8 Getting the Role

8 get the character

Jenny wondered if Dave's friend was sitting behind the audition table, which was run by four members who all looked serious and seemed to be suffering from unprofessional interviewers. One of the women sitting in the middle looked at her resume, then looked visibly disapproving.

"Who put her on the list?" she didn't bother to lower her voice, but Jenny didn't think she was upset, she knew she wasn't qualified.

A middle-aged man who resembled Dave—perhaps a friend of his, according to Jenny's guess—said, "Jenny, can you introduce yourself?"

Jenny introduced some basic information, and the man asked her to smile at the camera and make some faces.

Just watching the finished film, many people don't think that there is anything remarkable about the profession of actor, even the greatest actor, his performance is far from irreproachable. It's like the Chinese men's football team, everyone feels that there is a lot of room for improvement, and they can't go up and play for them. That's one of the big drawbacks of telecasting – on television, everything seems easy. This is true even for sports that require professional training, let alone just reading lines to the camera.

But of course, almost everything is easier said than done, even if it's just smiling and making faces at the camera, it takes a long time for the average person to adjust and try to reveal themselves to an unfamiliar round-headed instrument and the scrutinizing eyes behind the instrument. - Being an actor is a profession that requires a lot of self-confidence and courage.

A shy person can never show his natural side to many strangers, and the camera will magnify all imperfections, in real life is just a fleeting micro-expression, falling into the lens will become a permanent flaw, if a person is 'slightly introverted' in reality, then in front of the camera he will become 'clumsy, shy and nervous', if Jenny is still the original country girl with a jerky dream, even if she has Dave's backing, she will lose miserably in this level. - Many great actors have had countless auditions in the early stages of their careers. Only in repeated auditions, failures, auditions, and failures can truly talented actors accumulate a mature and confident sense of the camera, and even professional training cannot replace this kind of sharpening of real knives and guns.

During Chen Zhen's four years of study in the acting department, I don't know how many acting classes she went through, she was asked to roll around, cry and laugh in front of everyone. These exercises are to destroy the defensive psychology that she naturally has as a normal person - normal people always pursue decency and not lose their temper, but what actors require in their performances is a kind of psychological gaffe, which is also known as being involved in the role and letting go. But, even so, when she first appeared in the entertainment space, using the simulation function, appeared on the unreal and real performance scene, facing a huge studio and a crew of at least 100 people behind the camera...

Chen Zhen was really scared to pee, and she really felt an urgent urge to urinate in her lower abdomen, which made her urgently need to go to the toilet. I even had to interrupt the simulation for this reason, run to solve it and then come back to try.

The three months she spent as a waitress were valuable, in which she not only lost weight to size 2 - almost the limit of what she could achieve, but also the perfect body for the camera, and in these three months she simulated no less than 30 sets of performances, which is not an exaggeration to say that this is the amount of performance of a second-tier actor in five or six years.

- And it's all blockbusters, and there are hundreds of people on the set. After such baptism practice, how could she still be afraid of a small audition?

She made a few expressions to the camera freely, her eyes staring at the camera, as if she wanted to look at the audience behind the camera through the glass, but her attitude ignored this little thing, as if she was talking to the audience, sometimes laughing, sometimes annoyed, and her expression was not the slightest artificial. From the movements, there is no sense of "I'm being filmed" that is common to non-professional actors.

There was a brief silence at the audition table, and then the female auditioner took the script and handed it to Jenny, "Read this dialogue." "

Lines are also one of the basic skills of actors, they need to be pronounced clearly and their intonation is natural, usually people's spoken language often does not meet this standard, although people are not conscious, but normal people will have a series of problems such as too fast speech, local accents, vague swallowing words, high and low volume, and emotional fullness - this is a very normal phenomenon, as an organism, when two individuals exchange information, language is only an integral part of the information exchange system, such as Chen Zhen and Dave's dialogue, eyes, Body language and even micro-expressions are important means of communicating with each other, and the vocal system carries less than half the amount of information, so it doesn't need to be too precise. But under the filtering and retouching of the lens and recording system, it is still that sentence, the shortcomings will be magnified, the advantages will be disguised, if a person still speaks according to the usual casual habits, he will show a terrifying sense of inarticulate in the camera, and it will be difficult for the audience to even understand what he means.

Of course, this is also a course that Chen Zhen must take during her four years of college life, although she didn't know English at the time, but as long as the memory of pronunciation habits is still there, it is not a problem, this character is American, and Jenny can speak Northern Standard English - thankfully, although she has been tossing and turning in various foster homes, after all, she has not been tainted with all kinds of strange accents.

But that's not the source of all her self-confidence.

Jenny stood up and took the script, turned back to sit in her chair, she took a breath and closed her eyes slightly—it was a normal adjustment process, it didn't even take up five seconds, and no one could find fault with it.

But in this second, she quickly opened up the acting space, quickly chose a film, and then simulated the character's feelings.

There is a ratio difference between the performing arts space and the outside time, and the five seconds of the outside world can be magnified to about fifteen seconds here, and fifteen seconds is enough for her to immerse herself in the role of this film, as if she has experienced the joys and sorrows of her life, and has truly become this famous woman who has gone through vicissitudes.

Then her mind moved, and she withdrew from the space, the traces of this emotion were still there, and to the outside world, it was only a few seconds that had passed.

Jenny stares at the script for two seconds, then puts it down.

Her voice changed suddenly, from the ordinary sweetness just now, to a hoarseness, and the smile on her lips was also full of mockery, as if she knew everything and all the changes were under control.

Jenny almost lazily said, "Oh, I wish you hadn't ruined my closet." You know, haute couture outfits are all bitches and need the most meticulous care. "

She glanced at the script, skipped what the supporting opponent said, and continued, "Yes, official needs, I understand, officer, you can do your own thing, I'm not the kind of big star, I think I can enjoy privileges with some achievements, and I point fingers and shouts at respectable public servants." "

The sarcasm on her lips widened suddenly, and Jenny turned her head to the void behind her, "Although I'm sure the evidence of the murder won't be in my underwear, you're just doing your job, aren't you?"

"Cut. The female auditioner said, looking at Jenny with a strange expression, "That's enough." "

Jeanne ordered herself to be removed from the character's memory as soon as possible, she cleared her throat, adjusted her facial expression, returned to the role of the waiter, Jenny Jane, stood up and said, "Thank you for the opportunity. "

"Yeah. Dave's friend looked at Jenny directly, "Don't go yet, wait outside." "

No one disputed his decision.

Jenny knew she had gotten the role.

This did not surprise her, and according to her plan, it should have been a matter of course.

As she thought, the role was almost tailor-made for her - even a second-tier actor would not be competitive in front of her for the role of 'glamorous star' alone.

Glamour she has, as for the big star part... Although the acting space does not allow her to directly simulate the acting skills of famous actors or what, it does not mean that Jenny cannot be tricked.

"My Week with Monroe", "Double-Faced Monroe" ... These are all films she has seen, Jenny has tried them several times since she was notified of the audition, and she can experience the same vague emotional memory of either film - if she guesses correctly, maybe this is the memory and perception of the real Marilyn Monroe in history.

Simulate a big star to audition for another big star... To be honest, for such a character who made a cameo in an American drama, Chen Zhen deeply felt that it was overkill to dispatch Monroe. If Monroe had known, he might have felt humiliated.

But no matter what, for her, this is an opportunity that cannot be missed, from the beginning Chen Zhen has to gamble, all-in, she does not have much room for reserve and conservatism.

After an hour of waiting, the female auditioner came up to her and told her that she had been given the role.

"My name is Emma Swan. She didn't seem so serious anymore, and Jenny realized that she was actually too young—no more than thirty—and was doing her best to show kindness to her. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again. To be honest, it was because of your performance that I was so impressed that I won this role for you... Because of your resume, my colleague was a little hesitant. "

This is selling favor to her, Chen Zhen realized.

Emma Swan was optimistic about her.