Published at 6th of November 2020 09:20:17 PM
Chapter 252
Chapter 252: Leadings roles… can you do it?
At the beginning, at least half of the superstars in China said that they were willing to play in ‘Miracle in Cell No . 7’ regardless of their roles .
But they would feel a bit embarrassed if they indeed received a supporting role .
Maybe they would tactfully refuse it after some consideration .
Of course, if it was for the roles of the protagonist Li Chenglong, then all the superstars would fight hard to get it .
The Heavenly King Sun Dahe and Fan Yuyue were the most determined two as they were both pursuing the role of Li Chenglong .
However, Zhu Mei never confirmed who was going to play the role .
And now three heavenly kings from Japan and Korea joined the cast of ‘Miracle in Cell No . 7’ with smiles filled with joy for two main supporting roles and a special guest role .
Needless to say that He Kangxian’s rule was just for show as it wouldn’t affect the other actors even if he performed well .
But the roles of Jiang Shiyu and Masato Naito’s were very important .
A movie that only relied on their male or female lead would most probably not become a classic .
Unless it was a one man movie such as ‘Cast Away’ or ‘Buried’ .
But if one thought about it, the movie mentioned above could be called classic but they weren’t those cult classics that were rewatched through time over and over again .
A cult classic that would be passed through time must have a good lead and good supporting cast .
Everyone must work hard together to make such a movie that could be passed down through generations .
For example, ‘Waterloo Bridge’ from a few decades ago or ‘Gone With The Wind’ that was further back .
The same was true for modern cult classics .
Why was ‘Miracle in Cell No . 7’ a classic?
Because of the sincere feeling between the father and the daughter, the hope amongst the despair .
But how did such feelings stand out?
Wasn’t it because of the villains and good supporting characters?
The villain used their evil, shameless and despicable means to sharpen the relationship between the father and daughter time and time again so the relationship between the two was highlighted .
The decent people would use their enthusiasm, understanding, support etc… to help the father and daughter again and again so they could get comfort and help during dark and desperate times . It also showed the world’s true emotion .
So the five supporting roles in ‘Miracle in Cell No . 7’ were very important .
Their performance was in direct relation with the quality of the movie .
Chen Huan felt that the five supporting roles were great after watching ‘Miracle in Cell no . 7’ in his original world so he went to look at their page .
He realized then the absolute greatness of those Korea actors as they could each be the lead of their own movie .
They banded together to create this classic .
So Chen Huan told Zhu Mei she must use great actors for every role .
It didn’t matter if the actor was famous or not as long as they could act well .
Of course, it would be best if they could get those with great acting skills and great reputation .
Zhu Mei chose to cooperate with Shanhai Streaming as this aspect was also very important .
After all, Shanhai Streaming had a lot of money and could spend to recruit good actors .
Otherwise how were they supposed to recruit anybody with a company that didn’t have much money?
Back to the casting .
Hearing that both Japan and Korea dispatched their Heavenly Kings to play those supporting roles, those small actors that wanted to play the supporting roles all quieted down .
They knew they couldn’t be compared to those Heavenly Kings .
They would lose face for Chinese actors if they didn’t perform well .
On the contrary, some powerful actors that weren’t interested in the beginning, suddenly got interested .
It was a rare opportunity for actors of three countries to compete in the same field .
So Zhu Mei received many audition requests .
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But it wasn’t the most shocking point .
The most shocking and sensational news was after a few rounds of audition, Zhu Mei decided on the actor that was going to play Li Chenglong .
It was Guo Hang .
It caused an uproar across the entertainment media in the country .
Guo Hang’s history had immediately been dug up .
31 years old Huhai Opera graduate .
Before the age of 30 and for 3 years after graduation, he didn’t receive any role and could only act in theater .
Then he went to take the background characters role for four years and his best role was only 5 minute long .
At the age of 30, Guo Hang was casted by her senior Zhu Mei to star in the main supporting role Ye Mao in ‘Love Letter’ .
However, after this movie, he went on to play three other supporting roles but didn’t receive any lead roles .
So nobody expected him to beat Sun Dahe and Fan Yuyue so abruptly and become the highly sought role of Li Chenglong .
The public obviously went into an uproar after seeing this .
“It’s over now, I don’t feel optimistic about ‘Miracle in Cell No . 7’ anymore!”
“Maybe there was some transaction made behind the scene . ”
“Whether there was a transaction or not, this was surely because of personal preference, no?” Director Zhu Mei maybe likes this kind of actor?”
“What’s the use of preference! The key point is to know how to act this role! Li Chenglong is the most important role in this movie and has the most important scenes! Aren’t they afraid of crashing the movie after casting such an actor?”
“Right, it would become a joke if Guo Hang becomes a supporting cast to the actors from Japan and Korea!”
“Did Teacher Chu Lixuiang not say anything? Is he going to let Zhu Mei do as she pleases?”
“Guo Hang is sure shameless, doesn’t he know his own status? He even dared to take it?”
“…”
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All those complaints naturally made their way into Guo Hang’s ears .
Zhu Mei said to him when she called him that it was Teacher Chu who thought you were promising so he wanted Guo Hang to compete with Sun Dahe and Fan Yuyue .
Guo Han didn’t expect he would actually get the role after two rounds of auditions .
He knew that the results would definitely set an uproar .
But no matter what the other people thought or said, Guo Hang was determined to not disappoint Teacher Chu’s trust and let down the opportunity his Senior Sister gave him . He must prove the people that Teacher Chu and his Senior Sister weren’t blind for casting him .
Guo Hang slowly disappeared from the public eyes and didn’t say anything to the other world . He just took the script and studied it deeply .
By the time he appeared in front of the crew in May, he had gained 15kg for a total weight of 75kg . his slender figure disappeared as he became a fat man .
Everyone felt that he was dumb and slow when they talked to him .
The cast were all old guards and experienced actors so immediately understood when they saw him .
He was in character!
Guo Hang’s mind had been immersed into the role of Li Chenglong .
Regardless of whether he could adjust back in the future, he had put his all into the role and made himself become Li Chenglong .
They had to praise Guo Hang for his determination to get into the role so early .
Zhu Mei felt very pleased when she saw this .
As a useless actor before, he must seize the opportunity given to him and must give his all to reach his limit or even break through it .
It seemed that Guo Hang already took a first step toward it .
Next, they just have to see how far he would reach when they started to perform .
But in any case, with the current starting point, Zhu Mei was already looking forward to the end results of ‘Miracle in Cell No . 7’ .
Zhu Mei already casted the other three main supporting roles .
The scammer Park Won-sang would be played by Peng Jigao from Huajin Opera .
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The model prisoner, Feng Zhi, who was convicted of robbery, would be played by Li Yingzhi who was ranked second in terms of playing young characters roles .
The last one was the aggressive prisoner and he would be played by Liu Jiufeng who specialized in young man roles in TV .
The three were all skilled actors and their acting was impeccable so Zhu Mei didn’t have to worry about that .
The only one she was uncertain about was…
Zhu Mei was looking at a little girl sitting in a high place while her little legs swayed around as she watched the sunset .
There was an innocent and sweet smile on her round face as she was humming a song as if she wasn’t sitting on the stairways in a prison .
The little girl was called Yang Shu and was a seven years old from Huajin .
Yang Shu didn’t only get first place among the five thousand people audition but also pitted against the actors originally selected by Zhu Mei and beat all of them .
It was hard to think that this little girl was able to do that when she had no previous experience of acting and didn’t even feature in any advertisement .
The reason she participated in the audition was because her grandma took her out to play and saw many people lining so she thought there was a prize for children and therefore took her granddaughter to the line to participate .
The result was that Yang Shu passed all the auditions and became the indisputable actor of Li Yiyuan, which was something Zhu Mei never expected .
Zhu Mei was worried that because Yang Shu had no previous acting experience, her mind would suddenly collapse during the shooting and would no longer be able to maintain this state of mind .
Even adult actors wouldn’t be able to act well when they weren’t in the right state of mind, let alone a child .
So Zhu Mei secretly prepared the second choice as the alternative .
But Zhu Mei really liked Yang Shu’s innocence .
Her appearance and performance was exactly like the one in the book .
Even Chen Huan was amazed when he saw the video of her audition and said that Yang Shu was the Li Yiyuan he saw in his mind .
Well, that was a lie .
Chen Huan saw the movie ‘Miracle in Cell No . 7’ before and this Yang Shu looked exactly like the original little heroine, the special aura coming from her was even better!
It seemed that Li Yiyuan was destined to be hers!