zeng li: i have never fought for anything in my 21 years of debut, and all three of my boyfriends are movie kings

sun qian's new drama "youth facing the wind" is a hit. in addition to the new generation of actors, veteran actors such as liu lin, tian yu, and li naiwen all performed well in the show.

in particular, zeng li, who played the role of the male protagonist zhai zilu's mother, was discovered by the outside world:

although her acting skills are excellent, it is a bit awkward for her to stand next to her "son" - she is too beautiful and looks more like a sister than a mother.

indeed, as a "200-year-old beauty" recognized by the industry, zeng li was hailed as a "big qingyi" when she debuted, which is a much higher position than a "little huadan".

she has played many classic roles, but for some reason, she has never become a big star.

now they can only rely on zhao lusi, the "little flower" who previously played her mother, to post pictures and get on the hot search list?

in fact, looking at the comings and goings of domestic entertainment, there are many female stars who have reached the peak of their careers as soon as they debuted or have many representative works but are not very popular:

are they really unlucky, or are they just making the life choices they wanted?

1. zeng li

zeng li, 48 years old this year, has been in the entertainment industry for 24 years. at her current age, there is no problem for her to play the role of a mother.

it's a pity that although he was so handsome and stunning when he was young, he never became a big star.

before she was admitted to the central academy of drama to study acting, she had many years of experience studying peking opera, so she has a graceful figure and outstanding looks. she is also a school beauty in the film academy full of beautiful girls, surpassing zhang ziyi and yuan quan.

in 2003, zeng li, who had just made her debut, became well-known to the audience for her role as yan ruyu in the hit tv series "beauty and the talented".

her appearance is gorgeous but not tacky, and her temperament is also quite good.

what is even more rare is that in addition to modern dramas, zeng li has also amazed the audience with her role as the female ghost mei sanniang in "new strange stories from a chinese studio".

but the peak of her career may still be the movie "the barber" 18 years ago - zeng li was nominated for the "best actress" at the shanghai film festival for this.

but after that, the 30-year-old seemed to start to "lack momentum". although she released new works every year, the response was never as good as before.

moreover, she is a low-key person and has never hyped up her relationships even after several relationships, so her presence in the entertainment circle is getting lower and lower.

in recent years, zeng li has been reduced to playing the roles of mother and master to popular young actresses and actors, but she has a very good attitude.

as for the reason, she said in her early years that she had no desire to be famous and it was good enough to just keep having movies to shoot.

2. gao lu

gao lu, 42 years old this year, is also a "hidden pearl in the ocean" in the hearts of the public - she was born in an artistic family, her mother is a children's drama actor, so she grew up in the theater since she was a child.

but she never thought of becoming an actress. her early plan was to become a painter.

as her plan to study abroad was shelved, gao lu took a last-minute exam and was admitted to the performance department of the central academy of drama. soon after her debut, she encountered the costume drama "the princess weiyoung", in which she played the role of wen qiang, a gentle and virtuous lady from a noble family, which attracted attention.

at that time, there were rumors that the drama's male lead, alec su, fell in love with her at first sight during the filming of the drama and began pursuing her.

but gao lu doesn't like hype and even personally denied the matter many years later.

at the same stage, the tv series "days related to youth" in which she participated was also being broadcast. the role of jin yan she played was extremely tragic and unforgettable.

but what really made gao lu famous was the 2010 emotional drama "home, nth power".

she successfully entered the hearts of many audiences with the role of "sister chestnut", but what is not well known is that it was also because of this role that gao lu was exposed by bai baihe from the same crew for being secretly married, and her rising career luck was greatly reduced.

it is said that the "conflict" between the two was caused by this role. the original candidate was bai baihe, but the screenwriter felt that she was more suitable to play the villain "zhao wen" with a bad personality, so gao lu successfully picked up the opportunity and became famous because of it.

after the news of her secret marriage was revealed, gao lu admitted that she was married and later gave birth to a daughter and a son in a low-key manner.

after that, her focus seemed to be on family business. although there were new works released every year, she never played any more representative roles, which made her seem like she was just like everyone else.

it was not until 2018 that gao lu became popular again for her successful portrayal of the villain "lin xiaoniang" in the tv series "the story of minglan" - proving that villain roles can also make an actor successful.

but now she is over 40 years old. although her acting skills are still recognized, the scripts she receives can only be supporting roles.

3. yang xue

yang xue, who was once praised by the outside world as the originator of "crazy beauties", took the pure route when she debuted and her future was bright.

many years later, angelababy made her debut and became a top star. some people even dug up her early stills to prove that they look alike, which shows that the latter also had the opportunity to become a popular actress and her acting skills are still very good.

she made her debut in 2000 by starring in the romantic movie "will you fall in love with a stranger?" and the following year she began playing the leading female role in the romantic drama "only you".

perhaps there are still viewers who remember that in the old idol drama "butterfly flying", yang xue also crushed various actresses such as wang luodan and kong wei.

but the role that really made everyone remember her was jiang yuyan in the 2005 hit tv series "the return of the condor heroes".

from the early innocence to the later madness, yang xue completed the character's darkening without any smoky makeup. her acting skills are amazing, and she has therefore become the "childhood shadow" in the hearts of many viewers.

she has a unique yandere quality to her, so whether she's playing a pure and innocent girl or a vicious female villain, she can pull it off with ease.

but at the same time, yang xue doesn't seem to be very ambitious.

in 2009, she chose to get married to zhao hai, an art designer. after that, she gave birth to a daughter and missed the climbing period of her career.

in fact, in the same year she got married, she won the most promising actress award for her role as lin e in the war drama "the world is full of longevity".

but after that, although yang xue still worked at the front desk every year, she no longer had any outstanding roles.

at one point, her workload dropped drastically, and she seemed to be semi-retiring from the entertainment industry.

until recently, yang xue has been active and joined the live-streaming e-commerce army. she also wanted to become more popular by relying on the dividends of "jiang yuyan", but the attention she received was not as good as she expected.

4. yang rong

yang rong, who is only 43 years old this year, is known as the "eternal second place" - this is because she has starred in countless hit works, but she played the second female role in each of them.

this may also be related to her personality.

yang rong made her debut at the age of 15 in the movie "the opium war", and was later admitted to the shanghai theatre academy as an exception due to her outstanding performance.

while other "little flowers" had not yet entered the industry or were just playing supporting roles, she had already played the leading female role.

especially in 2001, the 20-year-old yang rong participated in the costume drama "the young emperor" and made her presence felt with the role of the gentle concubine tong.

she also played the unruly and eccentric xiao fengzheng in "young justice bao 3" - this role is very different from the personality of concubine tong. from this, we can judge that yang rong is highly malleable and has good acting skills.

but after that, she missed out on many hit works due to her overly buddhist personality. she rejected the olive branches thrown by big directors more than once and missed the opportunity to become famous.

it was not until 2012 that she became popular again for playing the villain xu jia xixiang in yu zheng's work "palace lock and bead curtain".

after that, yang rong received many acting offers, and her roles such as yue lingshan, xiao huanyun, huo chengjun, etc., all left a deep impression on the audience.

even in "flops", her performance was never bad, but she was always in the situation of "she couldn't carry the show when playing the leading female role, but she could always crush the leading female role when playing the second female role", so she was called "the eternal second place".

especially in recent years, yang rong's workload has been decreasing, but she has produced serious dramas such as "daughter of the mountains". it can be seen that she still has ambition and original intention for acting, which is commendable.

5. li qian

li qian, who just turned 40 this year, studied dancing in her early years. after graduation, she was originally going to stay and work in the china children's theater, but she was unexpectedly spotted by a producer who extended an olive branch to invite her to film.

soon after, li qian became famous for her role as the quirky and clever little maid "xiao niba" in "wulin waishi".

this role has also become one of his classic representative roles.

after that, li qian starred in costume dramas such as "li wei as an official" and "the legend of the condor heroes", and naturally became a "professional maid".

but because she had no ambition to become a huge star, her career development fell into mediocrity. she released new works every year, but she just couldn't make it to the top.

however, li qian has great ambitions for acting. for example, in 2010, she played the image of a tragic pregnant woman in a natural disaster in feng xiaogang's film "1942".

she also had sparks with actor huang xuan while filming, but it ended in regret.

after that, li qian continued to film steadily, but still never hyped herself and almost never participated in variety shows.

it was not until 2018 that she appeared on the acting reality show "i am an actor", and crushed her competitor li xiaomeng with her outstanding performance, and also received rave praise from mentors zhang ziyi, lu chuan and others.

but that's all.

li qian later played the roles of qiu fen in "the big test", yang hua in "grandma's new world", xu shuxiu in "long river", but they were basically supporting roles.

6. yan danchen

yan danchen, who was once hailed by the outside world as the "most beautiful chang'e", also showed her talent in her early days. her gorgeous and recognizable appearance made her star career very promising.

as a classmate of huang xiaoming, chen kun and others, she reached the peak of her career as soon as she debuted - in 1997, she won many awards for starring in "carrying dad to school". she then starred in the movie "flower season and rainy season", for which she won the huabiao award for best newcomer.

yan danchen's ancient costume looks when she was young were also absolutely beautiful, such as playing yang fei in "the story of tang dynasty" and chang'e in "the lotus lantern".

as a result, she became the brightest rising star of the year, but soon yan danchen was caught up in a scandal, which caused her career, which had finally started to improve, to suffer a setback.

in 2007, when she reunited with her classmates from beijing film academy, she caused an uproar because of an intimate photo of her and guo xiaodong, and then there were rumors that the two were secretly married.

although the matter ended in nothing, yan danchen changed her career path and started making movies, but none of them became a hit.

after that, her resources declined visibly. after a few years of "floundering", yan danchen returned to the tv drama market, but unfortunately her position as the female lead seemed to have been lost long ago.

yan danchen could only play marginal roles such as concubine and village girl afterwards, and she no longer had the glory she had before.

in 2022, she was already 44 years old and suddenly announced the birth of her child. the identity of her husband, director meng haoqiang, also surfaced on the same day - the two met and fell in love because of their collaboration on "northern land".

after this, yan danchen's presence became even less noticeable.

7. jiao junyan

jiao junyan, who is younger than the above actresses, also played many classic roles in her early years:

for example, the volunteer xiaoyi in her debut movie "butterfly on the shoulder", the rural girl wang jianjun in "dating my ex-wife", feng jiaqi, the best friend of the heroine huang xiaoxian in "love is not blind", etc.

but what really made her noticed by most audiences was the hit urban drama "meeting wang lichuan" in 2016, and jiao junyan was therefore called "the eternal xie xiaoqiu" by the outside world.

in particular, the drama's male lead, gao yixiang, passed away in an accident, which cast a tragic shadow on this classic screen cp.

however, jiao junyan rarely played more outstanding roles and produced more outstanding works after that, although her acting skills, appearance and character were highly recognized.

because of her participation in the variety show "my daughter", her father's complaints on the show seem to explain why she has been tepid for many years since her debut:

he dresses casually, has no idol image, and doesn't seem to care about becoming a celebrity.

especially in recent years, jiao junyan has continued to receive acting offers, and has produced works such as "outside the court" and "asking the vastness", but her route is still just that of an actor, not a star.