Chapter 153 - The Great Gathering of Child Stars

On a sunny Saturday, Emma Roberts, dressed in her cute hello-kitty pajamas and a pair of adorable duck plush slippers, mumbled and rubbed her sleepy eyes as she floated through the living room like a little ghost.

"Good morning, Mommy!" Little Emma didn't seem to be fully awake yet, and her pronunciation was mumbled.

"Emma, you haven't washed up yet?" Emma's mother frowned.

"Mom, I want to eat something first!" Little Emma's dreamy voice drifted across the room, and as she spoke she had walked into the kitchen.

Emma's mother, Lily, looked at Lin Mingyang who was sitting across from her with an embarrassed face, the little girl was probably really still awake, so she completely ignored the presence of another person in the living room, "This child..."

Before Lily could finish her words, she was interrupted by her daughter's screams. Little Emma stood straight in the doorway of the living room with milk in one hand and bread in the other. She rubbed her eyes vigorously, certain that the person sitting in the living room was Lin Mingyang and that she wasn't dreaming.

The scream was muffled by Emma's own hands, the bread and milk had long since been thrown on the floor by her, and she covered her face shyly, but her eyes peeked out through her fingers, saying with embarrassment, "Mom, why didn't you remind me..."

"Felix was here a long time ago, it's your own fault for being so sleepy!" Lily looked at her daughter's blushing face, her eyes full of doting.

"You should have come up and woken me up..." said Emma, her voice thinning as she said the latter.

"Hello, Emma." Lin Ming Yang smiled and greeted her.

The girl stood in the living room doorway coy for half a day before letting out another scream, remembering that she hadn't washed her face yet, and thinking that she might have appeared in front of Lin Ming Yang with a flower cat face, Emma let out another scream and covered her face as she busied herself with running up the stairs.

This all happened so suddenly that the hand Lin Ming Yang raised in greeting hadn't even had time to put it down yet, the girl's excited reaction made him a little embarrassed and his smile froze on his face, "It's not like I scared her, is it?"

Lily quickly waved her hand, "No...no, she must have been too excited to see you, this child has been like this since she was a child, she's always startled!"

Lin Ming Yang breathed a sigh of relief, "When we were on the cast of Song and Dance Youth, we all loved her and took care of her as if she was a little sister. But Emma is young, but she can perform no less than the others, maybe she was born to belong on this stage."

Without bringing any deliberate compliments, Lin Ming Yang used a very normal tone, praising Emma's acting talent as if she was chatting, and Lily also shed the kind of proud smile on a mother's face when her daughter succeeded from the bottom of her heart.

"Emma also often mentions you guys, especially you, she loves all your movies and is still a big fan of Twilight. She was overjoyed after getting the call from the cast of Follies 3, I've never seen her so excited."

"I'm planning a new movie, and the female lead happens to be around Emma's age, so I think she's the perfect fit!" In addition to her role as a mother, Lily also doubled as her own daughter's agent, so Lin Ming Yang told her his thoughts very directly.

"I adapted children's author Wendelin van der Laanen's 2001 novel Thumping Hearts, and the script fully honors the original, telling a story of pure love for the first time."

"At what level do you position the movie?" Concerning the image of her daughter's character, whether as a mother or an agent, Lily had to seriously consider this question.

What she was referring to was, of course, the movie and television productions rating set by the MPAA, a common North American rating system that categorized all films into G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17, and Emma's mother would not agree to Emma's appearance in any movie that was rated PG-13 or above.

Since Emma was still 14 years old, Lin Ming Yang could understand Lily's caution, he smiled and explained "Thumping Heart is a niche but special movie, it puts people in a warm, funny, and humanistic atmosphere until the end when it gives you a wonderful story that doesn't seem so unreliable either. I only designed one kissing scene in the whole movie, and it's not even Emma who kisses the hero; the hero and heroine only have a plot device of holding hands at the end of the movie."

Lily hadn't read the novel Thumping Heart, but according to Lin Mingyang's description, the movie would have no problem at all getting a G-rated rating. After listening to Lin Ming Yang's narration, a satisfied smile immediately appeared on her face, "I think Emma will definitely like this movie."

"What are you guys talking about?" The quirky Emma poked out a head from the stairway, she finished washing up as fast as she could, picked out the most exquisite set of clothes and dresses in the closet, and dressed up for a long time in the bedroom in front of the mirror before she walked downstairs with a flourish.

"Of course it's our pretty little princess!" Lily waved at her daughter standing at the top of the stairs, "Mr. Felix has good news for you."

"Is it a new movie deal?" Emma changed into a blue dress and ran around, her whole body resembling a fluttering butterfly. With an excited face, she ran to her mother's side and sat down, then gave Lin Mingyang a slightly shy look, suddenly becoming very ladylike and smiling haughtily at him.

"Felix, hello!"

"Hello, little Emma!" The Roberts family's new generation of little beauties were naturally pleasing to the eye, and for Lin Ming Yang's "weird uncle", whose mental age was far greater than his physical age, she was even more irresistible.

Emma pretended to be mature and lifted up her small breasts that had already begun to develop, and said with a beep, "I'm already 14 years old, I'm not a little Emma anymore!"

"Alright, Ms. Emma!" Lin Ming Yang had an "I know I'm wrong" expression on his face, and his mouth changed to a different name.

"Naughty!" Lily flicked her finger on her daughter's forehead, "You're still a child now, don't always act like a little adult!"

"Okay, mom!" Emma wrapped her arms affectionately around her mother's neck and kissed her on the cheek.

Lily patted her on the back, "Well, the guests are still sitting here, you just said you're all grown up, and now you're being pouty!"

Emma's pretty face reddened, she obediently let go of her mother's neck, she stole a glance at Lin Mingyang and realized that the other party was staring at her, smiling meaningfully, Emma felt a thumping of a deer in her chest, she hurriedly lowered her eyes and didn't dare to look that way again.

"Felix is preparing to make a new movie, and he's like asking you to be the female lead." Lily briefly explained Lin Ming Yang's intentions.

"Leading lady?" Emma couldn't care less about her shyness anymore, she raised her head and looked at Lin Ming Yang with wide eyes, "I can really play the female lead?"

"As a matter of fact I'm going to make a literary movie that needs a female lead with decent acting skills again, but I think you're perfectly capable of doing it, and you're just the right age for the role, I've already given the script to your mother." Lin Ming Yang described the plot of the movie in general to Emma and finally asked with a smile, "Interested?"

"So the male lead is you?" In front of her mother, Emma's face turned red with shame as soon as this question was uttered.

Lily's eyes looked at Lin Ming Yang uncomfortable, he quickly waved his hand, "I can't play that role anymore, this time I'm just the director, the male lead we're going to look for a boy who isn't much older than you."

Emma whispered "Oh", with a faint disappointment in her tone.

"In the movie, you're playing a 'crazy girl' who boldly pursues the boy she likes, so you can't blush like that too often during filming!" In order to defuse the embarrassment, Lin Ming Yang made a joke.

Emma nodded her head vigorously, the little secret in the girl's heart wasn't even told to her mother, anyway, she could stay with Lin Ming Yang while filming, thinking about this, the girl's mood could just be set aside, and her sweet smile returned to her face once again.

----

The female lead of "Thumping Heart" was cast by Emma Roberts, which was planned by Lin Ming Yang when he was conceptualizing the script, but for the male lead, his mind didn't find a suitable candidate for a while.

The movie was invested by Lionsgate, and on the release of Three Idiots, Lionsgate gave Lin Ming Yang a big gift, and this time Lin Ming Yang naturally reciprocated the favor, which was also considered a start for the two sides to establish a good working relationship.

Moore, the director of Lionsgate's distribution department, personally served as the film's executive producer, and at his suggestion, the crew launched a big call for candidates in North America. The Three Stooges had already made audiences accept Lin Mingyang's directing talent, and with the dazzling aura of "Hollywood's leading movie star" on his head, the casting call quickly attracted the attention of the media. More than 3,000 people signed up for the audition, and after layers of screening, only 50 people finally entered the audition.

"This group of young actors, all between the ages of 12-16 years old, most of them have previous acting experience." Moore approached Lin Mingyang with the information of the actors who were finalized to participate in the audition. Lionsgate initially started in Canada, and perhaps because of the local flavor, many of the young actors who were shortlisted in this audition were from Canada.

Lin Mingyang leaned on the cozy sofa of the cafe, holding the bound book of actor's information in his hand, carefully flipping through it. He would compare the photos of the actors he liked with the ones he saw in the photos. Honestly speaking, this movie does not have any special requirements for the actors, as long as the face of the childish, clean-cut can be.

But boys at this age are at the rebellious stage of adolescence, most of them can't wait to become rockers, with punk looks, capes, smoking and drinking, and it takes a lot of patience to find a young man who is simple and able to catch the eye of a girl. Lin Mingyang couldn't possibly get all 50 of these people to audition, he needed to carefully select up to 10 young actors from them.

The actors that Lin Ming Yang had his eye on would be folded in a corner on the profile page, after going through more than 40 pages, there were only 5 pages with folds, and this was still the result of him picking and choosing left and right.

After flipping through two more pages, Lin Ming Yang's eyes suddenly stopped on page 48, the boy in the photo on the profile, bright brown hair, a bit melancholy but very cute eye expression, all of these made Lin Ming Yang feel very familiar. Because of this very special sense of familiarity, he paid attention to the boy's basic information, but when he saw the name column filled out the words "Justin Bieber", Lin Ming Yang froze.

Moore, who was drinking his coffee, noticed the difference on Lin Ming Yang's face, and he raised his eyes to look at Justin Bieber's profile, and he also had some impressions of this boy. This thick-browed, wide-eyed, post-90s boy with thick bangs covering his forehead didn't have a handsome appearance that was so handsome that it couldn't be beat, but his musical talent was outstanding. What the boy really liked was not acting but singing, but his family convinced him to sign him up for this audition.

"That's him!" Lin Ming Yang slapped the information in his hand, "Inform this boy named Justin Bieber individually to come to the audition, if he doesn't have any problems with performing, then the others don't need to attend the audition."

"Are you sure?" Moore was curious as to why Lin Ming Yang had suddenly made such a decision, but seeing Lin Ming Yang's unwavering eyes, he didn't ask any more questions and nodded his head. "Alright then, I'll go arrange this matter right away."

Naturally, he didn't know that Lin Ming Yang actually had some guilt in doing this, he had "borrowed" Justin Bieber's hit song at the Grammy Awards, and with such an opportunity, of course, he had to find a way to make it up to him. Although Justin Bieber's talent does not lie in acting, but starring in a movie can at least let him get more attention.

Because he had been in close contact with Avril, Lin Ming Yang was prepared to recommend Justin Bieber to her. Avril knew a lot of great musicians, and Little Jah's natural talent should soon be discovered, and being able to help him realize his dream sooner would make Lin Ming Yang's heart a little more open.

Moore's work efficiency was very high, he contacted Bieber's mother that night and convinced her to bring Bieber along to fly to Los Angeles to meet Lin Ming Yang.

Born in 1994 to a single parent in Ontario, Canada, Justin Bieber's family was not wealthy, but he had a talent for acting at a very young age and, like others his age, craved attention. From the age of five he was untutored and taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar and trumpet. The talented Bieber also had a great love for singing, with his clear and beautiful voice.

The audition was the first time the mother and son had ever been on an airplane. Bieber's mother had worked many different jobs to make ends meet, and often needed the elders of the family to supplement her income. When he found out about the situation, Lin Mingyang not only reimbursed the mother and son for their round-trip airfare out of his own pocket, but also booked a room for them in a five-star hotel in Los Angeles.