Chapter 13: A Stunning Turnaround.
Ryan walked into the small living room of the apartment and dropped onto the sofa, burying his somewhat pale face in his hands.
Just as he had told David Fincher, he knew exactly where the problem lay. But the reasons behind it were far too complicated for anyone else to understand.
Lack of acting skill? Impossible. Even a pig that had performed nonstop for nearly ten years would become a master. How could a clever boy with two lifetimes of experience not have any?
He understood the real issues perfectly — aside from the uncontrollable glances at the camera lens.
First, Haley Joel Osment's image from the original film was burned too deeply into his mind. The moment he thought about acting in The Sixth Sense, that face would pop up, tempting him to imitate it. At the same time, another voice in his head screamed that imitation was wrong — he had to find his own way. The conflict was inevitable.
Second — and this was the biggest reason — from the moment he opened his eyes as a baby, through toddlerhood and into boyhood, he had been performing every single second. He had played the role of Ryan Jenkins for more than nine years. The performance had become so complete that he could no longer step out of it. Especially after Nicole entered his life, he and this world had fused together.
He could no longer tell dream from reality. In everyday life it wasn't obvious, but the moment he tried to act in another scene, the problem exploded.
What was this? Acting inside an act? A play within a play? Ryan could only smile bitterly.
"Ryan." Nicole Kidman finally couldn't stay away. She had slipped into the apartment at some point and now stood beside him.
"Nicole." Breathing in her familiar, comforting scent, Ryan leaned over and naturally pressed his head against her soft stomach. A wave of warmth and peace instantly washed over him.
Leaning against the person who was second-closest to him in both lives, his confused and restless heart gradually cleared. When Nicole's soft, sweet lips brushed his forehead, Ryan suddenly understood something profound.
The previous life was gone. This life had to be grasped. In the end, he was simply himself — the one and only version of himself in this world.
But could the previous life truly stay in the past?
"Nicole, thank you. I think I understand a lot of things now." Ryan jumped up on the sofa and, before Nicole could react, planted a kiss on her fair cheek.
Nicole Kidman simply took it as the boy expressing how much he depended on her and didn't mind. "There's the Ryan I know — the incredibly confident one."
"Let's go back out. We shouldn't keep everyone waiting." Ryan took Nicole's hand, as if he were holding the entire world of this life.
No one could have predicted what happened next. In just ten minutes, the boy who had seemed completely without skill and looked like a total amateur pulled off a stunning turnaround. Not only did he nail the stuck shot on the first take, but in every following scene that involved him, the number of NG's never exceeded three.
If the director had been lenient, that might have been understandable. But everyone knew David Fincher was a perfectionist who never raised his voice yet demanded absolute precision in every detail. Even one of Al Pacino's monologues had been stopped nearly twenty times.
Under those conditions, the boy still maintained an incredibly high success rate.
At first the crew thought he had been possessed. But when the same thing continued through the second and third days, many of them could only shake their heads in disbelief.
The three days were mostly filled with short, fragmented shots. Nicole didn't have many scenes, but just as Ryan had predicted, she had aged herself with makeup and completely reined in her usual cool, stunning aura. The year and more of stage work in London, combined with all their script discussions, showed its effect. Her performance was already far better than at the same point in her previous life.
Especially after hearing Ryan's earlier "wild story," she had almost completely become that single mother. There was no doubt it gave her enormous help.
Seeing that both Ryan and Al Pacino were getting better and better, David Fincher didn't hesitate to change the shooting schedule and moved several of their dialogue scenes forward.
The clapperboard operator saw David Fincher's signal and called out, "Scene 11, Take 22 — action!"
"Cole!" In the empty hallway, Al Pacino crouched beside the boy in the purple school uniform. "I didn't see anything."
Ryan's lips trembled, fear and hesitation mixing together, his whole body seeming to shake with dread. "Don't move! Sometimes you'll…"
"Cut!"
The boy who had been muttering to himself seemed not to hear David Fincher at all. He continued whispering until he finished the entire line, then shook his head hard and looked toward the camera in slight confusion.
"Did I mess up?"
"No, it was Al pacinos expression that wasn't right!" David waved his hand.
Ryan let out a soft breath. He said nothing more, lowered his head, and sat on a nearby chair. But he still heard the crew teasing Al Pacino. "Al, that's the third time you've made us NG because of you. Come on, don't let the kid show you up!"
"Want some water?" Pat Kingsley offered him a cup.
"No thanks, Pat." Ryan sounded genuinely grateful. With Nicole often away, Pat Kingsley had basically become both agent and nanny.
"Ryan, you're getting too deep into the role. It's taking you longer and longer to come out of it." Pat Kingsley warned gently.
"It's fine, Pat. Don't worry. You know where this character comes from."
Ryan sighed and used the same excuse again. There was no doubt that the immersion method was the most common acting technique used by the majority of performers. But it had a clear downside: once you went too deep, it became a huge problem. Especially for someone like him, who lost the line between dream and reality the moment he stepped into character.
Getting out was far harder than for normal people.
Of course, the advantages were obvious too — just listen to all the praise the crew was giving him.
Seemingly stimulated by Ryan, Al Pacino brought out his true Oscar-level skill in the next takes. That scene passed in one go. But when they moved to the riddle scene in the room, Ryan's state suddenly vanished, as if frightened by Al's performance.
"State of mind is just as unreliable as a Chinese men's soccer team striker — scoring own goals when you shouldn't, and missing open nets when you should."
Ryan sat on the sofa muttering to himself. In his opinion, an actor's state was as mysterious as a soccer player's form: when it was there, you could score from outside the box with a bicycle kick; when it wasn't, you could miss a one-yard open goal.
"Ryan, acting is like that. The state comes and goes," Al Pacino comforted him from across the room.
"But Al, this time you're half responsible for me losing it." After three days they had basically become friends, so Ryan unhesitatingly dropped a huge accusation on the elegant older man.
"Alright, as the person responsible, do you need me to help you get your state back?" Al Pacino didn't mind at all and even joked along with the boy.
"No need. I have the best method for getting my state back."
Ryan looked at Nicole, who had just walked out of the makeup room. "Human cannon — launch!"
With a whoosh, Ryan sprinted across the set at full speed. In front of the stunned crew, he jumped straight into Nicole Kidman's arms.
His momentum was so strong that the tall, slender Nicole was pushed back several steps until her back hit the wall and she finally steadied herself.
Even while being pushed backward, she never let go to keep her balance. Instead she held the boy tightly, afraid he would be hurt even the slightest bit.
"You two really have an amazing bond!" the assistant director nearby said with admiration.
Nicole smiled but said nothing. She simply patted the boy's back gently and set him down on a nearby high-backed chair.
As filming progressed, the crew gradually learned the truth about their relationship.
While they felt sorry for Ryan's past, they were also deeply moved by the profound love between this sister and brother who weren't blood-related yet were closer than any real family.
"That was from sports!" Nicole defended herself against the doctor (played by David Fincher) who questioned her. But the doctor clearly didn't believe her. Under his doubtful gaze, Nicole waved her hand forcefully. "You think I did this? You think I'm a bad mother?"
After the doctor's next skeptical line, Nicole finally exploded. In front of her eyes flashed the image of a thin, frightened Ryan looking up at her on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In an instant, everything rushed back — their first meeting, the exhausting custody battle, every moment of their life together over the past few years. The deep love and overwhelming affection she felt for him couldn't possibly be questioned by an outsider.
"He needs help! Don't you understand? He needs help! He is the person I love most, the most important person in my life! I would rather die than hurt him, and I will never let anyone else hurt him! No one!"
Tears streamed down Nicole's face. The lines she spoke were completely different from the script, yet they fit the moment perfectly.
Everyone on set froze at the force of her emotion. When the assistant director finally came back to his senses and called "Cut!" someone started clapping. In seconds the entire crew was applauding so loudly it seemed the roof might fly off.
They were all clapping for Nicole's brilliant performance. Only Ryan knew the truth: Nicole hadn't been acting at all. She had simply let the overwhelming love in her heart burst out in the most intense way possible.
Ryan didn't even realize he had walked over until he was already holding her tightly. Only then did he sigh in his heart.
Nicole, you treat me like this… what can I possibly do to repay you?