#to all the casting directors and producers

[wangmiao]

From being stuck in the snow together in 2016 to filming Tibetan Sea Flower - Nan Pai San Shu's "Obsession" over Zhang Luyi.

Thank you for noticing my tag in the other post about the friendship between ZLY and CMH, and showing some interest. So here we go! I guess besides why Zhang Luyi (ZLY) was picked, there's also the story about how everything started. I find it rather fascinating. DMBJ's author Nan Pai San Shu, aka Xu Lei (XL) told the story a few years ago, but he mentioned it again during a livestream when Tibetan Sea flower (TSF) just started airing. The next three paragraphs are based on XL's livestream and ZLY's interviews.

Back in 2016, on a very snowy day, XL was on his way to The Mystic Nine's filming location, and was stuck on a mountain road. After waiting for a while, he thought he should go and help direct the traffic. When he got out to do it, he surprisingly found another Good Samaritan already doing what he intended to do, and yes, that Good Samaritan was ZLY.

ZLY was on his way to The Mystic Nine's filming location too. It was actually not XL who picked him for the role of Wu Laogou then. He went to guest star in that show because his university classmate Bai Yicong, the producer of the show, asked ZLY to do him a favor and just stop by to have a meeting with everyone.

So that's how XL and ZLY first met in person. Because they got stuck in the snow for a LONG time, they talked a lot about DMBJ, from Wu Laogou to Wu Xie, and even TSF (ZLY already read some of the DMBJ novels at the time, and he finished all of them before shooting TSF). At some point, XL told ZLY that ZLY's vibe reminded him of a very important character of his, which was Wu Xie. ZLY was very moved and thankful. Since they had such a good long talk, they kind of made a promise to each other that they'd work together on a DMBJ project at some point. They also each made a weibo post about meeting each other as the traffic director in the snow.

In 2017, there was actually quite some rumors about ZLY being approached to play Wu Xie in Sha Hai/Tomb of the Sea (this is not to discredit other Wu Xie actors, because it's normal for a production team to approach multiple actors for a role in the casting stage), but since ZLY had several health issues due to being injured during the filming of another show, he really couldn't be a candidate for the role.

But XL never forgot about ZLY. In 2021, rumors came around again about ZLY being approached to play Wu Xie in TSF, and this time, he agreed.

During the airing of TSF, XL did a lot of livestreams and Q&A sections on weibo. There's one post where he said: "From the state in the beginning, the state of being lost, to the Sha Hai!Xie state in the end, the entire progress is shown in TSF. I needed an actor with extremely good acting skills. From TSF!Xie to Sha Hai!Xie, there're many occasions where Wu Xie's soul is in a dark place and he might fall for his obsession. Besides Pangzi being there to pull him back, it also needs Wu Xie's strong faith and goodness, and I think it needed acting skills to show it."

In another comment to a fan's question about the choice of Wu Xie's actor, XL answered: "Maybe it represents a kind of inner demons", which I think the inner demons part can be translated to obsession.

So you can tell, it does seem that XL had this obsession to have ZLY play Wu Xie no matter what. And he never gave up the idea ever since they first met, even though by the time they could finally work together in 2022, ZLY was no longer in the best age range to play TSF!Xie (hence, sometimes you'd notice those annoying filters used to mask wrinkles on his face).

I really haven't watched all of XL's livestreams and interviews, and from the very few ones I've watched, he mentioned where ZLY impressed him. Before the shooting started, ZLY double checked with XL to see if XL wanted him to play Wu Xie as a more straightforward northerner or gentler southerner (this is not to stereotype, but to reflect the cultural and language difference), and XL reassured him to be a southerner since Wu Xie is a from the south of China. ZLY was no stranger to playing a southerner even though he's a northerner himself, as some of his best characters were from south China. This was why he dropped all his natural Beijing accent, and showed a gentler demeanor (eg. Pangzi is a typical northerner, and CMH kept his Beijing accent).

Another thing is when they were shooting the real and fake Wu Xie scene, it was filmed without any special effects or even an extra actor. ZLY played both characters each time with thin air. It impressed XL a lot because it required so much more finesse and precision on the memory, timing, and movement.

Lastly I want to show you ZLY's goodbye message to TSF that was posted on Sep 24th. He's a very dedicated, sincere, and cultured actor that often uses handwritten stuff to say goodbye to shows nowadays. And he wrote what Wu Xie and Pangzi always say to each other, the good luck and good fortune thing: "Da Ji Da Li, Gong Xi Fa Cai"

Another fun fact is that ZLY is very good at calligraphy. He used to assign different fonts to the characters he played based on their characteristics. Because Wu Xie writes in 瘦金体/Shoujin font, ZLY wrote the message also in Shoujin font. I guess you can say that's another similarity between him and Wu Xie, that they can both write in this font (I'm no expert in calligraphy, so I found an article teaching people how to write in Shoujin font. It was definitely not an easy thing to do because it advised people to learn and practice certain fonts in traditional calligraphy for a few years before even going for the Shoujin font).

Thanks for reading! If you like ZLY's Wu Xie, that's awesome. If not, that's OK. It's totally understandable. Please also know that I have zero intention to compare his version of Wu Xie to other Wu Xies. I'm sure each Wu Xie is awesome, unique, and lovable in his own way.

[eternal-learner]

take your pick

[harritudur]

Jack Farthing → Henry VII Hannah Dodd → Elizabeth of York

(Henry & Elizabeth had 9 years of difference, and Jack & Hannah have 10. it's perfection 👌)

[shannonsketches]

Every time I talk to a DB fan who doesn't know or doesn't agree that the whole franchise is an adventure comedy first and an action series second I feel insane but then I find an old Toriyama interview,

You made some comedic scenes where you have minor villains Pilaf & co. appear; how did you come up with a balance between laughs and fierce battles? Do you pay attention to the difference between comedy and battle in making a work “entertaining”?

I believe that, when you combine comedy and serious battles, both of them might come alive even more. As for me personally, though, I much prefer drawing dumb jokes to battle scenes.

as a bonus, every time I'm like 'idk I didn't really like most of the DBZ movies prior to Yo Son Goku and Friends Return and BotG,' and get the 'whAAaaT they're so gOOD' (from my brother, tbh askdjs) but they all seemed really Action-Drama and About the Fight Scenes and I'm like 'meh kinda boring tbh' I get to gaze upon,

In the latest movie, Toriyama-san, you participated in the production from the scriptwriting stage for the first time. What is the reason for that? Was there anything you noticed in coming face-to-face with the work after so long?

I was told about a project for Dragon Ball in its first animated film in a long while, and I read the story outline; while the beings “Beerus, God of Destruction” and “Super Saiyan God” (which goes above Super Saiyan) were interesting, the themes were heavy, and I felt that the world was a bit different from Dragon Ball. Rather than telling them about this or that problematic spot, I thought it would be faster if I just wrote it out concretely, and while I had intended just to give them a model―”for example”―my hand wouldn’t stop, and ultimately, I ended up writing almost everything, including the dialogue. I am reflecting on the fact that I did something terribly rude to the scriptwriter.

Akira "It was bad so I fixed it, oops" Toriyama, Absolute Legend

[ssaseaprince]

Every time someone says that Hannigram isn't canon, I lose another year of my life

[mariocki]

An uncredited Jacqueline Hill appears as an unnamed Irish barmaid in The Vise: Death Pays No Dividends (1.5, ABC, 1954); in the UK, this episode wasn't seen until 1960 as part of ITV anthology The Crooked Path

[finexbright]

for fuck's sake the reason harry isn't doing much promo for my policeman isn't because he's a queerbaiter or whatever but because the one time he did speak about the movie he said something so profoundly gay and hashtag relatable about hiding your identity and sexuality and the yearning that comes along with it that everyone was confused how this 'straight' man knew so much about being gay

[linisiane]

The Weird Diversity of Wednesday

While watching Wednesday, my brother and I were disappointed to see the darker skinned characters consistently used as bad guys or jokes!

The mean popular girl, the bully, the shady mayor, the pathetic nerd. It was WEIRD to see a darker skinned character get introduced, predict that they’re gonna be a minor antagonist, and then get proven correct every time. Obviously, that didn’t happen with the white/light-skin characters, who had the options of being bad guys and good guys.

The only exception was Eugene. Instead of being a villain, he got the chance to be the loser character that the show fridged for the latter half of its run time. (Excepting the finale, I presume, but I haven’t seen that episode, yet.) (Also, Deputy Santiago is a black woman who is just a deputy, but she’s also working with Sheriff Galpin, and she’s such a minor a character I forgot she existed. That one depends on your perspective.)

If you couldn’t tell by my “the option of being good guys and bad guys” comment, I don’t actually think dark skinned characters being bad guys is a problem. A person of any race or complexion should have the chance to be a bad guy because villains are fun and allow for complexity. (Also, more importantly, because race doesn’t determine morality.) In fact, I actually really love how the show delved deeper into the minor antagonists.

I love Bianca’s issues with her mother and her siren powers. I appreciate that the popular/beautiful queen bee isn’t a blonde white girl. I love the way the show humanizes the “mean girl” by demonstrating that she has more depth than her mean girl caricature, such as her talking with Wednesday at the dance about struggling with connection or her trying to save Lucas from getting scammed by her mom.

Lucas, similarly, is really fun as a villain. My brother and I got a kick out of how much game this guy had. Almost every girl he shared a screen with had chemistry or a mini-romance subplot with him! Go off, Casanova! I also liked that his reasons for attacking the dance wasn’t just cartoonish bigotry, but a human reaction to Wednesday kinda sorta enacting domestic terrorism at his dad’s ceremony. And it was cool to see him change and grow over the course of the season!

The show almost works! But it doesn’t, and Morticia’s scene with the mayor demonstrates why.

There’s a scene in this show where Morticia Addams, a white woman, tells a black man he has "no idea what it's like not to be believed."

Obviously the show was going for the “me-too” movement, identifying how her background as an outcast and a woman made her more vulnerable to victim blaming and disbelief. But it’s kind of crazy to me that they had her say that to a black man because black men have historically also had issues with being believed due to their marginalized status.

There is something to be said about how being a woman is different from being a man, how women are uniquely ignored, but Morticia, I’m sure the Mayor—as a black man in America—does have at least some awareness of what that’s like. Especially, especially, with the history of white women falsely accusing black men of crimes and getting them lynched or locked up because nobody would believe their word over a white woman’s.

It’s astounding that the show doesn’t address this context, and it makes the scene come off as ignorant. Almost willfully so. In fact, so much of this show felt like the reason they made “outcast” a marginalized social group was so that they could have white people be the victims of oppression with the most screen time on their tv show about marginalization, like they’re appropriating marginalized stories.

And this is consistent. They did this with LGBT+ themes, as well! Enid, a character who has no queer aspects to her character (only shown dating guys, no canon hints about same gender attraction), got an entire subplot about her mom trying to put her into “werewolf conversion therapy,” AND she got an entire scene where she told off her mom while wearing rainbow eyeshadow. Meanwhile, the actual LGBT content of the show consists entirely of two background characters (Eugene’s moms).

It honestly reminded me of the scene in the Vampire Diaries where Caroline, a vampire, gets electric shocks from her human dad, who is trying to use conversion therapy to turn her back into a human. Only, the dad character is ALSO canonically a gay man, for some reason.

Like, what is with this thing of creating fictional marginal statuses as a way to talk about social issues without actually involving said issues (no actual homophobia or colorism). Without actually creating main characters of real life marginalized status (no LGBT main characters). While also having the real life marginalized characters that do exist acting as the oppressors???? (Lucas, the Mayor, Caroline’s dad).

So yeah, the show is really interesting with its diversity. It almost works, as the stories it’s telling are cool and nuanced, but within the context of real life and the casting, the show is tone deaf. Plus, the show being somewhat produced and directed by Tim Burton (a guy who thinks that black characters must justify their blackness to exist in his works, and as a result, his works almost feature white people exclusively) does NOT help.

[pynkhues]

Thank you for your Sam height post! Love that William McInnes is so lovely (and that your grandmother's crush was validated).

Everything you said makes sense. Yeah Sam tends to have really straight posture and Jacob is gumby, lol, so if there's a half inch or inch difference between them, which makes sense, Sam's ballerina posture could for sure make a difference. Plus yes, large head and broad shoulders. And then yes, Sam made Lestat seem so fragile and hunched in the reunion scene, and putting Jacob/Louis in boots and on his level in that sense was a great choice.

Absolutely cackling at "i'm going to build the most 5'9 cast you've ever seen" -- I'm imagining the CD just exhaling smoke from their cigarette as they gaze into the middle distance, envisioning all the 5'9" men they will cast

Also yeah looking at photos, is Rolin over six feet?? It's so funny, he has such small mischievous imp energy, and Sam has such tall energy. I don't know why some actors have tall energy -- I just discovered that Colin Farrell is 5'9" or 5'10" and I would have pegged him as over six feet.

(x)

You're very welcome! And yes! Ballerina posture is actually a great way to put it with Sam, haha, he's got that capital-c-capital-t Classically Trained energy all over him. I'm always amused by the fact that he didn't go to NIDA, because I feel like he has the most NIDA accent of all time, but then again, I feel like the combination of Sydney private school and LAMDA probably would've helped shave off the edges of any regional Australian accent (which I say as an Australian, haha).

Jacob is definitely a lot looser in how he holds himself in general, which definitely impacts how you see his height, but I think is also like, this really interesting thing in terms of them both as actors? They're both very physical performers and embody their characters in such specific ways, and how that physical choreography and elasticity comes into both of their performances is a bit magic, but that's a whole other post, haha.

As for Rolin - yeah! I think he's probably around the 6' mark, which genuinely shocked me?? Like you said, he's got such impish, short king energy, and then you see him with the cast and he just looks like everyone's loving but awkward uncle, lmao.

People just have inaccurate height vibes, I guess, haha.

[benisasoftboi]

I got covid and decided to pass the time watching the iCarly revival. Two key thoughts:

Nathan Kress is actually a really good comedic actor??? Like, to the point that I was pretty much just watching for him after a while??? I kind of wonder if he's a John Mulaney fan as some of his line reads reminded me a lot of him, very much in a good way, while still feeling like their own thing. But it's not just the way he delivers lines, he embodies the jokes in his physicality and facial expressions too, it's great. He can also bring emotion when called to as well, in the third season especially he plays his character's devotion to Carly with such sincerity. He's also the only one who plays any of the jokes anything close to subtle - I think he's also the only one who ever gets throwaway lines? In certain scenes Freddie ends up feeling like the only genuine, real person in a room full of caricatures, and while I don't have an issue with the characters being so exaggerated - it's iCarly (2021), the whole conceit is that it's a kids show for grown-ups and I think they achieve that successfully - it does really make me want to see what Kress could do on a more toned down, single-camera type comedy. Or just anything where he's allowed to be quicker - please, some casting director, put him in something without that albatross of a laugh track, I truly think he'd shine.

They made Spencer. So horny. And inexplicably heterosexual. And just generally kind of a dick? And so, so horny.

[crownconstellation]

forgot how suffering it is to have ur favourite character in smth involved in a very popular pairing you Do Not Like that is 1. everywhere in their tag and 2. not tagged correctly a lot so you can't even flag it

[heartthatwontquit]

Me and my mom were watching the movie IF and Sonic the Hedgehog 2019

IF made us cry because this is a beautiful film, IF. *Hug*

Sonic The Hedgehog took us back to way past cool times. Despite anxiety growing this helps

Thank God

Great movies

[toyherb]

oblivion battery feels like it was made for fujoshi to make doujinshi of it

[thewaltcrew]

Director Kirk Wise, screenwriter Linda Woolverton, and actor Robby Benson on casting the Beast [x]

They gave me an incredible amount of freedom. I didn't want Beast to be a cartoon character. I played it as though I were doing a Broadway show. As if this was a living person. And I wanted him to be funny. By funny, I don't mean shtick or one-liners. I am talking about real comedy. When real comedy works, and is truthful, especially with the Beast, it comes out of the fact that he is so pathetic. For some reason, I really understood that. Ha! Because of that, they gave me a lot of leeway. [x]

My first audition was recorded on, of all things, a Sony Walkman. As a musician, I had branched out into recording engineer and loved to play with sound. When I saw the Sony Walkman I knew it had a little condenser microphone in it, and if I were to get too loud, the automatic compressor and built-in limiter would 'squash' the voice— and there would be very little dynamic range to the performance. I did a quick assessment and wondered how many people who had come in to audition for the part were making that error: playing the Beast with overwhelming decibels, compressing the vocal waveforms. I decided to give the Beast 'range.' Because of my microphone technique, and an understanding of who I wanted Beast to be, they kept asking me to come back and read different dialogue. After my fifth audition, Jeffrey Katzenberg the hands-on guardian of the film, said the part was mine…

Beauty and the Beast was so refreshingly fun and inventively creative to work on that I couldn't wait to try new approaches to every line of dialogue. Don Hahn is one of the best creative producers I have ever worked with. The two young directors, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, were fantastic and their enthusiasm was contagious. I not only was allowed to improvise, but they encouraged it. It never entered my mind that I was playing an animated creature. I understood the torment that Beast was going through: he felt ugly; had a horrible opinion of himself, and had a trigger-temper. Those are things that, if done right, are the perfect ingredients for comedy. Painful and pathetic comedy— but honest. The kind of comedy I understood...

In the feature world of Disney animation, the actors always recorded their dialogue alone in a big studio, with only a microphone and the faint images of the producers, writers, directors and engineer through a double-paned set of acoustic glass. Paige O'Hara and I became good friends; it was her idea that for certain very intimate scenes, such as when Beast is dying, we record together. We were able to play these scenes with an honest conviction that is often absent in the voice-over world...

The success of this film was the culmination of a team effort but I must say, the honors go to the animators— and for me (Beast), that's Glen Keane — and to Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. This was the perfect example of a crew who 'cared'. And the final results (every frame) of the film represent that sentiment. [x]

[socialkid]

Imagine…

You’re a well known actress, and your name is pretty big. Like Zendaya big. And your fiancé Katsuki Bakugou is your pro hero boyfriend. Perfect couple right? No literally you are. He goes with you to all your interviews, tapes all of your auditions, and manages to get on your set AT LEAST one time.

Well recently you got casted in a show about an zombie outbreak. You play a main yet supporting character named Halle, a 19 year old girl who is apparently the only survivor left of her family.

Lucky for you the producer highly respects your boyfriend, and he’s allowed to watch you on set whenever. He sits in a chair the directors provide for him every time you film.

He usually supports you and he’ll peak at you from his phone a couple times, but it’s nothing he’s never not seen before.

Now when Bakugou’s passing by his staff’s cubicles and work area in his angency, and he keeps hearing them discuss about ‘Dead of Night’ (your new show) he’s genuinely intrigued.

Apparently the show’s gon viral. And everyone is talking about it. “Yeah, you haven’t seen it yet? I swear you live under a rock.” pro hero Charge Bolt told him. I mean technically he has watched it, he watched you film it! But now that he realizes, he can’t even spell out the plot.

So one day when Bakugou finds the time, he plops down on your sofa and clicks on your series.

Safe to say he might be intrigued…

Now when he watches he’s locked in. Snacks and all, and if he blinks he’s rewinding. It’s all he watches, he’s so interested in the show and can be considered a piece of the show’s fandom.

Now when you’re filming the show, Katsuki shows up a whole lot less. When the directors yell cut and your eyes pan to his empty chair. Katsuki gives you every excuse under the sun as to why he didn’t show up a certain day. You figured maybe he just got bored watching you film and didn’t know how to tell you, so you shrugged it off. You had no clue he was heavily avoiding spoilers. You didn’t even know he watched your show.

So a couple years pass and your show gets renewed for it’s third season. Unfortunately this season, Halle meets her fate. You recorded your last scene for the show, episode 10. Not a dry eye from the media.

The day your character’s death airs is a tragic day for your fans. Especially Bakugou. Mid way through the show as he slurps his spicy ramen his jaw is floored when your character passes. Noodles immediately discarded back into the cup.

So when you get back home and your boyfriend is quietly laying down on the sofa, watching a corny kids cartoon, you’re lost. “Hey Kats.” You say hanging your coat on the rack as you entered. He only replied with a mumble, something along the lines of “hey how was filmineejdirk”. The room was dim, the shades were drawn, and your boyfriend showed no signs of getting up. Was he depressed or something?

You quietly sat down next to him, glancing at the colorful show in front of him. “Katssss…what’s wrong?” You finally asked. No response. Then he slowly shifted upwards, now sitting up to face you. “Halle died.” He responded. He actually looked fustrated.

You were actually shook, you weren’t even aware that your boyfriend was one of the shows viewers. It sort of made up for him not being at your interviews and filming days.

“I’m sorry baby, but I mean I’m still here.” You said, now opening your arms out to embrace him. He took the opportunity, and pulled you into his arms, leaning back onto the sofa once again.

“I know,” he muttered into your neck, tickling your skin, “Yer not Halle though.”

[mariocki]

Le lac des morts vivants (Zombie Lake, 1981)

"Stories about the lake of the damned go back to the Inquisition. They used to celebrate Black Masses back in the Middle Ages: they would sacrifice children, which they threw into it so as to appease the spirits which otherwise rose out of their watery grave in search of blood. And we too, we've used it as an unholy grave during the war. But the soldiers we threw in were not a sacrifice... and they're coming back with a vengeance."