Chapter 69: 69 Palm (3)
Chapter 69: 69 Palm (3)
And, just like last time she filmed a kissing scene with Bo Yan, they didn’t let her put on makeup. Instead, they had her continue dancing with sweat-drenched hair and smudged makeup.
Xia Siyu complained, but she still danced with dedication. After she finished,
Wang Ju actually nodded, “OK.”
She came over, “l have to see for myself why you approved this take and what makes it different from the others.’
She didn’t even take off her costume, sprinting over eight hundred meters.
The footage behind the camera hadn’t been edited yet; only the raw effect after camera movement could be seen. Xia Siyu watched a segment of the last version she completed. Due to the long practice, her movements were not as precise, her face and body were sweaty, her makeup had smeared, and her energy was depleted. The lighting hadn’t been done well either, with only a few strands of sunlight seeping through from outside the window—all from the setting sun.
But with one look, she got why Wang Ju wanted to film it this way, why he let her dance for five hours here.
The afterglow of the setting sun was just one of the reasons. The sweat on her face from earnestly practicing, the stiffness of her body, and the steam rising from her head, these were what Wang Ju was looking for.
Muscle memory is something you can’t fool anyone with—the sweat that fell to the ground as she leaped was visible to the audience. It was something that couldn’t be faked with post-production or visual effects.
But still, Xia Siyu had to argue, “Director Wang, if next time you want me to have this kind of sweaty performance, you might as well tell me in advance. I can just run on a treadmill for an hour outside, and that would be enough.”
Another rumor about Xia Siyu is her “diva behavior.”
Wang Ju initially wasn’t too worried about this. First, he had command of the set, and second, with Bo Yan and Shang Feifei around, both had higher status than hers, and she was only a secondary female lead, after all.
It was said she had attended an event where the organizers didn’t meet her standards. She turned around right on the spot, preferring to pay a penalty fee rather than agree to continue.
Rumor also had it that when it came to eating and drinking, she only consumed brands she preferred. She even complained about the set meals not being up to par, hired a chef, and had the freshest ingredients delivered from the city to cook for herself.
After finishing the part where Xia Siyu danced, it was time for dinner.
But it seemed like the chef had gone shopping today. After accepting the water Wei Jingjing handed her, Xia Siyu just stood silently on the side, Wang Ju and the rest of the crew took a brief break to get their box meals. Seeing Xia Siyu, he smiled and offered, “Do you want us to bring you something?”
Xia Siyu shook her head, “No need, I’m on a diet.”
Right after she finished speaking, her stomach growled.
It was normal for a female actress to be a bit delicate. Wang Ju had encountered pickier ones before, and as long as it didn’t affect the shooting, he couldn’t be bothered to care, “We still have scenes to shoot tonight; don’t let it hold you up.”
Xia Siyu nodded, holding the script for the next scene. But before she had read two pages, she received a message: the meal delivery van had overturned on the road, and it looked like todays meal wouldn’t make it to her mouth.
But this was a filming studio set up by the film company, located far from downtown with only a few modest restaurants around.
On a normal day, she could withstand the urge, but today she had danced all afternoon and had to continue into the evening.
Having just refused Director Wang, she felt too embarrassed to join the rush for boxed meals, let alone dare to patronize the nearby dive restaurants.
At this moment, the first thing that popped into her head was, surprisingly, the sandwich Bo Yan made..