American Entertainment: Starting with playing the role of Little Beaver

Chapter 9 Let More People See You
Before coming, Isabella had actually wondered what Maggie Smith would teach her.

Then, the first lesson that came to her mind was to liberate her true nature.

Well, there's nothing she can do about it. Most of her knowledge about acting comes from a certain place in her past life. For a long time, the most popular science among entertainment novelists was about liberating one's true nature, so the thought of going to class brought back those dead memories.

But after talking with Professor McGonagall, she realized that she was quite wrong.

The same is true.

After obtaining Isabella's information, the old lady began preparing her lesson, and her suggestion that Isabella play herself was a well-considered decision.

The reason is simple.

That's because the performance techniques of the three major schools are not suitable for children whose worldviews and minds are not yet fully developed. Moreover, learning any school is a long process, but the final stage will begin in August, and the film must start shooting no later than October, so there is not enough time.

Even though the old lady's words made perfect sense, Isabella still had doubts. "Teacher Maggie."

"Ok?"

"I have a question, a question related to performance genres."

"You said."

"Is playing oneself a genre? I feel like it's an insult in my mind."

"..."

Maggie Smith paused for a moment, "Sorry, Isa, I may not have understood what you mean."

Could you repeat that?

“Uh…” Isabella thought for a moment.

He said, "In my memory, the media likes to call actors who play all their roles the same 'natural performances'."

Isabella found the answer "playing herself" somewhat funny because she had watched a show in her past life called "The Life of a Confucian Scholar," the one hosted by Li Chengru.

The other party said on the show that "acting like oneself" is an insult in the industry, meaning that the actor has no acting skills and can only play a blob of nonsense.

but--

Oh, I think you might have been misled.

The old lady understood what the little girl meant, and shook her head with a wry smile. "Playing yourself is actually the best kind of acting in the entertainment industry. Because all the 'playing a role' is not as natural as 'being the role'."

“Playing oneself directly means that the actor presents the character through their own experience or personality, reducing the traces of ‘acting’. This makes the performance seem more real and believable. This is the highest level in the industry, and it is also the reason why casting exists.”

"Isn't casting in the film industry simply about finding actors who are similar to the characters?"

"If this isn't important... then why are you standing in front of me now?"

Isabella understood.

"So you mean that 'playing yourself' has become a derogatory term because of 'rest on one's laurels'?"

"Yeah~"

The old lady paused for a moment, then laughed. She really liked the little girl's analogy: "It's like living off past glories."

The entertainment industry has the most lucky people in the world.

There are many ways to go to university, but in the entertainment industry, all big hits are destined.

Many celebrities didn't actually study acting much before they became famous; they just happened to get a role that suited them and then became famous. When the vast majority of people reap huge rewards by playing themselves, who dares to say that playing themselves is the worst kind of acting? The reason why playing oneself has become a derogatory term is because many celebrities don't improve themselves after becoming famous. When these celebrities keep repeating the same path, a sense of disconnect and fatigue arises.

Although playing herself might have a hint of evil cultivation, Isabella didn't care.

Because what she needs right now is quick success.

To put it bluntly, at this moment, she wished she possessed the power of Deep Blue!
Dark blue! add a bit!
Game Over.

Since there are no cheat codes, one can only cultivate on one's own, and before that...

“Ms. Maggie, I have another question.”

"Ask away, Miss with lots of questions."

Maggie Smith looked at the little girl with a smile.

Isabella stuck out her tongue.

The old lady is praising her.

Hermione Granger in Harry Potter is a very curious girl with a lot of questions.

Therefore, the more questions she asks, the closer she gets to the character.

"I want to know why those celebrities who became famous by playing themselves don't improve themselves after they become famous."

Isabella said, "Are they not improving themselves because they don't have the time, or because they want to replicate their success?"

This question made Maggie Smith pause for a moment.

She stared at Isabella for several seconds, and finally, she smiled and shook her head.

"I think I understand how you won Annie over."

“Your question is sharp, as sharp as Miss Granger’s, and I would like to say that there is no right answer to this question.”

"My answer to this question is both, and there is a third reason."

"After becoming famous, celebrities really don't have time to improve themselves, because countless projects will come their way. Who can refuse offers of millions or tens of millions? They also dare not improve themselves casually. Audiences like them because of their natural interpretations. Nobody knows whether they will lose audience favor if they change their performance style."

"As for the third reason... besides the method acting, performance acting, and playing oneself, there is actually another acting style in the entertainment industry, which is called script modification, or customized role."

"Furthermore, this school of thought actually serves the purpose of playing oneself."

"For example, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks..."

Both Tom Cruise and Forrest Gump started their careers as idols. Tom Cruise needs no introduction; at his peak, he was devastatingly handsome. His ability to star in "Top Gun" at his height was purely due to his good looks. Forrest Gump, while not as handsome as Tom Cruise, was a sunny and cheerful young man who mostly starred in romance films, most notably "Sleepless in Seattle."

Both of them became famous by playing themselves, and they have never changed.

All the breakthroughs were minor innovations in the script and the characters.

Like Tom Cruise, he excels at playing roles with strong dramatic conflict. His roles in "Interview with the Vampire" and "Jerry Maguire" follow the same formula, with only the story and background changing. But this kind of change is considered an improvement in the entertainment industry.

The same goes for Forrest Gump. He can indeed easily handle all kinds of roles, and he has outstanding performances in both comedies and dramas. However, the core spirit of the outstanding characters he plays is the same. To put it simply, they are all good people who embody the American Dream.

Forrest Gump rarely plays villains; his image simply isn't suited for the role.

If the kernel can be guaranteed, isn't changing the identity a change in itself a change?

"There are indeed three major schools in the performing arts, but all the techniques will leave traces of processing in your performance, which is far less natural than being yourself. Therefore, when some stars become famous enough, everyone will help them play themselves."

"Then, I want to say that this kind of performance is actually the most difficult."

"It requires a lot of talent."

"Cruise's talent is not as high as Hanks', so he can only keep going around in action movies and comedies. Hanks' talent is higher than Cruise's. He can play both a fool and a military officer while using the same core, so he won the award."

"So if you're asking this question to understand the future of actors who 'play themselves,' then I can only say that if Hermione Granger becomes a star, a huge star, then your minimum level in acting will be Tom Cruise. As for the maximum level?"

"Tom Hanks is the ceiling, but that ceiling can be broken; it all comes down to talent."

"Of course, I'm not saying Tom Cruise is inferior to Tom Hanks; he's still fantastic in the action movie genre."

Are you satisfied with my answer, Miss Questioner?

Maggie Smith raised an eyebrow at Isabella.

"Yeah~"

Although her little scheme was exposed, the girl wasn't embarrassed. She smiled and nodded, "Thank you, Teacher Maggie."

"So we can officially start classes now?" Maggie Smith asked.

"Haven't we been in class all along?" The little girl tilted her head.

The old lady laughed at the playful question.

“You’re being mischievous, aren’t you? You think this rhetorical question fits Granger’s character perfectly? Oh, I’m sorry, Ms. Granger, but I must inform you now that the you in the script is not the same as the you in the book.”

"So, in order for you to better understand the character, I'm going to punish you by making you read the script..."

Because Isabella wasn't in the entertainment industry in her previous life, and this seemingly glamorous but actually dark circle was truly alluring, she instinctively wanted to gossip after finding Professor McGonagall easy to talk to. Of course, she admitted that asking so many questions did indeed have an element of wanting to find out about the future.

In her memory, many child stars faded into obscurity as adults.

Family factors play a role here; Macaulay Culkin in "Home Alone" was ruined by his family.
One reason is that some people grow up to be less attractive; Haley Osmont, Forrest Gump's son, is an example of someone whose looks have deteriorated.

But there are also actresses whose acting skills can't support their popularity, such as Emma Watson...

Well, okay, there are actually many reasons why the last one failed.

Although Isabella hasn't entered the industry yet, and even if she did, she wouldn't know how long she would stay in it, people don't just look at their feet when they're walking, right? Everyone looks forward and makes predictions.

So, after Maggie Smith stated that she could only play Hermione by being herself, Isabella wondered if there was a possibility of changing careers in the future, and with the realization that fame could overcome anything...

Her heart felt a little more at ease.

…………

A long conversation and a long deliberation are different. The former is a better way to understand a person, while the latter usually leads to a bad move. As for the other two...
The fighter jet outlasted the old lady.

After confirming that Isabella might be the Problem Girl Rowling was looking for, the training on how to play herself could begin. Maggie Smith stated that over the next three to four weeks, she would only teach Isabella two things:
First, it allowed Isabella, who had never acted before, to naturally express the requirements of the script.

This is actually a performance.

Secondly, all performances can be carried out under the spotlight.

There are a lot of people on set. If you can't relax, then even if Rowling likes you a lot, it won't matter.

These two points seem simple, but in reality...

"Oh, Isa, aren't you going to study acting? Why do you still have homework?"

That night, at home.

After dinner, Isabella went back to her room, and Catherine followed her. She wanted to ask her sister how her studies went, but to her surprise, as soon as she entered the room, she saw Isabella hunched over her desk, writing and drawing.

"Yes, Sir Smith had me read the script and then copy down Hermione's parts."

Isabella didn't look up, and said, "She said doing this would help me understand Hermione better, because she's different in the script than in the book, and if I can discover the differences between the script and the novel in the process..."

"That would prove that I am the real Miss Perfection."

"Oh~" Catherine thought she understood. "Spot the differences, right? Testing your attention to detail and your patience?"

"..."

Isabella, who was copying the script, paused with her right hand.

The ink stains on the notebook made her lips twitch slightly. "I guess so."

"Okay, good luck then, I won't bother you anymore."

After encouraging her sister, Catherine decisively slipped away.

But a few seconds later, she came back and said, "Oh, by the way, there's something I want to tell you."

"what's up?"

"My mom told me today that she has already paid my tuition for the new semester."

"Isn't this great? You can continue your studies in São Paulo."

“You haven’t started earning money yet, so Mom used the family savings to pay my tuition, and your money was part of that. And once you start earning money, the family’s expenses might all fall on your shoulders… uh…”

Catherine didn't know what to say. After a long pause, she sighed and said, "So... thank you..."

Isabella chuckled, overwhelmed with a constipated sense of gratitude.

That's actually why she's willing to support her family.

I didn't dwell on such a trivial matter. "If you really want to thank me, just let me continue doing my homework."

"Okay, goodbye." Catherine didn't insist any further and closed the door.

The unexpected little incident didn't affect Isabella too much; she continued to bury herself in reading the script...

Oh wait, there's an ink stain on her notebook.

Although Professor McGonagall did not explicitly state the purpose of reading through the script, since scripts can exist in many forms—a complete story script is a script, and a single character script is also a script—the latter are pre-produced in formal Hollywood productions, where each actor only needs to read the scenes of their own character. Therefore, theoretically speaking, it is not something Isabella should be doing to sort out the character plot from the story script and then find differences.

However, Isabella felt that she could guess Maggie Smith's good intentions.

The other person is helping him become Hermione Granger.

Little Beaver, nicknamed the know-it-all, is a diligent and studious character in the book. She uses every available moment to learn and enrich herself with knowledge. So, right now, the one flipping through the script is Little Beaver.

Because she was secretly working hard, trying to amaze everyone.

Of course, this idea wasn't something she came up with on her own; rather, it was inspired by a story from her past life.

In her past life, she had heard that after Yu Entai received the role in "My Own Swordsman," he asked the director what he needed to prepare. Shang Jing said that he was playing a learned scholar, so he needed to be familiar with the Analects of Confucius and the Book of Songs. So he went back and memorized most of them. But when filming started, he found out that the only line related to him was "Confucius once said." The feeling of being unappreciated immediately came to mind.

In the past, this news would have been an amusing thing for Isabella.

But now, she feels like she understands what experiential learning is.

That's right, playing oneself is not acting randomly.

If you resemble the character, that's your luck, a gift from God, but it's not a license for you to be willful.

Isabella received a standard Hollywood script, with each page averaging 0.8 to 1.2 minutes of film footage. The script for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" currently has 236 pages. They started working at 7 p.m. and didn't finish until after midnight, when Isabella had finally extracted all forty or so pages related to Hermione.

Although she was a little sleepy, she didn't stop. She went into the bathroom to wash her face with cold water, then picked up the novel and started looking for differences. It took her more than three hours to mark all the differences between the script and the novel.

At 10 a.m., Maggie Smith nodded, noticing the faint dark circles under her eyes and the handwritten manuscript neatly arranged in a book.

"Is everything sorted out?"

"Ah."

“I don’t recall saying you were supposed to organize all of this in one night.”

"If I had more time, I would have found out every difference between the script and the book."

Maggie Smith laughed. "Looks like you understand what I mean. What time did you finish working last night?"

"I met Mayfair at four in the morning."

Maggie Smith's eyes gleamed at the thought of getting at most six hours of sleep.

The energetic young girl made her purse her lips. "Do you know what my first film was when I broke into Hollywood?"

"Othello?"

After learning that Maggie Smith would be her teacher, Isabella glanced at her profile.

The old lady's performance in "Othello" in 1965 earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

"That's right, it's Othello. Sir Lawrence Oliver took me to America at the time."

Maggie Smith recalled: "Many people said he was a genius. His self-written, self-directed and self-acted Hamlet and Henry V brought Shakespearean drama to a new level. But Lawrence told me that even the most talented person has to learn to show himself. Only a genius who is seen by people is a genius. A genius who remains unknown is wasting God's gift."

"You're great."

So...how about letting more people see you?

The old lady's words made Isabella's eyes crinkle with laughter.

"Teacher Maggie, I'm waiting for you to lead the way, aren't I?"

"Ha~" The old lady was delighted.

"Okay, then come with me." She picked up the script and stood up.

"Where to?" Isabella asked, puzzled.

"Go to the theater I founded."

　Note: ① Hollywood screenwriting follows a formula. Characters are typically based on archetypes, such as mythology or ancient stories. This is just the most common approach. A slight modification is writing characters based on actors. For example, Sofia Coppola herself said that Bob in *Lost in Translation* was based on Bill Murray. Quentin Tarantino wrote Jules in *Pulp Fiction* based on Laurence Fishburne, but Fishburne didn't have time to act, so they cast Samuel L. Jackson, who resembled him. Tailoring roles to actors based on their characteristics is even a common practice in Hollywood for award considerations, although they don't say it publicly, only that the actor and role are a good fit.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)