Chapter Fifty-Three: Interview 1

  As the audience's warm applause, the spotlight on the top suddenly opened, illuminating the small stage in an instant. A young woman with medium-length golden hair and wearing a professional suit walked up from behind the stage.

  "Welcome to NBC's live broadcast of 'Face to Face', I'm your host Kate Brady!"

  After another round of applause, Kate Brady continued, "I think everyone saw the Oscars ceremony last month and the news reports in recent days. You should know what the hottest topic is in Los Angeles, in the entire entertainment circle?"

  The audience under the stage had already realized what was going on, after all, the newspapers had been bombarding them for several days, even if they hadn't read it themselves, they must have heard others mention it.

  "That's right, just last month at the end of the month, a super genius dictated a movie script on the spot and then created a song in half an hour! Okay, next please welcome our guest for tonight, 11-year-old Ryan Janz from Los Angeles, please welcome Martian landing on Earth!"

  The audience was initially stunned, then burst into laughter at the same time, and a more enthusiastic applause sounded. The media's continuous bombing made them full of curiosity about this boy.

  With the band's energetic accompaniment, Ryan walked out from behind the stage at a moderate pace, waving to the audience below. He was wearing canvas shoes, light blue jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and a baseball cap worn backwards, exuding a unique personal style while also appearing extremely approachable.

  "Please be seated, Mr. Martian!" Kate Brady said with a chuckle.

  "Alright, Kate, if you keep talking like this, I'll really have to leave Earth and go back to Mars!"

  Ryan sat on the sofa and waved his hand in dissatisfaction, which led to a burst of laughter from the audience below.

  "Alright then, Ryan." Kate Brady sat down across from the boy, looking like she was indeed going to go head-to-head. "What's it feel like to hold that little Oscar for the first time?"

  "Why isn't the little golden man made of pure gold? Just kidding." Ryan's expression turned serious, "I'm thrilled, you know, before the Oscars, some media were questioning me, this little golden man is the Academy's recognition and affirmation of me!"

  "I think no one will question you now, or they'll end up like Mr. Kruse." Kate said with a smile.

  Ryan just shrugged and didn't say anything. He didn't want to give the public an overbearing impression.

  Kate apparently didn't want to let him off, continuing to press for an answer. "I think everyone has seen that video or report and must be curious - in less than three hours, you were able to recite a script, how did you do it?"

  "I admit, the script was indeed inspired by that night's program on Fox TV, but many of the segments are actually commonly used in movies, I just changed the way and incorporated them into my own concept." Ryan said simply, still somewhat convincing.

  "What about the song? We've all known for a long time that you can write and create screenplays, but you have never shown any musical talent."

  "In fact, I started learning music when I was in the orphanage. At that time, there were students from art colleges who came to do volunteer work, and I learned scores, guitar, violin from them. To say, some other things were also learned from them at the beginning."

  "Does it include writing and drawing storyboards?" Kate asked.

  "Drawing is indeed one of them, and also literacy."

  "I heard you could speak fluently at the age of four, is that true?"

  "That's right." Ryan nodded, revealing a slightly embarrassed expression. "At the age of four, I could already read fluently most newspapers and magazines, although there were some words that I didn't understand what they specifically meant. My ability to write these works has a great relationship with my extensive reading in childhood."

  "We all know that you wrote 'Jurassic Park' at the age of six. Although this book is considered a low-age reading material, it cannot be denied that it achieved great success. What inspired you back then?"

  "I read a lot of books between the ages of four and six, there was a small library in the orphanage, I had read all the books inside, such as 'War and Peace', 'Anna Karenina', 'The Count of Monte Cristo', 'The Three Musketeers' and so on."

  Just as the audience was stunned, Ryan suddenly changed his tone, "That's impossible! In fact, I've read all of Stephen King and Asimov's works, and also Tolkien's epic novels which I love very much. Sometimes when you read too many books, you can't help but imagine some scenes. Everyone should know that putting yourself into a fantasy world is a very interesting thing to do. Until the age of six, I suddenly thought, why not turn my imagined scenes into text?"

  Ryan puckered his lips and continued, "I was reading a magazine about dinosaurs and cloning technology at the time. Although I still don't understand much about cloning now, but back then I fantasized why can't we bring these prehistoric monsters to modern times?"

  These words are both true and false, he is very clear that anyone who has read a lot of books and animations when they were young will always fantasize about putting themselves in them, this kind of statement is not something many people would question.

  Kate nodded in agreement, apparently she had also had fantasies when she was a kid. "Have you always been so inspired? You've written 'Jurassic Park', three Harry Potters and a collection of stories from the age of six to now. And on the movie side, there are screenplays for 'The Sixth Sense', 'Home Alone' and 'Sleepless in Seattle'. Oh my god, you're really prolific."

  "Actually, how to say it!" Ryan's face showed a few points of embarrassment, "People close to me, my family and friends, often say that I like to daydream, that my thinking is too erratic, when I was younger, Nicole even thought I had delusions..."

  Ryan suddenly covered his mouth, as if he had accidentally said something he shouldn't have.

  The audience below responded with kind laughter.

  "Alright, Ryan." Kate's tone suddenly turned sharp as she pulled out a copy of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", "Some critics say that your work is becoming more adult-oriented and losing the innocence of your earlier works. What do you think about this?"

  "People are always growing up slowly!" Ryan said with a cute shrug, "In fact, those works full of childlike innocence were all completed before I was ten years old."

  "Will your frequent creation affect your studies?"

  "All of my grades are A's." Ryan said extremely confidently.

  "But all the teachers who were interviewed reacted that you never listened in class!" Kate looked intimidating.

  "Yes, I've never denied that." Ryan spread his hands. "All the textbooks, on the first day of class, I would flip through them once. Maybe some people think I'm arrogant, but I still have to say, this knowledge is a bit too simple for me."

  "I think no one would ever question your intelligence, would they?" Kate said with a small compliment, but Ryan was unmoved.

  She pointed at the audience below the stage, mostly young people, "I think what the audience is most concerned about is still Harry Potter."

  "Do you have ideas for an entire series?"

  "Yes, if nothing unexpected happens, the whole series should have seven episodes."

  "Wah!" The scene erupted in a chorus of amazement, this was exclusive news.

  Kate suddenly burst out laughing and pulled out a newspaper from under the chair, "This is the latest issue of Daily Mail, I think it's not unfamiliar to you, right?"

  "In those two years in London, Nicole had subscribed." Ryan took it casually.

  "The influence of the Harry Potter series is getting wider and wider, not only in the US but also in the UK. This newspaper claims that this series is British literature, and you can have such thoughts because you lived in London for two years and received a British-style education." Kate looked at Ryan.

  "I admit, without those two years of living in London, it would have been impossible to write something like this, but it has nothing to do with British education, my performance at school in London..." Ryan made a you-know gesture.

  "What's your take on British media calling it British literature?"

  "Uh..." Ryan scratched his face, looking a bit embarrassed.

  After all, this is authentic British literature, but he absolutely cannot admit that having lived in both Los Angeles and London, he wouldn't know that the folk of the US and UK don't get along, especially between media outlets, where they would often launch verbal attacks on each other. If he gave a wrong answer, it would be like playing with fire.

  "I think literature has no borders, right?" Ryan could only give a vague reply.

  It's likely that Kate had already greeted him beforehand, or perhaps it was his age that gave him an advantage, but in any case, Kate didn't continue to make things difficult for him and turned the conversation towards movies.

  "Are there any filming plans this year?"

  "I just finished filming 'Terminator 2' in March and won't be taking on any new projects for the time being." Ryan shook his head.

  "Is it true that James Cameron is a tyrant on set? Has he ever yelled at you?"

  "Of course, when filming, James would turn into a humanoid velociraptor, even more terrifying than the one in 'Jurassic Park', he would scold people like a storm, and several times in New Mexico, I wanted to run into the desert and dig a hole to bury myself."

  "Why?" Not just Kate, but also the audience in the field showed a curious expression.

  "Under his scolding, I felt completely useless and ashamed."

  Ryan finished speaking and the scene erupted in a burst of laughter.

  "So will you work with him again in the future?"

  "Undoubtedly, James is a very great director. After Terminator 2 is released, everyone will be amazed. I will certainly continue to cooperate with him, but absolutely not in the form of an actor."

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