Birth of an actor

Amon Goffman's workday starts with a cup of coffee.

Two shots of espresso, no sugar added, will keep him energized throughout the day -- good coffee, good energy, bad coffee, bad temper.

Today, when Amon Goffman stepped into his translucent office at William Morris Brokerage Company, a large cup of steaming takeaway coffee had been obediently placed on the desk, judging from the temperature Look, they should not have left the coffee shop for more than 10 minutes. There are several newspapers of the day next to the coffee cup, such as "Variety Show", "Hollywood Reporter", "Los Angeles Times", "New York Times", etc., and a sheet full of them. Today's schedule for all meetings and dinners, important meetings are highlighted with red pens.

'The new assistant is finally on the right track. Watching all this, Amon Goffman nodded with some satisfaction.

Since changing to a bigger office half a year ago, Amon Goffman has changed two assistants, and now this is the third.

The first assistant was kicked out after only a week, because he kept the client (a TV star) when Amon Goffman was out of the office and happened to be visiting. He also tried to ask for a private phone number, and tried to use the status of "Amon Goffman's assistant" to establish a little personal relationship with the TV star. This kind of behavior on the verge of betrayal violated Amon's taboo.

The second assistant is a beautiful blonde girl who is considerate and considerate. She will register every incoming call and classify it according to the importance. She will also prepare coffee for Amon Goffman 5 minutes before he enters the door every day, and Keeping one's law and order - the real sense of keeping one's law and order.

You know, many brokers start out as mail-room clerks or broker assistants, and gradually have their own clients to become a real broker. Therefore, after leaving the job, or even during their tenure, the assistant will take advantage of the boss's client. It happened from time to time, and the Goldilocks never tried to pry the corner of Armon Goffman's corner to take his clients away and get a brokerage job herself or something.

Amon Goffman was perfectly happy with Goldilocks until, four months after she worked for him, disastrously happened and she fell in love.Girls can't help but bring their feelings to work, which is probably due to nature, and she is no exception. After Goldilocks missed two important calls from Amon Goffman because she was talking on the phone with her boyfriend, he With a cold face, he drove her away mercilessly.

When Goldilocks was kicked out of the office, she was really tearful, but Amon Goffman didn't feel any pity at the time. He was a Jew, and he was a Jew who took work very seriously. In his opinion, work It's work, and if you can't do it well, then leave.

After driving away the two assistants, coupled with the busier work and less tempered temper, the company's interns talked a lot about Amon Goffman in private, and they called him "ThatAmon" in private, The "Amon" here certainly does not refer to a simple name, but the Amon in myths and legends, the seventh demon god among Solomon's 72 pillars of demon gods, the most powerful demon king among hell, and in charge of the seven deadly sins The "greed" in it.

However, even though they talked about Amon Goffman in private, the interns still rushed to him to recommend themselves—the 30-year-old golden age, just changed the big office, and under him was a man named William. Bradley's rising star, who has three leading actor nominations at film festivals for his first film appearance, has a singer client whose new album hits and another TV star client who just landed a lead role in a new CBS crime drama , WMA partner Mark Dowley even goes to Amon Goffman's office to chat with him every time he comes to the company!As long as you are not stupid, everyone can see that Amon Goffman's future is limitless!

In Hollywood, a gold medal agent with deep network resources has a high chance of bringing out A-list stars, but an A-list star can also bring a potential and ambitious agent to gold medals!

Amon Goffman is now in WMA, and he is the seedling partner who is generally favored by all parties—look, Goffman has qualifications, ambition, good skills, and is a Jew. As long as he is given a chance, who dares to say that he is not an underdog? How about a Michael Ovitz?

After picking and choosing almost harshly, Amon Goffman finally chose his third assistant.

A year ago, Amon Goffman didn't have such treatment. At that time, he could find an assistant who didn't skip work during working hours and didn't think about changing jobs all the time. Amon Goffman The change in Goffman's status within the WMA follows the rise of William Bradley.

Therefore, brokerage companies, like other industries in Hollywood, everyone has an extremely powerful ability to adapt to the wind.

The new assistant is Eric, a 23-year-old boy with good education and low ambitions. Although his ability is not strong enough and his memory is mediocre, he has a good ability to withstand the occasional outbursts of anger from Amon Goffman. Goffman got angry at him several times, and every time Eric left with a pair of dog eyes, and appeared in the office the next day alive and kicking as if he hadn’t suffered any blows, so Amon Goffman treated him Initially satisfied.

'It took me only three days to figure out my work habits and coffee hobby, and I hope he will persist for more than a year. Amon Goffman didn't read the newspaper first, but opened the lid of his coffee, thinking while drinking.

——He was relieved too early.

"Eric!" Amon Goffman shouted angrily, he almost sprayed coffee on his desk just now.

"What's the matter? Mr. Goffman?" Eric quickly ran in from the door and asked while slamming on the office door.

"What did you put in my coffee? My tongue is in shock!"

Eric stared at the coffee cup in Amon Goffman's hand for a second, then suddenly realized, ran out in a hurry, ran in again, and put another cup of coffee on Amon's table: "I'm sorry, I Mixed up two cups of coffee, this is yours, Mr. Goffman, two shots of espresso without sugar, you can't go wrong this time."

Amon Goffman took a sip, and it was a familiar taste. He nodded in satisfaction, and suddenly added another sentence before Eric's figure disappeared: "Wait a minute."

Eric raised his orchid finger and turned around: "What order, Mr. Goffman?"

"Are you cocking your orchid fingers? Forget it, pour out the cup of coffee I just drank, and buy another cup yourself if you want to drink it."

"...I'm not GAY, Mr. Goffman." Eric raised his orchid fingers and said aggrievedly: "Pour out the coffee that you only took a sip of, what a waste."

"Not GAY? The sissy pointed by the orchid is even more hateful." Goffman frowned in disgust: "In short, when I think that the coffee with my saliva will be drunk by you, I can't help but shudder and throw it away— -immediately!"

Eric hid his orchid fingers behind his back, turned around pitifully and poured coffee, didn't take a few steps, turned around quickly again, and carefully stuck his head into the office while holding the door: "Mr. Goffman?"

Amon Goffman rolled his eyes: "You'd better inform me about something important. If not, turn around immediately, get out of my office, and go back to work. I don't want to see you again for an hour."

"There is one thing, but I'm not sure if it's important, Mr. Goffman—I got a call when you weren't here, and he said he worked for Jimmy, and I said you weren't there, and he said he'd come back Call here."

"Jimmy? Which Jimmy? The one from the studio?"

"I don't know. But he has a nice voice. If he calls again, I'm sure I'll recognize it."

"Then call back and ask which Jimmy it is, Jimmy from the lawyer, about Friday lunch, Jimmy from the studio, about lunch today, Jimmy from the actor, tell him I'm in New York on business, and call the guy in the mailroom Clients want to introduce him to Crazy David."

"Yes, Mr. Goffman."

One minute later, Eric rushed in from the door at a flying speed: "I know which Jimmy it is! It's that Jimmy!"

Amon Goffman rages: "Which Jimmy the fuck is that?"

"Jane, James Cameron!"

Amon Goffman took a deep breath, and almost spit out his saliva when he spoke again: "Call me back, and connect me when you get through, immediately! Immediately!"

……

Like most aspiring agents, Amon Goffman's journey at William Morris Agency began in the mail room.

WMA's famous mailroom has trained too many Hollywood celebrities: the five founders of CAA (Creative Artist Agency), which was founded in a short period of time but is now competing with WMA for the world's No. One's David Geffen, former Paramount CEO Barry Diller and more.

But more people left without making it through, some just left the company, and some left the industry.

Amon Goffman worked as a clerk in the mail room for three years, and as an assistant for another two years. He made [-] phone calls a day and delivered script contracts dozens of times before he got his first client—a TV show only A third- and fourth-line TV star who plays soy sauce.

That was the first step up in Amon Goffman's life. From that day on, he truly became an agent.

The second advancement was after Amon Goffman signed William. At first, he just thought that this young man was handsome. Living in Hollywood, I didn’t expect that signing William was the biggest deal ever made by Amon Goffman. First, there were endless advertisements in magazines, and then cameo appearances in TV dramas. Here comes the movie contract!Became the hero!The supporting role is the Oscar queen!

It seems that from then on, Amon Goffman's luck suddenly improved. Not only did he upgrade himself from being a TV guy to a movie guy, but the actors and singers who signed the contracts also came and went. Records out of records.

Amon Goffman counts William as his lucky star.

——Although it's a bit weird, Armon Goffman's intuition is sometimes unbelievably accurate.

Now, Amon Goffman has a premonition that his life will usher in another important change. As an opportunity, Amon feels that he is still William.

Otherwise, for whom would James Cameron, Hollywood's most famous paranoid and money-burning machine, call his office?Could it be the middle-aged actor who has been confirmed to appear in the new CBS fall drama?Do not make jokes.

Eric made an OK gesture to Amon Goffman outside the transparent French window, and the call was connected.

Amon Goffman cleared his throat and picked up the phone: "Hello, James."

"Just call me Jimmy, Amon?"

"Please be sure to call me Amon instead of Goffman." Amon Goffman's voice was filled with moderate enthusiasm: "The weather is nice today, huh?"

James Cameron smiled and said: "I'm busy, and you are too, so save the polite words, we all know why I called you."

"Because of Will?"

"William Bradley, of course. Who else is there besides him, those TV stars or singers under your command? What do I want them to do, to play a soy sauce sailor on the Titanic?"

YES!Amon Goffman's voice is high: Titanic!Really Titanic!This gigantic production, which was invested 4000 million by [-]th Century Fox, has no leading actor yet!without!have!male!host!horn!

Yeah, there are a lot of people auditioning, such as Matthew McConaughey who played "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4", Jared Leto who has a very strong artistic atmosphere, and "Scent of Scents" who collaborated with Al Pacino "Woman" has played Robin's Chris O'Donnell in the Batman series, etc., and more people have read the script. Almost all Hollywood agents with good connections and power can get "Titan" The Nickelodeon's script, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Matthew McConaughey, Macaulay Cerkin, these actors basically read over it.

Therefore, the choice of the leading actor in "Titanic" is already obvious. Twentieth Century Fox wants an actor who is around 30 years old, well-known, handsome and capable, and has a grassroots atmosphere, but Cameron disagrees... Of course, Mellon disagreed, otherwise the hero must have been determined long ago.

Does William stand a chance?Amon Goffman didn't know, but he had to try, had to try.

Amon Goffman smiled face-to-face: "Yes, Will is a great guy, and I'm proud of him."

"So, he has no other filming plans for the last few months? I need to make sure of that first."

"No, not a single one. Will has been preparing to apply for college for the past few months, and now he is finally free. He said he would take a short break before starting work."

"Very good. I'll have my assistant send you the script, and have Bradley meet me on Fox's Studio 6 this Thursday."

"no problem."

After hanging up James Cameron's phone, Amon Goffman immediately called William, but the phone showed that the line was always busy, and then it was directly transferred to voicemail.

Amon Goffman kept tapping on the table with his right finger anxiously: "Will? Call me back immediately after hearing the message. I have something very, very important to tell you!"

……

The reason for William's busy call is that he is making an international call with Kate.

A minute ago, Madeleine covered the phone and winked at him and said, "There is a girl looking for you with a nice accent." When he was still thinking about which girl he didn't seem to give his phone number recently?Unexpectedly, it was Kate Winslet.

"I'm sorry about the awards ceremony," Kate said, referring to the fact that William was nominated for three Best Actor awards at the Screen Actors Guild of America, the British Academy of Film and the Golden Globes, but did not win.

As a film that was not widely favored before shooting, "Sense and Sensibility" has achieved surprising commercial and artistic success, with over 800 million viewers in North America and over 1000 million viewers in Europe, with a global box office. As high as 700 million, which is ten times the investment, and it is also the highest-grossing film adaptation of all Austin works in the 90s. Not to mention, it has also won quite a lot of awards at major award ceremonies-Emma Thompson is the best There are a dozen trophies for screen adaptations, and Ang Lee also won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. awards.

Moreover, Kate won the Best Foreign Actress Award for New Zealand Film and Television and the Best Actress Award at the Toronto Film Festival for the first time starring in "Angel of Sin". A few days ago, "Sense and Sensibility" also brought her a British film The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, who has developed smoothly on the big screen, feels that it is really sad that William was nominated but failed to win the award.

"You don't have to feel sorry, I was mentally prepared." William shrugged: "Those newspapers are right. It's pretty good to have three nominations at my age, and our movie is great, isn't it? I mean , like me, it’s better than those who contributed the big screen to a B-grade film for the first time, performed a total of 5 minutes, and were cut by two-thirds by the director in the end, right?”

Kate was really amused. After she giggled for a while, she said: "It's good that you can think about it. By the way, Will, you will come to play with me in three days. How are you preparing? Don't be like Jay." Remy Sisto, he's so raw and I don't call him at all. So when Jimmy asked me which actor I felt the best about auditioning for, I just asked him 'why did it have to be from any of these guys? Which one to choose? Is there no other choice?' Then I mentioned you to him, unexpectedly Jimmy also watched "Sense and Sensibility" and was very impressed with you! Jimmy likes you, I can tell."

"Wait." William raised his eyebrows, and had a vague guess in his heart: "Jimmy you are talking about is James Cameron? The movie you are talking about is "Titanic"? You are talking about playing with you That person, is it me?"

Kate Winslet was very surprised: "Which one can it be? Haven't you read the newspaper recently? Of course it is "Titanic". Just yesterday Jimmy asked me a lot of questions about you. He has decided I'm going to send you an invitation, I thought he had already notified you."