Birth of an actor

It would be a big mistake to say that James Cameron's nitpicking is only aimed at the leading actors and actresses, and that he will be a little more tolerant of other actors.

On this day, while filming an important scene, William suffered the eighth NG.

"Why didn't you hit that slap? Didn't you see the words I marked on the script?!" James Cameron, holding a trumpet, flew down from the high crane, and the anger showed in his voice: " You! Will, come here!"

The set was as quiet as a tomb for a moment, and everyone took a sneak peek at William while moving lightly, lest they would be noticed by James Cameron.

"Why don't you do what he said? You can hit me, I'm ready." Kate Winslet whispered to him secretly: "Just hit me lightly, and I won't look good if my face is swollen of."

"I can't do it," William said. "And I don't think Karl can do it either. At least not right now."

Kate Winslet was amused, but when she saw James Cameron approaching them aggressively not far away, she immediately choked in shock, turned around and slapped her chest fiercely.

The scene that was being filmed just now was that after Jack rescued Ruth who tried to commit suicide, but lied that he was Ruth who accidentally fell off the Titanic, Karl invited him to the first-class cabin for dinner. The dinner was very unpleasant. After the end, Karl To discuss business, Ruth secretly went to the third-class cabin with Jack to attend the ball. Carl's servant Spicer followed him and saw Ruth laughing loudly in Jack's arms, and talked with other third-class people. Dance together, so go back to inform.

At breakfast the next day, Carl asked Ruth why he didn't go to see him last night. Ruth replied that she was too tired. Carl warned Ruth not to be with the third-class people. I am your fiancée, the foreman in the factory who lets you call around." Hearing these words, Karl broke out.

"Fiancee? My fiancee! That's right, not only that, you are my wife! Although there is no ceremony, everyone knows it, so you must be loyal to me, just as a wife is loyal to her husband. Don't shame me, and don't put I'm being an idiot, Ruth, get it?" - these are William's lines, accompanied by some violent physical movements.

The script of "Titanic" was written by James Cameron himself, and he did not find a screenwriter to polish it, so the thickness is only a few dozen pages, most of which are descriptions of the scene and the passenger ship.Directors probably make this mistake when they write the script themselves. They will not write the script as long and emotional as a novel, but just lay out the general plot and lines, and then add things to it while shooting .

James Cameron especially likes drawing storyboards more than writing scripts. He edits scripts while filming. As for storyboards, he has accumulated two volumes of storyboards long before starting the machine. It is worth mentioning that the storyboards Good James Cameron is good at painting other things too, the picture book that Jack in the movie, even the nude portrait he did of Ruth, is actually James Cameron.

For example, in the scene that William and the others filmed just now, there were only lines in the script at first, and descriptions of scenes and costumes were added later, and expressions and movements were added in the end. In the new script that William and the others received a few days ago, the plot of this scene was included A lot of changes have been made, the biggest of which is to have William slap Kate, or Carl slap Ruth.

But William didn't do exactly what was written - which is why James Cameron was so furious.

The first few times, he tried to slap Kate's face, but he always felt awkward in his heart, and he couldn't do it every time. After the last few times, he simply changed his way of performing, and the slap was half-slapped in mid-air, and then The whole table was overturned.

——Judging from James Cameron's reaction, he should not like Carl's change very much.

James Cameron is fast approaching, and all the actors around William silently walk away, revealing a clearing as if they were separated by Moses.

"Why didn't you act according to the design in the script?" James Cameron asked William again after walking over.

"Uh, because I don't think hitting Ruth is in line with Carl's character." William replied obediently.

"Why?" James Cameron thought it would be a stereotyped answer like "I don't hit women/I don't want to play a bad guy/I don't want to play a bad guy who beats women", but William's answer made him raise his eyebrows in surprise .

"Because Carl loves Ruth." William said: "A young man in love is very impulsive after being betrayed by his fiancée, but no matter how impulsive he will be, he will not hit anyone because he loves her."

"He loves her? You mean, Carl loves Ruth?" James Cameron asked again with a strange expression.

"Yes."

"No, Carl doesn't love Ruth, he only has possessiveness and control over her."

William felt the intense pressure from James Cameron, but he hesitated, insisting: "I think he loves."

James Cameron stared at William for a long time before he frowned and said, "Well, you think Carl loves Ruth, but I don't. I think there is a big problem between us, you know? "

William didn't know it before, but he knows it now-the director and the actors' understanding of the characters are not unified, which is indeed a very, very big problem, and to be honest, Cameron's face and eyes are scary enough.

Unusually, James Cameron didn't directly point William's nose and scold him—maybe it was because there were too many people watching. Although they didn't speak, there were hundreds of people. William didn't violate the discipline of the crew, scolding There was no use for him any more—James Cameron stood there thinking for a few seconds, said to William, "Come with me," and turned and walked toward the rest area.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet took the opportunity to give William a questioning look.

William pursed his lips and shook his head at them, followed Cameron's footsteps into the rest area.

The expressions of the surrounding actors finally became lively again when James Cameron turned to leave. They crossed their chests and mouthed to William with their mouths fighting: "Good luck." Or "God bless you."

……

It's true that James Cameron often acts like a tyrant on set, but he's not unreasonable either.

Reasonableness is fully reflected in the fact that when there is a fundamental disagreement with the actor, James Cameron is going to let William realize his mistake first, and then scold him again until he is convinced...

But this plan encountered some difficulties when it was implemented.

"Of course Carl doesn't love Ruth. He will marry her because she has a noble surname and is beautiful. She is suitable to be the mistress of the Hockley family. Carl's positioning of Ruth has been a vase wife of noble birth from the beginning." James Cameron said: "Carl is a businessman with only money in his eyes. When he talked about Ruth's favorite Picasso Monet paintings, his emotions were full of disdain. We have already filmed this scene. You should clearly understand that Carl psychological."

"But if Carl doesn't love Ruth, why does he take Ruth's paintings with him every time he travels? And indulges her in buying as many paintings as she wants? Since Carl is full of money and only treats Ruth as a vase, Picasso Monet is regarded as a poor painter who has never been famous all his life, so why does he remember the names of poor painters clearly?" William retorted: "I think Karl's disdain is due to Eluce, but He was annoyed at not getting into Ruth's world. He was pretending to be mocking, and wanted to change the topic to money, which he was best at. Unfortunately, he failed. The free and romantic Ruth was not interested in Carl's money topic. I hate him even more."

"Carl is too rich, Ruth is too romantic, Carl wants to change Ruth, Ruth doesn't want to communicate with him at all, this is a pair of bitter couple full of prejudice, they didn't meet at the right time, if Ruth is a few years older Like Elena in "Sense and Sensibility", maybe they will become a suitable couple." William finally concluded.

"Do you know that you are questioning my script in front of me?" James Cameron said after a while: "Carl doesn't love Ruth. If you insist on defining his feelings, it's possessive." desire and control."

"Carl gave up two boarding opportunities for Ruth." William retorted calmly: "The first time, he had already settled the crew and was about to board the ship, but he suddenly got news from Ruth and Jack, so he gave up the opportunity, Persuading Rose to board the boat with Jack—Carl hated Jack so much, he agreed with Jack at that time, and even put his coat on Ruth who was soaking wet. The coat contained the heart of the ocean. Above all else, he forgot about the heart of the ocean at this moment—when Carl and Jack watched Ruth board the lifeboat together, what was the difference between them? They just loved Ruth and hoped that she could Just a man who survived."

"The second time, Ruth jumped out of the lifeboat to find Jack. She wanted to live and die with Jack. The Titanic was about to sink. The last reasonable and legal opportunity to board the lifeboat was in front of Carl, but he gave up again. .In these two choices, Carl puts Ruth above money and escape. If this is just possessive and controlling, then Carl must be the love saint among control freaks."

"...Karl is jealous, he can't stand a poor painter robbing his fiancée, and he can't bear to be a loser if he gives up boarding the ship for the second time, so he draws his gun and wants to kill Jack." Having said that Said, but James Cameron's tone was a lot weaker out of thin air.

"That's because he was blinded by jealousy! Without love, how could there be jealousy? Without love, how could Karl be so crazy?"

William's words are so fucking, but logically flawless, James Cameron was speechless.

"Carl is a despicable person. He took advantage of a lost little girl and lied that she was the only relative who ended up on the lifeboat." James Cameron said dryly, and William's words even made him a little bit I began to doubt my script.

"Being despicable and loving Ruth are not in conflict." William looked directly at Cameron: "Even if Carl is a despicable, bastard, and worthless villain, you can't deprive him of the right to love and be loved."

Several blue veins popped out on James Cameron's forehead: "I wrote the script of "Titanic"! All the characters are created by me! I think you understand this clearly?" In the last sentence, he Accented.

"I just wanted to read your characters from another angle," William said.

James Cameron felt like he had a terrible headache.

But the initial fury, the kind of anger that wanted to drive William out of the crew, had almost disappeared.

He felt as if he had become Shakespeare at this moment.

Yes, that William Shakespeare who wrote Hamlet—WTF, another William!

Shakespeare only wrote one Hamlet, but there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's hearts.

James Cameron created the script of "Titanic", created what he thought was the villain Carl Hockley, and then found a handsome guy who was handsome enough and talented enough to play. Cameron thought that as long as William Bradley, with a little effort, would surely be able to play out the high-society feeling of Carl's hypocrisy and arrogance.

Cameron has been very satisfied with the shooting so far, until today.

Is it to blame William for overthinking it?

No.

James Cameron wrote a story, arranged a framework, and wrote the character and love of the hero and heroine very movingly, but because he just wanted to write this main line well from the beginning to the end, he couldn't avoid ignoring the story in the story. The other characters are also living characters, not only the hero and heroine have complex emotions and multi-faceted personalities, but also other people.Due to limited energy, James Cameron did not cover every character in every aspect, so other people who saw the story helped him to flesh out the characters.Take William Bradley, for example.

James Cameron admitted that he devoted most of his energy to designing the Titanic, as well as Jack and Rose. He didn't ask much for the role of Carl, but he didn't expect that William would give him so much. Much... much, much more than he could have imagined.

Surprises turn into shocks when expectations are exceeded by too much.

——Asshole, he should have thought that people with an IQ who are admitted to Harvard would not just be willing to be manipulated!

James Cameron is struggling now that William has wavered in his adherence to the "Titanic" script - it's hard to tell whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

After struggling for several minutes, James Cameron finally decided to be honest, his tone was very serious: "For some reason, what if I ordered you to play Carl as a jerk?"

After a few seconds of silence, William asked directly: "For some reason, does it mean that in order for Jack and Ruth to be together in a legitimate way, Karl must be the villain?"

"Smart little bastard, can you be a little stupid and don't always see through my mind?" James Cameron smiled helplessly and weakly: "However, I think I'm starting to like you a little—"

William looked up quickly: "Which one do you like? Let me state in advance that I don't like old men."

James Cameron was angry: "I'm only 42 years old! I! One! Point! Both! No! Old!" After shouting this sentence, he couldn't help but want to stick his mouth. What is he justifying?Is it just right to justify his age to fall in love with a young man in his 20s?But he is straight at all and doesn't like Lolita style!William Bradley is such a devious little bastard!

"Old enough for me," William muttered.And his voice is not small at all.

"..." James Cameron: "I won't do anything to you."

"You didn't attack Leo either?"

"I like women! You're the fucking gay!"

"I'm not."

"Then shut up!" James Cameron took a deep breath, and it took him 5 minutes to calm down. He didn't turn the topic back to the right track until he felt that he would no longer be irritated by William. : "You have read the script deeply enough. In this regard, I admit that other actors are inferior to you." Then he replied positively: "Yes, part of the meaning of Karl's existence is to serve the main line of the film. .”

The main line of the film naturally refers to the love story between Ruth and Jack, which is different from the 50s version of "Ice Shipwreck", which tells the story of the sinking of the Titanic. Finally, the reaction and performance of passengers of different classes and identities on the ship in response to the disaster, while James Cameron mainly wants to use the sinking of the giant ship to describe an epic love fairy tale - plus some female self-awareness begins to awaken and become independent. seasoning.

No matter how magnificent the pictures of the voyage of the Titanic are shot, how dazzling the life of the upper class in the [-]th century is restored, and whether James Cameron wants to cut the movie into three or five hours, they In fact, they only package such a smooth and direct story:

Carl, the son of the American steel magnate, and Ruth, the daughter of the fallen British nobleman, are engaged. They board the Titanic and prepare to get married in the United States;

The relationship between Carl and Ruth is not good, but Carl will help Ruth and her mother pay off the huge family debts, so Ruth can't say no to the engagement;

The poor painter Jack won the boat ticket by playing cards, and boarded the boat with his friend Fabry;

Ruth escaped from the dinner party and was rescued by Jack when she was about to commit suicide;

Carl invites Jack to dinner in first class;

To please Ruth, Karl presented the Heart of the Ocean worn by Louis XVI in advance;

Ruth and Jack hit it off, and their relationship develops rapidly. Jack paints a nude portrait of Ruth, and the two have a one-night stand;

The Titanic hit an iceberg;

The relationship between Ruth and Jack was discovered by Carl, and Carl's butler Spicer planted Jack to steal the Heart of the Ocean, and Jack was taken away;

The first-class passengers began to board the lifeboat, and Ruth gave up the opportunity to go to Jack;

Karl gives up boarding;

Ruth boarded the lifeboat under the persuasion of Jack and Carl;

Ruth gave up another chance for Jack;

Carl gives up the chance again and shoots Jack;

Karl boards the ship with the little girl;

the sinking of the titanic;

Jack dies, Rose is rescued.

If you want to simplify this story a little more, and simplify it into one sentence, then there are only: Carl and Ruth are engaged, and Ruth and Jack are in love.

Even in America at the end of the twentieth century, an engagement was a very formal relationship, while in the nineteenth century it was like marriage.

If you only look at the story line, Ruth's behavior is too much like cheating, and Jack is too much like a third party.

So, here comes the question, how can Jack and Ruth love each other justifiably and move everyone?

—If Carl is a bastard, then everything will be logical.