Traveling through the 80s, I picked up an actor

Not long ago, Zhou Qian went to deliver coffee to assistant director Lu Qi and found that the usually cheerful Lu Qi was frowning, walking around with an irritated look on his face, and pulling his hair. Lu Qi didn't have many hairs to begin with, and if he continued to pull like this, Zhou Qian was worried that he would become bald.

"There are only a few strands of hair left. If you keep pulling them out, it will become the Sahara Desert. What are you so upset about?"

Seeing Zhou Qian coming, Lu Qi sighed: "Hey! You don't know, the teacher who was scheduled to play Pingtan this afternoon can't come, I'm so annoyed!"

Gu Zhen's role was a Republic of China actress from Suzhou. She was supposed to play the pipa in the afternoon to bid farewell to her lover. Gu Zhen didn't know how to play the pipa, so the crew found a stand-in teacher in advance and prepared to use the teacher's clips for the close-up and cut to Gu Zhen's shots for the long shot, so there wouldn't be any mistakes. But unexpectedly, the teacher who was scheduled to play the pipa suddenly fell ill and couldn't come.

When Zhou Qian heard what he said, he couldn't help but frown.

"Isn't that troublesome?"

"Yes! We only rented this venue for a week, and today is the last day. If we can't shoot, we'll have to postpone it and it'll cost a lot of money. The director is having a headache, so he asked us to find a master who can play the pipa and sing."

"Pipa? Singing?"

Zhou Qian suddenly remembered something and blurted out: "It seems our sister Jiang Li can do it too!"

The last time he and Jiang Li went to the prop room, they saw the pipa hanging on the wall, and Jiang Li took it down with great interest to play with it. Although she only played and sang a short passage, Zhou Qian felt that her skills were quite good, and she was not inferior to those professional pipa teachers at all. However...

While I was thinking, a deep male voice suddenly came from behind me: "Who? Who can?"

Seeing the director suddenly come out from behind them holding a teacup, Zhou Qian immediately wanted to slap himself in the face.

"that is……"

Zhou Qian began to hesitate, thinking about how to get around it. The boss didn't like him talking nonsense outside, and today he was talking too fast because he was too familiar with Lu Qi.

"Ah! Director! Nothing! Well, I remembered I have something else to do, I have to go back quickly!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Qian stepped on a watermelon rind and slipped away.

The director held the teacup and frowned, thinking: "Jiang Li... why does this name sound so familiar?"

Lu Qi reminded quietly: "The female assistant of Teacher Mu Bai seems to be called this name!"

The director remembered that it was the female assistant who was a big eater. Li Mubai often called her "Lili Lili". It must be her!

The little assistant can also perform Pingtan?

The director thought about it and realized that it was too urgent to find anyone now. If there was someone in the crew who could do it, he would have to give it a try. With this in mind, the director walked towards Li Mubai's rest area. His voice arrived before he did.

"Mubai, where did your female assistant go?"

Mu Bai looked around but didn't see Jiang Li, but he knew she couldn't run far, because the tea aunt would hand out sweet soup at 3 o'clock every afternoon, and there was no way she would miss it.

"She must have gone somewhere to chat with someone. What do you want to talk to her about?"

"Yes!"

The director pulled out a stool and sat down: "I heard that your female assistant can play the pipa, is that true?"

"Heard? Who told you that?"

Li Mubai asked while glancing at Zhou Qian who was standing beside him. Zhou Qian turned his head away guiltily and pretended to be calm while pouring a cup of tea for the director. "Hey, Director, have some tea."

The director didn't drink the tea either, he just said quickly: "I heard from the staff that someone heard her play once and said it was pretty good."

The director still understands the rules of the circle. The most taboo thing for an artist's assistant is to talk too much. He happened to overhear it today, and naturally did not want to ruin Zhou Qian's job.

"I don't know this."

"If you don't know, can you go ask? If you know, let her try!"

After that, the director added, "It's already past two o'clock. This venue will be vacated tomorrow. If we can't find anyone this afternoon, it will be very troublesome to reshoot later."

Li Mubai nodded, but did not agree immediately. He just said that he would ask Jiang Li's opinion first.

Li Mubai had never heard Jiang Li play the pipa. The reason he knew Jiang Li could play it was because Jiang Li told him about it when she was drunk during their private dinner last time.

That day, Jiang Li boasted that she was proficient in everything from music, chess, calligraphy and painting. She could play Gobang, read picture books, was proficient in stick drawing, and played the pipa very well. Li Mubai just thought she was talking drunkenly and it was hard to tell whether it was true or not.

Besides, we are going to make a movie now and want to be on camera. Whether Jiang Li is willing or not, we have to ask her opinion.

Li Mubai asked Zhou Qian to go to the dressing room to find Jiang Li. As expected, just as the boss guessed, Jiang Li was chatting with Gu Xiaohua and eating melon seeds in the dressing room. When she heard that the director wanted her to perform pipa singing, Jiang Li looked embarrassed.

“I can play the pipa, but I don’t want to make a movie.”

Gu Xiaohua thought she had misheard and pushed her: "You are stupid! How many people want to make a movie but don't have the chance! Why don't you make it now that you have the chance?!"

“I just don’t want to shoot!”

Jiang Li is camera-phobic and gets nervous when facing the camera, otherwise she would not have chosen the dubbing industry.

Zhou Qian was too embarrassed to force Jiang Li, so he said, "If you don't want to shoot, let's go tell Brother Bai and ask him to turn down the director."

"Okay, then I'll go with you."

After leaving the dressing room, Zhou Qian whispered to Jiang Li, "The director stood there and refused to leave. Brother Bai had no choice but to ask me to come look for you. But Brother Bai also said that if you don't want to, just refuse directly."

Jiang Li and Zhou Qian went back together and found that the director was indeed sitting there without moving.

Seeing Jiang Li coming back, the director waved to her in a friendly manner: "Xiao Li, I heard that you can play the pipa. We are just in need of an actor who can play the pipa. How about you come and try it?"

Jiang Li glanced at Li Mubai, and Li Mubai gave Jiang Li a reassuring look, meaning that if she really didn't want to, she could refuse.

"Director, let me tell you the truth. I can play the pipa a little, but the most important thing is... I have camera phobia."

Jiang Li had indeed learned pipa for many years. When she was young, her classmates were all sent by their parents to learn musical instruments and dances, fearing that their children would lose at the starting line. Jiang Li was the only daughter born to the Jiang family, so naturally they did not want their child to fall behind. At that time, piano and violin were very popular, but Jiang's father and mother thought about it and felt that we are Chinese, so if we want to learn, we should learn our own national quintessence. Moreover, they are from Suzhou, and why should they learn violin instead of Suzhou Pingtan? Therefore, Jiang's father and mother also took great pains to contact a very famous Suzhou Pingtan teacher through their connections and sent Jiang Li to learn for many years.

Later, when she went to college and started working, Jiang Li did not abandon her skills. She would practice at home on weekends. Previously, Suzhou held a Pingtan event, and Jiang Li was invited by her teacher to perform.

Jiang Li's style is pretty good, the only problem is that she can't face the camera. She's OK for long shots, but once a large camera is pointed at her, she becomes uncomfortable, her mind goes blank, and she gets stuck.

The director thought about it and didn't want to give up just like that. He tried to persuade the audience with both emotion and reason, "Today is indeed an emergency. If we can't shoot this segment today, it will be expensive and laborious to reshoot it later. We are a large crew of more than 100 people, and one more day will cost a lot more money. So, regardless of the problem of shooting, let's try singing a short segment first, okay?"

Try singing a short song?

It’s not impossible, Jiang Li thought, maybe after the audition the director doesn’t think it’s good enough and just gives up.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Li decided to take a step back: "Then...then I'll give it a try?"