Chapter 22: The Small Supporting Role

  In the late afternoon, Zhang Chengyuan bid farewell and left. After this gathering, Zhang Chengyuan's relationship with Li Xiaoli and her four daughters became closer without realizing it. However, both parties were very busy with work and didn't know when they could gather together again for a whole day with joy.

  After a few months, Zhang Chengyuan felt that his acting skills had improved greatly compared to when he first filmed the commercial. Having run through countless small roles in many filming locations recently, he was no longer unfamiliar with TV drama filming. Therefore, he proactively proposed to Park Byung-ryul that he wanted to challenge a more advanced role.

  Park Byung-ryul had this idea for a long time, that an artist like Jang Sung-won would waste resources by running over 100 extras in just a few months, almost every day. Many colleagues thought he was a foolish and stupid person who didn't know how to develop his talents, so some people even came to him wanting to poach Jang Sung-won. Park Byung-ryul wouldn't agree, but he also felt extremely frustrated by the criticism from his peers. This wasn't his business, it was just Jang Sung-won's idea.

  Because he thought highly of Jang Sung-won's potential to become a top star, Park Byung-ho did not want to fall out with him for future contract renewals. He also believed that Jang had more vision and therefore not only did not force Jang to hastily take on some roles with more screen time, but also actively supported Jang in every way, treating Jang almost like his own son.

  After receiving Zhang Chengyuan's request, Park Byung-ryul immediately found a small role for Zhang Chengyuan in the crew of "Famous Doctor Xu Jin" that could show his face and speak lines. Compared to before when Zhang Chengyuan often covered his face as an assassin or disguised himself as a passerby on the street, this was a huge leap forward. If it weren't for Zhang Chengyuan's idea of gradual progress and laying a solid foundation, with Park Byung-ryul's connections and means, relying on Zhang Chengyuan's popularity in the advertising industry, he could have easily arranged for Zhang Chengyuan to play a supporting role like a third male lead.

  "The Great Doctor Xuan" started filming in early October. When Zhang Chengyuan joined the crew, the TV series had already aired several episodes on TV. However, Zhang Chengyuan played only a small role with very few scenes, and he would appear in at most one or two episodes. This was because the scriptwriter added this small role temporarily under the strong lobbying of Park Hyung-ryeol. Therefore, when Zhang Chengyuan joined the crew, no one raised any objections.

  In fact, most of the actors and staff members did not know who Zhang Chengyuan was, as they were not familiar with the advertising modeling world. Their only impression of Zhang Chengyuan was: "This kid is really handsome, why didn't he go film a romantic idol drama? Why did he come to film a historical drama instead?"

  The gap between historical dramas and youth idol dramas is huge. Not to mention the investment, personnel mobility, performance methods, etc., just reading the script can make young actors today dizzy and NG frequently. In recent decades, South Korea has been promoting its so-called Korean culture, strongly rejecting the Chinese cultural heritage passed down from the Chinese civilization, resulting in the vast majority of young people not recognizing many Chinese characters. Naturally, they are also very unfamiliar with ancient Korean language closely related to Chinese. If it weren't for the historical dramas' persistent influence, I'm afraid even the names of ancient Korean palace buildings would be unclear.

  Heo Jun was a famous doctor in ancient Korea (equivalent to the Ming Dynasty period in China) and wrote the book "Dongui Bogam". It is said that it can be compared with "Bencao Gangmu", so his position in Korean medical history is equivalent to that of Li Shizhen, a medical scientist and pharmacologist of the same period in Chinese medical history. Since there were far fewer famous doctors in ancient Korea than in China, Heo Jun's reputation was naturally more prominent in Korea, and he was a household name. However, in the eyes of Jang Yeong-sil, a Taoist hermit, Heo Jun was just an ordinary doctor, and his medical skills were at most comparable to those of Zhang Zhongjing and Sun Simiao, ancient Chinese doctors, and he was only worthy of being their disciple.

  The TV series "Great Doctor Xu Jun" tells the story of Xu Jun's growth into a famous doctor and his chivalrous and compassionate life, as well as his romantic side. If it didn't show this romantic side, I estimate that half of the audience would be lost. In recent years, Koreans have paid great attention to personal health, so when this TV series was broadcast, it received enthusiastic pursuit and its ratings soared. Otherwise, Jang Sung-won wouldn't have been brought into this drama by Park Byung-ryul.

  Compared to the historical prototype, the TV series inevitably exaggerated Hwang Jini's great image to attract viewers' attention and cultivate Korean people's national pride, although it also showed some of Hwang Jini's shortcomings, but in terms of character, the protagonist Hwang Jini is almost a selfless and perfect medical sage.

  Of course, the TV series has just started, and Zhang Chengyuan does not know about the screenwriter's intentions at this time. If he did, he would definitely be even more scornful. However, work is work, and even though Zhang Chengyuan has a proud heart as a northerner and looks down on Xu Huan, he can only obediently follow the arrangements of the "Xu Huan" crew for now.

  After reporting to the crew, Zhang Chengyuan followed the crew members to Jirisan in Sancheong County, South Gyeongsang Province. The main scenes filmed here were the protagonist Huh Jun learning medicine from the famous doctor Yu Ui-tae, especially the scene of collecting medicinal herbs.

  This time, Zhang Chengyuan plays a mountain boy who has been living in the mountains since childhood, making a living by hunting and collecting medicinal herbs. His martial arts skills are extraordinary, and he can even fight against fierce tigers. Of course, this is just a script setting, and it's impossible to really let Zhang Chengyuan fight with tigers. It's not that we're afraid of the actor being in danger, but rather that tigers are now more valuable than humans. The cost of borrowing a tiger from a zoo is tens or even hundreds of times more expensive than hiring a stunt double.

  The first scene to be filmed was Zhang Chengyuan's debut in the TV series. As soon as he appeared, he was fighting a fierce tiger. In order not to steal the spotlight from the main character and also to save time, this scene was not set up in detail, and the fight scene was very casual. The martial arts instructor casually said a few words and let Zhang Chengyuan and the actor playing the old tiger practice on their own.

  When filming began, Zhang Chengyuan bared his right upper body and held a light wooden two-pronged fork to engage in a "fierce" battle with a fierce tiger. After a struggle, he finally chased the tiger away and then chased after it, catching up with it in a few steps before raising the wooden fork to stab the tiger to death.

  To keep up with the camera, the tiger ran extremely slowly, estimated to be only slightly faster than a three or four-year-old child. This forced Zhang Chengyuan to use slow motion while also making an effort to appear as if he was running desperately, which made Zhang feel quite awkward. However, he felt even more sorry for the stunt double wearing the tiger costume, who didn't earn much money but ended up exhausted like a dead dog. In order to make the scene look more realistic under the current conditions, the stunt double and Zhang Chengyuan repeatedly rehearsed many times before filming. Because the path ahead was unclear, the stunt double tripped over stones and grass roots countless times, and twice nearly rolled down the mountain. Fortunately, Zhang Chengyuan's quick reflexes allowed him to grab hold of the stunt double, narrowly avoiding an accident.

  Zhang Chengyuan felt more and more that this scene was a bit of a joke, and when filming it, Zhang Chengyuan almost burst out laughing. Can't the crew provide a slightly better prop? How can you kill the king of beasts with a wooden fork? It's probably not even possible to pierce tiger skin. To avoid making people laugh out loud when the episode airs, Zhang Chengyuan had to work extremely hard to show off the fierce and brave side of this mountain boy, not only was his gaze intimidating, but he also used his inner energy to create a gust of wind behind him that blew up fallen leaves, adding to the dramatic effect.

  After filming this scene, Zhang Chengyuan was exhausted and felt that he was an unimportant minor character who had to work hard on his own to do a good job.

  When shooting this scene, on another mountain, the protagonist Xu Guang was also filming the scene of picking herbs. Xu Guang's portrayal of Quan Guanglie is quite pitiful, being over 40 years old and still having to wear straw sandals, carry a medicine basket and climb rugged mountain roads. To show the hardship of picking herbs, he often had to climb rocky walls, even with the help of staff in secret, it was extremely hard work. After continuous shooting for four or five hours, Quan Guanglie finally couldn't take it anymore, vomiting violently, almost spitting out his gallbladder, causing the crew to be tense for a while, fearing that he would end up hospitalized and affect the filming schedule.

  After witnessing this scene, Zhang Chengyuan thought to himself: "Filming dramas is much more tiring than filming commercials. However, if others can do it, I can do it too, and I must do it even better. At the very least, my physical build is stronger than that of ordinary actors, so I can endure more hardships."

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