Chapter 319
“It is better to make mistakes than to be boring”
After lunch, the two men left first, and Ling Suisui and Amy returned to the Aman Hotel.
This place was once hailed as the ceiling of luxury hotels in New York and is also the first choice for many celebrities when they come to New York. Diland generously booked a suite for the main actors for seven days and moved the location after the filming officially started.
They went to the spa and spent the afternoon chatting in the double treatment room.
In the restaurant, Joey and David both said that they had seen many of Ling Suisui's works.
They praised her beauty, admired her fighting scenes, and knew all the highlights of her explosive acting skills. When talking about "The Worry-Free Hero", they expressed their views on martial arts in long speeches. When talking about "The Unmarriageable Sister", they were able to list the feminist theories involved in the movie one by one and start discussions.
Amy was relatively quiet at that time, and Ling Suisui didn't talk much either. They gave the stage at the dining table to the two talkative men, and exchanged a tacit glance while drinking their drinks.
So we have this scene now - in this closed and private room, they can chat quietly.
Amy said that her favorite role played by Ling Suisui is Xu Fangfei.
This was an unexpected answer for Ling Suisui. Although "Peach Blossom Burning" is still the ceiling of ancient idol dramas in the domestic entertainment industry in the past 20 years in terms of playback volume, viewing data from overseas streaming platforms shows that it is quite niche in North America.
Well, actually Amy discovered this ancient idol drama when she was watching Ling Suisui's works based on the information, but that didn't stop her from liking it very much.
"You must like her very much, too," Amy decided.
"Of course." Ling Suisui said with a smile, "I like every role I have played."
"I know, but it's not just because of this..."
Amy turned over and looked at Ling Suisui: "Actors use understanding and empathy to shape their characters, but some things require recognition and love from the heart. You love her, this simple and innocent girl who blooms like a flower, so Xu Fangfei has the ability to love. Because she loves life, everything around her is so gorgeous."
Ling Suisui was silent for a moment, then thanked her.
"Relatively speaking, I rarely hear praises about Xu Fangfei," she said. "This is the only role I've starred in that has not been nominated for any mainstream awards in China."
Some even say that playing a role in a historical drama may be one of the few "stains" in Sui Huang's acting career. Although this was a joke and the person who said it probably had no ill will towards her, Ling Suisui still felt uncomfortable when she saw it.
Considering that speaking out would only expand the scope of the spread of this sentence, Ling Suisui finally chose to pretend that she didn't see it. However, when the studio was making a commemorative short film for her tenth anniversary of her debut, she emphasized that more time should be given to Xu Fangfei to express her attitude to her fans.
Although the award judging mechanisms at home and abroad are different, the prejudice against certain subjects is common, so Amy was not surprised that Xu Fangfei encountered difficulties in winning the award.
However, this does not mean that she can think it is reasonable when she hears Ling Suisui say "others think that the upper limit of idol dramas lies in the male lead."
"Why?" Amy didn't understand. "It's a love story with two main characters. How can one of them decide its popularity?"
From any angle, she felt it didn't make sense!
Ling Suisui was lying on the nursing bed, looking at the decoration above her head and said, "I didn't quite understand it before. Many people gave the reason that the audience of idol dramas is female, and they are used to empathizing with the heroine, so their attention is focused on the male lead. But I think this reason is very one-sided and too self-evident. There are also many viewers who watch from a God's perspective. This is only part of the reason at best."
"Later, I gradually thought that maybe women's love is too easily taken for granted. It is natural for her to love the hero, just like people need to eat and drink water. But whether the hero loves her and how deep his love is are what more people care about."
The air was quiet for a while, and then Ling Suisui felt his hand being held. It was Amy.
She paused, organized her words and said, "Thank you, but I'm not that sad."
"I know." Amy winked at her, "otherwise I would have come over and hugged you right now."
The two of them looked at each other, and Ling Sui discovered something magical. I just watched and it wasn't embarrassing at all.
She was very happy that she had a new good friend.
**
It turns out that it is necessary for the actors to break the ice before filming.
Although Ling Suisui had only known her colleagues for a short time, she quickly established a tacit understanding with everyone when acting together, which was particularly evident between her and Amy.
From the most intuitive point of view, the number of times they laughed was far less than the director's expectations and tolerance. Amy thought she could get off work early, but the director told her that they had to shoot more today.
"Very good. This is my first time working with Vincent. I didn't expect him to be an improvisation-oriented director."
Amy and Ling Suisui complained, "It seems that the quality of our film will depend on luck to a certain extent. I don't mean this in a derogatory way, and I hope it will develop in a good way."
"There's nothing wrong with that." Ling Suisui comforted her, "What we're shooting is something very new. If the director follows the rules...if the director is too conservative, then I'll be worried."
She paused halfway through her speech because she couldn't figure out how to translate the idiom into English, so she had to find a different way of expressing it.
But Amy still scratched her head: "You talk too much! There are so many things... that is, those very formal grammars. No wonder people say that you write papers every day on the set."
She thought of another thing: "I remember that in the previous and subsequent versions of the script, Molly's lines had similar changes. It was originally a very simple sentence, but the screenwriter changed it into a very complicated long sentence. I think he also referred to your speaking style."
Ling Suisui: “…Maybe?”
In order not to sound nagging, she shortened her answer to a short phrase.
But Ling Suisui really didn't blame her, she just subconsciously used the high-scoring expression...
In fact, her colleagues had mentioned this matter since she first came to the United States to film. At that time, there was a nickname for international students on the Internet called "Oriental Shakespeare", so some people liked to call her that.
Ling Suisui thought about changing it at first, but later found that it was a habit, so he had the right to not change it.
Language is just a tool for communication. Americans don't even mind different accents, so what does it matter if she speaks in longer sentences?
Moreover, this characteristic can actually be considered an "Oriental characteristic" when applied to the character. No matter whether it is good or bad, if it can be remembered by the audience, it is called recognizability.
The screenwriters got more than one inspiration from Ling Suisui. The experts and scholars in this project are well-versed in Chinese culture and speak fluent Chinese, but when it comes to understanding native Chinese people, this group of Chinese are clearly not as good as her.
Ling Suisui also provided them with a reference opinion: most Chinese people have a bit twisted personalities.
In order to translate this dialect word, she even looked it up in an English dictionary, but couldn't find any word that completely matched it.
She could only give a more specific explanation. People with this kind of personality can't get along with themselves or others. The two most difficult things in life are to express apologies and say "I love you" to people close to them.
Ling Suisui emphasized that this was really just a suggestion, as she was not sure whether it would be liked by the audience - after she said this, the chief screenwriter asked her if this was "twisted"? Ling Sui was silent.
She ignored this and went on to say that if they wanted to shoot a more local Chinese girl, being twisted would be a very interesting trait.
The screenwriter did not give her a clear answer at the time, but from the latest version of the script she received, this character trait was reflected when Li Mo secretly went abroad and when she communicated with Michelle.
"Kung Fu Master" is a movie that Diland has high hopes for, and Li Mo's popularity will directly affect whether the heroine plan can be smoothly implemented. Ling Suisui is actually not sure whether to give the protagonist these character traits, which can hardly be considered "positive", in such a work.
At this moment, she remembered what a certain director once said, "It is better to make mistakes than to be boring." At the same time, she thought that her hesitation only deepened her colleagues' understanding of "twisted", and she suddenly felt relieved.
Ling Suisui was filming on schedule in the crew, and after June, advertisements for "Dragon Slayer" appeared frequently online and offline.
Because the schedule was arranged in advance, Ling Suisui did not need to ask for leave from the crew when she went out for promotion. Her activities are not limited to North America, but all over the world, which shows how much Warner has spent on publicity and promotion, and how high the psychological expectations for the box office are.
It goes without saying that China is definitely an important promotional base for the film.
It is not known who made the suggestion to Warner management, but when Ling Sui was asked if she could reproduce the promotional effect of "Beauty and the Beast" in domestic variety shows, she felt like a row of ellipsis marks appeared above her head.
"No." She refused without even thinking about it. "Many of the effects on the scene were favored by the gods of variety shows. The script couldn't have written such coincidences. And it would be boring to use the same trick again. The audience would get tired of it."
Even though this plan failed, Werner did not give up. They urged Ling Suisui to think of more solutions. In terms of profit sharing, you are also a shareholder of this movie. The box office is directly related to your income. You can't be careless! No matter how much advertising you put in, it won’t be as effective as tap water. Try to get the audience to recommend it voluntarily!
Although Warner will also contribute, the promotion done by the film officials and the stars themselves will have different focuses in appealing to different audiences. Werner doesn't choose, he wants it all.
...After these words were spoken, Ling Suisui really had no way to refute them.
However, it is not easy to come up with a promotional plan that can convince the audience.
Ling Sui took several shots, but no inspiration came out.
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