Birth of an actor

"Meet My Father-in-Law" has been making great strides all the way, and once again scored 700 million US dollars in the box office in the fifth weekend, easily defending the fifth week's North American weekend box office champion.Especially compared to last week's box office, the film once again stabilized the decline, controlling the box office decline to less than [-]%, which greatly exceeded Universal's expected value.

To be honest, such a decline can be maintained within a month of release, which only shows that many viewers went to the cinema to watch the movie for the second and third times. It is said that Universal is negotiating with the theaters to extend the movie's showing time.

So far, the global box office of "Meet My Father-in-Law" has exceeded 5000 million US dollars, and the North American box office has exceeded 5000 million US dollars. According to the trend, the film's global total box office should eventually reach close to [-] million US dollars. It should be around $[-] million.

At present, the box office champion in North America and the world is Paramount's "Mission: Impossible 2", with a total box office of 5000 million US dollars worldwide, and a total box office of 500 million US dollars in North America. In terms of movies, the three questions that make the public most curious are: How many weeks will it continue to be the North American weekend box office champion?Can the North American box office and the global box office surpass "Mission: Impossible 2"?

Finally, in its seventh week of release, Universal Pictures' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," starring Jim Carrey, ended "Meet Your Father-in-Law"'s six-peat, and the following week, the film shrunk to It was released in 1937 theaters, and the drop in the box office finally exceeded 30%, but it was not surpassed by other movies. After the release, it fell to third place.

——The last data, until the release of "Meet Your Father-in-Law" in the spring of 500, it had earned a total of 2 million US dollars in the global box office, only a few million US dollars away from "Mission: Impossible 1000" ", lost the throne of the global box office champion in [-]. This is because even if there are many superstars joining in, comedy movies are still not as popular as blockbusters with intense special effects in overseas markets.However, in the North American market, the movie won the annual North American box office champion with a box office of [-] million U.S. dollars, which almost surpassed "Mission: Impossible [-]" by [-] million U.S. dollars. Festival" and "Survival on a Deserted Island" did not succeed in joint sniping.

In any case, William Bradley once again proved his box-office magic through "Meet Your Father-in-Law", a low-cost movie. One-third, William is the highest, followed by Robert De Niro, Jennifer Aniston's salary is not high, Brad Pitt is a cameo and there is no lion's mouth, 2000 million US dollars in salary plus box office share, William's The final income is already more than all other actors combined.

It took Tom Cruise and other Hollywood superstars more than ten years to achieve what William Bradley did in just a few years. Maybe he is not the highest paid actor in Hollywood, but no one thinks that this day will come too late.

……

"Okay, Will, just put on another layer of setting powder, and we're done!" the makeup artist on the set of "A Beautiful Mind" cheered.

William slightly closed his eyes, and didn't even have the slightest intention to open them, even though he had been sitting motionless on the chair for a full three and a half hours.

He was a little afraid to look at himself now, really.

Because once he opened his eyes, what he was about to see was his 70-year-old self.

Perhaps in the eyes of the makeup artist, and in the eyes of others, this is just acting. It is William who is less than 30 years old who plays a nearly ancient old man. They are amazed and admired by the eyes of a bystander, and find it incredible , It is also a topic of conversation with friends to reveal the secrets and show off in the future, but William, his mood is much more complicated, because in his own opinion, all this is far from that simple, although only a few months of shooting time, but he It really went through John Nash's life.

In the first few months of the "A Beautiful Mind" crew, William would say "I am John Nash" to the mirror every morning when he woke up, and in the middle and late stages of filming, he would spend at least two or three hours a day applying age makeup , he no longer needs to hypnotize himself, just look at himself in the glasses, and immediately there are countless complex emotions belonging to John Nash in his heart.

And William watched the man in the mirror grow old day by day, as if decades had passed by suddenly, and the man in the mirror was actually his real appearance.

Playing a role in a movie that is much older than your actual age, after the initial short-term novelty, what you face next is often endless pressure and continuous challenges.

After a long time, it is inevitable that there will be illusions. Although William has not yet reached the point where he thinks he is John Nash—or this is related to the fact that Nash himself often appears in the crew to give professional mathematics guidance—but, Off-screen, William also often has a sense of cross-time travel. Sometimes he looks at himself in his 40s and 50s and can't help but start thinking.

What William often thinks about is what kind of state he is at this time, will his appearance become exactly the same as after makeup?What will his life be like then?

Although William knew very well that he was only in his 20s, as the filming progressed, his state of mind was very different from a few months ago, as if he had really finished Nash's life, and he felt more It's exhaustion and fatigue, and some more complicated emotions.

"Can I go in?" William's best friend said outside the dressing room door.

"3 more minutes! I need to fix Will's hair."

The sudden conversation reminded William that there was another person waiting outside the door to share with him what he looked like when he was 70 years old.

Lance Roderick, of course his, best friend forever.

When he heard that William needed to play from 20 to 70 years old in this movie, Lance had great expectations for his possible appearance, "We have been friends since we were eight years old, but it took more than ten years. , but now I can see what you will look like decades later, think about it, this is really cool.” These are the original words of Lance.

So William has been emailing photos of himself in the crew to Lance, especially those photos he found very interesting, like he took pictures of Nash when he was suffering from mental illness. After the past, Lance replied: : "Too bad you look like you need to go to a nursing home and look like an addict who's been tortured for too long."

Then, the crew has been receiving food deliveries from Roderick, imported fruits, pizza, donuts and even Mexican takeaways. It was not until William seemed a little fatter after he appeared on the camera that he quickly stopped this kind of love. Excessive feeding behavior.

The 45-year-old William has a retro-style hairstyle that has been treated with pomade. His deliberately trimmed sideburns are a little gray, but his dark hair is still very lush. There are light nasolabial folds around the corners of his mouth. He smiles There are fine crow's feet at the corners of the eyes.

When he saw the picture of William made up to look 45 years old, Lance responded to the email with three laughing emojis, and said that William looked great, and according to his career as an actor, William is really 50. When he was [-] years old, he definitely looked better than in the photos.

When Lance came to Princeton to visit the set a few weeks ago, William happened to be filming a scene in which he had recovered from schizophrenia and returned to Princeton to start life. His character was in his 50s at the time.

William, who is in his 50s, has changed a lot after makeup. His hair color has become gray, his sideburns have become white, his hair is no longer so thick, and the hairline on the upper left of his forehead has moved back a lot. I don’t have much hair, so my hairstyle has been changed to [-]-[-]. There are obvious wrinkles between the eyebrows, and there are fine wrinkles under the eyes. The nasolabial folds are deepened. The most important thing is to wear reading glasses.

Lance was really surprised at the time. He stared at William for a long time: "In order to avoid such a hairline in the future, we really should take good care of your hair."

William couldn't argue with that at all.

I'm pretty confident about my hair, but think of Hugo Weaving, who had thick brown hair in his 20s and couldn't even hold a tiara when he was filming The Lord of the Rings line.And Jude Law, whose hairline is different in "Wilde's Lover" and "The Talented Ripley."

Thinking of Lance, William calmed down strangely.

The makeup artist just stopped playing with his hair at this moment: "Finally fixed your 70-year-old look! Will, I can tell now that you will definitely become a handsome and handsome grandpa in 50 years."

William opened his eyes and saw himself in the mirror. After a brief daze, he raised his eyebrows sadly.

The silver-haired vicissitudes old man in the mirror has the same eyebrow raised.

'Oh alright. 'William is not as optimistic as the makeup artist: 'This is much older than I expected, I hope Lance will not be intimidated. '

This should be the 66-year-old William, who is about to play the last point in "A Beautiful Mind", John Nash when he won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994, but perhaps for the sake of dramatic effect, it is more important than the last old look Much older.

The hair style is still the old-fashioned twenty-eight points, but it has all turned into a silvery white color, and there is only a layer of light gray at the ends of the hair.The thick shadows on both sides created thin cheeks, and the skin on the face and neck were glued with special materials to camouflage the feeling of loose skin, and there were some spots.There are deep grooves brought by the years on both sides of the tall nose, deep lines on the forehead and the corners of the mouth, the color of the eyebrows has become very light, the eye sockets are sunken, there are heavy bags under the eyes, and the lips are thin and flat. A relatively perfect old-age special effect makeup, very realistic (don't stare carefully at a distance of one meter), only the eyes are still clear, full of youthful vitality.

He closed his eyes and took a breath, and when he opened them again, William's eyes had changed, very focused, but no longer youthful and sharp, but contemplative. No matter where he stared, it seemed that there was a difficult Solved math puzzles.

William thanked the makeup artist, stood up, opened the chair, and called his friend outside the door: "Lance?"

Lance pushed the door open.

William turned around, moving like a real old man, a little trembling and a little slow: "Hi, old friend." He even changed his accent and tone of voice.

"Oh!" Lance was stunned.

For a moment, Lance couldn't say anything. After William blinked at him again, he suddenly smiled, the smile was so green that he even turned his back, his whole shoulders were trembling, and then After dozens of seconds, he finally turned around.

"It's so funny. Tears are coming out of my eyes." Lance pulled out the lake blue pocket square in the front pocket of his suit, and gently pressed the corners of his eyes: "You look more old than when you were in your 50s." Too much, I dare say you are definitely not a normal 66-year-old now, what happened in these ten years?"

"It's just been tortured by life for too long, I think." William said as he tidied up his sleeves. He saw that even his hands had been carefully put on by the makeup artist, turning them into a pair of hands that had experienced many vicissitudes.

"Although it feels a bit inconsistent to look at it up close, I also like your appearance, and I think that when you are 70 years old, your real wrinkles will be more flavorful than these false lines."

If it wasn't for the thick makeup on his face that looked like he was wearing a mask, William thought he would not be able to hide his red cheeks under Lance's gaze. He looked at his friend and began to imagine that the other party was at this age. and couldn't help blurting out: "I also want to know what you looked like when you were 70 years old."

He is a slender blond young man whose height and face have been fixed. His peach-like face is still covered with fine fluff. His delicate facial features are so shining that they are not inferior to any movie star in Hollywood. His snow-white skin not only has fine lines, but even pores And freckles are very rare, there is no extremely careful and generous growth environment, and such a young man cannot be raised. He deserves to be as young as the portrait of the noble young master on the expensive oil painting. No one can imagine or dare to imagine such a young man. The look of a young man whose beauty fades after decades.

Lance looked at himself in the glasses, and thought that decades later, as long as he didn't have too much Botox, Tyler Roderick with a stiff expression would be fine.

"Hey guys, I have a proposal. I'm done with Will's look and I'm almost done with my morning work. Why doesn't Mr. Roderick sit here? There are plenty of make-up materials. If you want, I can Let you see what you will look like when you are old 50 years in advance." The makeup artist's intervention made William and Lance finally realize that there was a third person in the room.

"Good idea," William said.

Lance and William looked at each other for three seconds, lost. He took off his suit jacket, and William quickly took it and hung it aside, looking more curious about the effect of his makeup than Lance himself.

"You look like my butler," Lance said sarcastically.

"I wish you a happy day, Master Lance." William walked to the door, gave an exaggerated farewell ceremony, and then exited the room and returned to the crowded studio.

……

Five hours later, after reshooting a walking sequence nine times, Ron Howard was satisfied he was finally willing to let William go.

William faltered as he walked towards the lounge.

Pushing open the door of the lounge, William saw a hale and hearty old man sitting on a lounge chair and flipping through his script. Two old men in their seventies looked at each other with very interesting expressions on each other.

"My God, you look like Marlon Brando from The Godfather."

Lance looked at himself in the mirror: "I feel more like my grandfather."

"It is very similar." William has never seen Lance's grandfather, but he has seen photos. Speaking of which, it is indeed Lance's grandfather who is more similar to Marlon Brando, and Lance looks better than that: "You look only about 60 years old."

"Yeah, if these wrinkles and gray hair are removed." Lance looked William up and down again: "And you are also the most handsome and graceful grandpa I have ever seen."

"I bet even if you were 70, there would still be a bunch of 26-year-old girls who like you."

"Like my money?" Lance replied with a raised eyebrow.

The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

William laughed extraordinarily hard, just like Lance's reaction when he saw him with a particularly old face for the first time.

Tasting the indistinguishable taste in his heart, William thought with mixed feelings, even if he saw the white hair, deep wrinkles, conspicuous spots and no-perfect figure, his feelings still did not fade away. How much do you think...

I want him to know how important he is to me.

However, even if he can never express this feeling, he will still love him as much as he can, and act like he loves a partner, friend, or brother, which is another form of "always accompanying".

"I hope that at this time we can still remember the past. We don't have Alzheimer's or Parkinson's."

"We still see each other a lot," William said, "or each other's children, grandchildren."

"You like children?"

"Who doesn't like those cute little creatures?" William may never get married and never have children of his own, but this does not prevent him from liking children: "If we are really at this age, but still alone Lonely."

"If I really don't get married, maybe I will adopt a few children in my later years. They can be Asian, African, South American or even Indian. A United Nations-like Bradley family, it must be very interesting . 'This idea lingered in William's mind twice, but he didn't say it.

Seeing that Lance did not answer his own topic about children, William could only change the subject and say: "It feels weird, doesn't it? Seeing someone you've known since you were eight years old turn into 70 years old in the blink of an eye 60 years have passed. At 70 years old, we should be thinking, or doing something?"

"It's a will after all." Lance said: "If you have children, you can watch them fight for property. If you don't have children, you're worried about who will inherit the inheritance after death."

Lance's idea was really different from his, but maybe the other party was the right one, because it was indeed a large sum of money.William looked at Lance: "If I die first, I will leave the company to you, and donate the rest. You can choose a particularly smart and capable child, or a child you particularly prefer to inherit my property, and everyone will be happy gone."

"Damn it, I thought so too!"

"What I think of most, this is my idea, you can't follow me."

"But I have a will lawyer who can make a will valid at any time."

"Thief! Don't take my ideas away!"

"Ah."

After gaining the upper hand in the argument, Lance's reason came back, and he finally realized that this topic was wrong—two young people in their 20s chatted about the will in a serious manner, and even quarreled about it, it was simply too weird— — Wiping the sweat from his forehead a little uncomfortably, looking at a wet powder stain on the handkerchief, Lance asked: "I can't stand these stuffy and ugly things on my face, how do I get them off?" ?”

William picked his ears casually: "I'm too old, I can't hear what you say."

"How do I get this thick foundation off? Is there a special cleanser?"

"can not hear."

"..." Lance decided to go back to Roderick's mansion tomorrow, find out the ugliest portraits he drew for William since he was a child, frame it and give it to William as a Christmas gift this year.

……

UK premiere of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in London, November 11.

"Mr. Wei--Mr. Bradley!" Emma Watson secretly twisted his arm, and Daniel Radcliffe blinked his blue eyes and changed his words in a panic.

"It's rude to call you by your first name," Emma Watson secretly whispered to Daniel Radcliffe.

Then the ten-year-old girl, who was as smart as Hermione Granger outside the scene, nodded to William seriously and said hello, "Good evening, Mr. Bradley."

Rupert Grint, who was distracted by the media on both sides of the red carpet, finally came back to his senses and said hello a few shots later than the others.The attitude is very correct, almost copying the expression when facing director Steven Spielberg when he was on the crew.

——To be honest, the "Magic Trio" is actually not familiar with William Bradley. Although they all met William during the audition, they only had one or two short sides. For a few days, we didn’t spend much time together, and the age difference was huge. If the trio didn’t know how to greet William when they saw William today, they would just smile shyly (just like treating other older and unfamiliar actors), It's not unusual at all.

However, whether it is Daniel, Rupert or Emma, ​​it is impossible to be rude to meet William, because they have been reminded by their agents (parents) before attending the premiere, no, before the official filming: " Remember that Hollywood star on that movie poster in your brother/sister's room? -William Bradley, yes, he's the one who signed our family's check, so don't get excited seeing him , be respectful like you would be to Mr. Spielberg, okay, honey?"

Especially Daniel Radcliffe, whose casting director mother, who is also engaged in the film industry, told him long ago that William Bradley's opinion had an important influence on Spielberg's director, if not William Bradley chose him. According to director Spielberg's taste, Harry Potter is likely to be another child actor.

"I wasn't going to be called by my first name," Daniel Radcliffe murmured under his breath. "I wanted to be called Uncle."

'Thank goodness he was stopped, I don't want to be the uncle of a ten-year-old boy at such a young age. William said hello to the magic trio while thinking this way: "Daniel, Rupert, good evening. Beautiful clothes, Emma, ​​you look like a vibrant young tree."

Emma Watson immediately smiled happily.

"Will! Nice to meet you." Joanna Rowling, who accompanied the magic trio on the red carpet and had just finished dealing with a reporter, approached a little closer and gave William a gentle hug from a friend.

"Me too, Joan." William carefully observed Rowling's face: "You look a little nervous?"

Taking advantage of William blocking the camera facing her and successfully attracting the audience's attention from the media, Joanna Rowling took a long breath and frowned quietly at William: "Of course I was nervous, I was nervous all night. Didn't sleep well." After a pause, she immediately added: "I think I'd feel a lot better if you didn't keep asking me where I'm at with the fifth book like everyone else is doing."

"No problem, then I can only congratulate "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" for breaking through 500 million copies. This is really a very remarkable achievement."

The fourth novel in the "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", was published this spring - Rowling is almost publishing her novels at an average speed of less than a year. This is all due to her accumulation over the past years - now that the world has been set off by the magic frenzy of the previous three novels, "Goblet of Fire" has been creating various miracle sales and sensations since it was released.

On the day the book was released, the largest bookstore in London sold 500 books in the first hour of operation; bookstores in New York and London respectively achieved sales of [-] copies on the first day, and directly emptied the warehouses; because There were too many book fans queuing up to buy books, and bookstores in London, New York, Chicago and a few other cities had to stay open all night; the total sales of the first day in the United States and London both exceeded [-] copies; "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" surrendered It has been on the list of best-selling books in English-speaking countries for half a year since its publication, and its sales have just exceeded [-] million copies. The combined sales of the four books in this series have now exceeded [-] million copies...

This achievement was something that Joanna Rowling could not have imagined four years ago. Even if she has experienced it herself now, sometimes waking up from bed in the morning still feels like her current life is like a dream.

Thinking of the past four years and her completely different life from the previous decades, Joanna Rowling couldn't help saying emotionally: "Although this is my novel, it is not only because it has become popular all over the world so quickly. To my credit, remember how many publishers rejected Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone before Waddington Press would sign me? A dozen times. But it's even being filmed now Life is so, so—”

"Unbelievable?" William continued.

"Yeah, just like a movie story, there are too many miracles and incredibles." Joanna Rowling also looked around: "Mr. Roderick didn't come?"

"He is attending an international conference in Paris and cannot leave for the time being."

"It's a pity." Joanna Rowling said with some disappointment.She once created based on Lance Roderick, and the other party gave her great help when the novel was published. She always hoped that when the first movie of the "Harry Potter" series was released, Anyone who has been a major influence on the book will be able to attend the premiere of the film.

"Don't sigh, Joanne, Lance promised me he'll be there for the U.S. premiere."

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" has two important premieres, one in the UK and one in the US. The US premiere will be delayed by about half a month compared to the UK, but the scale is much larger.

"Hey Rowling! Hey Will! Look here!" The reporters on both sides of the red carpet were dissatisfied that William and Rowling chatted in private. They called their names loudly and asked them to look at the camera.

So William stood with Rowling, or with Daniel Radcliffe, and let the reporter take pictures for a while, and then Rowling returned to the side of the magic trio. Little starring in the duty of a temporary guardian.

William stopped and walked on the red carpet and saw that Steven Spielberg had already entered the theater. Just as he was about to take a few quick steps to catch up, he suddenly discovered that another young actor from the crew, Tom Felton, was Walking the red carpet alone.

William walked over and patted each other on the shoulder: "Hey, Tom, do you need a guardian?"

Judging from his expressions and movements, the young actor in front of William is probably in an unprecedented state of tension. The reason is not hard to guess. Considering that he is playing Draco Malfoy, who is always against the protagonist, he is not a pleasant person. Favorite villain, Tom Felton should be very worried about being unpopular.

Tom Felton turned his head and saw William, his eyes beamed with surprise: "Of course!" He stuttered a little with excitement.