Birth of an actor

Amon Goffman helped William secure a new contract very quickly, so fast that William even wondered if [-]th Century Fox had already prepared a dozen pay-for-sharing contracts, and then waited for an actor to "self-cast" snare".

As for the details of the contract, although it is not as good as William's vision, it is definitely not bad. It may be a bit harsh at the beginning-William can only get back his full salary after the film's box office exceeds 18 million, but after [-] million, the global box office every year With an increase of [-] million, William's share can be a little more. After [-] billion, the share can reach four times his salary. If the final box office reaches [-] billion, just the dividend can exceed eight figures.

According to the total global box office after the release of "Titanic", the dividends will be divided. If the total box office is more, the dividend will be more, and if the total box office is less, the dividend will be less. This is the idea that William and Amon Goffman came up with. When negotiating, if they open their mouths to ask for a film salary in exchange for a few thousandths or a few percent of the film's box office bonus, [-]th Century Fox will become suspicious and directly refuse.Asking for a share based on the total box office is a more reasonable request, and Fox can easily agree to it.

But to be honest, it is scary enough to specifically indicate in the contract the dividend ratio when the box office exceeds one billion dividends. On the current global movie box office rankings, the first movie history is "The Lion King" released in 1994. ", with a global box office of 5000 million US dollars, No.2 is "Jurassic Park" released in 1993, with a global box office of nearly 2000 million US dollars - see, even the current number one movie history has not been broken What about the total global box office of one billion, more than 15 billion (18 billion is not directly written because it is too obvious)?When Amon Goffman said this number, even Fox was taken aback. The supervisor in charge of the contract revision watched Amon Goffman the whole time with eyes like a madman. Obviously, even investors thought that This number is outrageous.

"He's looking at me like I'm some stupid, unrealistic dreamer," Amon Goffman complained to William.

William comforted Amon Goffman: "In a year or two, he will look at you like God."

"I'm not as confident as you are." Armon Goffman calculated, "I'll talk to Fox about "Star Wars" before the camera is closed at the latest. If not, "X-Men" can also make up the numbers."

"Although comic book adaptations and sci-fi movies are easy to control, they have too much influence on the actors. I just went to college this year. If I finish filming these movies, what will I do if all the scripts I receive in the future are superheroes or supervillains. "

William’s concerns are not groundless. A series of movies usually means that actors will be forced to bind multiple movie contracts, and they will play a role repeatedly in four to five years or even seven or eight years. The image of an actor is imprisoned in this role, and it is difficult to get out.

For example, among movie actors, since Al Pacino starred in the "Godfather" series, it is difficult for movie fans to accept that he can play roles other than Godfather Corleone. The script characters handed to him by the studio are either gangsters or He is a villain. Several films that Al Pacino starred in in the 80s suffered disastrous failures to varying degrees. Among them, the 1984 film "Revolution" costing 800 million US dollars was less than 100 million at the box office in the United States. For this reason, Sino stopped filming for four years. It was not until 1993 that he met "Scent of a Woman", which achieved a double harvest in terms of art and box office. Only when a wide range of judges and fans fully recognized his acting skills.

And Tom Hanks, no matter how hard he tries to pick a script and want to get rid of the influence of a series of "good guy movies" he shot before, but when fans see his face on the big screen, they will still be single-minded. "Oh, there's no way this character is going to be a villain."

There are more examples of TV actors. For example, recently, Dean Cain, who played Superman Clark Kent in "Louis and Clark", has almost been tied to Superman, whether it is a talk show reality show It's still a cameo in other movies and TV shows. His role is always so "superman". American audiences can't imagine Dean Cain playing a villain, and they can't accept it.

It is true that a series of movies can enable newcomers to achieve great success in a short period of time, but when the series of movies is over, actors have to face the problem of how to successfully transition to the next stage of the role. The resistance in this is magnified tenfold, and even The actors themselves and their agents have worked ten times harder, but it may not be possible to successfully transform.

William is still young, and he doesn't want to be stereotyped on a similar type of role so early. Although he may rise quickly in a short period of time, it may take eight years, ten years or even longer to emerge from a role that is too successful the impact.

"I didn't ask you to play Superman, Batman or Spiderman now." Amon Goffman rolled his eyes indecently. He would never do this if there was a third person present: "Superhero A role in an ensemble doesn't make you a 'one-shot' star. And do you think if you stick to doing indie films only, you'll get an academy award? You're a Not only is it difficult to gain widespread popularity, but also a fool who would starve himself to death—the judges of the Academy Awards like actors who are both commercial and artistic, but they don’t say it out loud. There are so many judges, who will remember you if you are not famous? Have you ever seen an Oscar winner who was completely unknown before winning the award?"

"Those who can star in a series of movies, can support independent movies, and can withstand one or two failures without losing their value, can stand tall in Hollywood." Amon Goffman finally concluded: "But such There are so few people, there are only a handful in the history of Hollywood, to be successful in one field and maintain the status of A-List is already a remarkable achievement."

"I didn't think it through," William said, "but your description sounds cool."

"You're going to have a day, Will, I've believed in that from the day I signed you. And it's my job to envision everything for you, agents and managers if actors can figure it out themselves What are you doing?" Amon Goffman patted William on the shoulder, showing his eight white teeth with a smile: "Until you have a certain fan base, I will not accept superhero movies for you, maybe in the future, but I It doesn’t turn you into Val Kilmer, you’ve got a lot more to do than save the world on screen in a leotard and get a teen favorite award or whatever.”

Val Kilmer played Batman in the film "Batman Forever" released last year. The movie has attracted a lot of criticism since its release. Even the lineup such as Fang Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey could not save Box office and word of mouth, nothing else, the script is too bad.

"Only Nicole Kidman's beauty delays the exit a little bit," say critics.

"Thanks." William also patted Amon Goffman on the shoulder like a buddy, smiling brightly.

"Hmm." Amon Goffman suddenly reached out and pinched William's chin, and looked left and right: "I will introduce my dentist to you after returning to Los Angeles. You need to have your teeth fixed."

"My teeth are very healthy." William was a little reluctant: "I brush my teeth three times a day, use mouthwash and floss well, and sleep with aligners at least two days a week. I don't need to give myself a denture."

"Your teeth are well protected, but they are still a little irregular. The canine tooth on the right is too obvious, and your smile is too cute—fortunately, you have not been arranged to act in many campus youth dramas before, otherwise if you Like many other child stars, starting from Disney children's dramas or sitcoms, and then taking on one or two roles of school prince charming in their teens and 20s, you will become a Hollywood sweetheart forever. Like Shirley Temple."

As soon as he heard the words "too cute", William closed his mouth tightly, and secretly licked the canine tooth to prevent it from being accidentally exposed.

"Clean and white teeth are as important to an actor as good taste in dressing. If you are a singer, it can be regarded as your personality if you don't have teeth straightened, but as an actor, it's polite to have your teeth cleaned." Amon Goffman barked at William Show your teeth: "Look, aren't they pretty? A good set of teeth will make you more confident and attractive."

"My eyes are almost blinded by your teeth," William muttered.Amon Goffman's upper and lower rows of teeth are as neat as if they were specially measured and arranged with a ruler. The size is also very standard, and they are so white that they can reflect light.

William still doesn't quite understand the beauty of such white teeth that can reflect light and are so neat that they look fake at first glance. But after thinking about it, compared with yellow, black and irregular teeth, white teeth can barely Call it beautiful...

"What?" Amon Goffman didn't understand.

"It's a bad joke, but it's obviously too high to understand." William shrugged and said, "Although I really don't want to operate on a healthy tooth, but if it is necessary, well, I will. "

Recalling what he saw and heard in Hollywood in the past few years, William found that dental implants are indeed very common in Hollywood—it can’t even be called a trend, but a mainstream—stars go up to super-line and down-to-earth to group performances, almost every day Everyone has a mouthful of neat white teeth, and many people go to the dentist's clinic to have their braces re-aligned in their 40s and [-]s. Tabloid reporters will not make a fuss about it. It seems that for Hollywood workers, having good teeth Just as important as having a good interview attire.

"Good boy." Amon Goffman praised: "The dentist I introduced to you is absolutely the best. Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts are both clients of this clinic."

William felt that his bank account was ready to cry—how expensive would a dentist be for Tom Cruise and the big-mouthed beauty? Would it start at $[-] a piece?

……

The next month is William's lucky month.

James Cameron modified some plots in the script, mainly William's part, deleted the slap that Carl gave Ruth at breakfast, and changed it to overturning the table, and Carl gave Ruth the heart of the ocean Sometimes, there are more lines in which he is willing to give his all and only ask Ruth to open his heart to him, and even the hidden ending arranged for Carl in the script has been changed-in the script originally designed by James Cameron, The old Ruth will tell her story to the engineers who salvaged the Titanic, revealing the ending of Carl's bankruptcy and suicide in a financial crisis in 1929, which was also deleted.

There are other details that I won’t describe in detail one by one. In short, in James Cameron’s revised script, Carl Hockley truly showed his deep affection for Ruth, and the son of the Iron King’s love for Ruth The intensity of the story is not much inferior to that between Ruth and Jack. Of course, when Carl finds out that Ruth has fallen in love with Jack and tries to escape from himself, the blackening is more thorough than the original script.

James Cameron did not beautify Carl Hockley, and he still has a lot of behaviors that should be criticized. It can be said that Carl is as much a control freak as he is affectionate to Ruth. As much as there is, there is as much jealousy. In short, regardless of good or bad, Cal Hockley has now officially become a "living person" with a full personality and flesh and blood compared to the original mask-like character.

"I was really moved by you James Cameron, Will, you are amazing!" When James Cameron sent the revised script to the relevant actors, Leonardo used exaggerated body The action expressed his admiration to William—you know, in the "Titanic" crew, James Cameron is the unique king, and William was also the first half-faced "confrontation" with him and won. actor.

William didn't know whether he had really impressed James Cameron, but he found that James Cameron's attitude towards himself was indeed much better recently. From getting along well before, he became even a little fond of getting close, and then After a few days, William learned the hidden story behind James Cameron's change of attitude.

"I heard that you and Fox revised the contract." After a certain shooting, William went to the top floor of the hotel for dinner and said to James Cameron when he ran into him.

William is not in the least surprised that James Cameron would know about it.Although there is always a lot of fog in front of the public, for insiders, especially those with power and connections at the top, Hollywood will never have secrets.Some things you don't know, just because your level is not enough.

William nodded and didn't speak. He was waiting for James Cameron's next words, and James Cameron must have more words.

"To be honest, I was very surprised, because I never thought that there was another person in the world who had the same blind confidence and all-or-nothing courage on "Titanic" as I did. At this moment in this crew Probably just you and me." Having said that, James Cameron smiled at William.