starring, and the third main character, The A corner of the Black Tower, was Hong Jiantao. Later, for various reasons, Hong Jiantao did not participate, and the opportunity suddenly fell to the 23-year-old B-corner Jiang Chao. This is the first time that the drama worker "Little Ginger" who opens the water has the opportunity to stand on the stage as the protagonist. "Some people may give up in the process of waiting, feeling that there is little hope, but I would rather wait forever."
The role of Black Tower crossed from 19 to 70 years old, which is a great test for the actor. The group was full of doubts about the "small drama playing the protagonist", and many people proposed to change the role, but Shang Jing insisted on rehearsing before deciding. During the rehearsal process, Jiang Chao's state was on the verge of "magic", and he was anxious to severe insomnia every day, and he could only sleep for three or four hours, and lost a lot of hair. In order to better interpret the old age stage, he used his years of dubbing experience to try to approach the vicissitudes of the character from the sound, and then gradually accurately grasp the performance. Until the end of the first rehearsal with makeup, Shang Jing commented that "the role of the black tower stood on the stage." This sentence also made Jiang Chao's acting career stand up from then on.
After this cooperation, three years later, Shang Jing prepared to shoot the TV series "The Story of the Cooking Class", Jiang Chao became one of the earliest actors to be determined, and "Little Jiang" was also tailored for Jiang Chao. Then in 2006, Shang Jing "pointed out" Jiang Chao for the third time as the grounded, greedy and cheap, but sentient and righteous "Li Dazui" in "The Legend of Wulin". If "The Story of the Cooking Class" allows Jiang Chao to have a masterpiece of life, "The Tale of Wulin" makes him a national actor. Although Later, due to the limitations of his image, Jiang Chao did not receive a new script for almost a year, but after experiencing the negative Extreme Tailai, he decided that he was lucky enough.
Written by/Beijing News reporter Zhang He