Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Off-Broadway, there are also many theaters for new dramatists to show their new plays. Generally this place is called Off-Broadway, and outside of Off-Broadway, there are some theaters, which are stages for people who have not even released a play but have many dreams.

It's called Off-Off Broadway. Tickets are cheap here, but real theater critics, theater lovers, and casting directors come often. In addition to those whimsical plays that cannot be shown anywhere, there are also rising stars and avant-garde plays here.

Some big Hollywood actors also came from here. The most famous ones are Meryl Streep and Diane Lane, who has been acting with her since they were four or five years old.

Ronald used MGM's budget to rent a large, spacious and bright house here. He directed all his assistants to put the long tables together to form a huge table.

On it were placed a variety of snacks that Ronald found from Chinatown, and there was a steaming cart like a Cantonese restaurant next to it, ready to replenish it at any time. There are also piles of Coke, coffee machine, black tea, and some light alcoholic beverages on the table.

Ronald arrived at the scene in advance to organize a reading of the script.

He sat at the head of the table, next to his director of photography, David Watkin. Ronald and he met on the set of "Endless Love". When Ronald was called to "direct" Brooke Shields' facial close-ups in the sex scene, he was the one taking the shots.

He also won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for "Out of Africa."

He is particularly good at taking ordinary urban scenes and creating an epic and dramatic mood.

MGM attached great importance to Ronald directing their first movie in more than a year and hired the best people in the industry to assist Ronald.

On Ronald's right side is another Oscar winner, the best art director of "Jazz Spring and Autumn" in 1979, Philip Rosenberg.

The film also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Philip Rosenberg's artistic design style also gave the bland street scenes a tourist postcard style.

The two kings sat on the left and right, and began to talk about setting and scene selection from time to time. Philip Rosenberg also took out a photo album from time to time and asked Ronald to choose which scene was suitable for the movie.

Opposite him were the behind-the-scenes shooting team specially hired by MGM to shoot the behind-the-scenes footage, including several documentary shooting teams from MGM TV. They set up the video recorder and started filming in the corner facing the table.

Actors began to arrive one after another,

Seeing this posture, everyone clearly felt that MGM attached great importance to the film.

"Hi Olympia, hi Julie,..."

Ronald always left the meeting to hug them and say hello. On the Broadway stage, there are strict rules about who can say hello to the director. Only those actors approved by the director can enjoy hugs and kisses. Average actors and those with poor performance will be demoted and can only shake hands.

Knowing the sensitivities of actors who have been on Broadway for a long time, Ronald was strict about the rules even though he was not a hugger.

"Hi, Nick!" This time the actor Nicolas Cage came in. Ronald deliberately walked a distance and intercepted him after he entered the door. And say hello to him first.

Among a group of actors with rich theatrical performance experience on Broadway, Nicolas Cage seems a bit immature. Ronald went out of his way to show the upgraded treatment of the protagonist to let everyone understand that Nick is his person.

Sure enough, although Cage was still a rookie in the Broadway hierarchy, Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia and others also stood up and said hello to him.

"This way, this way." At this time, a noisy voice came from outside the door.

"It's Xue'er here."

Ronald recognized the voice of one of her assistants. The assistant helped open the door, and Xueer walked in with a large group of people.

"Ronnie, I'm so glad to see you." Xueer glanced at Ronald.

He came up to say hello to Ronald first, and then introduced several important people among the people accompanying him to Ronald, and more importantly to the actors present.

"This is my personal hairstylist, this is my personal dresser, this is my driver, this is my assistant... and lastly, this is my personal pastry chef, Rob Camiletti, who bakes bagels is my favorite.

"Please sit a little further back, the front row is for the actors." An actor suddenly said, stopping the pastry chef Rob Camiletti who wanted to sit next to Cher.

The young man was very handsome. He glanced at the assistant and then looked at Xueer.

"Honey, please wait for me behind and take out your bagels for everyone to try."

Cher knew this was against the rules, so she asked the pastry chef to get some bagels, and then went to the hairstylist's side.

Ronald saw a plate of donut-like bread on the table, but without icing. Ronald always liked all kinds of snacks, so he took one and ate it.

"Ugh..." The smell of German lye bread rushed straight into his nose, and Ronald was caught off guard. Fortunately, the tomatoes and vegetables were okay, so he reluctantly ate them.

Nowadays, the concept of weight loss and health has invaded the American market. As long as a kind of food is low in calories, it can be sold no matter how unpalatable it is.

Ronald glanced at Cher's new boyfriend. He was sitting there looking around. Apart from being handsome and knowing how to bake bagels, he seemed out of place in this place.

The huge array of Hollywood stars also makes a kind of Broadway character actor unsatisfied.

Broadway actors pay more attention to rehearsals and the guidance of directors and screenwriters. In the theater world, the director knows more than the actors, and it is a rule that everyone abides by.

In Hollywood, between a director and a star, who has the final say on the crew is a very interesting question.

Although Ronald did Cher a big favor, she is a singer and star who is used to big battles after all. It is normal for her to swagger around with several assistants. The young man who baked bagels thought it was good, so he took it with him and ate his love food exclusively.

Moreover, Rob is of Italian origin. If there is anything he doesn’t understand about Italian customs, wouldn’t he be able to ask him on the spot?

However, this kind of behavior, especially Rob's lack of self-awareness to sit in the front row and participate in the sacred script reading, made the Broadway actors in the circle next to him more or less dissatisfied.

Especially Olympia Dukakis, who plays Cher's mother, she couldn't stand it just now and asked Rob's baker to go to the back row.

If it were on Broadway, these irrelevant people wouldn't even be able to get through the rehearsal room door.

"Are we starting a script reading?" Dukakis asked Ronald.

"Waiting for a moment..." Ronald replied looking at the door.

"Who are you waiting for? Your donut maker?" Dukakis complained softly. The Broadway actor absolutely respected the director's rules and kept her from continuing.

"The person I was waiting for is here," Ronald stood up and smiled.

A short Italian man wearing black-rimmed glasses opened the door and barged in.

"Ronald, it's really nice to see you. I'm not late, am I?"

"No, you're welcome to my script reading, Marty."

The visitor is none other than Martin Scorsese, who has a high reputation in the New York theater and film circles. He was the foreign aid that Ronald invited to help him calm down on the first day.

"Ha, I just came to see you. I'm very happy to hear that you have finally returned to orthodox drama. Pauline Kael, a famous film critic in New York, also said that she would pay attention to you this time. She feels that your talent has been ignored by those commercial The popcorn chips were delayed, this is the way you should go..."

With that, Scorsese began to greet the actors, and he talked about how he grew up as a child in an Italian family who owned a dry cleaning shop in Brooklyn, New York.

How do I understand the big Italian family?

He told Cher that he had seen her performance in "The Skew Incident" and felt that she would have no problem playing such an Italian woman.

He also greeted screenwriter Shanley and praised him, although he is of Irish descent, but his observation of Italians is more careful and true than the Italians themselves. Perhaps only bystanders can capture this delicate and exquisite Italian atmosphere.

He also encouraged Nicolas Cage, saying that when he was a child, there was a bakery on the corner of the street, and the baker there gave him great yearning. At one time, he was unwilling to iron clothes, but became interested in baking bread.

Picking up a bagel, Scorsese put it down again without taking two bites. When he was a kid, there was a bakery owned by Italians, and the bread there was much more delicious.

Ronald chatted with Scorsese and then asked him to make a cameo in his film.

Scorsese said that if it was the protagonist, he could consider it. But his mother never appeared in the movie. Of course, Ronald immediately invited his mother to make a cameo, in the bakery scene that Scorsese was obsessed with.

"Then let's get started." Ronald sent Scorsese off, turned around, and announced the start of the script reading.

The Broadway actors look at Ronald a little differently now than they did just now. As an Italian film director, Scorsese's films all have dramatic conflict as the core.

He thinks so highly of Ronald. It seems that Ronald either has a great knowledge of this drama or is also a drama wizard. Everyone knows the reputation of film critic Pauline Carr. This person who always likes to criticize film directors suddenly expressed her expectation for Ronald's new work, which also made them feel that this "Moonlight" seems to be really good. It's a movie with great potential.

On the other side of the film actor camp, their views on Ronald have also changed. Cher even feels that among the three films shot in the second half of this year, Ronald's film may be her hope for a comeback.

Cher's recitation skills are very good. Perhaps it is God's compensation for her dyslexia. Relying on the tape of actress Julie, she is very accurate in every line.

Nicolas Cage, who plays the leading actor, also admired Cher's Italian accent. The two read the scene where they got up in the morning after the sultry moonlight night, and Cher slapped Cage in the face. On his face, Cage felt pretty good.

"You can hit hard, Miss Cher." Cage said to her, "I think your emotions are in place."

"You can come back when the actual shooting begins." Cher did not expect Cage to make such a request.

A script reading is actually a group of actors sitting in a circle, where everyone reads their character's lines. It's a way for the actor to get familiar with the character and then the antagonist.

In New York, a place with a strong theater atmosphere, there are still college students who take classic scripts and play them as games with their classmates in school.

"Hahaha..." Everyone likes Nicolas Cage's approach of being very involved in the role. So they accepted two Hollywood actors. During the break, Julie, the actress who played the aunt, also came over and quietly told Ronald that it was rare for her to see such a good match between the male and female protagonists.

By the second day, the Broadway camp and the Hollywood camp each had an understanding of the other's strength. Both sides put away the possible contempt at the beginning and began to read carefully and cooperate with each other's performance.

Xue'er also put away her ostentation and didn't let any more followers come here. Especially that sweet bagel baker. The dialogue between her and Dukakis began to get better.

Other actors also felt that Cher's line skills were worthy of her Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress last year.

They all admired the casting director that Ronald hired, and the Broadway team that Julia Taylor hired actually brought out the reality of the entire Castorini family.

Audiences who have actually interacted with Italians in Brooklyn, New York, will soon see on the screen the characteristics of some of their daily acquaintances.

Audiences who have never seen a big Italian family in Brooklyn have stereotyped some characteristics of Italians because of their movie education like "The Godfather". Such a performance will satisfy them all.

Ronald also gradually understood the characteristics of each actor and began to redesign some scenes based on their performances.

The one that surprised Ronald the most was Olympia Dukakis, who played his mother Rose. The timing of each of her reactions was very accurate, exactly at the point where the effect was best.

Ronald felt that Dukakis should be nicknamed Staples. His lag made many Hollywood actors with excellent acting skills feel embarrassed. This special ability is either innate or acquired through more than ten years of careful observation and study.

If she were to act in a comedy, she would also be a very good candidate.

Especially in her scene opposite Cher, mother Rose asked her daughter Loretta the same question twice. Does she love that man?

The first time Loretta faced various Johnny's proposals, she replied that she didn't love him. There was a brief moment of loneliness in Dukakis's eyes, and he felt sorry for his unfortunate daughter. But as a mother, she still agreed immediately to encourage her daughter and said that only a marriage that she doesn't love can last long.

The second time Loretta faced her brother Ronnie, of course she admitted that she loved Ronnie. Dukakis shouted, "I knew it," but there was a hint of happiness in his eyes that his daughter had found her lover.

The reaction after these two questions and answers is really just a few tenths of a second apart. In a few tenths of a second, the audience will lose the complex emotions behind the lines.

But Dukakis's precise timing allowed this emotion to be conveyed to Cher accurately, making her response even more glorious.

"That's the reaction I wanted, very good." Ronald pointed at Dukakis and praised him. Having such a person with outstanding acting skills in the crew can really make other people's performances even better without making a sound. One floor.

Soon, the last continuous reading began. No one should stop in the middle, but should follow the entire script from beginning to end to find out their own emotional baseline and the weaknesses of each other's cooperation.

Ronald couldn't help but worry about the old actor Fedor Chaliapin. His deafness was so severe that he often missed his opponents' lines. What should Chaliapin do with such continuous reading?

Sean Connery also said that when filming his last movie, he was upstaged by Chaliapin. Ronald was a little doubtful whether it was Sean Connery's poor acting or that he misheard his thick Scottish accent.

When it came to Chaliapin's scenes, Ronald braced himself to observe his performance.

To Ronald's surprise, Chaliapin picked up the lines perfectly. When Ronald looked over, Chaliapin hadn't noticed yet, and smiled at Ronald, as if to say, look, dad can still act.

Ronald was very surprised and said to Qing Qing, "Very good."

But maybe he was too light this time, as Chaliapin didn't seem to hear him at all.

"The old man has something. If you change what you hear, you will hear it. If you don't change it, you won't hear it at all."

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