Chapter 86 The Cast

Deeply stimulated by Lin Ming Yang's words, Ecks had set himself up on a crazy fitness program. Now, apart from his working hours, the guy ran to the gym whenever he could, causing Lin Ming Yang to have to personally run to the gym to find him every time he couldn't get through on the phone.

"Why is it that I'm the one who goes to find Matthew Perry, but you get to run off on a romantic 'date' with Jennifer Aniston?" Ecks, who was sweating on the treadmill, complained loudly to Lin Ming Yang in front of him.

"I'm doing this for your own good, think of dear Martha and you'll think I'm being wise in this arrangement. The matter of finding an actor was originally said to be yours to do, I'm now risking a scandal with Jennifer Aniston to fulfill this arduous task on your behalf, what are you still dissatisfied with?" Lin Ming Yang added 5 kilograms to each side of the 90 kilogram barbell and still felt uninspired when he lifted it, while Ecks, who was on the treadmill on the sidelines, watched in disbelief.

"But why did you ask Matthew Perry to play you 20 years later, do you think you'll become like him later?" Ecks silently accepted this reality, but he still had questions in his mind.

Matthew Perry played Chandler's wisecracking, somewhat neurotic, sarcastic in his humor, the funniest "weak male" character in "Old Friends". Although there is no denying the classic status of Matthew Perry in the movie "Old Friends", but his own funny style line is not pleasing to women's likes, while Lin Mingyang is the kind of role that can make all the women scream in one scene, the two styles are very different.

"This kind of gap is what creates the contrast, and it's also more dramatic." Lin Ming Yang first explained seriously, then began to flirt with the other party, "Actually, I didn't think of Matthew Perry in the beginning, it was you who inspired me."

"Me?" Ecks was a bit puzzled.

"If I was you in high school, then the current you is Matthew Perry!" Lin Ming Yang thought for a moment and added, "To be precise, it's Matthew Perry from Old Friends, in real life he has a lot of scandals, you can't compare to him in this!"

In Old Friends, Chandler wasn't a hit with the ladies. But off screen, Matthew has had his fair share of scandals, with a brief fling with Julia Roberts in 1996, followed by Heather Graham, George Clooney's ex-girlfriend Krista Allen and actor Lauren -Graham. It is also considered a man with a lot of love in Hollywood.

"On the subject of scandalous girlfriends, you guys do have something in common!" Ecks finally caught the handle that Lin Ming Yang had accidentally revealed in his words and sarcastically spoke to him fiercely.

----

"Jennifer, out of the scripts sent this time, you have to pick one!" Agent Windsor told her client very solemnly, "Old Friends is over, it's impossible to make a sequel, but your acting life isn't over, just like in Impostor God, the audience is looking forward to your performance."

"I know it's easier to get famous acting in movies than in dramas, but I don't like being just a pretty vase in movies!"

The classic TV comedy "Old Friends", which has been in theaters for 10 consecutive years, has finally come to an end, and Jennifer Aniston, one of the main stars, has hit a low point in her life. Even though the movie "The Imposter", which starred her and Kim Carrey, beat out "The Matrix 2: Reloaded" at the box office in its first week, the character she played in the movie still hasn't been able to escape the fate of being a flower vase.

Windsor didn't say anything, as a professional agent, she knew that Jennifer wasn't wrong about her judgment. The film contracts she was receiving now were all based on her fame in Old Friends, and the ones offered were all vase-type roles. Jennifer, who was already in her early thirties, was no longer young, and if she didn't seek a breakthrough in the movie field, the little fame she had accumulated in the TV series would soon be exhausted. Hollywood is full of beautiful young "vases", Jennifer can not rely on such roles in the movie industry to open up the road of development.

"I have a script here that I originally didn't intend to recommend to you, but I've read the general plot, which involves a lot of female lead roles, very interesting, definitely not a vase type role."

"But why didn't you bring it to me in the first place?" Jennifer Aniston asked in disbelief.

"Because the other party offered too low a paycheck, 3 million dollars is just equivalent to what you would have been paid for two episodes of 'Old Friends', it's a bit low anyways!" Windsor explained, "What makes me most uneasy is still the director of the movie, he's too young, and although he's already succeeded in making a similar movie before, there's no guarantee that he'll always have good luck."

"So what's your opinion?" Jennifer Aniston was a little hesitant.

"You can take a look at the script first and then make a decision!" Windsor took out the script that was pressed at the bottom from the desk drawer, "The screenwriter is Felix Lin, this kid has been making a name for himself in Hollywood lately, his paychecks are ranked number one amongst the new generation of actors in Hollywood, and every movie he acts in, is written by himself, and a while ago he won two Emmy awards, so he should be considered as a guy of notable strength. "

"He's going to be his own director?" Jennifer Aniston was no stranger to Lin Ming Yang, so she immediately associated Lin Ming Yang's last directorial effort, Cinderella's Glass Hands, the small-budget indie box office dark horse.

"The male lead in the script is divided into two stages, middle age and youth, and it's rumored that the one playing the male lead in the middle age stage is your old friend Matthew Perry, while Lin Ming Yang himself is acting in the youth portion of the male lead in the film. Matthew Perry's role is very small in the script, but that guy Lin Ming Yang actually offered him a paycheck of 2 million dollars!" Windsor said with some indignation.

"I think the script he wrote and the movie he acted in are both very good, can you briefly describe the role he prepared for me in the script?" Jennifer Aniston didn't rush through the script, as it was something that couldn't be read in a moment.

"A housewife experiencing a mid-life crisis whose husband has abandoned a pivotal basketball game in high school in favor of being there for the already pregnant heroine, who ends up losing out on the chance to go to college.Twenty years later, their marriage is experiencing major challenges as the hero has become demotivated and complains a lot about life, so the heroine decides to divorce him. "

"Because of an accident, the hero goes back to his seventeen years old, but no one around him has changed, and he has to deal with his children at school, as well as his wife who doesn't recognize him at all, with some hilarious things happening in between. At the end, the hero is once again faced with exactly the same choices as when he was 17, and in the end, he still makes the same decision, and in the passageway transforms back into middle age to reconnect with his wife."

"That story sounds great!" Jennifer Aniston thought for a moment, "How much did Felix Lim set himself up for the movie?"

"The movie was written and directed by him, where's the paycheck for that?"

"So he offered me $3 million dollars, which is the highest he's ever been paid for this movie?" Jennifer Aniston came to this inference.

Windsor didn't deny it, but also explained the reason for this situation, "If Lin Ming Yang didn't insist on being a director, then he could have made a huge profit from the screenplay and starring role alone; but if he insisted on directing himself, the investors wouldn't have given him too much of a budget, and if he paid himself, then the filming budget would have had to be overrun for sure. The last movie he directed, the shooting costs were out of his own pocket."

Jennifer Aniston seriously considered it, and eventually wanted to give it a try, "I'm interested in this role!"

"You don't have to rush to make a decision, you can meet with him first." Windsor suggested.

----

The meeting place for Lin Ming Yang and Jennifer Aniston was arranged in a high class cafe in a five star hotel, both of them arrived at the same time and when they were seated Lin Ming Yang was a gentleman and pulled out the seat for Jennifer before pulling out another chair for himself to sit down.

"First time meeting, Ms. Jennifer is even more beautiful than I imagined, this makes me feel excited!" Lin Mingyang's opening remarks didn't have too many new ideas, but when combined with the sunny and warm smile on his handsome face, his lethality towards women was almost exponentially increasing, and Jennifer Aniston certainly wasn't spared.

"Oh?" Jennifer asked curiously, "Can I know the reason for your excitement?"

"Because I've finally met the real-life Rachel!" The undisguised admiration in Lin Mingyang's tone further won Jennifer Aniston's favor.

Rachel in "Old Friends" is a beloved beauty and the character with the most believable and endearing character development in the show's nine years on the air: from a rich young woman who ran away from her marriage in the first episode of the first season, a spoiled, silly older sister, to a mature, sweet, emotionally intelligent woman later in her life. Like the character, Jennifer, who plays Rachel, is the most popular actress in the entire cast of Old Friends.

"You should have been a kid when the first season of Old Friends aired!" Jennifer joked.

"Technically, I'm still a minor now too!" Lin Ming Yang made a very helpless expression, "You know in every little boy's heart, there are one or two beautiful figures that grow up with them!"

"And that includes me?" Jennifer was so surprised that she covered her mouth with both hands.

Lin Ming Yang smiled mischievously, "I'm not the only one who does that!"

The light-hearted opening eliminated the distance between the two due to their unfamiliarity with each other, and Jennifer went on to talk about the script.

"Your script is really wonderfully written, Mike doesn't deny himself, but reaffirms the power and value of faith by going back to 17 years old to experience a different era of school life, and then confirming his choices. What made you want to write such a story?"

"Because the reality is that everyone has regrets about their past. From the very beginning, the protagonist, Mike, has countless paths to the future in front of him that he can choose from, but he passes up every opportunity. So when one day he didn't fall, he started to think that if he could go back in time, if he had seized those possibilities, maybe he wouldn't have ended up where he is today. I mean, if you make a choice that results in a monotonous, dull and boring life for the rest of your life, of course you would think about going back in time to change all that." Lin Mingyang explained:

"From the very beginning I abandoned the so-called self-redemption, crisis-saving routine, and instead iterated and intensified on the same judgment, and I believe this obsession will explode with amazing emotional power! Many things remain the same when they are repeated, and denying oneself does not simply mean coming to one's senses and repenting, but also confirms the hypocrisy and fickleness of human nature. On the contrary, in reality, the time that passes easily is the most memorable, and also the more beautiful and precious because of its absurdity and flaws."

"Indeed, the past is a sentiment, a sudden flash of images in mediocrity, a familiar melody suddenly heard in the midst of impermanence, not something to be argued with or denigrated." Jennifer's rich life experience gives her a different sense of the past as well: "What's particularly interesting to me is that you seem to know a lot about the state of middle-aged people's lives?"

"Because everyone's life can seem too ordinary at times, and without some previous encounters, I can even imagine what I would be like in 20 years. It may seem a little premature to say this, but everyone makes decisions that they regret, and if all you do is constantly look backward and think, 'I wish I had done this or that.' Then you'll live in perpetual agony. I have friends of my parents who have been in the same situation as Mike in the script, and they're very unhappy with their situation, and they're obviously at a bit of a dead end. But I think the most important thing they need to learn is how to be grateful for what they have right now, when in fact they themselves are the root cause of it all."

"Is that what you were trying to tell people in the movie?" Jennifer nodded seriously, "And what about me?"

"I think it's just as good an opportunity for you to take you out of the TV sitcom mold and give you a whole new space to showcase your talents. Everyone knows how good you are at doing the kind of sitcom acting that relies on a lot of body language. I think you still have a lot of emotional layers to you that most people don't realize. You need an emotional role to prove yourself, and a female lead in this show would be a great choice!"

The corner of Jennifer's mouth lifted into a charming smile, "You're confident in yourself?"

"Not me, us!"