I am a Big Player
Chapter 528 - 522, Is this still Chen Da? (Fourth update for monthly votes)_1

Chapter 528: 522, Is this still Chen Da? (Fourth update for monthly votes)_1

Ren He touched his nose after hearing Yang Runrun’s words. Despite Yang Xi often appearing to have a good temper, Ren He had seen her fly into a rage while playing Dota more than a few times.

No wonder her favorite heroes to play were the most aggressive mid-laners...

"Just keep practicing, and eventually, you won’t get scolded..." Ren He explained somewhat awkwardly.

"Aren’t you going to do something about your wife?" Li Shuaizhen looked disappointed, as though he couldn’t come to terms with their iron not turning into steel. Whenever Ren He didn’t join them, they ended up losing more than winning.

By now, everyone who played Dota knew that Yang Xi played the game, and also knew that their team was a phenomenon of ’one god carrying four noobs.’ Yang Xi was somewhat better, but the other three were true dead weights.

Even though Yang Runrun and the others were improving, the key issue was that they didn’t play long enough, particularly Li Shuaizhen.

At this moment, a game ended, and two large characters appeared on the screen: Defeat!

Taking a breather, Li Shuaizhen asked, "Did Chen Da really send you to rehearsal? Is the role you’re taking on the male lead?"

"He wanted me to take on the male lead role, but I swapped with the role of the beggar," Ren He said calmly as he took a drink of water, then began to log into his Dota account expertly. Being able to play one or two games of Dota after a busy day was one of the joys of life...

Li Shuaizhen was momentarily confused, "Swapped with the beggar’s role? Did Chen Da allow you to do that? The difference is huge."

"I wanted the switch myself, now hurry up and accept the team invite," Ren He began giving orders, "You three are still noobs, don’t pick those show-off heroes. Choosing more durable and control heroes is stronger than anything else."

"Don’t change the subject. You switched roles by yourself? Are you stupid? Can the male lead and a beggar be the same?" Li Shuaizhen looked truly heartbroken...

As he continued to speak, he suddenly remembered Ren He’s identity... there was no need to say anything else. The person next to him really didn’t need to worry about one role, unlike Li Shuaizhen himself!

Forget about the needless concerns, play Dota well first...

Chen Da’s theater company had rehearsals every Thursday and Friday, which were absolutely indispensable, but Chen Da didn’t take advantage of everyone’s weekends, which was quite considerate.

As it was Thursday, Ren He was going to rehearsal for the first time, so he would have to go again the next day.

When the senior students saw Ren He arriving, they giggled. Ren He ducked into the dressing room to change into his costume and put on some makeup before heading to the rehearsal stage.

Inside the Experimental Theater were many such small theaters. Usually, when they weren’t in use, they would be available for various theater groups to rehearse in — that was the original purpose of building the Experimental Theater.

It was only yesterday that Ren He learned Studio 117 was Chen Da’s exclusive rehearsal studio. Other teachers would have to queue up at the logistics department, but Chen Da didn’t need to. Everyone just came here daily, and the stage set had never changed. It was always set up for the play they were currently rehearsing.

The senior students originally wanted to help Ren He with his makeup, but they were slightly disappointed when they saw he’d already done it himself when he came out.

Ren He figured it out, these seniors were just idling around for fun. He wasn’t willing to be teased by these women and hurried onto the stage.

Everyone was still busy, preparing several sets of costumes and glancing through their lines one last time, lest they forget them on stage.

Such a basic mistake on stage would mean directly losing points with Chen Da, and two strikes would get you kicked out of the team.

In Chen Da’s words, if an actor can’t even remember their lines, it’s a moral issue!

Because memorizing lines is the most fundamental quality of an actor, and anyone with a smidgen of professionalism wouldn’t make such a mistake.

However, the current film and television industry was nowhere near as clean as Chen Da would have liked it to be. One of the reasons Chen Da no longer acted was because he had been infuriated once.

Nowadays, the young actors didn’t show much professionalism. Those who needed stand-ins would use stand-ins, and for some, if the actor showed up for 15 of their 30 scheduled scenes, the director would have to light incense and thank the heavens.

The rest would be taken over by stand-ins.

Even some of the on-camera roles weren’t played by the actor themselves, but by a stunt double wearing a green or blue mask to facilitate post-production editing, where they would simply overlay the actual actor’s face onto the double, and just like that, the job was considered done.

Some young actors took it even further, requiring a prompter while acting, simply reading lines without truly immersing themselves in the character.

Chen Da despised such a lack of professionalism, but the capital market favored these actors, and there was nothing he could do about it.

At this moment, while everyone was bustling about, only Ren He casually found a suitable spot on the stage to sprawl out... and that was his all!

No matter how much others walked back and forth, no matter how many costume changes they went through, he remained determined to become one with the background, staying silent and immobile whenever possible, as if he himself was disabled!

No, he was playing a disabled person!

Previously, no one had thought much of it, but now, seeing Ren He watching them cheerfully and recalling what he’d said about choosing the role out of laziness...

They suddenly felt that maybe Ren He had indeed chosen this character to avoid any hassle!

There really were such people! It was almost divine!

Without a point of reference, they wouldn’t have realized it, but with Ren He as a contrast, everyone suddenly felt exhausted...

Chen Da also noticed something amiss and almost exploded in anger as he pointed at Ren He, "Act properly for once!"

"Oh," Ren He stopped gloating over the others...

Although he was the least burdened during preparation, when it came to rehearsals, he acted as he should, with utmost seriousness, causing Chen Da to worry.

Logically, Chen Da should have been happy to see an actor performing well, but he understood that a smile, no matter how genuine, would start to feel fake after a hundred repetitions, as the smiling person would become numb to it.

Theater was different from film, where a single excellent performance in a movie is replayed over and over from the screen.

No matter how many times, it remains the same.

But theater is different; it’s performed live by the actors, and if the audience watches them a hundred times, it means they have performed it a hundred times.

People will inevitably get tired or become numb to certain actions or expressions.

What’s the soul in a monotonous performance?

However, Chen Da deeply understood this principle and placed great importance on the soul of theater. Therefore, he didn’t want this to happen to Ren He and potentially ruin such a promising talent.

Chen Da approached Ren He and whispered, "Can you maintain the state of the last two days during the actual performance?"

"Yeah, I can," Ren He replied, surprised, not knowing why Chen Da would ask that.

"As long as you can maintain it, there’s no need for you to put in your full effort during routine performances. Manage your energy, balance effort and ease. You be the judge," for some reason, Chen Da felt a strong trust in Ren He when it came to acting; the young man’s skill was incomparable to his peers, and probably even the graduate students couldn’t match... even he himself couldn’t outperform Ren He as the beggar!

The surrounding students were shocked, as this was the first time they saw Chen Da telling someone in the troupe that they didn’t need to give their all during rehearsals.

Was this still the Chen Da they knew?

...

A reward for the additional update