Director Zhu Shuguang's film is tentatively titled "Youthful Love Poems." The protagonist, Gu Shan, is a boy who grew up in the mountains but loves to look at the stars. While his peers were running and playing in the mountains, he was observing the stars. After entering school, he eagerly absorbed knowledge about the stars. Even after becoming an adult, he continues to observe the stars.
Ignoring worldly concerns and neglecting his family, he devoted all his passion and focus to Xingxing. In the eyes of most people, Gu Shan was a complete oddball.
Ji Yan only received a small portion of the script, so he didn't know what the protagonist's final fate would be in the movie, nor did he know whether Zhu Shuguang would criticize or praise the character, or simply present the character to the audience and leave the judgment to the audience.
With a few days left, Ji Yan went to a bookstore and picked up a popular novel, a representative work by a British author, which tells the story of a protagonist who suddenly becomes obsessed with art in middle age.
Between the moon and sixpence, the protagonist chose the moon.
Ji Yan felt that the two stories had some similarities.
The script is only three pages long, containing dialogue and the characters' inner thoughts. According to Ji Yan, this is the climax of the script, so it will be a great test of the actors' performance.
Ji Yan still lacks confidence in his acting skills.
From the release of "I, Nameless" to the Changkong Awards ceremony, he has received so much praise from the outside world. Their praise made Ji Yan feel that he had become a leading figure among the new generation of actors, but this was not the case.
But Ji Yan didn't want to lose face in front of Director Zhu Shuguang.
He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Sky Awards, so he has to live up to the nominations and not let people think he's a dud.
Moreover, Ji Yan felt that his performance in "I, Nameless" was mostly due to director Li Xiang. Director Li Xiang and director Zhu Shuguang seemed to have a bad relationship. If he performed poorly, he would probably be the one to lose face for director Li Xiang.
...
So Ji Yan quietly squatted down by the window again, pen in hand, and filled several pages of the script. He tried to recall his state when he was filming "I, Nameless", wrote down all the words that Director Li Xiang taught him, and then used his own ideas to figure out the protagonist in "Young Love Poems".
Ji Yan had already memorized the lines in the script perfectly. He recited the lines silently while thinking about how to perform them, his mind constantly in a highly active state.
During the filming of "I, Nameless", the most valuable experience Ji Yan learned was how to analyze a character, think about the character from his own perspective, carefully imagine, completely immerse himself in the character, and then refine the character biography again and again.
The protagonists of "Young Love Poems," Gu Shan and He Tang, are two completely different characters. He Tang warms everyone like sunshine, while Gu Shan appears gloomy to outsiders. He is introverted and never shows his emotions, only revealing joy when looking at the stars.
"Teacher Ji, is it very difficult?"
Fang Yu quietly approached with a water glass in hand. He saw that the sun was shining brightly outside, and Ji Yan was leaning against the window, half of his body was exposed to the sun, and sweat was dripping from his nose.
"Aren't you afraid of the heat? Want an ice cream?"
Ji Yan shook his head and glanced at him silently.
“Look at Teacher Ji’s eyes, so full of wisdom about life. I feel like you’re going to become a monk tonight.”
Ji Yan said weakly, "I'm about to break down."
In the script, the protagonist's emotions are too reserved, and the interaction between characters can only be expressed through a few simple lines of dialogue. Most of the time, this person is silent, which requires a high level of skill in portraying Ji Yan's inner thoughts.
He needs to convey the character's emotions through different changes in facial muscles, and he also needs to make his performance infectious.
Ji Yan saw on Weibo that viewers criticized an actor, saying that the character played by a certain actor was a cold and reserved hero. However, the hero was expressionless throughout the entire play. He was expressionless when killing people, expressionless when his wife died, and even when he was defending justice, his face only showed the four words "I am cold-blooded".
The audience said, "This role should be played by a refrigerator, at least it can hold things."
Ji Yan doesn't want to be told by the audience one day that his expressionless face looks like a Tibetan fox.
Tired from reading the script, Ji Yan slumped onto the sofa, feeling like a hopeless illiterate.
Lu Wei volunteered to help Ji Yan rehearse his lines, as he also had a movie to shoot later and this was a good opportunity for him to practice beforehand.
In the script provided by Zhu Shuguang, Gu Shan's wife could no longer tolerate his dereliction of duty and silence. She yelled and smashed everything, then left home with the child. Gu Shan remained silent. As his wife left, his eyes met his daughter's. He tried to take her hand, but she dodged away.
Gu Shan lowered his head, and after a while, he looked up at the sky above him.
“Then I’ll play the wife, and you’ll play the daughter?” Lu Wei called out to Fang Yu.
"I'll play the wife, and you'll play the daughter."
Then, the two of them argued for half an hour about who would play the wife and who would play the daughter. Ji Yan simply covered his face with the script and fell asleep.
When he woke up, after a game of rock-paper-scissors, Xie Mingxuan was chosen to play his daughter.
Ji Yan: "..."
He didn't understand why Xie Mingxuan ended up playing the daughter in the battle between Lu Wei and Fang Yu.
Unfortunately, the rehearsal didn't continue because Ji Yan almost burst out laughing when he saw Lu Wei smashing things and trying to take Xie Mingxuan away from the house.
"No, you two shouldn't leave. I'm the one who should be leaving."
Fang Yu lay to one side, laughing wildly and pounding the sofa: "Nobody dares to be Old Xie's dad, okay?"
Ji Yan felt that he was quite emotional just now, but when he met Xie Mingxuan's indifferent face, all the emotions he had painstakingly accumulated were released.
"Let me have some peace and quiet."
"Teacher Ji, calm down." Fang Yu patted Ji Yan on the shoulder. "Just believe in yourself and act as you're supposed to. I think as long as you study the script carefully and express your understanding of the character, the director will understand, and the audience will understand too."
Fang Yu felt that Ji Yan was just too serious about what he was going to do, which was why he was always so conflicted.
This is certainly not a bad thing. Ji Yan has always worked this hard. However, Ji Yan should also relax and have more confidence in himself.
Ji Yan still chose to slowly study the character, observing his own subtle expressions in the mirror. Perhaps because he had read the script too many times, Ji Yan gradually became able to see the changes in the character's emotions shown by different eyes, different facial expressions, and different actions.
These changes are very minor, and the specifics will likely depend on Director Zhu Shuguang's standards.
I don't know if the other party wanted him to act more reservedly or more extrovertedly.
The day before the audition, Ji Yan was surprisingly calm. He figured he might as well try and fail; if he didn't succeed, he would just come back and continue preparing his album.
"No problem, Teacher Ji." Fang Yu bumped fists with Ji Yan. "Go for it!"
"Go, Teacher Ji!!" The audition was held in a studio outside the film and television base in City A. Zhu Shuguang's company was nearby. Most of his films were shot on location, and the few dialogue scenes were filmed at the film and television base.
Today, only Ji Yan came to audition. The film's producer Lu Yu, director Zhu Shuguang, and screenwriter Qin Zhen sat in front, and the female lead, You Kesi, was also called over to act opposite Ji Yan.
Before the audition even started, Lu Yu couldn't help but ask Zhu Shuguang, "Old Zhu, you didn't choose this actor because you had a conflict with Old Li, did you?"
"Am I that kind of person?" Zhu Shuguang glared, looking quite fierce.
Lu Yu wasn't buying it. He and Zhu Shuguang were old partners. Zhu Shuguang was known in the industry as a big spender. He insisted on shooting on location and dared to shoot a single scene 30 times. When he spent money, it was as if the production company was a money printing factory. Other producers would avoid him.
Lu Yu herself is not short of money. She also has a lot of shares in the cinema chain. In addition, she is very good at operating art films. Therefore, she always tries to compress production costs to the minimum, such as actors' salaries and venue rental costs. The remaining money is left for Zhu Shuguang to spend as much as he wants.
Seeing Lu Yu's ambiguous smile, Zhu Shuguang snorted: "Even if I said yes, what are you worried about? You know how discerning that old man is when it comes to choosing actors."
It boils down to one word—poison.
On this point, Zhu Shuguang may have been verbally unconvinced, but he was inwardly convinced.
Those who can make a name for themselves in the directing world must have some real talent. He hadn't watched any of Li Xiang's films in recent years, but he knew they must be of good quality.
"However, we should still be cautious," Lu Yu said. "This subject matter is difficult to film, and it's also hard to find the right actors."
The script contains a lot of inner monologues for the characters. If the protagonist were a middle-aged person, it would be easier to film, but since the character is a young person, the difficulty of filming increases dramatically.
There are practically no male actors who meet the requirements.
Lu Yu wasn't particularly optimistic about Zhu Shuguang's film from the beginning, but the two had been friends for many years, going through thick and thin together, and now that they're at this age, they just want to be free and make some films that they want to make.
Didn't you suffer enough constraints when you were young?
Lu Yu's eyes lit up when Ji Yan entered.
Ji Yan's face is more than enough to play the male lead in a movie. His features are very photogenic and won't be distorted by the camera. He has broad eyebrows and bright, dark eyes. His facial features are very pleasing to the eye. At first glance, he is the kind of actor whose appearance is more outstanding than his looks, but upon closer inspection, his bone structure is also quite good.
It must be said that Li Xiang is good at choosing people.
Zhu Shuguang didn't exchange many pleasantries, but simply gestured to Ji Yan and You Kesi that the performance could begin.
Ji Yan took a deep breath, and the audition began.
"Look at you every day... What's so interesting about these damn stars? This crap, you call this life? You're telling me this is life?!"
From the very beginning, Yu Kesi entered a state of explosive energy, and she is a recognized strong actress among the younger generation. She has worked with a host of big-name directors, and she is especially good at playing roles with great emotional fluctuations. Most actors simply cannot keep up with her performance.
Lu Yu, Zhu Shuguang, and Qin Zhen all waited with great curiosity for Ji Yan's next move.
Whether Ji Yan will be evenly matched with You Kesi or completely suppressed by her will depend on his performance next.
When You Kesi was on the verge of emotional collapse, Ji Yan just glanced at her quietly. In that glance, there was a hint of grievance of not being understood, but it was fleeting and quickly subsided.
Because this is Gu Shan's life. He has never been understood, even by the woman who is his bedmate. He once tried to express his love for the starry sky to her passionately, but she had no interest.
Ji Yan's facial expression didn't change much, but at this moment, he transformed from the lively person he was when he entered into the taciturn Gu Shan.
It was just silence, not stagnation.
Lu Yu and Zhu Shuguang exchanged a glance and continued reading.
Next came the main event, where, despite the actress playing the daughter not being present, Ji Yan had to perform for thin air.
Then they saw—
The cautious probing, the father's love for his daughter, the hurt at the moment of being dodged, and the melancholy when his wife and daughter left.
Gu Shan's heart was not made of stone; he was not devoid of human emotions.
But his love for the stars lasted longer; it seemed that only the stars could hear his heart, understand him, and respond to him.
— Ji Yan portrayed all of these things perfectly.
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