Chen Zi chuckled lightly and said nothing.
The director, who had initially wanted to put on airs, sighed and complained bitterly, "After all, there are still young actors who haven’t performed yet. What if one of them does even better? If I reveal my preferences too early, Little Taotie might misunderstand that I really like her performance. And then if she doesn’t get the call, wouldn’t it make the kid even more disappointed?"
"Although what you say makes a lot of sense, but..." Chen Zi smiled knowingly, "I don’t believe a word of it."
Chen Zi said calmly, "Chairman Cheng is already preparing to hire a professional team to tailor a mythical-themed movie for Little Taotie, starring Suan Ni. Coincidentally, it happens to be similar to your theme! Chairman Cheng suggests that since it’s such a coincidence, why not make this coincidence even more perfect? When your movie is released, we’ll release ours on the same day."
This is a direct challenge! The director took a deep breath, calmed down a bit, and asked softly, "What do you mean by professional team?"
Chen Zi said playfully, "A director more famous than you, along with several gold medal screenwriters, the most expensive camera equipment, the most professional cinematographers, and the industry’s renowned post-production team."
Chen Zi waited for a while, heard nothing from the other end, and chuckled, "You know there are cameras in the audition room, right?"
After a long time, the director found his voice again, "I had them installed. Every audition is archived."
"Unfortunately, the camera feed was live-streamed to Chairman Cheng. You understand what I mean, right?"
Can I still be forgiven if I kneel down now?
If I had known there was a mole leaking the audition content and letting Chairman Cheng see it, I definitely wouldn’t have operated !
He did this simply to give the little girl some pressure, making her feel the opportunity wasn’t easily gained.
He had no choice; the little girl hadn’t even joined the team yet and already asked to replace the fox character. Who knows what chaos she might cause after joining the team!
Does it mean that after joining the team, if she feels some actor isn’t good enough, she can just replace them?
With Chairman Cheng backing the little girl, once she’s in the team, who can control her? What if she starts acting willfully?
Only by suppressing her during the audition, making her feel the director is very strict and not someone easy to deal with, can she realize the opportunity to audition is very precious. She has to behave well in the team, or she’ll be replaced.
Giving the little girl some pressure allows everyone to work happily.
The director exhaled and said calmly, "I haven’t worked with Little Taotie before, but what she gives me is the impression of a very willful little girl, so I wanted to apply some pressure during the audition to make her afraid. So that when she joins the team to film, she’ll be more obedient."
Chen Zi said flatly, "I guessed this was your plan, but you forgot she is just a six-year-old child, and you also forgot she has someone backing her."
The director let out a bitter laugh, "It was my oversight."
"Heh, you’re not sincere. Your so-called negligence is just you regretting that the audition footage got leaked, not that you think your behavior was wrong."
Chen Zi hit the nail on the head, leaving the director momentarily silent.
Chen Zi said coldly, "Before understanding a person’s character, don’t rashly suppress them. Some people might fall apart from the pressure. That’s all I have to say."
The director wanted to say something but was hung up on.
The director sighed and rubbed his temples.
The screenwriter, who had been sitting beside him the entire time, could vaguely hear the voice on the phone because the director had his phone volume turned up high.
The screenwriter showed no sympathy either and jabbed, "Just give up on shooting this film, probably won’t have a chance to win any awards anyway. The box office will definitely be pushed to the end; competing for box office sales against big capital and famous directors—do you think you can do that? Your reputation keeps declining, you won’t get investments for your next film. It’s better to directly give up this film as a gesture of your sincerity in admitting your mistake."