I'm an Extra, and It Took 50,000 Takes to Get the Kissing Scene Right

Fifty Thousand Kissing Scenes

My name is A Qiang, and I'm an extra. Every day, I go from one film set to another in the studio lot, harboring a dream of becoming an actor and hoping some director will spot me at a glance.

Then one day, I got an absurd assignment. The director said, "This kissing scene needs to capture the merging of two souls." I looked at the actress across from me, Xiao Mei, and felt my heart sink.

"Ready, action!" the director called.

I steeled myself and leaned in. Then came the shout: "Cut!" The director stopped us.

"A Qiang, you call that a kiss? You're chewing on a piece of wood!"

My face turned bright red. I was so embarrassed I wanted the ground to swallow me up. Let's try again...