Chapter 318
"Critics Runner-up Alliance"
The early filming of "Kung Fu Master" took place in Chinatown in Manhattan, New York. When Ling Suisui came here for the first time, he felt like he had returned to China in the last century.
The buildings here are full of retro atmosphere. Chinese signs can be seen everywhere on the streets. What you hear is basically Mandarin, and the roadside is filled with various stalls.
Ling Suisui and her assistant strolled along the street and bought some octopus balls. The stall owner was very welcoming. Even though she didn't recognize Ling Suisui who was wearing a mask, she still chatted with her about family matters.
My aunt doesn't speak English, but that didn't stop her from living in Chinatown for decades. Although it is called a "street", the scale of this place is comparable to that of a county town in China, and it also has complete infrastructure facilities, which completely exceeds Ling Suisui's understanding and imagination of Chinatown.
She would come here before filming, actually because her colleagues invited her to dinner. In order to cater to her taste, they specially chose a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, which was also a restaurant serving Cantonese dim sum.
Ling Sui glanced at the menu and subconsciously converted the price from US dollars to RMB. He couldn't help but be shocked by the prices.
The barbecued pork buns here come in a basket of three, and one portion costs US$4.5, which converts to RMB 32...so expensive! How dare a barbecued pork bun be sold for ten yuan each? People in Guangdong province are extremely angry.
But then she remembered that this was America, and based on her previous dining experiences, the price was already cheap.
Ling Suisui casually mentioned this matter to her new assistant - yes, she had a new assistant again.
It’s not that they are dissatisfied with Zhuo Siyu, but considering their career planning, every assistant who has worked with her will be transferred to other positions in the team to ensure that they have promotion channels.
The new assistant also thought it was expensive, but she said, "But for Sui-jie, these prices should be about the same, right?"
The assistant actually didn't know Ling Sui's specific income, but she felt that with the boss's income level, the price of each meal fluctuated between ten yuan and ten thousand yuan, which was almost equivalent to no price difference.
"No, I am very concerned about the prices."
To the assistant's surprise, Ling Suisui shook her head and replied, "If you lose your popular mindset, you won't be able to play a realistic role."
The assistant nodded thoughtfully. It was not the first time for her to be an assistant to an artist. Now she understood why only Ling Suisui was Ling Suisui. No matter how others imitated or reproduced the roles she played, they could not replicate her success.
The host of today's party is actress Amy, and there are also two male actors, Joey and David.
Ling Suisui had an online group chat with the leading actors. The names on the chat were all their nicknames. When she read them out one by one in English, she inexplicably felt that they rhymed and sounded smooth.
Amy thought for a moment and said, "Lindsay...it just so happens that your character is 'li', so we can call you Lily!"
Ling Suisui accepted the nickname. She thought that when she was filming in the previous crews, her colleagues would call her "lin" to show closeness and friendship, which is similar to the pronunciation of Lin in Chinese.
Before, there was just no back nasal sound, but now it is all there in one step and directly turned into English tones.
The four actors present all play important roles in "Kung Fu Master". There is no need to say much about Ling Suisui. Amy plays investigator Michelle, who has been arguing with Li Mo, expressing dissatisfaction with her many times, and resolving the conflict and working together at the end.
Joey plays a monster pretending to be an investigator. According to the positioning of superhero movies, he is a super villain. David plays an administrative staff member who completes auxiliary work in the investigation mission.
"I originally auditioned for the role of David," Amy said, "but I was in a bad mood that day, and the assistant director asked me to be more friendly, but I kept a cold face throughout the whole audition."
"I was very disappointed after I went back, and I thought that this movie had nothing to do with me. God knows how much I wanted to work with you! But later they called me and asked me to try Michelle again - the investigator in the script was not called this name at that time."
Ling Sui had read the script earlier than them, and she remembered that the investigator was a male in the previous script.
But she didn't think there would be any problem with Amy playing the role, and in fact, there was no plot in the movie that required distinguishing the character's physical differences.
David shrugged: "Maybe it opened their minds... I originally auditioned for the role of Joey."
“Maybe they think you’re gentle?” Joey joked, “I haven’t changed my audition role. I hope no one thinks I look like a villain.”
Everyone laughed, and Joey talked about another thing with great interest: "Speaking of which, the four of us can form a 'Critics Runner-up Alliance'!"
Ling Sui didn't get the joke at first, so Amy had to explain it to her.
Coincidentally, the four of them received individual nominations for the Critics' Choice Awards this year as male and female leading actors, male and female supporting actors, but unfortunately all of them were runners-up. Others meet at the top, but they meet together halfway up the mountain to keep each other warm.
After Amy said this, Ling Suisui remembered. The highest award in the film industry in Europe and the United States is the Oscar, and the Oscar has four indicators, namely the Golden Globe Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, and the Critics' Choice Awards mentioned above.
"Beauty and the Beast", the annual global box office champion, swept many technical awards such as costumes and art. However, due to the subject matter, Ling Suisui was only nominated for one major award.
Due to schedule conflicts and the fact that she felt the chances of winning were very low, Ling Suisui did not attend the award ceremony, which made several leading actors who were already deeply involved in the "Kung Fu Master" project and wanted to meet her very regretful.
Ling Suisui has already filmed two movies in Hollywood, and many of his works have been shown in American theaters and on streaming platforms. Her colleagues have many channels to learn about her abilities, and the more they see, the more curious they become about her.
Chatting between celebrities is no different from chatting with ordinary people, all of which revolve around interests and hobbies and gossip about common friends. When Ling Suisui heard the news about herself and James again, it was already the version of "he was deeply in love with her, but her sexual orientation was a mystery."
Ling Sui was drinking tea at the time and almost choked.
Wait, it doesn’t matter what James’ attitude is, so why is her sexual orientation a mystery? This isn't what should happen to her!
"Because they are a bunch of boring and arrogant men." Amy rolled her eyes. "You don't date, don't gossip, and don't show any special preference for any man. These self-righteous guys are really embarrassed. But they don't look for problems in themselves. They just think you like women."
David immediately raised his hands: "No, I didn't say that. Don't shoot me."
Joey followed closely to express his attitude. In front of Ling Suisui, they dared not show disrespect to women.
Ling Sui was at a loss for words. This was the first time she had heard of this. It seemed that her team would need to strengthen public opinion monitoring in overseas regions.
But it's hard to dispel rumors like this... She can't just find a man to date right away just to prove that she's straight. That would be unnecessary.
This topic was quickly brought up and everyone talked about how to spend their personal time outside of work.
Joey was particularly curious and asked, "Lily, do you really carry a notebook with you and write papers whenever you are not filming?"
Ling Suisui: ...Ah?
No, who is spreading such an outrageous rumor?
"Of course not." Ling Suisui explained solemnly, "I don't like writing papers, and I don't carry a notebook with me. Isn't it more convenient to use a mobile phone or tablet?"
"I just record some inspirations occasionally, but they are all my personal feelings and experiences, and sometimes I doodle. They are definitely not as...academic as you say."
After she said this, the other three seemed relieved.
Ling Sui didn't dare to imagine what kind of image she had in their minds, a strict and old-fashioned head teacher?
When she brought up the topic, David nodded subconsciously. Although the amplitude was relatively small, she captured it.
Ling Suisui was shocked, Ling Suisui didn't understand, Ling Suisui was speechless.
And this was just the beginning - Ling Sui asked them to share more of their impressions of herself, so she heard rumors such as "I have to wear headphones to listen to the script before falling asleep every day", "I have to rehearse while walking", "I don't allow others to talk about things other than the script on the crew", "I won't be given food if I don't perform well" and so on.
Ling Sui almost felt numb after hearing what happened next. Anyway, according to their description, she was filming as soon as her eyes were open, and sleeping as soon as her eyes were closed, with no break in between. She worked hard every minute and every second, and suffered from extreme perfectionism and competition anxiety.
She thought her top cancer was already very serious, but she didn't expect that it was still a long way from what people imagined her to be.
"That's too much." Ling Suisui said helplessly, "I know you think Asians are curly - I admit that's true, but it's not to this extent. We also have emotions and entertainment needs."
When she said this, the topic was brought back to the topic again. Amy and Joey both find dating to be a very stress-relieving experience, especially a fleeting romance on the set. No need to think about the future, just enjoy the present, the crazier and more exciting it is, the more they like it.
Although David is not keen on relationships, he has many hobbies that can help him release his energy. In comparison, Ling Suisui, who treats fitness and kung fu training as a task, seems a bit boring.
But Ling Suisui does not admit this, she also has hobbies.
She opened the memo on her phone, selected a few pages and translated them into English, then showed them what she had recorded.
She would randomly select an observation target in a certain scene in life and imagine relevant information about the other person based on her current feelings.
The word she used here is "imagination" instead of "speculation", which is enough to illustrate how free Ling Sui's thinking is. Just last month, she saw a girl walking by with an umbrella. According to her memo, the girl had been fighting dark dimension creatures with umbrellas for eight hundred rounds.
"I really enjoy this process," Ling Suisui said. "It brings me endless inspiration, which is exactly what I need when interpreting each new role."
After Ling Suisui said this, the way Amy and others looked at her seemed to change again.
"I knew it." David said in a complex tone with admiration, "You Chinese people work hard and do your best in everything you do. Compared to you, Americans are too lazy. The future of this country is worrying."
Ling Suisui: ...
This sounds a bit strange, but also inexplicably familiar. Do Americans have their own Yilin?
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