Defying Fate: The Unstoppable Eileen novel Chapter 35

With the director's "Action!"

Suddenly, Eileen, who had been very casual, became serious and began interacting with Bartley.

Five minutes later, Lenwood called the first "Cut".

All the staff on the scene instantly turned their attention to the pair. After a while, Lenwood said in a somewhat heavy tone, "Bartley, come over here."

Bartley got off the stage with an ugly expression on his face. Lenwood pointed at the image on the monitor, patiently explained to him, and Bartley quickly understood his poor performance, he nodded humbly and accepted the advice.

After a while, Lenwood picked up a megaphone and said, "Alright, let's do it again." Then he said to Eileen, "Eileen, you were in the right state just now. Please try to maintain it. If you can't, it's okay to make some mistakes. We can edit your performance.”

Eileen nodded, understanding the roughness of such low-cost web drama production, which also had lower requirements for actors.

Then they started the second take, but the result was still unsatisfactory, and Bartley was the one who made the mistake again.

Bartley was diligent, hardworking, and tried his best. But as a newcomer, his lack of experience caused him to be easily nervous in front of the camera, creating many problems.

Due to Bartley's mistakes, this shot had to be cut six times. Lenwood didn't expect that such a simple scene between the male and female leads would be delayed for so long. After the seventh take was finally successful, Lenwood himself breathed a sigh of relief.

He was reviewing the previous video when he suddenly felt something was off. Upon closer comparison, he realized that Eileen had maintained the highest standards throughout the previous six takes. This surprised Lenwood. Both were newcomers, but while Bartley disrupted the shooting several times, Eileen displayed such strong stability and emotional control.

However, this was just a simple scene between the male and female leads, so being stable wasn't considered difficult.

"Alright, next scene." Lenwood said.

The next scene was in the same setting, but with Eileen performing with a middle-aged actor.

Finally, the first scene ended, and Bartley came down from the stage looking pale. He was good-looking and had been interacting with the crew and staff for the past two days. A few of the assistants liked him and seeing his despondent state, two of the makeup artists quickly rushed over with drinks to comfort him.

Bartley smiled bitterly, "Sorry for holding everyone back."

One of the makeup artists quickly reassured him, "Not at all, Bartley. You're doing great. It's normal to struggle when it's your first time acting."

Bartley shook his head, "Eileen is also new to acting, but her performance was good."

The two makeup artists fell silent. They had initially thought that Eileen would be the one causing issues due to her seeming lack of focus, but her performance turned out to be consistent and professional. Bartley, despite his hard work, was the one who kept making mistakes, possibly due to nerves.

"Good, cut." The director's voice rang out again.

The makeup artists found an excuse to comfort him, "See, Eileen messed up too."

"Let's use that." As soon as Lenwood confirmed the take, the atmosphere among the three became tense.

Upon looking at the stage, they saw Eileen touching up her makeup while the actor who had just performed with her was speaking to her in a friendly manner.

The second scene was completed in just a few minutes, while the previous scene with Eileen and Bartley took a full hour. This scene, with Eileen and an experienced senior actor, was completed in one take, taking only eight minutes.

It couldn't possibly be due to Eileen. It must be because the senior actor who filmed the scene with her did an excellent job, making the scene go smoothly. They comforted themselves with this thought.

However, throughout the morning, no matter who Eileen was acting with, each scene was completed in one take. The crew gradually fell silent.

Bartley's face grew paler, and he recited his lines with even more effort.

Before lunch, all six scenes involving Eileen were completed. Lenwood sat in front of the monitor, looking at the videos of the previous six scenes, growing more confused as he watched, "Did I set the bar too low for her?"

The scriptwriter laughed, "Eileen's performance was really good."

Lenwood nodded, "She doesn't seem like a newcomer."

The scriptwriter thought for a moment, then added, "Actually, in the fifth scene, there was a part where her emotions exploded, but for some reason, she reigned them in halfway. If she hadn't, the other actor might not have been able to match her emotional intensity at the end."

Lenwood had also noticed this and decided to talk to Eileen.

When Lenwood found her, she was intently watching the woman preparing lunch, making her feel quite uncomfortable. The woman in charge of serving lunch said helplessly, "What's the point of staring at me? Your director hasn't said you can eat yet, so I can't give you any."

Eileen didn't answer, but continued to stare at the lunchbox in the woman's hand.

The woman was about to be driven mad by Eileen's stare. When she saw Lenwood approaching, she quickly said, "Here comes the director. Ask him yourself!"

Eileen turned to Lenwood, excitedly asking, "Lenwood! Can I eat now? Can I?"

Lenwood looked at her, then said to the woman, "Give her a box. Let her eat first."

The woman handed Eileen a lunchbox.

Eileen immediately said, "I don't want this one. I want that one!" She pointed to another lunchbox.

"Eh? Aren't all these meals the same?" Lenwood asked, frowning.

Eileen scoffed, "How can they be the same? The meat in that one is a fifth more than this one. A whole fifth!"

Lenwood didn't know what to say. In his mind, he thought, “She sure has an eye for detail, why didn't I see her being this thorough when reading the script?'

All Lenwood could do was wave his hand and instruct, "Give her that one."

Eileen, getting the bento with more meat as she wished, sat on a small stool, ready to answer Lenwood's questions.

"Emotional outburst?" Eileen, satisfied after gulping down a big piece of meat, looked up and said, "Yes, I intentionally toned it down, because I saw the other party almost couldn't handle my emotions. I was afraid of messing up the scene, so I pulled back."