Birth of an actor

William has read the original "Sense and Sensibility", no, or he has read all of Jane Austen's novels, and "Sense and Sensibility" is just one of them.

Although there are very few boys of this age who are interested in Jane Austen-peers of the same age either spend their entertainment time in dating, partying, and trying all kinds of contraband, or put their interest in superhero comics or " In the Star Trek and Planet Gate series films—William is an exception. He likes to read, and he is especially interested in classical literature. He doesn't mind the comments of his friends that "Jane Austen's novels are only fascinated by girls". I saved almost all of Jane Austen's works in the library, and I was impressed by the delicate words and fresh style of this British female writer.

Because he has read the original work and is familiar with the story and text style of "Sense and Sensibility", William was immediately amazed when he saw the script.

"Sense and Sensibility" is originally a very British novel, and the author Austen is a lady in the seventeenth century, so the writing style of the whole book is very subtle, whether it is the description of social phenomena at that time or the emotion. The handling, even the dramatic fate turns of the main and supporting characters, is all handled with introversion and delicacy - it is extremely difficult for such a novel to be adapted into a script, let alone the ups and downs to be changed are fascinating.

But the script before William was wonderful.

All the essence of Jane Austen's novels have been preserved, there is no original plot by any screenwriter, all the plots are taken from the original, and the plots are taken very cleverly, which happens to be the one that can perfectly reflect the characters of the novel without appearing redundant. What's rare is that even the dialogue and interaction of the characters are so authentic, so Jane Austen - but the rhythm is not as slow as the original, the plot arrangement is very measured, and every turn is just right.

Such a good script, if we can meet another not-so-bad director and a group of good actors, we will definitely be able to produce wonderful works!

William is very fond of the script of "Sense and Sensibility", especially after he learned that the film will be filmed in the UK, he is even more excited-maybe he can drop by to visit Lance.

"Thank you! Amon, thank you very much!" William said excitedly to his agent: "I like this script, and I want to get any character in it, even the annoying Willoughby!"

"Since I gave you the script, it means that you are very hopeful to get one of the roles." Amon Goffman said: "Actually, we were lucky this time, and there happened to be disagreements between the studio and the crew, otherwise If it is, it is less than two months before the filming of "Sense and Sensibility", and it is absolutely impossible for us to join the team at this time."

Generally speaking, for formally produced films in Hollywood, the male and female protagonists have to be determined two or three months before the shooting starts, and the bigger the production, the earlier the protagonist is determined, and "Sense and Sensibility" will start shooting in less than two months. At this time, the main actors have not yet been decided, because of special circumstances - the actors selected in the early stage are all British, which makes the investor Columbia a little dissatisfied. "Sense and Sensibility" will finally be released in the United States , and Columbia hopes to use this film to hit major award ceremonies, so they very much hope that there will be an American actor in the crew, so they picked out the characters that have not been fully determined in the film, and held a small-scale event in Los Angeles. , Just recommend a small-scale audition of actors.

——At this time, it is very important to have rich network resources in Hollywood. Amon Goffman was able to learn the news because he had friends in Columbia Film Company, and used some means to win William an audition opportunity.

The start of the film was imminent, and William spent three days hastily studying the script before rushing to the audition.

According to Amon Goffman, the candidate for Colonel Brandon has already been determined, and he is the famous British actor Alan Rickman, who is very satisfied with both the studio and the crew. It suits William, so the only role William can try is the other male lead Edward or the supporting character Willoughby. He decided to go all out for Willoughby-in terms of appearance, William is more in line with the handsome Willoughby.

During the audition, William's number was ranked seventh. The first six people who came out were male and female, and they couldn't tell anything from their faces. When it was William's turn, he breathed a sigh of relief, calmed down his heartbeat, and stretched out his hand Pushed open the door of the room.

Then he was surprised to see a familiar Asian face in the room.

"Li An?"

William's blurted words caught the attention of everyone in the room, not for anything else, but because he spoke Mandarin with perfect accent.

……

There were four people in the room staring at William, three women and one man.

William knew Ang Lee and Emma Thompson—the British actress who won the 1993th Academy Award for Best Actress in 65 with "Howard End"—the faces of the other two ladies were completely unfamiliar to him up.

However, judging from their clothes and seats, William guessed that the woman in a beige dress sitting next to Emma Thompson should be the representative of the producer, and sitting on the far left, she was wearing plain clothes with a smile on her face. The kindly smiling middle-aged lady is a representative of the Screen Actors Guild of America.

The lady in the beige dress looked at Ang Lee: "Do you know him?"

Emma Thompson looked at William and then at Ang Lee with a curious look on her face.

Li An shook his head in doubt and surprise: "No, I don't know." Then he looked at William: "Sorry, you—"

"I don't know you either, no, I mean, I know you, and I really like the father trilogy you filmed." William said quickly: "But this is our first meeting, yes, Mr. AngLee. This time, William deliberately changed to Ang Lee's address, which Americans are more familiar with, and then introduced himself: "I'm William Bradley, just call me Will."

The lady in the beige dress smiled at Li An: "It seems that this is a little fan of yours, and a fan who is proficient in Chinese——If I heard correctly, William, you just called Li's name in Chinese right Bar?"

William nodded, not modestly said: "I am proficient in Chinese."

Li An looked down at William's resume and felt very surprised. He was surprised that William, who had just grown up, was proficient in Chinese—this cannot be faked. Chinese pronunciation is so difficult for Westerners, even if it is simple. Spoken language, if you haven't studied it systematically, you can't speak it properly-and you are surprised that William has seen his father's trilogy.

Although he has lived and studied in the United States for many years, Ang Lee has never shot a complete English film. He only made a few English short films during his college years. His official directing experience is all accumulated after returning to Taiwan. The masterpiece "Pushing Hands", and "The Wedding Banquet" and "Eating and Drinking Men and Women", which won many international honors for him, these three films are Ang Lee's "Father Trilogy", also known as "Family Trilogy".

Both "The Wedding Banquet" and "Eating and Drinking Men and Women" have brought Ang Lee nominations for Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and "The Wedding Banquet" has also won a Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, which is why Ang Lee is somewhat in the hearts of Hollywood filmmakers. Fame, that's why "Sense and Sensibility" was handed over to him, a director who has never made an English film-but Ang Lee never thought that there would be a young actor familiar with the pure film he had filmed in Taiwan. Chinese movies.

It's an actor, not a screenwriter or producer, let alone a film company.This is indeed a bit strange.

Li Ang couldn't help but began to wonder: Is this young man speculating?Would he have asked himself before the audition, deliberately said that he had seen his own movie now, and then wanted to win his favor?

Ang Lee decided to test William Bradley.

If this young man did his homework before the audition instead of really understanding Chinese culture and researching his films, then he would definitely give it away.

"I'm a little surprised that you like my movies." Li An said gently: "After all, very few young Americans are proficient in Chinese and are interested in Chinese movies that are thousands of miles away. There are too many language barriers.”

"I don't think there is anything difficult to understand in "Pushing Hands", "The Wedding Banquet" or "Eating and Drinking Men and Women", although they are Chinese-language movies and tell the stories of ordinary Chinese families thousands of miles away. , but good culture knows no borders, doesn’t it? Personally, I think the three films directed by Ang Lee have something in common with Jane Austen’s novels, especially the novel Sense and Sensibility The style and what you want to convey are very similar, I guess, maybe this is why Columbia Pictures will find you, a Chinese director who has never directed an English film, to shoot a British literary masterpiece?"

Ang Lee hasn't responded yet—or as a Chinese, his reaction is too reserved and unobtrusive. Amy Pascal, a senior executive of Columbia Corporation, showed surprise in her eyes.

No one knows better than Emma Thompson and Amy Pascal why Columbia will find Ang Lee to direct "Sense and Sensibility". Even as a screenwriter and heroine, and as a producer, Ang Lee In the end, being able to become a director is inseparable from the nod of the two of them.

William talked eloquently: "To put it bluntly, there is always only one theme in Jane Austen's novels, marriage. How to marry ladies from the gentry class, and how to marry off the material and emotional satisfaction is her eternal pursuit. But the difference between Austin's works and other love stories about gentlemen and ladies in that era is that the protagonists in her works will never talk about the vigorous and desperate love like Romeo and Juliet. The protagonists created by Austin are restricted by the times. They are depressed, yearn for love, but must endure, even if they will lose the love of their lives because of forbearance."

"Just like the older sister Elena in "Sense and Sensibility", she loves Edward, but she keeps suppressing her feelings, never revealing them to Edward, and never telling anyone, even her own sister Marianne, and Elena's personality is similar to her sister Jane in "Pride and Prejudice", they all almost lost their love because they were too depressed."

Emma Thompson moved her body on the seat, and kept looking at William - the rephrasing just now was too much for her mind, how old is this young man in front of him, twenty? 25?There are very few young people at this age who like Jane Austen.Especially William Bradley should be an American.

"When I heard that Columbia Pictures had approached you, Ang Lee, to direct a British classic, guess what I was thinking? I immediately thought of your family trilogy, because in these three films The protagonist of the novel is just like the characters in Jane Austen's works, full of depression in his personality-in "Pushing Hands", Mr. Zhu and his daughter-in-law Martha have irreconcilable conflicts, and his son Xiaosheng can't reconcile no matter how hard he tries. Between his father and his wife, Xiaosheng felt pain and helplessness in his heart; Gao Wei, the protagonist of "The Wedding Banquet", is also gay. He lives in the United States all year round and has an American boyfriend. He still couldn’t adapt the traditional and conservative thoughts of his parents. Under the family’s forced marriage, he couldn’t tell the truth to his parents. Wei Tong, who tried his best to persuade his friends and boyfriends to cooperate with him in acting, was also full of pain; the old father and eldest daughter in "Eating and Drinking Men and Women" were also suppressing their true feelings for many years, and dared not face them for various reasons. In the end, the feelings could no longer hold back and ushered in a big explosion..."

"Repression is the product of rationality, while eruption is the blowout of sensibility. It is difficult not to deal with such emotions without reminding me of "Sense and Sensibility" and Elena. The women in Jane Austen's works all hope to reap pure and beautiful love, but Their feelings cannot escape that era and the cruel twists and turns given by the social reality at that time. Of course, the story ends with a happy ending in the style of Jane Austen, but the whole process of the story brings people What is meant is not completely happy enjoyment, but full of unspeakable depression and sadness—probably because of the strong demands of the publishing house and readers at the time, or perhaps because of the helplessness of realizing too much reality, so Austin wrote so many sentimental novels. It is a happy ending where people get married, but I think if she is willing to write tragedies, the artistry of the works will be sublimated even higher."

William's words suddenly paused because he noticed that the room was extremely silent, from Li An to Emma Thompson, to the other two ladies, all staring at him intently.

"...Did I talk too much?" He blinked shyly.

"No, I think we are all shocked by your idea, especially me." Ang Lee flipped through the resume at hand: "For a native American teenager, you can understand my movies and have My own thoughts, this is really, really rare." There was a trace of appreciation hidden in Li An's tone.

"I'm also very surprised. I didn't expect that there would be someone who thinks exactly like Li." Emma Thompson looked at William, then at Li An, and sighed in a slightly amazed tone. When Li An looked at her with hope, Shaking his head again, he said firmly, "No, it's impossible. I will never accept your idea of ​​adapting "Sense and Sensibility" into a tragedy."

Ang Lee looked a bit disappointed, and he said to William: "Will, can I call you that? Okay, let's continue, Will, I can see that you still have something to say."