Silver Bear winner not afraid of risks
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The Berlin Silver Bear winner Liao Fan is known for his wide acting range,but mostly as a character actor. Photos Provided to China Daily |
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| Interview with Liao Fan (Chinese) |
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It took him a year or two to recover, physically. Mentally, it took longer - until the script of Black Coal, Thin Ice opened up a new and yet familiar world. "I needed the release. I felt I knew this character. I could give life to him," says the 40-year-old.
Liao Fan does not see his own life as a typical success story. He was never short of work after graduating from the Shanghai Academy of Drama. Many of his early works in television were quite popular while his leading roles in independent films garnered some prizes. "Mine is not a melodrama filled with tear-jerking moments," he jokes. "I was not miserable before getting the big award."
Now that the public as well as his peers has awakened to his talent, he will have more freedom to plan his career. He will not mind taking small roles again, he says, as long as they are well written. And he will keep audiences on edge by taking on new challenges. Black comedy or even romantic comedy is something that fascinates him, for example. "I'd also love to try something like Benedict Cumberbatch's role in Sherlock or Zhang Hanyu's role in Assembly (a Feng Xiaogang war picture for which Liao has a smaller part)," he says. "If you play the same type again and again, your road will become narrower. Some sharp turn in role choices will jolt me out of complacency and rejuvenate me..
Liao's adventurous streak would not have left him even if he had never got into acting. "I would have tried writing or travel," he says.
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