I am a Big Player
Chapter 513 - 507, Ren He’s acting_1

Chapter 513: 507, Ren He’s acting_1

(Attention, attention, I messed up the Chapter sequence for 507506, but the content sequence is correct. I’ve fixed it. Just watch in the normal sequence. Watch Chapter 507 first, then 506!)

Less than a week after the military training and the official start of the term, dorm room 313 had already become an anomaly.

In a place like Central Academy of Drama, where the learning atmosphere was extremely intense, while everyone was discussing what they had learned that day, voices from room 313 were heard angrily shouting, "Don’t bother with the second tower, defend the high ground! Don’t go down there and feed, just fight on the high ground. Whoever goes down is a dog!")

A bunch of dorm rooms next to 313 were baffled. What the heck was going on...

During university, the boys’ dormitory doors were never closed, so everyone passing by could see four guys inside each room sitting in front of computers, playing games with exceptional fervor...

By now, pretty much everyone knew that there wasn’t much special about dorm room 313, only Li Shuaizhen came from a somewhat wealthy family, having acted in minor roles in over a dozen dramas, while the other three didn’t have much of a background.

Moreover, the guys in room 313 weren’t particularly passionate about studying, making them heretics in the eyes of Central Academy of Drama!

So, every time Li Shuaizhen finished playing Dota, he was plagued by a strange sense of guilt. Indulging in games leads to neglecting ambitions!

Of the three, only Ren He had a girlfriend, who logged on every night on time to play Dota with everyone, and she played quite well, too.

Everyone also asked where Ren He’s girlfriend was from. Ren He said she was a student at the Central Academy of Music and they were in the same year.

Li Shuaizhen even used this to persuade Ren He, "She’s also attending a prestigious school. Think about it, while you’re playing Dota, she’s making progress. What if, by the time you graduate, the distance between you two is too great? She enters high society, and what about you? Continue playing Dota? Think about it, isn’t that logical? While you’re gaming, she’s sprinting down the road of life!"

After pondering for a while, Ren He replied in astonishment, "Isn’t she playing Dota with us? She’s sprinting down the Dota path...")

God damn it! Li Shuaizhen had just remembered this fact. Ren He’s girlfriend played Dota with them every day!

There he was talking about sprinting down the road of life... Sprinting to hell more likely!

This was a pair of internet-addicted youths, case closed!

But in all honesty, when it came to classes, Ren He was actually quite serious about his studies, and he even took on the responsibility of encouraging Yang Runrun and Zhang Jinglin to take their studies seriously as well.

Study time was for studying, playtime was for playing. He kept the two very distinct.

This was something Li Shuaizhen found quite comforting.

And the more he knew him, the more Li Shuaizhen felt that Ren He had the makings of a good actor. It was just that he lacked ambition...

What is the most important first lesson in the Acting Department? Is it the theoretical foundation of acting? No. Is it something like the history of acting? No. Is it about drama genres? No, not that either.

It’s the class on freeing one’s nature.

What does freeing one’s nature mean? In general terms, it’s what everyone commonly knows as imitating animals and such.

But more specifically, there are a lot of interesting things in the class itself.

Why free one’s nature?

During acting, performers should focus on the sense of belief within. In childhood, a person’s thoughts and behaviors are unbounded, but as life goes on, various constraints accumulate, leading to unnaturalness and restraint in performances. Hence, the class on freeing one’s nature.

All audiences have probably seen bad films where actors speak very rigidly, lacking the right emotions and expressions, as if they are not playing the character, but are outsiders instead.

And this can throw the audience out of the movie within minutes.

So, how do people usually evaluate the acting skills of a veteran actor? "Whatever they play, they become" is high praise indeed.

Self-liberation is about letting students free themselves from their own constraints, abandoning all prejudices, and fulfilling what is required by the script.

And make the audience believe that it’s real.

The professor who taught Ren He and others to liberate their natures was a stern, square-faced man named Chen Da, around 40 years old, who exuded a seriousness that perfectly matched the Central Academy of Drama’s reputation for rigorous scholarship.

The first class involved learning how to act like small animals, such as cats and dogs. This wasn’t merely about imitating the sounds they make, but about mastering their movements and expressions.

At this point, Ren He’s advanced-level acting skills came into play.

Relative to the other freshmen, who were at a basic level, Ren He had already reached an advanced level thanks to the Divine Punishment System.

So when he performed as a cat or a dog, he actually resembled one, especially when imitating a dog lifting its leg to pee—he used Li Shuaizhen as a tree for a full performance.

When Professor Chen Da saw this, his eyes lit up; had this class produced such a talented student?

To act convincingly, it’s not enough to simply observe an animal’s behavior—one must also be shameless!

Think about it, during filming, two people passionately kissing while surrounded by a sea of people, not to mention four or five cameras, and even more crew members. Someone even slightly self-conscious would probably feel embarrassed...

If kissing scenes are overcome, what about bed scenes... Many think male actors enjoy filming bed scenes, but try doing it in front of a dozen people. It’s awkward, and even more so if you get aroused!

So you have to transcend your own thinking to enter the character’s mind, or even rise above the character to control everything, with the key point being shamelessness.

Ren He was one such shameless person, or at least, that’s what Yang Xi often said...

Thus, Chen Da felt that, all things considered, only Ren He and a few other students with acting experience were worth watching; the rest were not up to standard.

That’s exactly why Li Shuaizhen thought Ren He was cut out for acting; he saw it as a talent.

For Li Shuaizhen, he knew all too well that his own acting skills had been honed day and night, scene after scene; surely, that had developed some acting chops.

But what about Ren He? He hadn’t acted in anything before, and all these performance techniques came to him naturally.

It had to be said, the advanced-level acting skills rewarded by the Divine Punishment System had given Ren He quite an advantage.

Some students felt resentful, wondering why someone who spent all day playing Dota had a stronger foundation in acting than they did—it made no sense!

But it didn’t matter, they thought. People like him were just wasting their talent. Sooner or later, they would catch up to him and even surpass him!

Little did they know, Ren He didn’t have much interest in becoming an actor per se, though theater was something he toyed with.

Typically, some well-known figures in the domestic film industry also sought recognition in the theater as if the stage was a more dazzling part of their resumes than film.

This was a subconscious recognition of a higher level within the entertainment industry.

Therefore, directors often liked to unearth potential from theater actors, believing that stage performers possessed a more robust acting foundation.

Gradually, except for evenings, discussions between Ren He, Yang Runrun, Zhang Jinglin, and Li Shuaizhen revolved around theater-related topics. Ren He seemed to be fascinated with the realm of drama.

For Ren He, this was like another bizarre and fascinating life experience; quite intriguing.

This made Li Shuaizhen extremely gratified. He felt this was all due to his sacrificial efforts, and the sense of achievement in potentially saving three wayward classmates was tremendous. If one of them turned into a big star, he could boast about it for a lifetime...

But gradually... he also thought Dota was quite fun! Tonight, he was going to pick Sword Saint!