Wu Jingli was a little stunned. She stared at Lu Man for a moment, unable to speak.
After Lu Man said that, she actually felt that Lu Man’s understanding of this character was even deeper than hers.
If it was acted according to what Wu Jingli said, perhaps there might not be any errors.
But if it was acted according to what Lu Man described, it could leave a deep impression.
Of course, this was only in theory.
The important thing was whether Lu Man had the skill to artfully perform this style of acting.
If Lu Man’s acting could not make the cut, it would only turn into a disastrous performance in the end and ruin a good character like Man Yun.
Hence, she might as well follow what she said and act it in a safe way.
“Why are you like this? Teacher Wu kindly explained the role to you yet you don’t want to listen and just think you are right,” Sun Xiutong said unhappily. “For how many years has Teacher Wu been acting, and for how many years have you been acting? You called yourself a newcomer, but when Teacher Wu is guiding you, you don’t want to listen. The things you do don’t seem like what a newcomer would do!”
“Exactly. Based on what you said, Teacher Wu, with so many years of experience in acting, can’t even compare to a student like you? You only joined halfway, so what do you know?!” Xu Yuting chimed in.
“Every person has a different understanding of the character and how to act it out. Teacher Wu has her own understanding, and the outcome of her performance would be even better if she acted based on her own understanding. But I have my own understanding. Even when the director directs, the director only makes some adjustments to the details of the actor’s acting to steer it in the direction of the big picture. Yet the director won’t hold your hand every step of the way to teach you how you should act, or how you should not act. If that were the case, the characters that everyone acts out would all be cut from the same mold,” Lu Man said.
“I am not disrespecting Teacher Wu. The things that Teacher Wu knows and can perform, I don’t know, and I can’t do them. If my method of acting is not suitable, then I can make changes. You can’t possibly not let me try at all and just listen to what other people say for the rest of my life, without having my own understanding at all. That way, I will never become a good actress.”
“You really know how to talk, huh,” Gao Sheng said sarcastically. “Based on what you said, you don’t even need to go to school already. I think you probably don’t even listen to what your teachers teach you in school.”
“The teachers in our school have also never told me how I should not act. They would let us freely explore the role and then point out where we are lacking before letting us continue to experiment with the role and how we should go about correcting the flaws. They won’t directly tell us the answer they have in mind,” Lu Man said in a cold voice.
If other people treated her politely, she naturally responded politely.
But they were clearly making things difficult for her. She would not keep tolerating it either.
Wu Jingli was already feeling uncomfortable deep down just because Lu Man actually had a better understanding than her.
Man Yun was the character she wanted to play originally. Aside from how the role got snatched away by Lu Man, she also realized that even when it came to the understanding of the character, she seemed to also lose to a newcomer like her.
This had nothing to do with their backgrounds.
Over here, they were all actors, and they were only differentiated by seniority between seniors and newcomers.
But even in this regard, Lu Man actually won.
Wu Jingli was a senior who had more years of acting experience. Yet when Lu Man was facing her, she actually did not show any humility and even refused to listen to her.
This made Wu Jingli very unhappy.
Lu Man was thinking that she could not compare to her!
At this moment, a staff came over and said, “Hello, Teachers. How are your preparations coming along? We can start now. Director Xu is waiting outside.”
“We can start now,” Wu Jingli said.
Just when they were about to go up on stage, she hastily warned Lu Man again, “You do make a good point and have a reasonable understanding of the character, but you must see if you actually have the ability to act it out well. If you can’t manage it properly, it will only ruin a good role like Man Yun. People must be self-aware and know their own capabilities. Don’t have high standards when you can’t perform up to that standard, or challenge yourself to something you won’t be able to accomplish.”
