Liang Damin is a well-known veteran actor and one of the pillar actors of the National Repertory Theater. He has won the highest award in the drama industry.

Apart from his achievements in drama, Liang Damin did not play many roles in film and television. Most of them were supporting roles. His most famous work is the TV series "The Happy Life of the Stuttering Zhang Guanhua".

Liang Damin was nominated for the Golden Phoenix Award for his role as the male protagonist Zhang Guanhua, but unfortunately he failed to win the award.

In terms of acting skills, Liang Damin is by no means inferior to Shidi-level actors, and may even surpass some ordinary Shidi emperors.

But when it comes to popularity, Liang Damin is far behind. Most viewers only have a familiar impression of him, and many people probably can't even name him.

Xue Jun is a little dissatisfied with this casting, but it’s not that he is still struggling with image issues.

In the play, Di Renjie is old and has a high position, and it is not inappropriate for him to be rich and handsome. He mainly thinks that Liang Damin is slightly less famous, which is not good for publicity.

Although Xue Jun was a lot angry with Wang Baotian last time in "The Miracle Doctor Xilaile", he also tasted the sweetness brought by having a visionary on the set, and there was no shortage of news and promotion points.

Before word-of-mouth rose after it was aired, the general popularity of "Miracle Doctor Xilaile" was brought about by Wang Baotian and the Shanhe Ju brand.

It's hard to say who is better in acting and who is weaker in Liang Damin and Wang Baotian, but the fame of the former and the latter are not at the same level.

Therefore, Xue Jun wanted to find a well-known person to play Dee Renjie. Liang Damin was not the only middle-aged fat man with good acting skills and kind and dignified character.

Apart from anything else, Teacher Fan Biaofan and his old friend Hong Tao meet the requirements.

Xue Jun's proposal was rejected by Zuo Le. The two of them had no problem with their image and acting skills, but they played too many comedian roles and the audience might be disappointed.

Especially Fan Biao, he is obviously the villain who battles wits with Dee Renjie to solve the mystery of the case. If he were to play the role, I always feel that Dee Renjie would suddenly scream and point at the villain.

"Fooling, if you continue to lie, why are the gaps between people so big?"

Of course, this is a joke. Teacher Fan Biao's acting skills are not outstanding. If he is really asked to act, Zuo Le believes that he will never make the audience laugh.

But even so, don't forget that "Detective Detective Dee" is a series. With Hong Tao and Fan Biao's current status, it is not easy to persuade them to participate in the show every year as scheduled.

On the contrary, Liang Damin, who lives a good life but is not expensive, whose career focuses on drama, has enough time, and good salary, can directly sign a feature film contract.

Of course, these reasons are still minor. The most important thing is that Chairman Zuo Da thinks Liang Damin is suitable.

In Shanhe, Zuo Le's words are imperial edicts.

Xue Jun understood this very well. Although he was still a little unwilling, he did not dare to say anything more. The crew immediately contacted Liang Damin.

The Shanhe drama has dominated the country for the past two years, and its allure to outside actors is not small. Whether they are young actors or veteran actors, few can resist invitations to star, let alone the top male lead.

After Liang Daminfang received the invitation, he immediately gave positive feedback, and signing the contract was just a matter of putting pen to paper.

………

After settling Di Renjie, Zuo Le gave up and left Xue Jun and Qian Qiu busy with the subsequent casting of "Detective Di Renjie".

Even though the first part of "Detective Detective Dee" only has 30 episodes, the plot covers a complex area, including rivers and lakes, temples, and alien races. There are more than 50 named characters alone.

According to the script settings, some characters will appear in the sequel, so we still have to pay attention to the casting.

After all, if the actors for the sequel don't come, the ordinary characters will be fine, but they will be killed and taken off the production line.

But if it is an important plot connection character, whether to change the character or not is a big problem. Don't talk about "disguise/disfigure" face-changing method, this method is not always tried and true.

One of them can still fool him, but if another actor is absent from work, they can't all be disfigured/disfigured.

During the Tang Dynasty, Goguryeo did not have the plastic surgery technology that is now available in South Korea...

So Xue Jun pays great attention to it, especially the four leading actors.

Fat Spirit——Di Renjie.

Chop the spirit - Wu Zetian.

Licking the Spirit——Zeng Tai.

Hanging Spirit——Li Yuanfang.

Especially the latter two, one is pretentious and the other plays a very important role in complimenting.

Xue Jun has read the outline of the script for the second part of "Detective Di Renjie" and knows that not only the first part is like this, but the second part is also arranged in this way.

Together with Wu Zetian, Di Renjie's biggest supporter and the main task publisher, these four leading actors must maintain at least two film contracts.

This is not particularly difficult and can basically be overcome. Xue Jun quickly got ready.

First of all, there is Zeng Tai, Di Renjie’s disciple and admirer. He has very strong tool-man attributes and his lines are very repetitive, similar to Monk Sha.

[The teacher is so right]

[Teacher, what kind of mechanism is this?]

[Teacher, the student still doesn’t understand a bit]

[Teacher, you are truly a god]

【…………】

Basically, all detective dramas featuring detectives have such a tool man, such as Watson in Sherlock Holmes, Xiaolan in Death, etc.

This kind of character setting serves two main purposes: one is to set off Di Renjie, and the other is to ask questions for the audience.

Only with one question and one answer can the audience understand what is going on in the case.

If there is no one to praise, and the protagonist is allowed to speak for himself, both the character and the fun will be greatly reduced.

This role is not difficult, just find an experienced actor who is willing to play a supporting role. There are many such actors in the circle.

However, Xue Jun didn't take advantage of others in vain, so he hired Kong Wen's old colleague Lin Yongjian.

Lin Yongjian's career has been developing well recently. Last year, with Zuo Le's deliberate support, he played three important roles in a row.

Kong Jie in "Bright Sword", the villain Fujii in "Da Ranfang", and the villain Saburo in "Seven Swords 2".

These were the three TV series that had the best performance in the first half of the year. He starred in them all. In two of them, he was the biggest villain. Lin Yongjian's popularity skyrocketed.

Although it is not on the front line now, it is not far behind. At the same time, because the masterpieces are all supporting roles, he has won the title of golden supporting role like Jiang Chao.

Lin Yongjian himself is quite happy with this.

His talent and qualifications are slightly inferior, his own image is limited, and he is not too young. There are not many roles suitable for him to be the male protagonist, and there are a lot of male actors of the same age competing for him.

So Lin Yongjian thought it would be good to be a supporting actor. He also exchanged experiences with Jiang Chao and formed a supporting actor alliance.

This time Xue Jun approached him, Lin Yongjian didn't pick him, so he accepted it as he thought it was suitable.

Most of the Shanhe dramas are high-quality, the roles are decent, and if the pay is not much different, the artists within Shanhe basically give priority to Shanhe dramas.

………

After getting the praise, the next step is to take on the role of the protagonist group’s force.

Every detective protagonist usually needs a thug and bodyguard by his side. After all, bad guys sometimes won't be restrained. When desperate, they are likely to violently resist, and then they need to be suppressed by force.

And sometimes we need the help of these capable people and righteous people to investigate cases and find evidence.

Especially for ancient martial arts, unless the protagonist is very awesome like Lu Xiaofeng, then such a character is needed.

Not to mention that even Lu Xiaofeng sometimes asks Ximen Chuixue for help.

Therefore, bodyguards and thugs are absolutely indispensable for ancient detectives, such as Bao Zheng's royal cat Zhan Zhao and Hai Rui's strange hero Yizhimei.

Li Yuanfang is Di Renjie's bodyguard and thug. He occasionally works part-time as a supporter when Zeng Tai is away. He can be called an all-round expert.

This Li Yuanfang can be said to be the most popular character in the drama "Detective Dee Renjie" besides Detective Dee.

In the first part of "Detective Di Renjie", Li Yuanfang was still in his growth stage. Di Renjie's number one thug was Hu Jinghui. After Hu Jinghui died, Li Yuanfang began to cheat.

When the second part begins, Li Yuanfang becomes the enhanced version of Zhan Zhao.

No, to be more precise, the normal Li Yuanfang is an enhanced version of Zhan Zhao, while the cheating Li Yuanfang is the screenwriter's own son, capable of doing anything day in and day out.

Not only has he become the second protagonist in the drama "Detective Dee Renjie" after Detective Dee, he can even be equal to Detective Dee to a certain extent.

Although Zuo Le did not intervene in Li Yuanfang's casting, he mentioned the importance of this role to Xue Jun, and Xue Jun was able to understand the importance of Li Yuanfang.

It can be said that he is no less inferior to the male protagonist Di Renjie.

Xue Jun initially set his sights on Gu Xiaoge, but Gu Xiaoge has been busy opening a personal studio recently and is really unavailable.

In addition, he is too busy with work, and it is just a drama. However, "Detective Di Renjie" is a series, and he really can't guarantee that he can always participate in it.

Gu Xiaoge couldn't do it, so Xue Jun fell in love with Wu Jing again.

Not to mention the appropriate image, the most important thing is that Wu Jing is an action actor and Li Yunfang has a lot of fighting scenes, which makes him less worried when acting.

But it was just like this. Wu Jing broke his leg while filming "Lotus Lantern". The injury was not serious, but within two or three months, he would not want to act, let alone an action scene.

However, although the armed policeman was injured, he recommended a personal choice to Xue Jun, his good friend Duan Long.

Xue Jun has some impressions of Duan Long. Kazuki Yamamoto in "Bright Sword" was calm and ruthless, and his performance was quite good, but Xue Jun thought he was too little famous.

The first male lead, Di Renjie, is not well-known anymore. If the second male lead, Li Yuanfang, is found to be an "unknown person", he can't use it to promote Lin Yongjian.

Therefore, Duan Long suffered a tragic pass.

But it's not that he didn't get any benefits at all. Xue Jun felt that he had a cold temperament and deep eyes, which made him suitable for playing a villain, so he cast him in the complex role of Hu Jinghui.

This role can be regarded as the most outstanding character in the first "Detective Di Renjie" apart from the major actors. If he plays it well, it will benefit Duan Long a lot.

After several candidates were unsatisfied, Lao Xue was a little anxious. At this time, his deputy Qian Qiu stepped forward to recommend talents to the crew.
To be continued...