Birth of an actor

Clint Eastwood is a veteran Hollywood actor living in San Francisco, the kind old enough to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Clint Eastwood, who was born in the 30s, started acting in the 50s, and his first play after entering the industry was cowboys. Since then, the glory days of western films have also achieved his heyday, starring in "Wilderness" A series of famous western movies such as "A Fistful and a False Man", "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and "Never Bow Your Head" have almost become synonymous with "cowboy" and "tough guy".

In the 80s, Eastwood took over the director and became a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He served as the mayor of the seaside town of Carmel. In [-], he directed and acted in the film "Unforgivable" which was a great success. , was not only praised by film critics as "the last western epic film", but also won two Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood.

The actors of the same age as Clint Eastwood are basically retired or semi-retired. There are not many actors who are as old and strong as him. Therefore, whether it is among his contemporaries or the younger generation, Eastwood They all have high prestige, so whenever the awards season comes, when those film companies are canvassing for the Oscars, Clint Eastwood is always their key target.

As in previous years, since the Academy began to consider the list of nominations for this year's Oscars, Clint Eastwood can sweep out a lot of mail from film companies from his mailbox every day, most of which are movie DVDs, Advertised magazines or invitations of all kinds, private receptions, screenings and parties.

After Clint Eastwood came home from a walk in the park in the morning, he carried the contents of the mailbox into his study. He put aside the packages from Warner, Universal, Paramount and other major studios, and opened them first. Miramax Films.

He is full of affection for this independent film company.In the past few decades, the Oscars have always been monopolized by major studios. Maybe small and medium-sized studios can produce movies with good box office, but they can’t do it when it comes to nomination trophies, and no independent studio has performed well during the awards season. With enough aggressiveness, even the Coen brothers followed the trend of the Oscars, until the Weinstein brothers turned out to be ambitious and aimed at the big cake of the Oscars, which was previously only divided by major studios. It has become lively and interesting, and the films that Miramax competes for the award ceremony every year are made with enough sincerity, at least it is very suitable for Eastwood's appetite.

As in past years, Miramax Pictures included in the package, in addition to DVDs of their two nominated films this year, "Shakespeare in Love" and "Life is Beautiful," a copy featuring Miramax's " The Hollywood Reporter magazine for your reference film catalog during awards season, several invitations to receptions, parties, and screenings—in order to allow Academy judges to enjoy a good movie-watching experience without being disturbed by ordinary moviegoers, Mira Max specially rented a theater in San Francisco to show films for the academy judges living in the San Francisco Bay Area—oh, they even prepared round-trip air tickets to Los Angeles to attend the reception, and they did better than other film companies Be more considerate.

While flipping through the magazine, the phone on the desk rang. Clint Eastwood picked it up. It was the representative of Miramax. As in previous years, their calls were always the fastest. A representative asked Eastwood if he had received the tapes and asked him to watch both films early because "they're really good!"

A few days later, a representative of Miramax called again to ask Clint Eastwood about watching the movie. Eastwood, who just re-watched "Shakespeare in Love" at home, said: "Shakespeare in Love "A History of Love" is indeed good, although I have seen it in the cinema, but this time I watched it alone at home, and I discovered many interesting details, William Bradley's performance is excellent..."

After listening carefully to Clint Eastwood's thoughts, the representative first praised his unique vision with admiration, and then enthusiastically suggested: "You must have also paid attention to Gwyneth Pat Luo, right? The Viola she plays is so sweet and lovely, isn't it so natural that there is no trace of acting?"

"Ah, of course, I have paid attention to Paltrow." To be honest, Clint Eastwood actually didn't have a deep impression of Viola in "Shakespeare in Love". It was indeed a sweet and clear smile. A touching girl, but apart from the advantage of daring to love and hate, the character is not complicated and the fate is not tortuous. It can only be said that it is like a breeze, but the profound interpretation of Queen Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett, and Mei Li Compared with Bill Streep's mellow acting skills in "Priceless Love", it always seems that there is something missing.

"You also noticed that Paltrow's acting skills are very extraordinary for a girl in her 20s! Not to mention that she also unbuttoned her shirt for the movie. This spirit of sacrifice for art is very commendable and encouragement."

Reminded by a representative of Miramax, Clint Eastwood does feel that Gwyneth Paltrow's role is a little bit natural, and perhaps Viola's role is exactly what she wants. What about your acting skills?Different roles have different requirements. It would be wrong to act out a real Juliet who should be innocent and have a clear love and hate, with deep and complicated feelings.

Later, Clint Eastwood chatted with representatives of Miramax about several candidates for the Oscar for Best Actor. To Eastwood's surprise, "Shakespeare in Love" was originally Miramax Max produced the film himself, and "Life is Beautiful" is just an Italian film that was bought by the Weinstein Brothers in North America. However, on the phone, the representative of Miramax strongly recommended Roberto Beni to him. Ni, that is, the actor of "Life is Beautiful", an Italian actor who is one of the five Oscar nominees for Best Actor.

Since he has not seen the movie, Clint Eastwood did not comment on Roberto Bernini, but he promised that he would watch the movie if he is free in the next few days, and He was indeed impressed by the introduction that Miramax representatives said that "Life is Beautiful" is based on the real experience of Roberto Bernini's father who spent two years in a Nazi concentration camp.

Over the next week, in addition to two more phone calls from representatives of Miramax, Clint Eastwood also called from a friend of his, Warren Cowan, who worked in public relations in Hollywood. He made a phone call and invited him to Los Angeles to attend a private party, and said that many old friends would go there—the so-called old friends naturally refer to the judges of the academy, and Warren Cowan is one of the judges of the academy .

In Los Angeles, Clint Eastwood stayed for five full days, and every night he participated in gatherings of old friends, and every day, he could meet Roberto Bernini at the gatherings. The two gatherings were specially held for Roberto Bernini, and the other three times, the Italian actor came in a hurry, shook hands with everyone present, chatted for a few days, and left in a hurry. It looks very busy.

Through these few days of contact, Clint Eastwood found that this Italian actor is humorous and funny, and can arouse the atmosphere of the party. His impression of Roberto Bernini changed from knowing nothing to immediately becoming With some understanding and goodwill.

And after Clint Eastwood finished watching "Life is Beautiful", his impression of Roberto Bernini became deeper - "Life is Beautiful" was a good movie, and Bernini Ni also played a good role, and Eastwood has already known the actor himself, which is hard to imagine.

When voting for this year's Oscar nomination list two months ago, Clint Eastwood didn't vote for it because he had never seen the movie "Life is Beautiful", but now , he thought: 'Roberto Bernini deserves a Best Actor vote. '

As for William Bradley, who had left a deep impression on Clint Eastwood, due to various reasons, he was temporarily forgotten by him.

……

When William Bradley returned to the set after a short break, Zach Grenier was keenly aware that some subtle things had changed in the other party.

'I heard that when some actors are in a bottleneck, they will yell, scold or beat them, shut themselves in the toilet and vent their anger, and their status will be significantly improved after they come out. Is he also such an actor? ’ thought Zach Grenier gossip.In "Fight Club", he played the boss of the protagonist Jack, a car company executive, and Jack was the role of William Bradley.

"Fight Club" is the first movie that Zach Grenier and William Bradley collaborated on. Although they have experienced each other's superb acting skills from the screen before, this time they are facing each other face to face in front of the camera. Zach Grenier really felt that some media referred to William Bradley as the leading figure among the young actors of the [-]s, and he was indeed right. It is a vivid interpretation of Jack's image of a depressed company clerk at the beginning.

Jack is obsequious to his boss, cautious about work, and full of dissatisfaction with life. Only from his face or eyes, you can see his good temper, or lack of temper. It seems that even if you punch him, he will He will not fight back, and he dares not speak out against any sarcasm and assignments from his boss-Jack is simply the epitome of the most common image of male employees in large companies in big cities, Zach Grenier is sure William Bradley will definitely not have a character like Jack in his life, but the other party behaves as if he is Jack in front of the camera, which can make Grenier feel the humorous charm he felt when he met the other party in the crew before. Forget it, and many of the shots are one-shot, which has to be surprising.

What Zach Grenier admired even more was that William Bradley never acted rigidly according to the script. If there was something wrong with him in the script, he would tell director David Fincher, and even Propose amendments, if David Finch disagrees, he will fight hard until his suggestion is accepted, but it is not a stalker, if David Finch is indeed right, he will calm down and obediently Going back to reading scripts - Zach Grenier had this kind of energy too, sometimes because he was young and sometimes because of ambition, but as he got older, the play gradually narrowed, and he has become just thinking about the good moment William Bradley is likely to have both qualities of youth and ambition, and Zach Grenier, who has been immersed in Hollywood for many years, knows that such actors are the scariest, because as long as they don’t Give up halfway, and always taste victory at the end.

Zach Grenier believes that although William Bradley is now very popular in Hollywood, it can be said that he has reached the A-list level in terms of fame, connections and salary, but the future of the other party must be far more than that, maybe William Bradley will also become the first Hollywood actor under [-] to reach super-A level, and he is well-deserved, the kind with a statuette - starting from the first script discussion meeting, Zach Grenier felt that way.

When the crew held the first script discussion, William Bradley was already talking endlessly. He made up a complete set of detailed life experiences for his character, which scared the director David Fincher. Jump:

"Jack's cowardice is not a traditional, masculine cowardice. His cowardice is a product of feminism, which is feminine. He must have grown up in an environment dominated by women and lacking male elders like his father. Big. See, Jack, who is not a (test) cancer patient, just likes to participate in the (test) cancer mutual aid society and takes psychological comfort, isn't that a hint of his lack of normal masculinity?" William Brown Landry spoke with certainty, as if he wasn't talking about a stretch of his own imagination, but what the writers actually wrote in the script.

Even the director David Fincher laughed at that time, because in the script it was set that Jack, who suffers from insomnia, went to the Mutual Aid Association for (Test) Cancer Patients to observe the more painful life than him in order to find psychological comfort, but Because (test)testicular cancer is one of the most painful terminal illnesses for men—let's say, if "Fight Club" was about two women, and Jack was a girl, maybe he would Participating in breast cancer or infertility mutual aid associations - Jack's cowardice stems from women, (test) testicular cancer implies a lack of masculinity, etc., which were not considered by David Fincher at all.

"Why do you think so?" Zach Grenier remembered that director David Fincher asked this question while rubbing his stomach. At that time, many people thought William Bradley's imaginary supplement was very funny. But after the other party started to explain, the laughter gradually disappeared, and the audience slowly put on thoughtful expressions.

"Jack's age is set to be 30 years old. Wasn't it 30 years ago when the feminist movement was in full swing? No one can deny that the 60s was the watershed. After that, whether it was in movies or in reality, it was more respected by the public. The image of women in China has indeed undergone earth-shaking changes. In the 50s, it seemed that only housewives who raised three healthy children were worthy of respect, but since the 60s, professional women in suits and trousers with short hair have become the mainstream again—— If Jack’s raiser is set to be such a professional woman, then the source of his submissive personality will be explained. Cowardly women always spoil children with rebellious personalities, and strong women always train cowardly men. This is a common law in the family, and even when Jack is in extreme anger, he only uses tidying up the room and cleaning the furniture as a way of venting, so there is a better guess. This is what the women who raised him taught him , because non-violent coping is what women generally esteem."

"This can better explain why Taylor is fascinated by Jack, because Taylor is a purely masculine image." David Fincher continued with a very wonderful expression and tone: "Mara's story is also more Reasonable."

Taylor is exactly the character played by Brad Pitt, a friend Jack met on the plane, who is completely different from him, Taylor has everything that Jack lacks, everything that Jack craves, masculinity, masculinity Charm, cynicism, action.And Mara, Mara is the role played by the gothic actress Helena Bonham Carter, a woman who is the most special to Jack.

According to William Bradley, due to the influence of feminism since he was a child, Jack's feelings for Mara must be both fond of and a little scared. This actually coincides with the development of the plot. In the whole script, Jack Always obsessed with Mara, and jealous of Taylor who had a relationship with Mara, but when Mara approached him actively, he began to escape again.

David Fincher’s original setting was that Jack’s innate personality caused all this, but William Bradley added many acquired factors, which made Jack’s whole person, no, the whole story more plump and three-dimensional. David Fincher immediately asked the screenwriter to add these details into the script, and later Brad Pitt was not to be outdone and put forward a lot of ideas about Taylor's role-to be honest, Zach Grenier always felt that this The atmosphere between the two was weird and unfriendly, but it didn't look like they hated each other—in short, after several script discussions, the scripts that all the actors got were much thicker than the ones they got at first.

The scripts obtained by main actors and secondary actors are usually different. The scripts of the main actors are relatively complete, while the scripts of secondary actors are complete except for the outline of the story, only some of the lines related to the plot of their characters are complete, and the extras are even more complete. It is so simple that there is only a piece of paper or a few instructions from the director. This is to prevent the plot of the movie from being leaked to the outside world before the filming is finished. Jack’s boss played by Zach Grenier only appears in the company, and the opponent’s scenes are also Only because of Jack, the script is relatively thin. In most of the opposite scenes, Zach Grenier's character is always bullying and sarcasm Jack. Only in the last scene, he was put together.

Zach Grenier called the scene "Jack's Rise," but when "Jack" did rise, he was horrified.

……

William had some very unpleasant emotions in his body, he thought it was a mixture of negative emotions including anger.

Not to Brad Pitt, not to anyone on the set, but to Miramax.Or, to the Weinstein brothers,

"Miramax has completely abandoned you. It's time to support Roberto Bernini. They are not prepared to do any PR for you." Amon Goffman said in the phone call just now: "What's even more despicable is , they're stealing your approval ratings, I think it must be Harvey Weinstein's idea, that damn shameless jew!"