In the past life, "Marisha" had no suitable actress, and after a major screenplay revision, all the plot related to Marisha was naturally deleted, so when Qi Liang mentioned "Silly Girl," Tang Li had no idea who that character was.
A slightly fat middle-aged man sitting at the edge of the table, wearing black-framed glasses, took a careful look at Wu Xuehan and nodded in agreement: "Indeed, there’s quite a resemblance."
Deng Xian read from the script: "Next to the dilapidated door at the entrance of the village squatted a dirty, unidentifiable figure, seemingly young in age, with hands tucked into sleeves, a dark brown complexion, with only a pair of black, bright eyes fixed on them as they approached."
After reading this description, Deng Xian glanced at Wu Xuehan and said with a laugh: "After being pointed out by Director Qi, and looking at the person again, there indeed is a sense of immersion."
"..." Wu Xuehan’s expression was one of utter dejection.
Tang Li spoke up to interrupt them: "May I take a look at the ’Silly Girl’s’ part of the script first?"
The script in her hand only contained 30% of the movie’s content.
Qi Liang nodded and handed over the full script to Tang Li.
Tang Li quickly skimmed through it. In the script, Silly Girl was Marisha’s childhood companion, a tragic character with a more pitiful background than the orphan protagonist. As a child, due to a fever that caused brain damage, and with her family unable to afford treatment, her parents abandoned the then ten-year-old Silly Girl to live alone in a broken-down house at the village entrance.
In other words, they had given up on their older daughter.
Within the entire movie, Silly Girl did not have a large role. She first appeared when Marisha was earning money by posing as a guide for the undercover drug enforcement officers disguised as tourists, bringing them into the village—the scene Deng Xian just read. Afterwards, Marisha would settle all the tourists and, upon nightfall, go to the shabby house to visit her only friend, and incidentally bring Silly Girl some food.
In this scene, Silly Girl buried herself in eating while Marisha sat beside her, hugging her knees, telling her friend that the tourists had already given her fifty thousand Burma Yuan, and as long as she did a good job, they would give her a sum of money before leaving.
The last scene with Silly Girl was her running out to take a bullet for Marisha. Unlike Marisha, who gets rescued and returned to S-country at the end of the movie, Silly Girl dies by the Mihesha River.
The character "Silly Girl" was added to the screenplay, with the screenwriter writing three scenes featuring Silly Girl and Marisha, not only to prevent the entire movie from being too "tough," but also to engage the audience emotionally with the appropriate amount of tragic content, which also made the character of Marisha more rounded and substantial.
Tang Li closed the script and looked up at Qi Liang: "Director Qi, I need to discuss this with my classmate."
"Of course," Qi Liang nodded.
If Wu Xuehan herself was unwilling, naturally no one would force her.
At the corner of the corridor, Tang Li roughly explained the character of "Silly Girl" in the script to Wu Xuehan: "The makeup is going to be quite unkempt, including the clothing, and the environment isn’t much better. There are a total of three scenes. If you don’t want to act, you can tell me the truth."
Many new actors resist playing the role of a fool, fearing being typecast by the audience and the market. For instance, some actresses are successful in playing the villainous second female lead, but are not accepted by the audience when they take on the role of the main heroine.
Wu Xuehan bit her lip and pondered for a moment before speaking: "Is it you who will be acting the opposite role with me?"
Tang Li nodded: "Except for the first scene where you’re squatting at the door and the camera gives you a close-up, the other two scenes are with me. According to the character setting, Silly Girl and Marisha grew up as friends together."