I didn't want to be an actor

Chapter 423: A Good Start (23)

In fact, the bigger the star, the harder it is for him to transform into a real actor!
Andy Lau is a typical example.

You can easily tell that he has no problem with his acting technique.

If you have time, you can go watch one of his movies, "To the Wrath of the Sea", and you will find that his acting skills were not problematic in the first movie...

He was able to express his joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness very well, and with great skill, without any over-the-top expressions - except when he was trying to be cool.

From the very beginning, he was a qualified actor - he was definitely gifted in acting, otherwise he would not have become a top student in the wireless training class back then!
It’s not the ‘started out as a jerk, worked his way up to superstardom’ example many people market…

But in the early years, his personality was that of a rather conceited, face-conscious, and big-brother type - just like Jackie Chan. Then, when others were honestly acting and making movies, he was already thinking about setting up his own company.

But starting a company is not an easy thing. In the end, he owed a lot of money and could only rely on making bad movies to pay off his debts. Invisibly, he developed a set of superficial and stereotyped acting skills for himself.

The acting style is really bad.

The most extreme example is in "The Five Tigers: Breakup" (1991 movie), where the actor actually played fancy moves for half a minute before shooting himself. The level of exaggeration is beyond description of poor acting!
In 1998, after relying on Wong Jing to get rid of the financial crisis, Liu Dehua gradually improved the quality of his films. With Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, and Zhang Guorong going to Hollywood and reducing production, good scripts on the market gradually gathered around him, and Liu Dehua ushered in his peak period...

But he is really too busy, so busy that he has no time to experience life, to feel more and deeper joys, sorrows, anger and happiness. This makes his acting skills always remain at a certain level and cannot really go deeper.

"Lost and Love" is a typical example.

His rivalry with Liang Jiahui - a foreigner, did not think, understand or react to what the traffic police said at all.

Both parties were speaking Mandarin with strong local accents. How could Andy Lau understand it after just listening once?
This is not in line with the actual situation...

So, he has never been a top-tier actor, but...it doesn’t matter, his positioning should not be a singer or an actor, he is a big star in the entertainment industry!

"My name is Chen Xiaomeng,"

"How old are you?"

Liu Dehua took out his ID card and looked at it: "It should be 29..."

Wan Qian couldn't help but look back at him a few times...

"Doesn't it make you look a bit old?"

"No!" Wan Qian suppressed her laughter: "I'm 33 this year!"

“Ka… Not bad!”

Shen Liang frowned, stood up and walked to Liu Dehua, whispering: "Brother Hua, after Sister Qian said she was 33, you look in the rearview mirror and mutter 'I'm 29?' This will make this plot funnier..."

"Look in the rearview mirror again?"

"Yes, a kind of dry humor..."

"Ok!"

Liu Dehua immediately did so...

After this round, Rao Xiaozhi asked Shen Liang: "Do you think Brother Hua can have more scenes?"

"Sure, add some dry humor to him. I always think that Hua Ge is good at comedy. He has a serious and funny feeling. Among the Hong Kong actors, except for Stephen Chow, Hua Ge's comedy is also very good. At least he is much better than Chow Yun-fat!"

"Better than Chow Yun-fat?"

"Zhou Runfa's comedy is like a camel playing with a dog. It's not serious... You can watch it, but you can't think about it too much. It's quite boring..."

Rao Xiaozhi was speechless. Even a die-hard fan of Liu Dehua like him felt that Shen Liang was overly praising Liu Dehua...

That’s Zhou Runfa!
A recognized superstar with great acting skills!

Then Shen Liang added: "I feel that in God of Gamblers, Andy Lau's performance is better than Chow Yun Fat's..."

"???" Rao Xiaozhi widened his eyes, wondering what kind of weird theory Shen Liang could come up with...

"Chen Daozi is a name that can be remembered on the Internet. The charity gambling king Lu Benwei once said: 'I often say that Chen Daozi was able to win 20 million with 3700 yuan, and it is not a problem for me, Lu Benwei, to win 20 million with 500 yuan.'"

"Who is Lu Benwei?"

“…No one…Let’s continue filming!”

Boring, even charity gambling king Lu Benwei doesn’t know!
……

In fact, comedy is difficult to act. Take Chen Xiaomeng for example. When he speaks his lines, he should be timid and he looks up at people subconsciously...

But these are just techniques.

How to make the audience feel that this character is ridiculous?
Get the performance size right!

The most important quality for a comedian is his sense of size, or rhythm, rather than his acting skills.

How do you find the right balance of a joke so that it makes the audience laugh without being too excessive?

The other party throws out a trigger, how can you catch it just right?
The three or four shakes are neither too fast nor too slow, neither too hot nor too cold. What matters is the size and the sense of rhythm!

In an orthodox comedy, the characters serve to serve the purpose of jokes. Whether it is their identity, personality or even physical features, the purpose is to create contrast and generate laughs.

It’s not that comedy doesn’t require acting skills.

Of course, people without acting skills cannot perform comedy well, but performing comedy well often does not require very advanced acting skills.

In fact, many veteran actors perform poorly in comedies, which does not mean that their acting skills are not up to standard, but that they did not grasp the scale well.

Shen Liang had never tried comedy before, so even though he had made some designs, he didn’t know the specific effects…

So, I asked a stylist to design a hairstyle with bangs for myself - with a wig!
The stylist specifically told Shen Liang: "It is said that bangs are the most unlucky hairstyle... The forehead is the top of the head, and bangs cover the forehead. This will affect your luck, so if the bangs are too long, it will suppress your luck..."

Shen Liang immediately realized: "No wonder "Bang Hai Bastion" is so bad, it turns out that it is caused by the bangs!"

The next scene to be filmed was Chen Xiaomeng and Zhou Quan’s first scene, in the hospital…

Chen Xiaomeng attempted suicide but failed and found a bathing ticket in the bathhouse. On the other hand, Zhou Quan completed his task and was stuck in traffic. With the victim's (fake) blood on his hands, he also came to the bathhouse to take a bath.

Two people with completely different lives met dramatically in the bathhouse. Zhou Quan slipped on the soap and lost his memory. Chen Xiaomeng took Zhou Quan's key during the chaos and took his place...

In fact, Chen Xiaomeng just wanted to show off at first - after all, Zhou Quan looked very rich, and he also wanted to experience the life of a rich person.

Driving a luxury car to pay off the debt...

Chen Xiaomeng felt very guilty for using Zhou Quan's things, so she went to the hospital to visit Zhou Quan and paid his hospital bills.

However, when he learned that Zhou Quan had lost his memory, his guilt instantly disappeared, and he took over Zhou Quan's identity, car, house, and even money as a matter of course.

So, Chen Xiaomeng is essentially a pretty disgusting character!

Shen Liang saw Liu Dehua lying on the hospital bed: "...You said your name is Chen Xiaomeng?"

“…Yes, this is my ID card…I have lost my memory!”

Shen Liang's tone could not hide his surprise: "You have lost your memory!"

"…Do we know each other?"

"Oh, we met once... Take good care of yourself, I'm leaving now!"

(End of this chapter)