"You've fallen into a strange cycle where you care too much about acting skills."
Gao Zhenxia hit the nail on the head.
"Simply put, you're acting for the sake of acting right now, not truly embodying the character."
"You're too focused on acting techniques and the effects you want to achieve, which results in your performance feeling superficial and artificial."
This is actually a common problem among many actors. Some actors might show natural talent when they first debut, and by chance portray a character that fits their natural persona, creating a stunning performance that earns universal praise.
But once they start systematic training, this natural talent gradually gets worn away, especially as they get older and take on roles that completely contradict their original image and personality. This "systematic" exaggerated performance appears particularly fake, and if they're not careful and overdo it, it can become either "facial expressions flying everywhere" or "wooden acting."
"Your overall aura and state already fit the character perfectly, so what you should be doing now is adapting to the character, not adapting to acting. You should be thinking about how to laugh from the bottom of your heart, not how to perform a laugh that appears to come from the bottom of your heart."
As expected of a professional teacher from a top-tier institution, Gao Zhenxia's words were very gentle yet struck Xiao He's heart like a heavy hammer, leaving him in deep silence for a long time.
"Who is Little He's acting teacher?"
Seeing Xiao He deep in thought, Gao Zhenxia didn't disturb him but instead turned to ask Liu Rulan.
Liu Rulan's face immediately showed embarrassment: "It's Teacher An Chengguang from Shanghai Theatre Academy."
"So it's that old fellow—" Gao Zhenxia murmured, then shook her head somewhat helplessly, "That old man, whenever he sees good talent he wants to force it to grow faster, never considering that no matter how resilient someone is, they can't withstand being stretched too tight."
She had almost ruined a perfectly good seedling.
"Sorry, it's partly my fault too," Liu Rulan said, filled with regret. "I actually vaguely sensed this issue before and mentioned it indirectly to Teacher An, but I didn't realize it was this serious at the time, so Teacher An probably didn't take it seriously enough."
She had vaguely sensed Xiao He's lack of confidence and anxiety about himself before, so she had mentioned to Teacher An that he should praise Xiao He more and not keep him too tense. But she never expected...
Liu Rulan was filled with remorse.
Mainly because Xiao He was usually so reliable, his learning state was quite good, and Teacher An was giving positive feedback, so Liu Rulan never imagined Xiao He would develop such a problem.
"No, actually it's my own problem," Xiao He spoke up at this moment to explain. "Actually, Teacher An asked me if I wanted to slow down the learning pace, but considering my future schedule, I was the one who asked Teacher An to apply more pressure and teach me more content. I never expected I was being too impatient for results."
Actually, this wasn't anyone's fault. Xiao He himself wanted to learn more to catch up with other professionally-trained actors, not realizing that the more anxious he was, the more he actually regressed.
Haste indeed makes waste - the more he cared about something, the more easily he lost control.
"Actually, Little He is very suitable for experiential acting. I've been observing your recent state, and your changes have been quite significant. You're now infinitely close to Yin Qi himself - I can say without exaggeration that you are Yin Qi right now," Gao Zhenxia said again. "So I think what Little He should do now is think of something happy, then laugh genuinely from the heart."
Simply put, it's acting according to nature.
Xiao He had already adjusted his aura and state using psychological suggestion - he should already be Yin Qi now.
Since he's already Yin Qi himself, then the laughter he performs would be fake laughter, while the laughter that comes naturally would be genuine laughter.
Xiao He just needs to "act according to his nature" - no need to overthink complex issues.
Acting skills, when they return to simplicity and authenticity, are also a special talent and ability.
Since Xiao He can completely merge with the character itself, he doesn't need to constrain his character with so many acting formulas.
So just be "yourself."
After hearing Gao Zhenxia's words, Xiao He was deeply moved and immediately understood his problem.
He thanked Gao Zhenxia very seriously: "I think I understand now. Thank you for your guidance, Ms. Gao."
Liu Rulan also expressed immense gratitude to Gao Zhenxia: "Thank you, Ms. Gao. Thanks to you pointing out the problem, otherwise we might have gone down a dead-end path."
"No problem."
Gao Zhenxia waved her hand very casually. "It's just that I really like Little He. Such a highly capable experiential actor is a rare genius who perfectly suits acting. I'm just helping out where I can."
Although Xiao He was currently slowing down the filming crew's progress, he was actually among those causing the least delay. The slightly younger actors over there were the ones truly moving at a snail's pace. If Zhuang Hongyi hadn't come to check the progress and reminded Yan Shaohan about the filming schedule, they'd probably still be stuck on the first few scenes.
After Gao Zhenxia left, Liu Rulan patted Xiao He's shoulder with considerable emotion: "You kid, you're really lucky!"
"Probably because Teacher Zhuo Jianhua also mentioned me to Ms. Gao before, leaving a good impression with her," Xiao He said. "After we finish this work, let's visit them at Beijing Drama Academy."
"No problem," Liu Rulan nodded. "And about Teacher An—"
"Teacher An actually has a sharp tongue but a soft heart - he didn't pressure me excessively," Xiao He chuckled lightly. "I was the one too eager to learn, making him work hard preparing teaching materials for me every day. When we return, I should properly thank him too."
"Alright."
Seeing that Xiao He had everything figured out, Liu Rulan didn't say anything more.
After resting for a while, the filming crew started shooting again. Xiao He walked onto the set and began building up his emotions.
This was a long take with zoom transition.
From Yin Qi killing someone to turning around, the entire shot focused on his face, while the background setup changed according to the camera's movement direction. The "corpses" that were originally everywhere immediately got up and left outside the camera frame. By the time Yin Lan stood before him, only a bright, harmless smile remained on the young man's face. When the camera pulled back again, the ground behind him had completely returned to cleanliness, with no trace of the previous scene of corpses everywhere.
This shot didn't use post-production cuts but was a single continuous take. However, from the disappearing corpses in the before-and-after background, the audience would understand that the timeline had moved forward, different from when Yin Qi was killing people earlier.
Such long takes are actually quite rare in television dramas nowadays. If an entire series could include such a "showy" camera transition, viewers who watch the show would definitely be impressed and remember it vividly.
Mainly because this kind of filming is too labor-intensive. If Xiao He, who plays Yin Qi, doesn't get his expressions right, the entire transition shot has to be reshot. For directors who prefer cutting to close-ups of characters and putting two people's dialogues in separate frames, this would be thankless work.
However, for the rookie director Yan Shaohan, it was "I'll do it however I like." The camera shots had to be exquisite, the camera transitions reasonable, and the camera language meaningful.
Although the crew members worked hard restoring the scene back and forth, everyone had to admit that Yan Shaohan had his own ideas and possessed certain directorial abilities.
While he couldn't compare to veteran directors with years of movie experience, he was perfectly qualified to direct this work.