This situation is somewhat awkward.
But Lu Yuan’s attitude was exceptionally firm, as if he must have an answer.
After a few seconds of silence, Zhou Yun said, "Director Lu, at the beginning, I indeed didn’t want to act in this drama."
Upon hearing this, everyone present was shocked, and Liu Pinran looked at Zhou Yun as if he was looking at a fool.
But Lu Yuan just smiled.
"Including up to now, my desire to act in this play is not very strong either," Zhou Yun added.
Liu Pinran’s forehead veins popped out as he clenched his fists, "Zhou Yun, what do you mean?"
"Director Liu, don’t worry." Zhou Yun gave Liu Pinran a calm smile and continued, "The reason I don’t want to act in ’Eighth Heartbeat’ is simple. I am very pretty, and I don’t want to be treated as just a pretty face. But ’Eighth Heartbeat’ is a sweet, romantic drama, the main female character is also a great beauty. I’m afraid after it airs, audience will say I’m just a pretty vase, unrelated to the drama or the theme. It’s actually just my own concerns. I have actually told Director Liu before that I do not want to act in sweet romances, mainly because of this concern. But now I also figured it out. A good actor should actually be able to handle any genre."
"Do you think you are good at acting?" he asked.
Zhou Yun shook her head and said, "I’ve only acted in one drama, how can I say my acting is good. I just don’t want my image to be limited, especially since my last role was also a great beauty."
She countered, "Director Lu, I understand what you mean, please rest assured. Although I am new to this field, I have the ambition to be a professional actress. Since I accepted this drama, I will definitely act well."
Unexpectedly to Zhou Yun, Lu Yuan scoffed.
"Really a newcomer just entering the industry."
"Ah?" Zhou Yun was stunned, not understanding why Lu Yuan would say such a thing.
"I hope you can keep such thoughts for a little longer."
Zhou Yun didn’t quite know what to say.
"In fact, this drama is highly valued by Yuehai Network, the script evaluation was given an A+, as long as it’s well executed, it’s not impossible to receive an S rating when evaluated internally later," Liu Pinran said, "Miss Zhou is currently so popular and receives so much attention, let’s see if we can make time for costume fitting and take some promotional photos in the next couple of days, releasing some materials first."
Zhou Lan looked troubled and said, "Director Liu, Xiao Yun is about to fly to Beijing, there are several jobs waiting for her there, she probably won’t be back until next Tuesday."
Liu Pinran said, "That’s no problem, we can rent a studio in Beijing at that time, have someone bring the costumes over, and shoot there."
Zhou Yun picked up a cup of water and took a sip.
"I’ll coordinate some time on my end and try to schedule it."
Liu Pinran said, "After all, now is the best time to release materials, while everyone’s attention is still on Miss Zhou."
Liu Pinran almost didn’t say that he wanted to leverage Zhou Yun’s current popularity to boost the popularity of ’Eighth Heartbeat’.
Frankly, ’Eighth Heartbeat’ is just an ordinary web drama, the only celebrity is Zhou Yun, who else to bank on if not Zhou Yun?
But releasing materials at this time may not be a good thing for Zhou Yun.
Everyone is suspecting that she is in a relationship with Song Chi, and releasing materials now would only leave people with the impression that Zhou Yun took on a female lead role in a drama at this moment.
This brings many subsequent problems, which are annoying to deal with.
Why can Zhou Yun play a leading role right after debuting?
Zhou Yun is climbing up by clinging onto Song Chi, right?
"Director Liu, currently we have only signed a letter of intent, when can we discuss the follow-up details?" Zhou Lan suddenly asked.
Liu Pinran said, "That’s easy to talk about, when are you free?"
Zhou Lan said, "Actually, you guys have already prepared a contract to send to us, I made some suggestions, did you see it?"
"Oh, I don’t handle contract details, it’s all done by people below," Liu Pinran said, "We’ll talk about this later, since Director Lu and Miss Zhou are here, let’s first talk about other matters."
"Actually, that’s the reason." Zhou Lan smiled naturally, saying, "We have some uncertainties on our side, and other following matters are also not convenient to finalize."
Liu Pinran finally realized the difficulty in dealing with Zhou Lan.
"For example, the choice of the male lead, promotion matters, and the presence and duration of Zhou Yun’s scenes in the actual airing," Zhou Lan with her hands stacked on her knees, not looking like an agent but more like a secretary, yet her calm demeanor and fluent tone fully demonstrated her firm attitude, "We definitely can’t interfere with the final presentation of the drama, but Zhou Yun has just debuted and we don’t want the situation where the second female lead gets more scenes than the first."
Liu Pinran suddenly realized, smiled, and said, "You’re overthinking it. Although there have been a few dramas where this occurred, it’s essentially because their main actresses always took leaves and didn’t film the duration as per the contract, forcing the team to increase scenes of the second male and female leads, otherwise they wouldn’t have enough episodes to break even."
"Director Liu, Lew Qingqing once acted in a show called ’Blowing Sugar People’, do you remember? The team prepared two scripts, the one given to the main actress Lew Qingqing made her the absolute protagonist, but during the actual filming another script was used, and the second female lead had twice the scenes, ultimately broadcasting a dual female lead effect," Zhou Lan smiled helplessly, "As an agent, I must avoid this kind of situation."
Liu Pinran asked, "Are you suggesting that we also have dual scripts to deceive you?"
Zhou Lan shook her head, "Please don’t say that, of course, I trust you, but I requested to include a clause in the contract to ensure that Zhou Yun’s screen time in the aired episodes reaches a certain ratio, but your staff kept delaying and didn’t agree, causing me to have doubts and concerns. Please understand."
"The reason for disagreement is because no one knows whether some scenes will need to be cut when passing approval later on, how can such a ratio be guaranteed?" Liu Pinran seemed to have forgotten his earlier words about not caring about contract details, as he explained.
"We’re not asking for a high ratio, if the final aired footage can’t even reach that ratio, then Zhou Yun wouldn’t really be considered the female lead," Zhou Lan said, "If you’re worried about the approval issues, we can include a clause in the contract about cooperating with additional filming if needed by the team, we will definitely cooperate."
Liu Pinran’s expression turned cold.