Chapter 677 The Friends Cast
"Lin Suyang's position in the company is very similar to mine. I am only responsible for your business. To some extent, everyone knows that my focus is no longer on the company, but on you. If you leave the company in the future, I will definitely leave with you."
He Heng said to Jiang Yuqian, "Lin Suyang did the same thing. Lin Suyang handled the entire process of Li Zhibai's contract renewal negotiations with the company. Normally, it is the agent who represents the company to negotiate the contract renewal terms with the artist, but in Li Zhibai's contract renewal negotiations, Lin Suyang represented Li Zhibai in negotiating with the company. You should understand what this means."
“But I remember Lin Suyang was still with MX,” Jiang Yuqian said. “MX was one of the company’s most popular boy groups. Even though Ma Zhiyuan left, weren’t the remaining members still very popular?”
“That’s right. However, with the company’s restructuring, Lin Suyang and Zhou Ping’an have been fighting with the company for a long time. Although the company eventually gave in and didn’t let MX change their manager, they did assign each member of MX a manager to handle their personal schedule and work. In reality, the company was trying to take away Lin Suyang’s power. Lin Suyang knew this, but there was nothing he could do about it,” He Heng said. “So, Lin Suyang still manages MX in name, but how much control he actually has is unknown.”
Jiang Yuqian: "The company assigned Xingyu to specialize in producing idol artists. What results have been achieved so far?"
"The company is currently preparing a variety show that is comparable to 'Idol Era'. In addition to this show, we also plan to make a slow-life variety show," He Heng said. "We are planning to create five shows around idol artists to provide continuous exposure for these idol artists in the company."
Jiang Yuqian: "Five shows? That's a big investment. I've never seen them use such a lot of effort to promote their actors and singers."
“Actors and singers don’t monetize as quickly as idol artists,” He Heng said. “Besides, actors and singers aren’t as obedient as idol artists. You’ve never managed a company, so you probably don’t understand the difference.”
“I heard that when Zhou Ping’an was leading Lu Yanhe’s team, apart from Li Zhibai, no one else dared to raise any objections to his decisions. Even though there were other popular people besides Li Zhibai at that time, Cheng Hai was also quite popular.”
“Yes, but that’s how idol artists are. They may be popular, but if they don’t get exposure, their popularity will quickly drop. They almost never have time to rest,” He Heng said. “This is different from actors and singers. Idol artists are the type of artist with the strongest commodity attributes. They are too easily replicated.”
Jiang Yuqian: "Hearing you say that, I feel lucky that I didn't go into singing and dancing back then."
He Heng: "Truly smart idol artists should be like Li Zhibai and Yan Liang. Whether they are singers or actors, they should develop another path in addition to their idol artist identity, enhance their uniqueness, and the stronger their uniqueness, the weaker their commodity attributes will be."
Jiang Yuqian asked, "Has Cheng Hai been filming recently?"
“Yes, after he appeared on ‘The Birth of an Actor,’ he won a lot of film and television resources for himself,” He Heng said. “He already had a good image, and after gaining popularity, he naturally had no shortage of resources. As long as he didn’t insist on being the lead actor, he would definitely get roles to play.”
"Is he not playing a lead role now?" Jiang Yuqian asked, somewhat surprised.
“Not yet.” He Heng shook his head. “Aside from starring in a play that’s popular on TV, he hasn’t been the lead in any of his other shows. Zhou Ping’an still cares about him quite a bit and hasn’t tried to get him to fight for top billing or offend anyone at this time.”
Those who truly understand the industry know that this is the stage when Cheng Hai should avoid offending people. Even if it means taking a loss or gaining less profit, the key is to first establish a network so that people are willing to think of him and use him when there are projects available.
Cheng Hai's biggest weakness at Star Entertainment/Woodpecker is that the company itself doesn't produce film and television dramas. Therefore, all acting opportunities have to be secured from outside. Roles in those external film and television productions, big and small, are definitely divided up internally first before being released to the public. So, if Cheng Hai wants good resources, he really needs to cultivate relationships more effectively.
Another way is for Zhou Ping'an to use the resources of Yan Liang, Meng Li, and others to help Cheng Hai with the exchange.
It depends on whether Zhou Ping'an is willing to do so, and on the attitudes of Yan Liang and Meng Li themselves.
He Heng said, "Actually, if I were Cheng Hai's agent, I would have him sign with Jumping Theater at this stage and try to get him to act in more of Jumping Theater's plays."
"The overall quality and performance of the plays in the Jumping Theater are good, but they are too short. The attention and popularity they bring to the actors cannot last for long," Jiang Yuqian said. "Moreover, it seems that people do not regard the plays in the Jumping Theater as normal works. So far, no play in the Jumping Theater has become a particularly classic or popular one."
"Because this is a new model, it takes time for everyone to adapt to a new model," He Heng said. "You have to know that the average viewership rating of the shows on Jump Theater is over 0.6%, which is quite impressive. Moreover, their online streaming viewership is over eight million per episode. In fact, excluding the shows on Jump Theater, there are no more than thirty shows per episode with over eight million views each year. Now, Jump Theater has emerged as a dark horse and can produce more than forty shows like this."
Jiang Yuqian nodded.
“I’m not saying that jumping theater is bad. I’m just saying that it hasn’t produced a show that can launch a top-tier actor.” Jiang Yuqian said, “Actually, the most realistic indicator is whether a show is successful or a hit.
“That’s true.” He Heng nodded. “However, quite a few newcomers and unknown actors have become known through the plays in this theater. This year alone, a lot of newcomers have emerged in the entertainment industry, many of whom started out at the Jumping Theater. Look at the new play directed by Wang Yu not long ago, ‘In the Alley,’ one of the female leads is Yan Yuling, who played the role in ‘The Intern.’ Before ‘The Intern,’ she had only performed on the stage.”
“Anxiety.” Jiang Yuqian laughed. “To be honest, with so many talented actors being discovered every year, I also feel anxious. I feel that my acting skills are just so-so, and I can’t compare to these people at all.”
“You’re overthinking it. Acting skills are one thing, but star power and audience appeal are another,” He Heng said. “I think the most brilliant thing that Jumping Theater has done is to make audiences who don’t actually pay much attention to or appreciate acting skills start to notice some actors because of their acting skills, giving these actors more opportunities.”
"The feedback on the drama I acted in before, 'Love Negotiation,' seems to have been so-so?" Jiang Yuqian had also acted in a drama performed by Jumping Theater before.
He Heng said, "It's not bad. The viewership rating reached 0.89%, and the online viewership exceeded 25 million, which ranks among the top five in the Jump Theater."
Jiang Yuqian breathed a sigh of relief.
He Heng: "Telephone" is about to be released. I talked to Wang Jing's team. Now everyone likes to see two actresses appreciating each other. We have prepared some plans. When the movie comes out, you two will do a good job promoting it.
"Hmm." Jiang Yuqian nodded. "What's her team like? They're not the kind who stab you in the back, are they?"
“It’s not that bad. The screenwriter of this drama is Lu Yanhe, and her team wouldn’t dare to mess around.” He Heng shook his head. “Since her debut, every important work of Wang Jing has been related to Lu Yanhe. She is a smart girl and wouldn’t knowingly mess around with your relationship with Lu Yanhe.”
"That's fine. As long as she doesn't stab me in the back, I can be friends with her." Jiang Yuqian said, then sighed. "But, Sister Heng, I feel that my performance in 'The Telephone' wasn't as outstanding as hers. What should I do?"
“Why do you think like that? Your acting skills are not bad. It’s not like I haven’t been to the set of ‘Telephone’ to see your performance.” He Heng shook his head helplessly. “You really don’t need to always think that your acting skills are bad. Haven’t you noticed? You are becoming more and more insecure about your acting skills.”
Jiang Yuqian: "Because... I'm not as good at acting as others."
“Are you not as good as others? Who made you think that way? If you really acted badly, how did you get the role in ‘The Golden Era’? How did you gain so much popularity in ‘Squid Game’?” He Heng said, “Yuqian, you have something unique about you that has allowed you to get to where you are today. If you didn’t act well, you wouldn’t have been popular for so long, and your shows wouldn’t have been broadcast one after another.”
Jiang Yuqian knew that He Heng was right, and she also knew why He Heng said that.
She knew that she had fallen into a kind of obsessive obsession.
She even knew that her lack of confidence stemmed from her previous failed career transition, and from the fact that even the scripts Lu Yanhe brought her were primarily commercial.
Neither she nor others consider her an actress whose primary focus is acting skills.
"Never mind, it's alright." Jiang Yuqian shook her head. "Sister Heng, it's normal if my performance in 'The Telephone' doesn't satisfy the audience. You should prepare a public relations plan accordingly."
He Heng nodded helplessly.
-
"I also want to act in movies. Do you think my acting skills aren't good enough for movies?"
On that day, on the set of "Friends", Zhan Yun talked about her upcoming plans.
“I’ve been acting in TV dramas for the past few years, but people always say that movies have a higher production standard, right? I’d like to try acting in one too,” Zhan Yun said.
Bai Jin immediately pointed to Lu Yanhe, who was discussing the next scene with Bai Jingnian, and said, "If you want to act in a movie, why don't you talk to him and ask him to write a script for you?"
“Why do we always have to ask Yan He? It’s too much trouble for him,” Zhan Yun said. “I’ll just find the script myself.”
Bai Jin asked, "But are there any good movie scripts on the market right now?"
"Most of the scripts that come to me are for urban romantic comedies or something like that," Zhan Yun shrugged. "What about you?"
“Me? Nobody’s offering me roles in movies.” Bai Jin shook his head. “The domestic film market is basically all about men these days, and there are even fewer romance films.”
"Is it because romance movies don't do well at the box office?" Zhan Yun thought for a moment and said, "Now that you mention it, it seems that the romance scripts I've received are mostly light comedies, and there aren't any purely romance movies anymore."
“Maybe so,” Wen Minglan said. “I’ve wanted to act in movies before, but the roles I could get were either supporting female leads in male-dominated films, low-budget art films, or the common female characters in suspense and crime films. The types were very limited and I was very restricted.”
"Minglan, you and Yan He have the same agent, but didn't you ask him to write a script for you?"
“I—” Wen Minglan turned to look at Lu Yanhe and said, “Not yet, but there should be some later.”
“I really envy you.” Bai Jin shook his head. “Of course, I also envy myself. I acted in Friends at such a young age and have my own retirement insurance.”
After Bai Jin said that, Wen Minglan and Zhan Yun both laughed.
“Don’t laugh, I’m telling you, maybe in ten or twenty years, your most famous representative work will be Friends.” Bai Jin said with a smile. “Anyway, I have a positive attitude. I don’t want to become a big star. I just hope to keep acting and not become obscure.”
Three girls were chatting and laughing when Yin Xincheng came over. Seeing their laughter coming in waves, he asked, "What are you talking about? You're laughing so happily."
Zhan Yun asked, "Yin Xincheng, have you ever thought about making movies?"
"Of course I want to. As an actor, who wouldn't want to make movies?" Yin Xincheng frankly admitted.
Have you ever received any movie scripts?
"I've received... of course I've received them, but they were all very ordinary scripts, not even passing my agent's test," Yin Xincheng said frankly. "Why are you suddenly asking this?"
“That’s what we were just talking about,” Zhan Yun said. “Turns out everyone wants to make movies.”
“But there are really too few good movie scripts. Basically, we don’t get any decent scripts.” Yin Xincheng shrugged. “We’re just sitcom actors.”
Has anyone ever said that to your face?
"You'll hear these kinds of things more or less every time," Yin Xincheng shrugged again. "Maybe you girls are a little better off, but I've heard people say that about me quite a few times."
It's not uncommon for there to be a hierarchy of disdain in the entertainment industry.
Even though Yin Xincheng is already very popular, he would still feel inferior to someone like Ji Miao, a film star. This isn't because Yin Xincheng is insecure or anything, but rather because the entire environment reminds him that he's just an actor who started out in sitcoms, and he's far less prestigious than Ji Miao, a film star who, while not as famous, has a higher social standing.
Bai Jin: "I've encountered people like that before. They don't say it very directly, but what they're implying is that I'm not a real actor. I took out my phone, turned on the recording, and told him to say it again if he dared, and I'd post it on Weibo. Then he chickened out."
"These kinds of people are disgusting," Zhan Yun said indignantly. "If they're so capable, they should try acting in sitcoms themselves. We don't even know how badly they'll turn out."
“It’s really infuriating,” Bai Jin said.
Wen Minglan immediately said, "If we encounter this situation again in the future, we should fight back like Bai Jin did."
“Actually, in China, the status of sitcom actors is not low,” Wen Minglan said. “In the past, what kind of people could act in sitcoms? Only veteran actors with superb acting skills and who had honed their skills in the theater could act in sitcoms. China is not like the United States, where actors were divided into different classes from the beginning.”
“Minglan is right,” Lu Yanhe’s voice suddenly rang out.
Everyone was startled and looked over, only to find that Lu Yanhe had ended his conversation with Bai Jingnian and come over at some point.
"In Hollywood, film developed earlier than television, and television was further divided into various categories. Later, for many reasons, deep-rooted class barriers for actors emerged, such as film actors, theater actors, television actors, and sitcom actors. This is not the case in China. Whether it's film or television, although everyone says that film is superior to television, if you look at the Performing Arts Association and the official organizations' recognition of first-class and second-class actors, television actors have the same status as those with representative works."
Lu Yanhe said, "Our domestic sitcoms are not like those in the United States, where new works are constantly being released. They are specifically designed for sitcoms, with a group of people who specialize in sitcoms, continuously creating scripts and steadily producing sitcom talent. It's not like that in China. Before Friends, there hadn't been any sitcoms in China for many years. The actors who acted in sitcoms before were all top-notch actors."
In fact, the differences between the entertainment environments in China and the United States can be seen from sitcoms.
In China, the prevailing principle is that if you are a good enough actor, you can act in any kind of play—movies, TV series, stage plays…it's just that your stage is different.
In the United States, a class barrier is used to distinguish between film and television actors. Of course, this is also closely related to the national context; in China, there are basically no actors who only act in films.
In the past, China's film market wasn't large enough to support actors who only acted in movies. Zhang Yimou's "Mou Girls" were a product of a specific era. In fact, apart from Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi (leaving aside "Shangyang Fu"), the other "Mou Girls" couldn't withstand the tide of the times and turned to television dramas.
Perhaps with the development of the domestic entertainment industry, the film market is large enough to accommodate some actors who use "only acting in movies" to build their reputation, but now, what makes a film actor superior to a television actor?
You can certainly say that, and many people think so, but realistically speaking, compared to the United States, these so-called hierarchies of contempt are nothing to brag about.
Lu Yanhe himself is the kind of actor who really hates this kind of hierarchy of contempt.
What movie is superior to a TV series? Now that TV series production standards have improved, who can claim to be better? A more concise format doesn't necessarily equate to higher artistic merit. If that were the case, short story writers would be gods, so why are most widely circulated masterpieces and classics still primarily novels?
Lu Yanhe himself has always practiced acting in movies and becoming a movie star, but he will never give up acting in TV dramas because of this.
Of course, due to the need to "expand his territory," his schedule is now very precious, and he needs to set aside some time for filming overseas movies. Therefore, he will take on fewer TV series. But in terms of absolute output, producing at least one episode of "Friends" every year already makes him more hardworking than most actors.
Yin Xincheng asked, "Yan He, if you were to make a movie, would you choose us as actors?"
“If the role is suitable, why not?” Lu Yanhe said. “It’s just that I’ve worked with you guys too many times. I film ‘Friends’ every year. Not to mention the audience, my impression of you is all based on how you were in ‘Friends’.”
He smiled and waved his hand.
“You guys can try to be like Yan Liang and try to play characters with looks and personalities that are completely different from those in Friends,” Lu Yanhe said. “Otherwise, it’s easier for me to label my impression of you.”
Bai Jin said, "We basically never encounter roles like that."
"Can't find one?" Lu Yanhe said, "Don't just look for lead roles. There are all sorts of supporting roles. To this day, many directors who meet me say they know me because of the movie 'Three Mountains,' where I had a cameo role for one night. But in the directing circle, that's the role that everyone knows me for. However, it is indeed the most unique role I have ever played. To this day, I haven't encountered such a crazy character again."
Bai Jin seemed to be deep in thought.
"How about I find a fortune teller to act as one too?"
Lu Yanhe: "...I'm not suggesting you stick to this type of role. What I mean is, as long as it's different from the characters in 'Friends,' you can try it out. Just a cameo is fine. Don't be afraid to play supporting roles. Maybe one of those roles will open up your potential and lead you to a different path."
-
In this season of Friends, Lu Yanhe is actually continuing some of the content from the original second and third seasons.
Because it's a studio shoot, there's absolutely no need to worry about paparazzi or paparazzi secretly filming you.
When they were filming the third episode, everyone was filming when, after a scene was finished, Lu Yanhe suddenly heard Zhan Yun exclaim in surprise.
Lu Yanhe followed her gaze.
A tall, handsome man in a brown jacket stood a few meters away, holding a bouquet of flowers.
"Is he Yang Zhoujin?" Lu Yanhe heard Wen Minglan ask Bai Jin in a low voice.
"It seems so."
Zhan Yun's rich second-generation boyfriend.
Zhan Yun skipped and jumped over happily, and without any hesitation, hugged Yang Zhoujin in front of everyone.
"What are you doing here?!"
Yang Zhoujin was also holding Zhan Yun, with a bright smile on his face. He looked handsome and his eyes were very focused.
“I’m going to England with my mom this afternoon and won’t be back for a few days, so I came to see you before I leave,” Yang Zhoujin said.
It was only at this moment that Bai Jin made a half-joking teasing remark.
"Zhan Yun, aren't you going to introduce her to us?"
Zhan Yun seemed to suddenly remember where she was. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she stepped out of Yang Zhoujin's embrace, took his hand, and introduced the place to everyone.
"Yang Zhoujin, my boyfriend."
Bai Jin immediately responded with a teasing "Oh~".
Wen Minglan also looked at the two of them with an ambiguous smile.
Yang Zhoujin nodded to them, but his gaze became more serious when it fell on Lu Yanhe.
He took Zhan Yun's hand and walked up to Lu Yanhe.
"Mr. Lu, thank you for taking care of Xiaoyun all this time."
“Oh, we’re already very good friends, so there’s no question of taking care of each other.” Lu Yanhe smiled slightly. “Just call me Yanhe, there’s no ‘general’ here.”
Zhan Yun gently patted Yang Zhoujin's chest.
"I told you a long time ago, Yanhe doesn't like people calling him President Lu." She shook her head and gave Lu Yanhe a helpless look. "Believe me, I told him a long time ago, but he didn't believe me."
Lu Yanhe smiled.
Yang Zhoujin looked at Zhan Yun with a doting smile, and after Zhan Yun finished speaking, he said to Lu Yanhe, "Okay, Yanhe, are you free at noon? If you have time, let's have lunch together?"
Lu Yanhe turned to Yan Liang and asked, "Are we going to go over the script at noon later?"
Yan Liang nodded, "There's something I need to change."
Lu Yanhe gave Yang Zhoujin a helpless and apologetic smile.
"We'll continue filming this afternoon; I need to finish the script by noon," Lu Yanhe politely declined.
Yang Zhoujin nodded and said, "Then let's make an appointment again next time."
“Okay.” Lu Yanhe nodded.
(End of this chapter)
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