Chapter Thirteen: Brilliant Turnaround

  Walking into the small living room of the apartment, Ryan plopped down on the sofa and buried his somewhat pale face in his hands.

  As he said, where the problem lies is very clear to him, but the complexity of the reasons behind it is something that outsiders cannot understand.

  No acting skills? How is that possible, even a pig would become a master of performance after acting non-stop for nearly ten years, let alone a clever and resourceful boy with two lifetimes of experience.

  He actually understood himself, except for being unable to resist looking at the camera lens, where else was the problem.

  One is that the image of Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense was too deeply ingrained, and as soon as he thought about acting in it, his image would pop into his mind, making him want to imitate him, but another voice in his head said that imitation was incorrect and that he should go his own way, with unpredictable consequences.

  The second, and most crucial reason, is that from infancy to toddlerhood, and then from toddlerhood to boyhood, he has been acting non-stop for over nine years, deeply immersing himself in this role, and now cannot escape it. Especially after Nicole appeared, he can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality, nor can he tell whether he is Ryan Jenkins or Lu Ming. If everything seems normal during daily life, the problem reveals itself when performing another scene.

  What's this? Another act in the performance? A play within a play? Ryan could only respond with a wry smile.

  "Ryan." Nicole Kidman finally couldn't help herself and somehow walked into the apartment, coming to Ryan's side.

  "Nicole." Sniffing the familiar scent, Ryan leaned in and naturally placed his head on Nicole's soft belly, warmth and serenity instantly flooding his heart.

  Relying on the person closest to him in this life, his bewildered and restless heart seemed to have cleared up. When Nikki's soft and sweet red lips were printed on his forehead, Ryan gradually gained some insight. The past life has become the past, and this life should be grasped. Whether it is Lu Ming or Ryan Jenkins, I am me, the only one in this world!

  Can past life really become the past?

  "Nicole, thank you, I think I understand a lot of things now." Ryan directly jumped onto the sofa and kissed Nicole's pale face before she could react.

  Nicole Kidman just thought Ryan was expressing his infatuation with himself, and didn't mind, "This is the incredibly confident Ryan I know."

  "Let's go, don't keep people waiting." Ryan took Nicole's hand, as if holding onto the entire world of this life.

  No one expected that, in just ten minutes, the boy who seemed to have no acting skills at all and looked like a complete amateur would make such a brilliant comeback. Not only did he pass the previously stuck shot in one take, but also in the following scenes, whenever there was a shot of him, the number of NGs never exceeded three times.

  It's not that the director wasn't strict, but they were very clear that David Fincher, although he never lost his temper, pursued every detail to the extreme, even Al Pacino's monologue was stopped by him nearly twenty times.

  In such a situation, the boy still maintained an extremely high shooting percentage. Originally, they thought he was possessed by a spirit, but even on the second or third day, it was still the same, which made many people start to secretly wonder.

  These three days of shooting were mostly some very fragmented shots, and not many belonged to Nicole, but as Ryan thought, Nicole not only put on old makeup, but also converged that cold and elegant temperament, and after performing in London for more than a year, she discussed the script with him several times, and at this time, her acting skills were much better than in her previous life at the same period.

  Especially after hearing Ryan's initial words of encouragement, she almost took herself as that single mother, which undoubtedly gave her a great boost.

  Seeing Ryan and Al's chemistry getting better, David Fincher didn't hesitate to change the shooting plan, moving up several confrontational scenes between the two.

  The clapperboard shouted "Scene 11 Take 22, Action!" after seeing David Fincher's gesture.

  "Kore!" In the empty corridor, Al Pacino crouched beside a boy wearing a purple school uniform. "I didn't see anything."

  Ryan's lips trembled with fear and hesitation, his body seemingly shaking all over, "Don't move! Sometimes you will..."

  “Cut！”

  The boy who was talking to himself seemed not to have heard David Fincher's voice, and continued to mutter to himself until he finished the lines, then shook his head vigorously, looking slightly dazed in the direction of the camera, "Did I make a mistake?"

  "It's not you, it's Al's expression that's not enough!" David waved his hand.

  Ryan let out a soft breath and didn't say another word, lowering his head to sit in the chair on one side. However, he heard the voice of the staff teasing Al Pacino, "Al, this shot has been NG three times because of you, come on, don't lose to Ryan, that little devil."

  "Do you want some water?" Paige asked, handing over a glass of water.

  "It's all right, thank you, Paete," Ryen said sincerely, for in Nico's frequent absences, Mrs. Goldsley was both agent and mother figure.

  "Ryan, you're getting a bit too into character, and it's taking longer and longer for you to snap out of it." Jin Silie reminded him.

  "No problem, Pete, don't worry, you know what this role is based on."

  Ryan sighed and brought up this reason again. Undoubtedly, the substitution method is the most commonly used and widely used acting technique by the majority of actors, but this method has obvious drawbacks. Once you get too deep into the play, it's a big trouble, especially for someone like him who can't distinguish between fantasy and reality once he gets into the play. It's much harder for him to get out of character than ordinary people.

  Of course, the benefits are also obvious, just listen to the voices of praise for him in the crew.

  It seems that Ryan was stimulated, and in the subsequent shooting, Al Pacino brought out his own emperor-level strength. This scene passed once, and when shooting the scene of the two guessing puzzles in the room, it seemed that Ryan's state suddenly disappeared after being shocked by Al's acting skills.

  "This thing is like Chinese men's football shooting, unreliable. It goes in when it shouldn't and doesn't go in when it should!"

  Ryan sat on the sofa, muttering to himself. To him, an actor's state was just as inexplicable as a football player's state. When they were in the zone, even a shot from outside the penalty area could score a goal, but when they weren't, even an open goal from one meter away would be kicked into the stands.

  "Ryan, that's just how it goes, ups and downs," said Al Pacino, who was sitting across from him.

  "But Al, I'm not in the mood this time and you're half to blame." After three days, they had basically become familiar with each other. Ryan didn't hesitate to put a big hat on the elegant old man's head.

  "Alright, as a responsible person, do you need me to help you get back in shape?" Al didn't mind at all and instead started joking with the boy.

  "No need, I have the best way to get back in shape."

  Ryan looked at Nicole who just walked out of the dressing room, "Human cannon, fire!"

  With a "whoosh", Ryan shot out at the speed of a hundred-meter dash, amidst the astonished eyes of the crew, jumped up and directly plunged into Nicole Kidman's arms.

  His strength was really a bit too much, and Nicole was too slender, she was pulled back several steps by him until her back was against the wall, only then did she steady herself.

  But even in retreating, she didn't stretch out her arms to keep balance, but instead tightly hugged the boy in her arms, afraid that he would suffer a little bit of harm.

  "Your feelings are really good!" exclaimed the assistant director beside him.

  Nikki smiled and didn't say anything, she just gently patted the back of the boy who was tightly hugging her and put him on a high-backed chair on the other side.

  As the filming progressed, the crew gradually understood their relationship and marveled at how deep the bond was between Ryan and his sister, who were not related by blood but seemed closer than real siblings.

  "That's from the exercise." Nicole defended herself against Dr. David Finch's questioning, but the doctor across from her clearly didn't buy it. Under his skeptical gaze, Nicole flailed her arm emphatically, "Do you think I did this? Do you think I'm a bad mother?"

  After the doctor's suspicious words again, Nicole finally burst out. What flashed before her eyes was Ryan's weak figure looking at her timidly on Star Avenue. For a moment, from their first meeting to that exhausting lawsuit, and then to the bits and pieces of their interactions over the years, all surged up in her mind. That thick emotion and **yearning for Ryan, how could an outsider suspect?

  "He needs help! Do you know that he needs help? He is the one I love most, the most important person to me. Even if I die, I won't hurt him and I won't let anyone else hurt him either!"

  Tears fell on Nicole's face, and her lines were completely different, yet so fitting.

  In the face of her emotional outburst, everyone was stunned on the spot. When the deputy director who replaced David shouted "Cut" after regaining his composure, someone suddenly clapped their hands, followed by a thunderous applause that almost shook off the roof.

  Everyone was applauding for Nicole's brilliant performance, but only Ryan knew that Nicole wasn't performing at all. She was just expressing her love for him in a more intense way under stimulation.

  Ryan didn't even realize it himself, but he had walked to Nicole's side and only after tightly hugging her did he sigh in his heart, "Nicole, you're so good to me, what can I use to repay you?"