The first episode of Tencent’s variety show, “Everybody Stand By 2” (演员请就位2), aired on October 2. This season, Hong Kong director, Derek Yee (爾冬陞), joined the returning directors from prior season, Chen Kaige (陈凯歌), Vicki Zhao (赵薇), and Guo Jingming (郭敬明). Derek Yee made an impression on everyone for being strict and ruthless in his debut and evaluation of actress, Wang Churan (王楚然), and actor and UNINE member, Chen Youwei (陈宥维).
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In the first episode, Wang Churan and Chen Youwei reenacted an iconic crying scene from “Eternal Love” (三生三世十里桃花), which featured Mark Chao (趙又廷) and Yang Mi (杨幂). After the performance, each director gave their evaluation of the pair’s performance. When it came to Derek Yee’s turn, he said their performance was very difficult to watch and it looked very strenuous for them to portray this scene. Derek Yee explains if they used this clip for a casting, they wouldn’t be chosen.
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Derek Yee then says Wang Churan is a little better than Chen Youwei as she might have some acting experience. He says she might look pretty on screen, but then tells her, “Do you know how many actors there are with your looks in China? There are a lot. The worst thing about pretty ones like you is not having personality. Since I already look like this, I need to find a way with my acting. I hope it didn’t hurt you.”
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Derek Yee continues explaining, “Because you guys are young. There must be someone who is very strict to say this to you. He proceeds with Chen Youwei’s evaluation and says, “Your body is okay, but you don’t really stand out either. You need to know your weak points. You have an extreme amount of weak points. You haven’t even learned how to use acting to control your facial features.” Chen Youwei agrees with Derek Yee.
However, he continues saying, “Your crying scene was very awkward. It looked like you were chewing gum or eating something. It would look very funny. You need to find a way to either take a refresher course or find some really good teachers. This teacher must be brave enough to directly tell you that you don’t have acting talent. Even if you go back to your boy group, it won’t work. When you get older, there won’t be fans watching you. These female fans in three years or maybe if you fall in love, they feel betrayed. They will find another idol. It’s no use to depend on your looks. Remember this, you must depend on your strength, your acting. You can only depend on looks for a very short duration. Are you as handsome as Tony Leung? Find a way to look for a teacher. Hope you guys are successful or else in the next few years, you’ll run into a lot of problems. You’ll be eliminated by others.”
At this point, Wang Churan is wiping her tears, while Chen Youwei nods and bows to thank Derek Yee for his evaluation. After the episode aired, Derek Yee’s appraisal was trending high on Weibo. Many netizens were shocked by Derek Yee’s very blunt and somewhat harsh critique of their performance. However, Chen Youwei’s fans remained calm and left comments thanking Derek Yee for his review and said it was Chen Youwei’s honor to get evaluated by him.
I was gonna say the exact same thing the director said. His face looks really awkward and weird I was going to say that I don’t think he’s right for this role because his face just doesn’t work with it but after reading the directors response it might be that he’s not meant for acting all together. You should get better teachers or try to get better at acting and take a few notes from Mark Chao Because his performance made me cry this one just makes me feel uncomfortable and kind of awkward.
I feel that this kind of comments are needed because some idols think that they can go from singer career to acting just because they have good apearance. It’s not, you also need to have passion for acting, diverse personality so you can act in any situations. I just feel that there is so much actress and actors who just get works because they are popular and pretty, which steals work from those who are actually very talented.
Glad they these two get some advises from experts who knows what they talk about. Chen took it well even if its hurtful because it will help him to grow more.
Harsh? This is spot on . He is just giving the actors some facts about life. Was there some irrelevant information, yes, very much. Honestly, at an audition no one is going to tell you have how to improve, they will just pick out your flaws to eliminate you.
Derek Yee don’t have to teach him anything. Its probably not the first time Chen has heard this.