Reborn in the Hong Kong entertainment industry in the 1980s

Qi Weiming was puzzled. "Why are you showing me these photos?"

“You’ll see when you get here. Actually, even if you hadn’t called me, I would have looked for you anyway,” Lin Yi said. “Since you’re here, why don’t you come over for dinner? We haven’t had a drink together in a long time.”

Qi Weiming readily agreed, "I'll be right there. You prepare some snacks to go with the drinks, and I'll have a good time when I get there."

If he doesn't drink now, he'll be too busy to drink once the machine is turned on.

After the audition, Hu Xiaoxiao stayed home every day to memorize the script, planning to memorize all of Xie Weihua's lines before filming began.

After memorizing her own lines, she also memorized the lines of the characters she had scenes with. Only by knowing her co-stars' lines could she better understand what they were trying to express when they delivered their own lines, and convey deeper messages to the audience. This allowed her to better immerse herself in the play and bring the character to life in the world of the script.

The mobile phone next to her rang, and Hu Xiaoxiao put down the script and answered the phone.

The call was from the crew of "The Bund," who told her that she would be playing the role of Xie Weihua.

The results were originally supposed to be available within three days, and Hu Xiaoxiao thought she would have to wait until the third day, but to her surprise, the results came out on the second day.

She landed the role of Xie Weihua.

After thanking the staff who called to inform her, Hu Xiaoxiao rolled around on the sofa a few times with joy.

If her true form weren't here, she would want to crawl back into it and wag her tail a few times.

Xia Lu also received a notification that day; the staff told her that the role of Xie Weihua would be played by Hu Xiaoxiao.

When Xia Lu received this news, it was like a bolt from the blue.

She was so confident about the role, but she didn't get it?

Why should it be given to Hu Xiaoxiao?

How many years has Hu Xiaoxiao acted? How many years has she acted? Her acting experience is a full ten years longer than Hu Xiaoxiao's!

She refused to believe she had lost to Hu Xiaoxiao; there must be something fishy going on.

Also, Xiu Mingming had already spoken to Qi Weiming on her behalf and given her an important role, so why was it given to Hu Xiaoxiao instead?

Xia Lu couldn't accept this outcome, so she drove directly to Qi Weiming's house and questioned Hu Xiaoxiao about who her backer was and why she was able to steal her role.

Out of respect for Xiu, Qi Weiming didn't hold a grudge against Xia Lu and invited her into his home. He patiently explained, "I decided on the role myself. No one interfered, and there was no behind-the-scenes manipulation. I compared your performance with Hu Xiaoxiao's, and I think Hu Xiaoxiao is more suitable for the role of Xie Weihua."

Xia Lu was unconvinced and said, "My acting skills are clearly better, more mature, and more experienced. Why did I lose to Hu Xiaoxiao? Although she has become very popular in the past two years, the roles she plays are all excellent in action scenes and martial arts scenes, but she doesn't excel in dramatic scenes."

Clearly, Xia Lu had also studied Hu Xiaoxiao in order to win the role.

Qi Weiming said, "Your acting skills are indeed very good, much better than Hu Xiaoxiao's. However, it is precisely because your acting skills are so good that Hu Xiaoxiao is not as suitable for Xie Weihua."

"What kind of logic is this?" Xia Lu couldn't understand Qi Weiming's words.

Qi Weiming said, "It's precisely because your acting is so good that you can tell it's acting at a glance. And Hu Xiaoxiao is Xie Weihua herself. Hu Xiaoxiao is very talented. She knows that she has weaknesses in dramatic roles, so she put a lot of effort into shaping the character. She succeeded and brought Xie Weihua to life."

Once the character is created and the actor immerses himself in the role, then every move he makes is that of the person without any acting required.

Qi Weiming has a sharp eye and saw long ago that Hu Xiaoxiao had taken shortcuts in portraying Xie Weihua.

She used the similarities between Xie Weihua's personality and her own to identify with Xie Weihua, immersing herself in the role and becoming one with the character. Her words, actions, and habits all became those of Xie Weihua.

Rather than saying she was acting, it's more accurate to say she was doing it, embodying Xie Weihua.

This approach has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it allows actors to quickly immerse themselves in the role and bring the character to life. The disadvantage is that after filming, actors often find it difficult to detach themselves from the character, becoming trapped in the role and mistakenly embodying the character's fate. This situation occurs in many actors.

But what happens after the performance is not something that Qi Weiming, the director, should concern himself with; he only saw that Hu Xiaoxiao and Xie Weihua were extremely well-matched.

Meanwhile, Qi Weiming was also secretly puzzled. Xie Wei'an's character was based on a socialite, but that socialite came from a prestigious family with a rich heritage, the kind of confident and flamboyant woman that only such a family could cultivate. Hu Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, had no known illustrious family background. How did she develop such confidence and flamboyance? Where did her confidence come from?

Similarly, this is not something a director should be concerned with; he only focuses on his play and the characters in it.

Xia Lu is a good actress with rich acting experience, but precisely because she has so much experience, she lacks a certain spark. It's easy to find echoes of characters she's played before in her roles. Especially since Xia Lu has acted in two period dramas set in the Republican era, her performances are somewhat repetitive, unlike Hu Xiaoxiao's. For Qi Weiming, Xia Lu's performances felt completely new, blank, like an unpainted sheet of paper, allowing him, as the director, to freely write and portray a character unlike any he had ever created before.

Hu Xiaoxiao once said, "Only mediocre or inexperienced new directors rely on actors," a sentiment Qi Weiming strongly agrees with. He hopes that the characters he directs in his plays are entirely new figures he has cultivated for the script, rather than characters that remind the audience of what the actor has acted in before, how they cried and laughed in the same way, making the audience feel like they are watching a completely different show.

Qi Weiming is domineering and autocratic in his work; he doesn't want the characters he directs to bear the marks of other directors.

"I have good acting skills and rich performance experience, so I'm wrong?" Xia Lu felt it was utterly absurd.

“For most directors, good acting skills are an advantage, but for me, acting skills alone are not enough. Skilled acting is not enough to express what I want to convey.” Qi Weiming looked at Xia Lu with regret. After so many years in the industry, Xia Lu’s acting skills had improved, but her natural talent had also faded. Especially after her time in the film industry, the talent he used to see in her was nowhere to be found.

Xia Lu couldn't persuade Qi Weiming, and seeing that he had made up his mind, she was unwilling but helpless. "Since Director Qi has decided that Hu Xiaoxiao will play Xie Weihua, then I will play An Baojuan."

Qi Weiming told her regretfully, "An Baojuan has already cast You Na in the role."

"If I can't play Xie Weihua, can't I even play An Baojuan?"

“You Na is more suitable for An Baojuan.” Gu Weiming had already decided on the role for Xia Lu. “You would be better suited to play the role of Yamamoto Masako.”