There is a Mr. Ta behind the screen.
When “Red Rain” ended its theatrical run, the three-inch hair, rough voice and gentle gaze of “Anh Ta” still remained. In crowded places, Nguyen Phuong Nam still heard someone calling: “Hey, Anh Ta!”. Perhaps, there are few roles that make an actor “stay” for so long.
Acting as if not acting
Right after "Red Rain" premiered, the film crew shared that they could not have expected the film to spread so quickly. "Red Rain" immediately achieved huge revenue after 5 days of release and after leaving theaters was recorded as the Vietnamese film with the highest revenue. The characters in the film were quickly searched for and shared on social platforms. One of those characters is Squad Leader Tran Dinh Ta. Mr. Ta comes to the audience not only with his honesty but also with his courage and kind heart... A character that is engraved in the hearts of the audience with his impressive appearance, with his regional personality, rustic and extremely loving.
To transform into Tran Dinh Ta - a Thanh Hoa soldier, Phuong Nam left his comfort zone. He lost weight, learned a country accent, and lived in the sun and wind of the war film set. Countless hardships and difficulties came to him and the actors of "Red Rain" in general, but with love for the profession, with the desire to bring vivid historical footage, recreating the image of the soldiers of Quang Tri ancient citadel in 81 days and nights of life and death, the collective of actors overcame and brought to the audience the most realistic and emotional images. Among them was Phuong Nam, an actor who had never been famous before, but was now sought after and loved by fans and the public....
Talking about the fierce and challenging days at the Quang Tri Citadel filming set, Phuong Nam was still very emotional. He said, Squad Leader Tran Dinh Ta showed me the fierceness of war, the bravery and optimistic spirit that yearned in the most difficult and dangerous times. It was this Squad Leader and the Citadel soldiers who fought in the same trenches that showed us: "The price of peace is priceless".
“Anh Ta” brought Phuong Nam mixed emotions. After filming ended, Nam released a few clips of “Anh Ta” in the movie: Skinny, dark-skinned, yellow teeth… His disheveled appearance caused a series of comments to come in: Some people worried that Nam was seriously ill, others guessed that Nam had fallen… Until the day the movie was released, the responses finally came back to the right place:“This is not an act, this is a soldier of the Citadel”. That “aesthetic ugliness” has done its job: Destroying the glitz to make room for “real living”. For Phuong Nam, there is no greater happiness than:I never thought of acting in war movies to become famous, I just wanted to participate to better understand history and appreciate the value of peace today.Phuong Nam shared.
Mr. Ta in the movie has some similarities with Phuong Nam in real life, both are fathers with young daughters. While working with the film crew, Phuong Nam's daughter - little Nguyen Oc, broke her arm, so her father acted as her."soldiers on the battlefield who miss their children terribly", the letter to his son was also read by "Mr. Ta" with each beat of longing like that.“I miss it so much”in the movie became the heartfelt words of the young father on the set of "Red Rain".
A role that was not acted left a long lasting mark in the memory of both the actor and the audience. Phuong Nam confided:“When I joined the cinetour group or participated in the A80 event, many artists did not know my real name, they all called me: Anh Ta. That name is very dear, very nostalgic and gives me a lot of love.”
The turn from the field to the catwalk
Few people know that, before pursuing an acting career, Phuong Nam had a dream of a football field. The Thanh Hoa boy at that time only thought he would be a football player. But fate changed his path. That year, the major he chose at the University of Physical Education and Sports did not recruit students, and he had a “gap year” in shame with his parents and self-consciousness with his friends… The following year, Phuong Nam applied to the Hanoi University of Theatre and Cinema because he was… good at Literature. At first, everything was just a test. Until one third-year exam, when he saw his classmate burst into tears on stage, Phuong Nam realized:"It turns out that acting is living another life."From then on, Phuong Nam began to search for those lives…
Phuong Nam's first role was not noisy. It was a gangster role in a web series, but it sent him a gift: Yen Trinh - a girl who had just graduated from the directing major, worked as a casting manager, and later became his wife. Phuong Nam still remembers clearly that day's casting session, he and Yen Trinh were calling each other uncle and niece, he had the appearance of a very handsome man, but when he saw Yen Trinh sitting in the middle of a brightly lit cafe, his bangs down, his eyes quite cold, Phuong Nam collapsed, and said:"Do you know that feeling when you see someone for the first time and want to marry them?" –Phuong Nam said shyly. A quiet but fateful beginning!
"The Casting Fail Saint" and the principles of the profession
Phuong Nam confessed:I am a "saint" of failing castings because I am very slow to get into character.If he doesn’t have time for the character, he can’t play the role. And so it becomes a principle of his profession: There must be a long enough process to understand the character’s life; avoid saturation in the film machine. After “Red Rain”, Phuong Nam will continue to challenge himself in other film genres and topics, so that the audience will see a different Phuong Nam, but still someone who acts with real emotions.
When leaving the studio and finishing his role, Phuong Nam returned to his small house, which was his real life. There was his daughter calling out, “Dad, are you home?”, and Yen Trinh – the woman who had accompanied him on his artistic journey. Little Nguyen Oc, his daughter, was not old enough to watch “Red Rain”, but she knew every character’s name by heart thanks to the stories her father told her every night. She also played the role of Ta’s daughter in Hoa Minzy’s MV “Pain in the Middle of Peace”, and yet"Nguyen Oc again I like handsome musician Cuong better than skinny, dark and lice-ridden Ta.- Phuong Nam scratched his head and shared.
Making his mark from “Red Rain”, actor Nguyen Phuong Nam chose to go slowly but surely, because he wants, in each role, to keep a part of his heart, a piece of emotion, and more, with him: “Maybe the audience will forget my name, but if they still remember Anh Ta - the soldier of "Red Rain", then I am happy enough".
Actor Nguyen Phuong Nam has played a number of supporting roles in TV series such as My House is Strange and Investigation Team No. 7. In 2021, he played the role of Binh Tu - a tough character in the movie "Cau Vang". In 2023, he played the role of Hoang - the main role in the movie "Squad of Roses" (People's Army Cinema).
