Birth of an actor

Of course William knows about Ellen DeGeneres. She is the most famous gay person who has come out in Hollywood in recent years. She was a well-known comedian in the United States in the 80s. In [-], ABC TV also made a tailor-made show for her. The TV series "Ellen" of the same name, trying to make a female version of "Seinfeld", this TV series is indeed very popular, and she has been nominated for two Emmy Awards for it.

Then in [-], Ellen DeGeneres took the initiative to confess her gay status on the show, and then disclosed her relationship with actress Anne Heche, which immediately caused a sensation in the United States, and even the European media across the ocean reported it.Since then, Allen has become a pioneer of gays in the United States, a banner of the gay community in Hollywood, and has been praised by the media. But then, her sitcom of the same name was cut, and her career quickly turned to a low ebb.Not long after, the film "Six Days and Seven Nights" starring Anne Heche and Harrison Ford was released and suffered a disastrous box office failure. The reason for the failure was also blamed on Allen's coming out, because "he is obviously a lesbian and still talks to men in the movie." Say love, who will believe it?"

Coming out has never been easy in Hollywood, as Ellen DeGeneres and her girlfriends have seen.

The identity of gay is too labelled. Once it is posted on the body, to be honest, the first impression of the audience when they see this person on the screen is no longer "he is an actor / what movies he has acted in / what awards he has won" , and turned into "Oh, he is GAY".

The Kinsey report states that only 4% of men are fully gay (that is, only have sexual contact with the same sex), and the rate of lesbians is about half that of men.However, because the male Kinsey report and the female Kinsey report were published in 1948 and 1963 respectively, and in the 90s, organizations in the United States and France conducted large-scale sample surveys. The new conclusion is that if you can feel same-sex attraction, If the same-sex relationship is included, the range of this number can be expanded to 4%~10%. Although the proportion of homosexuality in Hollywood is the highest in all industries, it only accounts for less than 25%. Under the background of most people, and the social atmosphere is not open, many people may feel awkward and repelled when they see gay actors kissing the opposite sex. For actors, this is tantamount to ruining most of their careers.

Also, behind every established actor there is a team that counts on him/her to eat, agents, managers, publicists, stylists, assistants, bodyguards, the more actors earn the more their salaries, but if When an actor comes out of the closet, he will lose the opportunity to become a leading actor in a major commercial production. All commercial films are for the box office. If the leading actor is gay, even if the movie is graded G, it may be criticized by some conservative parents’ organizations and Christian churches. It is not without precedent in the United States to organize a boycott of screenings and viewing. The income of actors has plummeted, and their jobs will also be ruined. Therefore, when some actors are determined to come out, the resistance from their side is the greatest.

There is another important reason to avoid being a spokesperson for the gay community.All successful affirmative action movements in North America are inseparable from two significant factors. One is radical resistance, and the other is a spokesperson with the right to speak out for the group. This is true for the black movement, the feminist movement, and the gay movement.Compared with the former two, gay equality has always been much more difficult, because in reality, blacks can shout to reject racial discrimination, women can shout for equality between men and women, but many gays cannot even be honest with the people around them.

In such an environment and background, once a celebrity comes out, it means taking on a heavy public responsibility. Gay groups and organizations hope that you will become a spokesperson and contribute more to the affirmative movement, and because the celebrity is famous enough Big, they automatically become representatives of the gay community to the media and the public—this kind of representation often has a strong political connotation, and every state election or general election year, maybe everyone will come to ask for your opinion , and counting on you to donate to a candidate who delivers on his campaign promises—while Hollywood has never been short of campaign activists, not everyone is interested in political games.

Compared with these three reasons, other troubles such as being accused by radical anti-gay organizations or churches, bringing scandal troubles to same-sex friends, and being canceled cooperation with public broadcasting stations are all a piece of cake.

So none of the A-list actors in Hollywood is gay, so even if Jodie Foster has a cohabiting girlfriend who has been in love for many years, the two also gave birth to two children through artificial insemination, and the second child was born last year. These things are considered an open secret in Hollywood, but she still will not choose to come out, nor will she say that she is inclined to the gay group in media interviews. Multiple considerations including career prospects, financial resources, fame and status, and even politics have been taken into account.

William not only thought of Jodie Foster from Ellen DeGeneres, but also recalled the life history of all actors with ambiguous sexuality in Hollywood in the past half century, from Rudolph Valentino to Greta Garcia Paul, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant to James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Anthony Perkins, Marlon Brando, to Rupert Everett, Luke Eyre Vance and Kevin Spacey.

William thought for a long time. During this period, neither Amon Goffman nor Barbara Wilson interrupted him. Obviously, they were waiting for William to make a decision.And their seemingly nonchalant expressions, the coffee that was held in their hands until it cooled down without being swallowed, and the actions of constantly cutting off the phone calls, all show that under the seemingly calm appearance of the two, there may not be no inner feelings. choppy.

"Ami." William called the Jewish agent, but the two people in front of him suddenly became excited. At the same time, they looked over at the same time. William paused, and then continued: "If I still want to live an honest life—"

"Oh." Amon Goffman said in a calm tone as much as possible: "If you really reduce my income, I will consider becoming the vice president of Willot, and you will give me a few hundred dollars. annual salary of $[-]."

William was noncommittal, and then asked Barbara, "What about you?"

"No matter what, I won't be compared to this guy—of course I'm on your side, Will." Barbara Wilson glanced at the Jewish agent with a helpless expression, and A little dejected: "And even if you come out in the future, I shouldn't lose you as a client directly, right? Billionaires also need good PR, right? I can also take the opportunity to send business to Silicon Valley and Wall Street development, there are more rich people there than in Hollywood."

"Relax first, Ami, Barbara, although I don't want to hide and hide for the rest of my life, I won't come out now. I won't be so selfish."

"Then you just—"

"Just to vaccinate you guys years in advance. I love your reactions by the way."

At the beginning, Amon Goffman and Barbara Wilson's emotional ups and downs were great, as if they had returned to the time when they just entered the industry and were ignorant and unprepared for everything. Now, they have nothing in their hearts. It fluctuated—the number of "scares" was too many, and it was impossible to calm down.

Even so, when the two heard that William insisted on acting in "Brokeback Mountain", they still felt unprecedentedly tired.

……

The prompt sounded, the information displayed on the laptop changed from "connecting" to "connecting", and the color of the screen was instantly lit up.

"Lance?" he asked.

"Will." The other party replied.

William and Lance, and the room they are in, appear on the computer screen at the same time.The light in the two rooms is very good, and they are both very clean, but the environment is very different. Lance's side seems to be in a spacious and exquisite hotel suite. The corner of the bed, while William was lying comfortably on the sofa in his home in Los Angeles, and the laptop should have been placed on his lap.

After looking closely at the screen for a while, William sighed: "This is really...unbelievable."

"Indeed." Lance agreed.

"You know what I'm sighing?" William smiled, obviously disbelieving: "I'm surprised that this video connection can finally restore 80.00% of your beautiful eyes, just like washing off the stains on the mirror with water. gray, the world suddenly becomes clear, and the colors are brighter and richer.”

"I know, because I think the same." Lance smiled, stretched out his finger to touch the screen, and lingered near William's eyes, as if he could touch a real person in this way: "I miss you, Will .”

"I miss you too." William couldn't help touching the screen with his fingers: "30 days? Or 31 days? Damn, I can't remember how long we haven't seen each other, and the previous video calls always stuck Dropped calls - thank you geeks, otherwise I would rather keep calling and texting than video connection."

Participating in the filming of "The Aviator" and preparing for "Brokeback Mountain", plus a series of things about Willot, who is in the period of rapid merger and upgrade, William has been so busy recently that he has even reduced the number of times he goes to the gym.Lance also stayed in Europe for a while, then went to South America, and immediately went to Silicon Valley after returning to the United States. After careful calculation, the two of them spent less than a week together in three months.This makes the desire to meet is extremely strong.

But the reality is that they are not allowed to stick together every day, what should we do?The advent of video connectivity seems like a good solution to the problem.

Alexander Bell invented the telephone in 1876, and two years later Edison described a device called the "telephone video machine" in an article two years later. Go to distant relatives and friends and talk to them.This is the earliest concept of video telephony.In 1927, the video call screen in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" turned the concept into a vision that people are eager to realize.

In the 70s and 90s, some laboratories began to study video telephony communication technology, but it was not until the 1s that there was an era of progress. First, there were telephones for black-and-white or full-color video communication with the help of standard telephone lines, and later added to mobile phones. Mobile phones with front-facing cameras have also been born, but due to technical limitations, the prices of these two video communication methods are very expensive, costing dozens of dollars per minute, and the experience of picture delay and dropped frames is very poor.

At the same time, the video communication technology based on the Internet is developing rapidly. In 94, some manufacturers launched the world's first batch of network cameras, which are the most necessary equipment for video chatting. Apple is also planning to launch the iSight external camera this year, and in Audio and video functions have been added to the instant messaging software ichat, and companies in Silicon Valley have long been ahead of Apple. It can be said that video connections are becoming popular and popular in North America.

However, it is popular, but the experience brought by all online video chat software is not good enough. Distorted pictures, freezes, delays and even lost pictures occur from time to time. The reasons are related to the current network speed and Internet technology. relationship, especially the latter - the essence of video transmission is actually similar to playing a movie, which is to transmit pictures to the screen one by one. When the number of pictures transmitted is fast enough, the pictures are continuous dynamics.The higher the transmission speed per second, the higher the quality of the picture, and vice versa.

Just like what William said, although you can see real people through the video connection, the experience is not good enough. If you have to say a sentence three times, it really wears down the patience and goodwill of the user.

Fortunately, from now on, William and the others can finally say goodbye to that terrible video experience, and this has a lot to do with Lance—influenced by William, Lance has also been keen to make An investment angel of various emerging companies, and has a wide range of interests, ranging from baseball teams to real estate, to scientific research institutes and technology companies, etc. Among them, the returns of those companies in Silicon Valley are the lowest, and one is the Internet. It is an industry that can be successful if you don't succeed, and there are always a few who succeed. The other is that since the explosive growth and bubble burst of the Internet industry around the millennium, it has been in a stable recovery period in the past two years, far from being able to When it broke out again.

However, as a billionaire who is also keen to act as an angel investor, Lance is really far luckier than the elder Paul Allen he knows. Just a few days ago, the CEO of a company he invested in called him very excitedly. A call came, this small Silicon Valley company founded by a few geeks in the garage invented a new general-purpose compression algorithm, which is more efficient than all compression algorithms on the market today, with a lower damage rate, and can be applied to Different products in different fields have great market prospects.

Just like the software that William and Lance use for video chat now, this algorithm is used. With the same network speed, the picture quality is simply the difference between 240P and 720P. It seems that there is always a layer of translucent dirt on the screen before. But now it has finally been erased, and the color reproduction is much more realistic, and the beautiful eyes like Lanstansan stone are finally no longer gray blue on the screen.

In other words, William and Lance are walking ahead of the world at this moment, witnessing the future direction of technological development in advance.

"I will convey your thanks to them. One of them is still a fan of your movie. I doubt if he will faint from excitement directly, because the new algorithm has been estimated to be of great value, and they are already very excited now." Lance He nodded and said.

Next, Lance mentioned his itinerary.Silicon Valley is a place where news of the birth of a new technology can fly all over the sky immediately. Many companies are already crazy about this new algorithm. They want to join the second round of investment and directly acquire companies, especially when Apple and Oracle After many large companies joined the battle, the heads of at least seven or eight companies applied for appointments a day.

It’s impossible to sell an algorithm or a company—it’s a common practice for large companies to acquire a certain technology if they can’t compete with their competitors. Maybe these geeks have already turned the company into new Silicon Valley billionaires, but Lance is the main investor of the company, and he is also very clear about the things that can make big companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars for acquisitions , the value itself must far exceed this figure - Lance plans to stay in Silicon Valley for a few more days, meet with some company leaders, get more information, estimate the true value of the new compression algorithm, and then maximize the benefits .

"Then." Lance paused deliberately before saying, "I'll go directly to Los Angeles for vacation."

"Great!" William said with a happy smile, and found that his excitement caused the computer to become unstable, and the image was a little distorted, and adjusted the camera again, before restraining his smile and announcing in a formal tone: "I came out to them.

After listening to William tell how Amon Goffman's $[-] carpet was destroyed, Lance was not immediately amused, but asked thoughtfully: "Does your manager like to play darts?" ?”

"I seem to like it very much? Amon occasionally asked me to go to the dart bar with me. Why do you ask this?"

"Well, I think he must have a picture of me on the dart board at home."

"How is it possible—" William suddenly became a little uncertain after laughing, "It shouldn't be..."

Lance just smiled and didn't continue this topic. From the first day he knew Amon Goffman, he could see that this man had a subtle attitude towards him. The goodwill and enthusiasm, but there is still a vague hostility deep in the heart.

As for the reason, Lance can probably guess.In the past, he and William had a deep friendship like a childhood sweetheart, which many people could not understand. His father, Taylor Roderick, was one of the best. The old Roderick never thought that the relationship between him and William was equal, and the concept of class It has already solidified in his heart.

This kind of relationship is also often seen in Hollywood. The best friends who grew up together, one soars to the sky and becomes a star, and the other will become a follower in all likelihood, and they are proud of relying on the former for food.When Amon Goffman first learned of his existence, he probably didn’t think that William was really his most important friend. Out of a calf-protective mentality, he was a little hostile towards him. Later, when he saw it clearly, the hostility turned into vigilance. Be wary that he has too much influence on William - the agent always hopes that the actor will be based on his own opinion in everything, if the actor gets advice from other friends more often, then this friend will definitely not be liked by the agent - but Because the relationship between himself and William has changed, it is estimated that there is only hostility left now. Goffman must think that he is a super time bomb that can destroy William's career.

But it doesn't matter whether they are liked or hated by Amon Goffman, as long as Lance knows that their goals are the same, it is enough for William to consider.

Lance locked his eyes on William and turned to ask about another thing he mentioned: "They don't want you to work with Ann Lee on your new film? I remember you worked with this director before and praised him. he."

William sighed: "Both Armon and Barbara have no opinion on Ang Lee himself, especially Armon, he thinks that Lee's camera language is very delicate, although he messed up "Hulk", there must be a chance to make a comeback, everyone The studio isn't going to blacklist him outright for that. But, they have a lot of issues with Brokeback Mountain."

"Brokeback Mountain... the name sounds familiar."

"You should have seen this book in the apartment, it was my bedtime read for a while."

"Remember, the cover shows two cowboys on horseback. Is this a western movie, like John Wayne?"

If you want to say that the most famous cowboy actor in Hollywood, it must be John Wayne. His name is almost synonymous with western movies and cowboy spirit. In the hearts of many film critics and fans, even Clint Eastwood cannot compared with him.In contrast, John Wayne, who was born in the early twentieth century and is an exceptionally tough guy on and off screen, is also a slightly extreme conservative and white supremacist.

"John Wayne doesn't act in LGBT-themed movies..." William shrugged: "Although "Brokeback Mountain" is a cowboy western, it is a movie about two gay cowboys."

"Then you must be the coolest gay cowboy ever."

"Thanks. But my agent has a different opinion than you. Like I just told you, he was terrified at first and very resistant to me doing LGBT movies."

"Why? Can't gay actors play gay characters?"

"No company has stipulated it, it's just such a convention..."

"Hollywood is a lot more conservative than it makes it out to be."

"It's not absolute though. Marlene Dietrich kissed a gay fan in "Morocco," Greta Garbo kissed a handmaiden in "The Queen of Sweden," James Dean's "Without a Cause" There are same-sex ambiguous episodes in "The Rebellion", Marlon Brando played a married closeted officer in "Forbidden House", and Kevin Spacey also played the same sex in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". Gay millionaires... not only are they bisexual, but they are fully gay."

"Did you say the same thing to Goffman and convince him?" Just looking at William's radiant look on the screen, Lance could already guess the outcome of William's victory: "Because you don't look like that at all. It's like I've given up on the movie."

"Almost, the main reason is that they suddenly thought, if the phrase 'gay actors dare not act in gay movies' is really so deeply rooted in Hollywood, would it be confusing for me to make "Brokeback Mountain"——A Meng suspected that Kevin Spacey was also aware of this before he went to film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" directed by Eastwood. After that movie, there was indeed no media report on his sexuality. There's been a lot less gossip — of course, Barbara's publicity is that I want another Oscar."

"Do you want another statuette?"

"It's a lie to say that I don't want to at all, but I want to make this movie, mainly because I hope that after the movie is released, it can change some people's prejudices."

"Are you interested in the gay rights movement?"

"Oh my god it's not." William corrected: "Let's put it this way, Lance, we are not born gay, and we never showed interest in the same sex when we were teenagers. On the contrary, we are very popular with girls. Since I didn’t go through adolescence when I was intimidated by being different from other people, and I certainly didn’t have a strong sense of wanting to fight on behalf of the LGBT community. But if I don’t participate in the struggle, and I’m alone like so many others, what? If I don't do it, I will feel a little guilty-although I can't be proud to come out publicly, but I want to do something that can inspire LGBT groups around the world. I feel that I have such an obligation."

"I have to say, Will." Lance licked his lower lip, consciously: "I like your look full of social responsibility."

William's eyes naturally moved up to Lance's lips, he tilted his head, looked away, and felt a little guilty for Lance's words by the way: "But, no matter how much I want to register with you in Vermont or the Netherlands , it is impossible to really do this—”

Yes, the state of Vermont in the United States now allows same-sex "civil unions" and earlier than the Netherlands recognized same-sex marriage - in 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legally recognize same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is not allowed, but as we all know, the state governments in the United States have always dared to confront the federal government. In 2000, Vermont Governor Howard Dean signed a law allowing same-sex partners in Vermont to enter into "civil unions". Not only is it ahead of California, which is known as the base camp of gay rights equality in North America, but it is also two years earlier than European countries such as Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, France and Switzerland.

Roderick Industrial Group is a non-listed company, and the sexual orientation of the heir will not affect the company's market value, so William believes that his career hinders them from making their relationship public, and he is not sure how long he will continue to protect this secret. Years or ten years...

"When did I care about this? Will, from the very beginning, I knew that your actor status was destined to keep our secret relationship for a long time. I was prepared." Lance quickly interrupted William's guilt, and then It should be reasonable to say: "And we are not ordinary couples, we need to draw a sense of security from each other from time to time-we are each other's sense of security, aren't we?"

Even if William was given a mirror at this moment, he would never admit that he was smirking: "God Lance, your mouth looks like it's smeared with cream, this is too foul. I really want to—" He looked at Lance on the screen, Realizing the fact that the two are now hundreds of miles apart, no amount of distraction can be put into action, and he can't help but sigh.

"What do you really want?" Lance asked knowingly, pretending to be innocent.

"Stop talking, the point is 'thinking', okay? You're in Silicon Valley, I'm in LA, and the video chat is only visible—" Halfway through the conversation, William suddenly stopped talking. He raised his eyebrows and smiled It's just that the smile looks a little frivolous no matter how you look at it. "Hey."

Lance cast a puzzled look.

"It suddenly occurred to me that we can develop some new uses for video calls." William moved closer to the camera, his voice was lowered, and he said slowly in a tone that was once recognized as "sexy as hell": " Like a fun guessing game or something."

Lance's face was visibly turning red. To cover it up, he coughed lightly, stretched out his hand and twisted the tie: "Give me an example?"

"Like, what are you wearing today?"

"Boring formal attire. I attended a few more formal meetings today." Lance stood up, took a few steps back, so that the blush on his cheeks would not stand out so much in the camera, and let the camera capture his whole body by the way. Pattern vest, suit pants and silver thin tie. "One of them was related to Apple, and Jobs even asked about you."

"I'll call him tomorrow." William didn't want to let the business distract him now: "You got a new tailor?"

"It's a new Parisian tailor, and the style has changed obviously?"

"It's mostly the tailoring that's changed."

"For the better or for the worse?"

"Of course it has changed for the better." If the tailoring style of British tailors is dignified and decent, Parisian tailors obviously have a little more pursuit of fashion. William has never seen any tailor before Lance who can make him have long legs. The advantage of the thin waist is so obvious. "Want to continue the game?"

"Is it part of the game now? I mean, I don't think it's any different from the previous chat..."

"That's because it hasn't reached the official part yet."

"Okay, I'll continue."

"Rule number one, when you hear an order, execute it."

"no problem."

His eyes fell on Lance's Adam's Apple deeply, and William ordered: "Untie your tie."

For a moment, Lance's expression was a little frozen, but with his extraordinary intelligence, he quickly guessed William's idea and understood what the game was like.Faintly, he was also a little excited.

Looking at the camera lens, Lance obediently put his hand on the bow tie, pulled it loose and untied it, pulled it out gently, and threw it on the ground casually.His movements are very slow, but very graceful, even full of tension, and then he chuckles, the smile is damn seductive and dangerous: "And then? Is it your turn?"

To be honest, this performance was a bit unexpected for William.He adjusted his sitting posture uncomfortably, thought for a few seconds, and moved the camera down a little.William is wearing a T-shirt that is one size smaller today, and the clothes are tightly attached to his body. The lines of his chest and abdominal muscles are clearly visible, which is enough to attract attention. .

"No." William took a while to answer Lance's question: "There is a second rule in this game, and that is - you can only listen to me."

After speaking, he continued to order: "Now it's the pants' turn."