I played the role of "evil mother-in-law" in the domineering boss's short play: slapping, pulling hair, staying up late, and earning 4,000 in 5 days

Uncovering the behind-the-scenes life of elderly actors in the skit industry: how they find a place in the skit craze and realize their dream of becoming an actor through passion and persistence. This article explores in depth the living conditions, challenges and opportunities of elderly actors in skits, and is suitable for readers who are interested in the film and television industry and the lives of elderly actors.

In 2024, there are fewer reports of people getting rich overnight by making short plays (also known as mini-program dramas), and more and more people are realizing that short plays are not a business that is so easy to make money. Despite this, the trend is still strong, and major TV series and film companies, top directors, and actors continue to join the game. In just one year, short plays have developed to the point where they can create stars. Some media reported that the pay of top short play actors has reached 6,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan per day, and some representative short play actors have emerged, such as Sun Yue and Xu Yizhen.

Not only young actors have achieved a leap forward through short dramas, but older actors have also taken advantage of it. Recently, a retired civil servant went to Hengdian to perform as an extra, which became a hot topic because he caught up with the short drama trend, got more opportunities to film, and finally realized his dream of becoming an actor.

It's not just Hengdian. With the popularity of short dramas, countless crews have started filming all over the country. "Focus" talked to three different types of female elderly short drama actors. In the past two years, they have each performed in no less than 30 short dramas, many of which are hits. To a certain extent, their status can reflect the true appearance of this group at the moment. Compared with young actors, most elderly people don't think about getting rich by filming short dramas, nor do they regard filming as a profession, but more as a hobby. For them, it is a very happy thing to be able to realize their dream of being an actor when they were young after retirement and make some money by the way.

However, the other side of the coin is that in the crew, elderly actors will not be treated preferentially because of their age. They need to stay up late with the crew and even shoot with illness. They also took time to adapt to and accept the strong conflicts in the short play, such as slapping the male lead four times in one scene. As for the pay, since the role types of elderly actors are relatively fixed, the most important criterion for the crew's casting is not acting skills, but appearance and cooperation, which makes this circle very competitive. Even local head actors with rich shooting experience will not earn more than 1,000 yuan a day. Some elderly actors have expressed their willingness to perform for free. The following is their story and their world.

1. Earn 4,000 yuan in 5 days: Don’t be afraid of bad performance, just be afraid of staying up late

"Auntie will pick out some jewelry for you later, and I guarantee you will outshine that little bitch XX at the banquet." This is a short play clip that Lin Jie posted on WeChat Moments. She plays a savage mother-in-law from a wealthy family, whose job is to find fault with the heroine. Lin Jie has played this type of role countless times. Although she is over 60 years old, she looks very noble with her long black hair, broad eyes, and a tall and well-proportioned figure. The dramas that she is chosen to star in are mostly about wealthy families.

Screenshot of Lin Jie's skit

Meng Xianzhi is also a professional rich mother. In addition, she is also very good at playing the role of "rural evil mother-in-law". For example, she grabbed the heroine's arm and wanted to slap her, but failed. So she pretended to fall to the ground and kicked the heroine, muttering, "How dare you mess with my daughter? This is my son's home." In the words of the director and the old sisters around her, "Teacher Meng can handle all kinds of roles and has strong explosive power. She can improvise on the spot to complete the script and the image in the director's mind, and she can just throw a tantrum on the ground." This stubbornness also made her a famous "professional villain" in the local area.

Finding Guo Li's role is even more distinctive. Her fluffy and gray hair is very recognizable, so people like to call her a "special actor". When people in the local circle mention the old lady in ancient costume dramas, they will think of her.

The three aunts are good at different roles, but they have some things in common: they are over 60 years old, have distinctive looks, earn thousands of yuan in retirement wages, have a lot of free time, and are passionate about acting. This also outlines the character portrait of elderly short play actors. A director told "Focus" that the circle of elderly short play actors is not large. Compared with other circles, actors in this age group are relatively fixed. Most of them are local extras. Everyone is in a WeChat group. Some elderly actors with good looks can be used directly, and there are a small number of amateurs who are discovered by casting directors on buses and on the streets.

If the crew feels that a certain aunt or uncle performs well after working with them a few times, they will usually continue to work with them stably. This is how Lin Jie, Meng Xianzhi, and Guo Li started their short play career, and they have already become famous locally.

For them, "acting" is not difficult.

On the one hand, because they have certain experience, before getting involved in short dramas, they have shot information flow advertisements (recommendations of brand products, guiding prefaces in live broadcast rooms, etc.), column dramas on local TV stations, and have also appeared in some online movies and long dramas, including big dramas like "The World".

On the other hand, when filming short plays, their roles are relatively simple, and even their lines are similar. They need to adapt to the fast pace of filming short plays, and the biggest challenge is physical.

Dingjiao learned that the crew does not like to use people over 70 years old. In terms of shooting rhythm, elderly actors in short dramas will not be treated preferentially because of their age. Every time they shoot a scene, they have to stay on the set for at least 2 hours, and it may be 15 hours. Because they have to catch up with the shooting progress, the three aunts have experienced staying up late.

Lin Jie once worked from 2pm to 5am the next morning. Guo Li’s first short play was shot for 5 consecutive days, from 7:30am to 1am or 2am the next day. On the fourth or fifth day, she felt a little tired. “I always wanted to find a place to sit for a while, my face didn’t look good, and it was a bit hard to memorize the lines.” After the filming of that play, she rested for several days before she recovered. Meng Xianzhi had the experience of not sleeping for more than 30 hours. When the crew finished shooting at 4am, she hurried home to get her next set of clothes because another crew was going to start shooting at 7am. Running on the road is also a kind of consumption for them. They usually shoot locally, but the trip to and from the set takes as short as 2 hours and as long as 3 or 4 hours.

Their long-standing thrifty habits have made them accustomed to calculating the most economical way to save money. For example, Meng Xianzhi has four bus cards in order to take buses on different routes. Under such intensity, their pay is not high.

Director Li Yunming told "Dingjiao" that the overall pay for elderly actors in short plays is between 500 yuan and 1,500 yuan per day. According to the descriptions of several aunts, extras with fewer roles earn 50 yuan a day, and some crews even only pay 30 yuan; special actors with more roles earn about 500 yuan/half day and 800 yuan/day. The time when Guo Li almost collapsed from exhaustion after filming for 5 consecutive days, she earned 4,000 yuan in 5 days, which was her highest income. Why are you willing to film short plays even though you are so tired? The answers they gave were similar. They didn't care much about the pay, but regarded filming as a hobby in their later years, which was also a fulfillment of their dream of being an actor when they were young.

2. There is also a world for "short drama parents": reducing pay to grab roles and being absolutely obedient to the director

Where there are people, there is the world. Even though many elderly actors do not expect to make money by filming short dramas, it does not prevent this circle from being very competitive.

A director told "Dingjiao" that every time the assistant director sent a notice in the actor group, a large number of uncles and aunts would reply. Some elderly actors would argue for a role, and even curse openly in the actor group, sending more than a dozen voice messages to find fault with each other. Sometimes when they meet actors who know each other, they will call privately to battle again. Guo Li has repeatedly encountered scenes where elderly actors found the casting director to reduce their pay. Some actors would say, "Director, why are you giving her 300? I'll do it for 200." Some even expressed their willingness to perform for free and provided cars and props. Every time, Guo Li was very angry, "This kind of vicious competition should not be supported and it disrupts the market order."

The biggest reason for such a high volume is that the types of elderly roles in short plays are very fixed. Li Yunming said, "This type of role is too replaceable. If you don't take it, there are plenty of people who can take it. Casting is also easy. In most cases, you only need to look at the appearance and the acting skills as long as they don't get stuck on the lines."

For important but non-protagonist roles such as "the male and female protagonists' savage parents", the crew will not make too high demands. In terms of acting, the director emphasized the word "ruthless" the most. Lin Jie explained to "Dingjiao" that when she first filmed a short play, one of her scenes was not very smooth and she filmed it several times in a row. The main reason was that the director felt that she was not ruthless enough. Later, she made her facial expressions more exaggerated and walked faster, and the director passed it. After mastering this "essence", all the short plays she filmed were passed in one go.

As for the lines, due to the fast pace of filming, the crew often gives the script to the elderly actors two days in advance. Some crews do not even have high requirements for the lines. They only need to remember the beginning, middle and end, and leave the rest to the actors to play freely. In terms of the process, it is hard to say how formal it is. It is understood that few crews will sign contracts with these elderly actors, but they don't care.

Lin Jie plays the wealthy mother

On the contrary, they absolutely obey the director's requirements. Several aunts mentioned that the director likes to work with them because they are serious about filming, which is specifically manifested in that they can memorize the lines well and will not yell out card during filming because they did not remember the lines. One aunt compared the crew to a battlefield, the director is the general, the actors are the soldiers, and they must absolutely obey the command. And said that as long as there is a chance, they are willing to keep filming. They also have a strong sense of self-sacrifice. Once Meng Xianzhi had a high fever, but she still gritted her teeth and insisted on finishing the filming of the play, "The play is more important than anything else. I can't delay the crew's filming progress because of me."

“Generally, elderly actors don’t act like monsters. Even special actors with familiar faces are not treated well and are ordered around by the assistant director.” Li Yunming said that the aunts he had met were very cooperative and pure. “They just love to act and rarely care about things.”

3. The skits in the eyes of elderly actors: The plots are outrageous, but “web dramas” are meant to be exaggerated

Since the short drama became popular, it seems to have a special relationship with the elderly. On the one hand, short drama is a new content form that has only become popular in the past two years, and has become a seasoning for many elderly people to kill time. On the other hand, it also harvests the wallets of the elderly with its refreshing routines, reversals, and fast pace, and induces payment and other chaos, which are on the hot search every once in a while. How do the elderly view short dramas? Is the impact good or bad? Perhaps these elderly short drama actors who are in it have a deeper understanding.

First of all, in terms of content, the plot of the skit is outrageous and definitely not common in real life , which is the unanimous opinion of the aunts. Although they all have some acting experience and understand that drama originates from life but is higher than life, the strong contradictions and conflicts in the skit still shocked the aunts. Lin Jie's first scene was to slap the male lead in the mouth. In one scene, he slapped the male lead four times. "This is definitely not in line with reality, but the director asked for it, so we have to follow the rules." Later, Lin Jie played more and more, and he increasingly agreed that this kind of drama should be exaggerated, and the expressions and actions must be fierce to the end.

The other two aunts also said that during the filming process, they often had to slap people in the face and pull their hair. Secondly, their understanding of short dramas is vague. During the communication, several aunts could clearly name the popular short drama themes such as "The Son-in-law" and "Sweet Pet", and could even list the specific names of popular short drama platforms and producers, but they felt that what they filmed were not short dramas/mini-program dramas, nor TV dramas, but collectively referred to as web dramas. Guo Li believes that the difference between web dramas and TV dramas is that the channels of broadcasting are different. "Web dramas cannot be broadcast on TV. They can only be watched on mobile phones or with WiFi. They have many episodes but are short, while TV dramas are linked together, each episode is very long, and it is a complete story.

"In the minds of the aunts, "online dramas" do not seek truth or novelty in terms of personnel and shooting progress, and are fast food-style, while TV dramas seek truth, reality, and close to life, and the films shot are also authentic and credible. Although they shoot this kind of drama, they seldom watch it. They are also very clear about the routines in it, and the plots and characters are all the same, but they don't think this kind of drama is bad, because it is a very popular content at the moment and is very popular among young people. "Online dramas" are supposed to be exaggerated.

Therefore, even if they feel that the plot is not in line with common sense during filming, they will not raise any objections. These elderly actors have also sensed the trend changes in the short drama industry. More than one industry insider said that short dramas were very popular last year, but this year there is a cooling trend. Although there are film and television companies such as Huayi and Yuewen, as well as big-name directors such as Stephen Chow and Wang Jing, and even short drama platforms are forming alliances to jointly release good content, in fact, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make money in this industry.

A producer told Dingjiao that the platform's internal production costs have been reduced a lot, and the number of short series has been reduced from 100 to 60-80 episodes. With the intensified competition, fewer and fewer crews are starting to shoot short series. The aunts also clearly feel that there are fewer crews looking for them this year, but the current pay has not dropped significantly. In the future, even if the salary is reduced, they still hope to continue filming as long as their physical conditions allow.

Meng Xianzhi, who often plays villains, is called a "madman" in acting by those around her. In order to shoot a scene well, she would stay up all night reciting lines. In recent years, she has moved from one major crew to another with her suitcase, and has established stable cooperation with several film and television companies. She only rests during the Chinese New Year. She was deeply impressed by a comment from an audience member, "This aunt is too cunning, and is suitable for playing Rong Mama." Not only was she not angry, she also felt that this was a recognition of her acting skills.

Meng Xianzhi told "Focus" that she wanted to be an actor when she was a child, but she didn't have the chance to realize it when she grew up. Now, she feels closer to her dream. Although she is now over 60 years old, she hopes to work with great directors like Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Stephen Chow one day.

Author: Wang Lu; Editor: Wei Jia; Source public account: Dingjiao (ID: 1089129)