Chapter 606

“Good！” Adriaan clapped his hands. "Very good, both of you. You did a good job, but we have to do it again."

With that, he walked up to Reynolds, who was lying on the ground. After looking down for a few seconds, he waved at the stage manager. "I think you may need more tomato juice — not on your face, but on your back and on the ground."

"That's great." Reynolds heaved a sigh of relief. "I thought you were going to make my face bleed."

"It seems that it is better to be a neurotic police officer with a lot of subordinates." Oldman, who was holding the prop gun, raised his hands and pretended to look around. "At least I don't need to be covered in tomato juice."

There was a burst of laughter around them.

"Well, keep your neurotic state, Gary." Adriaan smiled and patted him on the shoulder. Then, he returned to his position and was about to start when an assistant hurried over. "Mr. Adriaan, Miss Natalie and her mother are here."

"Great, where are they?" Adriaan's eyes lit up, and he immediately looked around the crowd.

"Hi, Adriaan." Natalie and her mother quickly came over and waved at him.

"You guys are early." Adriaan said with a smile. Then, he reached out and shook hands with Natalie and Sheila. Frankly speaking, it felt good to hold the girl's soft little hand.

"It's just a few minutes," Sheila said on behalf of her daughter.

"I still have a few scenes to shoot here. Let the stylist and makeup artist do your hair first." Adriaan looked at Natalie. "Are you ready, Natalie?"

The girl pinched her long hair. Although she was a little reluctant, she quickly nodded firmly. "Yes."

"That's it then." Adriaan said and asked the assistant to take Natalie to the RV with the dressing room. Then, he returned to the camera and clapped his hands. "Okay, everyone, let's continue."

It took about ten minutes to shoot the scene where Reynolds stuffed the grenade ring into Oldman's hand twice. After that, the crew took a break, and the two actors also cleaned up their things. After another ten minutes, the stylist brought Natalie to Adriaan.

At this moment, she was no longer the girl with long hair. The brown coat, light-colored trousers, and canvas shoes that she was wearing were gone. Instead, she wore a short, bobble-like bobblehead from the 1930s, a striped vest, and a bohemian-style cashmere jacket. She also wore shorts that reached the base of her thighs and brown leather shoes. Her two smooth legs were exposed. If it weren't for the movie, her face would have been a little dirty with some scars. Otherwise, she would have attracted a lot of people with this outfit.

"Let me tell you a piece of good news. The girl you're fighting over is here." Adrian smiled as he introduced Natalie to Reynolds and Oldman.

"Let me tell you a piece of good news. The girl you're fighting for is here." Adriaan smiled and introduced Natalie to Reynolds and Oldman.

"Hey, Eide, it's not good for you to say that!" Reynolds joked. However, Natalie took the initiative to defend him. She then stretched out her hand without any shyness. "Hello, I'm Natalie Herag."

Natalie took the initiative to defend him. Then, she stretched out her hand without any shyness. "Hello, I'm Natalie Herag."

"I'm Jean Reynolds. You can call me Jean." Reynolds looked at the girl curiously.

"Thank you. I like your movies very much." The little girl said with a smile. "Although I just watched 'Blue Sky Sea' recently, it's really touching. Unfortunately, 'The Assassination of Kennedy' and 'Four Hundred Years' are R-rated movies. Dad doesn't allow me to watch them. I just heard that Count Dracula, played by Gary, is very cool."

"It's not bad. I'm used to this kind of dark role." Oldman shrugged.

"Okay, Natalie. You can start to cultivate your emotions." Adriaan, who had been staying at the side, said. He realized that Oldman didn't seem to want to talk about the movie 'Four Hundred Years'. Previously, when he jokingly called him Count Dracula, Oldman's eyes flashed with a hint of melancholy. It seemed that he had encountered a lot of troubles during the filming of the movie. For example, Winona didn't like him. This was confirmed by Denis.

"I'll start right away." Natalie quickly replied. After smiling at Reynolds and Oldman, she then sat at the side and read the script seriously. Adriaan began to arrange for people to prepare the girl's first scene.

Natalie's scene was very simple. It was the scene where Matilda escaped from the exhaust pipe and walked to the street from the underground exit. The whole process was very simple, and there weren't any lines. However, it was a test of the actor's acting skills and their grasp of the role. For example, the nervousness and worry at the beginning when she looked outside from the underground exit, or when she tried to maintain her calmness when she walked out, or when the police filmed her and told her to leave quickly. It wasn't easy.

"Are you ready?" Adriaan, who had arranged everything, carried the camera and stood behind Natalie. The little girl took a deep breath and nodded at him.

"Very good." Adriaan said as he lowered his head to look at the camera lens. At the same time, he made a gesture to the script supervisor.

There was a "pa" sound. After a delay of five or six seconds, Natalie, who was carrying the evergreen and a big bag of luggage with her back to the camera, immediately started to jog. The "pa ta pa ta" sound of footsteps rang out from the underground exit. Adriaan, who was holding the camera, followed closely by several assistants.

Natalie didn't stop until she reached the stairs at the exit. After a few seconds, Adriaan turned off the camera and raised his head. "Not very good. Let's do it again."

Everyone returned to their original positions. Then the little girl started to run again. Unfortunately, it was still not good enough and she had to start again. In fact, if one really wanted to be calculative, two times was enough. After all, this was just a handheld camera shooting from behind. It was very normal. Whether it was acting or filming, it didn't require too much skill. Even so, Adriaan still had to shoot six times before it was over.

It wasn't that he wanted to deliberately make things difficult for her. The key was that the crew had gone through a lot of trouble to negotiate with the community and the police station to designate an area on the street for filming. Therefore, the relevant scenes had to be shot as soon as possible. And this was also the first time that Natalie had performed in front of the camera. Although her previous performances were very amazing and she always looked full of confidence, it didn't mean that she could completely adapt to the role of Matilda. Moreover, this scene required her to completely use her body language and expressions to perform.

Therefore, Adriaan wanted to use this method to remind her that filming a movie wasn't an easy task. Sometimes, some things that one gained through practical experience would leave a deeper impression than being reminded by others with words.

As it turned out, Natalie was indeed unusually mature and smart. Although she frowned slightly at the end of the fourth take, she showed a look of understanding before the fifth take began. Then, she very seriously completed the next two takes. After Adriaan said that this scene was over, she quickly closed her eyes and began to adjust her emotions.

But even so, when shooting the front scenes, there were still a lot of NGs. Adriaan always thought that her emotions weren't on point and that she didn't express that kind of feeling, especially when there were still images in his mind for reference.

"Don't be discouraged, Natalie. Calm down and think about how to subtly express Matilda's anxiety, nervousness, and worry at this time." After almost 20 NGs, Adriaan announced a break, then came to the obviously depressed girl's side and said this to her.

"I've been trying my best to feel it, but …" Natalie lowered her head and said somewhat unhappily.

Seeing her like this, Adriaan suddenly felt that he was a little too eager for success. Generally speaking, he should shoot some less emotional scenes first and let the two actors communicate and familiarize themselves with each other during the filming. In fact, that was indeed his plan. In addition to the current scenes, Natalie's scenes today only had a few scenes with the special police. The most important scene where she said goodbye to Leon was not included.

Anyway, this was an indoor scene, which could be filmed at any time. But now, the scene was an outdoor scene. If he didn't take this opportunity to finish the shooting now, it would be very troublesome to think of dividing the area like this in the future. After all, this was New York.

"It's okay. After all, it's your first time acting in a movie, Natalie. It's normal to feel at a loss. So don't take it to heart. We'll shoot slowly over and over again, and eventually, you'll get the feeling. " Adriaan continued to comfort her. Anyway, they were going to shoot here for two days, and the divided area could still be used. At most, he would find a way to talk to them about renting for a few more days. Any problem that could be solved with money was not a problem.

"Well, you rest for a while, and I'll go and see how they're doing." Adriaan said as he was about to leave. Because they had used two cameras to shoot the explosion scene, he had asked the assistant director, Masterson, to take the extras to shoot some fragmented scenes. So, he wanted to take this opportunity to take a look.

"No, I can continue!" Natalie suddenly raised her head and looked at Adriaan with her bright eyes wide open. Her confident look seemed to have never disappeared.

Adriaan raised his eyebrows and looked at her for about ten seconds. In the end, he agreed to this request. "Okay, let's continue!"

Then, there were more than ten NGs, but neither Natalie nor Adriaan had any other expressions or words. After the "cut", they calmly returned to their original position and prepared for the next shot. Even so, Adriaan still saw the little girl's progress. She almost passed on the 19th take, but after thinking about it, he held back.

Natalie took a deep breath and clenched her fists to encourage herself. Then, she returned to her position again and hugged the evergreen, the teddy bear, and the bag in the flower pot tightly.

"Pa!" With a crisp tapping sound, the camera began to move. The girl with messy hair raised her head slightly and looked at the busy police on the street. There was a flash of anxiety in her eyes, and her eyebrows were raised. She opened her mouth but then closed it again. Then, she lowered her head and pursed her lips as she walked down the stairs. Her eyes seemed to be filled with tears, but she tried her best to hold it in and put on an expression as if nothing had happened. She strode forward, but she hugged the evergreen in her arms even tighter.

"Very good!" Adriaan, who was watching all this, finally shouted loudly.