The Best Director

“Hey, Michael,” Jessica greeted him, letting Michael Pitt inside while shouting into the house, “Yang, Michael is here.” She smiled at Michael and pointed towards the kitchen, saying, “I’m going to cook first.”

Since Wang Yang moved here, Jessica often came to take care of the kitchen. After the “pregnancy false alarm incident,” she came over to make dinner every day, like a diligent wife.

At that moment, Wang Yang came down from the upstairs study. He gave a slight smile to Jessica heading towards the kitchen and then turned to Michael Pitt, walking over to embrace him and inspecting Michael with a smile, “Hey, radiant handsome man!” Michael Pitt gave a faint smile, “Not bad, right?” Wang Yang nodded in approval, “Very good.”

The two sat down on the living room couch, and Wang Yang continued to scrutinize Michael Pitt, “Michael, I’m quite satisfied with your appearance and temperament. The only issue is your acting.” Michael Pitt nodded, “What should I do?” Wang Yang picked up a few pages of the script that had been prepared on the coffee table and handed them to him, “Start by reading this.” Michael Pitt took the script and began reading it intently. Waiting quietly until he finished, Wang Yang explained, “This character, Paulie, he’s a guy who has never been in love; he’s still a virgin, but just that one time, something happened.” Wang Yang chuckled, and so did Michael Pitt, because he had never been in love either. This was one of the reasons Wang Yang considered Michael: when an actor shares many similarities with the character, they can perform better and with more spirit.

Wang Yang laughed again and said, “Michael, think about it, you like a girl, right?” Michael Pitt shrugged, and Wang Yang continued, “Suddenly, she takes the initiative to sleep with you, and then a month later, she tells you, ‘I’m pregnant’. Act out this part for me—the script on the first page.”

“Okay,” Michael Pitt looked at the script, and his face began to show his attempt at acting. With a dumbfounded expression, he pursed his lips unnaturally, opening and closing his mouth as if hesitating to speak, and after a good while, he finally delivered the line, “I know, so what should we do?”

Watching his performance, Wang Yang remained expressionless but internally commended him, admitting that Michael Pitt had a certain acting talent. He easily captured the character’s personality, so his performance was completely correct in the broader sense. Michael Pitt mumbled to himself as he acted for a while, and then Wang Yang said, “OK, Michael, on to the next part. You see Juno walking across campus, her belly big with child, but her books have fallen to the ground. She can’t bend down to pick them up, and the other students are laughing at her. You want to go over and help her, but you’ve just had a fight with her, and you’re hesitating. Act out this scene.”

Since Paulie wasn’t as lively as Juno, he was a very quiet young man; thus, most of his performance was concentrated on his facial expressions.

Michael Pitt acknowledged the instruction and after a moment of thought, he began to furrow his brows just slightly, his eyes gazing into the distance, as if Juno were right there.

“Not bad,” Wang Yang nodded and then continued to test Michael Pitt with several acting segments, nearly portraying the whole emotional arc of the protagonist Paulie—from initial fear and wanting to avoid the situation, to wanting to care for Juno even though Juno wasn’t much responsive and his own hesitations, to eventually deciding to take responsibility and face everything with Juno, which moved her…

Michael Pitt’s acting, within its framework, expressed the character’s mindset quite well, albeit with some youthful awkwardness in the finer details. However, this actually made him seem more like a high school student, without an overly mature feel.

“Buddy,” Wang Yang winked at Michael, and with a smile said, “I think you’re the one.” Michael Pitt was dumbstruck, breathless, and after a long moment, let out a deep breath and said, “I’m the lead?” Wang Yang nodded with a smile, “Yes, this time there arc plenty of lines, plenty of scenes.”

Michael Pitt seemed a little out of sorts, shifting around in his seat. His right hand went into his pocket and he looked at Wang Yang, asking, “Can I have a cigarette?”

Wang Yang wagged his finger, “No, from now on, you have to quit smoking, until the filming of ‘Juno’. I want to see only the sunny side of you; tuck your sullen side away for now.”

“Oh, okay,” Michael Pitt pulled out his hand, suddenly laughing, his face filled with sunshine. He joked, “For the dream, I’ll quit.”

Wang Yang also laughed heartily, feeling equally pleased. He recalled Michael Pitt’s haggard appearance in New York, remembered him screaming in the streets… Persistence in pursuit, never giving up, there’s always a reward, isn’t there? Patting Michael Pitt on the shoulder with a smile, he said, “Michael, prepare well. Juno is pretty difficult to deal with.”

“Yang, who’s playing her?” Michael Pitt curiously asked. Wang Yang shrugged somewhat helplessly, “You tell me.”

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