Chapter 47 New Play Press Conference

  That night, Zhang Chengyuan sent the excited Xiaoshui back home. Although they didn't do anything particularly fun, Xiaoshui was thrilled as long as Zhang Chengyuan was with her. Because usually her parents and sister were very busy, she could hardly find anyone to play with. And Zhang Chengyuan was not only handsome and tall but also loved to pamper her, treating her even better than her parents did, just like a knight guarding the princess in Western fairy tales.

  When parting, Little Water Crystal hugged Zhang Chengyuan and refused to let go. After Zhang Chengyuan promised to take her out often in the future, she was dragged away by her mother with great reluctance. When she returned to her bedroom, she received several slaps on the buttocks from her sister Zheng Xiuyan's "dragon claw hand", because Little Water Crystal's crying earlier had woken up Zheng Xiuyan who had just fallen asleep.

  The next morning, Jang Sung-won rushed to the filming location and threw himself into the busy TV drama shooting. He quickly made up for the scenes he missed yesterday when he took a leave of absence. Later, the crew moved to a town in Wonju, Gangwon-do to film, which was very inconvenient to go back and forth from Seoul, and the shooting schedule became increasingly tight. As a result, Jang Sung-won couldn't find time to visit Soo-jin, for which he felt very sorry, and almost every day he would take some time to apologize to her and chat with her. Soo-jin was also very understanding and didn't blame him at all, often telling him to take care of his body, making him feel warm in his heart. When the two were chatting on the phone, Ha Ji-won would sometimes join in and chat with Jang Sung-won and Soo-jin together. Gradually, Ha Ji-won became more familiar with Soo-jin and they became closer!

  Before long, time entered May. On this day, Zhang Chengyuan returned to Hancheng again after staying in the countryside for more than a month, and he came back with the main creators of the crew and several other leading actors. Because a few days later, this TV series will be broadcast on TV, they need to come back to hold a new drama press conference.

  The purpose of the crew holding a press conference is naturally to promote the new drama through media reporters, attract the audience's attention and interest, and improve the premiere ratings. The actors can also take this opportunity to increase their exposure rate and slightly boost their popularity.

  On May 9th at 2:30 pm, in a certain hall of KBS TV station on Jamsil Island, the press conference for new drama "Beautiful Life" officially began. The reason why this production team didn't hold the press conference in some high-end hotel like other dramas did was because they were really too poor. Originally, there wasn't much investment, and to put more money into filming, the producers and director tried to save wherever possible, even cutting back on the rental fees for the venue of the press conference this time.

  This is Zhang Chengyuan's first time attending a new drama press conference. Although he has participated in dozens of various dramas, he only played small roles and didn't have the qualifications to appear at the press conference. This time, because it was his first experience, he initially found it quite novel, looking at the reporters below and their cameras and cameras taking pictures non-stop, thinking it was pretty interesting.

  But less than half an hour later, he felt extremely bored, because except for posing for photos when he first came on stage, no one paid attention to him afterwards. The director, screenwriter and other actors received many questions from the reporters. Although these questions were not very enthusiastic, they looked like they were going through the motions, but at least they didn't completely ignore Zhang Chengyuan like this.

  Seeing this, Park Byung-ryul was worried that Jang Sung-won would become mentally unstable and show an inappropriate expression after being treated coldly, so he stared at him without blinking, seeing that he had been smiling from start to finish, before putting his mind at ease.

  Then, Park Byung-ryul cursed in his heart: "These damn reporters are really blind, can't they see how high the quality of my artist is? Just his handsome face, figure and education are worth your attention for ten years..."

  But it's no wonder the reporters would be like this, who let Zhang Chengyuan have almost no reputation in the entertainment industry now? At least the rookie reporters present couldn't recognize him. Yes, most of the reporters below were rookies, because the old birds generally felt that this TV series without big-name stars or high-popularity actors had no news value, although it might become popular later, at least the current audience wouldn't want to pay attention to it.

  No one pays attention, there is no news point; without a news point, how would those sharp-nosed senior journalists be willing to condescend? Zhang Chengyuan being ignored is also reasonable.

  Just as Zhang Chengyuan thought the press conference was going to pass by so uninterestingly, a young reporter suddenly asked him: "Zhang... Zhang... oh, Mr. Zhang Chengyuan, I heard that this time you are playing the male lead for the first time?" He only called out Zhang Chengyuan's name after taking another look at the TV series materials.

  Zhang Chengyuan nodded and said, "Yes."

  "May I ask how you were selected by the crew?"

  Zhang Chengyuan said lightly: "Participated in the actor selection interview and was fortunately spotted by the director and screenwriter."

  However, as far as I know, this TV series had already selected several months ago the newcomer idol Jin Laiyuan who won the Best New Actor award at the Qinglong Film Festival. How did a rookie like you with no fame and rough acting skills replace him? Is there any special reason behind it?" The young reporter seemed to have dug up some sensational inside information, and he looked very excited, his voice getting higher and higher. However, I had to admit that his tongue was very quick, and he said these few sentences in one breath, with almost no pause in between.

  Zhang Chengyuan looked at him deeply and calmly said, "Is there such a thing? I haven't heard of it. I think you should ask the director about this kind of thing." He turned his head respectfully to look at the director.

  The director immediately took over, saying: "Your news is quite informed, isn't it? Indeed, we did invite Mr. Jin Laiyuan before, and he participated in the audition for our drama group at that time. Several newcomers also participated in the audition for the male lead role. After the audition, we thought that Mr. Zhang Chengyuan and Mr. Jin Laiyuan performed the most outstandingly. By the way, Mr. Zhang's acting skills are very sophisticated and mature, not at all like his young age. If you really understand him, you absolutely wouldn't say that his acting is awkward."

  The director slightly sarcastically said to the hasty and careless reporter, "Choosing Mr. Zhang Chengyuan as our male lead definitely has its reasons, but it's not anything special, we just think he is more suitable for this idol drama than Mr. Jin Laisheng. It can't be denied that his appearance is truly outstanding, I've never seen such a handsome and elegant young man in real life, and I dare to guarantee that his looks are absolutely natural and innate."

  I think that after this drama is broadcast, regardless of whether it achieves good results or not, the appearance of our male lead will definitely become a topic of discussion among young girls. Moreover, because the investment in this drama is limited and Mr. Zhang Chengyuan is still a newcomer with low salary requirements, he fits our financial budget, so we chose him."

  To deal with the journalists' nonsense, the director kept giving Zhang Chengyuan high praise, making Zhang Chengyuan himself feel ashamed after listening to it. Although he also thought that his appearance and temperament were indeed good, he didn't think he could stand out from all the other young Korean actors.

  The reporter was slightly disappointed and said, "So, Director, you chose him just because he's cheap and good?" This reporter really can't say anything nice, immediately turning around and comparing Zhang Chengyuan to a commodity, but it couldn't be said that he was wrong.

  When selecting actors, the issue of price is indeed very important. Many newcomers are able to rise to prominence because their prices are relatively low. For example, in this TV series, if the investment wasn't so low, and if Zhang Chengyuan's agent Park Byung-ryul hadn't proposed a salary lower than that of the second and third male leads, and if Kim Rae-won's popularity at the time wasn't higher than Zhang Chengyuan's, then Zhang Chengyuan would have absolutely no chance of beating out the more famous Kim Rae-won.

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