Birth of an actor

William understood that he voluntarily gave up his salary to gamble on the profit share after the movie was released when even Fox was panicking that the movie would not be able to pay back after the movie was released, which made James Cameron feel sympathetic and like-minded. It's very pleasing to the eye—as far as William knows, he and James Cameron are the only two people in the crew who are willing to give up the remuneration to ease the crew's financial strain, and instead talk about box office dividends after the release.

The contract between William and Fox has been amended, and James Cameron's contract seems to be still under discussion. The gossip that William recently heard is: Because James Cameron asked Fox for too much additional investment, Fox was very upset. Annoyed, he plans not only to recover all of James Cameron's remuneration, but also to remove his box office share. In order to make follow-up investment in place, it seems that James Cameron is also prepared to agree to Fox's harsh requirements.

If this gossip is true, it will be consistent with William's memory that has become a bit blurred - when "Titanic" was re-released in 3D, many old news related to the movie were dug up by various media It came out, and one of the reports said that James Cameron gave up all his film remuneration and share in order to allow Fox to increase investment, and he only got less than 100 million US dollars in script fees. Of course, in "Titan After the global release of "The Nick" broke the historical box office record one after another, Fox not only made up his salary in order to appease James Cameron, but also gave him some extra bonuses totaling 2000 million US dollars, in order to appease James Cameron. Emotions made him willing to continue working for the studio.

However, even if it is 2000 million US dollars, it is still far from the share that James Cameron won in the original contract. If William remembers correctly, according to the share in the original contract, the dividend won by James Cameron is conservatively estimated. Over $5000 million—still only counting the box office cut, not the DVD cut.

Generally speaking, the salaries of Hollywood directors and actors are divided into three grades. The lowest grade starts working with a salary without any share. The middle grade has a box office share besides salary. , the advanced ones not only include salary, box office dividends, but also DVD pink in the later period. You must know that in the United States, where the DVD rental business is extremely developed, the DVD income of many Hollywood movies in the later period exceeds the box office income and can even reach several times the box office income. .

The emergence of this memory made William a little hesitant, should he remind James Cameron that it was a wrong decision to give up all the film revenue in a fight with Fox?

But what James Cameron said next made William swallow what he wanted to say while smiling in surprise.

"You should have heard that the crew is short of funds. I asked Fox for additional investment, and even planned to donate all my salary." Seeing William nodding, James Cameron continued: "Because of the money, I've had a bit of a relationship with Fox CFO Bill Mochanek, we got into an argument the last time we met and he said 'if you insist on an extra $6000 million, well, take your share first' I said' OK, no problem, I don't want a penny' — that's how Fox and I negotiated."

Speaking of this, James Cameron shrugged helplessly: "If you want to laugh, it's okay to laugh as much as you want. It turns out that even I sometimes do some childish and irrational behaviors, like a hothead , Let all my hard work in the past few years become voluntary work for nothing."

"This process is indeed beyond my imagination." William said "difficultly". He wanted to show a sad expression for James Cameron and at the same time wanted to laugh, but both expressions seemed a little bit at the moment. It wasn't suitable, so he had to hold back and try to put on a calm face.

"But now I've changed my mind, I regret it, although "Titanic" can't make it, it will kill me, but why should I work for Fox for a few years? Fuck him, I have been working since 90 I started to conceive the script. This movie has condensed my hard work for six years. I should get something, so I also amended my contract. If the global box office of the movie is less than [-] million after it is released, they don’t have to give me a penny. If it’s less than one billion, just make up for my film salary. If it’s more than one billion, give me all I deserve, film salary, share, DVD income, everything that belongs to me must be returned to me—Fox believes that this is not a money-losing business. I thought it was a good gamble, so I made a new deal with Fox."

William couldn't keep his calm anymore, he raised his eyebrows high - this was definitely different from his memory, so the butterfly flapped its wings again?

"Good decision!" William couldn't help but said, "I have a hunch that one day in the future, "Titanic" will give you, no, it will give us a big surprise."

James Cameron gave William a smile—a smile that was a little too kind for someone as serious and unappealing as him—"I'm telling you this to let you know, yes Your behavior encouraged me. Thank you, Will." After saying this, James Cameron stood up, gave William a rare hug, and then left.

William was in shock.

Was he thanked just now?Was "set tyrant" James Cameron?

Compared with James Cameron, who turned his footsteps on the straight line of history, from "Fox making a lot of money" to "making a lot of money with Fox", he suddenly became a kind and good man. It's more scary sir.

William suddenly regretted that he did not carry a tape recorder with him. If there was no recording to testify, Leonardo and Kate would never believe that James Cameron said "thank you" to him-although they were hand-picked heroes and heroines, Leo The treatment Leonardo and Kate received from James Cameron was extremely harsh. Leonardo is okay, but after a few more days of training, he will start to feel heartless again. This and Da The young man with the same name as Finch is born with a fearless temperament, but Kate can't do it. This poor girl has cried secretly many times recently, and even lost her hair one after another because of too much pressure. , I have already started putting on wigs when I put on makeup.

It is said that as early as two months ago, someone secretly set up an "Anti-JC Tyranny Mutual Aid Group". The members met once a week to complain about James Cameron. Kate just joined it last week and only met once. , the status looks much better.

William suddenly thought that after "Titanic" caused a global sensation, James Cameron would definitely think of himself when he counted the zeros on his account, and maybe he would miss him a favor, and such a good opportunity, If you don't share it with your friends, it's too much to justify.

……

"Is there any wine in your flagon? Let me have a drink," Leonardo DiCaprio said through chattering teeth.

Leonardo DiCaprio has just climbed out of the water, his blond hair is sticking to his cheeks in strands, his white shirt is soaked in water and is almost transparent, and he is obviously frozen, his face is blue and white lips It was purple, and even the voice of the speech was trembling, and there was no need to act deliberately to have the state of falling into the Atlantic Ocean in winter.

Because the scene where the Titanic crashed into an iceberg and sank has requirements for the environment and photography equipment, the crew has returned to Los Angeles after filming all the scenes to be completed in Mexico, and is shooting indoors in the Fox studio—— There is a 16-foot-deep water tank in Fox Studio 13, which was specially built for the filming of "Alien 2". Now, a 1/8 model of the first class of the poop building is used to shoot the sinking of the first class of the Titanic The footage was just right, as well as the shots of the lifeboat floating in the sea and most of the passengers soaking in the sea, which also used the huge indoor swimming pool in the Fox studio.

After hitting the iceberg, almost all the shots of "Titanic" were closed with water, and these shots added up to more than one-third of the length of the whole film, almost reaching half, which means The actors, no, not only the actors, but also the director, assistant director, and crew members will also be soaked in the water when shooting these scenes, at least for several weeks.

In fact, the reality is a bit worse than this. The Titanic had first-class, second-class and third-class cabins, and there were countless corridors and rooms. It is impossible to shoot such a large passenger ship when it sinks. It is impossible to just shoot the hull launching. Now, each cabin corridor restaurant also has to have a shot of the seawater flooding, and it will take several weeks just to shoot these cabins entering the water.

Therefore, although this is Los Angeles and it is summer, the actors are still freezing enough - the indoor swimming pool is not exposed to sunlight, and the temperature is not as good as that of the outdoor swimming pool, not to mention that James Cameron is in pursuit of the Titanic in winter. The effect of sinking, not allowing the pool to be heated, and wearing heavy costumes to soak in the wet and cold water day after day, caused most of the actors to suffer from severe colds, and even worse, pneumonia, such as Speaking of poor girl Kate Winslet, she unfortunately suffered from pneumonia when she was filming "Sense and Sensibility", and now she is patronized by illness again, and she has lost several pounds in a short period of time.

Thankfully, William doesn't have much in the water, and he often hangs around the pool when he's not on camera himself, just in time to help his friends, like now.

William took the sterling silver flagon out of his coat pocket, unscrewed the lid and handed it to Leonardo, who took a big gulp immediately after taking it. But it has obviously improved, from the frozen blue and white to a little rosy.

"Thank you." Leonardo DiCaprio murmured thanks, and after his throat got used to the stimulation of alcohol, he swallowed again.He has had several bad colds these days, and today he soaked in cold water for three or four hours without drinking anything that can quickly warm his body up. Maybe he will be the one who joins the pneumonia team tomorrow. .

William's sterling silver jug ​​is one of Edwin's relics. It is an old British brand, like Asprey or something. It may have been passed down from his grandfather's generation. William has basically never used it since he inherited it, but now it does. It came in handy - after a long soak in cold water, everyone desperately needed a few sips of booze to warm up after the shoot.

In the whole crew, William was the first to bring the flagon. At that time, some people laughed at him for being old-fashioned, and even the things he carried with him looked like antiques from the last century. But now, the palm-sized hippopotamus has been promoted to the most popular among the crew. One of the favorite objects, almost every man has one, and many people want to buy his sterling silver flagon from William at a high price, but no matter how much others ask, he will not sell it.

An interesting derivative event about the wine jug: James Cameron saw William drinking from a silver jug ​​to keep warm many times, and he was inspired to add a carl to him standing on the first-class deck, watching Jack and Ruth in the distance. Talking everywhere, drowning sorrows with wine, behind is a round of sunset.

"The sunset in Carl's lens is more beautiful than the scene where Jack and Rose are kissing on the bow." After many days of filming, James Cameron said when he was slightly drunk after a meal, with a bit of regret in his tone: "I There's an urge to remake the Jack Ruth kiss scene."

James Cameron's drunken utterances scare everyone out of their wits, literally.The assistant director took him back to the room with his arms. James Cameron appeared in the studio rubbing his forehead when the machine was turned on the next day, and asked everyone if he had said anything yesterday (he repeatedly stated that he seemed to be I said something very important but I can’t remember it now), everyone shook their heads collectively and said no——I’ll go to a more than a week to shoot a more beautiful kiss scene, everyone will really be exhausted, even Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have both said they've kissed each other until they felt sick.

After drinking half a jug of wine, Leonardo DiCaprio's complexion finally looked better. He wrapped the blanket tightly and swore: "I will never make a movie about water again. Never."

William said amusedly and helplessly: "I don't want to count how many times you have nagged this sentence, but it is definitely a number that can make my ears spin."

"It seems to be eighty or ninety times. My assistant counted it." Leonardo DiCaprio laughed: "But I guarantee that Kate must have said more times than me. Compared with us, she is the most important person." Really froze."

"Indeed." William looked at the other side of the pool. Kate Winslet had disappeared. She must have been fully armed with blankets, towels and hot water by the assistant as soon as she climbed out of the water, and went back to the dressing room to rest.

Turning his head to look at Leonardo DiCaprio, William asked: "How do you think about my proposal?" A few days ago, William had seriously suggested to Leonardo and Kate that they should reduce their pay. The way to increase their box office share.

"Come on man, are you serious? Want me to go crazy with you and James Cameron?"

"First, I'm serious, and second, I don't think the idea is crazy...well, it's a little crazy, but it's not crazy enough. Leo, you know what kind of movie you're making Yeah, you know what a picky perfectionist James Cameron is, he never screwed up one of his movies, no matter how unfavorable the public opinion is, I don't think we're going to fail."

"I know, Will, I was actually very moved by what you said, but." Leonardo DiCaprio wiped his face with a towel, and looked at William with a wrinkled expression: "As early as Last month, I booked a villa in Malibu, and I’m just waiting for the pay to be paid.”

"..." William put his right hand on his forehead and sighed.

Leonardo DiCaprio spent his film salary in advance (American young people’s consumption habits are like this, how much they earn and spend as much as they earn, and few people have the concept of financial management before they get married and have children), Kate Winslet All the income is managed by his parents, and he doesn't have much say in his salary for the time being. Therefore, William's suggestions to his two friends were unsuccessful, and he was a little regretful.

Leonardo DiCaprio stood up, put his arm on William's shoulders, and said comfortingly: "Let me tell you, Will, that villa is amazing, and I'm going to have a huge party after the movie is finished." , you must come, I will leave you the room with the best view except the master bedroom."

"Okay, I'll be waiting for your call in Los Angeles." William and Leonardo shook their fists and replied with a smile.

William doesn't have much time left on the set, just a couple of scenes in the lifeboat, and he's all shot, and then he's going back to school for graduation.Then in a few months, he will be a student at Harvard, and he is looking forward to the upcoming university life.