All-rounder Artist

The filming was not entirely smooth sailing.

At the beginning, the progress was indeed gratifying. But after a period of consecutive filming, acting difficulties inevitably arose. Specifically, at some points of humor that seemed rather strange, the male lead He Sheng seemed a little unsure about his performance.

One day.

While filming a scene at Hua Mansion, no matter how hard He Sheng tried, he couldn’t get into the feel of his character. Even Yi Chenggong, known for his good temper, couldn’t help but pause the filming and chat privately with He Sheng for over ten minutes.

Regrettably, the one-on-one talk had limited effects…

Back into the acting, He Sheng’s performance still couldn’t meet Yi Chenggong’s standards.

Not just Yi Chenggong’s.

Even Shen Qing, the producer who most of the time was on set, noticed something was off with He Sheng.

It’s hard to describe exactly.

The feeling was, He Sheng didn’t seem as funny as before?

But it’s normal.

There will always be difficulties in filming.

It’s a good thing that Yi Chenggong insisted on maintaining high standards.

Actually, it wasn’t He Sheng’s problem, but rather the characterization problem of Tang Bohu’s role, which is Zhou Xingchi’s role!

Zhou Xingchi’s characters, though seem whimsical, capricious and casually performed, are in fact all backed by strong comedic foundations.

But He Sheng is not Zhou Xingchi after all.

His nailing some parts does not mean he can nail everything.

If a replication of Zhou Xingchi could be found in Blue Star just as easily as that, then Zhou Xingchi wouldn’t be Zhou Xingchi.

In the end, Yi Chenggong ran out of options and could only wave his hand and say, “Let’s shoot the others’ parts first.”

He Sheng nodded, sitting in the corner quite frustrated.

But he is just a small actor. His real acting experience is running minor roles in the past.

And what he learned from the academy could not be applied here at all-

So, when his performance fell into a stalemate like a bottleneck, he could only figure out a way to break through.

Without an assistant, he felt a bit thirsty and was going to fetch some water for himself when a bottle of mineral water was handed over.

“Mr. Lin? Thank you…”

He Sheng rose somewhat astoundingly.

Lin Yuan is a scriptwriter, but both Shen Qing and Yi Chenggong call him Mr. Lin. Consequently, everybody else calls him Mr. Lin as well.

Meanwhile, his heart couldn’t help but pounded a little.

He worried that Mr. Lin was unsatisfied with his performance and came to criticize him.

Offering him water was just the calm before the storm.

“Sit.”

Lin Yuan began to speak, “Any problem?”

After just using a Memory Pill for an hour, he saw the scene of dissatisfaction with He Sheng’s performance from the director. So he came to show care.

“I can’t quite find my feel…”

He Sheng confessed somewhat guiltily, “I’ll try harder later…”

Lin Yuan remained silent.

If effort could solve everything, why would need the System?

In terms of performance, He Sheng already has the flavor of Zhou Xingchi. Therefore, Lin Yuan was still quite satisfied with He Sheng as an actor.

Even though he was satisfied.

Lin Yuan still knew in his heart that He Sheng was ultimately not Zhou Xingchi.

This newcomer had no reference from Star Grandpa’s observance. He was truly feeling his way across the river.

His present performance was excellent.

The current situation was actually a process that He Sheng needed to go through to become Zhou Xingchi of Blue Star.

He might manage to overcome this hurdle.

Or he might for life be just one step away.

However, it was all up to He Sheng. He had to overcome this, while all Lin Yuan needed to do was to get He Sheng to temporarily play Zhou Xingchi!

“Too expensive.”

Lin Yuan muttered to himself.

He Sheng looked confused, “What’s too expensive?”

Lin Yuan didn’t answer.

“Too expensive” was referring to the “Star Fragment” from System, a crystallization of Zhou Xingchi’s performance techniques with a hefty price tag of three million apiece!

And the effect only lasts an hour.

Seeing that He Sheng’s previous performances were fine, Lin Yuan had not been willing to use it till now.

But now it seems he must use it.

However, this couldn’t be done abruptly. Lin Yuan decided to talk with He Sheng about acting. He didn’t waste his time reading all those books on acting lately. Just talking about the theories of acting, Lin Yuan was not any worse than many professional actors.

“Do you see Tang Bohu as a big character or a small one?”

“A big character…right?”

“Wrong, Tang Bohu is a small character.”

Lin Yuan began to woolgather, combining his recent reading on acting, although it wasn’t his field of expertise, “Essentially speaking, Tang Bohu is a small character, a big character is just a surface identity for him, a big character wouldn’t experience the helplessness that Tang Bohu did. Tang Bohu’s real identity in this movie is Hua An, and his experience in Hua Mansion mirrors that of every small character. It’s just that he has a Trump card regarding his identity, but this card wouldn’t be unveiled until the later part of the script.”

He Sheng was taken aback.

He seemed to vaguely understand something…

Tang Bohu may appear as a big character only in disguise, but would a big character be worn out by his eight wives?

Would a big character be tormented to death by his eight wives?

Would a big character chase a little maid in such a ridiculous way?

Especially since Tang Bohu entered Hua Mansion, he became a real small character.

Comparing hardships, pretending a cockroach is his years-long companion.

At mealtime, others took away all the food, leaving him with only an empty pot…

Such encounters of small characters, Tang Bohu had them all. And his reactions to these situations, no matter how nonsensical or ridiculously funny they were, all belong to reactions a small character would have.

“So fundamentally, I was wrong?”

He Sheng was even somewhat self-doubting for a moment.

Lin Yuan didn’t say much more, but instead stood up and looked at Yi Chenggong, who had just finished shooting another scene, “Continue shooting He Sheng’s part.”

“Mr. Lin, I’m currently…”

Although He Sheng felt he had gained some insight, in terms of acting, he really hadn’t thought of a solution yet. This wasn’t something he could change with just a few words.

Yi Chenggong couldn’t help but to ask, “He Sheng, can you handle it now?”

“I can’t.”

He Sheng said, embarrassed and helpless.

However, Lin Yuan frowned and said, “He can.”

“I really can’t…” He Sheng, who had been stuck many times, now knew just how difficult this scene was.

Lin Yuan said, “If I say you can do it, then you can.”

He had already used the Star Fragment on He Sheng.

With only an hour, he didn’t want this time to be wasted on pointless things.

Thankfully, in the end, it was still Mr. Lin who had the final say on the set.

Under Lin Yuan’s insistence, He Sheng had no choice but to brace himself and walk to the film set.

However, the crew was somewhat helpless.

Was Mr. Lin considering himself a big acting coach?

He Sheng had performed many times and it didn’t work out, could he really get it right just after a few words with Mr. Lin?

He Sheng himself felt that he couldn’t do it!

For a time, the crowd looked at He Sheng with some sympathy.

Even Shen Qing, who came with the crew today, couldn’t help but sigh in her heart.

If He Sheng couldn’t perform later, wouldn’t Mr. Lin be furious?

Wasn’t this implying that Mr. Lin didn’t understand acting?

She had to help He Sheng a bit.

Although she was dissatisfied with the script, Shen Qing thought He Sheng was a very hard-working actor.

This wasn’t Shen Qing’s fault. It’s inevitable for actors to encounter similar situations. Even the best actors have had trouble performing many takes, let alone a newbie like He Sheng.

“Let’s get started then.”

Yi Chenggong didn’t say much. He had made up his mind that no matter how bad He Sheng’s performance was, he wouldn’t criticize him too harshly.

Just like that.

The filming began again.

He Sheng was originally not confident, but as soon as he entered the performance state, he suddenly felt something strange, as if he had achieved some sort of enlightenment!

He picked up his chopsticks and struck the broken bowls in front of him, almost rapping:

“I’m a simple guy living by the river in Su City, I have a house and fields, my life is unbelievably good…”

It felt great…

But it was also quite odd!

Why did it feel like my hands had a mind of their own?

Wasn’t I striking with too professional a rhythm?

Even the lines were fluctuating, spoken with a rhythmic chant, a demonic melody: “Who would have thought Tang Bohu, he is unreasonable, snatching my wife and child, monopolizing my fields…”

He Sheng was really into it!

At this moment, he even forgot who he was, completely got into Tang Bohu’s character. It was as if he had performed this part countless times, producing the best state of performance effortlessly!

The look in Yi Chenggong’s eyes changed.

The look in Shen Qing’s eyes also changed accordingly.

This emotion spread quickly throughout the crew. Anyone could feel it, in this scene, He Sheng was performing amazingly!

The actresses portraying Madam Hua and the maidservant were all inspired, and involuntarily poked their heads back and forth with the rhythm.

Someone backstage couldn’t help but laugh.

This part was actually quite funny, but when He Sheng performed it before, it fell flat. It felt overly deliberate, like he was just acting for the sake of acting.

But this time, He Sheng’s performance could be truly described as tailoring to his own persona!

He was Tang Bohu, he was Hua An, he was 9527!

So when this performance ended, everyone’s faces turned into utter shock.

Then, dozens of eyes turned to Lin Yuan.

“Director, after listening to Mr. Lin…”

He Sheng excitedly glanced at Lin Yuan, then hurried to speak, his voice unprecedentedly enthusiastic:

“I feel like I can do it again!”

“Get ready for the next scene quickly!”

Of course, Yi Chenggong knew how precious an actor’s state was. Compared with before, He Sheng had undergone a complete transformation!

So after coming back to his senses, he quickly shouted to the crew behind him.

Under this atmosphere, everyone quickly set up for the next scene.

During this process,

The crew looked at Lin Yuan with somewhat awestruck expressions:

Everyone had just witnessed the transformation of He Sheng, who didn’t know how to act not long ago, to delivering arguably the most perfect performance of this movie’s production so far—

All of this because of the guidance of Mr. Lin!

Guiding actors should be the director’s responsibility, but at this moment, Yi Chenggong deeply understood that his abilities in guiding actors were nothing compared to Lin Yuan!

What did Mr. Lin say to He Sheng?

Shen Qing and the others were even more wide-eyed, not knowing how Lin Yuan managed to pull it off. Could Lin Yuan actually be a hidden acting guru on set?

No, wait a minute.

This wasn’t guidance. This was plain and simple total transformation!

Looking closely at the He Sheng now, was he still the same He Sheng!?