Birth of an actor

"——Toby also said thank you, thank you for recommending him to Ang Lee, but he is currently filming in Connecticut, almost isolated from the world, and can only wait until he comes back after filming "Ice Storm" to make an appointment." Leonardo DiCaprio said.

"I have read the script of "Ice Storm" and it is very good. This is an opportunity for Toby." William held the microphone and said to Leonardo DiCaprio on the other end of the phone: "As for the official Thank you, how can we use this between us? When he comes back from filming, we can go to the party bar and have fun together."

The post-production of "Romeo and Juliet Modern Edition" has been completed, and internal previews will be held successively this month. After the previews in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, the premiere will be held in Los Angeles on November 11.

Due to cost reasons, "Romeo and Juliet Modern Edition" does not have a premiere scene like walking on the red carpet, flashing lights, crazy fans screaming in excitement, it is a blockbuster movie with an investment of 5000 million or even hundreds of millions of dollars, or a topic of interest Specially high movie premieres will be treated, "Romeo and Juliet Modern Edition" is the same as many movies with tens of millions of investment. Fans gather together to watch movies together.

The call between Leonardo DiCaprio and William was mainly about whether William would return to Los Angeles to attend the premiere.

"I can't rush back to Los Angeles to attend the premiere, and bring my blessings to Director Luhrmann, wishing a good box office reputation and so on." William thought for a while and said, "By the way, I have booked a lot Bouquet, do you think it’s better to give it before the premiere or after the premiere?”

"Send it after the premiere. The atmosphere should not be bad. The test screening held in Chicago received a very good response. The Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune, the two most influential local The media praised it more, and Roger Ebert gave it three stars." Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't hide his snickering in his voice: "By the way, Roger Ebert In a column in the Chicago Sun-Times, I'll read it to you: Earl Paris may be a better actor than Claire Danes for Juliet, in terms of beauty."

"It's as if you haven't been brought out as a metaphor like this." In fact, similar discussions have existed since they were still filming in Mexico, but everyone carried Leonardo DiCaprio, The three parties, William and Claire Danes, are speaking. "And Roger Ebert, as long as it's not a bad movie, doesn't he like everyone now?"

Roger Ebert is one of the most famous film critics in the United States. He began to work for the "Chicago Tribune" in 1967. In 1975, he became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. His status suddenly became detached—in fact, Roger Ebert was only 28 years old at the time—in the 80s and 300s, perhaps spurred by the Pulitzer Prize, Roger Ebert published a large number of Unique film reviews, and the number is almost more than [-] per year on average. Perhaps because he was born at the end of World War II and is a descendant of German immigrants, Roger is very sensitive to fascism in movies. Once he sees it, he will The merciless criticism, biting satire and humorous sarcasm conquered almost all movie fans at that time.

Although he will directly criticize a movie he doesn't like, for example, when reviewing "The Prodigal Bodyguard" in 1994, Roger Ebert used "I hate this movie, hate hate hate hate hate this movie." Comments that are so straightforward that the director and the protagonist are ashamed to death, but most of the time, especially since entering the 90s, Roger Ebert has become more and more tolerant, and he will give a thumbs up when he sees a good film His appearance has become an iconic image of the American film critics, even if he encounters a bad film, he will give half a star, unless he thinks the film is "artless" or "morally annoying". 0 marks.

Leonardo DiCaprio emphasized: "Three stars! Three stars! Roger hasn't given a full score to a movie this year, okay?"

"Okay, I'm just complaining, you don't have to pay attention to me." William said, "Has the "Chicago Sun" already published a film review of the preview? I'll go to the newsstand to look for it later."

Although William said that Roger Ebert "likes everyone", it seemed a little ironic, but in his heart he admired this veteran of the American film critic circle. Many film critics, especially the more experienced ones, In order to reflect and consolidate their own style, they seldom praise a certain film in a large space. Even if it is the best picture at the Oscars, they can count the shortcomings for you with a critical eye. For example, the "Los Angeles Times" The film critic Kenneth Turan, the famous British film critic Mark Kermode and the "Wall Street Journal" film critic Joe Morgenstern are famous for their high vision and fondness for pungent satire.

But Roger Ebert was different.

William, who has read many books by Roger Ebert, knows that this old man is vicious, but no one can stop him, especially with Roger Ebert's current status, he can do it with only his pen. , kills a movie completely, but he only speaks freely when he is young, and the older he is, the more cautious he speaks-why?

Probably because I am worried that I will use high standards to criticize every film, especially the films of new directors and new actors, which will greatly discourage the enthusiasm of film creators and the performance interest of actors, which will be detrimental to the healthy and normal development of the entire film circle-nothing These few sentences are clearly written in the book or newspaper, but this point of view is William's own deduction after reading many books by Roger Ebert.

"Are you really not coming to the premiere in Los Angeles, Will?" Leonardo DiCaprio continued, "Come with me, please."

"No, I just had a class test on November 11st, so I really couldn't leave. And there was no red carpet, so I, a supporting role in a supporting role that only appeared for less than 1 minutes, didn't want to join in the fun."

"Then I'd be really embarrassed to be alone with Claire, man."

"What happened?"

"To be honest, I don't know." Leonardo DiCaprio said dryly: "We have already broken up peacefully, and many ex-girlfriends and I can always remain friendly after breaking up. Contact, you know that, right? But Claire seems to be different from everyone else, she has been really annoying me lately, and it’s really embarrassing to attend the premiere with her, Will.”

"The secret to keeping ladies in touch after breaking up with you isn't 'Men never take the initiative to break up and give up opportunities to women?'" William was more curious and gossip than sympathetic: "Is it Because you dumped her, she became angry?"

"No, I didn't mention the breakup first," Leonardo DiCaprio said with a shrug.

William suddenly thought: "It can't be that the film critics generally reflect that you not only have better acting skills than Claire in the film, but also look more beautiful than her, so 'Juliet' feels very upset, right?"

"..."

William was also very surprised: "I guessed it right?"

"There are other reasons, but it's right to quarrel because of this matter."

"I'm sorry, Leo, but maybe a holiday in a resort would make you happier?"

"I'm not sad, Will." Leonardo DiCaprio said boldly: "On the contrary, I feel very happy. To be honest, having a girlfriend who is too clingy is not a pleasant experience."

"You sound like a scumbag, my friend."

"Didn't love mean that two people want to be together only when they feel happy? If there are constant quarrels when you are together, not only are you unhappy but painful, then what's wrong with being separated? ——Wait, Will, you won't have That kind of sect thought that if you want to fall in love, you must have three dates before you can kiss, five times before you can spend the night, and if you have a relationship for more than half a year, you must start thinking about marriage?"

"No, no," said William, who had actually been shot in the knee but would never admit it.

"Whether you are or not, buddy, since you are in Hollywood, you have to adapt to the rules here - the game life is the correct attitude towards life, find someone early to lock yourself into the grave of marriage? That is definitely not the way of most Hollywood people choose."

William doesn't want to talk to the player about what is the correct view of love: "Stop talking about your relationship, aren't you planning to take on a new movie recently, Leo, the same as Kate?"

"I'll talk about it after a while. After the filming of "Titanic", I think it may take a whole year of recuperation to recover. Moreover, I haven't seen a suitable script recently. If it's enough to finish the recent work and take a vacation , maybe take some acting lessons." Speaking of "Titanic", Leonardo DiCaprio's voice dropped an octave directly: "As far as I know Kate is the same, Will, we They were all destroyed by Jimmy, unlike you, you are Jimmy's favorite young man."

William's role in "Titanic" ended a little earlier, and he was out of the group earlier, so it is not clear what the last life of the protagonists Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate will be under Cameron's hands. They don't want to talk about what kind of day it is, but from the strong resentment in Leonardo DiCaprio's words, and Kate's behavior of flying directly to the sunny south of France for vacation as soon as she left the United States , William can feel that they may really...love and hate James Cameron.As for whether to love more or hate more in the end, that will have to wait for the box office response after the release of "Titanic".

""Titanic" will definitely be a big hit, Leo, what you get in the end must be something you can't even imagine now." William said viciously after consoling: "And then you will regret not listening to me. The remuneration is divided into—”

"Please! My ears are getting calloused Will!" Leonardo DiCaprio laughed and said, "You don't have a crystal ball, so don't drag us to play prophecies every day!"

……

Since entering Hollywood, William's journey has been steadily rising.

From graphic models to extras in TV dramas, from soy sauce-like characters in a single episode to important supporting roles in a single season of public TV dramas, from TV actors to movie actors, from tens of millions of productions to hundreds of millions of masterpieces. From the supporting actor to the leading actor of the No. 10 character... Earl Paris, who was trying to play "Romeo and Juliet Modern Version" for less than [-] minutes, has been preparing for the audition for a long time.

Amon Goffman received a total of more than a dozen scripts during the period after he started school at Harvard, and more than half of them were not bad in his opinion, and all the characters were protagonists. After screening by Amon Goffman, William After roughly reading the script again, I initially selected four films.

"My Best Friend's Wedding" was the first to be ruled out. Although this film has Julia Roberts, a big-mouthed beauty known as the "Queen of Romantic Comedies", as the heroine, it is almost guaranteed to be a big hit at the box office. Both the leading actor and the second leading actor have been confirmed. The leading actor is Dermot Mulroney appointed by Julia Roberts. The second leading actor is a British drama actor who will play Ruburt, the heroine's gay friend. Te Everett invited William to play the role of actor Michael's younger brother Scott, who can be called the third actor, but the plot arrangement is not brilliant.

If you're not in school, you have very little time to spare for filming. William doesn't mind making a guest appearance. After all, the cast of "My Best Friend's Wedding" is really strong—the two leading actresses are famous beauties in Hollywood. , one is Julia Roberts, the other is Cameron Diaz, the two leading actors Dermot Mulroney and Rupert Everett are not well-known in Hollywood, but Mulroney is in Broadway in New York and Everett are famous in the West End of London.Yes, they are all theater actors.

The collision of two famous Hollywood "vase" beauties and two famous dramatists must be very interesting, and if he can work with them, William believes that he will definitely learn something.

But it's a pity, because Scott's character setting is really not good, and time is not allowed, William can only pass by this romantic comedy movie that is destined to attract much attention when it is released.

For the remaining three scripts, William struggled with them all night, still hesitating.

"Dangerous Liaisons", gangster theme, the script is very simple but has a very personal style. William kept it because the director has been confirmed to be Quentin Tarantino——Quentin Tarantino!William loved his Pulp Fiction, and of course Reservoir Dogs was good too.

"Gait Shot", a sci-fi commercial film, Columbia's film, because it had a good cooperative relationship with William, he was given priority. Ma Thurman, the second leading actor has also been determined, is the British actor Jude Law who was discovered by Hollywood after his success in London's West End and New York's Broadway.

"Boogie Nights", a feature film set in the 70s, was written, directed and invested by director Paul Thomas Anderson, who just passed his 26th birthday. In contrast, Hollywood generally refers to films produced by the eight major film companies, with fixed operating routines, and relatively commercial production purposes as mainstream films, while some filmmakers, in order to get rid of the control of the "eight major film companies", raise funds, Self-written and self-directed films with a strong artistic purpose, high ideological level, and strong personal style of the director are called independent films.

Because most independent films do not have good distribution channels and cannot be released in the United States on a large scale, and many films cannot be favored by large public award ceremonies such as the Oscars due to themes and classification issues, so the United States now has a special The film festival for unknown filmmakers and small-budget independent films is the Sundance Film Festival.

Dangerous Liaisons, Gattaca, or Boogie Nights?William really had a hard time choosing.

He had to call his agent, pretending to be completely unaware that it was 02:30 in the morning in Los Angeles.

But to William's surprise, the phone was connected after only one ring, and the voice of Amon Goffman on the other end was still very clear: "I knew you must call, Will, to be honest, I've been waiting."