Five minutes are up.
Sheng Tang finished her performance, and a teacher clapped generously again, praising her.
"Your acting is great, a bit exaggerated, but very good," the teacher said. "Your performance has layers. It’s evident that you are suited for the experiential approach. You have a promising future."
Sheng Tang cried when she wanted to cry, and her tears flowed sincerely and naturally, without any awkwardness. The teachers were amazed and even moved by her emotions.
This is very rare.
Acting is divided into the experiential approach and the method approach.
The experiential approach is about grasping the character’s feelings, quickly entering empathy, and then interpreting the person with genuine emotion, as if the actor can fully replicate the character’s life.
The experiential approach requires talent and is very difficult. The downside is that some people can’t detach from their roles, being burdened by a character for life.
The method approach, as the name suggests, wins through technique. Being able to perform well using technique alone, rather than empathy, is also very challenging.
Both have their strengths, and there has always been debate about which approach is better.
Sheng Tang is actually a method actor.
The teachers thought she was using the experiential approach because they believed she lacked acting foundation, yet performed so vividly with genuine emotion.
Little did they know, Sheng Tang’s exaggeration was acted, and her genuine emotion was also acted.
She can enter and exit characters easily.
A director who worked with her before once became a close friend and said to her in private, "You are skillful, but personally, you are an emotionless acting machine."
"Why?"
"You enter and exit characters too quickly, leaving no emotions with the character. On stage and off, you are completely two different people. It’s very frightening," the director said.
Sheng Tang listened to the compliments from the head examiner and expressed her gratitude.
She was confident that getting a passing certificate wouldn’t be hard.
The second round of the exam finished in the afternoon.
The next day, the results of the second round were released.
A total of thirty-five people were admitted. Eight of them were predetermined, getting in through connections, which means out of seven thousand candidates, only twenty-seven were truly admitted.
Sheng Tang was one of them.
Not only was she admitted, but she was also the top scorer in the second round.
"The examiners must all support the experiential approach," Sheng Tang said to Gu Shiting. "I’ll have to pretend to be an experiential actor to get good grades when I enroll."
Gu Shiting didn’t understand these things.
He was just very happy for Sheng Tang.
The two had a very lavish dinner to celebrate.
After the second round results came out, Sheng Tang called Zheng Weiwei.
Her initial exam for Beijing Film Academy also went through, and tomorrow she would take the second round.
She told Zheng Weiwei that she couldn’t go to Beijing for the second round, and was very sorry.
"I saw that you ranked first in the second round for the performance department of S City Film Academy," Zheng Weiwei laughed. "Young girl, I’ve always said you have a bright future."
Sheng Tang expressed her thanks, "You won’t blame me for missing the appointment, will you?"
"I understand. You’re from S City, surely you prefer to study locally and your parents probably wouldn’t be comfortable sending you away for school," Zheng Weiwei said. "We will have opportunities to collaborate in the future."
Sheng Tang thanked her again.
She hung up the phone and found Gu Shiting standing behind her, startling her.
Unexpectedly, he also learned from her and eavesdropped on her phone conversation.
Gu Shiting frowned, "You originally planned to go to Beijing for the art exam?"
Sheng Tang replied, "It was Zheng Weiwei, the screenwriter. She quite wanted me to go."
Gu Shiting said, "You said you would stay by my side and go nowhere."
Sheng Tang replied, "I didn’t go, didn’t I?"
Gu Shiting didn’t say anything.
He was very upset because Sheng Tang considered going to Beijing for the art exam.
Did she want to leave him?
Thinking of this, Gu Shiting’s heart almost broke.
Sheng Tang didn’t expect him to suddenly act childishly, and it took her quite a while to coax him before he was persuaded.
She felt emotionally drained indeed.