The birth of an actor

Chapter 63 That Mountain, That Man, That Dog
"Okay, this one is approved."

After Sun Shuping finished speaking, the first act of "Princess Pearl" was successfully completed.

The actors didn't move, because there was a dialogue scene to follow.

After Emperor Qianlong expressed that he and Erkang were willing to sacrifice their personal feelings for the sake of the country, Erkang, Ertai, and Yongqi hoped that Emperor Qianlong would change his mind.

This scene was actually filmed in a staggered order because adjusting the camera positions takes time. So the crew filmed all the scenes in the first set of fixed camera positions first, and then adjusted the order later.

The second act is the scene where Yongqi and Ertai persuade Qianlong to change his mind.

Then, after filming was finished, the scene returned to the first scene, where Emperor Qianlong explained his predicament.

The order is out of order.

So, after filming the first scene, Zhang Tielin stepped aside.

The three of them will be performing for thin air in a little while.

Just then, Su Youpeng's assistant came over and quickly handed him the script, a water glass, and a sun umbrella over his head.

On the contrary, An Xin and Zhou Jie are like two orphans.

Seeing this, Zhou Jie immediately walked towards the rest area to get the script and review it.

Anxin didn't move, standing obediently in place, continuing to immerse herself in the character's emotions.

In the next scene, he has a line that ends after he finishes speaking. The line is: "Your Majesty, why don't you hold another martial arts competition and let all the unmarried princes and nobles participate? Perhaps Saiya and Balabon will find a more suitable candidate than Birkon."

There are actually two grammatical errors in this line. One is the phrase "not married." According to his understanding, Ertai shouldn't have used such a straightforward statement.

It would be more appropriate to replace "not married" with "not yet married" or "not yet engaged".

The other word is "or," which feels wrong. It should be "Perhaps Saiya and Balerben will find that Birkon is a more suitable candidate."

It's just a one-word difference, but the meaning and context are clearly different.

But the script turned out to be the former.

But he felt that this change was actually better.

Just as he was thinking, a bottle of water was suddenly held out to him:

"Give."

Anxin looked up and saw it was Fan Bing.

So he took it, unscrewed it, took a sip, and then gave it back to the girl.

He didn't utter a sound.

Seeing this, the girl wasn't surprised, but instead asked:

"Would you like to see the script?"

After seeing An Xin shake her head slightly, she took the initiative to leave.
"Then come on."

A few minutes later, the camera positions were adjusted, and Zhou Jie came out of the rest area, while Su Youpeng also stepped out from under his assistant's parasol.

The three of them stood in the sunlight once again.

……

"Father, please think of another way. You don't know, Ziwei Erzhang... cough cough, sorry."

"It's okay, let's do it again."

"Father, please think of another way. You don't know, Ziwei and Erkang really made a vow of eternal love. Zikang... I'm sorry."

"fine……"

"Huang Ama..."

“It’s alright… Zhou Jie, you need to be more outgoing and focus.”

Zhou Jie's lips twitched.

Damn it, Su Youpeng has made several mistakes and you say it's okay, but when it comes to me, it's considered not paying attention?
He was speechless.

And what's even more frustrating is... how come you can't explain a single line of dialogue clearly?
But as he thought about it, he subconsciously glanced at An Xin while Su Youpeng was reading the script.

Anxin stood peacefully in the sunlight, her eyes gently closed.

For some reason, he began to admire his "younger brother".

"...Father, please think of another way. You don't know, Ziwei and Erkang really made a vow of eternal love. Ziwei once said to Erkang, 'Only when the mountains have no edges and the heavens and earth are united will I dare to part from you.' How can you make the mountains lose their edges and the heavens and earth merge together? Only on that day can the two of them break up."

After several repetitions, Su Youpeng finally got the hang of it. After delivering his lines in a thick Taiwanese accent, he waited two seconds, then calmly clasped his hands in a respectful gesture of respect.
"Your Majesty, why don't you hold another martial arts competition, and let all the unmarried princes and nobles participate? Perhaps Saiya and Balabon could join..."

"Click."

Before he could finish reassuring her, he was interrupted again.

"Don't worry, just say the lines."

"...?"

Now, Anxin's eyes finally turned to the director.

Sun Shuping was wearing sunglasses, so he couldn't see the other person's eyes. But as he pondered what he had just said...

"Okay, director, I understand."

Zhou Jie frowned slightly.

"Keep the ALEC section, switch the camera angle. Don't worry, you can start over."

"Okay, director."

So, the camera angles of the three cameras were slightly adjusted to make the editing less abrupt.

As Sun Shupei counted down, An Xin once again clasped his hands in a fist and bowed:
"Your Majesty, why don't you hold another martial arts competition and let all the unmarried princes and nobles participate? Perhaps Saiya and Balabon will find a more suitable candidate than Birkon."

"OK, that's enough. Teacher Zhang, please get ready..."

Zhang Tielin will be added to the scenes that belong to Emperor Qianlong, and the three of them will temporarily finish their tasks.

At this moment, Zhou Jie patted An Xin on the shoulder:

"Let's go see how the filming went?"

His screen debut was as Liu Qiong in the film "Ruan Lingyu," directed by Stanley Kwan and starring Zhang Manyu. While filming this movie, he noticed that both Zhang Manyu and Leung Ka-fai would review their performances after filming, which became a habit he developed.

But Anxin shook her head:

"I'm not watching anymore, I'm going to rest for a while."

After speaking, he walked into the rest area and sat down on a chair. Seeing this, Zhou Jie didn't insist and went directly to Sun Shupei's seat.

"Director, may I see my performance just now?"

"Okay, go back and watch it yourself."

After Sun Shuping finished speaking, he got up and walked towards Su Youpeng.

"ALEC, you did a good job just now..."

Zhou Jie's lips twitched.

But he didn't say anything, just sat in front of the monitor, wearing headphones and watching his own performance.

After watching, he felt that his performance might have been a bit too flamboyant, so he got up and walked over to Sun Shuping, who was talking to Su Youpeng:
"Director, I think we could do the second take again? I think I overacted a bit."

Sun Shupei was taken aback and subconsciously looked at Su Youpeng.

Then we saw the speechless and distressed look on this young idol's face.

Clearly, as a "newcomer," the long monologue that had caused him to make several mistakes had already made him feel quite uncomfortable.

As for whether or not to reshoot...

"No need, I think you performed just right."

"But I have high expectations for myself..."

"Zhou Jie".

Upon hearing this reason, Sun Shupei immediately interrupted Zhou Jie, saying:
"I think you performed very well. Go and rest, and just keep this up."

After saying that, he turned to Su Youpeng, who looked relieved, and smiled:
"ALEC, get some rest."

"director……"

Zhou Jie also sensed the "refusal," but the problem was that he genuinely felt his expression had been too overt. He wanted to revise it, but just as he was about to speak, Fan Bing suddenly appeared out of nowhere:
"Brother Zhou, can you do me a favor?"

Seeing the girl blink slightly, Zhou Jie was stunned for a moment, then followed her over.

"Okay, what's wrong?"

"We'll be rehearsing our lines here in a bit..."

The girl pointed at the script as she moved away from Su Youpeng.

Only then did she say:
"Brother Zhou, the director has the final say in a film."

Zhou Jie frowned.

"Besides, we've only just started filming and are still in the adjustment phase. This series is quite long; we're not a movie where every frame has to be perfect. A couple of careless shots in a TV series won't really affect the final quality, right?"

"..."

Hearing the girl's words, he fell silent.

Then Fan Bing continued:

"If we really have high expectations for ourselves, then we can just give it our all in the next scene, don't you think?"

"..."

……

A few minutes later, Fan Bing walked back to An Xin. Seeing that no one was around, and that both Zhao Wei and Zhang Heng were putting on makeup, Fan Bingbing noticed that An Xin was alone.

She then said:

"I've finished speaking, but whether he'll listen to me or not, I don't know."

"Ah."

Anxin nodded slightly, closed the script, and squinted her eyes again.

Fan Bing, sitting next to him, covered her mouth with her script and said:
"I thought you would argue with the director about your lines, just like Zhou Jie did."

Hearing this, Anxin smiled and shook her head:
Do you think what I said is right, or what the lines said is right?

"I'm sure you're right. There was no concept of marriage in the Qing Dynasty. This is a modern term, isn't it? Your use of terms like 'marrying a wife,' 'marrying a bride,' or 'marrying' would definitely be more appropriate. Besides, 'or perhaps Saiya and Baleben' is also a grammatically incorrect sentence. 'Perhaps' would be more fitting."

As Fan Bing spoke, she shook her head to herself:
"But just like you told me to tell Zhou Jie, the final interpretation of this script rests with the director. If he thinks it's okay, then it's okay. What else can I say? Anyway, I've made up my mind..."

She unfolded the script, which was also covered with penmanship of various sizes, and made corrections and scribbles on it.

"I'm not changing it. I'll stick to the script exactly as it is, to avoid doing something wrong with good intentions. What do you think?"

"I think it's okay."

"...Director Sun is a bit of an opportunist...is that how you use that phrase?"

Anxin remained silent.

Because Cao Lihai was walking this way, he was obviously going to the dressing room to find someone.

So, they both shut their mouths at the same time.

Similarly, Anxin, looking at the revisions on her script, ultimately overlooked the changes she herself had made to the script.

Regardless of whether it was good or bad, he wasn't particularly interested in the play anyway.

I came purely for those tens of thousands of yuan.

Since everyone else thinks there's no problem... why should I worry unnecessarily?

Just fulfill the director's requirements.

Hmm... Speaking of which, what is it really like for an actor to encounter a role they're passionate about and become so engrossed in that they forget to eat and sleep?
He pondered to himself.

……

On the other side, Yanjing.

"Commissioner Su, I will definitely have the two children take this script back and read it carefully. Don't worry, I know these two children well, and they will definitely not let you down."

Wang Jinghua smiled politely and gratefully at a woman with curly hair and a slightly plump figure.

The woman referred to as "Su Zuo" smiled slightly:
"Then I won't see you off."

"Okay, please wait a moment, I'll head back now."

After saying goodbye, Wang Jinghua returned to her scooter, glanced at the gloomy weather, put the script, titled "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog," into a plastic bag, and then placed the plastic bag into the storage compartment under the seat.

(End of this chapter)