Marie Claire China (嘉人) February 2022 issue
"Extreme Honesty is Unbreakable"
Being forgetful is probably the norm of Yang Mi at the recent years. It doesn't feel great but she realises that it isn't very horrifying too. "I remember neither the good things nor the bad one."
However, only her crew will feel 'headache'. Although they have repeat 'thousand times' to inform her regarding the schedule or plan, she seems like have never heard of it before when the time is coming. She will blink her eyes and ask "I have this activity?". Then, her team came out with a solution which is simplifying the matter and just right a day before the activity, they would tell her the time when she should be leaving.
Every night before sleeping, Yang Mi has the habit of reading the messages sent by her assistant, then set the time for the alarm clock. Have a good sleep is one of the enjoyable things at the moment. If she wakes up too early in the morning, she will easily be in a bad mood and keep complaining or talking about it. Another thing that will make her complaining is 'being hungry'. Her meal time is always very punctual whereby all her three meals must be taken on the specific/right time. Last time when she went abroad, she would feel hungry although it wasn't the meal time yet. Then, her crew found out that it was the meal time in China. She seldom has dilemma between 'eat' and 'body shape'. This is because she always practices a healthy diet, seldom eats any junk food, and never overeats too. Throwing back when filming 'She and Her Perfect Husband' (爱的二八定律) in Shang Hai, "I fell in love in eating the thing like Curly Kale (羽衣甘蓝)."
"I do understand Qin Shi, this character very much. She is a person who puts her job at the first place. Besides working, she probably does not have any interested things in her life."
In the drama, due to the work needs, she prefers to skip dating and directly marries. Yang Mi can understand her too: "Love/dating is really a troublesome matter. Stressful, takes a lot of time, needs much effort and is high in risk. The efforts and rewards are not equivalence. Therefore, right now there are lesser and lesser people who would date/be affectionate on someone."
Sometimes, Yang Mi's confident answers will be considered as "dissing someone". There are many compilation videos of her dissing people on the internet but not many people will feel offended. Instead, they would just watch it as an entertainment and some would even like her more. The reasons probably are because they knew what she said were the truth. It might not be something very meaningful or deep but it probably is the truth in our lives. Along her step-by-step journey till today, she seems to have play a "female protagonist-oriented" movie. What's touching in this movie is not how strong she becomes by walking out of the storm, but it's how she always has the confidence of being "real". She knows what's the reality, what does she want or need, and then facing her condition and desire honestly. "Extreme honesty is unbreakable. Therefore, there are many things that can't beat me down." The motivational words that Yang Mi said to the participant from the talk show 'I can I BB' (奇葩说) last year, might be considered as the circumstantial proof of her own true feelings.
"Occupation/Profession Is Just a Type of Job Attributes"
At the end of year (2021), 'Novoland: Pearl Eclipse' was being aired. Yang Mi cherished the feelings that she felt when filming this drama: "I was quite happy when playing this role."
She fitted in various man styles, challenged many fighting scenes, and even experienced the life of a proactive person under the name of the character. As the visual effects were not created yet when Yang Mi did her voice dubbing, she just did it while looking at the green scenes. The challenge (of voice dubbing) is not about the traditional Chinese poetry. Instead, it was the part where she played around with her senior fellow. Many of the lines were said spontaneously during the filming, "At that time I spoke very fast.", so it was quite troublesome/hard for her to dub. Her solution is "repeat for several times". If the voice dubbing was not done well, she would repeat it for several times.
*T/N Dialogue in the Dark (盲人体验馆) is an awareness raising exhibition and franchise, as well as a social business. In Dialogue in the Dark, blind guides lead visitors in small groups through different settings in absolute darkness.
When she promised to do it, she will definitely complete it and do her best of her abilities. This is her attitude until now.
Talking about how the staff of 'Thank You Doctor' counted the number of times they entered the set along the 2 years of pandemic (from 2019-2021). Yang Mi said she couldn’t remember such thing. At that time, she only had a thought in her mind, which is, "Everyone is being hard. We definitely can finish filming the drama. It will just wrap up sooner or later anyway."
Before filming the drama, she actually went to 'internship' at the hospital for some time. She wore the white coat like a pro, followed by the doctors to give medical check-up to the patients, and listened to them sharing the stories happened throughout their career path.
Yang Mi's desire to express something is the strongest when disagreeing on the "labels" and "stereotypes". When she was filming ‘She and Her Perfect Husband’ in Shanghai, her friend came to visit her on set. And she teased on Yang Mi, saying that why you as a lawyer is wearing so “colourful or flowery”*. When Yang Mi heard it, she immediately disagreed with it and said; either being a lawyer or a doctor, the first and foremost thing is that they are all human. If you are a human, you definitely would have the desire to wear beautiful clothes, and choose to live in the way that makes you feel comfortable. Occupation/profession is just a type of job attributes. "If we think that doctors should be like this or lawyers should be like that, it is just them being stereotyped by us. And we ourselves are being ‘narrow-minded’."
*T/N In the interview, the word 花枝招展 (huā zhī zhāo zhǎn) is used. I couldn't really find an accurate english word for it. So, I translate it into "colourful or flowery". The meaning of this phrase is somehow like wearing very fancy / fashion / colourful / beautiful and will attract much attention from others.
"Rainbow Bridge"
Almost entering her third dozen years, Yang Mi's current condition seems like didn't differ from her 20+ year-old self. We asked if now she has managed to maintain her true self?
"I guess half half. Since I am a public figure, there are some moments where I shouldn’t be self-centred. For example, you are feeling upset today but you still have to show your positive and healthy side to the public."
She agrees that her career has public attribute, and thinks that she has the responsibilities to deliver positive and right messages.
"But there were times where I used experience ‘emo' (being upset) too. If you look back my old weibo posts, they were very emo. I’m the ancestor of emo."
On weibo, she is the few celebrities whose followers are over 100million. All the public did somehow hear the rumours or news of hers within the years. Her weibo account was made since year 2009 and all her posts relating to her feelings at that time were still visible.
"I didn’t cringe on those posts. Since the moment I posted them, I won’t be cringed or embarrassed." Sometimes the posts will still be dug and repost by the Cnetizens, Yang Mi laughed and said, "There are still many people asking me to read them too."
*T/N the word ‘emo’ is getting viral among the cnetizens on year 2022. Emo is the short form of emotional and means upset, etc.
Yang Mi is liked a cat — alert and careful when facing strangers but once she is familiar with them, she will start being a little talkative. "Few days ago, my cat made a heart to me."
She showed the pic to the interviewer and turned around to asked her staff, "Did you know Da Cang (大仓 – her cat’s name) make a heart to me?"
All her three cats were adopted from the filming set. The earliest adopted cat is taken care by her parents, then she would bring the other two cats by her side when filming dramas. The cat called "Da Cang" is an orange cat and was adopted by her when she filmed 'Legend of Fu Yao' (扶摇) on year 2017. She keeps the cat for 5 years, not long ago, it was sick and warded for almost a year. It almost passed away.
Yang Mi said: "Its life is a little miserable, but it has great attitude. (she sighs) All of my cats believe in human very much. So, at home, they always lay down on their back."
Few days ago, when Da Cang was laying down like that, Yang Mi noticed that its front limbs have a pattern and it will look like a heart shape at certain angle. Her heart was touched right at the moment, so she lower her head down to the cat and said, "Thank you ah."
These years, Yang Mi is slowing down her work schedule. This year (2021), she filmed two dramas. And, at the early of the year, she was busy promoting 'The Writer's Odyssey' (刺杀小说家). In spring, she mostly stayed at Beijing. Then, she practiced a habit of having a walk after dinner. One day, when she was having dinner with her friend, they talked about a bridge in Beijing where you can make wishes on it. She immediately felt interested in it as she didn’t know there is such a bridge although she has been living till the age of 30+. So, she went there when she had a walk with her friend.
According to her description, "It’s a crescent shaped arch bridge. The white bridge is decorated fully with colourful lights/lamps. During the dark or night time, when the lights are lighted up, it’s really liked a rainbow in between the river."
But sadly, on the day she went there, only half of the lights were light up and the other half was dark. So, she just stood in the half rainbow and made a wish sincerely.
📸 Behind the Scene photos 📸
