Chapter 900: Return

"Respond?"

"No need. Responding will only give this kind of provocative report higher attention."

"Then don't respond."

Lu Yan He had already accepted media interviews regarding such questions before.

What is called Chinese actors occupying Hollywood blockbusters?

Isn't it that Hollywood blockbusters include Chinese actors as leads in order to occupy the Chinese market?

Without box office and market support, no matter how awesome Lu Yan He is, he cannot stand alone.

This is a truth that is easy to figure out, but some people deliberately turn a blind eye.

Deliberately provoking trouble.

Only such topics have traffic.

What surprised Lu Yan He was that Xike actually said to him on the set one day: "Don't worry about what those media are saying. Every once in a while, they have to say something about someone invading Hollywood. Such rhetoric has appeared many times over the past few decades, but Hollywood should originally be a place where people from all over the world gather."

Xike saying this made Lu Yan He surprised.

How should I put it, Xike is the most typical representative of Hollywood. He is a proper American actor, experienced the 80s and 90s of Hollywood, and entered the new century.

What Lu Yan He has always known is that this group of people in Hollywood is relatively committed to "Hollywood centralism."

Taking the Oscars as an example, the Oscars in the 80s and 90s were basically contracted by a few European and American countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

The trend of "diversity" and "multi-ethnicity" in Hollywood started after the rise of the Internet globally, along with the mutual friction between American political factions and representatives, which were used as weapons to attack each other, vigorously promoting "political correctness," and derived into the film and television field, objectively forcing Hollywood to open the door of "openness and inclusiveness."

It was also after this period that Asian films such as Japanese and Korean films, which are very close to the European and American film circles, walked out of the Best Foreign Language Film category and could occasionally receive more mainstream attention and acclaim during the awards season.

It was also during this period that *Parasite* won the Oscar for Best Picture, Youn Yuh-jung won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for *Minari*, Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar for Best Actress for *Everything Everywhere All at Once*, *Drive My Car* was nominated for multiple major awards including Oscar Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay... These Asian films or filmmakers can explode in concentration, it must be said, is thanks to the "political correctness" that has many criticisms itself, which forces those who were originally "incorrect" to choose "correct."

However, for the presence of these Asian films at the Oscars, there are actually some "old white" people in Hollywood who have clearly expressed dissatisfaction or even boycott.

Most of them are not young.

This has historical and cultural factors, as well as ideological and conceptual factors.

Lu Yan He did not expect Xike to come to comfort him.

Lu Yan He smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, I don't mind. From the first time I came to Hollywood to film, I have suffered some prejudice and white eyes, but fortunately, I quickly achieved success, and I also quickly understood that Hollywood is a place where people will pay for it if you succeed. Instead of arguing with people, it is better to do the things at hand seriously."

Xike: "You are a smart child, Yan He."

"Xike, thank you for comforting me. Actually, I have never said it before, I am very grateful that *Men in Black* could invite you to star together," Lu Yan He said. "You are a highly respected actor, you have extraordinary prestige and status in the film industry, but you are willing to still be willing to take risks with me to shoot a film that is not serious after achieving those great achievements. I know, for you, this may be a risky decision. After all, the expectation of the entire film industry for you is the expectation of an artist."

Xike waved his hand.

"Child, you are a kind person," he said.

Lu Yan He was stunned.

Xike winked at him.

"I was thinking about retirement, and as a result, you came to me with *Men in Black*, telling those snobs in Hollywood that I can still continue to star in such big productions. To tell you the truth, I took this play just to let those guys who said I should retire take a good look and vent my anger."

Lu Yan He showed surprise.

This was the first time Xike said such things to him.

"Xike, how can you retire, you are full of charm in the play *Men in Black*," Lu Yan He shook his head. "If you retire now, not only will those people with bad eyes succeed, but your fans will also be disappointed."

He thought again of the rumors that Xike was very uncooperative if he encountered poor production on the set.

Lu Yan He didn't know if Xike's encounter in Hollywood had anything to do with this—but Lu Yan He knew very well that even if it did, it was only the superficial fuse. In Hollywood, there are many more big-name behaviors that are more excessive than Xike's behavior.

The original leads of *Source Code*, Jake Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby of *Pieces of a Woman*, once starred in a film, and in the end, the film almost aborted because the two of them "played big names"—

They had already entered the filming stage. After walking in Iceland, Jake Gyllenhaal wanted to change the film's love theme to an environmental theme because he was moved to tears by the speech of environmentalist Greta Thunberg. Vanessa Kirby believed that Jake's character must die in the end to highlight the film's feminist theme.

Even because the filming was in that special period, Jake Gyllenhaal heard that the hotel had staff, and because he was afraid of infection, he didn't let the staff stay in the hotel and wanted them to sleep in the car.

All kinds of messy things—

You know, these two actors can already be considered representatives of powerful actors in Hollywood.

All kinds of messy difficulties don't affect their constant film appointments in Hollywood.

Lu Yan He didn't believe that Xike's little things could really cut off his acting career in Hollywood.

Perhaps there is some other reason.

A reality that many people avoid is: actors, especially top actors, will never fall off the altar because you are difficult, and will never fly to become a god because you are easy to cooperate with—or rather, it is not just the actor industry, it is the same in any industry.

In May, the Hexi Film Festival was held in Jiangguang.

Lu Yan He did not ask for leave to stand for it this time.

The film *Men in Black* is to be wrapped up at the end of May. If Lu Yan He asks for leave again, it will delay the construction period.

Moreover, the Hexi Film Festival has already entered the right track.

Even if Lu Yan He doesn't stand for it, it doesn't affect it having stabilized after the first few sessions.

And *The Notebook*, which is about to be released on June 18, chose the Hexi Film Festival as the place for its global premiere.

The two leads, Martin Dillon and Lily Williams, will both go to Jiangguang to attend the premiere activities.

Lu Yan He himself couldn't go, so he was invited to record a VCR, which will be played before the premiere of this film.

Jiang Yuqian is working hard to finish the filming scenes for *Doomsday 2*.

The Hollywood film *Window Sill* she starred in was shortlisted for the main competition unit of this Hexi Film Festival.

If she cannot wrap up on schedule, she will not be able to catch up with the premiere and promotional activities of *Window Sill* at the Hexi Film Festival.

You know, this film is a very important work of hers, and it is also the most mainstream film production she can receive at present that can enter the Hollywood awards season.

Sia Wei's previous work received much attention in the awards season and was hailed as "a director who re-lets people pay attention to love philosophy and life choices through film."

Her films are light, simple, but the characters are often in a state of entanglement and contradiction. They need to determine the next stage of life direction in the swaying mood and seemingly stable reality situation.

Jiang Yuqian didn't expect that she could enter this year's North American awards season through this film. As long as this film could let film directors see that she could also interpret a character well in a slightly serious, artistic expression film, it would make her very satisfied.

Jiang Yuqian's current career bottleneck is typically limited to commercial films.

No one denies her star aura, but no one treats her as a real actor who can shape complex characters.

She did make people's eyes shine in *Love is Not Blind*, including the critical circle giving her rare praise. However, this film is more or less limited by the framework of "chick flick," and was looked down upon—not serious enough, not truly artistic.

In addition to the American film *Window Sill* starring Jiang Yuqian, another film unexpectedly entered the main competition unit of this Hexi Film Festival.

A Malaysian film *Grandma's Legacy*.

This film is a low-budget art film starring Qin Shulan, a Malaysian national treasure actor who opened up visibility by being nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for *Tropical Rain*.

It is worth noting that the other female lead of this film, the actress who played Qin Shulan's granddaughter, is Zhang Ruozhi, who became popular overnight with *Love Letter* but disappeared for a long time because of going to university.

Zhang Ruozhi will appear in this film because both Qin Shulan and Zhang Ruozhi are represented by Shi Huo for their agency contracts. People at Shi Huo saw the script of *Grandma's Legacy* and noticed that the script was very good, and the role of the granddaughter was also very good. According to the practice, they reported it to Chen Ziyan. Chen Ziyan read the script and flew to Malaysia in person to help Zhang Ruozhi win this role.

Zhang Ruozhi is not only always missed by fans in China, because of the film *Love Letter*, this news came out, and it sparked no small attention in various places in Asia.

*Love Letter* can be said to have gradually become a classic of a generation in recent years, gaining a group of very loyal fans around the world, especially in various parts of Asia.

Zhang Ruozhi is even more so.

*Grandma's Legacy* also announced that Zhang Ruozhi and Qin Shulan will attend this Hexi Film Festival together.

"Li Zhibai's drama, the script is very good. If you star with him, it will help you further open up your popularity among the public as a professional actor."

After graduating from university, Zhang Ruozhi has been busy with the performance of a play created by her club classmates during their university years.

It was originally just a student game work, but because of her, it received attention from many theaters and even invited them to perform.

Chen Ziyan is not in a hurry to push her back into the film and television market.

She has been waiting for the film *Grandma's Legacy*—this film, which Zhang Ruozhi flew to Malaysia to shoot last year, Chen Ziyan has been helping to promote this film into the competition unit of world-class film festivals.

Zhang Ruozhi's starting point is too high.

As soon as she debuted, she acted with Lu Yan He and Chen Bige, and she also played a role that can be called her life role as soon as she debuted.

Chen Ziyan feels there is no need to rush to let her return.

Her return should have its own momentum.

A new starring film being shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Hexi Film Festival again is a good momentum.

Therefore, regarding the *Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* thrown by Li Zhibai, after Chen Ziyan carefully studied and judged, she placed her attitude towards this script in a neutral position.

On one hand, the script is indeed good. Chen Ziyan feels that it will likely explode—with Li Zhibai's current quality control, the quality of this drama will definitely not be bad. This is a drama that Li Zhibai personally serves as the producer, and the funding party is his family, so his right to speak must be great.

On the other hand, this is a TV series. For Zhang Ruozhi, she can actually choose to be a film person. She doesn't need to film one drama after another. She can star in a film every one to two years, or even two to three years, to maintain her current image and style. *Love Letter* has already pushed her to an extremely high position.

Therefore, Chen Ziyan does not make a choice; she gives the choice to Zhang Ruozhi.

Sunlight spilled from outside the window, falling on the face of the girl in front of her.

This girl, whose appearance is not beautiful, and even a bit dull from the facial features alone, happened to be dotted with a pair of extremely talkative eyes.

Every time Chen Ziyan sees her, she can't help but sigh in her heart that Zhang Ruozhi's eyes are born too well.

The originally slightly mediocre appearance suddenly had the confidence to compete with any actress for spirit.

Zhang Ruozhi still looked a little restrained when she smiled.

She said: "I want to act."

Although restrained, she is a girl with a very firm idea.

She is not stage-frightened and not shrinking.

Chen Ziyan likes such girls very much.

"Okay."

She nodded, "Then let's act." ===== CHAPTER 901 =====