Chapter 142

These days of filming "Joker" were the most painful time for Chen Nuo since he started acting.

Whether viewed from a physiological or psychological perspective, it was the same.

Filming intermittently for three months, he reapplied his makeup every two weeks and changed into the same clothes.

He lived alone every day and almost never interacted with the people in the crew.

Michael White pestered him for a few days, and after the film wrapped, he also left the crew.

In the entire crew, except for the busy Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan who occasionally came to the set, the only other person was Christian Bale, who played Batman, and Bale would talk to him when they were filming scenes together.

But he was still mostly silent.

However, Bale had no opinion on this.

In fact, by this time, none of the hundreds of staff members in the entire "Batman 2" crew had any opinion on Mr. Chen, who played the Joker.

Even when someone handed him water, he would never say thank you.

When passing by in the crew, if you said "hello" to him, he would definitely not say "nice to meet you".

No one had ever received a good look from Mr. Chen, including director Christopher Nolan.

It stands to reason that in such a huge crew, being so unruly should have caused dissatisfaction long ago.

But when he applied his makeup every day for three consecutive months and never took off that costume, these dissatisfactions all turned into understanding.

After all, such examples were not non-existent, and the legends of those acting maniacs were common in Hollywood.

So much so that everyone had a consensus after joining the crew: when encountering such a person, please show the greatest tolerance for his strange words and deeds.

Because often after this crew, when everyone meets these people in the next crew, their names are often preceded by some title.

It's terrifying, and they really can't be provoked.

Mr. Chen was the same.

From the first day, as long as the crew was filming his scenes, it was always the smoothest.

What the entire crew remembered vividly was an explosion scene not long ago.

That was an abandoned building found by the producer, which was originally planned to be demolished according to the demolition plan. Now it just happened to give Nolan, a live-action fanatic, a chance for a real-life explosion.

In the film, the Joker blew up a hospital.

In front of the camera, Nolan also truly used explosives to raze this hospital-like building to the ground.

That scene was the Joker standing in front of the hospital about to be blown up, pressing the remote control, then jumping into an ambulance and driving away. The hospital was blown up behind him.

Many people in the crew knew that according to the shooting plan, this scene should have been completed in two sets of shots.

The first shot was a medium shot: the Joker presses the remote control in front of the hospital, then jumps into the car.

The second shot switches to a long shot: the hospital explodes, and the car drives away.

Completing it in two sets of shots had two benefits.

First, it could greatly ensure the safety of the actors. Because after the first shot was completed, the actor could leave the scene. The second shot only required the driver to drive.

Secondly, this explosion only had one chance and could not be repeated at all. If the Joker messed up, it would be over.

But if the shots were separated, it wouldn't matter even if the Joker had an NG.

The arrangement was like this, but on the day of the actual shooting, Nolan suddenly changed his mind.

When everyone looked at each other, not knowing whether they should persuade him, he pulled Mr. Chen aside, talked for a while, and then came back and said stubbornly: "One shot to the end."

One shot to the end!?

Everyone knew that when filming such a large-scale explosion scene, one shot to the end would definitely have a very strong visual sense.

Change the first medium shot to: the Joker presses the remote control, jumps into the car, the car drives away, and at the same time, the hospital in the background of the screen explodes.

Instead of the hospital exploding only when switching to the long shot as previously said.

The former would give the audience a very strong visual impact, making them truly have a sense of tension as if they were on the scene.

However, wasn't Mr. Chen afraid?

If the detonation time was a second or two early, maybe he would be gone. Even if he got into the car, there might be a danger to his life. What if a flying stone pierced the car's fuel tank?

Furthermore, if an actor is harboring fear for his own life, can he still act well?

The entire crew was filled with doubts.

Under this suspicious mentality, the scene began filming.

Chen Nuo stood on a road, and not far behind him was a square hospital. He held a rectangular remote control in his hand.

He held it like a naughty child holding a prank toy.

He pressed it a bit playfully, looked back at the hospital, and found no movement, so he was a bit angry and pressed it several more times with his finger.

Then, he seemed to be tired of playing with this thing, threw the remote control behind him, and jumped into the back of the ambulance.

The moment the ambulance started and left, there was a loud bang from the square hospital behind him.

The detonators and explosives placed by the demolition team began to explode, and the window glass of the five or six-story building was shattered into powder at the same time.

Black smoke sprayed out of the windows along with red-yellow flames, and accompanied by smoke and dust, the entire building collapsed on the spot.

A violent roar rolled by, the smoke dissipated, leaving only a pile of misshapen ruins.

The entire crew cheered as if it were a festival.

Nolan stood in front of the monitor and had never sat down. At this time, he also joined everyone in high-fiving and cheering.

Not only because such a big explosion scene passed in one take without any hitches, but also because Chen Nuo perfectly interpreted the Joker's state of regarding human life as nothing in the face of such huge pressure.

If it was just despising other people's lives, that's called a murderer, which only makes people disgusted and hateful.

If he doesn't even take his own life seriously, that can truly make people's limbs and bones unable to help but crawl with frost, feeling a fear from the bottom of their hearts.

Afterward, when the crew was cleaning up the scene, they found that just a second after the ambulance drove away, the rubble flying due to the explosion had beaten the road where the ambulance was originally into a pitted appearance.

In other words, if Chen Nuo had gotten into the car a second later, or if the driver had started a second slower, a tragedy that couldn't be spoken of might have occurred.

After this incident, the entire crew had more tolerance for this Chinese boy who didn't take off his makeup all day.

And it wasn't just tolerance, but a change in attitude from the root.

This day, Chen Nuo left after filming.

Jonathan Nolan stayed on the scene to watch a scene in court with Harvey Dent, the Two-Face in the play.

Because this was a key plot.

At this time, Harvey Dent had not yet had half of his face burned by the Joker's fire, and later became blackened under the Joker's bewitchment.

He was still the newly elected District Attorney, high-spirited, fair, and selfless.

In this court scene, the gangster witness on the court suddenly took a gun out of his pocket, aimed it at his head, and pulled the trigger.

But the gun misfired. Harvey Dent reacted extremely quickly, snatched the gun, and unloaded the bullets.

Then, he walked up to his girlfriend, also a prosecutor, Rachel Dawes, and said very pretentiously: "Carbon fiber structure,. 28 caliber, made in China. If you want to kill an American civil servant, you should buy an American product."

Originally, when Jonathan Nolan wrote this line, he just thought of writing a witty remark, but hearing it on the scene at this time, he couldn't help but mutter in his heart.

Afterward, he walked to his brother Christopher Nolan's side and said: "Chris, I want to change a line here..."

Christopher Nolan laughed after hearing what line he wanted to change, and said: "Jonathan, is it because of Chen?"

Jonathan Nolan said: "Of course not..." He suddenly laughed too, "Okay, I admit, yes. After witnessing his performance over the past few months, I feel that this sentence seems a bit rude. At least, I don't really want to offend his motherland like this. Even if it's just a joke."

Christopher Nolan, a rigorous and traditional person, actually had no objection to changing lines on the spot, so he nodded in agreement: "Then what do you want to change it to?"

Jonathan Nolan said: "Change the country, Russia, how about that?"

Christopher Nolan laughed loudly: "I knew it was this. Okay, very perfect."

……

……

December 2, 2006.

Wen Yongshan got up especially early today.

After finishing the filming of "Triangle" last month, she seemed to have lost interest in everything.

She didn't go shopping, but stayed at home all day, staring blankly.

Her parents didn't listen no matter how they persuaded her, and later they were too lazy to persuade her again. Anyway, everyone in the family knew what was going on.

After she got up today, her mood was especially happy. Her younger sister Wen Yongjing couldn't help but ask: "Sister, is your boyfriend coming to Hong Kong?"

Wen Yongshan smiled until her eyes narrowed into a slit: "Yes, how did you know?"

Wen Yongjing giggled: "Of course I know, you've been smiling all along. Isn't Brother Nuo filming in Hollywood? Did he finish filming?"

Wen Yongshan stood up, looked in the mirror one last time, and felt that the girl in the mirror was high-spirited, full of energy that hadn't been there for months: "Yes, he finished filming. He'll arrive in Hong Kong at 10:30 this morning. Okay, I'm going to pick him up."

(End of chapter)