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唐頓莊園大表哥的顛覆性新角色

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“I was not your obvious choice for that kind of role,” Dan Stevens said, discussing his part as a crewcutted homicidal maniac in the forthcoming horror-adventure movie “The Guest.”

“一般來說,人們不會想到讓我來演那種角色,”丹·史蒂文斯(Dan Stevens)說。他說的是自己在即將上映的恐怖冒險影片《神祕訪客》(The Guest)中扮演的平頭殺人狂。

唐頓莊園大表哥的顛覆性新角色

That is true. Last seen by most people lying dead in a ditch in his guise as Matthew Crawley in the waning, traumatizing seconds of the third season of “Downton Abbey,” Mr. Stevens has moved to New York to wreak a different kind of havoc. Handsome, polite, well spoken and exuding prototypical Englishness, he has propelled himself into the next phase of his career with a succession of parts — two of them in movies opening this week — that do not so much play against type as laugh in its face.

的確如此。大部分人最後一次見他是在《唐頓莊園》(Downton Abbey)第三季的一個悲痛時刻,他扮演的馬修·克勞利(Matthew Crawley)躺在溝壕裏死去。史蒂文斯搬到紐約,造成了另一種大混亂。他英俊瀟灑,彬彬有禮,談吐不凡,散發着典型的英倫氣息,但他激勵自己進入事業的新階段,演繹了一系列與上述形象相反的角色,故意顛覆自己的固有形象。他參演的兩部電影將於本週上映。

Un-Matthew No. 1: David in “The Guest” (opening Wednesday), a mysterious and charming ex-soldier with a buff physique and a sleepy Southern drawl who insinuates himself into a blameless small-town family and, in the space of a few days, leaves half the neighbors — as well as an elite military hit squad meant to take him down — dead.

不像馬修的第一個角色:《神祕訪客》(週三[9月17日]上映)中的大衛(David)。當過兵的大衛神祕、迷人,有着健碩的體格,說話慢吞吞地,帶着美國南方口音。他輕鬆地融入小鎮上一個無可指摘的家庭,在幾天時間裏殺死了一半鄰居——以及打算幹掉他的頂尖殺手小分隊。

Un-Matthew No. 2: Kenny in “A Walk Among the Tombstones” (Friday), a squirrelly, strung-out, super-skinny Brooklyn drug dealer who hires a disgraced cop turned private investigator (Liam Neeson, naturally) to find his kidnapped wife.

不像馬修的第二個角色:《行過死蔭之地》(A Walk Among the Tombstones,週五[9月19日]上映)中的肯尼(Kenny)。肯尼是布魯克林的一名毒販,行爲古怪,因吸毒而異常消瘦,他僱傭一名曾當過警察但是被撤職的私人偵探(利亞姆·尼森[Liam Neeson]飾)尋找自己被綁架的妻子。

Un-Matthew No. 3: Colin in an episode of “High Maintenance,” an online series of no-budget short films about the adventures of a Brooklyn pot dealer. In his segment, Mr. Stevens plays an amiable stay-at-home dad who lives in a cloud of weed, writer’s block and women’s clothing.

不像馬修的第三個角色:在《高昂的代價》(High Maintenance)的其中一集裏扮演科林(Colin)。這是一系列低成本網絡短片,講述的是一位布魯克林毒販的冒險活動。在史蒂文斯這一集裏,他扮演一名和藹可親的宅男奶爸、才思枯竭的作家,沉浸在大麻之中,穿女式服裝。

Mr. Stevens, 31, would also appear to be playing against type in person. Seeing him on television for so long in fussy period clothes — three-piece suits, tuxedos, white ties and tails and, when things got really daring, pajamas — made it a shock to see him in real life recently over lunch at a Manhattan restaurant. The eyes were the same bright blue, of course, but he was much wirier than he used to be. His hair was shorter, his face was thinner and scruffily bearded, and his clothes were like everyone else’s: denim shirt, denim jeans.

31歲的史蒂文斯在生活中似乎也在扮演跟自己的固有形象不同的角色。長久以來,我們在電視上看到的他都穿着精緻的時代劇戲服——三件套西服,無尾禮服,正式禮服,還有非常緊急時穿的睡衣——所以前不久在曼哈頓的一家餐廳共進午餐時,見到現實生活中的他讓我覺得很震驚。當然,還是同樣的明亮的藍眼睛,但是比從前瘦了很多。頭髮短了,臉瘦了,留着參差不齊的鬍子,衣服也和其他人一樣:斜紋棉布襯衫,牛仔褲。

The restaurant was virtually empty save for a flock of publicists. Mr. Stevens ordered gazpacho after determining that it contained no dairy products, and waved away the bread basket on account of its gluten-ous contents.

除了一羣宣傳人員,餐廳基本上是空的。史蒂文斯在確定西班牙冷菜湯裏不含乳製品後點了一份,得知這裏的麪包含麩質後就沒點麪包。

“Under three layers of tweed, you can hide a lot of ills,” he said, so he has made a post-“Downton” effort to take better care of himself. He comes from a tradition whose attitude toward exercise is “If it hurts, stop,” he said, and he hates to seem obsessive too much about his new regime, whatever it is. “You know,” he said sheepishly. “Gym stuff. Run a little bit.”

“穿着三層花呢服裝,你能掩蓋很多毛病,”他說。所以在退出《唐頓莊園》後,他更加註意體形。他說自己的成長環境對待鍛鍊的態度是“如果覺得疼,就停下”,他很不喜歡顯得過於在意自己的新健身法——不管它是什麼。“你知道,”他靦腆地說,“就是去健身房鍛鍊,跑跑步。”

He smoothly moved on to another topic, the interesting turn his career has taken. “I wasn’t going to step into another period drama straight away, because I didn’t want to,” he said. “Typecasting only comes if you say yes to these things. You can always say no.”

他很自然地轉換到另一個話題——他的事業的有趣轉變。“我當時沒打算立刻去演另一部時代劇,因爲我不想那樣,”他說,“只有你自己同意,纔會總演同一類角色。你永遠都可以拒絕。”

There was a year when Mr. Stevens said no to a lot of things. One was “Downton,” where he had had a great run as the resident heartthrob but was ready to move on to bigger things. Before shooting began for the third season, he informed the authorities that he would not be returning for the fourth.

有一年時間,史蒂文斯拒絕了很多邀請。其中一個是《唐頓莊園》,他在其中飾演的萬人迷很受歡迎,但是他打算實現更宏大的目標。早在第三季開拍之前,他就通知劇組他不演第四季了。

He then spent months wondering how they would get rid of him. Death by illness was out: Sibyl, his sister-in-law on the program, had already died of eclampsia after giving birth, and his former fiancée, the dreary Lavinia Swire, had succumbed to the Spanish flu. Having Matthew abandon his wife, Lady Mary, and, say, leave the country, would have been out of character for such a nice man.

然後有好幾個月時間他都在想,他們會怎麼處理掉這個角色。肯定不會是因病去世:劇中他的小姨子西比爾(Sibyl)已經因產後子癇去世,他的前未婚妻、沉悶的拉維尼婭·斯懷爾(Lavinia Swire)因西班牙流感去世。也不能讓馬修拋棄妻子瑪麗小姐(Lady Mary),比如說出國,因爲這樣一個好人不會那樣做。

In the end, a milk truck drove into his car right after he saw his infant son for the first time. “It was a bit of a shock for everybody,” Mr. Stevens said.

結果,在他初次看到剛出生的兒子之後,一輛運奶卡車撞上了他的汽車。“對所有人來說,這都有點令人震驚,”他說。

What is more, he did not know what he was going to do next. “My wife” — his real-life wife, Susie Harriet — “was pregnant with our second child, and I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said.

另外,他不知道自己下一步要做什麼。他說,“當時我妻子”——他真正的妻子蘇茜·哈里特(Susie Harriet)——“懷着我們的第二個孩子,我不知道下面會發生什麼”。

Fortunately, Mr. Stevens was offered a lead in “The Heiress” on Broadway, and even more fortunately, the writer and director Scott Frank came one night to see him perform. “He was looking for someone a little unexpected to play a drug trafficker in his movie.” That would be “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” filmed on the streets of Brooklyn, Mr. Stevens noted.

幸運的是,史蒂文斯得到在百老匯舞臺劇《女繼承人》(The Heiress)中擔任主角的機會,更幸運的是,編劇、導演斯科特·弗蘭克(Scott Frank)有天晚上來看他的表演。“當時他正在尋找一個有點出人意料的演員來演他電影中的毒販。”史蒂文斯說,這部電影就是在布魯克林的街道上拍攝的《行過死蔭之地》。

People started sending him scripts. One was for “The Guest.” As it happened, Mr. Stevens had recently seen “You’re Next,” an isolated-house-in-the-woods romp of a slasher movie written by Simon Barrett and directed by Adam Wingard, the same people responsible for “The Guest.” He thought it was over the top and hilarious. “I knew I wanted to meet the crazy people who’d made it,” he said. “The Guest” script, he said, continued in that vein. “I was just laughing hysterically page after page, thinking, ‘This is insane.’ ”

人們開始給他寄劇本。其中是一個是《神祕訪客》。史蒂文斯當時剛看完影片《你是下一個》(You’re Next),它講了一個發生在樹林孤立小屋裏的故事,既恐怖又搞笑,編劇是西蒙·巴雷特(Simon Barrett),導演是亞當·溫加德(Adam Wingard),他們是《神祕訪客》的同一個製作班底。史蒂文斯覺得《你是下一個》特別精彩,十分滑稽。“我當時就知道我想認識它瘋狂的創作者們,”他說。他說《神祕訪客》的劇本跟它一脈相承。“每一頁都看得我捧腹大笑,心想‘這太瘋狂了’。”

Mr. Wingard said he had been looking for an actor to upend expectations by turning from nice to menacing to flat-out psycho. “I liked his politeness and natural likability,” Mr. Wingard said of Mr. Stevens. “We wanted someone who seemed trustworthy. Your everyday audience member watching the film who was familiar with ‘Downton Abbey’ wouldn’t expect him to take this turn.”

溫加德說他當時在尋找一位能顛覆觀衆預期的演員,他將從好人變成一種威脅,後來證明是徹底的精神變態。“我喜歡他的彬彬有禮與自然可親,”溫加德這樣評價史蒂文斯,“我們想找一個外表看上去值得信賴的人。熟悉《唐頓莊園》的普通觀衆不會想到他會有這樣的轉變。”

There were two worries. One, Mr. Stevens was hyper-skinny after “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” and it was important that he bulk up to a military-grade physique. Two, Mr. Stevens speaks like someone who should have a “Sir” in front of his name, and there was a worry that he would not get the accent quite right.

有兩個顧慮。第一,史蒂文斯在演完《行過死蔭之地》之後非常削瘦,他需要變得健碩,符合軍人的體形。第二,史蒂文斯講話的感覺像一位爵士,所以他的口音可能不太像。

Neither was a problem. Through a rigorous program involving martial arts and “more gym stuff,” as Mr. Stevens so eloquently put it, he bulked up enough so that in the scene when he and his chiseled torso emerge from the shower, you can only feel sorry that he died before Lady Mary (and “Downton” viewers) had the chance to appreciate his new body. And he loves doing accents, using a dialect coach and also an online feature in which people record themselves speaking in regional accents.

這兩個都不是問題。通過嚴格的計劃,包括武術和“在健身房的更多鍛鍊”(對此史蒂文斯已經說了很多),他變得非常健碩,電影中有一幕他沐浴出來,肌肉線條分明,讓你只會爲瑪麗小姐(以及《唐頓莊園》的觀衆)沒機會欣賞他的新身材而感到遺憾。他喜歡模仿口音,他跟一位方言教練學習,還觀看網上的一個節目——講各種方言的人把自己的話錄下來。

Mr. Stevens came to “High Maintenance” after hearing about it from a friend. Out of the blue, he sent a fan email to its creators, the husband-and-wife team Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, fellow Brooklynites. They met up, became friends with Mr. Stevens and his wife, and began kicking around ideas for an episode he could star in.

史蒂文斯是從一位朋友那兒聽說《高昂的代價》的。他非常意外地給它的創作者、布魯克林的卡特婭·布里奇菲爾德(Katja Blichfeld)和本·辛克萊(Ben Sinclair)夫婦發了一封電子郵件,說自己是這個節目的粉絲。他們見了面,兩家人成了朋友,開始開動腦筋,創作一集能讓他主演的節目。

“He told us he was really looking to challenge himself as an actor and play roles that were as different from Matthew Crawley as possible,” Ms. Blichfeld said by telephone.

“他當時告訴我們,他真的想在表演方面挑戰自我,想飾演一些跟馬修·克勞利儘可能不同的角色,”布里奇菲爾德在電話採訪中說。

At the same time, the fashion designer Rachel Comey got in touch, wanting to be involved in the project. “They thought, Dan Stevens and Rachel Comey. How about Dan Stevens in Rachel Comey?” Mr. Stevens said.

與此同時,時裝設計師蕾切爾·科米(Rachel Comey)與他們取得聯繫,想加入這個節目。“他們當時想,丹·史蒂文斯和蕾切爾·科米。那讓丹·史蒂文斯穿蕾切爾·科米設計的服裝會怎麼樣呢?”史蒂文斯說。

Ms. Blichfeld continued: “The cross-dressing thing came about because we were hanging out with him, and he has such a nice figure, and it wasn’t hard to imagine him wearing those clothes.”

布里奇菲爾德接着說:“我們和他一起玩的時候產生了讓他穿異性服裝的想法。他的身材非常好,不難想像他穿那些衣服的樣子。”

She added, “He was our biggest celebrity to date, and we were curious about how he would feel about our set experience — our craft services are Trader Joe’s snacks — but he was extremely cool and chatted to all our crew members and hung out after the shoot.”

她補充說,“他是我們節目中到目前爲止最大牌的明星,我們很想知道他對我們的片場會有什麼樣的感覺——我們提供的食物是Trader Joe的快餐——但是他特別友好,跟劇組的所有成員聊天,拍完戲後跟我們一起出去玩。”

Mr. Stevens started acting as a teenager. Adopted by a pair of schoolteachers as an infant and raised in southeast England, he won a scholarship to the well-respected Tonbridge School, where a teacher, Jonathan Smith, began casting him in school plays. He went on to Cambridge, where he belonged to the Footlights acting troupe, did some stand-up comedy that has sadly been lost to the ages (“I rejoice that I was doing stand-up at an age before YouTube,” he said) and immersed himself in his second love, literature.

史蒂文斯十幾歲就開始表演。他嬰兒時期被一對學校教師收養,在英格蘭東南部長大,後來獲得受人尊敬的湯布里奇中學的獎學金,那裏的老師喬納森·史密斯(Jonathan Smith)選他在學校話劇裏演出。他讀劍橋時是腳燈表演劇團(Footlights)的一員,演過一些單口相聲,可惜因年代久遠已經沒有錄像資料了(他說“我很高興自己是在YouTube之前的時代演過脫口秀”),同時也沉迷於他的第二大愛好——文學。

He wrote his thesis on the fin de siècle satire of Oscar Wilde and Will Self. “It was one of those things that seemed like a slightly left-of-field thing to do, and it turned out it was probably a bit too far left of field,” he said. But it stood him in good stead in 2012, when the judges of the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most important fiction award, heard him opining about literature on the BBC and invited him to be a judge that year.

他的論文是關於奧斯卡·王爾德(Oscar Wilde)和威爾·塞爾夫(Will Self)的頹廢派諷刺作品。“它是那種好像有點奇怪的事情,結果證明它可能有點太奇怪了,”他說。但是2012年這給他帶來了好處,英國最重要的小說獎曼布克獎的評委們聽他在BBC上談論文學後,邀請他擔任那一年的評委。

Hilary Mantel ended up winning for “Bring up the Bodies,” but Mr. Stevens’s championing of Mr. Self’s challenging, brilliant “Umbrella” helped elevate it to the shortlist. With some Cambridge friends, Mr. Stevens edits and contributes pieces to The Junket, an online literary quarterly. He and Ms. Harriet, a jazz singer from South Africa, are raising their two young children in Brooklyn Heights. He is working on some screenplays and has an array of new acting projects coming up, including the third “Night at the Museum” movie, in which he plays a fictional character, Sir Lancelot, who comes to life.

最後,希拉里·曼特爾(Hilary Mantel)憑藉《提堂》(Bring up the Bodies)獲得了當年的曼布克獎,不過史蒂文斯支持塞爾夫頗具挑戰性的精彩小說《雨傘》(Umbrella),幫助它進入了決選名單。史蒂文斯目前還和劍橋大學的一些朋友一起爲在線文學季刊《The Junket》擔任編輯和撰稿人。他的妻子哈里特是來自南非的爵士歌手,兩人在布魯克林高地撫育兩名幼子。最近他正在看一些劇本;他飾演的更多新角色也即將登上大銀幕,包括他在《博物館奇妙夜3》(Night at the Museum)中飾演的一個復活的虛構人物——蘭斯洛特爵士(Sir Lancelot)。

“There’s only so much sitting around saying, ‘I have to do different things,’ ” he said. “You just have to go and do them.”

“你不能一直光說,‘我必須做些不同的事,’”他說,“你必須得去做。”

Still, it will be a long time, if ever, before he puts “Downton” behind him. In some places, the series is still a few seasons behind.

不過,他想把《唐頓莊園》拋在身後可能還需要很長時間,甚至可能永遠都甩不掉。在有些地方,這部電視劇還有好幾季沒播出呢。

“People all over the world are still watching it,” Mr. Stevens said. “I’ll be dealing with some bereaved Japanese in the near future.”

“全世界的人都還在看它,”史蒂文斯說,“在不久的將來日本人將面臨失去大表哥的痛苦。”

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