Birth of an actor

"It's done." In the dressing room of the "Oprah Winfrey Talk Show" column group of Chicago's WLS TV station, the makeup artist retreated to the side of the dressing table, carefully looked at William's hairstyle for a few seconds, and clapped his hands excitedly. : "It works great, doesn't it?"

"Thank you." William thanked him first before looking up at his new image.

It’s a new image, but it’s actually no different from his usual self, he still picks out the clothes himself (plus a certain guy who has a lot of celebrity clients but is always excited when William is going to be on some show or taking some magazine photos. Barbara Wilson, the publicist who took time to accompany him to shop and pick clothes), a simple black suit jacket, a casual style with two buttons, a button-down shirt in charcoal gray high-count cotton, no tie or silk square Towels and the like, dressing too formally for a talk show like this kind of casual show is a bit out of tune with the atmosphere. Cufflinks are already the limit. Platinum cufflinks, the shape is low-key and not exaggerated.

The biggest change may be the hairstyle. William’s hair has grown a lot recently, and the blond hair has not been dyed back. The thick and slightly curly blond hair always hangs naturally to the ears, adding a lot of literary temperament. Now the hair is all combed back. Although I don't use a lot of pomade, it's not the kind of oily and slippery shape when filming, but a little fluffy and tidy, but the temperament has changed a lot.

According to William himself, before he could play painters and musicians directly, but now, he can only play lawyers, politicians and Wall Street elites.

There was still half an hour before the live broadcast of the talk show officially started. Although the door of the dressing room was closed after William came in, people knocked on the door and came in from time to time under various names. They stayed for a few minutes and greeted William. Take a photo and say goodbye.

"You are really welcome, Will. The black-haired beauty who just came in twice is Kara from the editorial team. I have never seen her be so attentive to any male guest. You are the first." The makeup artist said: " After putting on makeup in a while, if you still want to see her, you can go to the green room and wait. There are a lot of hot girls there. You know, there are all kinds of skin colors and hair colors. Champagne and beer."

"Thank you for the news." William said with a smile, "I said how since I joined the TV station, I couldn't find my agent and his assistant. They must be more informed than me. They have already gone to the actor's lounge to wait caught."

"Haha." The makeup artist laughed a few times, bent down and put his head close to William, and said to him in the mirror: "Will, your face shape is very good, you hardly need shadows and highlights, I will give you some How about eyeshadow? Just a little white eyeshadow on the corners of the eyes will make them look sparkly under the lights, and lipstick, although your lips are red enough, adding a little tinted lip balm will make it It doesn't look so dry under the camera."

"Cough cough." The laughing cough reminded them that there was a third person in the room.

With some embarrassment, William stopped the makeup artist from applying eye shadow powder on his face with a makeup brush, and looked at the reflection in the mirror of Lance sitting behind him on the right side and asked the makeup artist: "Does my friend also want to put on makeup?" ?”

Lance waved at the mirror: "No, no, no, I don't want to, I don't want to put a lot of glitter on my face." And he watched William sitting in front of the makeup mirror obediently being manipulated by the makeup artist until he almost died of laughter.

William told the makeup artist: "If my friend doesn't want it, then I don't need it, otherwise we would sit in front of the camera and one face would be powdered and the other wouldn't. It would be weird."

"But—" the makeup artist looked at William and then at Lance sitting behind him, hesitating and embarrassed.It is his negligence to let the guest appear on the stage imperfectly, but the two people in the dressing room, whether it is William Bradley or Lance Roderick, one is the hottest new star in Hollywood and the other is a billionaire. The millionaire's heirs are not people who he can order them to be obedient, at least they are different from the ordinary audience guests who have been on the show in the past.

"No highlighter, no eye shadow, okay, how about we just put on concealer?" The makeup artist suggested persistently: "Don't refuse me in a hurry, gentlemen, concealer is the last line, although your skin looks They are all great, and the pores are almost invisible, but that is under daily light, and the studio lights are very strong, which will magnify a little bit of tiny blemishes on the skin countless times. For image considerations, let's make a quick fix ?”

William looked at Lance through the mirror and nodded, "No problem."

Because only concealer was applied, the makeup artist was very fast. In less than 10 minutes, he took care of William and Lance, and even used styling mousse to slightly scratch Lance's hair.

A staff member with a headset walkie-talkie came over and knocked on the door: "The show starts in 10 minutes, guys."

William looked in the mirror, licked his lower lip, and said to the make-up artist, "Can you stay with the two of us for a while, buddy? I have something to talk to him about."

"Of course it's fine, Will." The makeup artist said with mock humor as she quickly packed her toolbox, "You know, 'Can we be alone for a while?' I've heard it countless times, usually when one of the two guests in the room is a hot girl, I leave the room at their request and come back after half an hour, and the room becomes a mess."

The make-up artist was suggesting that there were guests messing around in this room, which made the two of them want to stand up from their seats—who knows how often the seats are cleaned and disinfected here?

William returned a dry smile, and through the mirror, he saw Lance roll his eyes indecently behind him.

The makeup artist finally left, and as soon as he left, William turned to look at his friend: "It's going to be no problem, right?"

Lance stood up from his seat: "What's the problem?"

"You know." William was silent for a moment: "It's Mr. Roderick."

If Taylor Roderick knew that his only heir was going to be on a talk show, whether it was hosted by Oprah Winfrey or the President of the United States, there would be only one opinion, and that would be "No!"

"He has no time for me." Lance said lazily, with a hint of sarcasm in his tone: "My great father has been busy manipulating the election for the past year, and now that the manipulation failed, he is too busy wiping himself ass, in case the media and authorities get caught with pigtails."

Almost two months ago, on November 1996, 11, the US general election ended and Bill Clinton was re-elected as president. , the age disadvantage is very large, and the issues of the election cannot attract the majority of voters, so they lost.

"I remember your father was a Republican supporter?"

The two largest parties in the United States, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, have a long and complicated history of struggle. It will be difficult to explain clearly for a while, but there is also a general label that can quickly distinguish these two parties, that is, the Republican Party is equal to the conservative and the right wing, and the Democratic Party is equal to the liberal. Equal to the left, the current US President Bill Clinton belongs to the Democratic Party.

Lance's father, Tyler Roderick, has always been a pure Republican. As far as William can remember, when he was a guest at Roderick's mansion, he would often see the chairman of the Republican Party or other high-ranking people there. In and out.

"He has invested the most money in this U.S. election. It is conservatively estimated that the donations in various names may be close to eight figures, or even more than eight figures." Lance said with the corner of his mouth bent: "Otherwise Bob Why is Hall running on a 17% tax rate? It's obviously trying to please Tyler Roderick and other billionaires."

The 17% tax rate means that the personal income tax is no longer divided into low, middle and high levels, but regardless of the annual income of the poor and the rich, all are paid at 17%. It started to collect personal income tax in 1913. At that time, the tax rate was very low. The minimum tax rate was 1%. 2%. During World War I and World War II, the personal income tax rate in the United States reached the highest point in history. During World War I, rich people with an annual income of more than $7 million had to pay a tax rate of 100%. During World War II, their annual income was $77. Those above are subject to a 20% tax rate.

In the decades after the end of World War II, the US personal income tax rate has been continuously adjusted. It is now divided into three basic levels, with different tax rates of 15%, 28% and 31%. High tax rates of 36% and 39% - billionaires are mostly listed here - of course, the tax rate is not dead, the United States also has a lot of tax reduction policies, such as preferential treatment for environmental protection companies or high-tech companies If a rich man is lucky and operates properly, his annual personal income tax rate may be lower than that of his office secretary.

However, tax cuts and low tax rate policies obviously cannot make Taylor Roderick and Roderick Industrial Group, which focus on heavy industry and military products, the biggest beneficiaries. The products of the industrial group are almost all heavy industry.

"As long as Mr. Roderick doesn't get into trouble with you for being on the show with me." William shrugged. "You're not a Republican, are you?"

"I'm not interested in politics. If I had to vote, I might be a little bit more Democratic."

"Don't tell your father that, he'll be mad."

Lance shrugged nonchalantly.

The staff wearing headsets and walkie-talkies knocked on the door again: "There are still 3 minutes, Will, we should go to the studio and wait."

"Come right away." William replied, looked at Lance, smiled at each other, and walked towards the door side by side.

……

At Chicago's WLS television station, The Oprah Winfrey Show's circular studio is already filled to capacity, with between 250 and 300 people, almost all women, and a large percentage of them young women.This is not common in the past. You must know that the loyal audience of the Oprah show, the most loyal part, is generally middle-aged women with families, not young girls.

The lights have already moved to the middle of the stage, where there is a yellow couch that looks very comfortable, where Oprah Winfrey usually sits and talks with guests, and behind the sofa is a huge screen, which is used to broadcast Video clips are used.

A burst of soft and cheerful prelude music played, and a door opened at the left corner between the stage and the auditorium. He was wearing a light blue pullover and a dark blue knee-length skirt. Oprah Winfrey stepped through the door wearing a pair of diamond earrings, her arms waving, shaking hands with enthusiastic fans along the aisle as she made her way to the stage.

From the moment Oprah Winfrey appeared, the audience applauded enthusiastically. When she stood in the middle of the stage, that is, in front of the yellow sofa, the audience stopped applauding cooperatively and gave the studio a quiet moment. environment, Oprah Winfrey spoke to the camera, and while she was speaking, images began to appear on the big screen behind her: "Who still has an impression of the kidnapping of a billionaire heir that shocked the United States in 1985? ? Or, does anyone still remember the sensational news in 1991 that a famous hedge fund manager jumped from a high-rise building on Wall Street because of a loss of [-] million US dollars? These two social news that once caused a sensation in the United States are all related to the guests of our program in this issue , not only did he play an important role in these events, he even actually stepped onto the screen from real life—"

In the trailer, news reports about the kidnapping of a billionaire heir in 1985 and the suicide of a famous Wall Street hedge fund manager in 1991 flashed quickly. Button operation, the video screen accompanied by Oprah's narration appeared in front of all the viewers in the United States who are watching the TV program.

"He is the ruthless killer in "The New Adventures of Superman", the handsome and hateful Princeton in "90210", the handsome Edward in "Sense and Sensibility", Paris in "Romeo and Juliet Modern Edition", even It’s still Billy the Masked Killer in the hit movie “Scream” that hit the box office recently—”

Since entering Hollywood, all the movie and TV roles that William has played that have left a deep impression on the audience have been flashed on the big screen one by one. The program director probably has a good sense of William, and almost all the screenshots of the most handsome characters are selected.

Screams began to sound in the studio, and the younger audience had already begun to be unable to hold back their excitement.

After the movie and TV screen flashed, it was cut back to the close-up of Oprah Winfrey's face: "He is only 20 years old, but his life has been called ups and downs, and he is the figure that everyone in the United States is talking about now. He's also playing really good music, and you're going to hear him on TV a little later, no, he's making his public debut, and it's really, really good, amazing, I gotta say."

"Now, please give me a warm welcome—William Bradley!"

At the curtain leading to the studio from the backstage, the staff pushed William lightly.

Amon Goffman and his assistant Eric desperately made "come on" gestures a little further away.

The cheerful opening music sounded again, William took a deep breath, walked towards the stage calmly with a smile on his face.

"Welcome, Will, you look amazing!" Oprah Winfrey opened her arms first, facing William, "Handsome suit, simple and tasteful."

William naturally hugged the most famous talk show host in the United States: "You too, Oprah, I like your dress."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"