Chapter 363 Cutting Scenes
Chapter 363 Cutting Scenes
Ella was rushed to the hospital, but with the entire set ready to go, the director decided not to let it all go to waste. He announced, "We'll save Ella's scenes for later. Everyone else, keep rolling." The crew quickly mobilized, and the scriptwriter made changes on the spot, redistributing Ella's lines to other actors to keep the plot coherent without her.
At the hospital, Ella underwent examinations and treatment. The diagnosis: a dislocated lumbar spine and a minor fracture in her tailbone. Fortunately, she hadn't been thrown off the horse while it was galloping wildly, so her injuries weren't too severe. Unfortunately, the location of her injuries significantly impacted her mobility, requiring her to stay hospitalized for treatment. The doctor said it would take at least three months of rest before she could move normally again.
Due to Ella's unexpected injury, the crew worked late into the night to wrap up. The next day, the director found time to visit Ella at the hospital to discuss the follow-up plan. It was impossible to keep Ella's injury a secret, so the crew hoped she would cooperate with their PR efforts to prevent the incident from tarnishing their reputation.
The director spoke kindly, "Ella, just focus on getting better. The crew will cover all your medical expenses."
Ella was anxious, not concerned about the medical costs, which she considered trivial. "Director, what about my scenes? I got injured while filming; the crew can't just replace me because of this." She had heard of a young actress who got injured on set and was replaced within days. Ella wasn't one to be easily bullied; if the crew dared to replace her, she would rally her fans to launch an online attack against them.
The director reassured her, "Don't worry, we never considered that. The doctor said you need three months to recover, so we'll try to schedule your scenes for later. If necessary, we can use a double, and you can just reshoot the close-up shots." He spoke nicely, but inwardly he was already thinking about how to get the scriptwriter to reduce Ella's scenes. The film would be halfway done by then, and he couldn't make everyone wait for Ella. Not replacing her was already being fair enough.
Ella forced a smile and replied, "Thank you, Director." As soon as he left, her expression darkened.
Her assistant asked, "Ella, the director promised not to replace you. Why are you still upset?"
Ella sighed, "It's not that simple. The crew won't wait for me; they'll definitely cut my scenes. And using a double extensively will ruin my reputation." She had worked hard to gain fans through reality shows, and her online reviews were currently positive. If word got out that she used a double for most of her scenes, her reputation would quickly deteriorate.
But if she went online to complain about getting injured while filming, she would offend the crew and Leon, making other directors avoid working with her in the future. No matter how she looked at it, she would lose out. All of this was because of that damned horse!
Thinking about the horse, Ella suddenly realized it had been borrowed from Victoria. Why was the horse gentle with Victoria but stubborn and difficult with her? Did Victoria tamper with it? She slapped the bedside table and instructed her assistant, "Go to the stables and find out if that white horse behaved unusually yesterday."
"Are you thinking someone drugged the horse?" The assistant's hand shook as she poured water, startled by Ella's suspicion. If true, it would be big news. The assistant hurried off to investigate, leaving a caregiver to look after Ella at the hospital.
The crew was also looking into why the white horse suddenly became aggressive, but drug tests showed nothing unusual. The stable manager explained, "That white horse has always had a bad temperament; it just happened to get along well with Victoria. Who knew you would suddenly switch it to another actor? It's not our fault; we signed a waiver. It's an animal, not a person. It's normal for it not to follow commands."
The director knew that filming with animals was always challenging. But Leon insisted on using real scenes, so they invested more time and effort into this area. There had been accidents with actors during horse scenes before, and Ella was lucky not to have sustained permanent injuries. The priority now was to revise the script together. After a day of meetings, they decided to redistribute Ella's scenes to the original third and fourth female leads. Ella's character remained, but her role was significantly reduced and became less important.
When Ella's assistant inquired, the manager reiterated the same explanation. It was just bad luck for Ella, and if she had admitted earlier that she couldn't handle the horse, the accident might have been avoided.
With Ella's injury, her agent also arrived. "Ella, how could you be so careless? This injury is delaying so many things. Should I help you leverage this for some sympathy and get a favor from the director?"
Ella gritted her teeth, "No need. If I play the sympathy card now, I'll offend the director and Leon. I still want to work in the industry." News had already leaked that someone was injured on the set of Radiant Rebel, but the specifics were still under wraps. Ella planned to release a statement saying she only sustained minor injuries and that it wouldn't affect filming, asking everyone not to worry.
"Alright, I'll have the studio issue the statement as you said." The agent shrugged, although she thought leveraging the injury for money was the best option, she respected Ella's decision. Ella had always been independent, choosing scripts and investments herself, relying little on her agent. So the agent focused more on other newcomers, only rushing over when Ella had an accident. After reminding Ella to rest well, the agent left with her bag.
Two days later, Ella received the revised script. Half of her scenes were cut, and her early scenes showing her character's kindness in rescuing orphans were reassigned to the third female lead, while her brave lion hunting scenes with Dennis were given to an unknown young actress.
All that remained were scenes of her clinging to Dennis and sacrificing herself for him later. Her character, originally a kind and brave princess with her own charm, was now reduced to a foolish, spoiled princess chasing the male lead. The role had shifted from one that could attract fans to one that would only draw criticism! Furious, Ella threw the script to the floor.
Her assistant picked up the script, looking at her with concern. "Ella, please don't be so angry. You need to take care of your health." Though Ella was in a VIP single room, shouting like this would still disturb other patients, and soon doctors and nurses might come to check on her.
Ella leaned back on her pillow, breathing heavily. Yes, she needed to recover quickly! The sooner she returned to the set, the better chance she had of salvaging some of her scenes.