Huayu: I'm reborn, but you still force me to be a scumbag?

Chapter 141 Seven Steps
In a dimly lit billiard room, Gotham City gangster boss Gamble, wearing a gray suit, is playing billiard.

Two of his black men came in and said with a smile: "Hey, Gambo, some guys want to see you. They said they have killed the clown. And they brought the body with them."

Nolan used a three-camera design for this scene, with a main camera for medium shots, a side camera for close-ups, and a floating camera to capture the scene from different angles. Nolan spent a long time arranging it, and at this time, the photographers on several cameras started working.

The side camera is aimed at Michael White, who plays Gambo. He is a black action star with a certain reputation in Hollywood. He became famous for playing Tyson in "Tyson" in 95 and is considered a veteran actor.

He hit the black eight hard into the bottom pocket and said, "Let them in."

Then, several of his black men brought in a body wrapped in a black plastic bag and placed it on the pool table. Several young thugs followed behind.

The machine was aimed at the head of the corpse, and Michael White's hand entered the picture from the side and opened the plastic bag.

Chen Nuo, dressed up as a clown, closed his eyes tightly, as if he had been dead for a long time.

Michael White confirmed the identity and showed a satisfied look. This was the price for daring to rob their gangster bank.

Without checking the body, Michael White raised his eyelids, walked to the other side of the pool table, and said to the gangsters indifferently: "Dead, the reward is 50."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Nuo, who was originally a corpse, suddenly said, "What if it's alive?"

After saying that, he turned over and stood up.

As soon as Michael White turned around, he was immediately held to his throat with a sharp dagger.

At the same time, several of Michael White's men were pointed guns at by the same gangsters.

Michael White looked a little panicked.

The moving camera was now shooting towards Chen Nuo's face.

He completely abandoned the implicit and restrained expression in Dumb Blueberries, and instead adopted a performance style somewhat similar to that in The Return of the Condor Heroes.

But for a face covered with a thick layer of white mud, this slightly exaggerated performance was just right.

That's right.

This is a way that Chen Nuo found after searching in front of the mirror for who knows how long in the past few days.

He didn't know how Heath Ledger performed, but he felt that this was the most suitable way for the Joker to perform.

Don’t have the neuroticism of a dumb person, nor the deep restraint of a blueberry.

He has to exaggerate every emotion in his heart because that's who the Joker is.

If not, he wouldn't have conducted some social experiment that turned Gotham City upside down.

So at this moment, Chen Nuo's face wrinkled, making the wrinkles on his face deeper, looking a bit like a little old man. At the same time, his tongue licked his blood-red lips, revealing a cat-and-mouse smile.

At the same time, his eyes were like an unchanging black iceberg, without a trace of emotion.

Then, Chen Nuo recited a long passage in a special accent.

He said to Michael White: "Oh, look at me, don't be afraid. Is my face scary? In fact, I used to be a handsome boy. Do you want to know how I got these scars?"

Chen Nuo seemed to be suffering from hysteria. He was talking to himself, asking and answering his own questions, "My father is a ..."

He looked up, as if searching for the right words, "...drunkard, and...demon."

"One night, he was completely drunk and his behavior was even scarier than usual. My mother had to take out a kitchen knife to defend herself."

He laughed nervously, "But my dad doesn't like this."

Slowing down his speech, each word rolled off his tongue, "He really, really didn't like it."

He grinned again, his blood-red mouth with uneven flesh buds on the edges: "After a while, I was on the sofa and saw my dad stabbing my mom with a knife. He was laughing while stabbing, and the floor was covered with blood."

This added a hint of joy to his subsequent tone, as if he was recalling a sweet memory.

He held the back of Michael White's head, the knife dangling from his mouth. "After stabbing my mother into a pile of rotten meat, my father turned to me next..."

He shook his head and said: "He said to me, hey, why do you have this expression? Why are you so serious?"

Chen Nuo's eyes rolled left and right. "My dad walked towards me with a knife and asked me why I was so serious. Haha."

"Then he stuck the knife in my mouth."

Chen Nuo also inserted the knife into Michael White's mouth and said lightly: "Guess what my dad said? He said, don't be so serious, let me draw a smiley face for you~"

At this point in the performance, Nolan's tense body in front of the monitor instantly relaxed and he leaned back in his chair.

He was not mistaken.

Although he couldn't understand a single Chinese character on the clown's diary.

But that diary was really filled with words written by the other person himself.

Now Chen Nuo's performance proves this.

Chen Nuo's performance was not as arrogant and evil as it was during his previous audition at Warner.

Nor does he approach the lines here in a more aggressive manner.

Perhaps according to what many people imagine, when the opponent has been slaughtered by him, the evil clown should reveal his evil face.
But this Chinese boy didn't.

He used a relaxed and calm tone, even with a hint of intimacy, as if he was chatting with his pet dog.

Even though the dog was about to be skinned and eaten by him.

When he spoke, his head was shaking slightly left and right, and every muscle in his eyes and face seemed to be unable to stop and kept shaking. This was the only difference between him and a normal person.

Nolan felt that Chen Nuo really took his words to heart.

This kind of real clown is the clown he wants.

But Nolan had just relaxed, and the next second, he sat up straight again.

Because he saw that Chen Nuo's eyes began to wander.

He did not look at Michael White again. He looked past him and at his two men opposite him.

Christopher Nolan's heart suddenly rose.

what happend?
The Joker talked to Gamble's men and threatened them, and eventually took over Gamble's underground forces in Gotham City. This should clearly be the plot that will be filmed in the next shot.

In this shot, Gambo is the Joker's only opponent, and his attention should always be on Gambo.

Nolan's "ka" sound was almost in his throat, but the next second, he swallowed the word back.

Chen Nuo didn't even look at Michael White in front of him.

This underground king of Gotham City doesn't seem to be worth mentioning at all.

Perhaps the only purpose of his existence was to allow him to recall the happy memories of his childhood.

After that, he was of no use at all.

Chen Nuo appeared to be in an absent-minded state.

He looked away and casually cut Michael White's mouth and throat twice, then pushed his head as if throwing away garbage, and Michael White fell to the ground on his side.

Chen Nuo slowly walked towards the two gangsters and said, "Now, let's talk about business."

"OK, card."

Christopher Nolan was a little excited. He suppressed his excitement and said to the intercom, "Clean up the scene. Do it again in ten minutes."

He was a little nervous just now, and his chest felt a little tight, until the moment Michael White fell to the ground, he suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

He is indeed worthy of being an action star with black belts in so many genres.

Nolan could see from the host's camera that Michael White acted like an idiot most of the time.

Of course, Nolan was not surprised by this and had nothing to say. Anyway, this set of shots was destined to be a close-up of the Joker. It didn't matter how stupid he acted, in the final picture, he would only be a back view.

Nolan only hopes that this man will die faster, more like a real dead person, and display some of his action star skills.

Thank God, at the last moment, Michael White regained consciousness and lived up to his expectations. He fell down cleanly with the movement of Chen Nuo's hands.

Otherwise, Nolan felt that he would really get angry. With Nolan's order, the entire crew started moving at once, and props, lighting, makeup, and stage management all went into the scene to clean or rearrange the scenes and props.

Nolan turned around and asked, "What do you think?"

Charles Rowan, who was sitting on his left, coughed lightly and said, "I think there seems to be no problem. At least I can't see any problem."

"What do you think, Jonathan?"

Jonathan Nolan rubbed his chin with his hand. "He changed one of my lines. Did you catch that, Christopher?"

Christopher Nolan thought for a moment and said, "I didn't hear that."

Jonathan Nolan said: "Well, maybe I heard it wrong. But other than that, my opinion is the same as Charles', no problem."

Nolan seemed to really want to ask everyone who came to watch the show. After Jonathan, he asked, "Bell, what about you?"

While watching the play, Christian Bale was actually thinking about how he would perform.

This is almost an actor's instinct. Just like when Chen Nuo watched Yang Mi play "Xiang of Xiangyang", he would wonder how he would express it if he were to play Guo Xiang.

So, Batman Bale is really thinking about how he will play the Joker.

While watching Chen Nuo acting, he put himself into the role.

The so-called layman looks at the excitement and the insider looks at the doorway.

In this short scene, Chen Nuo's acting skills actually have many twists and turns, and his emotions are also progressive.

By speaking to Michael White, using tone, voice and actions, little by little, from nothing, he built up the image of a clown who was abused by his perverted and evil father as a child, and who became a pervert himself to abuse others when he grew up.

It would be fine if it ended here.

Although Christian Bale felt that Chen Nuo's performance was indeed very good, he believed that he could also perform like this.

At most there will be a few NGs, but that’s no big deal.

But when Chen Nuo's eyes shifted at the end, Christian Bale thought about it for a long time and didn't think he could do such a thing.

When he saw this, he felt the same as Nolan, thinking that Chen Nuo was distracted or failed to control his expression, resulting in a low-level mistake, just like many fledgling actors would unconsciously look at the camera.

But when he saw the smooth neck-wiping action that followed, he immediately realized that this was completely planned.

No, not by design.

Bell knew that in that situation, it was impossible for the actors themselves to design it, and only the director could design it.

If there is no requirement from the director, it is only when the actor’s understanding of the role reaches a certain level that such a seamless connection can be achieved.

After hearing Nolan's question, Bale thought for a moment and said, "Director, Chen's performance is good enough. The play he just performed may have been inspired by God. If you ask him to perform it again, he will definitely not achieve the same effect as before. Even so, I have changed my opinion. Chen is indeed a good actor."

Less than 10 minutes after Bell said this, he wished he could go back a few minutes ago and cover his mouth.

The reason is simple. In the second performance, Chen Nuo not only made up for all the slightly awkward and abrupt parts in the first performance, such as adding some facial expressions and actions in the conversation with Michael White.

Moreover, at the very end, he actually added a short pause before expressing that wandering look.

No more, no less, just a fraction of a second.

Just after he said his last words to Michael White, "Let me draw you a smiley face," there was a very brief pause.

At that moment, he seemed to remember something all of a sudden.

It was this little thing that made him suddenly lose interest in Michael White and focus his attention on his two men.

As for what it is, there are so many mysteries hidden in his black eyes that the audience can use their imagination to imagine.

At that moment, all the expressions on his face froze.

His terrifying smiling face, covered with white paint, solidified into a real clown mask.

In Nolan's words: "This pause made me realize that letting Chen play the Joker this time was the right decision for us."

Christian Bale was stunned for a moment, and suddenly said self-deprecatingly: "Now I know that if I want to act better than him, I definitely can't wear a Batman mask."

After the second take, Nolan decided not to do it a third time.

He is not a director like Wong Kar-wai. He has his own set of standards, and above these standards, he will not waste the crew's time and money.

Having said that, this is also the reason why Nolan will be a thousand times more commercially successful than Wang Mojing in the future.

After the cut, Nolan asked the entire crew to get ready, and 10 minutes later, they filmed a conversation between the Joker and two of Gambo's men.

At this time, Michael White got up from the ground and said to Chen Nuo: "Hey, boy, you acted really fucking well just now. The moment you were about to take action, I almost thought you were really going to kill me. Your name is Chen, right? My name is Michael White, you can call me Michael from now on. Can you teach me a few moves? The move you just made when you wiped my neck. It was so fucking cool."

He was the person closest to Chen Nuo, and the scene just now could barely be considered a rivalry between him and Chen Nuo. Michael White had been watching Chen Nuo from a close distance.

Michael White could see every expression on Chen Nuo's face and every change in his eyes more clearly than Nolan in front of the monitor.

Although Michael White has made many movies, most of them are action movies that focus on boxing and kung fu.

As for acting?

What is that thing? To him, it simply doesn't exist, okay?

When Warner Bros. approached him to film Batman 2, he thought he was looking for action scenes. But after reading the script, he found that there was no action at all and he would be killed by the Joker after just a few shots.

But, I didn't expect it to be killed in this way.

He's never acted with any high-level immersive actors.

After watching Chen Nuo's performance twice, this black man was a little impressed. He might not understand other types of performances, but Chen Nuo's performance was just to his liking. He was fierce and domineering, just like a perverted killer.

If he can learn a few tricks, will he still be scolded for not being able to do anything except fighting when he plays a villain in the future?
So Michael White was very enthusiastic.

Although Chen Nuo ignored him, his eyes were still burning.

When he went to the gym to learn Kung Fu, which master would teach you real Kung Fu casually? It was too normal.

Chen Nuo ignored him because he was fully immersed in the role. He would ignore Michael White, even if Michael Jordan disturbed him.

Chen Nuo's second shot of the day began.

He picked up the pool cue from the table and broke it in two with his knee.

Then, he walked a short distance of about two or three meters, with his back slightly hunched.

He took perhaps seven steps in all.

With each step, the heel strikes the ground first, then the ball of the foot, and finally the toes.

The host camera was focused on Chen Nuo's slow and leisurely back. He swayed with every step, and his body had a twitching rhythm.

He walked up to the two gangsters kneeling on the ground and threw two short poles with sharp ends in front of them. He laughed hissingly from his throat: "There are too many people. Those who survive can talk business with me."

"Cut. Passed." Nolan said into the intercom.

This shot is very short.

But Bell and the others were still discussing the previous shot. After watching Chen Nuo take these steps, they all suddenly fell silent.

Jonathan Nolan suddenly said, "Let's play a game, quick questions and answers. Who does this shot remind you of? Let me first say one, Paul Newman, The Hustler."

Christopher Nolan smiled: "Dustin Hoffman, Kramer vs. Kramer. OK, that's my hunch, but Chen probably isn't that good yet."

Charles Roven shrugged and said the simplest one: "Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot. It was my intuition, but there is no doubt that the two of them are from the same faction. Even a blind man can see that the boy has completely immersed himself in the role."

Christian Bale thought for a long time and said, "Christian Bale, American Psycho."

Everyone laughed at once.

Jonathan Nolan asked with a smile: "Do you think he is another you?"

Christian Bale spread his hands and said, "I know you all think he walked like an Oscar winner, but I think I wasn't bad back then, was I?"

(End of this chapter)