Entertainment: The Path to Best Actor for Talented Actors

After filming wrapped up for "The Indelible Number," Zhang Ze returned to Beijing, and life returned to normal.

He had been filming in Yimeng for three consecutive months and had already given up his house in Beijing.

This time when I go back to Beijing, I need to find a place to live first.

Previously, because I didn't have much money, I tried to save as much as possible and always lived in a basement.

After all, only basements allow for spontaneous moves; apartments or buildings require not only agency fees but also deposits.

But things are much better now. He earned more than 40,000 yuan from the drama "Number Number," and with the tens of thousands of yuan he had saved before, it's enough to support him to rent an apartment.

I rented a one-bedroom apartment in a community outside the Fourth Ring Road for 2,000 yuan per month. The contract was for six months with a deposit of one month's rent and three months' rent paid in advance.

After sleeping in a basement in Beijing for two and a half years, I've finally moved up to the ground floor.

Zhang Ze was in a great mood and spent a day tidying up his room.

To celebrate having a small place in Beijing, he even bought groceries from the market and cooked a meal, finally feeling like he was living a more comfortable life.

Zhang Ze didn't have many friends in Beijing; being an extra is a highly mobile industry.

Lu Jun, the extra who brought him into the industry two years ago, has also switched to working as a hospital scalper. I heard that he even got a marriage certificate with a rich woman from another place, but they divorced a year later.

This guy got married five times in five years, and each time he received a divorce settlement of 100,000 yuan. He lived a very carefree life.

While eating, I had a video call with Gao Yang, who was far away in Hengdian.

He told him that he had settled down in the capital and had a fixed address, and that he could come and visit him if he ever had time to come to the capital.

Zhang Ze, who was in a good mood, was unexpectedly fed a bellyful of dog food by Gao Yang.

Surprisingly, this guy found a girlfriend in Hengdian, and the girl is also a contract actress.

She usually takes on roles as palace maids or servants in period dramas; she's quite pretty and has a great presence.

This made Zhang Ze very envious, as his social circle was very narrow now, and he spent his time either on film sets or at home honing his acting skills.

Moreover, the girls in the entertainment industry are very ambitious, which is why he is still single.

Zhang Ze is now considered a contract actor. Besides accepting gigs from casting directors, he also runs around to different film sets with his resume.

Every year, hundreds of film crews shoot in Beijing, including movies, TV series, short films, short videos, and music videos.

Most of the casting calls usually come from the production team leaders, and the number of scenes I get by running around to different film sets is less than a third.

But the jobs he found himself each time involved three to five days of filming, and he could also get to know the assistant director, so Zhang Ze kept going to different film crews.

That day, Zhang Ze played a beat cop in a police drama, and the whole scene lasted for three days.

When it came time to collect the appearance fee, Qiang, the group leader who had been working with them, kept Zhang Ze on the team.

"Aze, Sister Yan wants to see you! If you're not in a hurry, I'll introduce you to her later."

"Sister Yan?"

I know a bit about this Sister Yan, Zhang Ze. She is a well-known group leader in the Beijing area with a large number of extras. Brother Qiang is one of the group leaders who gets work from Sister Yan.

But Zhang Ze wasn't particularly interested in this woman!

Because this Sister Yan was the woman with a very bad temper and rude speech that he saw at Shougang on his first day as an extra.

Zhang Ze is known for his gentle speech and elegant demeanor.

Since he was looking for work from someone else, Zhang Ze agreed, wanting to see what Sister Yan wanted from him.

The group leader, Qiang, drove Zhang Ze to a mixed-use apartment building not far away. Upon arrival, they discovered it was a media company.

The company is small and not luxuriously decorated; only a few young girls are constantly busy working there.

"Sister Yan, I've brought Zhang Ze to you!" Brother Qiang said cautiously as he knocked on the door.

At this moment, Sister Yan was cursing on the phone again, and waved her hand to tell the two of them to wait.

Sister Yan was dressed the same way, looking like a middle-aged woman, with messy and unkempt hair.

So Zhang Ze and his companion stood there for about five minutes.

Zhang Ze was somewhat dissatisfied. Not even being given a seat was incredibly disrespectful!

Finally, after Sister Yan finished her phone call, she saw the two of them standing there and immediately got angry, yelling at the girls inside the room.

"Are you blind? Why didn't you even bring me a stool? What's the use of keeping you around all day? You have no sense of propriety at all!"

The girls didn't dare to argue and hurriedly started getting stools for Zhang Ze and Qiang Ge, and bringing them water.

Before Zhang Ze could even sit down, he heard Sister Yan ask, "Director Zhang, have you finalized the cast for the *** production team yet? If so, send out the notices and have the casting directors find the actors. We need to get everyone together by tomorrow."

"Tell them that whoever makes a mistake will have their resources halved from now on. If you can do it, do it; if you can't, get out!"

Watching Sister Yan directing the girls around in circles, Zhang Ze felt a little sorry for them.

Having such a short-tempered boss is really unlucky!

Zhang Ze felt that Sister Yan was like a vegetable vendor who wholesales vegetables at a market.

She has a demanding and stressful job, a short temper, and is decisive and ruthless in her work; she is a strong woman.

But it gives people the feeling that it's difficult to get along with.

"Zhang Ze, right? I've heard Qiangzi mention you!"

Sister Yan took out a cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag, and continued speaking.

"I heard you filmed for three months in Director Xu's Yimeng production team?"

"Thanks to Director Xu's help, I got to play a minor role as a sidekick to the main character, and he gave me more screen time," Zhang Ze said without giving a direct answer.

"I know Xu Ji Zou quite well. He takes acting very seriously. If you don't have good acting skills, he definitely won't add scenes for you."

Since Director Xu thinks highly of your acting skills, I'll keep you in suspense.

The reason I called you here today is to ask if you would be willing to sign with my agency and become a contract actor under my management.

"This problem..."

Before Zhang Ze could speak, Sister Yan interrupted him.

"Listen to my conditions first, think it through before you answer me."

You should know that in the entertainment industry, the most important things are money and connections.

You can ask around and find out about Sister Yan. She's considered one of the top people in Beijing when it comes to extras. She has connections with many famous directors, and two-thirds of the extras managers in Beijing get their jobs from me.

If you become a contract actor under my management, I guarantee you will have filming for at least twenty days every month, with a guaranteed minimum salary of five thousand per month.

Sister Yan looked at Zhang Ze and said, "I won't bully you. If you don't agree, I won't stop you from working, but I need to make sure that our own featured actors have work before I issue any announcements."

I won't completely cut off those who reject me. I won't get more than ten gigs a month. There's no hope of getting rich, but I can still earn a salary. If you want to get rich, you'll have to run around to different production teams yourself.

Although Sister Yan said she wouldn't force me, it was practically a blatant threat.

This was the first time Zhang Ze had faced such a situation in the two and a half years since he entered society, but with his stubborn streak, he simply didn't like being threatened.

"Sister Yan, I still prefer my freedom! If you have any work here, we can work together, but I'm not thinking about signing a contract yet."

Zhang Ze directly rejected Sister Yan.

He's a strange person. If he wants a certain resource, he can take the initiative to lower his head and fight for it, but if you try to force him to accept it, he will absolutely not cooperate.