Chapter 522 The Key to Shining Brightly (7,000-word update!)
Humans are truly emotional beings.
Lu Yanhe hadn't really thought much about China before, nor did he feel much loneliness in a "foreign land".
Yan Liang suddenly brought up "The Days of Youth," and Lu Yanhe was suddenly overcome with melancholy as he thought of the scenes of playing with everyone.
Just then, the phone rang.
He looked and saw that it was Arne Bogut calling.
Lu Yanhe answered the phone with a puzzled look.
Arne Bogut invited him to a bar for drinks.
"Simon, Lily, and I are all here. Do you want to come with us?"
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "I'm a little tired, Alne, I'm not going. You guys have fun."
Arne Bogut seemed a little disappointed, muttered "okay," and hung up the phone.
"He's not coming, is he?" Seeing Arne Bogut's expression, Simon Schmid guessed the outcome of the call. He pursed his lips, revealing an expression that said he already knew. "I told you, he definitely wouldn't come. You wasted your time making this call. Those Asians are different from us."
Arne Bogut looked at Simon suspiciously and said, "Simon, why do I feel like you're hostile towards Lu? Is there some conflict between you two?"
Simon Schmid: "I just don't like him, there's no conflict."
"Why don't you like him?" Lily Williams asked, puzzled.
“No reason why. Do I need a reason to dislike him?” Simon Schmid shrugged. “Let’s go, let’s just go.”
So Simon Schmid drove off with the two men in tow.
-
Lu Yanhe wasn't antisocial, nor was he unwilling to drink; rather, he had been taken to the second floor of Liu Zhen's house by Zhong Benshuo in South Korea and almost got scammed.
Therefore, he preferred to be cautious in an unfamiliar environment. Otherwise, going to a bar late at night together could lead to a lot of trouble if something happened, especially since they were in an unfamiliar place.
However, Lu Yanhe did not expect that his concerns would be so accurate.
The next day, he went to the film set in the morning to get special effects makeup done. As soon as he entered his dressing room, he saw the makeup artist and her assistant discussing something with serious expressions.
Lu Yanhe asked what had happened, and the makeup artist said that Simon Schmid had been arrested by the local police for drunk driving last night and was still in custody. Arne Bogut and Lily Williams were also in the car.
This matter couldn't be kept secret at all; it was reported on the front page of the local tabloids first thing in the morning.
The title even directly used the name of a Hollywood movie crew.
While foreign films don't get shelved or banned from release simply because they feature a disgraced artist, scandals are never a good thing.
Drunk driving, in other countries, is not considered a major issue, but it's not insignificant either.
Lu Yanhe sighed.
He didn't understand. They were all celebrities; why didn't they call a driver to pick them up after drinking? Why did they insist on driving themselves?
They caught them right away.
When Lu Yanhe was halfway through his special effects makeup, someone came in to talk to him, saying that the filming time would be moved up a little later.
Because Simon can't be filmed today.
The makeup artists were whispering among themselves, wondering how this would turn out.
Simon isn't a big-name actor, and if the public backlash against him continues for a long time after his drunk driving scandal, the production team might just fire him.
After Lu Yanhe finished his special effects makeup and left the dressing room, he found the atmosphere on set to be quite strange.
Everyone was in a state of whispering and speaking cautiously.
Everyone was pretending nothing was happening, yet subtly conveying the atmosphere that "this is going to be interesting."
Alne and Lily, who were in the same car with Simon last night, were not detained. They were just passengers who had been drinking, and no matter how many times they were arrested, they wouldn't be held accountable.
However, at this moment, they were like headless flies, restless and distracted. Even though they were on set, it was obvious at a glance that their minds were not on the film.
After thinking for a moment, Lu Yanhe took the initiative to go over and greet them.
Hey, how are you guys?
When Alner saw Lu Yanhe, his expression became somewhat unnatural.
Last night, Lu Yanhe almost got on that car too.
“You’re lucky you didn’t come with us yesterday.” Lily looked up at Lu Yanhe, almost making him think she was being sarcastic, but Lily’s dejected tone showed that she didn’t actually mean it that way.
Lu Yanhe asked, "You've been drinking, so why did Simon drive himself?"
Lily said, "We also advised him not to drive himself, but he insisted that it was fine, saying that this place was very remote and that no police would check."
Lu Yanhe: "..."
Lily added, "If only we had persevered a little longer yesterday."
-
Because of Simon's incident, the atmosphere on set today was rather somber, and even director Muken wasn't in a good mood.
It wasn't until evening, when they were almost done filming, that news came that Simon had finally been brought out of the police station by his agent.
Shin Na-rin also disappeared for a day today, busy with this matter.
The next morning, Simon made a public apology outside the studio, admitting that he had drunk driving, accepting all criticism, and promising to correct his behavior in the future.
His attitude was very proper. In addition, Simon was actually a relatively new star who had some fame but wasn't a household name. So the incident didn't cause much of a stir. After issuing a public apology, Simon returned to the set and continued filming.
However, this incident clearly dealt him a blow as well.
He's usually a very active and talkative person on set, but suddenly he's become much quieter.
Moreover, Lu Yanhe wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he always felt that Simon seemed a little awkward towards him, as if he was taking out his anger on him for drunk driving.
This feeling stood between them, making their already strained relationship even more distant.
Fortunately, regardless of their private lives, they were still able to act in scenes together normally when filming.
In fact, Lu Yanhe's character in the film was originally in a relationship of avenger and victim with the other actors, so he didn't need to have a good relationship with them in the movie. Their real-life relationship wasn't very good, which actually helped their acting. This might seem a bit cold-hearted, but that's the truth.
However, no one expected that Simon would commit another crime when the film was about halfway through shooting.
This time it wasn't drunk driving, but a fight—a fight with someone in a bar.
The fight started when Simon took a liking to a girl and tried to chat her up. It turned out the girl was with her boyfriend, and when he saw his girlfriend being approached, he became rude and made some very offensive remarks to Simon. Simon, already in a bad mood and having been drinking, started arguing back, and this escalated into a physical fight.
While others score twice on the football field, Saimen scores twice amidst a scandal.
This time, the news of Simon getting into a fight has caused much more buzz than the previous drunk driving incident.
People can tolerate mistakes, but if someone makes a series of mistakes in a short period of time without showing any sincerity in repenting, it will disappoint people and make them feel betrayed and let down by their previous tolerance. As a result, their anger and resentment towards that person will intensify.
Simon became a trending topic.
He wasn't very famous, so many media outlets introduced him as the lead actor in the new film by horror director Moken.
The Mist has become known to many people in a way that they didn't want to be.
Shin Na-lin looked extremely upset and, together with Simon, recorded another apology video.
But this time the public wasn't buying it.
Simon was heavily criticized.
The entire "Misty" production team was also criticized.
-
“I never expected that my first time filming abroad would result in this situation,” Lu Yanhe said helplessly on the phone. “Moreover, this isn’t some low-budget production; it’s director Mu Ken’s new film, and yet we’ve encountered this problem.”
Chen Siqi: "It's alright. You should be glad that Simon's character in the movie wasn't a good guy to begin with, so the audience won't feel uncomfortable when they see the movie."
"With all this happening, I don't know how many viewers will still be willing to go to the cinema," Lu Yanhe sighed helplessly. "It's quite passive, and I don't know how the production team will handle this."
“The simplest and most direct way is to fire Simon and replace him with a new actor,” Chen Siqi said. “But that would mean a lot of scenes would have to be reshot, and your movie might be canceled. After all, not all of you have your schedules free to accompany the crew to reshoot the scenes.”
Lu Yanhe: "I estimate that the production team will not fire Simon. These two things are both big and small. Unlike in China, once an actor breaks the law, it is basically very difficult for them to appear in public. Although everyone is criticizing Simon fiercely, compared with the cost of replacing the actor and reshooting, the risks and losses of the former are probably bearable."
Chen Siqi: "Sigh, that's true."
If a movie that's already half-shot is suddenly reshot with a different actor, it's very likely that the movie will have to add several million dollars to its budget.
That would put a lot of pressure on the film to recoup its costs.
"Knock knock." Someone suddenly knocked on Lu Yanhe's lounge door.
Wang Biao went to open the door.
Someone reminded him that Lu Yanhe's next scene was about to start filming and he needed to go there.
Lu Yanhe had no choice but to tell Chen Siqi and hang up the phone first.
-
After finishing her phone call with Lu Yanhe, Chen Siqi thought carefully about what breakthroughs the film "The Mist" might have in its current predicament.
Of course, she didn't want to see Lu Yanhe's first English film fail to achieve its goal.
As she was pondering this, Linyu knocked on the door and entered her office.
"Siqi, this is the proposal I made." Linyu handed her draft proposal for the "Jump Up International Film Critics Festival" to Chen Siqi.
Chen Siqi came to her senses and took it from her hands.
This is an idea that Lin Yu developed based on last year's online forum for international film critics.
With their current resources, it's simply unrealistic for them to host a proper film festival. First, they lack money; second, they lack people; and third, they lack connections.
If you want to organize your own international film festival, all three of the above points are indispensable.
But if we proceed with a steady and pragmatic approach, it's unclear when we'll be able to make a movie version of "Jump Up".
Therefore, after discussing it with Chen Siqi, Lin Yu decided to continue using the online forum format for film critics from last year, in order to do what they wanted to do as much as possible with minimal cost.
Lin Yu said to Chen Siqi, "Let's invite film critics from all over the world to China to talk about movies, the latest award winners, the most popular movies in recent years, and also the classics. Then, we'll set aside a day to watch the Chinese-language films we've selected, and after the screening, we'll have a discussion about Chinese-language films together."
Such an event doesn't require a glamorous red carpet, organizing various celebrities, or going to great lengths to contact major film crews to attend.
All they need is a venue that can accommodate film critics from all over the world, a movie theater where they can sit together and watch movies, and a budget to cover the travel and accommodation costs for these invited critics, as well as a few lively parties where they can drink and chat happily.
Perhaps if we calculate it this way, it would only take one to two million to get it done.
Even if "Jump Up" doesn't seek sponsors, they can afford to pay this amount themselves.
Needless to say, the funding for this event could have been raised by purchasing broadcasting rights through Lin Yu and Yuehu TV's film and television review program, video platforms, or even by directly seeking sponsorships from brands.
Chen Siqi spent twenty minutes reading through Lin Yu's proposal, nodded, and said, "No problem, let's do it this way. There's just one thing, Lin Yu, this is our first time doing this, so I suggest we control the scale. We should only invite the film critics we want to invite and not accept applications from others. Let's do it once first to accumulate experience, and then gradually expand the scale later."
Lin Yu agreed and nodded, saying, "Okay."
"So this film festival really isn't inviting a single actor?" Chen Siqi asked curiously.
Lin Yu said, "My idea is either to make it more star-studded, or not to invite anyone at all and just invite film critics. This way, we can ensure the quality of the film festival. Although we don't have enough money to hold a grander film festival, we can't say that. Let's make this film festival niche, but distinctive. It's a film festival for film critics."
“Okay.” Chen Siqi agreed with Lin Yu’s idea.
After telling Chen Siqi about this, Lin Yu did not leave immediately.
"Is there anything else?" Chen Siqi asked.
Lin Yu said, "When I came in just now, I saw you frowning. Are you having some trouble? If you can tell me, maybe I can help come up with some ideas."
"It's not me. I haven't encountered any problems. It's the drama that Yan He is currently filming." Chen Siqi briefly explained to Lin Yu the problems that Lu Yan He's "Mist" crew was currently facing.
Lin Yu pondered for a moment and said, "Although this move is a bit underhanded, if Simon accepts it, it might actually turn the crisis into an opportunity."
"Huh?" Chen Siqi didn't expect Lin Yu to have an idea so quickly.
“Didn’t you tell me before that the production team wanted to market the rumor of Yan He being possessed by a ghost in order to gain attention?” Lin Yu said. “The same applies to Simon.”
"You mean the production team's marketing of Simon was possessed by a ghost, which is why he did so many outrageous things?"
"Of course not. Not many people would believe in ghosts at a time like this," Lin Yu laughed. "People aren't stupid; they won't be fooled by such a reason."
Chen Siqi also smiled.
"So what you mean is?"
“Isn’t Simon in this movie someone who did something bad and is being haunted by a ghost?” Lin Yu said. “If the production team can use Simon’s current situation to further amplify the story, spreading rumors that Simon, along with Alne and Lily, isolated and ostracized Yan He, an Asian actor, creating a racist narrative, and then slowly release some plot details and character information, stirring up public emotions about the movie and these actors, making people hate Simon and sympathize with Yan He, then when the movie is released, who wouldn’t want to see Simon and the other two actors being hunted down and avenged by the Asian ghost played by Yan He? The box office will naturally explode.”
“How could Simon agree to such a damaging publicity method? He will not cooperate, and his agency will immediately come forward to deny it.”
“If Simon hadn’t been driving under the influence or gotten into a fight, he certainly wouldn’t have done this. But these two incidents have already caused enormous damage to his acting career. If he wants to turn things around, he can only do so by including the scandal of ostracizing Lu Yanhe and claiming that all his actions were actually arranged by the production team for the sake of film promotion,” Lin Yu said. “If the film makes money at the box office, the production company will come forward to explain the marketing plan, and Simon’s team will use this to clear his name. It’s a win-win situation.”
Chen Siqi suddenly realized and looked at Lin Yu in surprise.
Wow!
Lin Yu: "It's true that Alne and Lily might not be willing to cooperate, and this matter itself has nothing to do with them."
“Actually, they don’t need to cooperate,” Chen Siqi said. “As long as Simon doesn’t deny it, even if the two of them come out to deny it, no one will believe them.”
Lin Yu: "Yes, but this method is indeed not very honorable."
Chen Siqi thought for a moment and said, "We've offered this idea: whether they do it or not is up to them, and whether it's honorable or not is their own responsibility."
Lin Yu: "You need to be careful about this. You are Yan He's girlfriend. If you say something and it gets out, the nature of this matter will change."
Chen Siqi: "Don't worry, this matter has absolutely nothing to do with us."
-
Simon's agent took the initiative to contact Sin Na-lin.
When Sin Na-lin heard about this solution from Simon's agent, she was actually shaken.
This risky approach could easily lead Simon into an even worse situation if he's not careful. If he fails to clear his name, he'll be tainted with the stain of racism.
But Cinna Lin discovered that Simon's agent was determined to do this.
In fact, when Xin Nalin first heard about this plan, her eyes lit up and she was immediately impressed.
Shin Na-lin is a producer.
A producer's first priority is to make a movie that makes money, not one that loses money.
This is especially true for horror movies.
At least very few people would say when making a horror film, "I'm not making this film to make money, but to pursue art."
Therefore, if there is a good marketing strategy that can make "The Mist" a hit movie before its release, grabbing the audience's attention with its high level of buzz, she will definitely push it forward.
Xin Nalin doesn't have that much of that pretentious, overthinking stuff.
Her boyfriend, Wendy, even got into a fight with the director over the character's appearance. She was willing to fire him on a whim to ensure the stability of the crew and the smooth filming, and of course, she wouldn't care about the specific impact of such a marketing approach on the actors of the film.
Thus, based on this consensus, Simon, who had just caused trouble twice, once again became the protagonist of racial discrimination.
Similarly, Lu Yanhe was completely kept in the dark and unaware of the inside story. Because of his image as an innocent victim, he became known to many people through this incident.
Of course, the Chinese audience was the most shocked by this.
-
"Lu Yanhe actually acted in a horror movie?!"
"He was bullied by foreign actors on a foreign film set? He was ostracized? What a jerk!"
"I don't understand. Lu Yanhe is already such a big star, why would he want to suffer like this abroad? Are foreign movies really that great? Isn't it better to film in China?"
"Isn't Lu Yanhe supposed to have a lot of international influence? That he has good relationships with top international film festivals? Why is it that he's making horror films abroad instead of art films? It's so disappointing!"
"Don't assume every horror movie is bad, okay? Please look closely, the director of 'The Mist' is Murken Sorge, and his previous two films were huge box office successes! He's a very famous horror director in Europe and America!"
"Exactly, which famous actor abroad hasn't acted in a horror movie? You're making it sound like horror movies are cheap. Arne Bogut, Simon Schmidt, and Lily Williams are all rising stars in the US. This movie also stars Jamie Wilson, a famous British actor. It's a really great production, but you're making it sound like a bad movie."
"Have you guys even grasped the main point? The real issue is that Lu Yanhe was bullied on a film set abroad! Damn it, these white pigs!"
"I'm so angry! Lu Yanhe is such an excellent actor, and we cherish him so much. The crew of 'The Mist' didn't protect him properly and even let him be bullied. I will absolutely not buy a movie ticket for 'The Mist'!"
"Where is Lu Yanhe's agent? What is he doing?"
...
The shock this incident caused in China was even greater than abroad.
This also means that soon, Lu Yanhe's fan base bypassed the Great Firewall and went to overseas social media to vehemently condemn the "Misty" production team and Simon Schmidt.
Simon Schmid's social media was completely overwhelmed by comments within a day, with almost nothing being said except to criticize him.
Arne Bogut and Lily Williams didn't even make it to the first day; they immediately posted photos of themselves with Lu Yanhe on set, indicating that they had a good relationship with him.
Lu Yanhe was completely stunned when he learned what had happened.
What is that?
He was acting perfectly fine on set, so how did he become the target of "racial discrimination"?
He didn't actually experience any racial discrimination on set.
Aside from Wendy, he really hadn't met another person who didn't take him seriously—and it wasn't that Wendy didn't take him seriously; she treated the director that way, so how could Lu Yanhe have the nerve to attribute it to racial discrimination?
On set, Simon kept his head down, expressionless.
Looking at him like this, Lu Yanhe thought to himself, "They didn't do anything to him, they just don't talk much usually. Alne and Lily usually chat and laugh with him on set, so how did it become the report that Simon teamed up with Alne and Lily to ostracize him?"
Lu Yanhe wondered whether he should speak up and explain.
He also noticed that his fans are now waging wars everywhere to avenge him.
Lu Yanhe didn't want them to be misled by false information.
“Let me explain later, Simon,” Lu Yanhe said to him. “Although we don’t talk much usually, you’re not like what those media reports say.”
Simon looked at him in surprise.
Lu Yanhe thought Simon was surprised that others were so kind.
To everyone's surprise, Simon laughed mockingly.
"You know nothing?"
Lu Yanhe was stunned and looked at him in astonishment.
What should I know?
Ten minutes later, after learning that it was all a staged performance by Simon and the crew, Lu Yanhe was speechless with astonishment.
He never expected that after failing to market the "possession" story to him, Cinna Lin would use Simon's recent situation to play the "racism" card.
It seems that Shin Na-lin will do anything as long as she can generate good box office results.
Lu Yanhe felt somewhat disillusioned, but at the same time, he felt that everything made perfect sense.
Sure enough, a day later, insiders began to reveal what kind of story "The Mist" was about.
This isn't just a simple horror movie; it's a story about an Asian ghost who returns to hunt down and seek revenge after three white men burned down his entire family.
—Don't you want to see racists like Simon hunted down and avenged by Lu Yanhe, an Asian, on the big screen?
The theme of the movie "The Mist" suddenly seemed to hit a nerve with online sentiment, causing a surge in various data indicators and a dramatic overnight increase in searches for the film.
For several days in a row, while everyone was paying attention to the matter between Lu Yanhe and Simon, they also started discussing the movie "The Mist".
Amidst such discussions, the filming of "The Mist" came to an end.
Outside the photography studio, a group of paparazzi and social media bloggers suddenly began to gather.
Lu Yanhe was almost shoved into his face with a phone and asked, "Were you really discriminated against on the set of 'The Mist' because of your Asian identity?"
Lu Yanhe left without saying a word.
The entire crew was keeping a secret, and of course he couldn't be the one to expose it.
He wasn't willing to lie to cooperate with this marketing campaign. If Simon had actually done this dirty work, he would have been delighted, perhaps even taking advantage of the situation. But he didn't.
This surprised Muken.
“Actually, if he had cooperated at this time, or even played the victim, he might have become a huge star in Europe and America with such a lot of attention,” Muken said. “Other actors would definitely have taken advantage of such a golden opportunity to climb the ladder.”
He heard his wife say confidently, "That's because they seize every opportunity to become famous, no matter what kind of opportunity it is. But Lu Yanhe doesn't need to be known in this way. He can be known by everyone in a fair and square way, and become famous in a fair and square way."
Muken looked at his wife in surprise and asked, "Do you have that much faith in him?"
Hua Ruzhen said, "You're the director. After watching Lu Yanhe's performance in 'The Mist,' don't you have that confidence?"
"I admit that his performance was indeed outstanding, but I have also seen too many actors with excellent acting skills who are not recognized."
“That’s someone else,” Hua Ruzhen said. “Darling, don’t look at an actor like Lu Yanhe with your Hollywood mindset. He’s not a newcomer to the film industry. He has already achieved remarkable success in China and at international film festivals. Just you wait and see. The movie ‘Mist’ will bring him huge attention in Europe and America. He will be the key to making your movie shine.”
-
I'd like to continue recommending my old book, "I Became the Scandalous Woman Overnight," which went from 7 initial subscriptions to over 1,000 average subscriptions per day.
(End of this chapter)
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