Birth of an actor

"Ami—" William was considering whether to remind his agent that he had just shot himself into the map.

Amon Goffman discovered his slip of the tongue without being reminded by William, and he quickly added: "Damn, shameless, low-spirited Weinstein! The advantages of the Jewish nation's industriousness, tenacity, and simplicity are all corrupted by people like them Dropped! I will call Harvey Weinstein out for a church on the weekend, and I will give a lesson to this Jewish bastard!”

William doesn't doubt his agent's determination to beat up Harvey Weinstein, even if they were friends a day ago and have worked together many times, because Miramax did a bit too much this time, haha Not only did Weinstein cheat on William, but, in Amon Goffman's view, he betrayed their friendship.Although the two are not really friends.

To explain how Miramax cheated William, perhaps we need to talk about the Oscar selection mechanism——

There are no judges for the Oscars, and all awards are selected by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. According to the statistics of the "Los Angeles Times" in 1997, there are a total of 5371 official members of the Academy, and these are more than 5000 candidates. Winner of every Oscar statuette.

Academy members only have two votes per person, one vote is used to select the best film, and the other vote can only be voted for awards related to their own profession. , can only vote for performance awards, and performance awards can only be selected by actors - therefore, if an actor can win more than 1380% of the support among the 1380 student members, then he/she may become Best Actor/Queen of this year's Oscars.

The "New York Times" once commented that Oscar voting is like a political election, which is not wrong.If an applicant wants to become a student member, he has to pass layers of recommendations and assessments, and those who finally become student members are basically people who have made achievements in their respective professional fields. Such people are usually very busy. There are as many as hundreds of films eligible to compete for nominations. Even if a film is only 10 minutes long, not many student members can actually watch all of these films. So, which film company can If one's own film is brought into the sight of the student members and attracts enough attention, the chances of them gaining something at the award ceremony will be a little higher-this is the reason why Oscar PR came into being.

The history of Oscar PR has a long history, dating back to the second awards ceremony. At that time, the Academy had an organization called the Central Selection Committee. Actress Mary Pickford invited all the members of the Central Selection Committee to her home on the eve of the awards Drinking afternoon tea, and then won the second Oscar queen, the truth revealed after the awards ceremony caused an uproar in the United States, but it also brought the public relations behavior to the fore, and became a Hollywood default "hidden rule", accompanied by Oscar has grown up to this day.

The significance of the existence of Oscar public relations is nothing more than fame and fortune. Xiao Jinren creates fame, fame enhances status, and status brings benefits. One of the big hits of this year's awards season, the movie "Life is Beautiful" has actually been released as early as the end of 97. Released in Italy, after Miramax bought the North American rights, the film was scheduled to be released in the United States in October 98. European films are also literary films, and the premiere box office of "Life is Beautiful", which is far from the mainstream tastes of North American fans, was only 10. Do Wan, but recently, when the news came that the film was nominated for multiple important Oscars at the same time, the theaters re-launched the film and expanded the screening, and the box office of the film immediately doubled compared to before the nomination more.

"Harvey Weinstein brought "Life is Beautiful" from Europe to the United States. He originally wanted to get double insurance in case "Shakespeare in Love" was rejected by the academy. But they didn't expect this insurance to choose So good, it got as many major nominations as Shakespeare in Love, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor—” said Amon Goffman.

The current Oscar system has not yet been restructured, and there are only five nominations for each award. It is quite affirmation for the film company to get one precious nomination, and Miramax holds two, which is not only bad, but on the contrary. It's also kind of bad, because it could actually split the votes and reduce Miramax's chances of winning.

"Miramax must have a detailed public relations plan, or the kind that clearly divides the key points into the primary and secondary. Of course, the best film will be public relations for "Shakespeare in Love", which is a film produced by Miramax itself. But Best Actor, Roberto Bernini has a better chance of winning than you in the eyes of damned Weinstein—”

Oscar has never had an actor under the age of 30. William is only 22 years old this year, and this is his first male protagonist Otti. The chance of winning is basically zero. Roberto Benigni is 47 years old this year. The best age for an actor to be honored.

"There is another benefit of being a publicist for Roberto Bernini, and that is the box office of "Life is Beautiful". The global box office of "Shakespeare in Love" has exceeded 2000 million US dollars. As an art film with no special effects, it is early It has reached saturation. "Life is Beautiful" is different. Miramax spent millions of dollars to buy the film rights from Italians. Now the box office in North America is only over [-] million dollars. Weinstein may still be looking forward to it. After the film won the statuette, it will usher in a big explosion at the box office."

"And you're so uncooperative with Miramax's PR, Will, you'll be absent from eight of the ten parties they throw for you, and you won't push open restaurant after restaurant door to pretend to be with Academy members. You don’t even have time to attend every private screening. Roberto Bernini is more obedient than you. In the past month, he has attended an average of one and a half parties and opened two to three coffee rooms every day. He has made perhaps more new friends in the past month than he has made in the past 40 years—”

"I'm an actor, Amon, and my work is done when the movie comes out." This is the longest and coldest sentence William said in this phone call: "I'm not a politician, nor Elections are required."

……

'That's right. William thought: "Bush Jr. canvasses votes to convince voters that he can govern the country well, and I don't need to run for president. Do I have to rely on canvassing to be recognized as a good actor?"His accusation is totally unjustified. '

By 'he' was of course Amon Goffman.

That's right, William and his own agent are currently in a cold war due to a few lines of altercation during the call.

The reason is simply that during this awards season, the two accidentally splashed their anger towards Miramax towards each other. From a distance, it is actually a little thinking between William and Amon Goffman caused by the difference.

Amon Goffman is a resultist, if the result is good, he doesn't mind playing tricks and fouling in the process - from his hatred of Miramax to exclude William Concealment, but not against Miramax It can be seen from the means of soliciting votes for college members. If William nodded, I believe he would be willing to pay for William's public relations out of his own pocket.

But William is... It can't be said that he is a pure moral model of decent people, he just enjoys the process more, and thinks it is better to keep a little suspense in the result.

Hey, wouldn't it be boring if he knew he was going to win the award before the award was presented, and he would have to make up a seamless set of surprise emojis and acceptance speeches to avoid being seen by others?

So here's the thing, the two start out with Miramax, with Weinstein, and then Amon Goffman proposes revenge, he says he can pay Harvey Weinstein a bigger one If it succeeds, William will be the youngest Oscar winner in the world. Even if it fails, he can disgust Weinstein, but William refuses, not only because he has a plan of his own, but also because he thinks the agent's revenge is too much. Hasty and impulsive, more the product of passion than deliberation.

Then the conversation between the two fell apart. For the first time in history, they hung up on each other's phone calls, and for the first time in history, they quarreled and had a cold war.

It is not difficult to explain why William's emotions are so full on the set of "Fight Club", because there are too many emotions in it, and he transformed all those anger, grievances and even grievances into Jack body, let the character's feelings glow like flames.

……

When William Bradley grabbed the collar of his shirt and slammed himself against the wall again, apart from the sound of debris falling to the ground on the shelf behind him, there was no bright red liquid coming from him. The corners of his mouth flowed out, dripping on the collar of his white shirt.

Zach Grenier was so startled that the whole person stood still and jumped. His expression was a kind of dullness caused by excessive shock, and it seemed that only the eyeballs could move.

He perfectly interpreted the role of "boss", when faced with the sudden self-mutilation behavior of a cowardly subordinate, he should be shocked, dazed, and helpless.

But in fact, it's not acting, it's actually Zach Grenier's real reaction

Because Grenier saw with his own eyes that just now, before William Bradley threw himself against the wall, he also tripped over the entire side of the glass coffee table. The hard object scratched the end of William Bradley's eyebrows when he fell, plus the wound on the corner of his mouth that was just added during the shooting in the morning, and a considerable part of the blood-red liquid that dripped on his white shirt must have been It's not artificial blood, it's real blood.

But William Bradley didn't jump up and shout the pain, and didn't ask the staff to treat his wound immediately. On the contrary, he spit out the blood from his mouth, and continued to use a low voice and unhurried tone, acting as a subordinate The drama of threatening the boss.Acted as if he wasn't spitting out his own blood.

For a moment, Zach Grenier really felt cold all over his body, and even his heart beat a few times faster.

His thoughts are fully synchronized with the character at this moment: Those fists hit him mercilessly, couldn't he feel the pain?This man can be so cruel to himself, what will he do to me?How would he retaliate against this boss who has been ordering him, bullying him, and insulting him?

So when "Jack" struggled up from the ground, with bright red blood still hanging from the corner of his mouth, and struggling to crawl towards him step by step, Zach Grenier resisted the urge to scream and took two steps back, his expression It was pure fear already.

This is a kind of fear that is so shocking that it temporarily forgets reality. Zach Grenier has forgotten his identity as an actor, and his mind is hit by a brand new feeling. The relationship between a man and "Jack"...and "Jack"'s "prayer" sounded no different from the devil's horn to his ears.

……

The same is true in the studio, except for the creepy punching sound without any processing, only the camera is turning quietly.

David Fincher couldn't shout NG.

His design for this scene was not originally like this. William Bradley just had to punch himself realistically and act out the feeling of Jack threatening to tease his boss, but in the end, he made Zach Grenier terrified.

However, although the process is different from the expected process, the effect is the same, even more shocking, so David Fincher is not going to do it all over again, not at all.Watching William Bradley and Brad Pitt tear each other down relentlessly in front of the camera is scary enough, you can't even imagine how they could do that to each other when they beat themselves up... ...Oh my God, this is within the range of being able to create a shadow in your heart.

Speaking of it, this is very similar to a scene with Brad Pitt. In that scene, Pitt had to be beaten without backhand until his body was bruised.but.

"He's crazier than you," David Fincher said to Brad Pitt, who was standing beside him.

"I know." Brad Pitt replied, then "hissed" and said, touching the wound on his face.

……

The farther into the later stages of filming, the more the "Fight Club" crew lacked laughter, not because of the tension between William and Brad Pitt. In fact, they have always maintained the tense confrontation only between each other, private Within the scope, the public has always maintained an overly polite social relationship, but because the violent scenes are getting more and more hit, almost every actor's face is stained, whether it is because of the pain of the wound, or blaming the opponent The actors were too ruthless. In short, everyone didn't smile much.

But today, it seems that the long-lost hilarity has returned. Since the morning, a new, heavyweight gossip has been born. Everyone has forgotten the unhappiness with others, and they get together and whisper to each other with great interest—someone told William Bradley sent a bouquet of yellow roses in full bloom with fresh dew, who could it be?I heard that Valerie Galier, the executive vice president of [-]th Century Fox, tried to gnaw on William Bradley. Could it be another high-ranking and passionate female suitor?Because if it is an ordinary person, they can't get the specific address of the studio at all.

The director's assistant tried to buy William Bradley's assistant with one hundred dollars but failed. The other party sent flowers to William Bradley in person, but the director's assistant noticed that there was a light yellow flower in the bouquet. card.

Everyone is talking about this new talk, and the truth of the facts may make them laugh and cry.

When William opened the pale yellow card under countless curious gazes, his eyebrows were raised almost instantly.

"As you said, the life of partying non-stop like a socialite and pleasing those cadet members is not for you, because you are already pleasing enough without having to. One day, I'm going to make those The members of the academy are all scrambling and trying to get to know you, not the other way around, that's your way. Sorry, Will, our quarrel was a mistake, and the cold war should end sooner, if you forgive me Yes, call me back."

The signature is "Amon Goffman", and the words of Yellow Rose are "Apology".

William couldn't help laughing.He knew that if he laughed now, the gossip trend of the crew would intensify, but he still couldn't help it.

"Danny, where's my phone?"

"What sweet girl are you calling, Will?"

"To a pleasing Jewish man."

"...?!!!" Danny Bourne paused: "Okay, I know who it is. Let me say that you have only had a cold war for three days."