Chapter 238
Beauty and the Beast Completes Filming
After the dinner conversation, Xiao Tang immersed himself in script writing. However, she couldn't stay in the United States for too long. The Spring Festival was approaching and she had to go home for the New Year's Eve dinner.
She was accompanied by the staff around Ling Suisui. Although Ling Suisui still had to stay on the set to film, she gave all her employees a Spring Festival holiday. As for herself, she just needed to hire a local assistant to take care of the chores temporarily.
With her level of English, she doesn't even necessarily require the other person to be of Chinese descent, and it doesn't matter whether they can speak Chinese or not. Of course, it would definitely be better if the other person could watch the Spring Festival Gala with her.
On New Year's Eve, the crew also expressed their gratitude to Ling Suisui. Although they did not celebrate the Spring Festival, the entire crew ordered boxed lunches from a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, hoping that Ling Suisui could have a taste of his hometown in the United States.
Ling Suisui was very grateful for the crew's kindness, but she really couldn't say many words of praise for this "Chinese meal".
——Not to mention anything else, if Zuo Zongtang himself tasted this "Zuo Zongtang Chicken" with a lethal amount of sugar added, he would probably be so angry that he would come back from his coffin. He is from Hunan Province!
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Ling Sui gives out red envelopes to everyone he meets. This is a habit engraved in the DNA of Guangdong people.
The amount of red envelopes given out in Guangdong Province is not large, usually only five or ten yuan. In Ling Sui's impression, the red envelopes given to her by Ling Fei and Hao Ren would not exceed one hundred yuan.
The red envelopes she distributed everywhere in the crew contained neither RMB nor USD, but lottery tickets.
As Ling Sui has become increasingly popular in recent years, it has long been known that she received a red envelope at the opening ceremony of "Ding Feng Bo" and scratched out 20,000 yuan from the lottery ticket inside.
You know, the entertainment industry is the most superstitious place, and "Ding Feng Bo" is Ling Sui's first film. The more popular she becomes, more and more film crews put lottery tickets in the red envelopes for the start of filming. If you can really win a prize by scratching it out, it will become a hot topic and be marketed heavily.
Ling Suisui herself doesn't really want to spread this kind of feudal superstition, but her colleagues who work with her really want to get this good luck, and think that the red envelopes sent by her personally are the most effective...Unable to refuse such kindness, Ling Suisui sends out red envelopes on the crew almost every time a drama starts filming.
She did not bring this habit to Hollywood when filming of Beauty and the Beast began. Director Austin even mentioned this matter during a conversation.
After the variety show recording, Austin and Tang Bing kept in touch and had heard about this "custom". Although she does not believe in this kind of metaphysics, she thinks it is an interesting form of entertainment. So, Ling Sui made up for it on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
On that day, all the cast and crew members were addicted to scratch cards, and from time to time you could hear someone say that they had won a prize.
James also enthusiastically used a coin to scratch off the coating. He was lucky and won two thousand dollars.
"This is my first time winning a lottery!" He excitedly raised the lottery ticket above his head and kissed it, "Thank God! I got a fortune that fell from the sky."
He turned to look at Ling Suisui: "Of course, I also want to thank you, Suisui."
In the entire crew, James is one of the few people who calls her by her Chinese name. If we add the standard of correct pronunciation, he becomes even more valuable.
Unfortunately, Ling Suisui was hardly moved by his sincerity. In her eyes, James and Qiao Xintong have very similar personalities. If she wasn't filming a movie, she might be interested in having a competition with the other party.
But she didn't have time to play with him, so forget it.
James then said: "Thank you for giving me this good fortune. Am I the first person to get it?"
"No." Ling Suisui stated the fact calmly, "There are probably more than a dozen people ahead of you. The probability of winning a scratch lottery ticket is still quite high."
For example, Li Mingxu, for example, Xu Shiling - even if you only scrape out five or ten pieces, it's still meaningful.
Qiao Xintong is so used to this kind of trick of saying something with hidden meaning and stirring people's hearts.
"In China, this is called a good luck sign, which is a sign that something lucky is about to happen."
Ling Suisui changed the topic to movies: "It indicates that our work will achieve good results."
No one doesn't like to hear auspicious words, and Americans are no exception.
James smiled: "I believe it will, because you are really good, you are the most charming actor I have ever seen. Sui Sui, you know, in the Princess Dirand series of movies, the heroine who plays the princess is the soul and core, and the prince is just a foil."
Although this statement contains some elements of praise, it is not wrong. Whether it is animation or live-action movie, the Princess Dilande series has always done a good job in sticking to the "strong heroine" aspect.
Moreover, its princess image is quite up-to-date.
From Snow White and Sleeping Beauty waiting to be rescued by the prince, to Rapunzel escaping from the tower, and Belle who defeated the prince in this adaptation... Even if the goal of capital is still to make money, the positive part of these works in enlightening women's thoughts cannot be denied.
Even on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Ling Suisui will not stop working. Her role today is a bit special, she has to tie the hair of the Beast Prince.
To be precise, the mane on the beast's head is decorated with small flowers, small hairpins, and a few small braids.
These movements are very simple, but Ling Suisui spent a whole day shooting them. The beast's mane of course had to undergo post-production special effects processing. Although she had auxiliary props, the actual shooting was almost the same as a performance without props.
Seeing that the progress of this scene was slow, the producer suggested simply cutting it out, as this content might not be retained in the final film anyway, but director Austin strongly opposed it.
"We shot Beauty and the Beast, but I never assumed that the protagonist could only have one identity. Breaking stereotypes is our purpose, isn't it?"
The producer was speechless, this statement is very Dylan. Moreover, he had to admit that in nature, males looking for a mate would be the ones who were more obsessed with appearance.
Beasts that can dress up, Belle who researches new weapons... Although these scenes only account for a very small proportion of the movie, they are indeed quite subversive innovations.
As James said, the core of the Princess series of movies lies in the heroine. During the three months of filming, Ling Sui's schedule was very full. She only left the crew temporarily to attend the annual ceremony, and stayed in the crew at other times.
Even on her days off, she never goes to bars or parties, but she is not unsocial. She chats very enthusiastically with her friends online. The Chinese emoticons she brought spread quickly in the crew like a virus and formed a new trend.
Hmm...how come it's not considered cultural export?
When asked about their impression of her, most crew members would give positive comments such as "excellent" and "hardworking". When the film was about to be completed, many people expressed their reluctance to part with Ling Sui and looked forward to having the opportunity to work with her again next time.
"I hope so too," Ling Suisui replied, "but I hope it won't be a reshoot."
This kind of dry humor was quite popular, so much so that on the day of wrapping, no one said "see you" to Ling Suisui. Not wanting to work overtime is probably the common feeling of workers all over the world.
When she said goodbye to James, he finally put away his usual awkward demeanor and said goodbye to her formally.
"You are too hard to chase. I give up."
James also complained, "I'll just call you Lindsay from now on - you don't know how difficult your Chinese name is to pronounce. I spent a long time learning it."
Hearing this, Ling Sui couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
To be honest, she felt so relaxed after finishing the filming, and suddenly she felt a little interested.
She took a half step back, her eyelashes trembling slightly, as if she was savoring what he had just said.
When her eyes were suddenly filled with tears, James' heart skipped a beat and he had a bad feeling.
"Give up, what do you mean?"
Ling Suisui asked softly. She looked up and met his gaze, but then quickly looked away, and this action attracted James's attention.
"Is it just a game?" she asked him.
“…No, you…”
James suddenly stuttered. It seemed that he had a hard time expressing himself with words. However, he thought that in the past few months of playing and tug-of-war, there should be an unspoken tacit understanding between him and Ling Suisui.
...Yes, right?
He suspected that he was being played, but Ling Suisui looked at him deeply, then turned and left. She had absolutely no intention of continuing to question him, but the more she did so, the more uneasy James became.
When a person is wavering, all the certain things in the past will be doubted. What's more, in the American impression, Oriental girls tend to be more conservative in relationships.
James was frantically imagining the drama on the spot, and Ling Suisui smiled as soon as he turned around. If there was a camera filming here, it would probably be a textbook-level demonstration of changing faces at the speed of light.
She knew James was a good actor, but she wasn't going to lose to him.
Ling Suisui quickly put the matter behind her. Although her next drama has not been decided yet, her schedule after the filming was completed was very full. She even needed to have a live broadcast with the leading actors of "Yao Tai Lu" at the airport.
Ling Suisui felt quite sorry for missing the recording of the drama promotion variety show. But it doesn’t matter, the trailer contains a lot of Ling Sui content, which makes the fans and viewers who are looking forward to this drama satisfied in one go.
When Ling Sui returned to China and adjusted to the time difference, he found that there were many unread messages on his mobile phone.
Some were from James, some were from their mutual friends - maybe Bertha, James' ex-girlfriend.
In her message, Bertha gloated that James was feeling very uncomfortable recently and he wanted to confess to Ling Suisui.
Ling Suisui:?
ah? repent? Who versus whom?
For a moment, Ling Suisui even doubted whether she had misunderstood the meaning of the word.
For James, does this little thing need to be described with such serious words?
——Honestly, she was just acting casually at the time. What on earth did this guy imagine?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
