Film and TV Single Talk – Exclusive interview with Tan Jianci – 20/03/2024

In 2015, I didn’t like acting. It’s not that I really don’t like it, but I feel that I can’t reach it.

The script only gives me a flat sketch, and I have to integrate myself into it to get a three-dimensional soul.

I want to say that I can also be rough and mediocre, but I can’t prove it with words. This time I met Bai Xiaoyu and I got the chance. The rougher the better.

When I saw the first frontal shot of Bai Xiaoyu, the male lead in the movie “You Are Lost by Me”, I almost didn’t recognize Tan Jianci.

The pot-lid-style buzz cut, the slightly hunched back, and the unfocused eyes. He looks like a male classmate who listens to the class seriously in high school. If you ask him what the teacher said, he will reply that he didn’t understand.

In short, this is not Tan Jianci in my impression.

Tan Jianci is more familiar to the audience as an calm young guy with delicate features and broken temperament, such as the genius portrait artist Shen Yi in “Hunting Crimes”; or a charming and cold, decisive and murderous Nine-headed Xiangliu in “Longing for Love”; or a gentle and honest gentleman, such as Mo Qingcheng, the dubbing male god in “Miss You Very Much”.

In 2022, “Hunting Crimes” became the dark horse drama of the year, pressing the accelerator for Tan Jianci’s career development.

In 2023, “Longing for Love” became the hottest drama in the summer season, and Tan Jianci’s fans increased by more than 8 million on the entire network, directly entering the ranks of “quasi-top streamers”.

At the same time, he is also a resident guest in “Hello, Saturday”, with stable output and fun.

Fans describe Tan Jianci as the “Swiss Army Knife of the Entertainment Industry”: he can do everything, such as dancing, singing, acting, dubbing, skits, and variety shows. He is a “hexagonal warrior”.

Before his unexpected popularity at the age of 32, Tan Jianci had accumulated a lot of experience.

He made his film debut at the age of 16, debuted as a member of the MIC boy band at the age of 20, and wanted to focus on acting at the age of 25, but he was repeatedly rejected for job hunting because he was not a professional. After that, he was often confused. “I was quite frustrated, disappointed with myself and the people around me.”

Sima Zhao in “The Advisors Alliance: Tiger Roars and Dragon Roars” and Cao Pi in “The Secret of the Three Kingdoms: Hidden Dragon in the Abyss” made Tan Jianci stand out in the costume drama track.

In the 2018 acting competition program “I Am an Actor”, the fledgling Tan Jianci amazed the four mentors on the scene. “You are a person who has not received acting training, but what you come up with is sometimes better than that of a professional.” Li Liqun highly praised Tan Jianci’s performance. Concentration is Tan Jianci’s acting advantage, which is a gift from God. Tan Jianci was flattered, he turned his head away and wiped his blurry eyes.

Li Liqun also said the second half of the sentence, “If you still love this job, you have to slowly, slowly walk the back (road), ah!”

Tan Jianci bowed, OK. Since then, Tan Jianci has tried his best to try everything he can get involved in, such as the emotions of the Republic of China, urban families, criminal investigations, ancient costume myths, and modern idols.

“I was unconscious when I was in the play. If I can examine myself from the perspective of an observer, it proves that I was not in the play. It was not until I said goodbye to the role that I realized that I was hollowed out.”

“You Who I Lost” was released on March 8. With unpopular themes and cold schedules, the cumulative box office has reached 177 million yuan. Maoyan Professional Edition predicts that the total box office will exceed 200 million yuan. Tan Jianci was therefore given the title of “March Dark Horse” (“Hunting Crime Picture Book” was also broadcast in March).

In the film, he played an ordinary person named Bai Xiaoyu, and staged a realistic and heart-wrenching ordinary love with Wang Jinjin (played by Zhang Jingyi).

During the filming of the new drama “Filter”, Tan Jianci let down his guard and talked with us from the beginning, telling us about his process of “looking for” Bai Xiaoyu, revealing his inner wrinkles in the past and present, and every bit about performance.

The following is Tan Jianci’s narration.

Playing Bai Xiaoyu, I got the chance

​The first time I read the story of Bai Xiaoyu and Wang Jinjin was one night in 2022, when I took the high-speed rail to the next city on the schedule.

The script was handed over by the team of the movie “Secret Shore”. “Secret Shore” was my first “electric shock” in my life, at the age of sixteen. Sixteen years later, I was the leading actor in a movie for the first time, and I was still working with them, and I felt strange and sad.

The night on the high-speed train was very quiet. I couldn’t sleep, so I started reading the script. After reading it, I couldn’t sleep anymore. People can’t fall asleep immediately after crying.

“You I Lost” is a story about an ordinary boy and an ordinary girl who have been in love for five years. It is a contest between a sense of security and a sense of unworthiness, and a dislocation between intimacy and self.

The scenes of Bai Xiaoyu and Wang Jinjin falling in love and parting played in front of my eyes like a film. I saw the true nature of life and my past.

I had a strong desire to interpret. So, I accepted it with pleasure.

You said you didn’t recognize me at the beginning of the movie, that’s right. If you only use one word to describe Bai Xiaoyu, it must be “ordinary”.

He loves painting, but he is not gifted; his EQ and IQ are not outstanding, and his relationship with his superiors is tense; his outlook on life is very narrow, and when he loves someone, she is the whole world; his physical fitness is also weak, he has a congenital eye disease, and he will go blind in severe cases.

Landing, landing, and landing again, Director Han Yan repeatedly emphasized Bai Xiaoyu’s positioning: he can’t be found in a crowd. We spent a long time on the styling, and finally I became: a pot-lid-like crew cut, sparse wild eyebrows, a hunched back, and a bit of honest and silly.

Everything is to distinguish from my previous image. The director once said that he thought I was “a person who attracts everyone’s attention.” Many producers have similar comments on my image, too delicate and delicate, lacking a deeper level of human texture.

I want to say that I can do it for the role. When I played Chen Renxiang in “The Sideburns Are Not Begonia Red”, I gained 30 pounds; I can also be rough and mediocre. But I can’t prove it with words. This time I met Bai Xiaoyu and it was a chance. The rougher the better.

“He is Wang Jinjin’s weak hero”

​ I divide Bai Xiaoyu’s temperament into two stages: a high-spirited teenager; a social animal who is increasingly depressed after suffering a blow.

I think that his demeanor, body, walking posture, and even the way he carries his backpack in the two stages are different. After becoming a social animal, what he carries is not a bag, but the pressure of life. The state of riding a bike is also different. When I was a teenager, I rode against the wind and was wanton and flamboyant. As an adult, I didn’t have any riding scenes. If I did, I might just be pedaling half-dead.

I used to think that acting was a very simple thing. It was enough to just show the emotions and reactions mentioned in the script in front of the camera. Later, I realized that the acting method was not enough. The script only gave me a flat sketch. I had to integrate myself into it to get a three-dimensional soul.

The reason why Bai Xiaoyu is three-dimensional is that ordinary people create divine moments in their choices.

Tenacity, romance, and purity make up the basic color of Bai Xiaoyu’s character. Even though his eyes couldn’t be tired, he stayed up all night to type Wang Jinjin’s 200,000-word manuscript into an electronic version; after breaking up and losing contact, and with no prospect of reconciliation, he emptied his savings to build the Edgar Allan Poe Theme Museum, just because of a joke she made…

A “weak” person carrying a heavy burden seems to be more moving than a very capable person carrying the same thing. I felt like, wow, he is Wang Jinjin’s weak hero.

Wang Jinjin’s characterization is also very three-dimensional, tender and angular. Hey, I think the scene of Wang Jinjin smoking is particularly interesting.

I was deeply impressed by several scenes with high emotional concentration.

The quarrel in the corridor was the first time that the male and female protagonists “tear each other” head-on, and it was also the peak of the outbreak of this relationship. The reading took about three or four days, and we had discussed this scene for a long time. When shooting on the spot, I suddenly felt that it would be better for the two of us to say something at the same time, quarrel at the same time, and do a “read and reply”.

When people are emotionally excited to the extreme, they may be like this, only expressing their own grievances and sadness, and almost not listening to what the other party says. This is really broken.

The suggestion was adopted, but I was still a little nervous when the official shooting started. Usually, you say one line and I say one line, and you can react according to the performance of the opponent actor. This time it was the opposite. It is easy to be disturbed when saying the lines at the same time. In the end, we officially shot two or three takes, each of which was a one-shot shot, and it was quite enjoyable to perform the whole take.

The script-killing play on the night before the departure was a silent carnival to bid farewell.

I understand the awkwardness of the two people. Wang Jinjin’s awkwardness is obvious. A single-parent family made her feel insecure during her growth, and avoiding marriage is a subconscious reaction.

But Bai Xiaoyu’s awkwardness is hidden. Although he has the confidence to build a small family, he is always worried about dragging down the other party. Before this night, the pace of life of the two people was no longer consistent, so at this critical point, neither of them said it out loud, and neither of them tried to keep it.

I have read a sentence before, people who really love each other will not lose each other unless the other party intends to let you go.

I cried when I saw the plot of the coffin proposal in the script. Before the world fell into complete darkness, Bai Xiaoyu finally waited for his Ligeia.

When I saw Bai Xiaoyu say “I can’t see” in the theater, a sense of sadness and powerlessness came to my heart, and I cried again, but everyone around me laughed at this sentence and said I was cute…

Okay.

“What’s the big deal?”
​

My artistic career is a process of overcoming fears again and again.

The first time I felt fear in the art world was when I injured my spine at the age of sixteen. The doctor said that my spine was not suitable for dancing. If I had surgery, “I would have to say goodbye to dancing for the rest of my life.”

I felt like the sky had fallen. I started dancing at the age of three, learned Latin at the age of five, and was admitted to the Affiliated High School of Beijing Dance Academy at the age of thirteen. The thing I loved most and spent the longest time with in the first sixteen years of my life was dancing.

In the movie, Bai Xiaoyu loved painting so much, but he had to face the pain and fear of blindness. I understand this feeling too well. He also told his family lightly, “It’s okay to be blind.” In fact, I know that Bai Xiaoyu’s sky had also fallen.

Back to the topic. Later, the doctor said that if I didn’t have surgery, the only way was to train my back muscles and use my back muscles to support my spine. But no one could say whether I could continue to dance. In the end, I only had a bone-closing injection to prevent the spinal injury from worsening.

Practice and endure. There was no other way. I endured and have been dancing until now. I am thirty-four years old. Enduring was the first time I faced the fear in my life.

The second time I felt fear was probably in 2015. At that time, I had been a member of the MIC boy band for five years, and I planned to temporarily put music aside and concentrate on being an actor.

The fear was not real fear, but the loss of finding myself getting further and further away from performing arts, and the confusion of not knowing “Am I really suitable for acting?”

I still don’t like it a little. It’s not that I really don’t like it, but the kind of dislike that I feel I can’t reach it. Maybe in my heart, I have always been in awe of acting. If I can’t do it well, I’d better not do it.

I can’t trample on acting.

During this stage, I used roles to polish it bit by bit. Two roles made me panic the most.

One is Sima Zhao in “The Advisors Alliance: Tiger Roar and Dragon Roar”.

Sima Zhao is a well-known historical figure and has a very classic screen image. If the performance is standard and there is no novelty; if the performance is too exaggerated, it will not be like Sima Zhao.

At that time, I was under great pressure. I could only work hard, look up historical materials, and take professional acting classes for a whole year.

The second role was Guan Zhenlei in “Love Centimeters”.

This is a role that is completely opposite to my own values. He is selfish, spoiled, and dependent on his parents… At first, I was confused and couldn’t find the fulcrum of the role, nor could I convince myself to love this role.

Every day, I talked about the play with the director, screenwriter, and producer, and pieced together the character’s growth arc bit by bit.

Later, what made the character arc complete was a little boy I saw in a social documentary. He was exactly the same as Guan Zhenlei, and even his temper was more exaggerated.

I suddenly realized that there really are such people in the world. Only then did I get familiar with Guan Zhenlei.

The grinding made me get through the stage of fear and unfamiliarity with acting. When it came to Shen Yi in “Hunting Crimes” and Xiangliu in “Longing”, I could basically immerse myself in it quickly.

Of course, the older you are, the bigger the things you have to bear. There will be different confusions at each stage. Compared to 2015-2020, I clearly feel that my understanding of acting has slowed down in the past two years. I am absolutely focused when acting. In addition to acting, there are many other tasks that I need to deal with. I want to slow down, but it seems that I can’t stop.

Whenever I feel stuck in my thinking, I always think of a friend of mine. He is a person who is particularly willing to put down his face. For example, if he can’t get a role, he will do some side jobs and doesn’t mind making less money. He always has a way, and life will never defeat him.

So I always think: What’s the big deal? Take it slow.

“Take it slow”

​I am not a professional actor, but I am a comedian.

Before filming “Secret Shore”, when I was about 15 or 16 years old, I started to learn comedy from Wei Xiang, a teacher of Happy Twist. I have been very interested in comedy since I was a child.

Unfortunately, no one has asked me to act in comedy, maybe I don’t look funny.

With a heart that wanted to act in a comedy, I participated in the comedy variety show “Laughing is so good” in 2020 and arranged several skits.

Several upcoming dramas have light comedy elements, which can be regarded as a little comedy dream come true.

“Sifangguan” filmed last year is a costume light comedy. In the small world of Sifangguan, the “Yongguo Diplomatic Agency”, there are suspenseful cases and funny daily workplace life. The character I played, Yuan Mo, was not very ambitious, but suddenly had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the country and began to transform from then on.

The background of the story of “Love Has Fireworks” is a profession that I am not familiar with, investment bank loan guarantee. The investment bank elite Li Yifei I played is really smart, but he is a clumsy little boy when facing the girl he likes. He made a fool of himself and the laughs overflowed.

The “Filter” currently being filmed is also a comedy. The heroine Su Chengcheng (played by Li Landi) has the ability to change her appearance because of a high-tech bracelet called “Filter”. She keeps changing her appearance, and Tang Qi, played by me, keeps falling in love with different people, but they are all Su Chengcheng. The plot is very dramatic, and Tang Qi has many contradictions. I think this is a very interesting story. It will be finished at the end of this month at the earliest.

After “Filter” is finished, it will be time to join the crew of “Hunting Crime Picture Book 2”. It is still a familiar formula.

In the past, I rarely took on love scenes. I was always engaged in power struggles, solving cases, and family affairs. Later, I set a flag for myself to shoot more emotional scenes, especially those with strong and deep emotional output. “Longing” is very cruel, “Miss You Very Much” is very sweet, and “You Who I Lost” is an ordinary love of ordinary people.

As a result, this door is opened and it is a bit difficult to close it. Let’s set another flag. I want to play power struggles again in the future, that is, the kind of tricky drama. If there are military roles willing to believe me, I am also happy to try.

Take your time.

Film and TV Single Talk

Zhao Jianyi

Source: https://weibo.com/3970126254/O5R6KvNHx

Some reviews and comments on the interview:

• This interview is the best interview I have seen with Tan Jianci this year.
• Actor Tan Kenci, take your time! The future is still very long, I am your loyal audience and will always support you
• I always support actor Tan Kenci, he is the best
• I like a sincere and excellent young actor Tan Kenci. He has a unique understanding of the characters he plays, and his interpretation of the characters is very appropriate. He loves to share and is enthusiastic in interviews. I will always love the excellent art writer Tan Jianci.
• I will always support actor Tan Kenci and move forward with him.
• He said that he will take his time, step by step, and surprise everyone! As early as the song IMMA GET IT, he mentioned “being unique and indescribable”. He wants to assert himself and no one can replace him, he did it!
• Tan Jianci really got into the role and understood the core of the character, an outstanding artist and art worker.
• Tan Jianci’s seriousness and professionalism are worthy of every role.
• Tan Jianci is really a great actor. He always takes his acting seriously and never forgets his original intention.
• Every time I watch Tan Jianci’s interview, I feel like I learn a lot.
• The past is overlooked, it hurts my heart If the world can repay you, all I can hope is that your acting universe will become more and more magnificent, and you can be “willing” without restraint.
• The past is overlooked, it hurts my heart If the world can repay you … And then he continued to create one classic character after another, it was impressive.
• This is the actor Tan Kenci, a three-dimensional wise man, hard-working and sober. I have never heard him. talk about his past. I know it was not easy and it is an inspiring story, but I did not know it was so cruel. Support him, do not think otherwise.
• Tan Jianci’s interview is very insightful and has his own unique thoughts and insights.
• Tan Jianci is really good at acting. After watching his performance in some roles, I did not expect that this person could sing and dance well, and he could also act so well. is a truly outstanding artist.