赵薇天天过家门而不入
Jinling Evening News
27 Jun 2008
Zhao Wei is currently filming in her hometown of Wuhu. Being a central figure in the television serial, her screen-time amounts to almost 90% of the entire show. Hence, she is always stationed full-time at the filming site since filming commenced three months ago. Some of the fiming sites are situated very near her home, and she could reach her home within five minutes. But she did not return home, choosing to spend her nights together with the production crew. Yesterday, our reporter paid a visit to Zhao Wei, and saw the filming of a quarrelling scene between Zhao Wei and Liu Ye. During the break, Zhao Wei looked exhausted, and claimed, “We’ve been filming non-stop for the past three months for about 16 hours per day. I’m so tired that I just sleep once I reach my room. Where can I find the time to return home??”
Cannot bear to disturb parents
Zhao Wei was dressed in a flowery skirt that day. In today’s fashion terms, her attire would look very old-fashioned, but it suited the era of [A Woman’s Epic Poem] , and also suited Zhao Wei’s character in the serial. “My character is a pretty well-known actress in the countryside, so she needs to wear something appropriate.”
Zhao Wei has not been back to Wuhu for several years, and she exclaimed that she no longer knew the city on her trip back, as all the streets have had a makeover. However, the city dwellers are all very familiar with her, and they would often crowd the filming site to have a glimpse of her. As the vocal recording are done together with the filming, sometimes they had to stop filming when there are too many people or too much noise. Of course, the happiest people in Wuhu are Zhao Wei’s parents. “Mum knew that I didn’t have time to go home for meals, so she decided to cook and bring the dishes over. She would always cook a lot for the crew to share, and even the director felt bad about it…”
After a while, Zhao Wei decided really bad about the work her mother needed to do. “Usually, my parents just cooked a couple of dishes for their meals. But she now needed to cook for so many people. I was really worried that they would be tired out. Also, I didn’t want their normal lifestyle to be disrupted because of my filming. So I insisted that they stop sending meals to the production site”
But mothers are always mothers. Although Zhao Wei’s mother agreed to Zhao Wei’s request, she would still visit the filming site everyday to bring fruits to Zhao Wei. She pointed to some cuit bananas and honeydew in front of her, and said, “You see, my mum brought these for me earlier today…”
“I don’t really look like a mother”
In [A Woman’s Epic Poem], Zhao Wei’s role will mature from a 16-year old maiden to a middle aged woman with a daughter studying in the university. Although this is not the first time Zhao Wei has acted as a mother, her previous “children” were all babies. She admitted that it was a challenge for her this time. “There was much interaction between myself and the daughter. In addition, this daughter would often act against my wishes, and is a pretty defiant teenager.”
Initially, Zhao Wei felt some pressure. But after watching some television serials, she felt that she should be able to manage the acting of being a mother to a teenager. “In most of the shows nowadays, the mother didn’t really look like a mother; or a daughter really looking like a daughter The age gap has become much closer.” Hence, Zhao Wei did not intentionally don make up to look older as her character ages. “My focus is to act like a mother in the show, not simply to just look like a mother.”
Pinching Liu Ye’s nose for fun
In the serial, Zhao Wei and Liu Ye stars as a couple, with Zhao Wei making all the courting moves. Eventually, they got married because Zhao Wei become pregnant, and Liu Ye felt duty-bound to Zhao Wei, instead of love. As time goes by, they had arguments and betrayals, but the couple continued to stay together to fulfill the responsibility of being husband and wife. Although the duo was unhappy in screen-life, Liu Ye and Zhao Wei were actually great pals off-camera. Once the filming of an argument scene was completed, Liu Ye and Zhao Wei relaxed and Zhao Wei even pinched Liu Ye’s nose for fun. We jokingly asked if Liu Ye was trying to be on Zhao Wei’s good terms, so she could someday give him a role in her show when she becomes a director. Zhao Wei laughed, “No lah! He would just say that he’d come and help me out next time…”
Zhao Wei also commented that she is currently studying directing because she wanted to learn more things. She may not venture into directing one day. “Unless something happens, I think I’d still continue to focus on acting.”
Although this is the first time Zhao Wei is acting alongside Liu Ye, they have known each other for some years. Zhao Wei revealed that Liu Ye was her classmate when they were both studying arts in Beijing, and even acted in the same recital. “Later on, Liu Ye and myself started acting around the same time. I sometimes wondered if we would one day act in the same show together. Well, I got my wish this time!”
Translated by 小妹子