Actresses

Chapter 11 Partners

He Yuran scanned Shi Jiahe up and down warily: "What are you trying to tell me now?"

Shi Jiahe forced a sweet smile, but because she hadn't practiced this expression much, it sounded artificial. He Yuran subconsciously took a step back, trying to keep his distance from her.

"Please don't do this, I'm a little scared."

"Sis, now that we've gotten to the point of finding a platform producer, we need to take it a step further and put the cast on the agenda. Please step in and personally finalize the first actress."

He Yuran deflated like a punctured balloon, losing all defensive posture. "I thought something serious had happened, that I couldn't get her to come. Do I have to tell you several times, all the popular young actresses are busy, who has time to bother with me?"

"Sister Ran, you've forgotten we talked about this. We can't look at things with old perspectives anymore—"

"Don't mention the word 'old' to me, it makes me uncomfortable. Who are you calling old?" He Yuran rolled her eyes impatiently.

"Oh! I mean, we can't look at things with the same old perspective anymore." Shi Jiahe thought to herself, how come I forgot all my sister's usual taboos when I got anxious? When she's in a bad mood, she starts nitpicking, especially the things she doesn't like to hear. "We reached a consensus last time, which is to do a project with an entertainment industry background. The second thing hasn't been clarified yet, let me explain it to you again. This time, our casting absolutely cannot be influenced by the current trend of focusing on popularity. Instead, it must start with you. Every actor who joins must first and foremost get along with you."

He Yuran hummed in agreement. "That suits me just fine. Continue."

"Secondly, the final lineup needs to cover different age groups to make the viewing experience more diverse. You agree with that, right, sister?" Shi Jiahe looked at He Yuran nervously with every word she spoke, afraid that she might step on a landmine again.

He Yuran started picking at her hands again, her head down. As long as she didn't interrupt, it meant she should continue.

"Sister, think about it this way: even someone with your high status in the industry like you is short of roles, let alone those mediocre actresses, right? We need to look at the problem from the same perspective. Actresses who are constantly being shoved into scripts by platforms at a time like this are definitely not going to get anywhere, right? Top stars have their executives directly negotiating with them, while we're still trying to find scripts through producers a level below the platform, so we have to lower our expectations..."

"That's what you said you wanted to do, what does it have to do with my status! Why should I lower myself!" Sure enough, He Yu was furious.

But Shi Jiahe is no longer flustered. He Yuran's anger proves what? It proves that she is thinking!

Once my sister starts thinking, the logic becomes easier to explain. Because her mind is becoming sharper.

"Sister, what I just talked about was the method, but it doesn't mean that what we do in the future will be worse than others. Why do you think those S+ projects on the platform keep flopping? Isn't it because a lineup built on a traffic-driven mindset doesn't necessarily represent quality? As long as we can assemble the most chemistry among actresses who are also struggling to make a comeback, and then find the right script, we can still create great projects. After all, you're the face of the company, and with you there, I have absolutely no worries. In your early years, the movies you starred in were all unknown, and nobody had high hopes for them, but didn't every single one of them become a classic later on?"

A few words were enough to calm He Yuran down, but her eyes then became vacant.

Looking out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the city below, He Yuran realized that the place she was in was completely empty.

"I can't think of a single actress I get along with."

With Ran Jie being so frank, Shi Jiahe was at a loss for words.

Looking back now, she joined the company at a rather unfortunate time.

That was the year before He Yuran's career began to decline.

This means that despite doing all the work done throughout the year, their income and achievements were drastically reduced when it came time to settle accounts and receive year-end bonuses. In the following years, the team focused primarily on processing previous projects, resulting in early collection of salaries, which were then included in previous years' revenue. Consequently, instead of new income, they incurred significant advertising expenses. While their social media presence appeared strong, they failed to gain a good reputation, and the studio's profits plummeted to an all-time low. As for the projects they filmed afterward, He Yuran's popularity had waned, so she accepted very low salaries to secure roles. These projects, for various reasons, all performed poorly in the market, further exacerbating their already difficult situation.

In such a realistic place as the entertainment industry, He Yuran, no matter how glorious she was in the past, has fallen from grace overnight.

Besides, although He Yuran maintains a good public image, her staff know that she is very wary of other actresses. In recent years, coupled with her declining fortunes, she has had little interaction with rising young actresses, and has even lost touch with many of her former colleagues and acquaintances.

Moreover, ultimately, only He Yuran herself knows how well she gets along with those actresses. No matter how well Shi Jiahe understands her, she is still an outsider.

If this is a hurdle, then no one can replace He Yuran; she must face it herself.

Whether she can succeed depends on her own thoughts.

The two sat facing each other in silence for a moment, then He Yuran sighed. "You want me to find actors? I need a script first. What am I supposed to talk about without anything?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Jiahe immediately perked up.

Instead of getting angry, my sister first considered the difficulties, which seemed to soften her stance. However, she wasn't resolute enough, because she was making excuses to back down.

At times like these, all that's missing is that final push from behind!

Shi Jiahe thought for a moment. "Sister, what makes our project special compared to any other project is that the rules that apply to other projects have to be overturned and reconsidered here. If someone else were doing the casting, they would definitely have a script, but since you're here, the script isn't important."

"...Are you crazy?! There's a limit to how much nonsense you can spout! If you keep this up, I'm starting to wonder if you've been lying to me all these past few years!" He Yuqi said angrily. "Even if I have a lot of pride, I can't just let people put on an act without my knowledge!"

"Sister, the core of this matter isn't the script at all, but whether she, like you, truly wants to fundamentally change her situation of not being able to get roles as an actress. If she shares your vision and determination, then there's a foundation for us all to continue working on this. Only then will the script have meaning when it's written and handed to her, and only then can the character come to life from a two-dimensional space. If the actress we find agrees to act simply because of the script's quality, then problems will inevitably arise sooner or later. If her purpose isn't to do this work, then she'll feel uneasy, and even the slightest disturbance could cause changes to the project. What if the script is good? Should we find a bigger star? What if it's bad? Will she refuse to act? If that's the case, then she..." We might receive projects with better scripts than ours at any time. It's true, we're all actors, and thinking from an actor's perspective is understandable, but when we're managing a project, we can't just consider the actors; we have to consider the whole picture. If an actor isn't stable enough, we'd rather not have them. Only when everyone is of one mind and determined to make something happen can this project succeed. Sometimes a six-point script can produce an eight-point result; we've seen examples of that. Therefore, from the very beginning, we can't just focus on the immediate issue. We're looking for partners who can leave home together, board the ship, and sail into the vast ocean, who can work together to raise the sails and brave the wind and waves without hesitation. You need that kind of determination to ride the waves, don't you think?

Shi Jiahe finished speaking passionately, as if she were about to set sail at any moment, but He Yuran closed her eyes, leaned back in her recliner, and seemed to have lost her spirit.

After a long silence, He Yuran finally spoke.

"You've not only given me a difficult problem, but it's unprecedented in difficulty. No script is one thing, but you also require me to find actors who are completely committed to me, and not just one, since it's an ensemble piece." At this point, He Yuran clapped her hands together, then let go. "You might as well have asked me to retire from the entertainment industry; that would seem simpler."

"Sis, what's the hardest thing you've ever faced in your life so far? Is it right now?"

He Yuran scoffed, "Now? It's not that bad. It's never been as difficult as it was at the beginning."

"Difficult, isn't that what you just said...?"

"How dare you be so unreasonable!"

Shi Jiahe seized the opportunity to step forward, tugged at He Yuran's sleeve, and began to plead, "Sister, can you tell me about it? I've only seen you mention it in interviews before, but I've never heard you say it yourself."

He Yuran frowned, swatted Shi Jiahe's hand away, and scolded, "Don't think that just because you changed the subject I don't remember what we were talking about!"

She then pondered for a moment.

"Uh, it was probably when we were filming the third movie. After the success of the first one, people started to recognize me. You're not a newcomer anymore, so people have high expectations of you. But my second movie hadn't been released yet, so I was carrying a very one-sided perception of me on set. I had to perform better than in the last one, but I had absolutely no idea in which direction to focus my efforts. All I could do was be the first to arrive and the last to leave every day. Even when I didn't have scenes, I would go to the monitor to watch how others rehearsed. As a result, after two months, the director's attitude towards me got even worse. Until one day, I asked a question about the role, and the director yelled at me in front of the entire crew of over a hundred people, saying, 'He Yuran, you don't need to try to get attention here, pretending to like acting. You're just acting! You're a hypocrite!' I was young then, and all I could do was cry. I couldn't say anything, let alone argue back. All I could do afterward was keep apologizing, because I was the one who slowed down the production." Back then, it was still the era of film shooting. A day's delay not only incurred labor costs but also the cost of film processing, which was much more expensive than digital shooting. In the end, all of these costs were charged to me, so not only did I not receive the final payment, but I also lost money.

"Sis, you've never mentioned this in your interviews..."

"Because subconsciously I had forgotten about it, as if it didn't exist. Fortunately, the movie did quite well, and when I met with the director during the promotional period, we acted as if nothing had happened and had a pleasant conversation. When reporters asked me how the director coached my acting, I just gave random answers. Nobody knew that he was dead to me. At first, I kept thinking, what did I do wrong? But later I realized that he wasn't talking about the matter at all; he clearly disliked me as a person. So in his eyes, everything I did was wrong."

He Yuran murmured in a low voice, as if talking to himself, his gaze shifting from the distant city skyline back to what was in front of him.

"Jiahe, you're right. We can't find people who only talk about the facts. We need to find true partners."