King of Hollywood

Chapter 202: Chapter 202: True Colors Performance

With the explosion on Fulton Street, the shooting of “The Professional” finally commenced. Although it was delayed due to some minor issues, the crew managed to complete the outdoor street scenes within the planned schedule.

The following scenes were primarily set indoors, starting with the completion of the scenes where special police teams surrounded Lyon, including intense gunfights and how Lyon disguised himself as a special policeman to escape.

“Scene 94, Take 45, get ready!” With the call from the assistant director, the prop guns began firing. Likewise, compared to the gunfight on the big screen, the shooting on set was quite bad, especially since Adrian, for safety reasons, restricted the use of even blank bullets for close-ups, making it appear even more fake. This was similar to the explosion scenes; both would require post-production enhancements to be impactful. Describing it as playing a game wouldn’t be an overstatement.

Of course, the actors didn’t treat it like a game, each immersing themselves fully in the midst of the gunfire. Although Adrian had directed gunfight scenes before, this was his first time handling such a large-scale firefight, so he still needed Masterson’s help in steering the shoot.

This part of the shoot took about half a day. Adrian, who had produced many films, was adept at learning during the filming process. With plenty of classic scenes in his mind for reference, everything went smoothly. He even made some suggestions which, after discussing with the action design team, made Jean Reno’s shooting appear more fierce.

However, learning from previous experiences, some scenes were still postponed, even though Natalie’s performance that afternoon had been quite impressive. Thus, the subsequent shoots were more about piecing together mundane life scenes, like Matilda shopping and returning home, cleaning Lyon’s room and maintaining the firearms, or Lyon wearing sunglasses while sitting and sleeping, among others.

Although Lyon and Matilda had changed residences twice in the movie, the rented apartments used for filming were nearby, mostly making the running around a bit troublesome.

As the shooting progressed, Adrian began incorporating more main plot elements into the mundane life scenes. The most important one involved Matilda sitting on the stair’s floor smoking, meeting Lyon thereafter.

“Remember, Nata, you just need to lift the cigarette. Don’t put it to your lips,” Adrian explained to Natalie, redesigning the scene to suggest she was smoking by moving the cigarette away from her face. He didn’t want a shot of Matilda with a cigarette on her lips to impact the audience’s impression negatively, as doing it well could benefit the movie.

“Why can’t I put it to my lips, Ed?” Natalie asked, “Don’t you think it would look a bit fake?”

“Even if you placed it on your lips, it wouldn’t necessarily look more real,” Adrian chuckled, “Besides, audiences wouldn’t like to see a 12-year-old girl smoking, even on screen.”

“But I’m not actually smoking,” Natalie pouted and spread her hands, her face carrying a semblance of disagreement, yet her mannerisms were sweet and mature.

“Yes, but others don’t think so,” Adrian replied, tousling her hair, “Alright, smart little thing, understand this: unless you never interact with others, you will definitely need to consider their views.”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Natalie shrugged and then playfully stuck out her tongue at Adrian, “How many times is this now, Ed? Do you like how my head feels?”

Adrian chuckled, shook his head, then called for everyone to get ready. After spending some time on set, Natalie, with her delicate and lovely demeanor and maturity beyond her years, had begun to build her own rapport with the crew and grown closer to him and the other two main actors.

Reno and Oldman were both interesting guys off the set, often joking during breaks. Natalie, smart as she was, often interacted with them, maintaining a harmonious relationship. But she was closest to Adrian, just as he had said earlier—once a girl who shared her most private thoughts with you considers you her most trusted person.

Indeed, after that day’s shooting, Natalie had secretly told Adrian that her good performance was not only from a determined mindset, simulating the feelings of her parents’ mishaps, but also her desire not to disappoint him. That was a good sign, was it not? So, in the past few days, they had started calling each other by nicknames.

“Places, everyone, get ready,” the assistant director announced, and the entire crew sprang into action. This time, Adrian did not operate the camera himself but stood aside, quietly observing.

Lyon disliked elevators, so each time he returned to his room, he took the stairs. Dressed in a black coat, wearing round sunglasses, and a small round hat, he looked somewhat quaint yet had a distinct vibe, thus catching the attention of a young girl sitting in the hallway who greeted him as he walked past.

Similarly, this small, melancholy girl caught Lyon’s attention too, prompting him to ask after several seconds, “Why hide the cigarette?”

“There are rats everywhere in this building,” the girl replied softly, “I don’t want the old man to know, there’s enough trouble already.”

Lyon then noticed the bruise at the corner of her eye and bent down, “What happened?”

“Fell off a bicycle.” The girl avoided his gaze.

Lyon didn’t say much, just straightened up and headed toward his room, but the girl stopped him again, “Don’t tell my dad about the smoking, okay?”

Lyon looked at her, still without speaking, and continued to his room, but the girl knew he had agreed, so her gaze lingered on him until he entered his room, and thus a preliminary connection and trust were established.

“Very good, excellent indeed.” Adrian couldn’t help but start clapping, instantly prompting a round of applause.

“Are you talking about Jean, Ed?” Natalie quickly reverted to her quirky self, blinking her eyes and asking Adrian with a grin.

“Alright, Nata, you know what I mean,” Adrian rolled his eyes but added, “You all did well, especially you, Nata. Matilda is almost tailor-made for you.”

Indeed, as the shooting continued, Adrian could fairly determine this. Matilda and Natalie had too many similarities, such as their rebelliousness, their stubbornness, their efforts to appear more mature than their young age allowed. Of course, Natalie was smarter than Matilda, though she was just under 12 years old and still a little girl, she clearly knew what she wanted and would strive for it, understanding how to compromise and how to present herself.

But her alignment with the character was exceptionally high; from a certain perspective, her performance could be considered natural.

“Alright, your turn to go on, Gary.” Adrian gave Natalie a thumbs up and then called over Oldman who was preparing, ready for the evil cop Stan’s first appearance.

As a narcotics officer, Stan handed a package of drugs over to Matilda’s father for safekeeping. However, when he came to retrieve it two months later, the purity dropped from 100% to 90%, a discrepancy that spoke for itself. Blinded by greed, Matilda’s father insisted he knew nothing, which ultimately led to a tragic massacre.

One had to admit, Oldman had the knack for this type of role. After futile negotiations with a henchman and Matilda’s father, he interrupted Stan, who was listening to music. As he turned around, his neurotic, malevolent gaze exerted an intense oppressive force, making the actor playing Matilda’s father involuntarily gasp for air.

Though the subsequent actions of embracing and sniffing the other actor were somewhat humorous, when he spoke in a deep voice, the oppressive atmosphere did not lessen in the slightest: “Do me a favor, find out who did this.”

“As it turns out, my judgment was spot on; these roles suit you perfectly, Gary.” Adrian joked with Oldman after the shot.

“Be careful with your words, Ed,” Oldman glanced at him, pointed his finger in the air while still maintaining that deep, oppressive tone. Clearly, he was still immersed in the role and hadn’t fully snapped out of it.

“What an outstanding actor,” Natalie approached Adrian and watched as Oldman took a big gulp of water from a bottle handed to him by an assistant, her tongue sticking out in admiration.

“That’s not even his best,” Adrian shook his head. “You know Judi Foster? She can not only immerse herself into a role quickly but also exit it just as swiftly—just eats a big sandwich after shooting, and she’s back to normal immediately.”

“Really?” Natalie asked curiously.

“Of course, when you come to shoot a film in Los Angeles, you can ask her yourself,” Adrian said with a smile.

“To shoot a film in Los Angeles…” Natalie’s eyes wandered as she pondered.

“Alright, don’t think too much, go change your clothes with the costume designer. Next, we’ll shoot a crucial scene for Matilda and Lyon,” Adrian said at that moment.

“That rescue scene?” The little girl’s eyes brightened. “Weren’t you planning to shoot that in a few days?”

“Because your performance today was so outstanding, I think we can definitely give it a try,” Adrian looked at her, causing Natalie to become somewhat bashful.

“Also because I don’t want to overburden Gary. If every time he finishes, it takes him a lot of time to come out of character, it would be troublesome for us,” Adrian suddenly changed the topic. “Otherwise, if he gets too deep into character, he might someday grab a gun and wipe us all out.”

“Say, Ed, could you not let the person you’re talking about hear you next time you badmouth someone behind their back?” Oldman, now back to normal, said teasingly.

“Sorry, Gary, I wasn’t talking behind your back. I said it to your face,” Adrian spread his hands, eliciting laughter from those around. (To be continued, for further information, please visit , more chapters available, support the authors, support genuine reading!)