The Legendary Actor - Chapter 28

Rami stood behind the monitor, looking at Renly’s quiet and peaceful back, the sun seemed to slow down its pace, falling lightly and softly on his shoulders, gently patting away the faint sadness and loss between his eyebrows.

Ever so quietly the rustling sound of the time hourglass lingering in his ears, even the sound of the wind becoming soft, for fear of breaking the momentary peace.

A wave of overwhelming sadness came, and when he was caught off guard, Rami’s eyes were filled with tears, and he scrambled to lower his head, wiping away the hot tears, but the steady stream of tears could not be stopped.

Not only Rami but also Darin who stood in the crowd. His eyes fell deeply, deeply on the figure of Renly.

The blood and mud on his cheeks almost made it impossible to distinguish the lines of his features, and he could only vaguely see his deep eyes, with a dull light slowly rippling underneath them, dazed, confused, sad, and still. Silence, yet it exploded out with stormy waves of tremendous energy, fiercely hitting Darin’s soul.

Darin didn’t like Renly for no reason. It was not because he gave Renly a hard time on the first day of the movie and got a slap on the face instead. He just didn’t like Renly’s strong confidence and nonchalance, shouldn’t a rookie be more tame and modest?

But Darin could not deny that at this moment, at this magical moment, the energy that burst out from Renly’s body was the most vivid illustration of the idea and the essence of “The Pacific”, and whether surviving with blood on hands was luck, or torture? What is left of the broken soul that has been baptized by war; what of faith, hope, perseverance, goodness, or anything? All of it, so raw, so grand, so real, and yet so delicate.

Darin could go on denying it, he could fool everyone, but he couldn’t fool himself. Even though the scene had just been shot, no one made a sound, fearing that the noise of their own breathing would ruin the peace of the moment.

This is no longer a performance; Renly pulls the illusion out of the camera and makes it real, truly making everyone feel and contemplate it. That powerful force crosses the boundary between illusion and reality, breaking through the dimension and triggering a storm of thoughts.

Carl Franklin pursed his dry lips, even though David had raved about Renly in front of him, even though Tom and Steven had handpicked Renly to play Eugene, he still refused to believe in a newcomer’s ability – a rookie is a rookie, and even with talent, the depth and thickness of acting a rookie can show is still limited, but today, he knew that he was wrong.

Taking a deep breath, Carl looked left and right at the rest of the surrounding crew, understanding that his actions would brutally break the silence of the moment, but he still had to do it because it was his duty as a director, “Cut!” Carl raised his voice and shouted.

Almost at the same time, everyone started looking in other directions; up, down, or wherever, – as if a gust of wind and sand had blown by, and everyone’s eyes were full of it, or so they would say if someone asked them, why they were incessantly rubbing their eyes.

Carl coughed gently twice to hide the embarrassment he felt inside, “Good, this scene is fine, next scene!”

Rami, however, stepped forward with an arrow and boldly grabbed Carl’s arm, “Director, can we take a ten-minute break.” Carl looked at Rami incredulous, but found that Rami’s gaze was in Renly’s direction, “I think we all need a break.”

By this time, Renly had released the mass actor in his arms. The mass actor left, but Renly remained sitting on his knees, dazed and confused, as if time had stopped completely for him.

“Yes, ten minutes, I mean, let’s take a ten-minute break.” Carl nodded his head in agreement, his slightly sore nose nearly losing control, and he turned around in a panic and fled.

Rami walked up quickly, but didn’t know what to do, easing his pace and crouching down behind Renly’s back. It was a pity that James wasn’t on the set today, his part was over for the time being, and he had to follow the second crew to another area for filming, otherwise he would have known how to comfort Renly.

“… Renly.” Hesitantly, Rami began to speak, but only called out, the weight of the words overwhelming him.

At the sound of the voice, Renly looked up sharply, and the stillness seemed to break for a moment, with debris touching the floor, “Oh … Hey, big eyes.” Renly seemed to come back to his senses quickly, a warm smile on his face once again, “How was it, how was the shooting?”

“It’s going well, everything’s going well.” Rather uncomfortable with Renly’s normalcy, Rami thought about it, and asked, “How are you …?” with deliberation.

“Oh.” The smile rose softly from the corners of his mouth, “Good, I’m good.” Renly nodded in reply, but Rami didn’t let up and stared at Renly with his huge eyes, which almost gave Renly nowhere to run. He also knew that his own reaction was a bit unusual, and he didn’t even hear the sound of “cut”.

Renly paused and lowered his eyelids gently, with a glimmer of gloom in his eyes, “What is the war about? What does it really mean to believe? At the end of life, on the other side of death, is there really nothing left? And … in the midst of countless lies, how exactly do we find the truth, or at least the truth that belongs to us.”

The words that were falling down strangled Rami’s throat, he didn’t know how to speak them out, and he didn’t know how he should answer.

Then Renly lifted his gaze again, saw Rami’s struggling face, and smiled, he patted Rami’s shoulder, “These are questions that have no answers, or rather, they are questions that take us time to find the answers to, and some of us may never find them. That’s what I was thinking about, and I was a little stunned. What I’m more curious about is, has Eugene found the answer yet?”

In real life, Eugene died in 2001, so Renly never got an answer out of Eugene himself.

Renly stood up and then extended his right hand toward Rami, which caused Rami to freeze, casting an inquiring gaze at Renly, and then he saw Renly smile brightly, “We have to get ready for the next scene, I’m ready, what about you though?”

It seemed as if Renly had never really existed, as if the loneliness and isolation of that moment had also never really existed. Rami searched carefully for some sign in Renly’s expression, but he failed, Renly was no different than usual, as he had been for the past few weeks.

Rami reached out and grabbed Renly’s right hand and used it to stand up, and the two of them left the cabin and returned to the set to begin filming again. The rest of the shooting, Renly’s performance was still excellent, and no effect could be seen in the slightest; on the contrary, the other actors’ performance was a little off, which caused the shooting schedule to be slower than expected, and was originally expected to finish at 5:30, but ended up waiting until nearly seven o’clock, which was the end of the whole day’s work.

Renly was fine, he was really fine; he wasn’t lying.

He wasn’t too deep into the role to be overwhelmed, and Eugene’s character was indeed challenging and difficult, but he still hadn’t reached his limits. It’s just that during the performance, in order to better illustrate Eugene’s state of mind, he really did think about those philosophical questions, about war, about life, about faith, about loneliness, about living. These questions troubled not only Eugene but also Renly.

In his two lifetimes, Renly has had too much. Experienced many and gained many as well. Beneath the skin of a mere twenty-years-old, inhabited by a soul of more than forty years old. Everything he saw in his vision began to look different, and the power of time allowed him to learn to think and to calm down.

Of course, as Renly said to Rami, these questions may not be answered by everyone, but only time will tell. Renly was lucky enough to have a second life, a second chance to re-examine himself, to pursue his dreams, and to enjoy life.

Raising his head and looking at the vast expanse of the southern sky, filled with stars that made the deep night sky appear breathtakingly beautiful, Renly temporarily put aside all thoughts in his mind, and simply enjoyed the tranquility. The clear and translucent strings of the guitar sounded in his ears, gently stirring the heartstrings of the night, as if the whole world was listening to the touching melody.

Although performing has always been Renly’s dream and his insistence, it is undeniable that music has always been his best companion, accompanying him through the fearful days and nights since his rebirth. The deepest secrets of his heart are known only to the musical notes leaping above the score.

“Rami, can I borrow the guitar?” Renly withdrew his feet and looked at Rami, who was holding his guitar and playing casually.

Without saying a word, Rami handed the guitar to Renly and asked curiously, “I didn’t know you could play guitar.”