madame FIGARO China June 2022 Issue
Free Time & Hobbies
In this past spring, Yang Mi stayed in Beijing, not working on the filming set, and gave herself some time off. Besides reading scripts at home, she spent more time just on "playing".
"I just play with anything, and I'm always discovering all kinds of fun things."
When the weather is good, she and her friends went hiking in the countryside, went to various parks in Beijing for spring trips, and rowing boats. A while ago, she saw her friends "tufting rug ", and she thought it was very interesting so she also went to try. She went to the store and chose a pattern of a little prince and a fox. The rug was not small, so she spent most of the day tufting little by little with the machine.
Yang Mi always has patience for hands-on activities that take time to complete, including her longtime hobby –– drawing and painting. Recently, she has been tempted to find a teacher to improve and specialise in it. For her, the sense of accomplishment of seeing the final product is secondary,
"I enjoy the process of doing something, and totally focusing on it. After a painting is finished, it actually has nothing to do with me anymore."
When she is at home, she can do a lot of interesting things. She watches movies,
"I recently re-watched 'Memories of Matsuko', a movie I watched a long time ago, and I felt different watching it again after many years."
Manga is her more widely known hobby,
"Few days ago, I read a manga about 'Where do people go after they die?' The answer in the manga was a movie theatre, the theatre was dark, the audience lined up to buy tickets, and you could eat popcorn, that was interesting."
In the two recent years, Yang Mi has gradually slowed down her work pace and spent more time at home, which has finally allowed her to learn how to cook, her favourite thing is spaghetti.
"Although the food may not be up to the level of entertaining friends, it's good to make it for myself."
Acting Class
Yang Mi also initiated a conversation about the acting class she was taking recently. She hired a teacher to practice one-on-one. Getting better and better in her profession as an actress is a goal that has never changed. During the class, she practiced meditation and breathing under the teacher's guidance, focusing on breath and rhythm, which is a basic training for actors in stage performance.
"Actors are supposed to be more sensitive than the usual people, not only in their thinking, but also in their observation, and their sensation. An actor's interpretation of a role is basically making judgment by following the character in a given situation, and finally, make the result that the character wants. So, as an actress, the first thing to do is to be a person."