曹操 我在中國影視劇中扮演外國人(上)

THE MANY FACES OF CAO CAO

曹操：我在中國影視劇中扮演外國人

Every foreigner living in China has his share of China Stories. Jonathan Kos-Read has more than his share. Here’s one: Not long ago, the 43-year-old American actor received a call with an offer to appear in “Ip Man 3,” the third in a series of biopics about Bruce Lee’s martial-arts master. The role was small, but his agent negotiated what Kos-Read considered an “outrageous” amount of money for it, and the producers agreed. Kos-Read was thrilled until he read the script and noticed another part for a foreign actor — a bigger and better role as a mobster named Frank.

每一個在中國生活的外國人，都有自己的“中國故事”。喬納森·科斯-瑞德(Jonathan Kos-Read)的這種故事比常人更多。其中一個是：不久前，這位現年43歲的美國演員接到一個電話，希望他參演《葉問3》。這個系列是關於李小龍的師父葉問的傳記片。角色很小，但他的經紀人給他談了一個在他看來高得“令人髮指”的報酬，製片方同意了。科斯非常激動，直到讀了劇本後，發現劇中還有一個需要外國演員出演的角色——一個更大更好的角色，是一個名叫弗蘭克的黑幫人物。

This was troubling. Kos-Read, who is known in China only as Cao Cao, is by far the leading foreign actor working in the country today, having appeared in about 100 movies and television programs since his career began in 1999. He is famous throughout the mainland, and his career has been on a steady upward trajectory. Last December he appeared in the action film “Mojin — The Lost Legend,” currently the fifth-highest-grossing movie in Chinese history. Who, Kos-Read wondered, would the producers have cast instead of him?

這有點讓人煩。科斯-瑞德在中國的名字叫“曹操”，自1999年開始當演員以來，他已經出演了大約100部影視作品，如今他是中國數一數二的外國演員。他在中國大陸是名人，演藝生涯穩步上升。去年12月，他出現在動作片《尋龍訣》中，那是中國迄今爲止歷史票房第五高的電影。科斯-瑞德想知道，導演不找他演這個弗蘭克，那會找誰呢？

Kos-Read sent panicked texts to the movie’s casting director, but they went unanswered. “I felt threatened,” he told me recently, only half kidding. A few days later, he boarded a plane from Beijing to Shanghai to begin filming. When he showed up to the set, the mystery was solved almost immediately: There, slouching on a stool surrounded by a scrum of people, was the former heavyweight champion of the world Mike Tyson. The retired fighter had been cast, perhaps misguidedly, as Frank. (The Village Voice later described Tyson’s performance in the film as “sadly unimpressive.”) Kos-Read introduced himself and over the next three days developed a bond with Tyson. “He was not at all what I expected,” Kos-Read says. The pair discussed their young daughters, Montessori schools and, inevitably, boxing. They also spoke about self-reinvention, something each man knows quite a bit about.

科斯-瑞德在焦慮不安中給這部影片的選角導演發了一些短信，但沒有收到回覆。“我當時感覺受到了威脅，”不久前，他半真半假地對我說道。幾天後，他登上從北京飛往上海的班機，前去拍攝。到達片場之後，這個謎底幾乎立刻就解開了：前重量級拳王邁克·泰森(Mike Tyson)無精打采地坐在凳子上，旁邊亂哄哄地圍着一圈人。這名退役拳擊選手被選中——或許是受誤導——接演弗蘭克這個角色。（《村聲》[The Village Voice]雜誌後來說泰森在這部影片中的表演“令人遺憾地平庸”。）科斯-瑞德做了自我介紹，在接下來的三天裏，他和泰森走得很近。“他跟我之前想的完全不一樣，”科斯-瑞德說。兩人談論自己年幼的女兒、蒙特梭利學校，以及必然少不了的拳擊。他們也說到重塑自我，這東西好像每個男人都很懂。

“Ip Man 3” went on to gross $115 million at the box office in China, with more than half of that coming on the opening weekend. China’s booming movie market grew by nearly 50 percent last year and is expected to surpass North America’s as the largest in the world by next year. These days, Hollywood studios hardly greenlight a blockbuster without first asking, “How will this play in China?” The rewards are too vast. “Furious 7,” for example, earned $390 million in China — more than it made in the United States — and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever in the country.

《葉問3》在中國的票房總收入達到1.15億美元，多半來自上映的那個週末。中國繁榮的電影市場去年增長了近50%，明年有望超過北美成爲世界上最大的電影市場。如今，好萊塢的電影公司在大片開拍之前都要先問“它在中國會有怎樣的表現”，不然不會綠燈放行。回報太豐厚了。比如，《速度與激情7》(Furious 7)在中國賺了3.9億美元，高於它在美國的票房，一度成爲中國史上票房最高的影片。

And just as Hollywood has begun to crack the market, Chinese cinema has come into its own. In recent years, Chinese studios have started shifting away from the agitprop that defined their cinematic output for generations and are instead focusing on genres that draw viewers to theaters in any country: action, adventure, comedy. In February, a sci-fi comedy called “The Mermaid” became the highest-grossing movie ever in China within 12 days of its release, earning more than $430 million. Increasingly, Chinese cinemagoers are opting to buy tickets for movies made specifically for them — like those in the “Ip Man” series — not those that pander to them or lecture them. It is in this sort of film that Kos-Read has finally had the chance to act, rather than portray a stand-in for Western imperiousness. If the Hollywood studios really want to understand how to succeed in China, Kos-Read’s journey makes for a kind of accidental guide.

就在好萊塢開始打開這個市場之時，中國電影也開始繁榮起來。近些年，中國的電影公司開始從宣傳鼓動類影片（這類片子曾主導數代中國影壇）轉向在任何一個國家都能吸引觀衆的類型：動作片、冒險片和喜劇片。今年2月，科幻喜劇片《美人魚》(The Mermaid)在上映12天后成爲中國歷史票房最高的影片，超過4.3億美元。越來越多的中國觀衆選擇去電影院購票觀看專門爲他們製作的電影，比如《葉問》系列，而不是那些一味討好或教育他們的影片。在這種影片中，科斯-瑞德終於有機會去表演，而不是作爲西方專橫霸道形象的替代品。如果好萊塢的電影公司真的想知道如何在中國取得成功，那麼科斯-瑞德的經歷意外地成了一種指南。

In January, I met Kos-Read at Beijing Capital International Airport to accompany him on a trip to Yiwu, a trading city in Zhejiang Province, 165 miles from Shanghai. From there we would take a van to Hengdian World Studios, the biggest back lot in the world, where he was filming a new TV series.

今年1月，我在北京首都國際機場與科斯-瑞德碰頭，跟他一起去義烏。義烏是浙江省的一個貿易城市，距離上海165英里。我們從那裏坐車去橫店影視城，這是世界上最大的露天片場，他在那裏拍攝一部新電視劇。

Kos-Read was tired. He had flown in a few days before from the Bay Area, where his wife and two young daughters live; the actor now splits time between the United States and China, which he has called home for almost two decades. Kos-Read has wavy brown hair, a thick beard streaked with gray and the kind of broad face that looks good on camera. He curses a lot and often wears a look of deep contemplation that borders on exasperation. As we boarded the plane for our 10:30 p.m. flight, he sported a huge calf-length black parka, which he wears on set — Chinese sets are notoriously frigid in the wintertime — and carried a heavy backpack filled mostly with equipment for photography, a personal hobby. The airplane was only half full. Kos-Read lumbered through the center aisle until he reached the last row, where he heaved his backpack onto a seat and plopped down into another as if he were claiming a spot on a long-distance bus.

科斯-瑞德顯得很疲憊。幾天前他剛從舊金山灣區飛到中國，他的妻子和兩個年幼的女兒住在那裏。這位演員現在在美中之間來回跑，他以中國爲家已有近20年時間。科斯-瑞德有着捲曲的棕色頭髮，夾雜着灰須的濃密鬍子，以及一張上鏡的寬臉。他愛說髒話，經常露出一副陷入深思、近乎惱怒的神情。晚上10點半我們登機時，他穿着一件長及腿肚的黑色衝鋒衣，在片場他就穿這個——中國的片場在冬天特別寒冷——揹着一個沉重的雙肩包，裏面主要裝着攝影器材，那是他的個人愛好。飛機上只坐了一半人。科斯-瑞德吃力地沿着中間的通道走到最後一排，把揹包扔到一個座位上，然後重重地坐到另一個座位上，彷彿是在長途汽車上搶座。

During the two-hour flight, Kos-Read drank a few cans of Yanjing Beer and discussed his role in last year’s “Mojin.” In the film, he plays a lawyer to a cult leader. After the first act, he turns into a zombie. It was by far the biggest project of his career, with by far the biggest stars, and it increased his already-formidable exposure in China by degrees of magnitude. On our plane, a flight attendant recognized him from the film. (In California, by contrast, he is basically anonymous outside of Chinatowns.) Kos-Read was happy for the opportunity to appear in such a large movie but was disappointed with his performance, which he believes was adequate but not excellent. “In a lot of TV shows, you just have to spit out the lines, really. But in a big movie, you’ve really got to be good,” he told me. “In my first big movie, I stepped up into the big leagues and hit a single.”

在兩小時的飛行中，科斯-瑞德喝了幾罐燕京啤酒，談起他在去年上映的影片《尋龍訣》中的角色。他在片中飾演一位邪教領袖的律師。在第一幕之後，他變成了殭屍。到目前爲止，那部電影是他職業生涯中最大的項目，合作的明星也是最大牌的。從量級上說，那部影片提高了他在中國本就很高的知名度。飛機上的一位乘務員認出了他，知道他參演了那部影片（相比之下，在加利福尼亞州，幾乎沒人認識他——除了在唐人街）。科斯-瑞德很高興有機會參演這樣一部大片，不過他對自己的表演感到失望，他認爲自己的表演差強人意，算不上精彩。“在很多電視劇中，你真的只用說臺詞就好了。但是在一部大片中，你真的得很棒才行，”他對我說道。“我第一次參演大片，就進入了大聯盟，而且還打出了一壘打。”

Still, acting in one of the biggest Chinese blockbusters of all time is a long way from where Kos-Read began. Raised in Torrance, Calif., he attended an arts high school, where he got interested in acting. He went on to study film and molecular biology at New York University. There, he took a Mandarin course and became determined to master the language. He moved to Beijing in 1997 and drifted, living for a period in a student dorm and forcing himself to speak nothing but Mandarin for a three-month stretch. “Like everybody else, I arrived and bummed around for two years, not knowing what I was going to do, trying to do a bunch of things, failing,” he says. “Teaching English.”

不過，科斯-瑞德熬了很長時間，才得以參演中國最重要的一部大片。他在加州託蘭斯長大，上的是藝術高中，他在那裏迷上了表演。後來他在紐約大學(New York University)學習電影和分子生物學。他還選修了中文，並且下定決心掌握這門語言。1997年他搬到北京，開始漂泊，有一段時間住在學生宿舍裏，有三個月時間強迫自己只說中文。“和其他人一樣，我來了後閒混了兩年，不知道自己要幹什麼，做過許多嘗試，全都失敗了，”他說道。“還教過英語。”