Chapter 00224: Athena Zhu
# Athena Zhu
Chapter 224
Novel: 1979 Golden Age
Chapter 224: Athena Zhu
"Beep beep!"
Early morning, a small delivery truck pulled up at the entrance of the Clearwater Bay filming lot.
The driver honked twice and called out, "Hey buddy, open up! We're here for the audition!"
"Wow, you're driving a truck to an audition?"
"It's my family's business vehicle. I'm bringing my daughter—why do you care so much?"
The gate swung open, and the small truck drove in, parking in the plaza in front of the main administrative building.
The door opened, and out jumped 10-year-old Athena Zhu.
Petite with slightly tanned skin, she had an exceptionally smooth complexion, long glossy black hair, and striking features—her lively eyes brimming with spirit.
Dressed in a long skirt, she tugged at her mother's hand and suddenly said, "Mommy, can we not do this?"
"Wasn't it you who begged to come?"
"I just got scared all of a sudden!"
"We're already here. Going in won’t cost you a limb."
Her father, the driver, took her hand and led her into the main building.
Their family ran a pastry shop—not the street-food kind, but the fancy gift-boxed ones sold as tourist souvenirs.
Not wealthy by any means, but comfortably middle-class, never wanting for food or clothes.
Athena was still in elementary school but loved movies and music.
When she saw the casting call for child actors, she wanted to give it a shot.
Outsiders to the industry didn’t fuss over political factions—getting a role was all that mattered.
Especially for a kid.
The family of three entered, received a script page, and were told to wait.
Athena looked around.
There were about seven or eight groups, all accompanied by parents.
Some of the girls were pretty, others just average.
Forget those celebrity lines like "I never thought I was pretty"—that’s just lip service to flatter audiences.
Pretty girls know they’re pretty from the start.
She’d always been confident about her looks.
Holding the script, she had zero experience—just knew she had to memorize the lines.
The character in The Orphan was written as a 9-year-old girl.
The original actress, Isabelle Fuhrman, was 12 when she played the role—you needed someone slightly older, otherwise communication would be impossible.
But not too old, or the look wouldn’t fit.
Athena was 10, just scraping the minimum.
------
Meanwhile, in the office.
Both Chen Qi and Fu Qi were present.
The director hadn’t been finalized yet, so they were screening child actors first to shortlist a few candidates before making final decisions with the director.
Truthfully, Chen Qi already had a director in mind—it was just a bit complicated.
"President Fu, shall we begin?"
"How many groups?"
"Eight."
"Still too few, but let’s get started."
An assistant handed them the files before stepping out to call the first candidate.
Soon, a little girl entered, clinging to her mother out of nervousness.
Chen Qi could tell right away she wasn’t the one.
After a polite exchange and a line reading, he sent them out.
The second was about the same.
The third was worse—a chubby girl who started crying the moment she walked in.
She left immediately.
"This is why child actors and animal scenes are the hardest to shoot. Finding a good child star is brutal."
"What about trying Gigi? She’s got the right look," Chen Qi joked.
"No, no. Even if she’s my daughter, I can’t play favorites. Gigi’s totally wrong for this role. Next!"
Soon, another entered.
Alone.
Around eleven or twelve, slender and tall with short hair, her baby-fat face giving off a tomboyish, rebellious vibe.
"Anita Yuen?"
"Yes!"
"No family with you?"
"Nope. I came on my own."
"Then read a line. You can use the script."
Out of consideration for kids, they were allowed to read from the page.
But Anita refused, as if deliberately proving she didn’t need it—only to stumble through the lines with zero emotion, her confidence visibly crumbling.
"That’s enough. We’ll let you know."
Once she left, Chen Qi remarked, "Technique can be trained, experience can be built. My gut says she’s got something. Maybe not the lead, but she could play a classmate or something."
"I was thinking the same. Let’s keep her as a backup."
Chen Qi made a note, chuckling to himself.
Even during Hong Kong’s golden age of stars, Anita Yuen stood out.
Discovered by Raymond Wong in her teens, she formed the "Happy Girls" group, starred in the Happy Ghost series, and later appeared in The East Is Red, Tai Chi Master, and ICAC Investigators.
Not quite there yet, but once she grew up, her short hair would give her a uniquely cool edge.
Honestly, he’d have preferred someone like Loletta Lee or Irene Wan for the role—but both were already 15, too old.
Eight groups in, they finally reached the last one.
Chen Qi skimmed the file, eyebrows lifting in anticipation.
Moments later, in walked a younger version of the Violet Fairy from A Chinese Odyssey, bearing traces of her future peak beauty—shy yet sweet when she smiled.
"This girl’s good!"
Fu Qi’s eyes lit up too.
"My name is Athena Zhu. I’m 10, in fifth grade. I love acting and hope you’ll give me this chance!"
She’d clearly memorized the spiel, nerves written all over her.
Chen Qi had her read a line.
Like the others, she stumbled, but he said nothing and dismissed her.
"Backup too. Most kids can’t act. I think we should train a few and pick the best performer."
"I’m worried they won’t learn. This role’s the core—if we cast wrong, the whole thing falls apart," Fu Qi said.
"They’ll learn."
Chen Qi smiled.
"I won’t tell them what they’re acting or what the story’s about. They don’t need to understand. I’ll break down what I want—one expression, one movement at a time—and have them mimic it. Whoever mimics best gets the part."Uncle, let me be blunt—your filming pace is too slow.
Striving for perfection is good, but in Hong Kong’s environment, some things need to adapt.
"This method might seem shallow, but it works most of the time."If we ever get a truly rare script that demands deep immersion and refinement, then we’ll take it slow.
Right now, our priority is boosting output.""..."Fu Qi wasn’t stubborn. With a sigh, he said,"The company’s veteran directors are used to slow shoots—like Zhang Xinyan.
I can’t force them to change.
But outside directors usually work much faster.
"My concern is, if we go fully commercial, catering only to the market, we’ll lose our original purpose."Profit is how we survive, not why we exist.""You want to do realistic films? Sure.
Once we have steady revenue streams, we’ll make those.
Right now, aren’t we focused on foreign earnings? Honestly, we don’t even have time to deal with Hong Kong yet!""Look at you, so confident..."Fu Qi laughed."Let’s finalize the director first.
We don’t even have one yet.""We do.
How about Tsui Hark?""Tsui Hark? He’s with Cinema City!"Fu Qi shook his head."Cinema City’s fully aligned with Taiwan, cozy with the Free China Relief Association.
They’re staunchly anti-leftist.
They’d never lend him to us.""Uncle, here’s the thing..."Chen Qi said,"They don’t get to decide who’s leftist—we do.
Leftism isn’t defined by them, but by us!"Fu Qi paused."What’re you planning?""Leave it to me.
I’ll have a friendly chat with them.
Everyone’s reasonable, right?"
(That’s all…
It’s summer now—drink hot tea all season to dispel dampness!)
(End of chapter.)