Abstract Art Award Winner

Although Zhou Le now runs his own company and works as a contract worker at the drama theater, his future development still needs to move towards a permanent position.

After all, having a formal employment contract is completely different from not having one.

This way, you can leave yourself a way out.

Because he knew very well that after experiencing the high spirits of youth, people would cool down as they got older because they lost their passion, and at this time, people's mindset would change.

If one can adjust, there is nothing wrong with peacefully enjoying one's later years.

If you can't figure it out, it'll be hard to get out of it.

If he goes out to take on roles, he can only be called a veteran actor, but whether the production team will use him or not depends on their own wishes.

He wasn't as famous as those younger actors, and he didn't earn as much. Even though he acted better, the other actors earned several times or even ten times more per film.

Zhou Le felt that this kind of thing could happen to anyone, so having a formal position was the best way to avoid being forgotten.

In this way, even if they want to retire and stop acting in the future, they can at least continue to be active in the industry and maintain a certain status.

In short, he wanted to follow the same path as Chen Daomin.

"Thank you, Director Zhang. I am so honored to be able to participate in the Winter Olympics. Just arrange one of my own, even if it's just standing in the crowd walking in a square formation. I'm not picky and I'm easily satisfied."

Listening to Zhou Le's words, Zhang Yi glanced at Zhou Le sideways and said, "You? You're easily satisfied? That's the biggest lie I've heard this year. You're definitely the most ambitious person. There are probably not many people in the entire entertainment industry who are more ambitious than you. But if other people are ambitious and want to move up, they either rely on money, interpersonal skills, or their bodies."

But you are capable, and being capable means being better than them. Moreover, not only are you capable, but you also possess all the qualities they have. So, isn't that where the difference lies?

Zhou Le laughed and said, "Director Zhang, actually I really want to rely on my body, but there's nothing I can do. Nobody wants me, and I can't even take shortcuts."

Zhang Yi was even less convinced by this.

"You think nobody wants you? Pshaw, stop pretending. If you really want to take a shortcut, I know a lot of people. I can introduce you to someone who will be enough to keep you from ever being broke for the rest of your life."

Of course they're rich, but don't nitpick about other things like weight, height, temperament, or gender.

Zhou Le asked, "Are there men too?"

"Is it strange? Let me tell you, when a person has money or power to a certain level, he is genderless. You can't define him by gender, because at that position, he no longer needs to be bound by gender."

Zhou Le gasped, "Then forget it, I'll just stick to making movies and earning money."

While Zhang Yimou was indeed quite strict with the crew, he also strongly encouraged the actors to communicate and exchange ideas privately.

Working in isolation is not advisable. When you have time, you can discuss the script with each other, go over the lines, and so on.

Zhou Le and Zhou Ye have put this into practice very well.

Since Qin Hailu was injured and left the crew, Zhou Ye took her place, rising from Zhou Le's assistant to the female lead, even with a higher billing than Liu Haojian and Zhu Yawen.

Zhu Yawen was used to working with Zhang Yimou, and besides, he was only the fourth lead in the film, serving only as an embellishment. He didn't need much help with box office or promotion, but Liu Haojian was still uncomfortable.

She knew that Zhou Ye had gained immense popularity with the film "Better Days," but among these young actresses who were pursuing film careers, the competition was about who had better resources.

Although they don't say it, they always compare each other in their hearts.

Leaving aside the artists under Zhou Le's management, since Zhou Le has given each of them a different positioning, there isn't much competition between them.

However, outside, Liu Haojian and Li Gengxi would occasionally bring up Zhou Ye and Tian Xiwei, who were under Zhou Le's management, for comparison.

However, since this was on Zhang Yimou's film set, she couldn't say anything.

During that time, she spent every day researching how to subtly compete for top billing, but eventually gave up.

If it were a different director in the crew, perhaps they could have done it this way, but now it's Zhang Yimou, and Liu Haojian would never dare to do that. After all, she was able to get into the crew because, on the one hand, her family does have some connections, and on the other hand, one of the two companies Liu Haojian is signed with has close ties with Zhang Yimou, and the other is Zhang Yimou's own company.

Although this operation may seem complicated, you only need to know one thing: Liu Haojian is the new actor that Zhang Yimou is going to promote.

Whether it's in Zhang Yimou's own movies or in resource exchanges with others, Liu Haojian will definitely not be bad off.

"Brother Le, Liu Haojian and I are usually fine on set, we chat and laugh on the surface, but I always feel like there's something between us."

"In the room," Zhou Ye said.

"It's okay, don't feel anything, that's just how it is. If you weren't the lead actress here, she might not say anything, but now that you're here, it's like you've put her in a superior position, understand? If the movie goes to awards later, she might only get a newcomer award or a supporting actress nomination, but you have a chance to win Best Actress."

In this industry, billing order means everything; whoever has the higher billing order is more valuable.

"Oh, I see, she was actually jealous."

"Of course! Not just her, even I'm envious."

Zhou Ye chuckled, then looked at Zhou Le: "Brother Le, what are you jealous of? Are you jealous that I'm still playing your wife? Last time we worked together, I gave birth to two of your children in the movie, and this time I gave birth to another one. Aren't you satisfied?"

Zhou Le: "."

"I've noticed you and Sister Meng are becoming more and more alike. Why do you blurt out everything? It's only because it's just the two of us. If there were more people around, who knows what misunderstandings would arise?"

"It's okay. You're not the kind of person who'll be swayed by rumors, and neither am I. Let them say what they want. Don't we know in our hearts whether we've had children or not?"

"Who can say for sure? There were people who said Liu Yifei was a man before, and people believed it back then, didn't they? Not to mention something like having a baby. Even if they exaggerate and reveal that you gave birth to me, people would believe it if someone said that they gave birth to twins."

"Tsk tsk tsk, having children is your only weakness now. If you can really have a child, you will be an all-powerful god in the entertainment industry. I won't recognize anyone like Ou Hao or Hai Qing. I will only recognize you. And if it is inconvenient for you to take care of the child, you can leave it to me. I can help you take care of it."

Zhou Le: "."

"Alright, you should just calm down. But how should I put it, let's leave it at that for today. I think the script is pretty much done, so at least for the next few days of filming, you should be fine."

"Okay, that's what I think too. After all, we need to balance work and rest."

As Zhou Ye spoke, he walked up to Zhou Le, tilting his head slightly and nodding his chin as he looked at Zhou Le.

"Then play with your sister for a while?" Zhou Le took a deep breath. He had emphasized this many times: Zhou Ye was truly talented at playing villainous women.

You don't need to try too hard to achieve perfection.

"How do you want to play?" Zhou Le asked in return.

"Since you've said that, of course I can play however I want."

Zhou Ye was indeed quite talented in this area, and at that moment, although the curtains were drawn, it was possible to see through the gaps that it was snowing outside.

Datong's weather is considered relatively cold in Shanxi. It might be comfortable and cool in the summer, but in the winter, it's pure torture.

No matter how cold it is outside, there is heating at home.

The hotel they are staying in now has air conditioning even without heating. Although it is drier and uses more electricity, their room rate is already expensive, so the cost of air conditioning is naturally included.

Therefore, even indoors, being naked doesn't feel particularly cold; instead, looking at the snow outside adds an extra touch of charm.

"It's so much better here. Before, I was either in Sichuan or Guangdong, and I rarely saw snow. In fact, it was a little better in Sichuan, but there was absolutely no snow in Guangdong."

"We really liked snow when we were very young. Even when we were in school, whenever it snowed outside, the teachers would let us go out to play, build snowmen, have snowball fights, and go sledding."

But as I grew older, I found snow annoying. I was too lazy to play in it, and after cars drove over it, the snow turned into black mud, which was very inconvenient.

"Damn it, they don't even know how lucky they are!"

As Zhou Ye bobbed up and down, he looked at the snowflakes outside and asked, "What do you think it would feel like to be like this in the snow?"

Zhou Le: "???"

"I think you think life is too long. It's so cold outside. You mean to go out and do what we're doing now? Think about it, what would happen if you poured boiling water on a frozen stone?"

"Will it explode?"

"Yes."

But Zhou Ye thought about it again: "Back then, I also saw them in mid-air and underwater. They were really amazing."

Zhou Le was completely bewildered: "What kind of things are you looking at? Things in the air, things in the sea, are they all that wild?"

"Hehe, yeah, mainly because the ordinary stuff isn't very interesting, so I look for something weird to watch. But I can only watch the relatively normal ones in the weird category. There are a lot of weird stuff that are really weird, and I don't even have the courage to click on them just by looking at the names."

"Awesome! Send me the website later, I'll go and learn from it."

The two naturally knew when to stop on set; two or three times was enough.

Adding too much would inevitably affect the filming process.

And now is just right.

"Sigh, I've been having trouble sleeping lately. Even melatonin isn't helping. I can only rely on you now. I'm exhausted both physically and mentally after all that work. It'll be good for me to sleep."

Zhou Le looked at Zhou Ye, whose eyelids were drooping, and said, "If this works, why don't you do it yourself? Just don't do it too often, or you'll easily suffer from kidney deficiency."

"That's no fun, it has to be Brother Le."

Zhou Le felt extremely satisfied; after all, being praised in this regard would make anyone feel unmoved.

The next day they went back to filming, but Zhou Le had also fully prepared the movie script he had been working on all along, which was about telecom fraud in northern Myanmar.

After finishing, Zhou Le thought about it and then contacted Wanhe Tianyi and Han Han. He planned to ask them to take a look. Actually, before that, a screenwriter had also approached Zhou Le wanting to join and see if they could collaborate.

This person is Yu Baimei.

But Zhou Le had taken this into consideration: Yu Baimei and Deng Chao had a very good relationship back then, and they had known each other for a long time.

However, the movies that came out after that were not as good as the last one. Apart from nonsensical comedies like "The Breakup Guru" and "The Villain Angel", the recent ping-pong themed movies were much better, but they still ended up being withdrawn and having their release dates changed.

It's not surprising that the media doesn't report on this, because at this rate of loss, even if Deng Chao has made a lot of money over the years and has a lot of wealth, he can't withstand the losses. Besides, he has been working with Deng Chao for almost ten years. How many decades does he have in his life?
You can't tie yourself to someone's side for the rest of your life just because you're friends, can you?

Others may not need to consider this, but Zhou Le has to consider his relationship with Deng Chao. Yu Baimei hasn't made any money with you; every film she's made has lost money. Although he's received his director's fee, any director with a modicum of ambition should at least aim to make the film profitable.

Therefore, Zhou Le refused, explaining that the current scripts had already been made by someone else, and they could contact each other again if needed in the future.

A very standard template for politely declining.

Having rejected Yu Baimei, Zhou Le now has to find some screenwriters he can use.

So he turned his attention to Wanhe Tianyi.

Without going into too much detail, at least he is trustworthy, and we can continue to cooperate in the future. For example, in this movie, Bai Ke can come and be a henchman.

Han Han simply sent it to the other party for a quick look.

Moreover, given Han Han's personality, he would watch it if he was interested, but if he wasn't, he would most likely make up an excuse that he was busy recently and would watch it later. Then, after a while, he would say that he forgot and apologized.

After sending the script over, Zhou Le began to consider other candidates. Now he needed a victim of fraud, a rich second-generation heir who liked gambling and pleasure.

Such roles are relatively easy to find in the industry, but Zhou Le doesn't want to use purely popular celebrities. He only has one criterion for choosing people: good acting skills.

Of course, if someone has both popularity and acting skills, then they can be used.

After meeting the above conditions, it would be best if it were also cheaper and had some buzz.

After much deliberation, Zhou Le sent email invitations to the three people.

Wang Dalu, Wang Chuanjun, and Zhu Yilong.

He didn't know if these people would come, but for now, he felt these were the most suitable candidates. (End of Chapter)