Chapter Fifty-Seven: Another Rumor

  After confirming the first role after his comeback, Zhang Chengyuan calmed down and began to ponder this cold and arrogant illegitimate son. On the one hand, he found some similar roles from previous film and television works, feeling how other actors performed this type of role, and borrowing the good aspects to even gain a deeper understanding of the performance method suitable for this role. When seeing certain stiff or inappropriate acting methods, Zhang Chengyuan also remembered them in his heart, avoiding making the same mistakes in the future.

  After several days, relying on his strong analytical ability and almost tireless willpower, Zhang Chengyuan made some gains, and he painstakingly created a rough character model in his mind based on himself. However, this was not enough to guarantee that he could bring this TV role to life or even touch people's hearts. Therefore, he approached it from other angles.

  He first commissioned Park Byung-ryul to find a few prototypes in real life that were similar to the character's background or personality, and used them as reference objects to summarize the psychological activities, eye expressions, speech and behavior, clothing, and even some detailed small movements of this character. He would consider and carefully ponder each one, and record any epiphanies in his notebook, then take it out again after a short while to think about it some more and see if there were any new gains.

  In addition, he would call the screenwriter of this TV series every day to discuss his understanding of the role in detail, hoping to get new inspiration from the screenwriter's words. Due to the frequent disturbances, it seriously affected the progress of the screenwriter's unfinished script creation and his precious rest time, so later the screenwriter strictly prohibited Zhang Chengyuan from making harassing phone calls.

  In Zhang Chengyuan's later acting career, this kind of disruption to the script often occurred, causing frustration among screenwriters. As time went on, he earned the nickname "Script Killer". It wasn't until he achieved success that screenwriters began to welcome his disruptions, because every role Zhang Chengyuan played was highly acclaimed by professionals and audiences alike, bringing praise to the screenwriters who worked with him as well.

  These painstaking preparations before acting, which some extreme actors can also do, are not enough to show Zhang Chengyuan's unique talent in this aspect. Zhang Chengyuan's greatest reliance in this life is the Yuanshen he cultivated through hard work and bitter practice in his past life. Although due to suffering from thunder calamity and the decline of heaven and earth's primordial energy, the divine powers of Yuanshen are no longer present, but at the very least, it can be used as a highly advanced personal computer, not only helping Zhang Chengyuan become the most outstanding student at Hansung University, but also allowing him to concretize and vividly bring to life the stiff character images described by words when rehearsing scripts, until forming an almost indistinguishable image from real people. With this armament, Zhang Chengyuan's acting career naturally soars like a tiger with wings added.

  Unfortunately, no matter how excellent the talent is, it's only one element of success. Sometimes, what's needed to achieve great things is opportunity. In this regard, Zhang Chengyuan can't be said to be very bad, but he's just average. Born into an ordinary single-parent family, the brokerage company he signed with couldn't invest heavily to make him a leading man, not even a second or third lead. The fact that he has his current mediocre status is largely due to his own efforts and perfect appearance. Of course, Park Byung-ryul also deserves credit, but if his company had more power, Zhang Chengyuan might have become the lead in a youth idol drama by now, after all, he had reached this position before.

  Now he won't be so embarrassed. At the press conference before the start of "The First Love of the Crown Prince", many reporters gathered, and the flashlights flashed constantly, making it a lively scene. However, all this seemed to have nothing to do with Jang Sung-won, although he was sitting in the actor's seat at that time, and even sat next to the heroine Kang Hye-ji, but the attention from the reporters was very little, and could be said to be ignored.

  Because sitting on the other side of Sung Yu-ri is the male lead of this drama, Asian superstar Cha Tae-hyun.

  Yes, Asian superstar Cha Tae-hyun, since he and Jeon Ji-hyun starred in "My Sassy Girl" 3 years ago, sweeping Asia, Cha Tae-hyun has been evaluated by the Korean media as an Asian superstar. Although he himself never said so, but in the eyes of some Koreans, he is a truly unbeatable national film actor, his popularity can instantly kill almost all first-line TV actors, so Jang Sung-won looks even more dull under his dazzling light.

  While Cha Tae-hyun's partner, Jung Yu-mi, is also not an ordinary person. Thinking back two or three years ago, Fin.K.L's popularity was so strong that even top female stars like Kim Hee-sun, Song Hye-kyo and Kim Ji-hyun had to give way. After the group members went solo, Jung Yu-mi's popularity remained undiminished, and after struggling in the TV industry for two years, she gained a large number of fans.

  With the support of these two superstars, this drama has already attracted widespread attention even before its broadcast and filming. It is believed that the premiere ratings of this TV series will be astonishing. However, with the presence of these two shining stars, Zhang Chengyuan has become "invisible" and been ignored by others, which is only natural. Although Zhang Chengyuan's expression remains unchanged, as if he doesn't care at all, but he must have experienced a certain degree of prosperity in his heart before, how could he really be unaffected?

  She had been paying attention to Zhang Chengyuan, and when no one was asking her questions for the time being, she leaned over and said a few words to him. The content of the conversation was very ordinary, after all, at this moment, it was not possible to say too intimate words, but Zhang Chengyuan's purpose in speaking was just to shift some of the attention from the reporters away from her and onto himself, so that he would suffer less cold treatment and feel a little better.

  After several whispers, a reporter finally noticed something unusual and brought up the topic again, this time involving Zhang Chengyuan, the male lead. However, he asked Xing Yu Li: "Ms. Xing Yu Li, what is your relationship with Mr. Zhang Chengyuan? You two seem to be very close?"

  Just getting close, saying a few words, and being said to be "very intimate", this reporter really knows how to talk nonsense. Maybe this reporter just habitually likes to exaggerate, but unexpectedly hit the nail on the head. Moreover, this reporter also doesn't know that his casual remark will soon dig up a big scoop.

  Cheng Youli was taken aback for a moment after hearing this, and immediately glanced at Zhang Chengyuan. Zhang Chengyuan reacted even more quickly, lightly shaking his head to signal to Cheng Youli not to reveal the truth, as it could easily turn into an explosive scandal that would greatly help him but might severely impact Cheng Youli's thriving performing arts career.

  Cheng Youli suddenly felt that this was a good opportunity to increase Zhang Chengyuan's exposure, so he didn't follow Zhang Chengyuan's intention. Looking at the reporter in front of him, he said: "Yes, you're right, Mr. Zhang Chengyuan is my good brother whom I've known for a long time, and our relationship is very good."

  As soon as the news came out, not only did the reporters realize that they had dug up a big news that could boost newspaper sales or TV ratings, but even the crew members were extremely surprised, because they had never heard of such news before, and even at the meeting with several main actors and creators a few days ago, Sung Yu-ri and Jang Hyuk still acted like strangers who met for the first time.

  Some imaginative people suddenly had an idea: "Could it be that these two are in a romantic relationship, having an underground love affair? Why else would they want to keep it so secret? But now why did they suddenly expose themselves, are they tired of sneaking around and want to make their relationship public?"

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