Everyone exchanged glances, and there was a deep meaning in their eyes that only they could understand. Not just the actors, but the crew.

There are too many rumors about Lanli in the industry, and there is too little news about Lanli himself, and the mystery brought by information asymmetry always makes people have more expectations, and at the same time there are more picks.

Especially after winning the Oscar for Best Actor last year with a large breaking of historical records, there are more and more eyes on the egg, not to mention that Vanity Fair is originally a circle full of jealousy and speculation. The higher you stand, the more pressure you have, and the more attention you have, the more bias you have.

Just now, Lan Li's wandering mind and calmness after being recognized fell into everyone's sight, and it explained different flavors: arrogant, arrogant, uninhibited, absent-minded, self-righteous, or lost in oneself?

It is rumored in the industry that Lan Li is an extremely dedicated actor, but his performance just now has nothing to do with dedication. Obviously, this is another "superstar" created by an agent and a publicist using rumors, and everyone's expression reveals their own interpretation, playful and funny, mocking and profound.

But Lan Li didn't seem to notice these gazes, and took the initiative to meet Joel's gaze, and gently closed his chin, "Yes, actually, I was thinking about this just now. The film presents a circle, and Levine goes around in circles, trying to make changes, but in the end he reluctantly returns to square one, seemingly making many attempts, but nothing has changed. ”

The commotion around gradually calmed down, and the eyes of the exchange gradually gathered, and everyone thought that Lan Li was talking about it, but now it seems that it is obviously not.

"Levine is in a dilemma in life, he has been wandering, dazed, disordered, he is trying to find a job to stabilize, but the restlessness and apprehension in his heart still cannot be stabilized, he has tried to give up his dreams, but he has finally returned to his original position. ”

"For film creation, he just went around in a circle and returned to the original point, but for performance, how this circle was circled, and what changes in mentality occurred in the process of going around the circle, this is crucial. I mean, are you more inclined to convey it through music, or through performance?"

Lan Li was really thinking, and after leaving the "Gravity" crew, he began to think, and really threw himself into a new role.

Undoubtedly, this is the most special role in all of Lan Li's acting experience: because Levine Davis is a character who has not changed.

Even in desperate survival movies like "Buried Alive" and "Gravity", which are trapped in a day's time, the characters also have a fierce process of psychological ups and downs and changes in mentality, and this is especially true of other works, in the development of the story, the state of the characters is constantly changing, which also presents a curve, connecting the actors' performance context.

It's like in the ninth episode of "The War in the Pacific", where Eugene first meets the baby and then the body that is dying, it's a turning point, a turning point in mentality.

But "Drunken Country Ballad" is not, Levien is always in the same state, repeatedly spinning in place, going around and around or staying in place, from the beginning of the movie to the end of the movie, his mentality, emotions, and state only have slight ups and downs, but they have not really changed, like a trapped beast.

And that's what the Coen brothers want to present.

For actors, this is a serious challenge. It can be simply assumed that there is no performance crutches.

What is a performance crutch called?

In fact, it is the emotional flashpoint, or the performance borrowing point, anger, pain, happiness, joy, sadness, any emotional violent ups and downs can become the flashpoint, cancer in "anti-cancer me", parting in "love crazy", death in "detachment", and so on.

For the Academy, what they love and appreciate the most is this kind of explosive moment. At the awards ceremony every year, the nominees for the four major acting awards are always edited at such moments, presenting the actors' "performance power" completely and prominently.

Objectively speaking, this is also what the general public likes the most, because you can "see" the acting skills, just like dog blood, you can clearly see the powerful power that bursts out in an instant, bringing shock and amazement.

But for actors, if they blindly pursue the crutch of acting, they will gradually fall into the shackles and fall into the trap of acting, not only can they not break through, but they will slowly regress. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the most famous representatives.

People once wondered why Leonardo had been working hard for so many years and never won the favor of the Academy, and even if he later succeeded in reaching the top of the 88th Oscar, it was more because his competitors still lacked the ability and capital to confront after all.

There are many reasons for this, but the main ones are two.

First, Leonardo's performance must have "crutches", "A Different Sky" in "Retarded", "Edge Diary" in rebellion, "Total Eclipse Love", schizophrenia in "The Aviator", and undercover in "The Departed...... Every character has a more or less violent and outgoing flamboyance, including the desperate avengers of the "Revenant".

Without crutches, he doesn't seem to be able to act, and in works such as "Titanic", "Impunity", "Inception", "The Great Gatsby", his performance is completely swallowed up, the charm of the role comes from the personal charm of the actor, and the performance completely disappears from the story and the role.

Second, it is precisely because of the excessive reliance on crutches that Leonardo's performance has fallen into routines, always looking bitter and hateful, and the frowning expression has become the hallmark of the character, which also makes all the characters become the same, lacking novelty and depth.

The only breakthrough was in "Django Unchained", where Leonardo did burst out with a hint of evil. But it's a pity that Quentin Tarantino is not a director who is good at acting/coaching actors, and he has not been able to carry it forward.

After successfully winning the Oscar in 2015 with "The Revenant", Leonardo gradually turned behind the scenes and began to become a producer, and the actor's work has not moved for a long time.

Jennifer Lawrence, who became famous at a young age, has similar troubles in a sense.

For the audience, such a performance is explosive, because they can "see" the moment of the performance, but for the actors, such a performance lacks variety and depth, because the emotional outbursts have more or less similar characteristics.

The simplest and most intuitive example is that Colin Firth was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in 2009 and 2010 for "Single Man" and "The King's Speech".

The former's performance is restrained, Colin is constantly retracting and pressing down, but it outlines the grandeur of the turbulent undercurrent, while the latter's performance is outward, and Colin needs to release more on the delicate level to present the frustrations and difficulties of the character.

Regardless of the attribution of the Oscar statuette, industry insiders prefer the former, while ordinary audiences prefer the latter.

Lan Li herself is no exception.

In my previous life, when I was a movie fan, I just liked movies and acting, and naturally I liked those outgoing performances that I could understand, but after I began to learn acting in this life, the transformation process from shallow to deep was gradually reflected in the understanding and reading of performance, and I could slowly taste the taste of acting more deeply.

In fact, with crutches, acting is relatively easy, because the actor knows where the flashpoints and borrowing points are, while abandoning crutches, acting is extremely difficult, because the actor must have a deep understanding of the character, the story, and even the inspiration and concept of the creator, and the basic acting skills are extremely demanding.

Characters similar to Levian-Davies, which are very common in European films, such as "Things to Come", such as "Summer of '93". Lan Li was quite impressed by a French-Canadian collaboration called "John's Son".

It tells the story of a thirty-five-year-old man who has never seen his father, and his mother says that he is just the accidental result of a one/night/love, but one day, he receives a strange call telling him that his father has died. He decided to travel to Canada for the funeral, and later found out that his biological father was not the one who had died, but the man who had called him.

seems to be a bloody and dramatic story, the director presents it in a very restrained and bland way, wanting to talk and talking, all the unspoken weight falls on the male protagonist, through his eyes and aura, the kind of sighing, lonely, bitter, alienated, cordial and apprehensive are fully displayed, but the way of lifting the weight brings a lingering afterglow after the end of the movie.

This is exactly what European films are best at, hiding all the turbulent waves under the calm and calm, seemingly calm, but the gestures and eyebrows and eyes tell all the stories, and truly leave the space for reflection and afterglow to the audience.

Now, Levine-Davis and "John's Son" have somewhat similar characters.

In just a few days, I have experienced some stories, and my life status seems to have not changed, but my mentality and emotions are still different after all. This is a character who has no crutches at all, and can only rely on the actor's understanding of the story and the interpretation of acting skills.

At the beginning of the film, it is sad and gloomy, bitter and dull, at the turn of the film, it is still the same, and at the end of the film, it is still the same.

The same state, just a breeze blowing, ripples, but fleeting, back to its original appearance, maintained from beginning to end, calm as water.

Because that's what was characteristic of that era, because that's what characterizes that wave.

In just seven days, the Coen brothers captured a fragment of Levian's life, which was in such a state that there was no earth-shaking change, and there was no hope of coming and going, beginning in depression and ending in depression. As a result, Lan Li ushered in the first role in his career that did not really perform crutches.

This is a breakthrough opportunity.