Birth of an actor

Working for Leonardo DiCaprio is like a dream, most of the time it is a dream, you feel like Ruth, a noble lady who is protected by a handsome gentleman, but sometimes, the dream also Not so good.

That's how Cassie Brown feels right now.

Cassie Brown is a budding filmmaker.It is difficult for a newcomer to gain a foothold in the film production industry, because the producer has to coordinate the operation of the entire film crew, and has high requirements for qualifications, experience and connections. Cassie is a woman. In this male-dominated industry, It is very difficult to find a reliable job, so she has graduated for several years and has no formal job so far. She relies on her parents to support her, and does odd jobs in different crews. She shares a rent with her friends in the City of Angels, thinking that one day she will be able to achieve own Hollywood dream.

Now, the friend she shares with is getting married and moving out of the apartment, which should have been bad news because Cassie Brown can't afford the whole apartment by herself, but if her friend is Leonardo Dee For Caprio's assistant, the bad news can also turn into good news, because a friend recommended her to DiCaprio when he left the job!

That's right, Cassie's friend offered her a job no woman could refuse - becoming Leonardo DiCaprio's assistant during the filming of The Aviator!

Not just working for Leonardo DiCaprio, but being next to him, being part of a top-notch filmmaking process, it's literally a Cassie Brown dream job!

As a film producer, although Cassie has also worked with the famous director A coffee in the past and invested more than [-] million US dollars in the crew, but they are all marginal figures in the crew and can only do some chores, but now he can get close to Scorsese and Dicap A top director and star like Leo walked into the inner circle of the crew. What reason does she have to refuse such a job?What's more, she still works for DiCaprio, how much jealousy she deserves from the same sex!

So, although this job is only temporary-Leonardo DiCaprio is because he is filming "The Aviator" and has no time to re-select the assistant carefully, so he let the former assistant who left the job recommend him to find someone who has dealt with it. A few months later, he would rehire other assistants—but Cassie Brown was still so excited that she couldn't sleep for several nights.

Thankfully, she did well during the interview.Cassie's friend brought her to the crew of "The Aviator" and met with DiCaprio, who was resting between shootings. DiCaprio knew that she graduated from a prestigious school with a major in film production and had worked with many large-scale filmmakers. After the crew was very satisfied, Cassie could still feel that the other party was also very satisfied with her appearance-she dyed her hair golden, with blue eyes and neat teeth, although she was not as good as a Hollywood actress but Also called a pretty face, Cassie has always been confident in her attractiveness to the opposite sex.

At first it was like a dream come true, Leonardo DiCaprio is a talkative person in life and he likes to show that side to those around him, he will share his experiences and stories with Cassie Brown.Cassie unexpectedly discovered that DiCaprio is actually a very knowledgeable person, with a lot of knowledge about politics, pop culture and history, and a sense of humor.

The process of shooting a movie is actually far more boring than those fans imagined. Sometimes actors even have to wear the same clothes and speak the same lines in the same setting for several days in a row. In that case, even the most interesting lines will become boring. Boring, actors get bored too easily.

However, Leonardo DiCaprio, who has been filming for many years, is obviously very good at self-regulation. He often makes fun of himself in the crew, such as imitating Martin Scorsese's Italian accent, and the script requires William Bradley's role has to have both a British accent and an Australian accent. DiCaprio often ridiculed Bradley's Australian accent for being too rhythmic and not "earthy" enough.

Leonardo DiCaprio never avoided Cassie Brown when he was having fun, and even took her with him, like when he was bored reading the script alone, DiCaprio would ask Cassie checked his lines for him, and had to speak Katharine Hepburn's characteristic New England accent. Cassie would often get two pages right and laugh, and then DiCaprio would laugh with her.

Although Cassie Brown sometimes feels that her assistant is useless except amusing and eye-catching, a clear comparison is William Bradley's assistant Danny Byrne-or former assistant. Wrong, because William Bradley’s film production decreased significantly after he became the Oscar winner, and he put Danny Bourne on Willot as an executive producer early on. I heard that the latter is still a Hollywood family. As a partner of a managerial company that is on the rise, his network can radiate half of Hollywood. Brandley is probably used to privacy protection, and he no longer hires formal assistants for re-shoots. He often walks alone on the set. Byrne He showed up on the set for a few hours every day to help Bradley take care of the chores and then left. Counting, Bourne spent less than a quarter of Cassie's time on the set every day, but he has been with all the other stars of the crew. His assistant built a social network—a feat that put Cassie's to nothing.

Cassie was often surrounded by frustration because she was being compared to Danny Byrne, but on second thought, she wasn't meant to be in the job for long, and DiCaprio never thought she was incompetent.

Cassie Brown's heart has long been captured by DiCaprio, he is handsome, humorous and charming, Cassie is full of admiration for DiCaprio, and there is also a bit of unspeakable longing - Christian Bale's wife Wasn’t Hibi Blachick once the personal assistant of Winona Ryder? Cassie believes that her education and appearance are no worse than hers. If she has the chance to become the wife of a superstar, she will definitely not abandoned.

But Leonardo DiCaprio has never shown a special attitude towards her. Yes, he sometimes has some intimate actions, but it is not ambiguous, and he has never flirted with her. At most, she was regarded as a pleasing subordinate or friend, and the pink bubble in Cassie's heart quickly burst like a morning dream.

Nor did Cassie try to transfer her star-wife dreams of romping to someone else after the DiCaprio fantasies faded—yes, she meant William Bradley.

Bradley and DiCaprio have a very good personal relationship, and they often stay together off-screen, so Cassie can often feel the beauty crit of the two most famous diamond bachelors in Hollywood at close range. A woman is dazzled, but compared to DiCaprio's humorous and interesting, Bradley will make people feel a sense of distance, although he is also approachable, gentle and kind to Cassie, but Cassie It is an intuition to know that there is no possibility between them, and her intuition has always been accurate.

Now, Cassie just wants to gain experience in the crew of "The Aviator", collect contacts like Danny Byrne, and become a successful producer in the future.

However, with the continuous filming of the film, Cassie found that her work became more and more difficult-mainly because DiCaprio encountered many difficulties during the filming, and the number of NGs increased, which made him work hard after work. There are fewer and fewer times when it is humorous, and it is often with frowning and gloomy expressions.

After staying in the crew for a long time, Cassie gradually understood that stars are not always glamorous, and their troubles are not much less than any ordinary person. She also began to understand that DiCaprio was so active outside the film Having fun with her is actually a way to relieve stress.

In fact, Cassie really wants to help DiCaprio. DiCaprio sometimes studies the script, improvises a section and asks her opinion, but Cassie’s university is not a directing or acting major. She faintly felt that there was something wrong with DiCaprio's performance, but she couldn't point to the right idea. Sometimes she felt that DiCaprio's performance was perfect, but he himself was not satisfied.

Leonardo DiCaprio's repeated speculation did not improve his condition. I heard that the NG in the studio is more than one day, sometimes he is NG, and sometimes he himself asks for reshoots. This also directly affects Cassie's work mood, making her often feel powerless.

Later, DiCaprio even stopped making fun of her outside of work, and asked her to treat him as Howard Hughes, a billionaire with a high degree of cleanliness and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Help him get into the state faster in front of the camera.Cassie had to be more cautious in doing things, because once she did something wrong, the former DiCaprio might have smiled and said it was nothing, but now Hughes would reprimand her.

Probably because the recent shooting progress is a bit slow. On this day, Martin Scasses asked everyone to come and prepare to start work at five o'clock. After Cassie arrived at the studio on time, he found Leonardo DiCapri Oh didn't go back at all last night, but slept directly in the RV. After DiCaprio finished his makeup and started filming, Cassie came to the RV and saw that the scripts were thrown everywhere and a bottle was empty. Brandy sighed, and then spontaneously started to clean up.

But before she could pack it up, there was a strange noise behind her. Cassie turned around and saw DiCaprio rushing into the RV with an ugly expression on his face. He was still wearing a filming costume, as if he had escaped from the studio. like.

"What happened?" Cassie asked in great surprise.

Seeing the concern on Cassie's face, DiCaprio just restrained and said: "I want to be alone." As if there was a lot of anger in his chest, and then stopped talking.

Cassie, who had been in a similar situation several times in the last two weeks, nodded and left the RV, closing the door thoughtfully for DiCaprio.

After getting out of the car, Cassie shook her head at the staff who followed DiCaprio. According to her experience, DiCaprio had to shut himself up for several hours to adjust himself, and he No one can open that door until he walks out by himself.

The staff was also very helpless. There were hundreds of people waiting in the studio. Under the pressure of director Martin Scorsese, he went forward and knocked on the door of the RV with Cassie's disapproving eyes. , After waiting for a few seconds, there was no movement, he knocked again, but suddenly there was a loud bang from the RV door.

The staff took a step back immediately in fright. He could feel Leonardo DiCaprio stomping his foot from inside just now, and the door panel was still buzzing.

"Well, since DiCaprio is inconvenient right now, let him rest. I'll report to the director." The staff made an excuse and left in a hurry.

Cassie wandered outside the RV worried, for DiCaprio, and for herself.Just after the staff left, Cassie made excuses and knocked on the door several times, trying to relieve DiCaprio, even if she just sent some food and drink in, but she knocked on the door a few times and was rejected several times. .

The filming of "The Aviator" is not yet halfway through, and DiCaprio's emotional state is already so cloudy and uncertain. She is really worried about how to spend the next time, and she doesn't know whether her short-term job can be completed perfectly.

"Hey Cassie, where's Leo?"

Cassie turned around and saw William Bradley walking towards this side while unbuttoning his costume jacket. He really had the charm of Hollywood in the 30s. In Cassie's opinion, Biddy Caprio's temperament is more retro... However, now is not the time for nympho, Cassie quickly gestured to William, indicating that the person he was looking for was in the RV.

"How does he look?"

Cassie shook her head and said in a low voice, "It's bad."

William pondered for a while, walked to the door of the RV, and raised his hand to knock on the door.

"Wait! I don't think this is a good idea." Cassie quickly stopped him: "Leonardo has been like this for a while, no matter how others persuade him, he won't open the door."

In his heart, Cassie had been thinking that DiCaprio probably didn't want to see William Bradley.It’s not that the friendship between the two is mixed, they know each other very well, and when they chat, Cassie can’t get in or even understand many topics, and sometimes DiCaprio will send her away specially, so that he can talk to Bran. Deli said something more private, which is enough to say that Bradley holds an unusual place in DiCaprio's heart.

However, according to Casey's observation, DiCaprio's feelings for William Bradley are very complicated, not only friendship, but also some sparks of competition in it, especially when he and Bradley will be paired up the next day. When playing, DiCaprio from the previous night would appear to be too serious, he would read the script all the time, go to bed late, and simulate acting in front of the mirror... Well, speaking of it, today seems to be Bradley and DiCaprio's last scene?

But William moved faster, and he knocked on the door a few times before Cassie stopped him.

After waiting a few seconds, there was no response.William knocked again and called into the door, "Leo, it's me. Do you want to talk?"

Cassie explained with some embarrassment: "Maybe he is too tired to rest..."

Since there was no response, William didn't wait any longer. He nodded to Cassie, "I'll discuss with Martin about moving today's scene to tomorrow, and tell him when Leoken comes out." Then he turned and prepared to leave.

At this moment, with the sound of the door opening, Leonardo DiCaprio's head stuck out from behind the RV door, and the whole person was dejected in capital letters: "Will? Come in."

After staring at Leonardo's haggard face for a while, William raised his eyebrows before obediently following in.

Cassie Brown looked at the closed car door again and bit her lower lip in frustration.

……

There are people coming and going outside the caravan, and there are many cautious snoopers, while inside the caravan is quiet and silent.

William stood in front of the bar with his arms folded, his face speechless, while Leonardo sat motionless on the sofa in front of him.

The problem is not Leonardo's refusal to speak, but his sitting posture—since he just entered the door, he has been sitting on the sofa with his limbs spread out, with the script covering his face, like this It seemed to help him meditate and think, and he didn't worry about whether he would be short of breath.

If the mountain does not come, he will go to him, and he will always go to the mountain.William sighed lightly, and said, "I know this play is very important to you, but I didn't expect it to be so important."

"I want to play Howard Hughes well. It's the first time in several years that a character resonates with me." Leonardo's voice muffled from under the script.

"I see, it's the first time I've seen you cry because of NG. We can check our lines again, if you—"

"what?"

"For the lines, if your emotions stabilize." William took the script off Leonardo's face and flipped through it: "I can say the lines of Mel, Flynn and Hepburn, you just need to be Hughes Just fine."

"No, I mean the previous sentence." Leonardo raised his head and turned his head to look at William: "Who do you think is crying?"

At such a close distance, his eye sockets were still red, and he couldn't hide them at all.William sighed: "Don't feel embarrassed, your assistant didn't see anything, only I noticed."

"Are you blind? Me! No! Yes! Crying!" Leonardo gritted his teeth a bit in his tone: "But my eyes do feel a little uncomfortable, it hurts and itches." As he spoke, he rubbed again Rubbing his eyes, the eye sockets became even redder.

Seeing that he didn't seem to be lying, William rummaged around, found a bottle of eye drops, walked over to help Leonardo instill some eyelashes, and sure enough, an eyelash burst out from his left eye.

"Okay, don't rub your eyes anymore, be careful of infection." There was a misunderstanding, and William stuffed the eye drops into Leonardo's hand: "I'm leaving."

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the set."

Leonardo's expression was immediately full of accusations: "Aren't you going to help me correct my lines?"

"Please, Leo, I want to save some image points for you from Kate. God, your temper is getting bigger and bigger. Halfway through the filming, Martin turned around and left. Martin just called CUT because of his good temper. It's going to explode."

The Kate here refers to Cate Blanchett who plays Katharine Hepburn in the film. It is impossible to exchange beauty for preferential treatment.

"Leave that to Martin."

Maybe Leonardo really wanted him to help correct the lines, or maybe he just needed a little company. William didn't mention leaving again. He flipped through the script and began to read the lines.

This scene that has been repeatedly NG is a group play between four characters, Howard Hughes played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Katharine Hepburn played by Cate Blanchett, Adam Scott John Mayer as John Mayer, and Errol Flynn as William cameo.

Among them, John Mayer is Hughes' press spokesman, Katharine Hepburn is the actress Hughes is pursuing, and Errol Flynn is a popular Hollywood niche, Hughes' friend and rumored gay friend.

Howard Hughes was born rich and his parents died young. He did not guard the family company honestly like other young heirs nowadays. Instead, he put his ambitions on flying and making movies. After a few years, he He became a "flying hero" and made the movie "Hell's Angels", the highest-grossing and highest-grossing movie in Hollywood history. He is also the first billionaire in the United States, and has an ambiguous relationship with many Hollywood actresses.

Looking at wealth and achievements alone, Howard Hughes's life is undoubtedly very glamorous, and he can be called the envy of all men in the United States. However, there is no perfect person or thing in the world. Of course, Hughes also has shortcomings, both physically and in character. Both are.

In this scene, Howard Hughes and Katharine Hepburn, who are dating, run into John Mayer and Errol Flynn, interrupted by Mel and Flynn uninvited Hughes and Hepburn's date.Mel's eloquent speech to promote the cooperation of Hughes, Hepburn and Flynn in a western film, Hepburn was affected and began to complain that he was a box office poison that the big studios didn't want to see, and Flynn was against Hepburn Even teasing and flattering, he also invited Hughes to hunt the de Havilland sisters with him, turning a blind eye to Hughes' gradually getting worse face-Hughes' emotions ranged from impatient to unbearable, and finally hovered on the verge of losing control.

This is the first time Howard Hughes showed the gap under his perfect appearance in front of people, and it also gave Katharine Hepburn a preliminary glimpse of the complex personality behind his beautiful life, paving the way for the two people to break up in the future.

There's nothing hidden in the lines, but the characters themselves, and the emotional tension between them—Hughes himself, Hughes and Hepburn, Hughes and Flynn, Mel, Flynn and Between Hepburn, every look and every movement is meaningful.

After finishing the line, under Leonardo's strong request, William repeated it twice with him—and got up to get a bottle of water in the middle, because it was too easy to say the lines of three people at the same time— —In the first time, Leonardo’s expression was still normal. In the second time, he jumped up from the sofa, and the whole person had become Howard Hughes. In the third time , Leonardo's state can be described as obsessed.

In William's view, the reason why Leonardo was frequently NG was not that he didn't use too much force in his performances, but that he used too much force - he seemed to want to mobilize every fine line on his face to make Howard Hughes' subtle psychology Showing the state, but ignoring that sometimes some psychological activities cannot be displayed through expressions. If you have to do this, it will be self-defeating and exaggerated, because the movie lens will infinitely magnify all details.

If you have to give a visual description, Leonardo wants to turn Howard Hughes into a book that everyone can understand, but he ignores that some books have a depth that cannot be expressed in words and can only be understood Be charming.

Leonardo seemed to realize that he had done useless work again, his expression became angry again, and he didn't say a word, feeling sullen.

William stood up and went to the small kitchen that came with the caravan, found the coffee machine and started making coffee. While waiting, he saw through the window a few people on the other side of the studio looking here, including Leonardo's Assistant Cassie Brown.

After the coffee was ready, he took a cup and put it in front of Leonardo: "Okay, don't complain about yourself, let's talk about your problem."

"I don't even know what's wrong with me." Leonardo took a sip of coffee, frowned bitterly and said.

William thought for a while, and said a guess he had long ago: "Your way of acting has changed."

"Have you found it?"

"Come on, Leo, it's not like we haven't worked together before! Of course I know what you were like before!"

When "Gangs of New York" was released, William had already discovered that Leonardo's acting style was different from before. Leonardo used to be considered a talented actor, with the ability to portray good characters lightly, but in "New York During the filming of Gangster and The Aviator this time, his talent seemed to be hidden. On the set, he could clearly feel that his acting was no longer easy, but occasionally struggling, as if he was covered with an invisible layer the shackles.

William threw out his doubts to Leonardo, and Leonardo said with infinite emotion: "Yes, I have changed, in many ways...I didn't expect you to be the first to discover it."

Leonardo was able to interpret roles without difficulty before. One reason is that the roles he took were always very interesting, and in some ways they were very close to his character image. The other reason was that he really enjoyed acting. Movies are regarded as a hobby or an adventure, and I have never thought of achieving other goals, but I can always challenge and break through myself.

However, I don't know when, the relaxed and casual shooting state when I was young gradually disappeared.

It may be that several years of global idol life made Leonardo unconsciously carry the burden of being a superstar, or it may be that he suddenly became interested in Oscars, and began to deliberately challenge complex and changeable roles that are very different from his own personality. Because of the lack of experience in playing such a role, in the process of learning and trying to figure it out, the way of acting has gradually drifted away from the original self.

"You were different before and after "Gangs of New York". Did Spielberg and Scorsese have such a big influence on your difference?" William seriously recalled in his mind Leonardo's filming in the past two years I feel that I have caught a turning point: "Or did you get any stimulation when you were filming "Gangs of New York"? The incident of accidentally breaking Daniel Day-Lewis' nose is not counted. I know it is fake news."

"I never told you about this." Leonardo was a little moved: "So you trust me so much."

"I trust your fighting skills - you will never have the strength to break the bridge of Lewis' nose with a punch."

Leonardo: "..."