Chapter 331- Secret Acting Skills (2)
As she spoke, she looked back at her assistant, Xia Li. “The last time I bought a matcha boba, the crew gave me a thin straw. I almost cried at the hotel when I saw it. After trying for half an hour, I still couldn’t open the bottom of the boba… I still vividly remember the scene, and I still feel sad about it!” Yu Yaoyao’s expression was one of hurt.
Wei Ming and Lu Cheng were stunned as they listened.
Cai Fang had known for a long time that Yu Yaoyao was talented, but she didn’t know this was the way she got immersed into the play.
All three of them in the room were dumbfounded. No one knew what to say.Actors can never experience everything written in the script. They needed to act out other people’s stories. But many of the elements in the story are dramatized scenes that people don’t experience in their daily lives.
As actors, they were forced to empathize with the character and perform it even if they were not familiar with the lifestyle. At times, their energy was already spent just trying to relate to the characters. That is when one needs to rely on the imagination of observations. One may have never experienced it, but one could rely on empathy, one’s own associations, connections in one’s life, to find the common ground between oneself and the character. One could also rely on the observations of other people in one’s life when trying to think and imitate.
In Yu Yaoyao’s approach, it could be said that imagination and empathy were both used to the extreme. At first glance, it was almost unheard of. It seemed funny and certainly not serious. But after careful thought, it became apparent that she really was talented. She could turn an extremely difficult section into trivial, daily things.
Cai Fang’s admiration for her rose to the extreme. “Xiao Yu, you are really… the darling of my life.”
Ordinarily, only with a heart of innocence could one be full of rich and delicate emotions in the details of daily life. The heart-wrenching and painful performances that were shown on the camera turned out to be inspired by a cup of milk tea. Who would have thought?
“I’ve been in the crew for so many years, but this was the first time I saw such a note. Xiao Yu, you’re really something different,” Wei Ming raised a thumb and gave a bitter smile.
Lu Cheng was shaking his head back and forth. “Your imagination is almost LVL 99. I feel like I am still a newbie when I compare myself to you. I finally know why Director Qi Hang told us to learn from you!” the corners of his mouth twitched.“Xiao Yu, let me ask you a question.” Wei Ming’s will to learn was burning, and he no longer underestimated her three textbooks on Weibo, “Besides imagining, do you usually do some other exercises? Observing the people around you, or watching movies and TV shows?”
A keen eye was an actor’s strongest weapon. No one could fully experience the various states of life, but they could use someone else as reference.
Yu Yaoyao was really too young! She was also a full-time wife who hadn’t stepped out into society for five years. In terms of social experience, she should be inferior to him.
But in the scene just now…
“We looked back at the scene where you smoked. There are traces of heaviness in your eyes. I bet it didn’t all come from milk tea?” Wei Ming said, getting straight to the point.
She wasn’t playing a girl, nor a young woman. Milk tea could help her with expressing her emotion, but there was no way it could give her a sense of the vicissitudes of life.
Yu Yaoyao blinked and almost blurted out, “For almost two…” Halfway through her sentence, she wailed and covered her mouth.
She hadn’t had milk tea in 200 years! When it came to milk tea there was no concept of time. But she couldn’t tell the truth. She would be ridiculed if she did! “I… I haven’t drunk boba milk tea in two years!” Yu Yaoyao said with a blush.
Wei Ming was silent.
“That’s really a long time,” Lu Cheng said carefully.
Cai Fang cautiously said, “Xiao Yu, didn’t you drink it last week?”
“Oh, I meant before, I haven’t drunk it for a long time,” Yu Yaoyao awkwardly changed the subject. “Wait, I actually did do the observations that Brother Wei mentioned. When I was at the zo… at home, I didn’t have to work. I always went to sleep because of boredom. So, I could only observe the people outside. Through the window, I always watch everyone’s expressions and eavesdrop on their conversations. Sometimes I can hear young and old couples arguing outside my place. I can hear a lot of things,” as she spoke, Yu Yaoyao began to reminisce.
She counted on her fingers. “I watched TV and movies. Whether it be ancient or modern, Chinese or another language, high rating or not, popular or not, I have seen almost all of them. If there is something that I really like, I will watch it over and over again.” As she counted, she realized she had actually watched quite a few things. Although she forgot many of them after she’d watched them, some of the actors’ performances she’d seen on TV still remained in her subconscious.
When she said this, Wei Ming finally understood, “Awesome.”
Her performance wasn’t impromptu. Instead, it was a production of an accumulation of knowledge. When he saw her for the first time, her performance had been a little immature. But now, after several directors’ filming guidance and her recent performance theory knowledge, everything had accumulated. Now, her performance was smoother and even more convincing.
He bet no one would guess that she was thinking about milk tea when they had watched her smoking.
A deeper foundation formed every time she digested new knowledge.
When she realized he believed what she had said, Yu Yaoyao’s pounding heart finally calmed down. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Finally, may I ask? Last time when we worked together, what did you see me as? Did you write that you hate me in the notes on the script? I felt that you seemed very hungry when you looked at me,” Wei Ming said with a sour smile on his lips.
Yu Yaoyao hardly needed to think before answering the question. She shouted out without meaning to, “Chicken thigh! Chicken breast! Whole chicken!”
Wei Ming was stunned.
