Dai Li Ren ~ A Good Actor is also Creative
Interview : Zhang Jia Rong, Ou Pei Pei
Photography : Chai Jia Feng
In forth coming TV serial {The Hospital}, Dai Li Ren plays a driven and ambitious surgeon ~ Qiu Qing Cheng. In the show, he is creates opposition and initiates drama competing in the power struggle and wielding manipulative tactics. In reality, he was in closely involved in the productions as he has a vast experience in stage, movie performances and directing as well.
Through this interview, readers are able to peek into this astute actor＊s angle in playing a character. His intense involvement in production and the sheer possibilities of our local cinematic property.
Not Only Just An Actor
Dai Li Ren said, "This is my first in trying to act a character with such depth. So I have also been more cautious."
In comparison, a stage performance would need at most 2 months of rehearsals. A movie is about half a year but for "The Hospital", he had put in 8 to 9 months of dedication. In the show, he plays the outstanding surgeon, Qiu Qing Cheng, who pits himself against another surgeon, Su Yi Hua played by Jerry Yan. Both the male leads have many an exciting scene together.
He is known to be fastidious about script selection. In fact, he rejected Director Chai Yue Xun's initial invitation. The reason was that the character is not the type that he had in mind. A worry of his was that his perception of the character might be different from the actual. Yet Director Chai was adamant and waited a whole year for him. Thus after many communicative efforts, it paid off.
Equally demanding and a perfectionist in details, Director Chai understood Dai Li Ren's multi-talents in writing, directing and acting. He gave Dai Li Ren more than 100% freedom in his acting. Changing all his lines, developing the other characters in reference to the novel and assisting in the conceptualizing the theme for the script. Besides these, he organized all the composition of the characters, many a time he gave advice to the Director during filming too. If not for fear of interruption, I would love to help out at the Editing Room.
Why would an actor need to take such trouble, to be involved in every aspect? Perhaps it is his determination to be creative and dedicated in the completion of the entire process.
Lines Are An Actor's Creative Space
Whether it is the stage, movies or TV, Dai Li Ren will definitely have to change his own lines before he feels that he has done sufficient character preparation. "The script only provides a foundation. Since my early days in the Art Institute, I have understood that even if the script was by Shakespeare, simply memorizing by rote is really silly. There are disparities in the time setting, the nationalities and more importantly the actors are not the same so the acting and language expressions will not be similar."
"This is when a good actor is needed", Dai Li Ren stated. "A good actor is also creative and he will be able to express the emotions suitable to character as written in the script."
To Portray The Character From The "Doctor-Patient Relationship"
During the filming of "The Hospital", Dai Li Ren was very much immersed in the character's development and the scripting of the scenes. He emphasized that different doctors have various ways of treating sicknesses. This stems from their professional training. "The Internal Medicine and Surgical Departments are fundamentally different in their looking at illnesses. If considerations are not given as to how a doctor's judgments would vary due to his professional training and the system on the whole, and how this in turn affects his character, how he faces problems then it is over-simplifying Good and Evil. The character would come across as flat and superficial."
"I'll use the crudest way to explain this. The two male leads 每 I play Doctor Qiu Qing Cheng who is stubborn and intrigued about ＆solving illness＊. So his judgment might be viewed as cold and lacking in human concern. The Su Yi Hua played by Jerry Yan is just the opposite. He sees matters from a ＆human＊ standpoint. He feels to cure illness, you must start from the person himself.＊ In Dai Li Ren＊s viewpoint, ＆There is no absolute Good and Evil. We are all the same. To live in this world, we each need to have a certain attitude, to believe that it is his own and to work hard at developing it. A bad guy like that would merit our attention and thus is worthy of our spending some time to try to understand him.＊
Dai Li Ren doesn＊t feel that Qiu Qing Cheng should be marked as the ＆Bad Guy＊ in the show. ＆Though he might be embroiled in the power struggle but it is not because he is bad. Conversely in his mind, he has his own ideal, perfect world.＊
He puts it plainly, ＆Be the power struggle in the medicine or corporate world, everyone would have a blue-print for their goals in their lives. So each would give their all to pursue and would step-by-step be closer to it in their minds＊ ＆Beautiful, New World＊. So I use this attitude to act out the character. Qiu Qing Cheng does not have ill-intentions and he never wanted to actually. That is why throughout the entire process he often feels very tired. From a certain angle, it is to enable things to be done in a better way. Yet compromise is necessary and in the end one has to ask, ＆What is the ideal world in your mind?'
Therefore is the Ideal World still there in the minds of the characters? In the Realistic World, how would it be? Dai Li Ren ponders and adds, ＆I feel that Qiu Qing Cheng＊s Ideal World is always existent. He wants to revolutionize the structure of the Medical World and so he needs greater capabilities and more power, So this is the beginning of the Power Struggle.＊
