Chapter 881: Charisma

After Lu Yan He joined the crew, he didn't film directly on the first day, but went to see the footage already filmed for "Men in Black".

The film had already started filming for about ten days.

It mainly filmed the scenes of Zeke Griffith.

This legendary American film actor has superb acting skills, handles things with ease, and has indeed come all the way from this mature commercial entertainment film environment in Hollywood, without any traces of holding on or framing in his performance.

The original Tommy Lee Jones of "Men in Black" won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In addition, he has been nominated for Academy Award acting awards three times. He is an out-and-out veteran actor.

And Zeke Griffith is not only better than Tommy Lee Jones in acting and performance awards, but also comparable to Luo Bote De Niro in terms of popularity and degree of once being very popular.

It's just that Zeke Griffith hasn't been popular for as long as Luo Bote De Niro. His career began to go downhill after he was fifty. At first, he could no longer serve as the core lead of an A-level film project. Later, media reports, awards ceremonies, public activities... his figure became less and less visible. Mentioning his name, everyone knows and recognizes him, but in many people's hearts, he is no longer the A-lister he once was.

He is still acting, but he is no longer the core lead of A-level films, nor is he an actor within the scope of awards vision. To describe it accurately, the current Zeke Griffith is an actor with a very high status and respect in Hollywood, but whose commercial value has declined significantly.

This time, Lu Yan He's "Men in Black", as an A-level production, invited Zeke Griffith as one of the two male leads, which is also Zeke Griffith's first time starring in an A-level production in four years. For an actor of Zeke's status, of course, it is impossible to say that this is a rare opportunity, and this is a project for him to return to the center of Hollywood. People around him will not say this to him—no one will be so sharp as to expose the fact that a male actor who already possesses extremely high honors is being slowly marginalized by the market, just as no one will say to a prestigious big shot, you are outdated.

However, obviously, Zeke Griffith is not an arrogant actor who needs others to remind him. On the set, his cooperation is very high, and he has not shown any contempt for Fu Kai, a director who came to Hollywood to direct a film for the first time. Except for the conditions written in the contract that he gets off work on time and the waiting time does not exceed thirty minutes, compared with the news of those big-name Hollywood actors in the rumors, Zeke Griffith can be counted as a particularly cooperative actor.

This point can be seen from the footage already filmed.

Lu Yan He

As it turned out, he had underestimated the professionalism of a professional actor.

Xike clearly understood exactly what kind of movie this needed to be.

This fifty-something actor, still full of charm, must have spent some time controlling his sugar intake and working out before joining the production; wearing a black suit and black sunglasses, he was still every bit the stylish man.

Lu Yan He couldn't help but wonder: how could an actor who showed so few signs of aging in his appearance have been unable to serve as the core lead of an A-list production four or five years ago? It wasn't as if the movies he starred in had been box office disasters.

The next day, Lu Yan He went straight to the set.

His character's look in this movie didn't require much makeup; there was nothing that needed to be done to reshape his face or create a specific state.

Basically, as long as he arrived on set, the makeup artist would just need to temporarily add effects like sweat or dust based on the scenes being filmed that day.

He also met Xike Griffith on set for the first time.

"Hi, Xike!" Lu Yan He opened his arms enthusiastically and hugged him. "Sorry, I'm only just arriving; filming for my previous movie was delayed."

Xike Griffith patted his back to show he understood, saying, "It's very common to run into that kind of situation when filming. But, coming to shoot this movie seamlessly without any rest in between—can you handle it? Do you need to take a few days off?"

"Thank you, Xike, I'm in pretty good shape."

Xike said in a rather envious tone, "It's great to be young."

The location scenes for *Men in Black* were actually mostly night scenes.

There were only a few daytime scenes.

The scene to be filmed today was the dialogue between James, the young Chinese-American police officer played by Lu Yan He, and Agent K, played by Xike, in a public space.

Agent K tells James about the movie's world-building background—that "1,500 aliens live among us, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service handles matters related to aliens"—and invites James to join the agency.

This scene was a dialogue-heavy one, but in the movie, it actually only served as "background exposition," so for the two actors, it was completely effortless.

However, for Lu Yan He, today was a bit difficult.

Because his own script was written exactly like this—

Agent K tells James to consider it until dawn the next day, and then James just sits in the chair, from sunset until nightfall.

This scene was the moment James had to make a life-altering decision.

The original version of the movie was actually filmed a bit "poetically," using several action silhouettes combined together to show the passage of time while he remained motionless, expressing his inner torment and hesitation.

Lu Yan He felt this sequence of shots was very beautiful, so he wanted to recreate it.

Fu Kai also agreed with this idea.

Therefore, after Lu Yan He finished the dialogue scene with Xike during the day, he still had to stay behind to film the scenes of the sunset and the arrival of nightfall.

The acting difficulty wasn't high; it was just a matter of grinding out the time.

Fu Kai hoped to finish this scene in one day.

Given the abilities of the two actors, it was entirely possible to finish it in one day.

It's just that man proposes, God disposes; because it was an outdoor location, if the weather wasn't good and there wasn't the right light, they wouldn't be able to capture that twilight silhouette, and they would have to continue finding time for it.

In fact, the first scene Lu Yan He filmed after joining the production went quite smoothly.

Lu Yan He had a very deep impression of this scene from the original movie.

Because the performances of James and Agent K formed a very sharp contrast. On one hand, James sat across from Agent K, and during the conversation, he frequently turned his head to observe his surroundings; that sense of disorientation from having his worldview shattered and his subconscious vigilance were captured very accurately in Will Smith's eyes, without feeling like "acting." On the other hand, Agent K's relaxation, calmness, and composure were a different posture—he wasn't worried at all about being overheard the entire time, especially when he stood up to say goodbye to James at the end, even walking backward for a few steps while talking to James.

In movies involving the growth of a protagonist, there always have to be those few "extraordinary" soul-touching moments.

In *Men in Black*, this was that moment.

While acting in *Men in Black*, Lu Yan He kept warning himself not to play it too complexly.

People come to watch this movie, not to see the subtleties of your human nature.

It could only be a few moments of the character you were playing, not large stretches of the film.

It was different from a movie like *Burning Fire*; the latter was still packaged in the epic framework of a traditional, serious narrative, just with a magical subject matter.

But *Men in Black* was in a classic comic-book style.

It used 100% serious and rigorous details within its comic style and pacing to build its worldview and make it more believable.

Other than that, it had absolutely nothing to do with being serious or rigorous.

However, perhaps because he had just come from the set of *The Original Father*, once Lu Yan He started acting out this simple dialogue scene in earnest, he couldn't help but involuntarily express the confusion, conflict, and hesitation James felt about making a major decision at that very moment, and even the emotions in his eyes were extremely intense.

When Lu Yan He went to look at the monitor himself, he knew his pacing was wrong.

After filming two takes, Lu Yan He still hadn't found that accurate state—that state belonging to a young man, a comic-book character, about to join a secret organization.

He scratched his head.

No matter how good an actor is, if they don't find the right state, what they perform might fool the average person, but it won't fool themselves or their peers.

Xike patted his shoulder: "There's no use in being anxious. You just finished your last movie, and it's hard to switch states, I know, so—"

He shrugged his shoulders and gave him a slight, pursed-lip smile.

"At worst, we'll just film it tomorrow."

Xike's words suddenly gave Lu Yan He an anchor in his heart.

He said, "Sorry."

Both hands spread out involuntarily.

He even pursed his lips.

This state... he had entered James's state.

Using physical movements to disperse the intensity of the emotional expression.

Suddenly, everything was right.

Fu Kai and Lu Yan He were not working together for the first time; as soon as he saw Lu Yan He in this state, he immediately understood.

For an actor like Lu Yan He, there was of course no need to strike while the iron was hot just because a so-called "state" had arrived.

Since he had found this anchor and the state had arrived, Lu Yan He wouldn't let it slip away easily.

Sure enough, Lu Yan He immediately said to Fu Kai, "Could we take a ten-minute break? I've got a bit of a feel for it, let me ponder it."

Fu Kai nodded.

Lu Yan He went to the side by himself, preparing to walk through the scene.

Xike also came over.

"I'll feed you your lines," Xike said.

Lu Yan He was pleasantly surprised, smiled, didn't decline, and nodded, "Many thanks."

Xike's eyebrows twitched, "It's my job."

Sure enough, the next take was filmed very smoothly.

Once the scene of the two of them sitting in the chairs was finished, they had to film the shots of Xike getting up and turning back to talk to Lu Yan He.

These were several close-ups.

Because they had to wait for the light, the lighting conditions wouldn't produce that gentle twilight feel until four or five in the afternoon—

Fu Kai insisted on filming these shots under these lighting conditions because the dialogue here required this slightly warm, beautiful atmosphere.

Because James had to ask Agent K at this moment: "Is it worth it?"

Agent K would also contribute his personal charm as a guide at this moment.