Li Bingbing plays a Chinese CEO in Transformers: Age of Extinction, which has drawn wide attention at home and abroad.
Even though she was only on screen for 10 minutes, Li Bingbing's appearance in the new Transformers movie has helped propel her career to a new level.
The Chinese A-lister plays the CEO of a technology company in Transformers: Age of Extinction, which has grossed $300.4 million at the box office on the Chinese mainland in just four weeks, and $886 million worldwide.
Li, 41, has received international attention for her head-turning role as a sexy, powerful company executive in the blockbuster film. Those accolades helped her land contracts worth 80 million yuan ($12.9 million) to be the spokeswoman for two international companies and one domestic business.
Li, a native of Harbin,Heilongjiang province, may be best known overseas for her role in Transformers: Age of Extinction, but it wasn't her first appearance on the international stage.
She played a leading role in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, produced by Wendi Deng in 2011, and starred in the 2012 science-fiction action movie Resident Evil: Retribution.
She landed the role in Transformers while vacationing and studying English in the United States in 2012, when her agent in the country invited her to audition for the film.
Li was initially unsure how it would look for an Asian woman to play a leading role in the action series. However, she was drawn to the project after she saw the exquisite models of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee-two of the Transformers-in director Michael Bay's studio.
"Bay is very nice, with an active mind. He talked about the Transformers with an expressive face," Li was quoted by the Beijing News as saying.
In the original script for Transformers, Li's character was a man. But Bay told Li that he was willing to change the character to a female so she could play the role.
She spoke with Bay often about her character's image while making the film. Li's studio even gave her character a new name, Su Yueming, because the original one didn't sound believable for a Chinese female CEO.
Li wanted Su to appear courageous and resolute, so she took her ideas to Bay, who asked one of his friends, an Asian makeup artist, to work with her. They discussed every detail of her character's appearance, from her eyebrows, eyelashes to the color of her lipstick.
Li, a martial arts fan, performs kung fu in one of the movie's scenes shot in Hong Kong. Bay also asked her to perform in a motorcycle-racing scene, after he found out she was comfortable behind the wheel.
With appearances in international films such as Transformers, Chinese audiences have noticed that Li's English has improved greatly.
Like many other Chinese celebrities working in Hollywood, the language barrier was her biggest hurdle, but Li was determined to improve her English. Her secret is never being embarrassed, regardless of whether she makes a mistake.
In the beginning, her vocabulary was limited, but she used all of the words she knew. If Li couldn't understand what other people were saying, she studied harder.
In addition to improving her English while working overseas, Li says her experience in Hollywood has helped her grow as an actor.
Li said working with talented people like Bay has taught her that it's important to give your own opinions and suggestions to the director.
"In a Hollywood blockbuster, you can't just listen to others all the time like a puppet," Li told the Beijing News.
Li, who isn't married, says she's in no rush to leave her busy career and start a family.
"I'm not celibate. It's just that I haven't met my Mr Right. But getting married is not the final aim of my life, and I don't want to be kidnapped by traditional values," Li told the Beijing News.
"As long as I feel peaceful and unrestrained while getting along with myself, it's OK."
譯文
李冰冰因在《變形金剛4:絕跡重生》中飾演一名高科技企業(yè)的中國高管,而受到國內(nèi)外的廣泛關(guān)注。
雖然李冰冰在《變形金剛4:絕跡重生》(以下簡稱《變4》)中的戲份只有10分鐘,但她在影片中的亮相著實將她的事業(yè)推向了新的高峰。
華人一線女星李冰冰此次在《變4》中飾演一名高科技企業(yè)的首席執(zhí)行官。該片在中國大陸上映僅4周時間,就成功吸引了3.04億美元的票房,全球票房也高達(dá)8.86億美元。
41歲的李冰冰憑借《變4》成為全球矚目的女星,她在片中飾演一名公司高管,性感的女強人形象賺足了回頭率,同時也讓她成功地拿到了價值8000萬元人民幣的合同,成為兩家國際公司和一家中國商家的代言人。
出生于黑龍江省哈爾濱市的李冰冰,因出演《變4》在國外名聲大噪,但這并非她在國際舞臺上的處女秀。
2011年,李冰冰在鄧文迪制作的《雪花秘扇》中擔(dān)任主角,隨后還主演了2012年的科幻動作片《生化危機5:懲罰》。
2012年,李冰冰在美國休假,學(xué)習(xí)英語時,她美國的經(jīng)紀(jì)公司安排她為《變4》試鏡,后來就接下了這部電影。
剛開始,李冰冰很難想象為什么外國導(dǎo)演要找一個亞洲女性來出演這部動作系列片。但當(dāng)她一看到邁克爾·貝導(dǎo)演(Michael Bay)工作室里的擎天柱和大黃蜂,這兩個造型精美的變形金剛模型后,她就被電影吸引了。
《新京報》援引李冰冰原話:“邁克爾·貝導(dǎo)演人很好,思維活躍。說道《變形金剛》就眉飛色舞。”
在《變4》的原劇本中,李冰冰所飾一角原定為男性參演,但邁克爾·貝導(dǎo)演告訴李可以為她改成女性角色。
在電影的拍攝過程中,李冰冰常與導(dǎo)演討論她的角色形象。她的工作室甚至還為角色換了一個名字,蘇月明,因為原來的名字(廖秀梅)不像是中國女高管的名字。
李冰冰希望讓蘇月明這個角色呈現(xiàn)出干練果敢的形象,并把想法告訴了導(dǎo)演。后來,導(dǎo)演讓一個亞裔化妝師朋友來和她商量。他們對角色造型進(jìn)行了細(xì)致周密的討論,包括睫毛的粘法,眉眼的勾畫,唇色等。
李冰冰很喜歡動作戲,她在香港拍攝的戲份里有武打場面。得知李冰冰喜歡駕駛,導(dǎo)演邁克爾·貝還給她加了一場摩托車飆車的戲份。
李冰冰在《變4》這樣的國際大片中頻頻亮相之后,中國觀眾發(fā)現(xiàn)她的英語水平突飛猛進(jìn)。
與眾多在好萊塢演戲的中國明星一樣,語言障礙也是李冰冰的最大的軟肋。但她決心要提高自己的英語水平,而其中秘訣就在于她不怕犯錯,不怕丟臉。
起初,她的詞匯量有限,但她會盡量用上她知道的所有詞匯。如果發(fā)現(xiàn)自己聽不懂別人在說什么,她就會加倍努力地學(xué)習(xí)。
在海外工作不僅是提升了她的英語水平,李冰冰表示在好萊塢的拍戲經(jīng)驗也讓她成了一個更優(yōu)秀的演員。
李冰冰認(rèn)為和像導(dǎo)演邁克爾·貝這樣優(yōu)秀的人一同工作,讓她知道,跟導(dǎo)演反饋自己的意見建議是很重要的。
“在這么牛的好萊塢大片里,你不能跟個提線木偶似的,總聽別人在說,”李冰冰對《新京報》這樣說道。
李冰冰至今仍是單身,她說自己不急著放下手頭忙碌的工作,開始家庭生活。
“我不是獨身主義者。我只是還沒遇到我的白馬王子。但是,結(jié)婚并不是我人生的終極目標(biāo),我也不想被傳統(tǒng)價值標(biāo)準(zhǔn)綁架,”李冰冰對《新京報》如是說道。
“只要在與自己的相處中,我覺得自在,安寧,這就夠了。”