He plays Feng Yuxiu, and his girlfriend is a fairy-like beauty.

By the time we finished filming the first day, it was completely dark.

Ye Mo found a local Nanjing restaurant that had been open for more than 20 years near the film set.

The storefront wasn't large, and the owner, who was also the chef, was an old man in his sixties. When he saw Brother Hua enter, he almost dropped the spatula he was holding into the wok.

He didn't know the younger actors, but he did know the Four Heavenly Kings.

However, the old man did not make a fuss.

I love celebrities, but I don't idolize them!

There were two tables occupied in the private room.

The main creative team sat at one table, while Hua Ge, Deng Chao, Chen He, and Ye Mo sat at another.

Before all the dishes were served, Deng Chao had already opened the beer next to him.

He poured Ye Mo a glass, then filled his own glass, and held it up to show Ye Mo.

"Director Ye, this meal today wasn't for nothing."

Ye Mo held up her wine glass and looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, since I ate this meal with you, I owe you a favor, and favors have to be repaid, so I've decided to have a cameo role in your new movie."

Chen He nearly spat out his tea while standing nearby.

"Brother Chao, you call this repaying a favor? This is called freelancing."

"So what if I'm just playing a minor role! I, Michael Jack Donkey, am a character with a name and a reputation! Go search online, there are tens of millions of views for compilations of Mad Donkey clips! The comments section is full of praise for Brother Chao's amazing acting! Now people call me Brother Donkey when I walk down the street!"

"Was that a compliment?" Chen He asked.

That being said, it is indeed true.

For celebrities, the fact that a cameo role can generate such high traffic is only beneficial.

"How can it not be a compliment! It's a compliment to my acting skills! Look at Ye Mo, who tricked me into shaving my head to play a prisoner in 'The Storm.' I thought I was just visiting the set, but I was dragged to the dressing room, had my head shaved, and stuffed into a prison costume. After filming, I wondered how popular this role would be, and what happened? It became a huge hit!"

Ye Mo put down his wine glass.

"Brother Chao, that's not what you said when you ran away."

"Running away is running away! Becoming famous is becoming famous! These are two different things!"

Everyone laughed upon hearing this.

Hua Ge picked up a piece of salted duck from the side, chewed it slowly and deliberately, and then spoke.

"Ye Mo, if you need me for your future filming, just let me know."

Ye Mo turned to look at him.

"Brother Hua, are you serious?"

"When have I ever not been serious?" Brother Hua put his chopsticks on the bowl. "But there's one condition."

"Please speak."

"Don't make me shave my head."

The private room fell silent for a moment.

Everyone can picture it in their minds.

I dare not think about it.

"Even if you asked me to shave my head, I wouldn't dare. My fans would tear me apart!" Ye Mo laughed.

Deng Chao was displeased upon hearing this: "So you're saying I don't have any fans?!"

Everyone at the table burst into laughter.

Dishes were served round after round.

Deng Chao opened two more bottles of beer, and Chen He started discussing with Zhang Songwen who was more miserable in "The Storm"—the Mad Donkey or Gao Qiqiang. Hua Ge was drinking tea on the side, occasionally chiming in.

Ye Mo stood up, holding the cup.

"Seriously, in the future when I'm making movies, each of you will have a role. This isn't just polite talk; it's for real."

He looked at Deng Chao.

"Brother Chao, next time it won't be that crazy donkey. I'll give you a proper role, one with a name, lines, and a complete character arc."

Deng Chao's hand, holding a beer glass, froze in mid-air.

"You said it."

"I said it."

"I'll remember that, so don't go back on your word later."

"No regrets."

Ye Mo then looked at Hua Ge.

Before he could speak, Brother Hua waved his hand.

"You don't need to say anything, I'll be there whenever you call for your scenes."

Ye Mo raised his glass and toasted everyone.

I didn't say thank you.

But he downed the glass of wine in one gulp.

A week later.

The aftershocks of Wang Chuanjun's first scene have not yet subsided.

Instead, it became a thorn in the side, piercing the hearts of every actor in the "Dying to Survive" crew.

After finishing work and having dinner that day.

Zhou Yiwei sat in the hotel room for a long time.

He plays Cao Bin, Cheng Yong's former brother-in-law, a policeman, the most "normal" character in the entire film.

It's hardest for a normal person to act, because in front of a patient, a normal person's reaction is itself a stance.

The next day, he contacted a local police station in Nanjing and followed the officers on duty for several days to see how they handled those gray areas that fell between law and human sentiment.

After returning, he told Ye Mo that Cao Bin wasn't unwilling to help the patient; he was a policeman, and the law was above him.

But every time he says "I can't do anything about it," it feels like a knife is cutting into my heart.

When Tan Zhuo found a pole dancing instructor, the instructor asked her what level she wanted to reach.

She said that all she needed to learn was how to hang on a steel pipe.

The coach said about half a month would be enough.

They started practicing the next day.

The bruises on my legs stretched from my ankles all the way to the outside of my thighs. My knee cartilage was damaged and fractured from the training. Even after the filming ended, those old injuries remained on my body, but that's another story.

Similarly, after returning to her rented room, Zhang Yu stood in front of the mirror for an hour.

The mirror shows a 36-year-old man who is to play a sick teenager in his early twenties who has left home and is wandering.

He re-dyed his hair, not with a hairstylist, but with hair dye he bought himself. The color was a dull yellow, with half a centimeter of black stubble showing at the roots. It wasn't a sophisticated dyeing method; it was the kind of yellow that looked like it hadn't been styled in a long time.

He messaged Ye Mo, asking if Huang Mao's hometown could be Kaili, Guizhou.

Ye Mo replied, "Why?"

He said, "I've studied their accents there. Their Mandarin is a bit broken, with a slight upward inflection at the end, which sounds especially like a young person who has been working away from home for several years and hasn't been back."

Ye Mo replied with three words: "No problem."

He also started as a low-level actor, and he's done things like adding scenes more than once.

Give him a chance.

As for post-production, if the result is good, then cut it into the main video.

If the effect is poor, then so be it.

Similarly, veteran actors are also working hard.

Yang Xinming had never seen English before joining the crew.

He invited an English teacher to his home and studied the English syllable by syllable.

I would repeatedly play the sentences my English teacher had recorded on a tape recorder, listening to them before bed and reciting them while cooking.

She prepared a notebook filled with English lines, with phonetic symbols written in Chinese next to them, just like a primary school student learning to read, marking the pronunciation of each word.

We also went to the only church in the city that offered services in English.

I stood in the back row and observed the gray-haired pastor, noting the angle at which his palms were spread when he held the Bible.

Observe the way his lips close when he looks at the believer after reciting a line of scripture.

After following him for a whole week, the pastor noticed him.

Later I learned that she was observing herself in order to play the role of a pastor.

He was silent for a moment, then said, "I pray for you, that your performance may bring light to more people."

A week later on set, Ye Mo sat in front of the monitor.

Sister Zhang walked over, bent down, and lowered her voice.

"You know what? The crew is like crazy. Zhou Yiwei stayed up until 2 a.m. yesterday with the police station, and he wasn't late this morning. Tan Zhuo's pole dancing instructor called me to ask if your crew has a medical team. Zhang Yu has been sitting in the stairwell all morning and no one dares to go and call him."

Ye Mo picked up the now-cold coffee and took a sip.

"so what?"

"So I really want to crack open your head and see what's inside, finding such a group of actors who are willing to risk their lives for their roles!"

you do not say!

Very few actors in the industry can achieve this level.

You could still see it when I was in Hong Kong.

At that time, it was about sacrificing for the role.

And the current market.

Some actors would even yell and scream if they got a small cut on their hand, and even stop filming.

You won't see that in the Ye Mo production team; all you'll see is everyone striving for their roles.

......