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

Los Angeles, USA.

Inside Jackie Chan's private club.

Nolan sat on the sofa by the window, a steaming cup of black tea in front of him.

The outline of the Hollywood Hills can be seen outside the window. It's getting dark, and the lights below the hills are gradually coming on.

"What have you been busy with lately?" Cheng Long refilled his teacup by half.

"The second Batman movie." Nolan raised his glass. "After Batman Begins, the sequel has been in development for a long time. The script has been revised many times. Bale will still play the lead role, but there is one role that has not yet been decided."

"Which one?"

"The villain, the Joker."

Cheng Long placed the teapot back on the tray, pausing for a moment.

He knew the significance of the Joker character in the Batman series.

Batman Begins was the first film in Nolan's reboot of the Batman series. It was released in 2005 and grossed nearly $400 million worldwide.

When everyone was skeptical of a British director who made "Memento" venturing into superhero films.

Nolan dragged Batman out of the comics and stuffed him into a dark world so real you could smell the Gotham City sewers.

Bale's Batman is a playboy by day and a bat by night.

Film critics have called this movie "the first time a superhero movie has been taken seriously."

The Joker is even more difficult to portray than Batman.

The Joker is the villain among villains; he is chaos itself.

He doesn't know martial arts, has no superpowers, but he can turn the entire Gotham City upside down with just his mouth and a knife.

The difficulty of this role is that if played well, he can steal the show from the entire movie.

If he doesn't act well, he'll ruin the whole movie.

"Still haven't found the right one?" Cheng Long asked.

"I tried a lot of actors, but none of them were right." Nolan put his cup back on the table. "The Joker I want isn't the kind of villain who's all bared teeth and claws. I want a kind of pure chaos, something that makes people feel uneasy sitting in a movie theater. This person has to be able to portray that kind of thing, and at the same time, he has to have enough box office appeal to make the investors willing to pay his salary."

Cheng Long leaned back on the sofa, as if he had remembered something.

"Speaking of this, I recently met a very interesting young man."

"Who?"

"Ye Mo, we had dinner together in New York last time, after you watched the movie 'New World' on the plane."

Nolan nodded slightly.

"I remember, that scene in the elevator."

"Wait for me a moment."

Jackie Chan got up, walked to the cabinet next to him, took out a tablet computer, flipped through it for a while, opened a video, and handed it to Nolan.

"Take a look at this first."

The video is a compilation of edited clips of characters.

The first scene shows Ding Qing standing in an elevator, surrounded by a group of people.

He pulled a short knife from his suit pocket, said something with a smile, and then the door closed. In the 48-second elevator scene, the short knife and steel pipe collided against the iron wall, creating a piercing echo. The blood at the corner of Ding Qing's mouth and the smile on his face were superimposed in the same frame.

Nolan stared at the screen without saying a word.

In the second scene, Cao Shaolin is sitting at the dining table. A close-up of his face shows him staring at the bowl of noodles and saying, "I don't eat beef." After saying that, he raises a pistol and kills someone. His smile is gentle, but his eyes are cold.

In the third scene, Zhao Tai is on the phone in his car. His expression changes from fury to a smile in just half a second, and the madness in his bones is palpable through the screen.

The fourth scene shows Chen Yongren's character being hailed as a god.

The video has finished playing.

Nolan placed the tablet on his lap and remained silent for a moment.

"This person can perform two completely different things."

"You noticed."

"The characters Ding Qing and Chen Yongren are completely opposite people. One is extroverted, the other introverted; one kills with laughter, the other endures with silence. The same face, two completely opposite souls." Nolan paused for a moment: "There aren't many actors like this in Hollywood."

Cheng Long smiled.

"You probably don't know what he's doing right now."

"What are you doing?"

"He is now a director. He directed a TV series called 'The Storm,' which broke CCTV's ratings record in China. He also directed a movie called 'Dying to Survive,' which has not yet been released, but people in the industry who have seen the rough cut say it is going to be a masterpiece. He started out as an extra, running extras for several years. Later, he won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor and the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor. He also started his own company, becoming a director and an investor. He went from actor to investor in just two or three years."

Nolan's finger stopped at the edge of the tablet.

"Two or three years?"

"Yes, two or three years."

Nolan did not speak immediately.

He himself rose from an independent film director to where he is today, and he knows better than anyone how difficult that path was.

For actors to transition into directing is even more difficult.

Countless actors in Hollywood have failed in their attempts to become directors.

It takes two or three years for someone to go from being an extra to becoming a movie star, then a director, and finally a capitalist.

This isn't talent; it's talent combined with something indescribable.

Why do you think he's suitable for the Joker role?

Cheng Long took the tablet and brought up Ding Qing's clip again, the screen stopping at the frame where Ding Qing smiled with blood on his lips.

"Look at this smile. This smile isn't an act; it's something that seeps out from the bone after the person understands the character. I acknowledge his acting skills, but the main thing is his box office appeal in China. You can find any movie he's in now, and you'll see his name on it, carrying the box office."

Nolan stared at the smile on the screen for a while.

"I need to communicate with the investors. The Joker role, including salary, screen time, and casting, is not something I can decide on my own. You know the rules of Hollywood. Investors will have concerns if a Chinese-American plays the core villain of the Batman series."

"I understand, so you can tell the investors right now that this person is worth serious consideration."

Nolan nodded and handed the tablet back to Cheng Long.

When are you going back to China?

"I'll go back and stay for a while in a few days."

"Then I'll go with you." Nolan picked up the slightly cooled cup of black tea. "It'll be a good opportunity to see his film and also to see what filmmaking is like in this country you told me about."

the other side.

Nanjing.

On the set of "Dying to Survive".

When Liu Yifei arrived, she was carrying two large bags of milk tea, and a cart full of desserts was following behind her.

This wasn't her first time visiting the set, but every time she came, she could soften the atmosphere on set within ten minutes.

The prop guy was the first to run over and help carry the milk tea, his face showing the expression of someone waiting for a red envelope during Chinese New Year.

While the lighting assistant was serving milk tea, he muttered to himself that the days when Sister Sisi came were the happiest holidays for the crew.

"Bringing so much again? How many times a month do you visit the set? The crew could open a bubble tea shop by now." Ye Mo walked over from in front of the monitor and took the cup she handed him.

"I'm not just taking care of you. Everyone's so tired from filming, they need something sweet to have the energy."

Tan Zhuo chimed in from the side.

"When Sisi arrived, the whole set was filled with sweetness."

Zhou Yiwei chimed in, "Especially Director Ye, his eyes were already brimming with sweetness before he even drank the milk tea."

Ye Mo ignored them and took a sip of milk tea.

Wang Chuanjun came out of the dressing room, his face still pale. He took the hot drink Liu Yifei handed him and whispered a thank you.

Liu Yifei looked at him, didn't say much, just inserted the straw before handing it over.

Zhang Songwen came over and picked out a piece of cake from the dessert cart.

"Sisi, could you bring something low in sugar next time? If I eat any more, Cheng Yong's costume will have to be remade."

"Cheng Yong is already a greasy middle-aged man, the fatter you are, the more suitable you are for the role."

"That's what the role required, but Director Ye has already said that he'll keep an eye on me to lose weight after filming wraps up."

"Let's talk about it after filming wraps up." Liu Yifei smiled and stuffed another piece of cake into his hand.

Everyone on set was laughing.

Ye Mo stood on the edge of the crowd, holding a cup of milk tea, watching Liu Yifei's back as she distributed desserts among the crowd.

The atmosphere on set was already quite tense due to those intense scenes.

Now, after being bombarded with milk tea and desserts by her, I finally relaxed.

He looked down at the milk tea in his hand, then looked up at her.

This person always manages to bring warmth when it's most needed.

......