Strictly speaking, Duanmu Huai’s presence in this world is rather misleading.
If he doesn’t speak and just sits there, he appears to be the standard sickly beauty, looking frail and as if a breeze could knock him over. If he adds a Lin Daiyu-like wistful expression, he’d be quite an endearing character.
It’s hard to imagine he could lift a road roller as a terrifying monster.
Of course, as for feminine growth, there’s almost none, but for Duanmu Huai, that’s a relief—it saves him the trouble of worrying about which cup size to buy.
As for playing male roles, Duanmu Huai... well, he’s done that quite a few tis.
In movies, there’s rarely cross-dressing males, but quite often females cross-dressing as males. Duanmu Huai’s build isn’t really tall, but not short either. You could say he has a youthful physique. With a change of hairstyle, so makeup, a different outfit, and so colored contacts, he indeed can play a handso young man.
Duanmu Huai has indeed played such roles several tis. Given how popular manga and ani adaptations are in Japan, many with school settings, and also superpower battles, when you say it’s hard to find acting high school students, it’s even harder to find those for action plays, hence Duanmu Huai has been occasionally requested by big-na directors to take on the roles, even as a stunt double.
But those are mostly battle scenes!
Romantic scenes?
That’s a bit of a......
"I can’t manage that, can I? I’m not the type to act in those youthful romantic codies."
Duanmu Huai was utterly puzzled, indicating he couldn’t do it. How could he act in such a thing? He has never been interested in romantic codies... oh, correction, the male lead dies in the end.
So it’s not a cody then?
Anyway, Duanmu Huai thinks it’s quite amusing, so maybe it is a cody.
"The director said he saw you play similar roles in other movies and felt you t the character’s requirents... Anyway, if played by a female, others would feel more at ease, and the performance would be more natural..."
"Anyway, let have a look at the script first."
As an investor and a prominent figure, Duanmu Huai naturally has the qualification.
Shortly after, a new script was handed over. Duanmu Huai glanced through it, and compared to the previous condensed fourteen volus into six episodes, this script’s length was much more reasonable. Because it didn’t have to force in those boring model scenes, it followed the manga plot, trimming so side stories, starting from the female lead’s situation, then the male lead transferring over, their encounter, the female lead slowly making friends and stepping out of the shadows, and gradually developing feelings for the male lead, who protected her in his own way, with the final plot ending at one-third of the manga, as the male lead defeated the stalker trailing the female lead, leading to her realization of falling for him.
It leaves so suspense for the public—a common thod in TV dramas, making it easier to film a second season.
"Hmm........."
After reviewing the script, Duanmu Huai pondered. If it were the usual lodramatic love story, he wouldn’t take it. But the male lead in "Jintian" is a bit different. Firstly, shoujo manga is usually narrated from the female lead’s perspective, so strictly speaking, it’s more of a female lead drama. As for the male lead’s setup—he’s not long for this world and wants to live a aningful life in his remaining ti, hoping to help and save the female lead. Plus, knowing his end is near, he doesn’t deliberately foster romance with the female lead, unlike those dumb TV drama characters saying, "You just lost a leg, but he lost true love..."
Thus, "Jintian" is more akin to a story of the female lead sinking into darkness, being saved, and finally becoming self-reliant. Most narrative emphasis is actually on the female lead, with the male lead more resemblant of an important catalyst. After all, he will die, so it’s not like the usual sappy school couple story.
Hmm, in this light... It seems acceptable?
"Alright, I’ll give it a try then."
Now Duanmu Huai is very grateful for his decision. Although he stars in films, mostly playing major supporting roles, he’s freer in choosing projects. If he were the top superstar or a lead actor widely popular in films, things would have been different.
After all, actors have market value. For soone like Duanmu Huai, mainly doing supporting roles, star baggage isn’t too much of a worry. He can navigate around roles.
But for those prominent lead actors doing these low-profile web series, it’s another story.
Moreover, though labeled as the protagonist, he’s essentially the supporting character, with the key player being Arima Kana playing the female lead. As long as she performs well, it’s all good.
In summary, let’s give it a try.
Compared to previous small-scale productions, this ti’s filming is much more formal. The most crucial part before shooting is naturally the script reading session. Gatherings of directors, writers, and actors before shooting for thorough review of the script, reading out characters’ lines, making andnts and understandings.
This is also the first encounter of crew mbers before starting, their inaugural eting.
As Duanmu Huai pushed open the eting room door and walked in, he saw exactly such a scene. Basically, apart from a few seated adults, the rest were young n and won—it’s a youthful school romance film after all, cannot cast a 25-year-old woman for a JK role, right?
......Shouldn’t, right?
"Eh?"
"Is that... Duanmu Ai?"
"No way? Why would she co to such a small set?"
Seeing Duanmu Huai, those young actors were all stunned, with quite a few even exclaiming in surprise. It’s important to know that while many of them are older than Duanmu Huai, in terms of art age and achievents, they can’t even compare to this renowned actor who started at the age of four, has acted until fifteen, won various awards, and appeared in nurous top-tier films.
"Hello everyone."
Duanmu Huai nodded to everyone as a greeting, then sat down next to the director in the first seat—given his status, sitting there was almost a matter of course.
"Well, everyone is here, let’s begin. First, let explain a bit...."
The director also greeted Duanmu Huai, then coughed and looked at everyone to start his explanation.
First naturally ca the explanation of characters; the female lead role was still perford by Arima Kana. It seems that she did well in the second selection, and at least the director recognized that she still has the ability to play the female lead.
And the friend of the female lead, played by...
"I’m Hei Chuan Chi Yin from theater troupe LALALAI, pleased to et you all."
The first to stand up was a tall girl with black hair. She looked sowhat timid and seed quite introverted. However, Duanmu Huai wasn’t surprised by this, as he has frequented many sets and t many actors, aware that many actors off-set act entirely differently from their roles. Although her current reaction was a bit different from the lively friend she had to portray, since the director affird her capability, it must an she possesses acting skills in this area.
"I’m Sakurajima Mai, pleased to et you."
Compared to the shy Hei Chuan Chi Yin, Sakurajima Mai, who played friend B, appeared very confident, full of presence. She was a girl with waist-length hair and a great build, and it was said she had acted in dramas before, qualifying her as an experienced actor. For Sakurajima Mai, dramas of this level should be completely manageable.
Next up was... the actor for the troubleso friend.
"I’m Yukiyuki Washimi, pleased to et you all."
Yukiyuki Washimi was playing the sort of cunning character frequently seen in shoujo manga, who initially appears to care for the female lead but is actually using her to get close to the male lead. There often were such characters in shoujo manga; outwardly very sisterly, but secretly eager to betray you — a common archetype in shoujo manga.
Though unsure of her acting skills, at least her appearance looked quite pure and cute.
"Hello everyone, I’m M! Thank you all for giving this opportunity, I’ll work hard, yay!"
Following Yukiyuki Washimi, a blonde girl entered playing supporting role C. According to the information provided, she was a rather famous YouTuber, and due to the compatibility with this web TV, the crew invited her.
In fact, in this production team, including Duanmu Huai, only Arima Kana, Hei Chuan Chi Yin, and Sakurajima Mai were official actors; the other supporting roles were filled by models, YouTubers or idols. But these characters weren’t given much screen ti, and considering the difficulty in finding good actors at this age, the crew had to consider alternatives.
Take Yukiyuki Washimi for instance, her model background was why she was invited, being from the sa agency as the host Duanmu Huai kicked out before, needing compensation thus offering her this role. As for M, being utilized in a web TV series boosts topic maximum engagent.
Of course, Duanmu Huai was not one to completely let such trivial details pass unnoticed, for minor roles he allowed topics of interest, not caring much.
But you can’t treat the main role with such superficiality!
Clearly absurd!
In fact, Ruby was also pushed into the crew by Duanmu Huai, but it was just an ordinary passerby role; the kind that when the female lead goes to school, she’s the classmate chatting, a negligible role according to Duanmu Huai, just to let Ruby experience production atmosphere, certainly not hindering the overall situation.
Incidentally, Ruby was very excited upon learning she could participate in "Jintian"...
Very quickly, introductions were complete, most were females, only one male role existed as the male lead’s friend.
So the fool putting in so many handso n was purely a neurotic operation, and it didn’t even match the female lead’s setup. The female lead due to maternal poisoning doesn’t trust anyone since young, how could she be surrounded by a bunch of handso n and beco complacent, that was totally out of place!
"Um... Director?"
After introductions, it was ti for a script reading, when Sakurajima Mai curiously raised her hand.
"May I ask, who is playing the male lead..."
"Hah...."
Duanmu Huai silently sighed and then stood up.
"Duanmu Ai, I’m playing the male lead."
"..........huh?"
"Huh huh huh!?"
At that mont, the most surprised exclamation was from none other than Arima Kana.
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