“Director Gu is quite satisfied with me. The assistant director said that the audition was not bad, however, there is another person who wants this role. So if I want it too, I have to go through a second round of auditions.”
“Second round of auditions?” The actor wasn’t impressed to learn of this. “There’s usually only one round of auditions. Why would there be a second round? Is this assistant director trying to deceive you?”
“Deceive me?”
Hua Jin nodded and said, “Yes. After all, the roles in this production team are all in high demand. Basically, you’ll be famous once you’re on it. Many small-time actors want to be on it, but Director Gu has never been interested. The assistant director has been racking his brains over this matter. He probably wants to take the opportunity to ask you for some benefits.”
“Money?”
“Uh huh.”
“I also thought he wanted an excuse to request a packaging fee or something, and I did ask him indirectly. He said he didn’t want a packaging fee.”
The actor was even more baffled. “So when is the second audition taking place?”
Liang Yin answered simply, “Tonight.”
“At night?”
“Yes. I am to go to his room. He says he’d like me to read the part again so that he may consider it carefully.”
As Liang Yin spoke, her expression grew odd. “But, isn’t it too strange to have to go to his room at night? Could he be… playing the unspoken rules!”
The actor’s expression darkened at that.
“He asked you to go to his room? At night?”
“Uh huh.”
“Then it goes without saying!” Infuriated by what he’s been told, the actor sat down beside her. “You’re not to go. He’s obviously trying to make a pass at you! By the time you get into his room, there’ll be no telling how many people will be in there and whether you’ll be able to back out. Nothing is certain!”
This assistant director also had “a criminal record.” Or perhaps, it might be more accurate to say, it takes two hands to clap.
As the assistant director, he was in charge of casting. Aside from the management and the director-appointed roles, he had the last say on all the other roles.
Naturally, there were people who wanted to climb the ladder. And there were many of them.
Except, this assistant director was notoriously ugly in the industry.
He was pretty ruthless when it came to women. Especially one time, he had used the excuse of discussing the script to bed two up-and-rising young actresses. This in itself was bad enough, but he’d actually informed the paparazzi in advance, so that they managed to film the two young actresses accompanying him into the hotel.
Then, he held on to these photographs till filming was completed and they were entering the publicity period. He then released these photographs, and for a time, they caused a big commotion.
Actually, no one cared about these two young actresses. All they cared about was the dark side of the entertainment industry.The show went viral because of this and was bought out by a media website at a high price. The ratings also broke records.
However, the reputation of these two young actresses was completely ruined. They were being made use of and had nowhere to turn to for help.
Later on, they had plastic surgery and changed their names. They managed to win a few roles, but their careers never took off. As for this assistant director, because the publicity campaign went so successfully, he continued to do very well.
The entertainment industry is like that. It’s hard to avoid an open attack. Whether one rises or falls depends on how ruthless one can be. Often, those at the top can afford to risk it. The more resourceful they were, the more willing they were to risk everything. By and by, they make their way up.
