Afterward, Lu Man followed Han Zhuoli to the backstage.
Hayer arrived too after Robert was done removing his makeup and changing clothes.
“Why so late?” Robert asked. “I’m already done changing, and now you get here.”
Hayer wiped his brow. “Got recognized by the fans on the way, so I got delayed by signing autographs and taking pictures.”
“Hahaha, look how exhausted you are. Let’s go for dinner!” Robert laughed.
“Come, come, follow me. I’ll lead the way.” Robert waved his hand.
Hence, the three others followed Robert to his recommended restaurant.
The restaurant’s atmosphere was one Lu Man liked.
Not elegant, but lively.
It was not a bar, but almost every diner had a big cup of beer and a few typical American dishes.
“We have a melting pot of food culture, from English, French, Portuguese, Italian, and such, and we’ve tweaked the recipes until they became dishes suiting our tastes and are specialties here. This restaurant is quite authentic, and beer goes well along with the food,” Hayer said.
The waiter came over, and Robert was responsible for ordering the dishes.
New York steak, beef satay, creamy baked mixed meat gratin, French country chicken soup, with fries as a side dish.
The diners all chatted happily as they ate, and the ladies even laughed heartedly, though not too loudly, with slightly exaggerated actions. But everyone knew they were relaxed here.
“Oh, right, tell me about your exchange team’s situation,” Robert said.
Lu Man first explained why the teachers never came over to help.
She also told him about their team’s standards.
Robert and Hayer would discover that when rehearsing with them anyway.
Hence, Lu Man directly laid all her cards on the table with Robert and Hayer.
She also made clear why those teachers were unwilling to help them rehearse. It was precisely because they were afraid of ruining their own reputation.
As top-tier actors, Robert and Hayer would naturally want to protect their reputations.
So Lu Man revealed everything at first to let both know their team’s situation.
It’s still not too late for them to back out now.
And if they did, Lu Man could understand.
Robert and Hayer could read between the lines, and both had no intention to go back on their word.
They had already expected it when they agreed.
Since they had witnessed it when they were judges at the National Film Academy previously.
Though the students who’d stayed at the school might be slightly worse than the ones in the exchange team, Robert and Hayer were both experienced.
Accounting for the differences, they could estimate the actual standards of the exchange students.
It wouldn’t exceed their expectations.
“Understood. We’ll go over tomorrow and do a simple test first to see the average standard, then do adjustments according to your classmates’ standard and lay out a suitable script.”
A difficult script was a challenge to their acting skills.
A good script, on the other hand, would be wasted if the actors were too subpar and made it rubbish.
Hence, apart from directing them, they needed to simplify the script until it suited Lu Man’s classmates’ abilities.
“However, that’s too unfair for you,” Robert said, “because you’re capable of dealing with a brilliant but complicated script. Simplifying the script will restrict you, and no matter how good you are, you can’t go beyond its upper limits.”
