CHAPTER 478: CHAPTER 472: BEST ACTRESS 39 (6,000 WORDS CHAPTER)

Although the director claimed to be absolutely fair, Ning Shuangshuang felt that this director truly favored Ding Xinxian, this historically polarizing Regent Empress. This drama appeared impartial, yet subtle favoritism was often evident in the details.

For instance, Ding Xinxian indeed had her flaws. She was too harsh on the royal family and noble families, and too lenient towards poor students. However, these shortcomings were quietly obscured by the director’s various embellishments and interpretations.

Ning Shuangshuang fell in love with the role of Ding Xinxian as soon as she read the script. Personally, with a bit of a strong-woman perspective, Ning Shuangshuang highly agreed with this Regent Empress. As for her notoriety, the history of a patriarchal society was solely written by men, which was never fair to successful women.

While Ding Xinxian, as a Regent Empress, was not without faults, she achieved more merit for the common people. Her virtues outweighed her defects. She ought to be a positive character, yet in the thousand years since her death, she appeared in history books as a villain, which was truly sad.

After deciding to take on this drama, Ning Shuangshuang started endlessly reading historical texts, both official and unofficial histories. Although official histories were biased with harsh criticisms and unofficial histories often gave excessive praise, there was no denying that both official and unofficial histories helped Ning Shuangshuang understand Ding Xinxian.

Ning Shuangshuang immersed her entire mind in studying the character of Ding Xinxian, just as she did with the character of Qin Shuangshuang before. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she forgot to eat and sleep.

The script for the Regent Empress was excellent, but unfortunately, the director was a newcomer, full of vigor and firmly unwilling to let investors influence casting. This resulted in several investors who initially agreed to fund, wanting the director to cast certain roles, all withdrawing their investment.

The director, Qin Xian, took a long time to find an investor willing to fund without interfering in casting decisions. When the investment finally arrived and they were preparing to audition and cast the roles for filming, there was another problem—the lead role couldn’t find a suitable actor because those auditioning for the lead role lacked acting skills.

With no choice, Qin Xian could only tentatively send invitation letters to actors he favored. However, being from a small production company with a new director, it hardly looked like a promising crew, and well-known actors didn’t want to come. Relying solely on newcomers meant the chance of it becoming a hit was less than one percent, with most projects sinking without a trace.

Unable to invite top stars, after much selection, Qin Xian turned to send invitations to several second and third-tier stars. Unfortunately, each invited star declined, until the invitation reached Ning Shuangshuang. Jin An, with a discerning eye, immediately saw the script’s potential, confident that if done well, it could become a major hit.

Coincidentally, Ning Shuangshuang and Jin An shared the same views, and with Ning Shuangshuang’s great interest in the role of Ding Xinxian, she didn’t bother about the director’s fame and accepted the role.

The ensuing month was spent with Ning Shuangshuang delving into the role of Ding Xinxian. This month was specially reserved by director Qin Xian for Ning Shuangshuang to study and understand the role.

Now that Ning Shuangshuang had mostly grasped the role, it was just the moment when Qin Xian called Jin An to inform Ning Shuangshuang to go for a costume fitting photo shoot. Unlike previous times, even if Ning Shuangshuang’s role was the female lead, there were other stars sharing the main roles.

This time, for the role of Regent Empress, Ning Shuangshuang was not only the female lead but also the only well-known actor in the entire drama, marking the first time she bore the entire responsibility. After the drama aired, how many viewers stayed depended on the quality of the content, while how many viewers would be drawn in to watch depended on Ning Shuangshuang’s popularity.

To highlight the aura of the Regent Empress Ding Xinxian, only Ning Shuangshuang’s costumes were the most costly in the entire drama, with over a dozen outfits, each with different hair accessories.

Ning Shuangshuang’s costume fitting photo shoot took a considerable amount of time, with her changing into three different outfits consecutively: the tender young attire upon first entering the palace, the lavish attire during the height of favor, and the splendid and intricate attire after becoming Regent Empress!

Among all the costume fitting photos, only the attire and headdress after becoming Empress Dowager took the most time, and another factor was the makeup. Ning Shuangshuang was only sixteen years old, and even if girls developed better than boys at the same age, sixteen was still too young.

To portray someone in their forties or fifties, it required not only the makeup artist’s skills but also Ning Shuangshuang’s strong acting prowess to convey that kind of presence.