From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Things… progressed very smoothly, everything was just as Anson had expected.

Garry Marshall was indeed experiencing a second spring in his career. The collaboration with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in "Runaway Bride" the year before last rekindled his love for film. But Garry didn't expect that the peak of his creativity would fully arrive with "The Princess Diaries."

When the director is rejuvenated and thriving, the entire crew is naturally encouraged. Even if there are some NGs or some issues, they can always be resolved immediately.

Of course, Anne Hathaway did not disappoint Garry's expectations and quickly got into character, which successfully boosted the atmosphere of the entire crew.

To add to the good fortune, Anson brought surprises and injected vitality into the film.

Consequently, the crew members were all smiles towards Anson and Anne.

In fact, their thoughts were not difficult to guess:

Originally, the crew, which was thought to be all newcomers, might be a disaster, because newcomers have to start from scratch, everything needs to be adjusted and learned. Once they encounter difficulties, they may be overwhelmed and even completely collapse, eventually causing the entire crew to have to wait for an actor to adjust their state, and the filming progress cannot be advanced as desired.

However!

But!

Unexpectedly, Anne, as the core of the crew, and Anson, who unexpectedly motivated other actors to perform actively, completely revitalized the atmosphere and instead stimulated the positive impact of the newcomer team—

Vitality. Aspiration. Vigor.

It was precisely because of the lack of experience that they were eager to learn and also eager to perform, especially after Anson's performance in the past few days successfully won Garry's personal praise and even changed the plan for Anson to add unique close-up shots, the young actors were all eager to show themselves well.

And now, everyone is paying attention to Anson.

At the moment, while preparing for the next scene, Anson appears very focused, showing incredible dedication and high concentration under the public gaze.

This scene still features Lily and Mia as the main characters, but with a slight difference. This is the first very complete and time-sufficient Michael close-up shot.

Anson needs to seize the opportunity.

Here, Garry's choice of Michael's close-up was originally a scene in the plan, but thanks to Anson's performance, Garry encouraged Anson to give free rein, seize this scene, and show more content.

“Give me a surprise,” Garry said.

In such a romantic comedy, for a newcomer actor with a limited role, the significance of Garry's words is even more rare.

Anson agreed with Garry. He wasn't just shooting randomly. There was indeed some room for improvisation in this scene, not much, but it did exist.

Before this scene, the crew had already completed the filming of a major scene, a debate at a school about whether school uniforms should be abolished or retained, where Josh, representing the abolition side, shone brilliantly, while Mia, representing the retention side, was so nervous that she vomited on the spot and became the laughing stock of the whole school.

Mia is afraid of standing in front of crowds, afraid of speaking.

Anson believes that Michael can play such a role.

In the previous life, the original "Princess Diaries" did not show this part, relying more on Mia herself to complete her growth.

In other words, although the character arc exists, such an arc is very shallow, because the character is disconnected from the surrounding characters and stories, lacking foreshadowing and support.

But now, since Michael discovered Mia's spiritual power early on, then why not go a step further, notice Mia's inner resilience early on, become a backing and an encouragement, push Mia to complete her transformation, and naturally become soulmates.

See, perfect, character arc, character interaction, all in one go.

Right now, this is the scene: Mia and the others are attending music class, practicing choral singing, but Mia, with a psychological shadow, doesn't want to stand in any conspicuous position and doesn't dare to sing, carefully hiding herself in the crowd.

And Michael, he is responsible for the piano accompaniment.

Anson feels that maybe here, Michael can use music as a bridge to connect with Mia, and encourage Mia in his own way.

Obviously, Garry should also have seen this possibility, which is why he was expecting Anson to bring a surprise.

So, Anson needs to conceive carefully—

He can perceive everyone's gaze, but he doesn't have time to pay attention to it. This is not showing off, nor is it arrogance, but a need to calm down and get into character.

Huff.

Anson took a long breath, letting the chaotic and tense emotions settle down.

Then, he signaled that he was ready.

Garry looked to the side, "Is the music ready?"

Anson raised his hand again to signal.

Garry looked over, "What?"

Anson, "I can play it live."

Garry was stunned, "What?"

Although the two sentences before and after are exactly the same, the meaning is completely different.

Anson showed a smile, "I know there is this bridge in the movie, so I specially learned a little bit of piano, just a little bit."

Garry finally reacted, so this is the surprise Anson was talking about—

“Catch-A-Falling-Star”, from the American superstar Perry Como in the 1950s. This legendary singer, who had gone through many twists and turns and even once gave up music, released this song in 1958, and凭借 this song reached the peak of his career and won the Grammy Award for Best Male Singer the following year.

Undoubtedly a classic pop song.

When Anson knew that the movie would sing this song, and it would be played by Michael, he understood the change in Garry's expression when he heard him play the guitar at the audition.

If he can play the piano, then he can play it live himself, and the sense of reality and immersion will be stronger; but if he can't, he can only "perform" and then match it with a live accompaniment tape.

In 2016, Ryan Gosling learned the piano for three months in order to play the jazz musician in "La La Land" and perform without a hand double, and then went into battle himself.

And Anson doesn't need to play so much original music, things are simpler; what's more, the score of "Catch a Falling Star" is not that complicated, so during his time in Los Angeles, he also worked very hard to start learning.

Now, it comes in handy.

A look of appreciation flashed in Garry's eyes, and his smile turned upwards, "Just for a ten-second shot?"

Anson raised his hands with an innocent face, "I don't know if there are only ten seconds of shots."

It can be seen at a glance that this is a joke, but Garry likes it.

Smiling, completely blooming, Garry looked at Anson, that loving look in his eyes would not lie, "Then let's try to see how the success of short-term cramming learning is, how about it?"

Anson didn't continue to joke—

He has to play the piano and get into character.

Multi-tasking is not easy, he needs to focus.

But the wonderful thing is that Anson is not nervous, but rather excited and a little bit excited, and he can faintly perceive that the boiling hot blood is starting to boil.

Even vases have their own world!

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