Chapter 523 The Birth of an Actor (7,000-word update!)
Yan He, are you alright?
When Lily Williams suddenly asked him in a low voice on set, Lu Yanhe snapped back to reality.
"Huh? Me? I'm fine, what's wrong?"
“I saw you sitting there in a daze,” Lily Williams said. “For the past two days, there have been people squatting outside our door. I heard that when you came in this morning, someone blocked your way.”
"It's nothing," Lu Yanhe smiled. "I was just thinking about how to act in my last scene."
"The last scene?"
“Hmm.” Lu Yanhe nodded. “In the last scene, I finally let you go, because you were the only one who didn’t really want to burn us to death. You always thought it was just to scare us, but you only realized what kind of devils your two friends were after the accident.”
This is also a change in the later stages of the film.
Of the three targets of revenge, Alne and Simon were both killed, but Lily was ultimately spared.
The character of Lily is also a problematic one – after all, the film is being shown in Western countries with a large white population, and it's not appropriate for all three white characters to be completely evil devils.
Therefore, in Lily's character, her past misdeeds are portrayed as ignorant evil, a result of being kept in the dark.
Lily Williams said, "In the script, you just let me go and then left."
“Hmm.” Lu Yanhe nodded. “But I haven’t figured out how to leave, or how to end my last scene in the movie.”
Lily Williams breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.
"So that's what you were thinking about. I thought you were feeling down because of what happened recently."
Lu Yanhe: "I wasn't scolded, so why would I be in a bad mood?"
He had a smile on his lips, as if everything was really alright.
Lily Williams, however, said, "I feel like you don't seem to want to deceive anyone."
"Hmm?" Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised, not expecting Lily Williams to be so perceptive and immediately capture his true emotions.
All I can say is that an actor is indeed an actor; sometimes, they are incredibly perceptive.
Lily Williams: "Arne told me, 'You definitely don't like the way the production team is marketing it right now.'"
"Arne?" Lu Yanhe was even more surprised.
“He’s right, isn’t he?” Lily said. “Actually, I even went to see your movies with him. You acted really well in ‘Late Spring’ and ‘Paths of Glory’. No wonder you’re so popular in Asia.”
Lu Yanhe: "Your sudden praise has left me speechless."
Lily laughed happily.
"It's a pity that our movie was finished so quickly, and we haven't gotten to know each other very well yet."
The filming time for "The Mist" was indeed not long. For a movie, a filming time of more than 30 days is considered quite long.
However, for a horror film, this shooting time is not very long.
Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "It's good that we've gotten to know each other. We'll have many opportunities to meet in the future."
Lily asked curiously, "Will you mainly focus on making Hollywood movies in the future?"
“No.” Lu Yanhe answered the question without hesitation. “I have many projects in China and can’t shift my focus to Hollywood.”
Lily was a little frustrated and said, "Then you were lying to me just now. How could there be so many opportunities to meet?"
Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "That doesn't mean we won't go anymore. Besides, you can come to China in the future. You're welcome to come to China to make movies."
Lily's understanding of Chinese films is basically at the stage of "no understanding at all".
Many American filmmakers are like this; they don't pay much attention to foreign language films, at most they know about some award-winning works from film festivals.
Even though American films are generally considered inferior to European films in the realm of art films, they never believe that they are truly inferior.
In such an environment, young actors like Lily's understanding of film is basically limited to the aesthetics shaped by American films.
Therefore, they find watching a film like "Late Spring" quite novel.
During the filming of this movie, Lu Yanhe actually had a fairly pleasant working relationship with both Arne and Lily.
Working with these two gave Lu Yanhe a very different experience—he discovered that their performance systems were still different. Arne and Lily's performances both possessed an explosive power. This explosive power wasn't the kind that involves hysterically yelling at you, but rather a fullness of emotion.
Actually, it's not just the two of them; Simon is the same way.
After careful study, Lu Yanhe concluded that their shared explosive power might be related to their early stage performances. This experience shaped the completeness and fullness of their emotions. In contrast, many young Chinese actors are essentially trained by the camera; they rarely perform a scene from beginning to end with uninterrupted emotional expression.
Each has its own advantages.
But overall, Lu Yanhe said that, judging from the film "The Mist" alone, the young actors from the United States are much stronger in terms of overall ability than their young Chinese counterparts.
Of course, this was Lu Yanhe's first time working with a foreign production team, so his experience wasn't representative of everyone.
Moreover, when it comes to the abilities of top-tier actors, they are second to none.
-
Actually, Lu Yanhe was quite moved.
Although many people on the internet are questioning why he went overseas to act in a horror movie, those who really know Lu Yanhe have basically not asked him this question.
Even when asked about this issue by a reporter, Chen Lingling, who had previously collaborated with Lu Yanhe twice and was set to work with him on the sequel to "The Silent River," only said one sentence.
“An actor like Lu Yanhe must have his reasons for taking on any role. I won’t ask him why he’s acting in a movie until it’s officially released. Once the movie is available, I will watch it and see for myself why he’s acting in it.”
Liu Bige also responded to a comment in his social media comment section that said, "Go and persuade Yan He to stop acting": When Yan He was filming "Late Spring", how many people were also advising him to stop acting?
Lu Yanhe really had many choices, all of which were initially misunderstood by others.
For example, he took on a role in the low-budget art film "Late Spring" directed by a new director. At that time, many people said he was crazy for winning awards, daring to act in a film with no production value, no funding, and no production history.
For example, when he worked as a screenwriter, writing films like "Lost in Thailand" and "Rouge," many people laughed at him, saying that he thought he was a great writer just because he studied literature for a few years.
For example, when he left the Friends series without hesitation and drew a clear line, many people criticized him for being out of his mind and stupid for giving up such a popular series just to save face.
After going around in circles, looking back now, Lu Yanhe realized that not a single step he took was in vain, and not a single choice he made was wrong.
Lin Yu said on her show: "If an actor often makes the audience doubt and question, and when we can't help but feel apprehensive and worried about him, please don't forget that it's because he didn't stay in his comfort zone or play it safe. He still chose to take risks and challenge himself."
Lin Desheng of Aurora Video personally asked him: "Do you think this horror film you're making is worth buying back? Can it be released in China?"
Lu Yanhe told the truth: Don't buy it. It basically can't be released. It can't even be uploaded to video platforms. It's the kind of movie with real ghosts. I play a ghost. If you want to cut it, you'll have to cut all my scenes.
Lin Desheng: ...Why did you have to act in this movie?
This is the first person around Lu Yanhe to question his performance in "Mist".
Lu Yanhe smiled.
Conversely, this time, Maxine's Jong Bon-seok and HP's Tom White have also begun a new round of competition.
Not only them, but given director Muken's reputation in horror films, any streaming platform with a bit of fame is vying for the exclusive streaming rights to this movie.
The same goes for television stations.
Even though the movie hasn't been released on school websites yet, these copyrights are already being fought over fiercely.
During this process, D19 Production Company was somewhat surprised to find that Lu Yanhe was actually a very important bargaining chip in the negotiations between the film and the distributors.
During the negotiations, everyone mentioned that they hoped Lu Yanhe would participate in the promotional activities of a certain market, and cooperate with the promotion at least XX times.
These contents are largely the same, and together they only illustrate one point: in the eyes of film distributors, Lu Yanhe is a selling point for this movie in some markets.
D19 is not a large company.
It made its fortune by making independent films.
It also lacks a particularly strong and comprehensive global distribution channel. Especially in Asia, D19's network is not well-established there.
Therefore, for a long time, their impression of Lu Yanhe was simply that he was a fairly famous and popular actor in China, whom Muken insisted on using and whom they admired. That was all.
After all, this movie isn't being shown in mainland China, so even if Lu Yanhe is very popular, his fame will be significantly diminished.
Who knew that not only other Asian countries and regions, but also film companies in Europe and America were interested in Lu Yanhe.
What D19 didn't expect was that several international film festivals took the initiative to inquire whether they would be willing to hold the film's world premiere at their festivals.
Upon further conversation, it turned out they were drawn to the film's buzz and the fact that Lu Yanhe had become a regular at film festivals in recent years, with almost every festival wanting to invite him. After all, Lu Yanhe wielded immense media attention and popularity.
The American company D19 heard about Lu Yanhe's impressive achievements from various sources, making them realize that they seemed to have completely underestimated this actor from the East.
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"The movie is almost finished filming, and it won't be so easy to sit down and eat together again in the future." Hua Ruzhen came out of the kitchen carrying a pot of braised chicken. "This is a new dish I tried. I don't know how it will be. I'll give it a try. The other dishes are all my specialties, so eat with confidence."
Lu Yanhe smiled and nodded, saying okay.
While Director Mu Ken was filming here, Hua Ruzhen stayed with him and often invited Lu Yanhe over for meals.
To be fair, Hua Ruzhen's skills are indeed very good.
Therefore, Lu Yanhe was able to enjoy authentic Chinese food from time to time in Canada without having to eat Western food every day.
"Sis, after the movie is finished, are you going back to the US or Germany?"
Muken is actually German, and when he's not making films, he usually lives in Germany.
Hua Ruzhen said, "After filming, he went back to rest for two weeks, and then he had to go to the United States to oversee the post-production."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
Hua Ruzhen: "D19 wanted to release this movie in January."
"January?" Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised, because even though he wasn't very familiar with the American film market, he knew when the peak and off-peak seasons were, and January was the well-known off-peak season.
The best time to release horror movies is usually Halloween.
Hua Ruzhen nodded and said, "We can't make it to the Halloween schedule, and the post-production pressure is too great."
Lu Yanhe suddenly realized.
Hua Ruzhen asked, "What's your next film?"
"Go back and record a show first, 'The Days of Youth,' sis, have you seen it?"
"I think I vaguely remember it."
"It's a show I've been recording," Lu Yanhe said. "Then we'll be filming the second season of 'The Seventeen Floors'."
Hua Ruzhen was somewhat surprised and asked, "You're still cooperating with Beijing and Taiwan? I thought you wouldn't be cooperating with Beijing and Taiwan anymore."
“That’s what I do think, but we’ll have to wait until the ‘Seventeen Floors’ series is finished. It’s a trilogy,” Lu Yanhe said. “Director Jiang Lan, who is in charge of this project, has always been very good to me. I’m also very familiar with the entire crew and we get along very well. I still want to see it through to the end and don’t want my bad relationship with other people at Beijing TV to affect the show.”
Hua Ruzhen nodded, "It's good that you have a sense of responsibility."
Lu Yanhe smiled.
Hua Ruzhen said, "The movie 'The Mist' is quite popular right now, but are you unhappy with the marketing methods the production team is using?"
Lu Yanhe looked at Hua Ruzhen in surprise: "Sister, you noticed all of this?"
Lu Yanhe felt that it was one thing for Lily to see through him, since he hadn't deliberately concealed his emotions on set like he had in front of Hua Ruzhen. However, Hua Ruzhen still noticed, leaving him shocked and bewildered, and making him feel that his acting skills were in jeopardy.
how so?
Is he really that bad at pretending?
Hua Ruzhen said, "Muken told me that he guessed you didn't like this marketing approach and didn't want to gain support and sympathy by talking about being racially discriminated against on set."
Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "That's true."
Hua Ruzhen: "I really want to say something to comfort you, but I have to say that this kind of thing does happen a lot in film marketing. As for the thoughts of an actor or even a director, it doesn't matter."
"Sis, I don't know what to say. I also hope the movie will do well at the box office, but I always feel that adding a big label like an Asian ghost killing a white villain to this movie now, will it really help the audience like the movie?"
“Nobody can say for sure. If I, an outsider, could give you a precise answer, then all those professional film marketers could just pack their bags and leave.” Hua Ruzhen laughed after saying that. “But it doesn’t matter, Yan He. You may not be able to control how they want to market, but you can do things your own way. If you don’t like it or don’t cooperate, then tell them clearly and tell them to stop using you as marketing material.”
"I have indeed thought about that."
"Actually, you yourself haven't made up your mind, and you don't firmly believe that this kind of marketing method is wrong?"
“Because… this matter does indeed help the film's popularity and future box office, that's obvious. I can't say I don't like it and then stop the film from getting more box office revenue. To put it bluntly, it's because I'm an actor in this film, and I always feel that I have a responsibility and obligation to make the film achieve better results. I can't be an obstacle.” Lu Yanhe sighed, “Even though I know that my inaction is actually a form of tacit approval. That's where my contradiction and struggle lie now.”
“Because you want to be an honest person, but you can’t be honest without any scruples, so you can only remain silent in self-contradiction.” Hua Ruzhen looked at Lu Yanhe thoughtfully and asked, “Right?”
Lu Yanhe nodded.
Hua Ruzhen smiled and said, "You are so young."
Her smile also held a hint of an elder's doting affection for a younger person.
Lu Yanhe was at a loss, not understanding why Hua Ruzhen would have such an attitude.
Hua Ruzhen said, "Actually, Muken often encounters similar situations. He is by nature a very meticulous and serious German, but there are many things in the film industry that conflict with his nature. He can't always get around them, but he is also unwilling to integrate into them. What should he do?"
Lu Yanhe listened.
“Actually, there’s no other way. Mu Ken can only remain silent and stay out of it. I believe that if you were in a production team with more influence, you would definitely intervene and stop it directly, and you would have the ability to do so. But in the ‘Mist’ production team, you don’t actually have that ability. You subconsciously know that your attitude doesn’t matter, and no one will buy into it,” Hua Ruzhen said. “So, silence is the only thing you can do. Before you have enough power to change everything, you can only silently do what you can. When you have the same status and influence in the Western film industry as you have in the Chinese film industry, believe me, you can directly stop things like this. So, rather than being self-contradictory in your silence, it’s better to stay out of it and put it aside. Just like in the first film, you had to listen to the company in everything. Now, in this film, Mu Ken said he wanted to use a Chinese actor, and he insisted, so D19 agreed.”
Lu Yanhe suddenly realized his mistake.
If Hua Ruzhen hadn't spoken up, Lu Yanhe wouldn't have realized that, ultimately, the root of the problem was the contradiction between his desire to change everything and his inability to do so.
-
“If we tell Yan He, he will definitely be conflicted and in pain.”
When asked why she didn't tell Lu Yanhe about this marketing plan, Chen Siqi made no attempt to hide it.
"Aren't you worried that Yan He might one day find out that the reason Simon came up with this plan was actually because you had someone whisper it in his agent's ear?" Lin Yu asked.
She was surprised that Chen Siqi hadn't told Lu Yanhe that the plan was Lin Yu's idea, and that Chen Siqi had managed to get it to Simon's agent's ears.
“I’m worried, but it’s okay,” Chen Siqi said. “He knows I’ve never been a kind or perfect person. I don’t care if Simon hurts himself by doing this. I only care that this is Yan He’s first English film, and I hope it does well. Yan He might be sulking with me for not telling me beforehand.”
Are you afraid he'll reject you?
“It would be better if he could just refuse outright. The problem is that we can all see how beneficial this plan would be for ‘The Mist,’ not to mention himself. He’ll be caught in a moral dilemma and a dilemma of self-interest,” Chen Siqi said. “It’s better to keep him in the dark. If he wants to blame me, he can blame me, but I know he won’t.”
"Don't you two always have no secrets from each other and talk about everything?"
“Having a few secrets isn’t a bad thing.” Chen Siqi smiled slightly and winked.
Lin Yu actually knew what Chen Siqi was thinking.
To put it bluntly, Chen Siqi has a very simple mindset: I'll be the bad guy.
Rather than saying she was worried about Lu Yanhe's dilemma, it would be more accurate to say she simply didn't want him to fall into any potential dilemmas or difficulties.
Lin Yu knew that this was Chen Siqi's way of showing her love for Lu Yanhe.
It's definitely not right, but that's just her way.
Lin Yu couldn't say anything either.
-
“Look, as soon as this news came out, several Hollywood film companies actually sent me scripts, looking for Yan He to play a character who is discriminated against, bullied, and mistreated.” Chen Ziyan placed the English scripts in her hand in front of Lu Qingzhen with a somewhat speechless expression. “Whatever is popular, that’s what comes in.”
Lu Qingzhen smiled.
"That's great. It shows that Yan He has indeed caught the attention of Hollywood."
“What are you talking about? They’re all small, third-tier companies,” Chen Ziyan said. “No, we still need to find a reliable overseas agency for Yan He. This kind of scattered contact is neither efficient nor focused.”
Lu Qingzhen: "Didn't you approach them before, but the conditions weren't right and you couldn't reach an agreement? You said you'd wait until 'Mist' was released, when Yan He would have more resources, before you could talk to them again?"
“But Yan He’s situation has changed now, but—” Chen Ziyan was a little discouraged again, “I guess they still won’t change their previous conditions. No, they still need concrete results. If Yan He could win Best Actor at a top international film festival right now, that would be great. Big agencies really value that.”
Lu Qingzhen: "Let's not talk about that for now. Although you don't like these scripts, I would like to recommend them to some people because of the Asian characters in them."
"Huh?" Chen Ziyan said, "I haven't read this script yet, it might be terrible."
"So what if it's bad? Many actors have no roles to play, so why should we care if this show is bad or not?" Lu Qingzhen laughed. "Let's support ourselves first."
Chen Ziyan: "Then you can take it. If you want to try, just tell me and I'll contact you again."
"Hmm." Lu Qingzhen asked, "By the way, when is Yan He coming back?"
Chen Ziyan said, "He will finish filming tomorrow, three days from now."
"Wow, that's fast! They finished filming in just over a month," Lu Qingzhen said. "The management of that production crew is truly impeccable; we should learn from them."
“That’s experience accumulated over hundreds of years; we have a lot to learn from it,” Chen Ziyan said. “You and Yan He are expressing the exact same sentiments.”
“I think that the cost of each of our projects is getting higher and higher. If we can effectively reduce the shooting time and improve efficiency, we can actually reduce our costs,” Lu Qingzhen said. “I saw a report before that said that for the same scene of difficulty, Hollywood would spend one million US dollars to shoot, while Chinese crews would spend at least three million US dollars. It’s not because of anything else, it’s just the losses. The losses from ineffective shooting by our domestic crews are too great.”
“This is a matter for industry and manufacturing. The more you film, the more your skills will naturally improve,” Chen Ziyan said. “Even if you send some people for further training, they won’t give you the key information.”
“That’s true.” Lu Qingzhen thought for a moment and said, “But I’ve noticed that Yan He’s films usually don’t have long shooting periods, which is quite impressive. The key is that the quality of the films is very high.”
Chen Ziyan said, "Yan He's crew has a very small percentage of ineffective shoots. You can tell by looking at the pre-production preparations for each of his productions. Basically, the actors do script readings together, and the various technical departments also hold repeated meetings to ensure that everyone on the crew knows what the production is going to be like and what efforts they need to make. Some production crews, on the other hand, always improvise on the spot."
Lu Qingzhen: "Perhaps Yan He's filming of 'Mist' this time will bring something fresh to our domestic film crews."
Lu Qingzhen didn't expect that she would actually be right when she said those words.
Lu Yanhe didn't immediately move his things to the film set. Instead, as soon as he returned, he told Chen Ziyan and Lu Qingzhen that he wanted to do something.
What's the matter?
He said he wanted to make a variety show.
What program is it?
He said that a program that allows actors to compete on stage would allow film and television actors to perform on a stage without having to retake their scenes, just like stage actors.
Chen Ziyan and Lu Qingzhen asked, "Does anyone watch a show like this?"
Lu Yanhe said, "There definitely is one, and it will be called 'The Birth of an Actor'."
Chen Ziyan asked, "Why did you suddenly think of making this show?"
Lu Yanhe said that this is because the overall performance level of actors who come out of the stage is much higher.
Actors don't have the time or availability to do plays or stage productions.
However, these ten- or twenty-minute performance segments can serve the same purpose.
Lu Yanhe said, "Aren't you guys always trying to revive washed-up celebrities? Those actors with good acting skills can also be invited to this show."
Chen Ziyan: "I thought the first thing you would do when you came back was to participate in a variety show, but I didn't expect the first thing you would do when you came back was to do another variety show."
Lu Yanhe said, "Yes, I think it's time."
(End of this chapter)
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