Actor: My Entertainment Era

"Someone in the barrage asked, can we talk about Zhang Yuanjun? Who is the No. 1 Chinese-language actor, him or Liang Chaowei? He seems to have had very little exposure in the past two years. Where has he been?" A self-media anchor from the film and television industry was live streaming and interacting with netizens through Q&A.

The anchor pondered for a while and said, "Who is the No. 1 Chinese Film Emperor? This is a very offensive topic. We should have fans of both Liang Chaowei and Zhang Yuanjun in our live broadcast room. Let me briefly talk about my personal opinion. At present, I think it is Zhang Yuanjun.

"Why? Because he is the first actor in the Chinese film industry to win three awards. He won all three awards when he was 12 in 27. Now he has won a Golden Rooster and a Golden Horse. If it weren't for the Hong Kong Film Awards, no one would doubt that he would win the three awards again. At the same time, he also won a Cannes Best Actor Award and a Venice Best Actor Award, as well as countless other awards of varying sizes.

"Liang Chaowei has also won many Best Actor awards, including five Hong Kong Film Awards, three Golden Horse Awards, and he is also the Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, but Zhang Yuanjun has one more Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, which is terrible.

"Someone on the barrage said that Liang Chaowei has the Venice Lifetime Achievement Award. This is not a comparison. How old is Zhang Yuanjun? If I remember correctly, Zhang Yuanjun was born in 85. He is 23 years younger than Liang Chaowei, almost two generations older.

"Both of them have many representative works, all of which are worthy of being recorded in film history. In terms of representative works, they are equal, but do you know what the most terrifying thing about Zhang Yuanjun is? It's not that he is young, but that he has never made a bad movie! This is very scary. Liang Chaowei also has films like "The Ferryman", "Europe Raiders" and "Monster Hunt 2", but Zhang Yuanjun has none.

"My cameo in The Breakup Guru definitely doesn't count. If you count Huang Bo, Zhang Yi, Shen Teng and others, they have all starred in one or two bad movies, but Zhang Yuanjun hasn't. Now, Huang Bo's appeal has declined, Zhang Yi has been criticized for his stagnant acting skills, and only Zhang Yuanjun still has his appeal to the audience, because for more than a decade, there hasn't been a bad movie starring him, and the audience has great trust in Zhang Yuanjun."

"Regarding the reduction in Zhang Yuanjun's exposure, I actually know some reasons," the anchor looked very proud when talking about this. "Before talking about this, let me insert another topic. Our team finally arranged an interview with Teacher Zhang Yuanjun two months ago. Familiar viewers should have heard the audio of our interview. It doesn't matter if you haven't heard it. I will tell you again here. I have always wanted to arrange an interview with Teacher Zhang Yuanjun. I finally made an appointment two months ago. It was at the hotel where he was staying, which was in Suicheng at the time. Teacher Zhang Yuanjun was not arrogant at all. We sat in his room and talked. When the stool was numb, we sat on the ground with our legs crossed and continued to talk. We were so happy that he even put his arm around my shoulder and said that he would treat me to a meal when he returned to Beijing. Teacher Zhang Yuanjun has very profound observations and experiences on the current film and television industry and market. The specific content is in our program that episode. You can go and listen to it.

“Speaking of his reduced exposure, it’s actually easy to understand. He’s still popular, but no one can dominate the headlines all the time. Besides, he has a happy family life and a lot of work. It’s just that most of the time the ordinary audience doesn’t know, and there’s no need for you to know.

"In fact, reducing exposure is a good thing. People like to create gods, and they also like to destroy gods. Teacher Zhang Yuanjun has such a high status. The more attention he gets, the greater the possibility of his 'collapse'. It is a smart choice to take the initiative to reduce exposure.

“He told me personally that sometimes he felt tired in front of the media and wanted to escape, but he gritted his teeth and persevered most of the time.

"Didn't he appear in "The Wandering Earth 2" and "John Wick 4" this year? Two movies in one year, very productive. A lot of Zhang Yuanjun's work is actually a little far from us ordinary audiences. I don't know if there are those rich guys with a net worth of tens of millions or billions in our live broadcast room. I'm only talking about us ordinary audiences. Zhang Yuanjun is still the global spokesperson for LV. He attends events held by LV every year. The huge New Year's Day poster of Guomao seems to have been bought by LV and given to Zhang Yuanjun. This is just a brand of LV. Zhang Yuanjun also has endorsements from several high-end luxury companies. In addition, because he has his own series in Hollywood, Hollywood must go a way to create stars, which is charity. Zhang Yuanjun will also be asked by the company to go to poor areas around the world to meet fans and do charity. This is far away from us, so we will think that he is not exposed enough, but in fact he is always working."

"Some friends also asked, can Zhang Yuanjun achieve the three major European Grand Slams?
"I can only say that it is possible. Looking at the actors around the world, the ones most likely to achieve the three Grand Slams are Zhang Yuanjun, who is one short of the Berlin Film Festival, and Joaquin Phoenix, who plays in "Joker", who is also one short of the Berlin Film Festival. These two are the actors who are still active in the first-line and are closest to the Grand Slam. Both of them are still young. Joaquin Phoenix is ​​less than 50 years old, which is the most mature period for a male actor. Some people also talk about Kevin Spacey. He doesn't participate in European film festivals. He has been active in the American film industry." "I found that Zhang Yuanjun has a lot of fans in our live broadcast room, and many friends want to know him. Haha, let me paint a pie for everyone first. We will try to make another appointment for Zhang Yuanjun to see if we can invite him to our live broadcast room to chat.

"I saw comments saying that Zhang Yuanjun seems to be very resistant to the live broadcast format. He dislikes actors going to live broadcast rooms to sell goods, but he doesn't dislike live broadcasts for interviews. The couple seems to be relatively...resistant to the Internet, but it seems that they are deliberately keeping their distance.

"In fact, from this we can see that both Zhang Yuanjun and Liu Yifei are relatively traditional actors. They will keep a certain distance from the audience, maintain their own mystery, and will not participate in so many activities."

"I saw some netizens asking what level of acting skills Liu Yifei has in the Chinese entertainment industry. Before Pacific Rim, Liu Yifei was an average actress, neither good nor bad. Many of her roles can almost be said to be her own. The earliest role was Bai Xiuzhu, then Wang Yuyan, Xiaolongnu, Zhao Linger, and even in Inception, her performance was only passable. Ling Yanqiu in Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate was considered a high-level performance.

"When did Liu Yifei's acting skills undergo a qualitative change? It was after she got married in 12. She was obviously different in "Hypnotist" and "Miss White". In fact, you can still see her past in "Hypnotist", but she was completely transformed in "Miss White". Then, as we all know, "Pieces of a Woman" took off directly."

"Everyone's acting skills have their own limitations. There are too few actors who can play many roles. For example, Liu Yifei cannot play a woman at the bottom of society. She can never play Qiu Ju, but if she plays a middle-class woman or a rich girl, she will be very comfortable with it. Zhou Ning in "Fragments of a Woman" is a white-collar woman with a decent job.

"I saw someone in the comments saying that Liu Yifei's face limits her acting skills. You could say that because she is so beautiful and recognizable, no one would believe her in playing a low-class woman. Also, her childhood roles left a deep impression on people. Her most stable fans are those from her time as Wang Yuyan and Little Dragon Girl, which led to the stereotype of her as the Fairy Sister. Liu Yifei has also been trying to get rid of this label, and so far she has been successful.

"I see some netizens are making trouble, saying what position Liu Yifei holds among the 85 flowers. First of all, although Liu Yifei is of the age of an 85 flower, she is not an 85 flower. She debuted early and became famous early. When the concept of 85 flowers came into being, Liu Yifei had already been upgraded to a big flower. Secondly, even if divided by age, Liu Yifei is the top one among the 85 flowers. It should be said that Liu Yifei is the top big flower in the Chinese entertainment industry, and she is in all age groups.

"Some people say that among current actresses, only Ma Li can compare with Liu Yifei. It's hard to say. In terms of comedy, Ma Li is definitely better than Liu Yifei, but in terms of the basic market of passers-by and commercial value, Liu Yifei is the No. 1 in the domestic entertainment industry. She is the No. 1 in both male and female artists. Zhang Yuanjun's commercial value may not be as high as Liu Yifei's."

"You can't say that. They don't play with traffic data. Looking at this data, Liu Yifei and Zhang Yuanjun can't even make it into the top ten. They are deliberately reducing their exposure. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the couple are both aiming to become veteran artists."

"I'm going to say something that sounds hypocritical and like flattery, but my true feelings are that the two are really the few people in the industry who are down-to-earth and stick to their main job as actors. They have been acting for more than ten years and still maintain the purest love for acting. But thinking back, without this pure love, they wouldn't be where they are now." (End of this chapter)