Qin Tianye immediately went to remove his makeup after leaving the stage. The emperor's costume was too thick and hot; if he took too long to remove it, he might get heat rash.
Shang Yechu didn't immediately remove her makeup. Instead, she walked up to Zheng Bohan, her face showing trepidation: "Director Zheng?"
"You did a good job," Zheng Bohan said sparingly, offering only a few words of praise.
Shang Yechu's eyes lit up with surprise: "Thank you, Teacher Zheng!"
Zheng Bohan looked Shang Yechu up and down and said, "I've read the character sketches you submitted. They're very insightful. You portrayed Princess Pingzhao's 'hidden' side very well. Are you confident about her 'revealed' side? — You know, these two are very different."
"Come on, Lao Zheng," the easygoing screenwriter Liu Hong interrupted. "Let the young lady remove her makeup first! You're enjoying the cool air, but can't you see she's sweating?"
Shang Yechu smiled, her eyes crinkling, "Thank you, Editor Liu, for speaking up for me. Director Zheng has always liked to exploit me."
“Look at this, look at this.” Zheng Bohan pointed at Shang Yechu and complained to Liu Hong, “She came to me on her own, but it’s become me exploiting her.”
Shang Yechu laughed as she removed her makeup. Liu Hong watched her retreating figure and sighed, "The younger generation is truly formidable."
"Why are you suddenly reminiscing about this?" Zheng Bohan glanced at him sideways.
“Don’t tell me you can’t tell.” Liu Hong lit a cigarette. “There are only a handful of young people in the entertainment industry who can take on Qin Tianye’s roles right now.”
It's a fact that the quality of actors in the Chinese entertainment industry has declined. Whenever these veteran screenwriters watch recent TV dramas, those distorted and crooked puppet shows always leave them feeling mentally constipated.
Zheng Bohan snorted, "It's nothing special."
"Old man, stop pretending." Liu Hong laughed and scolded, "Do you know what I was thinking when I was watching this show just now?"
"What?"
"I'm wondering, how could such a brilliant and ruthless emperor have such a tearful and unpresentable daughter?" Liu Hong said, puffing out smoke. "Hmm, even now I'm still thinking about why she's so useless. The more I think about it, the angrier I get—guess why I just made her remove her makeup? Because seeing her face makes me angry."
To a layman, this is an insult; to a connoisseur, it is nothing short of praise.
Shang Yechu's "cowardice" is on par with Qin Tianye's "domineering" nature, and because he is so unlikeable, he leaves a deeper impression on the audience.
This is like a scene from a TV drama that haunts childhood memories: an old nanny pricking a princess with needles. Although the princess is pitiful and much more pleasing to the eye than the old nanny, what viewers remember most vividly is the old nanny's狰狞 (zhengning - ferocious/hideous) face as she pricks the princess with needles. While this isn't a positive impression, it's proof of the actress's acting skills in portraying the old nanny.
Zheng Bohan coughed lightly: "Give me one—you really think so?"
"Of course. I may like to smooth things over, but I don't like flattery." Liu Hong handed Zheng Bohan a cigarette. "Where did you recruit this student from?"
Zheng Bohan sniffed Liu Hong's cigarette, frowned critically, and said, "You picked it up off the street, be envious."
"Old fox." Liu Hong snatched back his cigarette. "Young, good-looking, and... well, not bad looking. Xiao Hong is a sure thing. Da Hong doesn't know. What a pity."
It's a pity. The entertainment industry today isn't an era where acting skills matter anymore.
"You think she's pretty?" Zheng Bohan was a little surprised. "I think she's just delicate-looking. Not bad-looking."
"You have such high standards," Liu Hong said sourly. "But I'm really curious, how could such a cowardly princess have the audacity to trespass into the emperor's palace? Her character is so contradictory! Who wrote this terrible script?"
Zheng Bohan smiled and said, "I wrote it."
------
Just as Shang Yechu finished removing her makeup, Su Ge burst into the dressing room like a gust of wind.
"Hey! You surnamed Ye!"
Seeing things were going badly, everyone present immediately made a hasty retreat, disappearing in less than half a minute. On set, arguments were commonplace; everyone had long since learned not to see what they shouldn't see and not to hear what they shouldn't hear.
Shang Yechu had no choice but to unpack the hair bag herself, saying as she did so, "My surname isn't Ye... Never mind, Miss Su, is there anything I can help you with?"
"You promised to teach me how to act yesterday!" Su Ge plopped down next to Shang Yechu, shoving Shang Yechu's swivel chair halfway around so that Shang Yechu was facing her.
Shang Yechu blinked: "Yes."
Su Ge said indignantly, "Then why haven't you taught me yet? You've been having a great time acting all by yourself!"
Shang Yechu was almost amused by Su Ge's unreasonable behavior: "Because I have scenes to film today. Besides, didn't I ask you to watch while I was filming?"
"What's the use of just watching? Are you not going to teach me properly because I didn't pay?" Su Ge asked suspiciously. "I clearly transferred 100,000 yuan to you, but you didn't accept it and only accepted the ice cream."
"..." Talking to Su Ge was always like talking to a brick wall, but Shang Yechu was used to it. "What are your thoughts after watching the scene I filmed?"
Su Ge paused suspiciously for a moment: "Uh...you acted very...very pathetic?"
"..." Shang Yechu asked, "How was Teacher Qin's performance?"
"Teacher Qin's performance was amazing!" Su Ge exclaimed excitedly. "He has the natural aura of an emperor! He's never played an emperor before, and he did such a good job on his first time! The way he walks, the angry look in his eyes... oh my god, sexy..."
Su Ge studied abroad for several years. Although the authenticity of her academic qualifications is questionable, her spoken English has improved considerably. When she gets excited, she can't help but blurt out a few English phrases.
Shang Yechu had no choice but to wave her hand to stop the swaying Su Ge. "Look, Teacher Qin's imperial aura and my... uh, my cowardly aura, this is the acting skills you need to learn."
"Huh?" Su Ge was clearly taken aback. "I'm the Empress, I don't need to cry like this, do I?"
"No, no, no," Shang Yechu said patiently. "Teacher Qin is an emperor, so she has an imperial aura; I am a princess who lost her birth mother, so I live cautiously. What about you? Have you thought about what kind of role you really play?"
“My role is, of course, the person Teacher Qin loves the most,” Su Ge said matter-of-factly.
“That’s a misconception,” Shang Yechu said bluntly. “Don’t think about ‘how this character is perceived by others,’ okay? Instead, think about ‘what this character is like!’”
Su Ge was completely confused: "Ah."
"If you're always thinking about 'how Teacher Qin sees this character' or 'how the audience sees this character,' then you're making a big mistake," Shang Yechu said bluntly. "There are a lot of handsome men in the entertainment industry, right? But once they know they're handsome in other people's eyes, they become greasy and frivolous in front of the camera, trying every means to show off their good looks!"
Su Ge was completely bewildered: "Huh?"
“It’s good for actors to have a desire to perform. But when interpreting a role, you need to interpret ‘I am this character,’ not ‘I am an actor,’ ‘I am a handsome man in the eyes of the audience,’ or ‘I am so-and-so’s favorite person!’ So Su Ge, don’t play the person that Teacher Qin loves most, but play the Empress herself.” Shang Yechu grabbed Su Ge’s shoulder and said, word by word.
Su Ge didn't actually understand everything, but she was a little frightened by Shang Yechu. "But what kind of person is this Empress? How would I know?"
Shang Yechu gritted her teeth and said, "Go analyze it! Go think about it! Use your brain—what kind of person is this emperor? Selfish, cold-hearted, treating human life like dirt, born from humble beginnings. What kind of person would such a person fall in love with?"
"Ah..." Su Ge was almost crying from fright at Shang Yechu. She had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth and no one had ever spoken to her like this before. "I...I..."
Shang Yechu said, "'Regardless of your own will, start entirely from the role itself.' Go, Su Ge, think about it yourself. You can do it."
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