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Xiao Zhan – The Answer of Time

Original Article: https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309405123382776561762 Original Author: 人物 Portrait Translator’s note: The article will be published in the February 2025 Issue of Portrait Magazine..

Xiao Zhan had always felt that freedom and self-focus were neutral terms. In the past, he might have cared more about other people’s judgments, but now he hoped to listen to his own voice. “Fate is uncontrollable, but what is controllable is yourself.” The so-called freedom meant having the ability to control one’s own destiny. Whether it was fast or slow, whether to walk or gallop, it was all up to him. The reins were not in anyone else’s hands, but in Xiao Zhan’s hands.

Text｜谷幌幌 Gu Huanghuang Editor｜金匝 Jin Za Photography｜许闯 Xu Chuang Makeup and Hair｜清俊DDJ STUDIO Styling｜GCK Production Coordinator｜#1105 Post-Retouching｜Comma Studio Photography Assistant｜TrunkStudio Brand Acknowledgements｜TOD’S

Moment of Freedom

In 2023, for a very long period of time, Xiao Zhan spent it with his actor friend Vincent.

He would always remember the scene when they first met: Vincent was very tall, his neck was extremely long, his body was full of muscles, the sun shone on his skin, which glowed red. He held his head high and was very elegant, ignoring everyone and walked into the riding course proudly — yes, Vincent is a horse.

After a while, Vincent suddenly started kicking backwards, when he passed other horses, he kicked them first without a care, and then ran wildly around the riding course. “I was dumbfounded at the time,” Xiao Zhan said. He pointed at Vincent and looked at the equestrian teacher, “Are you sure?” The equestrian teacher said calmly, “Yes.”

Vincent was selected from more than 1,000 horses and became one of the actors in the movie “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants”, playing the role of “Little Red Horse”, the mount of the hero Guo Jing.

For Xiao Zhan, the actor who portrayed Guo Jing, riding the “Little Red Horse” was the first step to becoming Guo Jing.

This is a test that the two actors experienced together, exploring each other, testing each other, breaking through each other’s boundaries, and finally reaching mutual understanding and trust.

Vincent was very smart. He was almost the smartest horse among the horses. He had his own unique way of being lazy and would often stop moving after running for a while. Xiao Zhan would whisper in his ear, “Little Red, can you run 2 more laps?” Little Red would ignored him. If Little Red didn’t want to move, and no one can persuade him; when Little Red was unhappy, he would just kick his butt up and throw people off fiercely.

Time and waiting, these were what Xiao Zhan could give the most, and there was no other way.

He said that if Little Red Horse was unwilling, he would stop. When Little Red House was willing to accept him, he would spend more time getting acquainted and training. Gradually, Little Red Horse and Xiao Zhan reached a tacit understanding. He knew that as long as the training was completed every day, everyone could rest. Later, during the filming break, Xiao Zhan also did not forget to feed Little Red Horse with carrots to reward his partner.

Now talking again about getting along with Little Red Horse, Xiao Zhan said that he felt very happy, it was a feeling of freedom.

Riding freely, understand the moods, personalities and habits of another species freely. They accompanied each other day and night, trusted each other, and eventually became friends.

For more than 2 months in the summer of 2023, Xiao Zhan lived a life like this: getting up at around 6 o’clock in the morning, going out at around 7 o’clock, crossing the Sixth Ring Road in Beijing, heading to the riding course in the suburbs. If there was a traffic jam, just distance alone would take nearly 2 hours. That state was like going to school, with horse riding in the morning and martial arts in the afternoon, or sometimes it’s all horse riding for the whole day and then physical training. He could rest a day in a week, and occasionally 2 days. After returning home, he would still continue to do strength training as long as he had time.

Director Tsui Hark treated “The Legend of the Condor Heroes” rigorously and specially, requiring the actors to devote themselves wholeheartedly to such a “semi-enclosed” period of time. Actress Zhuang Dafei, who portrayed Huang Rong, remembered that Xiao Zhan would bring the actors to train more, because he had the foundation of exercise before and was relatively professional, like a physical fitness teacher, he would lead everyone to do warm-up and stretching exercises. “There felt kind of like the classmates were in class together, and the monitor was leading us in training.”

During that time, extreme exhaustion allowed Xiao Zhan to fall asleep quickly every day. That was another kind of freedom he felt, the freedom of creating a new character.

Black Coat – BINGJIE PENG

We asked Xiao Zhan, in the past five years, have you had a particularly free moment spiritually? His answer was: “My days on the set made me feel free.” The road to the riding course was long and also made him happy.

Director Song Xiaofei also witnessed these days. At that time, the film “Sunshine By My Side” they collaborated on was in the post-editing stage. He knew that Xiao Zhan was very busy every day during the latter scenes, doing things such as fitness, horse riding, and archery, and occasionally Xiao Zhan would tell him, aching back, but he found that Xiao Zhan had a more relaxed and free state – didn’t care too much about whether there was some dirt on his face, whether he was sweating or oily, he was more concerned about whether the role was accurate.

When we spoke about these unseen 5 years, Xiao Zhan would mark the year with each work. In 2020 “Ace Troops” was filmed, in 2021 it was “A Dream Like a Dream” and “The Longest Promise”, in 2022 it was “The Youth Memories / Where Dreams Begin” “Sunshine By My Side”, in 2023 it was “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants”, in 2024 it was “Zang Hai Zhuan”, one after another, he approached those characters with curiosity, some non-repeated and more complex characters, and searched for different answers to life in them.

When working with Director Tsui Hark, Xiao Zhan always had a kind of respect. When they first met 2 years ago, he did not even ask why Tsui Hark came to see him. When saying goodbye, he did not even dare to say “looking forward to cooperating” for fear of appearing rude. It was only after some time that he learned that Tsui Hark wanted him to play Guo Jing.

But why did the cooperation start from Little Red Horse? Perhaps we can find the answer in the original novel “The Legend of the Condor Heroes”. To Guo Jing, Little Red Horse was a partner, a comrade-in-arms, even a family member, and more importantly, there was a scene between Guo Jing and Little Red Horse in the original novel. That was a very important turning point in Guo Jing’s growth, and it was also Guo Jing’s first real battle after learning the Quanzhen Sect’s internal cultivation skill, his courage, focus and super long endurance allowed the Jiangnan Seven Weirds to renew their understanding of their apprentice again, and helped him to become the “Great Hero”.

Regarding Guo Jing and the Little Red Horse, there was this description in the original novel: “The little red horse galloped wildly, dashing back and forth on the grassland for more than an hour, but yet it was feeling more and more energetic. All the shepherds were shocked by this. The old shepherd knelt down and murmured a prayer, begging for the heavens to not bestow disasters for offending their Dragon Horse, then yelled loudly, wanting Guo Jing to get off the horse quickly. However, Guo Jing was in full focus and laid very close to the horse’s back, as if tightly bound with a rope, rising and falling with the horse’s prances, and never falling off the horse.”

Xiao Zhan, who had become acquainted with Guo Jing, could also realized that this seemed to be a metaphor for Guo Jing’s life path: no matter how his fate will filled with ups and downs, he would not be thrown off the horse. He would hold the reins firmly, using a seemingly clumsy and yet irreplaceable way to step into Jianghu and become the great hero of a generation.

When Xiao Zhan became acquainted with his little red horse Vincent, he would also have his own answer to this question: As one living in Jianghu, pain and accidents are unavoidable, as long as he could hold on to his reins, he would eventually find the moments of freedom waiting for him.

Camel windbreaker, beige sweater, white jeans, and belt are all TOD’S

Innocent Confusion

Before the moment of freedom arrives, there will most certainly be a long period of grinding.

That was a long table, with more than 30 actors sitting around it, and the first script reading meeting that Spring began. This play has been performed for more than 20 years, some of them had been there since the debut performance, and perhaps many actors were new. Everyone had to introduce themselves, it was Xiao Zhan’s turn. Before he spoke, countless guesses kept popping up in his mind, “Oh my god, they’re all going to think I’m a rookie, will they wonder where this child came from?” He thought nervously and said in a low voice, “Hello everyone, I am Xiao Zhan.” 3 years later, when recalling this scene to “Portrait”, Xiao Zhan commented on himself at that time, “completely, very, very insecure.”

It was the Spring of 2021. Xiao Zhan was invited to star in the Yanghua version of “A Dream Like a Dream”. This was his first time on the drama stage and played one of the spiritual roles of the play, “Patient No. 5”, a role who he regarded as a “very sacred” role.

Xiao Zhan had heard of “A Dream Like a Dream” when he was participating in an art troupe in university. He knew it was a play about life and death, impermanence and reincarnation, and became curious about it. Now, when it was him to play the role, “I couldn’t believe it.” He was neither a major in acting nor had any drama performance experience, so why should he take on such an important role? But because he liked it so much, he accepted the invitation.

The story of “Patient No. 5” attracted Xiao Zhan. It was an extremely complicated fate – his child had passed away, his wife had disappeared, he had suddenly contracted a strange disease and endured much suffering. At the last moment of his life, he decided to journey afar, to travel around the world. In Paris, France, he met his lover, met with the mystery of another person, and for the rest of his life, he was looking for answers, looking for the answer to the mystery of life.

It was executive producer Wang Keran’s decision for Xiao Zhan to play the role of “Patient No. 5” in the Yanghua version of “A Dream Like a Dream”. Before 2019, Wang Keran had never heard of the name Xiao Zhan. The first time he knew about him was because they had accidentally stayed in the same hotel, he heard from others that a very popular actor named Xiao Zhan was also staying here.

In 2020, Wang Keran was looking for a new version of “Patient No. 5”, and a friend told him that he could pay attention to Xiao Zhan.

Wang Keran believed that the most mysterious part of a person’s destiny is impermanence. A few years ago, he told “Portrait” that Xiao Zhan and “Patient No. 5” had something in common, which was very complicated and had a sense of destiny. “As people live they would be fulfilled, and as they live they would suffer blows again.”

In July of that year, Wang Keran approached Xiao Zhan and invited him to have a conversation about drama with playwright Wan Fang. In fact, he wanted to observe the young actor. A few days later, Xiao Zhan handed over a long interview outline, which touched Wang Keran.

He told “Portrait” that he chose Xiao Zhan not only because of his sensitivity to words and his deep diligence, but more importantly, during the conversation with Wan Fang, he noticed that Xiao Zhan exuded a kind of “innocent confusion”, a characteristic especially belonging to “Patient No. 5”, and he wanted to explore the origin of this “innocent confusion”.

“I was curious, that in a violent collision, a person’s soul must feel confused, and this confusion may be more severe than I imagined.” Wang Keran said.

Xiao Zhan was indeed at a loss at that time. In 2015, he had entered the entertainment industry through a talent show, and from an ordinary designer, he became a member of an idol boy. In 2019, he became popular with the TV series “The Untamed” and became the actor with the most attention in China. Everything had happened so fast.

Stills from the drama “The Untamed”

When he was a child, Xiao Zhan liked to read “Stories” (TN: A leading Chinese language fortnightly literary magazine published in China) very much. The stories in it were all kinds of strange, with ups and downs of fate, and as a child, he found out for the first time what impermanence is. He remembered that when Wang Keran met him for the first time, he told him that he was chosen because of “a kind of impermanence”, he also understood that at certain moments, the fate of himself and “Patient No. 5” was intertwined. Rather than saying that “Patient No. 5” needed him, it would be better to say that Xiao Zhan also needed “Patient No. 5” at that time.

When we asked Xiao Zhan, what was the point he empathized the most with “Patient No. 5”?

“Looking for an answer. An answer to anything.” Xiao Zhan said. “Portrait” and Xiao Zhan had not seen each other for 5 years, the last filming was at the beginning of the new year in 2020. In the next 5 years, many new problems occurred, which also gave him many new confusions.

Xiao Zhan told “Portrait” that the arrival of “A Dream Like a Dream” is very important to him, “extremely important”, not only for a breakthrough in performance, but also a spiritual influence and support. “When I really need this kind of energy, it miraculously appeared, and it gave some answers to many questions.”

He knew that he had to seize this opportunity, just like holding the reins of a horse, and he had to decide his own direction.

Gray shirt, dark gray jacket and tie – Sean Suen; Vest jacket – Masion Margiela

The Answer of A Dream Like A Dream

The answer was not easy to obtain.

After taking on “Patient No. 5”, Xiao Zhan began to suffer from insomnia all night long. When he was awake, he would be reading the script, before joining the group, he had already memorized all the lines, and he had rehearsed many scenes at home many times. Despite this, he was still so insecure.

Regarding his nervousness at that time, Xiao Zhan shared a detail with “Portrait”, when he read the first line during the first reading meeting, his attention was not on himself, but on others. He appeared to be staring at the script in front of him, but he was actually using his peripheral vision to secretly observe the reactions of the other actors, until he finished reading, and he found that everyone had a little surprised reaction: “Hey, it seems okay.”

In the book “Everything is for Drama” (TN: Wang Keran’s book on his work methodology) also recorded the behind-the-scenes story of “A Dream Like a Dream”: Xiao Zhan had already memorized all his lines before he came, he brought with him the state of “Patient No. 5”, and could start rehearsing immediately upon arrival.

Wang Keran was very concerned about Xiao Zhan’s state, not only because of his huge fan base, but also because the new version of “Patient No. 5” had to be judged by all audiences and professional dramatists. The book “Everything is for Drama” summarized the condition at that time: “A thorn has been stuck in the back of this crew since half a year ago — will the newly joined Xiao Zhan be able to perform on the stage of the drama?”

Very soon, Wang Keran discovered that Xiao Zhan had devoted himself entirely to it. During rehearsals, actors would be easily attracted to their mobile phones, but at the rehearsal venue, Wang Keran observed that Xiao Zhan never wasted a minute. He never lowered his head to look at his mobile phone. When others were rehearsing, he was also observing, thinking and learning.

Recalling the scene a few years ago, Xiao Zhan said that he liked that kind of life very much. He was immersed in rehearsals every day, and it felt like going back to school again. Everyone rehearsed and discussed, and the teacher gave feedback, revised and polished, everyone was creating together. For him, “A Dream Like a Dream” was like a school, and even more like a dream.

Before the premiere, Xiao Zhan’s nervousness reached its peak. He was the opening actor, and the first line of the eight hour long “A Dream Like a Dream” was his. When he stood still and the spotlight shone on him, there was only whiteness in front of him, the world seemed to have stopped in silence. He remembered that he couldn’t hear anything that day, besides his own heartbeat, thump, thump, thump… when he finished saying the first line, his hearing recovered.

This might be the allure of the stage, although the audience was silent, Xiao Zhan could also feel “the air is clapping”. Wang Keran also remembered the situation on the day of the premiere, he felt that Xiao Zhan had almost “completely and perfectly expressed the emotions of ‘Patient No. 5’ that day”.

Starting in April 2021, Xiao Zhan followed “A Dream Like a Dream” to travel across the country. In more than two years, he appeared in many performances, and also gained a lot. What Xiao Zhan liked the most is that after each performance, the director and all the actors would get together and express together: “We have carried the love and passion from so many audiences, so we must give these things back to everyone.”

Every time, Xiao Zhan would say that he would never cry and would control his emotions, but every time everyone would discover that he went back with his eyes swollen from crying.

He became “Patient No. 5” without any reservations. There was like an invisible rope between him and “Patient No. 5”, and every time he performed “Patient No. 5”, his state of mind would also affected, “no performance is the same”, the veteran actors would tell him that this was right, and even if they had performed it for 10 years, they would still have new feelings every time, this was how stage plays were. Xiao Zhan also knew that it was not just “Patient No. 5” holding onto the other end of the rope, but also his persistence in performing, he had not released his hand.

At the end of “A Dream Like a Dream”, “Patient No. 5” had to stand on the stage and sing a song acapella. Every time he performed until this point, he would fall deeply into a complex emotion, because before that, he had foreseen the death of “Patient No. 5”.

From the lights off to the lights on, there was a transition time of 5 or 6 seconds. Xiao Zhan would always ask the staff behind the scenes to help him turn off the mic for a while, he would quickly wipe away his tears, sniff his nose and adjust his condition.

Sometimes, the helpless feeling of intertwined fate would still come up. One time, he was singing with a bit of crying, he felt very guilty and felt that his performance was not perfect. The actress Feng Xianzhen, who played the elderly Gu Xianglan at that time, said to him : “Your performance today was very moving, did you know? This is the drama itself.”

In the more than 2 years since he became “Patient No. 5”, Xiao Zhan had received a lot of comfort, companionship and awakening. Little by little, he had found his place, and also found some feedback. Backstage, the sign in his lounge wrote “Patient No. 5” instead of Xiao Zhan.

Wang Keran said that the performance of “Patient No. 5” lying on the bed made the deepest impression on him. That line made him feel that Xiao Zhan truly understood the character: “The confusion about himself and the confusion about fate, he had to get into (the role) so that he could truly feel it, express it, be powerful, and he did it.”

Beige suit jacket, beige suit trousers – Ami; Bow tie – Sean Suen

Nutrients

The opening up of his individual happened bit by bit. Offstage, at some certain unnoticeable moments, Xiao Zhan would always be looking outside, allowing the wind of freedom to blow in from the gaps in life.

No one noticed that Xiao Zhan was among them.

He appeared on Binjiang Road — the most famous urban promenade in Chongqing, walking as before; he appeared at a roadside food stall, eating Xiao Mian (TN: Spicy Chongqing noodles) with good friends; he appeared in the most prosperous downtown area of a certain city, taking pictures everywhere with a camera.

In the past few years, he had occasionally wandered around, biked, watched movies, and walked around freely.

These moments were so important to him. “It’s like I’m a tree. Have you ever seen a tree growing in the air before? No, it must land on the ground. That’s how it feels.” Xiao Zhan told “Portrait”, real people, real lives, those were his soil.

When we first met Xiao Zhan, he said that hustle and bustle of life was very important to him, and that kind of life gave him a down-to-earth feeling. Over the past 5 years, he had repeatedly emphasized the importance of life in interviews, he would remain sensitive and capture daily details, observing the status of the filming crew, observing Chongqing residents along the Jialing River, and observing the delivery riders.

Unable to sleep at night, he would often sit by the window in a daze, he would think about what people would be doing in the windows where the lights were not switched off at 2 or 3 in the morning. Were they working overtime? Or having insomnia? Sometimes on rainy nights, he would see people running with umbrellas and others walking leisurely without umbrellas. He would be curious about what stories those people had.

Life has given him a lot of nourishment and strength, enough to give him the confidence to cope with difficulties and enter the moment of freedom again, and family was an important space that provided these nourishment and strength.

Last summer, Xiao Zhan and his parents traveled to Europe, they had spent more than a week together closely. The last time a family of three traveled like this was when he went to Lijiang, Yunnan when he was in high school. At that time, Xiao Zhan was in adolescence and was very rebellious. He entertained himself and did not want to spend more time with his parents. More than 10 years later, he had the opportunity to travel with his parents again, and his thoughts then was that he hoped to spend some time together with his parents so that they could see his own type of living condition.

The short trip came to an end, and he and his parents parted ways on a foreign beach. His parents continued their trip, and Xiao Zhan ended his vacation and went to work. After that lunch, they would head to their next destination. He remembered the scene of their separation that day very clearly. the alley was very narrow, so narrow that only one car could pass, when the car drove in, pedestrians on both sides had to turn sideways and stand against the wall. The car to pick up Xiao Zhan came first, and he could not stay any longer, just like the chime of a clock that struck o’clock, the pumpkin carriage had come to pick him up, and the lovely dream was about to end.

He and his parents maintain a traditional Chinese family relationship, love was very reserved and silent, when facing loved ones, they would never express too many emotions. They would only pretend not to care and say, go quickly, take good care of yourselves.

But that day, Xiao Zhan stood at the door of the restaurant. He hugged his mother first, and then his father. All of his perceptions were magnified again, he remembered that when he was hugging his mother, a middle-aged lady walked sideways past them, she was wearing a white dress with blue prints. As he hugged his mother, he watched a gust of wind blow by and the lady’s skirt swayed, and the wind smelled of the sea.

The movie-like scene was deeply imprinted in his mind. When talking about this scene, Xiao Zhan showed the most emotional expression that day. He closed his eyes and imagined that he was back at the beach, holding his hands in the air as if he was hugging his mother again. This was almost one of his moment of the year. This complete relaxation gave him some lasting strength. During that trip, he also publicly posted a photo with his parents on social networks for the first time, although it was only the back view.

Xiao Zhan said that he did not contact his parents every day, but he had a strong sense of bond. His parents rarely asked about his work, and they did not have many in-depth conversations, and would only say when he encounters difficulties: “Happiness is more important than anything else. It’s no big deal, otherwise come home.”

He found that when he was with his parents, they would always talk about his childhood. When he was in high school, he was very irritable and didn’t want to listen too much. Now that he is in his 30s, he had the urge to “talk more, the more the better” instead, he wanted to hear how he grew up. These were all his origins, and also the reason he grew up to be Xiao Zhan.

A few years ago, he expressed in an interview that he wanted to find “real life”. He was worried that he was too far away from the material world and would lose his judgment on reality. This year, he suddenly changed, perhaps through more observation, or perhaps it was during that trip that he confirmed one thing, “I am living in the real, material life”.

The material life related to his parents and hometown in the past 20 years was like a thick and gentle net that gently supported Xiao Zhan and helped him resolve many doubts about real life. That is the world closest to his individuality. That was his soil and his nourishment, nourishing him continuously and steadily, allowing him to stay convinced that he was still truly living.

Now, Xiao Zhan occasionally dreams, and the scenes in his dreams are all the old houses of his childhood. It was an old residential building, his home was on the fifth floor and every time he opened the door, his father, mother and grandma were all there, as the old house slowly emerged, he could remember the bedroom, living room, table lamps, and even the kitchen exhaust fan.

Xiao Zhan said that that home was like a safe house. Whenever he felt tired or unhappy, he would dream of the old house. Sometimes he would be very happy, sometimes he would wake up feeling a little despondent. But he knew that no matter what happened, there was no need to worry, as long as he wanted to, he could return to that safe house in his dream.

Dark blue jackets, dark blue sweaters, and blue jeans are all TOD’S

Dissatisfaction

Those absorbed nutrients determined what kind of tree a person would grow into. Xiao Zhan once said in the documentary “Marvelous City: Chongqing” that he grew up in Chongqing, and the mountain city nourished him for more than 20 years. He climbed mountains and obstacles every day, going against the flow. His daily life was to “climb” every day, so there were some elements of “obstinacy” in his character. Growing up in such a land of soil, he felt a lot of dissatisfaction and had many thoughts of improvement.

On December 31, 2024, “Portrait” met Xiao Zhan again in the recording studio in Beijing. It was the last day of the year and the atmosphere of the New Year was everywhere. He did not participate in any New Year’s Eve activities, but just stayed in a small warm yellow room, dubbing for the post production of an upcoming work. By nightfall, he had been dubbing continuously for more than 8 hours.

“Let’s do it again”, this is what Xiao Zhan said the most frequently, “let’s do it again”, “I’ll try again”, “come on, do it again”.

There was an inner monologue that lasted nearly 2 minutes, he had dubbed it several times. The director thought it was enough, “Let’s do it again,” Xiao Zhan said again. The director was a little surprised and asked, “All of them?” Then Xiao Zhan dubbed the nearly 2-minute monologue twice.

Several directors who have worked with Xiao Zhan all mentioned that “do it again” is one of the things he often says on the set. Director Jiang Jiajun recalled that during the filming of “The Longest Promise”, there was an underwater scene. The temperature of the water shed was not high, and he went in and out of the water many times. The actor quickly lost his warmth and his lips were shivering. But at the end of each scene, Xiao Zhan would come over and ask about the shooting effect, and whether another take was needed. This was also the part that impressed him most about Xiao Zhan.

Wang Keran also shared the same feeling with “Portrait” before. When rehearsing “A Dream Like a Dream”, many times he felt that it could proceed and the performance was quite good, but Xiao Zhan would still ask himself to do it again. He concluded that this was Xiao Zhan’s “dissatisfaction” with himself.

When filming the TV drama “Sunshine By My Side”, Director Song Xiaofei would receive a call from Xiao Zhan every day before going to bed. He would speak continuously on the other end of the phone and say: Director, what do you think about the scene tomorrow? That’s what I think, do you think it’s right? Can I understand this line this way? Song Xiaofei said that among the actors he worked with, Xiao Zhan was very outstanding. When working, they always maintained close, pleasant, active and effective communication.

Stills from the TV drama “Sunshine By My Side”

He could feel some of Xiao Zhan’s anxiety, always worrying that he was not doing well enough. Sometimes, what he did more on the phone was to comfort Xiao Zhan, “You are fine, you can relax tomorrow.” There was a drunken scene, Song Xiaofei thought it was okay not to drink, but Xiao Zhan insisted on drinking a little wine, saying that it would be unrealistic to not drink at all. That day, he took a sip of wine and his face suddenly turned red, “he is all about doing it right, he is such an actor”.

During filming, as long as Xiao Zhan had time, he would always sit next to the director, observing other actors and how everyone worked. Jiang Jiajun remembered that there was an important scene in the snow in “The Longest Promise”. Xiao Zhan arrived at the scene early, placed a small folding chair in the middle of the artificial snow scene, and sat quietly on it. He did not disturb Xiao Zhan, because he knew that Xiao Zhan was brewing his emotions.

Song Xiaofei also remembered that on the set, Xiao Zhan always sat very low. He was afraid of affecting other people’s field of vision. He huddled in the corner and watched other actors acting, and he was not stingy with his praises, “they acted really well”, when hearing this, Song Xiaofei would send encouragements, “you also acted very well”.

When filming “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants”, Xiao Zhan would sneak into Tsui Hark’s small tent and sit quietly next to him, listening to Tsui Hark’s exchanges with the staff and watching Tsui Hark draw storyboards with a brush. He said, it was so great, he only knew of the name Tsui Hark before, but seeing all this with his own eyes, it felt even more magical.

Being dissatisfied with the performance, the status, the script and the role made him move forward step by step.

Over the past 5 years, Xiao Zhan has tried his best to take on more different roles, including soldiers, military courtyard youths, designers, he had also tried different work genres, such as period dramas, urban dramas, and military themes. All these dissatisfaction had made him understand performance better and constantly calibrating his judgment. As long as he continued to perform one work after another, and tightly holding onto every work, better moments would arrive for him.

Recently, he has chosen two more complex characters, Guo Jing and Zang Hai.

After taking on the role of Guo Jing, he asked anyone he met, what’s your impression of Guo Jing? Many people would mention that fortune favors fools, but he did not understand it that way. He remembered Tsui Hark asking him, could a stupid person learn the complete Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms? When Xiao Zhan got to know Guo Jing deeply, he discovered that Guo Jing was not stupid at all, but was a very serious and pure person.

Interestingly, he remembered that when he met the director for the first time after joining the movie group, Tsui Hark asked him and Zhuang Dafei, do you know any rock musicians? You are the rock musician version of Guo Jing and Huang Rong. Xiao Zhan said that he and Zhuang Dafei looked at each other and were a little confused at that time, but during the filming process, he finally understood, the so-called rock musicians was about the kind of reckless persistence.

For a period of time, under Tsui Hark’s guidance, he watched boxing videos every day and pondered the boxers’ gazes when they were fighting. Slowly, he found the Xiao Zhan version of Guo Jing’s gaze. It was neither foolish nor dull, but a seeking “gaze as sharp as an eagle” during battle. He said that after several months of filming, he understood Guo Jing and his Jianghu from a more complex perspective.

Xiao Zhan also has a new work “Zang Hai Zhuan”, it is a grand costume drama. The “Zang Hai” he portrayed bore a blood feud and hid his name in search of the truth, the character’s sense of destiny and complexity were further enhanced.

Such intricate clues gave Xiao Zhan more to think about and more to express. Xiao Zhan and Director Cao Yiwen were of the same age, they had similar personalities traits. They were both very persistent and very serious. They would often discuss a detail from online to offline, continuing their discussions after knocking off, one day, their discussion lasted until 3 or 4 o’clock in the early morning.

Zheng Xiaolong is the executive director of “Zang Hai Zhuan”. He told Xiao Zhan that the most important thing was to enrich the characters based on people and human nature itself. Xiao Zhan said that Zheng Xiaolong would give him various ideas, that he could act this way or that way. Zheng Xiaolong told “Portrait” that Xiao Zhan not only worked hard on his lines, but also worked very hard to empathize with his character. He performed many emotional scenes over and over again, “his acting was completely explored in practice”.

Xiao Zhan said that when he first entered the industry, he was more of a passive recipient. Directors and senior actors would tell him how to act, and he just listened and did it. “Understand, understand” is what he said the most. Starting from “The Untamed”, he realized that he had changed a little and gradually found his own way of expression.

At the late dubbing scene of “Zang Hai Zhuan”, we also saw this scene: Sometimes when the director puts forward an idea, Xiao Zhan would not say understand immediately, but would think about it for a few seconds. Sometimes something as small as whether his breath is closer or further away from his co-actor, Xiao Zhan would have his own understanding.

The New Year was coming, and Xiao Zhan’s voice was still ringing in the dubbing studio, “do it again” and “try again”, 2025 is the 9th year of Xiao Zhan’s debut, he knew that this kind of dissatisfaction and “do it again” would also accompany him for a very long journey.

Gray shirt, dark gray jacket and tie – Sean Suen; Vest jacket – Masion Margiela

Go Ahead

On the day we met again after 5 years, we let Xiao Zhan watch the video interview shot for “Portrait” in 2020. At the end of the video, he smiled at the camera and asked: “Looking forward to the next 5 years, what will Xiao Zhan be like? “

He said that this was the first time he watched this video in five years. He never watched his own interviews, so he felt a little embarrassed and a little awkward. But he also frankly expressed his feelings: “The me then was very young and naive, and also very vivid, aye, you see the eyes were shining, I really wanted the world to know me, everyone come and see me.”

When he was young, he listened to Stefanie Sun’s “Youth Without Limits”, the lyrics sang, “I am twenty-five years old, learning the moves that an adult should do”, at that time, he thought that 25 years old was so far away, and he should have become a very mature adult.He would not have imagined that he would enter the entertainment industry at the age of 25, opening up a new life. Now he is 33 years old, reaching an age when he “didn’t even dare to think about it” when he was a child.

5 years later, what kind of person has Xiao Zhan become?

After entering the age of 30, Xiao Zhan obviously felt some subtle changes in his body. During the filming of “Zang Hai Zhuan”, he suffered from a long-lasting illness. His tonsils were constantly inflamed, and he had recurring coughs, fevers and facial swelling.

One early morning, he had to shoot a horse riding scene. At that time, he had already experienced Little Red Horse on the set of “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants”, so horse riding was not a problem. That day, he just felt that the sun was a bit dazzling and it was a little difficult to open his eyes. Unexpectedly, Director Zheng Xiaolong said, why are you swollen like this? He leaned closer to the monitor to watch the replay, and saw that he was galloping with two eyes swollen like frog eyes.

In 2021, because he was filming a military-themed work, he started to do physical training and had maintained the habit of exercising since then. When playing the role of Guo Jing, he began to gain muscle and weight. Guo Jing grew up in the Mongolian grasslands and was a man of martial arts, his appearance should be rough. In order to achieve the change in appearance, he did strength training almost every day.

Bystanders could also feel the changes that fitness had brought to Xiao Zhan. Song Xiaofei remembered the first time he met Xiao Zhan. He had just finished running that day and trotted up the stairs. His hair was a little sweaty and his body was emitting a hormonal aura, “he came jumping up and down”. Because he was moved by this scene, Song Xiaofei specially changed the script and specifically filmed the scene where the male protagonist Sheng Yang got up early to exercise, packed himself up as quickly as possible, and rushed to the subway full of energy, “it felt so good to see Xiao Zhan that day, I really wanted to show it to everyone”.

Fitness was also a kind of control over the body. Of course, the frequent warning signals on his body last year also warned him that he had reached his age, he was no longer a person who could stay up all night and still be energetic the next day. He needed to take better care of his body and solve the problems that his body gave him.

In the past, he might have wondered, why did he get sick? Now, he would exercise with clear goals and adjust his condition. The Xiao Zhan in his 20s wanted to find answers to problems, the Xiao Zhan in his 30s, wants to solve specific problems.

Beige suit jacket, beige suit pants, vest – Ami; Bow tie – Sean Suen; Shoes – TOD’S

So, what is the biggest growth in these five years?

“Become calmer and…be more self-focused.” Xiao Zhan told “Portrait” that he had always felt that freedom and self-focus were neutral terms. In the past, he might have cared more about other people’s judgments, but now he hoped to listen to his own voice more, “fate is uncontrollable, but what is controllable is yourself”.

The so-called freedom meant the ability to control one’s own destiny, whether it was fast or slow, whether to walk or gallop, it was all up to him. The reins were not in anyone else’s hands, but in Xiao Zhan’s hands.

In November 2024, Xiao Zhan released his first music album “WM”. There is a song called “Go Ahead”. The music video of that song was like this: In the dim ruins of the city, a beam of light shone on Xiao Zhan. He passed through a black tunnel, passed through the lightning flashes and came to the winding, coiling path. This path extended all the way into the sky above the city. He kept running forward, crossing the broken steps, with sand and stones swirling around him, he did not look back, and he never stopped.

This scene is very much Xiao Zhan’s past 5 years. He always looked at the path underneath his feet and kept striding forward.

5 years ago, when he took on “Patient No. 5 “, he said he wanted to find an answer. 5 years later, we asked him, had he found the answer?

“There is no answer. I have given up looking for the answer. There are not so many whys in life, just do it well and live the present moment.” Xiao Zhan replied.

Regarding this, Xiao Zhan also mentioned a small incident to “Portrait”.

In the early summer of 2019, he was filming in the mountains. The night was very dark and he couldn’t see anything. Suddenly a huge sky lantern rose in the sky. It was the sky lantern used by the crew for lighting. “It was very, very big, like a hot air balloon”, it was the first time in his life that he saw such a big sky lantern, and he also felt guided, walk towards the light and do not look back. That day, he took a photo of the sky lantern, captioned it with 6 words, and posted it on the social media platform. In the past 5 years, this moment had always reminded him — “Don’t look back, ever.”

(Intern Chen Jingxuan had contributed to this text.)

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nutty1005 · 1 year ago

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3 Xiao Zhan.

Original Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7YZimnoaGOkx-vTeiPyckg Original Author: 智族GQ Translator’s note: The article will be published in the February 2024 Issue of GQ

Xiao Zhan: Clear goals, accepting results

01 Relaxation

The studio was by the Huangpu River in Shanghai, Xiao Zhan was wrapped in a black down jacket, he had took off his shoes, and sat cross-legged on the corner of the sofa, looking very relaxed. The filming came to an end for the time being. Although he had been working continuously for more than 7 hours, there was no trace of fatigue on his face.

This is a face that attracts attention all the time. A few months ago, the studio released a Xiao Zhan’s birthday photoshoot, and keen-eyed netizens immediately noticed that his face had “became rounder”. In order to play the character of Guo Jing in the movie “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero”, which was directed by Tsui Hark, Xiao Zhan gained weight before joining the group, his cheeks were no longer so thin and his figure was obviously more buff. In the photographs, he had a stubble and the vicissitudes of life were slightly visible on him.

Strictly speaking, “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero” was Xiao Zhan’s second movie. There were many previous classic versions of Guo Jing’s character, and the pressure on him was obviously visible.

On the day of the cover shoot for “GQ”, Xiao Zhan got up very early to go for a run. He could not help but think, my God, I am going to lose muscle mass again after sweating so much. He debated whether to continue, and finally decided to run for 30 minutes. When the time came, he remembered that body fat would start burning after 30 minutes, so he ran for an additional 10 minutes.

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All of these is for work. “Actually, I don’t want to run. Running will lose muscles mass, but I have to run to reduce swelling.” After the filming, he planned to do weights training no matter how late it was. An actor’s self-discipline is to be always ready to shape his image for the character, but he must also strictly control his diet and manage his body shape. Xiao Zhan regards both as professional standards and expects himself to do so

Before meeting, I thought Xiao Zhan would be very cautious about interviews. To my surprise, Xiao Zhan had a rare sense of relaxation, answered all questions, and was even humorous. When mentioning that actors should observe characters in life, he commented on the sitting postures of several people present; when asked what things he did not expect after joining the industry, his answer was that he could not eat whatever he wanted like his high school classmates.

The interview lasted for almost two hours, I became curious about what kind of experience it had been for Xiao Zhan, who had been under immense attention in the past few years. Xiao Zhan said instead that he had forgotten this matter frequently and it did not cause him a lot of trouble in life, the most “cruel” thing might have been “being unable eat as much as you want”.

“I will still sneak out to ride my bike, take a walk, and do a City Walk. There was only one time when I was recognized after walking in a alley for 5 minutes. I also mingled into the cinema and watched a movie. No one will care about you, really. After leaving the Internet, many things will be solved easily. Sometimes it seems like what is before our eyes is the world, this is a misunderstanding, but yet we cannot avoid this misunderstanding, so there is no way around it.”

There were so many things he especially wanted to do, such as taking the subway and going shopping. “I will really squeeze onto the subway, perhaps tomorrow, it’s so normal, I used to take the subway every day.” For Xiao Zhan, this was the life he really wanted. The voices of social media no longer bothered him, “After all these years, can I still live if I’m still bothered? (laughs) It’s really just fine.”

At this stage, Xiao Zhan is very satisfied with his living situation. “I have a job, a life of my own, and an audience that likes me. I have nothing to be dissatisfied with.”

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02 Becoming an Actor

To a certain extent, Xiao Zhan’s sense of relaxation stems from his increasingly clear goals. The voices from the external world no longer bothered him, he is clear about what he wants and what he do not want. Now, he is doing more subtraction for himself. In the past two years, he had rarely appeared in variety shows, taking the career of actor as his most important goal at this moment.

In 2023, 3 television dramas starring Xiao Zhan broadcasted, and each character was a challenge for Xiao Zhan. During the interview, Xiao Zhan said many times that he was “under a lot of pressure”, and he said this almost every time when reviewing every stage. But his tone was light, without the heaviness of complaints, more like a post analysis and summary, the reasons were often specific and objective: the first time he came into contact with performing without props, the first time he took on the leading role alone, the first time he acted in an modern drama…

“Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories” was a script that Xiao Zhan particularly liked. He liked stories about that generation very much, as a child he watched some television dramas such as “Once Upon a Time in Beijing” and “Happiness as Flowers”. When he mentioned the 1970s and 1980s, he felt that it was sunny and bright, it was colorful. Many people said that Xiao Chunsheng was a perfect character, but to Xiao Zhan that happened to be his greatest flaw, he thought this character was very interesting and wanted to give it a try. Xiao Chunsheng was a young man from Beijing, hence how to express the character’s imposing manner and speak authentic Beijing dialect was a big challenge for Xiao Zhan, who had lived in Chongqing since childhood.

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The Shi Ying character in “The Longest Promise” was aloof, because he did not want to let down everyone’s expectations for his ancient costume appearance, Xiao Zhan tried his best to lose weight before joining the group. “‘The Longest Promise’ was a script I got in 2020. It had the most complete character and most delicate emotions from the scripts I could choose from, it was also very logical and self-consistent, it was my best choice.”

“Sunshine By My Side” was a script that Xiao Zhan has been exposed to for the longest time, starting from the end of 2019. Although Sheng Yang in “Sunshine By My Side” closely overlapped with Xiao Zhan’s pre-debut career, but for him to move his life as a designer to the screen and act in a natural and convincing manner, he did not have confidence. “Modern dramas and life dramas are really unfamiliar fields.” Initially, he was too eager to finish his lines and memorized them completely, but when he said them, it made people think that no one in real life would speak like this, later on he discovered where to break the lines and which words to emphasize in modern dramas, and the logic was actually very strong.

In the past few years, he had acted as a soldier, a doctor, a designer, and a Beijing youth. There were no special considerations, and they all happened naturally. He rarely acted in recurring roles. But when choosing a script, Xiao Zhan would not deliberately avoid themes that he had acted in before, instead he will just put himself in the audience’s perspective to feel whether he could be moved by it.

In 2021, Xiao Zhan starred in the theater play “A Dream Like a Dream”, playing the role of Patient No. 5. On the day of the premiere, many topics related to theater appeared on Weibo hot searches, becoming a phenomenon-level event in the theater circle.

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On acting in “A Dream Like A Dream”, Xiao Zhan hesitated for a long time. There are many reasons for his hesitation: he was from Chongqing, he was not from a professional background, there is no NG in theater plays, it would last for 8 hours, “Dream Like a Dream” was also very famous, and there had been many classic versions of Patient No. 5 prior. But after reading the script, Xiao Zhan felt that he must perform in it.

Theater play is a very pure thing. Dozens or even hundreds of people gather in a space to tell a story, this is an experience that film and television cannot bring, hence Xiao Zhan yearns for it. He began to maniacally memorize his lines, and enclosed himself in Tangshan to rehearse intensively with the entire group for more than a month, grinding out one scene after another.

“I was very nervous for the first performance. I am still nervous now when I think about it. When Gu Xianglan rang the bell, I shuddered.” The instant the light hit him, Xiao Zhan felt that everything had stopped, he could not see the expressions of the audience under the stage and there was only white left in front of him.

Xiao Zhan adjusted his breathing and began to speak his lines. The director said that the actors in the opening scene controlled the rhythm of the entire story, so every time he said that line, Xiao Zhan was most nervous. As he spoke, he would gradually forget about his nervousness, and after he was done speaking, he would let out a long sigh of relief, and think, ah, it has finally ended.

Once, towards the end of the first half of the performance, Patient No. 5 went on stage to find Gu Xianglan with a painting and an address, and had a long monologue. Walking to the middle of the stage, Xiao Zhan’s mind suddenly stumbled. He could not remember the beginning of the next line. After hesitating for about 1.5 seconds, he chose to skip that word and continued. The audience should not be able to tell the difference, he thought. He could not remember that word even until the end of the performance.

“I couldn’t remember it even when I got to the lounge, so I flipped over the script to take a look, so it was this word.”

“Which word?”

“A very common word, for example, pure drinking water, I was thinking what kind of drinking water? Distilled water? Tap water? Boiled water? I just couldn’t remember it.” Xiao Zhan replied.

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Acting is a domain with very profound knowledge. Xiao Zhan said: “I have only scratched the surface so far.” When filming “Sunshine By My Side”, the co-actors were all experienced actors, and in terms of acting skills, Xiao Zhan was still very immature, tended to be over forceful and left traces of performance marks. He told himself to “be less pretentious”, feel everything the other party throws at him with his heart, and respond honestly.

Xiao Zhan once expressed that he had difficulty understanding many characters due to his limited life experience. He had discussed this issue with his seniors, “Everyone has two opinions. Some people will say that of course you have to go through it, without experience, you don’t have a image, how can you portray it? All that you act is fake. Also, there is a voice saying that everything can be resolved by technique.”

Xiao Zhan’s own answer is, “Act more and be exposed to all types of genres” and “cooperate with more good teams, actors and directors.”

“To be honest, what I can do now is to act what my thoughts can reach, it is really difficult for me to act something that I have no concept of at all. Maybe in the future, through a work or cooperation with more good directors and actors, my confusion can be solved. I look forward to this day coming soon.“

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03 Decluttering

Relaxation is a side of Xiao Zhan, he can balance some of the pressure, but there is a part of it that is difficult for him to resolve. Xiao Zhan does not sleep well. “It’s very difficult for me to fall asleep, and I sleep very lightly, there will be situations where I don’t feel rested after sleeping, which affects my state the next day.” This would happen especially when he just joined the drama group and would be in a state of high nervousness, he would often dream about filming on set, but the filming did not go well.

When he would go to different cities, Xiao Zhan would bring the same type of pillows and quilts. “I will bring anything that can help me sleep well.” He had also tried aromatherapy lamps, lavender essential oil, various products that could make him fall asleep when applied on his body, medicinal spray on the pillow that could make people fall asleep, melatonin and meditation music. In the end, he found that the best things that made him sleep well were sleep masks, earplugs, and not looking at his phone, “because I know that once I look at it, I won’t sleep, then I might as well get up.”

Not long ago, Xiao Zhan found an old book “Decluttering” at home. That was recommended to him by his ex-company boss when he was working as a designer. The concept of organizing life described in the book made Xiao Zhan start to rethink what he wanted and what he should give up.

Xiao Zhan has a particularly obstinate side to his character, “If it’s something I insist on and I think that is right, it will be difficult to convince me.” For example, when he decided to be an actor, he did not want to do anything outside of being an actor, “You come and force me, then let’s debate. No one is right or wrong, the team is also doing this for your own good, since isn’t it a good thing to have a lot of work? But for me, I have to subtract because some things are really not what I want.”

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Xiao Zhan’s acting experience began with a story about “an older commoner chasing dreams in the entertainment industry”. He participated in the talent show at the age of 24, learned dance from scratch, debuted as a boy band, acted in online dramas, played supporting roles in theater movies, until 2019 when he became popular, Xiao Zhan also became a star that attracted attention.

When you decide to do something, you must try your best to do it well. This was what Xiao Zhan has been taught since childhood, when he was in junior high school, his family bought him a mobile phone. When he first started texting, he often used spaces to replace punctuation marks, his father then said to him sternly, “What about the punctuation marks? Why is there no period at the end of the sentence?” From that time on, Xiao Zhan was very concerned about punctuation marks.

Xiao Zhan had been competitive since he was a child, and he was not willing to miss any opportunity when it came to things he could control. When he was taking the bus to school, he would worry about the person on the bus who was asleep and would missed the stop.

For things that he could not control, he would remind himself not to force them and learn to accept them. Until then, do what he could.

When asked which drama Xiao Zhan obtained with his own hard work, Xiao Zhan’s answer was surprising. He said: “Every one.” Before becoming famous, he auditioned for many dramas, and also experienced being replaced after entering the final round of auditions and even trialed the drama in costume. Now, of course, scripts would be handed over, but Xiao Zhan would always tell himself that people only had intentions and could hand them over to many people at the same time. If he found one he really liked, he would take the initiative to meet with the director to explain his understanding of the character.

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Xiao Zhan believes that it is important to have a correct attitude

Xiao Zhan’s growing up environment was no different from that of many born in the 1990s. Mother and father would go to work, grandmother would cook at home, and he would go to and from school every day. If he did not do well in the exam, he would be beaten. After dinner at 6:30 every night, the children would ask him downstairs to play hide-and-seek, wooden figurines, and throw sandbags, as he talked about these, he was very happy. These ordinary little things seemed so precious now. Xiao Zhan said that he was very grateful for the first 23 years of his life before his dream adventure in the entertainment industry. “I cherish it very much, I think it is good.”

He thought that if he had not entered the entertainment industry, he would have lived a life like his classmates and friends, accompanying clients for meals every day, going home and staying up late to catch up on designs.

“Being seen” is a happy thing. No matter how busy he was at work, Xiao Zhan never complained, “If you have a job, then work hard.” “While filming “The Oath of Love”, he was also recording the variety show “Our Song”. During the intervals while waiting for scenes, he would hum softly with his earphones on. The other actors would come over curiously, and Xiao Zhan would smiled sheepishly, explaining that he was practicing the song he was going to sing in the evening. “I don’t have time, I really don’t have time.” At that time, work occupied almost all of his life.

Xiao Zhan rarely takes the initiative to give himself a holiday. “It’s not realistic,” he said flatly. When he was most tired, he could fall asleep just sitting on the set.

This year, Xiao Zhan had a sense of urgency regarding “acting inexperience”, “compared with some seniors, they have already acted in many works in their thirties.” Xiao Zhan knows very clearly that his acting could not improve in leaps and bounds just from one drama, “this might be hard for it to happen to me.”

He once thought about whether to be an actor with a personal style or an actor that the audience would like after watching it. His answer was the latter, “everyone may not be your fan, or even not particularly interested in you, but when you know that he has a drama on and you might want to watch it because his dramas are pretty good. I want to do that, that’s my current goal. Whether or not I can become the level of the actors I like is a long way to go, take it slowly.”

“Making more dramas and cooperating with more good teams, this is just the one goal at the moment, I won’t consider other things for the time being.” Xiao Zhan said.

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Q&A About Acting

GQ: When did it become clear that you wanted to be an actor? Xiao Zhan: When the public started paying more and more attention to me, I wanted to say, why can’t I do it? I think I can. Sometimes I waver and feel it’s so difficult. Why can’t I do it? For example, when it comes to lines, why are they just not good? Why can’t I speak as well as the others? Is it because I’m from the South? I don’t think so. Then I think, so how can I speak well? I can do it, give it a try.

GQ: In your opinion, what are the professional standards for actors? Xiao Zhan: First of all, having excellent professional skills is an unavoidable topic. You can have a non-professional background, but you must have excellent professional skills. This is what I want to do and what I’m currently doing. I feel like I’m not enough, too far behind. After having excellent professional skills, attitude is very important and whether you love it or not is also very important. If you only view it as a job, you may not be able to go very far. But if you really love it, you will cry for it and laugh for it. This may be the motivation for you to persist. Also having a strong body (laughs), I used to not feel tired when I was in my twenties, but now I will feel very tired after staying up late. This is a terrible thing, it is important to have a strong body, this is your foundation.

GQ: When acting in which character or drama did you feel recognition for? Xiao Zhan: At the beginning, when I was working on “The Wolf”, I was under a lot of pressure, the acting teacher would give me a lot of advice and guidance, and I would constantly subvert my acting method every day, it was a period of confusion. After you got over it, you would find that you have grown, and when you started acting again later, you would gradually find a little bit of feeling, and then you would get over it step by step, this was a cumulative process. I feel that I have too little acting experience. Compared with some of the seniors, who have accumulated many works in their thirties, my current works are still too few and I have not accumulated enough.

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GQ: Do you feel worried? Xiao Zhan: Yes. Because I think (improving acting skills) is a cumulative process. You can’t take a big step with just one movie. This is hard for that to happen to me, so I have to keep filming, and to keep filming good dramas, don’t waste yourself

GQ: The 3 dramas broadcasted in 2023 stretched from ancient costume to era dramas and urban dramas, what were the considerations? Xiao Zhan: Actually, there were no considerations, it just happened naturally, there were no deliberate avoidance of themes I had acted in before, it’s just (selection) by reading the script. When the scripts were handed to me at that time, I felt attracted to a certain script at the moment, so I chose it, it just happened to be a theme that I had never acted in before.

GQ: Do you feel tired from acting in ancient costume dramas all the time? Xiao Zhan: There are many types of ancient costume dramas, don’t have to separate them into ancient costume dramas and modern dramas, it’s nothing more than sticking on a wig and changing clothes, actually the core is the same, but the outer shell is different.

GQ: Once the drama you filmed airs, will you follow it? Xiao Zhan: I won’t follow them, but I will watch them, I will choose the big scenes that I care about and watch them, counts as me looking for problems for myself.

GQ: Will you watch with the scrolling comments? Xiao Zhan: I used to do it really, and I felt very entertained, laughing and joking with everyone, but now I won’t do it.

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GQ: What kind of character do you want to play now? Xiao Zhan: If I could choose, the best would be the ones I haven’t tried before. I need freshness. If I ask you to do the same thing every day, you will be bored.

GQ: What kind of actor do you want to be? Xiao Zhan: I want to be an actor that the audience can like.

GQ: Have you not already done this to make people like you? Xiao Zhan: No, no, I think it’s far from enough. I once thought about whether to be an actor with a personal style or to be an actor that the audience likes just by looking at you. Currently I want to be an actor who makes the audience feel good. Everyone may not be your fan, or even not particularly interested in you, but when you know that he has a drama on and you might want to watch it because his dramas are pretty good. I want to do that, that’s my current goal. Whether or not I can become the level of the actors I like is a long way to go, take it slowly.

GQ: Who are your favorite actors? Xiao Zhan: Many, for example Zhou Xun has always been my favorite actress. I recently watched her movie (“Across the Furious Sea”) and it was really great.

GQ: What are your career plans in 2024? Xiao Zhan: Making more dramas and cooperating with more good teams, this is just the one goal at the moment, I won’t consider other things for the time being.

White backless suit with fringe Jacquemus

Q&A About Life

GQ: Do voices on social media bother you? Xiao Zhan: It doesn’t bother me. After all these years, can I still live if I’m still bothered? (laughs) It’s really just fine. It’s fine as long as I am clear about what I am doing. Every time you make a choice, you must clearly know what you are doing, what you have to give up, and what you have to do. So, it’s fine, maybe the team has more troubles.

GQ: Is your personal life unaffected? Xiao Zhan: Very normal! I can go out for a bike ride and a stroll. When you’re walking down the street, no one really cares about you. It’s really not what everyone imagines. Then I walked around freely.

GQ: Are those escape moments for you? Xiao Zhan: Moments of relaxation. Why do I need to escape? I am also in the third dimension, where should I escape to, this is my life, I am the same as everyone. There are many things I particularly want to do, such as squeezing onto the subway and shopping in shopping malls, which are very similar to when I was in school, and maybe I will do them in the future.

GQ: Do you miss the ordinary life very much? Xiao Zhan: It’s not that I miss it, it’s that I think I should do it, this is living. I will really take squeeze into the subway, perhaps tomorrow, it’s so normal, I used to take the subway every day. To me, there’s nothing I can’t do, so what if you discover me? Say hello and leave. It’s just that I don’t want to cause confusion, trouble, or bad reactions to everyone.

White backless suit with fringe Jacquemus

Q&A About Personality

GQ: You haven’t appeared on variety shows in recent years. Is this a conscious choice? Xiao Zhan: Because it’s not suitable, with my personality, being in a variety show is too tiring, I would want to take care of everyone’s feelings, which would make myself very tired. Since I know that it would be this result, then I might as well don’t do it.

GQ: What was your original intention in entering the entertainment industry? Xiao Zhan: I really broke in mysteriously with confusion. The talent shows I used to watch would interview the top contestants, how did you get to this point? The contestant would say that I accompanied my friend to participate in the selection, but my friend failed and I was selected. When I was a child, I thought these things were far away from me, but when it came to myself, it’s really like this, and I think it’s amazing. I entered the idol competition, then I got here and that’s it. Very amazing, life is very interesting.

GQ: What things have you not thought of before after joining the industry? Xiao Zhan: It is a very cruel thing to not be able to to eat freely. When I see my former high school classmates who already have children and have put on some weight, I will sigh, I also want to eat freely like this. Their living status makes me feel that if I had not chosen this path at that time, maybe we would all be the same, we have to socialize and stay up late to catch up on designs, you don’t know how tiring it is to do design, but life is like this and there is no other way.

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GQ: How has choosing this path changed you? Xiao Zhan: Maybe I lack a lot of life experiences, in this regard, my classmates and friends are far better than me. They have experienced real things. There are no cameras facing you, no lights, you are living your own real life.

GQ: Are you an emotionally stable person? Xiao Zhan: Comparatively, more, stable. But once it hits some points, I will become very unstable.

GQ: For example? Xiao Zhan: Just… some things that cannot be said, haha. Maybe when something incredulous happens, you will think, what are you doing, or, when something happens that normal people would not do, I will become very angry. Maybe it’s some privacy issue, if this point is breached, I will go “berserk”. Everyone has their own boundaries, and some people have no sense of proportion, I will just stay away from these kind of people. But when the boundaries are broken again and again and the bottom line is touched, I will get very angry.

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GQ: You once said that you have a particularly tenacious side to your personality. What do you mean specifically? Xiao Zhan: Principles, I am a very obstinate person, if it’s something I insist on and I think that is right, it will be difficult to convince me. For example, if I want to be an actor and I don’t want to do anything other than being an actor, if you come and force me, then let’s debate. No one is right or wrong, the team is also doing this for your own good, since isn’t it a good thing to have a lot of work? But for me, I have to subtract because some things are really not what I want.

GQ: Do you have a perfectionist side? Xiao Zhan: I just want to do it well, and do my best in the current moment. Maybe the result is not good, but what can I do, this is all I can do.

GQ: Can you accept failure? Xiao Zhan: I can accept. I might not have been able to accept it a few years ago, but 32-year-old Xiao Zhan has learned to accept this (laughs).

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#xiao zhan #xiaozhan #肖战 #sean xiao

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