Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Oh, I'm home, I'm home..."

Sigourney Weaver rejoined the filming, wearing a cashmere coat, a cashmere turtleneck sweater, cashmere gloves, and a white fluffy headband on her head.

The plot in which she said this line was that Katherine, played by her, returned home. After opening the door, Weaver used a very exaggerated action, using a cane with a white leather support under her armpit, tiptoed on one foot, and jumped forward quickly.

"Oh, God..." Katherine rushed into the bedroom to change clothes.

The camera lens was still facing the door, and Melanie Griffith followed in. She was the one who was going to call God.

She was holding a Louis Vuitton suitcase in each hand, a small lady's bag on her body, a briefcase under her armpit, and the gorilla plush toy selected by Ronald himself was lying on her back.

"Huh..." Melanie Griffiths walked in with great effort, put down the two big bags, and then unloaded the gorilla on her back on the chair, and then she took a breath of exhaustion and sat on the chair.

This was the moment when Tess changed from a princess back to Cinderella. After a while, the beautiful decorations and clothes turned into pumpkins, revealing the original form. Tess changed back to the black and white vertical striped wool coat, and the cheap black suit and white shirt were still matched inside.

Only her blonde hair was cut short by her friend Xin, and she still kept the look when she pretended to be a manager.

Tess's boss Catherine was a person who was very good at controlling others with words. When she was in the car, she called her boyfriend Jack Traynor to ask him to come home, and said half-coquettishly that she would not accept him and he said no.

She used the same method to treat Tess. She immediately turned Tess, who was still immature as a working woman, into her personal maid. She used the excuse that her broken leg had not healed yet to use her as a coolie and asked Tess to do this and that.

"Crackle", the first thing Catherine did when she got home was to turn on the computer. She remembered that she had written down her plan to embezzle Tess on the memo software on her computer, and then wrote down the words that Tess must not know.

"Did you happen to see these when you came here before?" Catherine was very skilled in manipulating people's hearts. When she waited for Tess to sit down and catch her breath, she immediately asked her if she had looked at her computer to test her. At this time, most people were not prepared.

"What is that?" Tess certainly knew what she was talking about, and decisively played dumb.

"You know? I was writing down your ideas, checking them out, and preparing to send them to Jack Traynor. But now it seems that the words I wrote down at the time read as if they were my ideas.

The problem is that Jack had a problem once. He was accused of stealing the company's ideas, so he was very cautious about the source of ideas afterwards. If I told him that the idea was thought up by a colleague, he would not consider cooperation at all... let alone a secretary."

Sigourney Weaver naturally checked the letters while making up lies. She played a bitch to the core.

Catherine judged others by herself. Tess must have read the memo. What she had to do now was to use the art of words to deceive this ignorant secretary and not ruin her own business.

"What am I talking about? If you saw it, you would definitely ask me what happened... Trust!"

She used a clumsy lie to make things round, and then hit Tess. This is how a workplace animal like Catherine could excuse herself.

Sigourney Weaver's line skills are the best among the three leading actors. She finished this long line in one go. At the end of each sentence, she did not give the opponent a chance to answer, and immediately continued with the next sentence. If ordinary people were not wary of her, they would easily be led to her train of thought.

Then Sigourney Weaver turned around and walked into the bathroom with a cane, "Oh, I need help when I change clothes and take a shower."

In the next shot, the camera was facing Melanie Griffith, capturing her reaction to this sentence.

Melanie was still breathing hard. She couldn't stand the shameless behavior of her boss, so she had to roll her eyes and sneer.

"Cut!"

Seeing the director indicate that this scene was over, the two beautiful actresses breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't want to do more scenes like this. Melanie had to move so many boxes, and Sigourney had to pretend to be a cripple and jump and walk fast. These were very physically demanding scenes.

The two looked at each other, "Puchi...", and hugged each other and laughed.

Acting in a movie is either talking or listening to the opponent actor talking. Acting is the reaction after seeing the opponent's lines and movements and expressions. If the acting level of two people is too different, there will be a situation where one actor sends a signal that cannot be picked up by the other actor.

Only two opponents who are evenly matched can act enjoyably. One person's performance can inspire the other, and the other's reaction can in turn inspire the first actor.

The rivalry between Melanie and Sigourney made the actors very enjoyable to act. One is a bitch boss, and the other is a scheming subordinate. The two women are fighting with each other, which makes the two very happy.

"Next is Sigourney's bed scene, you guys get ready. We'll wait for Harrison to come and start." Ronald directed the lighting team to start lighting for the next scene.

"What happened to Ronald later...you didn't have any problems with him, right?" Sigourney Weaver was whispering to Melanie. She knew that Melanie was almost fired.

"Ronald is a good director, the past is the past..." Griffiths didn't want to say too much.

"It's really good, he is an actor's director. Many times he lets us understand it ourselves, and he won't rigidly stipulate how we should act... For example, the gorilla, I saw your scene, and then I figured out Ronald's idea."

Sigourney Weaver felt that she understood it completely. The gorilla is a symbol, a symbol of the intimidation and encroachment of subordinates brought by power in the office.

There is a metaphor in English, with a monkey on the back. This is a metaphor for a problem a person encounters, and this problem is like a monkey that can't be shaken off.

The monkey on Tess's back is Catherine's abuse of her time. Everything is done by an office assistant, and even the part that does not belong to her is coerced by the art of words.

Gorillas are also a kind of monkey, a very powerful one.

...

While discussing Ronald's "superb guiding skills", Sigourney Weaver changed her clothes. She wore high-end underwear and a low-cut silk pajamas outside. After getting ready, she heard Harrison Ford's voice, so she walked out.

"You look so beautiful today, Sigourney."

"You look so handsome, Harrison."

The two stars greeted each other and prepared to shoot the next scene, a traditional Hollywood farce.

Katherine lay on the bed, applying powder to her chest to cover the freckles that white women often have.

She ordered Tess to get concealer and perfume constantly while dressing herself up beautifully. She also told Tess in a boastful way that the partner Jack Traynor was coming soon.

Tess didn't want to meet Jack under such circumstances and left on the pretext of having a doctor's appointment.

Katherine also ordered her to go to the pharmacy to buy birth control pills. Today she was going to continue a long-awaited reunion and point out Jack's proposal. The art of words was what she was best at. She directly said that she could go to the doctor's office later and handed over five dollars and a prescription.

This is always self-righteous and does not take other people's time seriously. This is Katherine's usual style.

Melanie Griffith left the stage, and Jack, played by Harrison Ford, entered the room.

Sigourney Weaver used various methods to create romance, such as letting Jack smell her perfume, asking him to get champagne from the refrigerator, etc.

Jack Traynor, who was about to break up with Catherine, still had a natural fear of this woman. Catherine said that she was going to propose to her, which made Jack completely explode. How could there be such a self-righteous person?

"Catherine, now is not the time to chat." Harrison Ford used an exaggerated smile to try to get out.

At this time, Tess bought the pills back and peeked through the crack of the door outside the room. She wanted to know if Jack was also playing her like Catherine, playing her for a fool?

Sigourney Weaver completely misunderstood when she heard it. She approached Harrison Ford and put her hand under him, "You are right, now is not a good time to talk. Can big Jack come out for some fresh air? Katie is lonely..."

Harrison Ford's face changed. Such a direct acting method? "No, no..."

"Jack, what's wrong with you?" Catherine's face changed. She always has this way of making others feel guilty.

Harrison Ford's Jack also has an expression that seems to be wrong. He finally made up his mind and said that sentence, "I have another person..."

"Another person?" Sigourney Weaver repeated it, as if a middle school teacher was scolding her students.

"I mean, there is another important person, a client... I have an appointment, I can't delay, I will talk to you later, bye..." Jack kissed Catherine, and then took advantage of her inconvenience and ran away like a fly.

Originally, this was the time for Jack, Tess, Mr. Teske, and Metro Broadcasting to meet to discuss the merger plan, and Jack left in a hurry.

"Huh..." Tess, who was eavesdropping behind the door, smiled... She saw Jack go out, waited for a while, and pretended to have just bought medicine... "Here it comes..."

"Cut!"

Ronald was quite satisfied with the result of the dispatch. This kind of plot is often seen in classic comedy farces in Hollywood. The two heroines, one in the light and the other in the dark, create all kinds of misunderstandings and coincidences through the setting of scenes such as the door to push the plot closer.

However, the "working girl" in modern dramas cannot use this old plot too much. Ronald only used it here, and the audience didn't even think of the complaint of "another old plot" before it ended.

"Here, this is your medicine..." Melanie Griffith took out her notebook from her cheap leather bag, reached in and rummaged around, took out a handful of change, and put it on the table.

"I have to go, I'm going to be late for the doctor's office", and then Tess turned around and ran away like Jack without waiting for Catherine to react.

Tess also hurried to the meeting.

Catherine supported her chin with her hand and thought, today's things were so strange, everyone was rushing away. She felt something was wrong in her heart, but she couldn't tell what was wrong.

"Tess, did you forget your notebook?" Catherine found that Tess was in a hurry to leave and forgot her notebook. At this time, the sound of Tess going downstairs and closing the door came, but it was too late.

Sigourney Weaver had a confused look on her face and she picked up Tess's notebook...

People are curious, just like Tess was curious and peeked at Catherine's computer memo. Now it was Catherine's turn to peek at Tess's notes.

Tess wrote down the schedule of working with Jack Traynor to meet Mr. Teske, and the plan to meet the media assistant to make a proposal next Monday in her notebook.

Catherine flipped through the pages one by one, and her face suddenly changed. "This slut, this hateful little secretary!" She jumped out of bed and rushed into the bathroom.

"Cut!"

These scenes were shot very well. It can be seen with the naked eye that the rivalry between the two female protagonists is much more exciting than Harrison Ford's performance.

However, Ronald did not mention this matter. He invited the two female protagonists and Ford to taste a high-end Japanese sushi restaurant. The ingredients and chefs were all airlifted from Japan.

…

“Last night’s dinner was really wonderful…”

The next day, we filmed the scene where Tess’s identity was revealed. The filming location was very classical, with an old-fashioned round table, so that the two M\u0026A teams, the buyer Teske Enterprises, and the seller Metro Broadcasting, could sit down equally.

Tess and Jack’s costumes were inherited from yesterday’s filming. They met in the lobby and started talking.

“Will I sing solo today?” Tess was becoming more and more confident in herself.

“Of course, no problem,” Jack was very satisfied with his partner’s progress. “Teske and Armstrong are over there. Let’s wait and see what color smoke comes out of their chimneys?”

This sentence is an allusion to the Vatican. Every time the Pope changes, a meeting is held in the Vatican to decide the candidate. The ballots are burned every day, and the public can see the smoke in the chimney.

If no candidate is elected, straw will be burned together, which is black smoke. If the next candidate is elected, only the ballots will be burned, which is white smoke. The most recent person who used this method of burning smoke to succeed the Pope was Paul II, who was born in Poland.

Jack used this to illustrate the result of the conversation between the buyer and the seller.

"My colleague has a new M\u0026A idea, would you like to take a look?" Melanie Griffith asked Harrison Ford while waiting for the M\u0026A meeting to start. She also wanted to confirm whether what Catherine said was true.

"Of course, if you ask me for help, I will." Jack said of course no problem.

"Are there no moral concerns? For example, for example, others plagiarize..."

"Of course not, I have always been very careful, and this has never happened."

"What's wrong with you, why do you ask?"

"I'm just a little nervous."

"You'll be fine..."

While the two were talking, the two heavyweights over there had already come to a conclusion.

Everyone sat down for a meeting, and Armstrong announced that Newtown Broadcasting would be sold to Tesco Enterprises for $68.5 million.

"Bang..."

With a loud bang, Catherine jumped in on crutches, "Thank God I'm here, this woman is a liar, she plagiarized my idea." Then she raised her crutches and pointed at Tess and said:

"This woman is my secretary, she is not a manager at all, Jack, you've been deceived."

"What are you talking about? Tess can't be your secretary." Jack Traynor saw that Tess's wit and tenacity contributed to Teske's interest in the deal, how could she be a secretary.

】

"Then ask her? Is she my secretary? Tess?"

"I can explain... This is my idea." After Tess's identity was exposed, she was very embarrassed and had to speak in a low voice.

"Oh my God, you are really her secretary", Jack Traynor also found something wrong.

"This woman, while I was broken, plagiarized my idea and pretended to be my colleague. This is my idea, my project!" Catherine was confident of victory and sat down carefree.

"This is my idea!" Tess shouted, "I can explain, Jack, she is the one who lied." Melanie's voice became smaller and smaller. She knew it would be difficult to explain it in a short time. Embarrassment and shame filled her heart. Tess, who didn't know what to do, stood up and walked out.

"Okay, the name of this game is that we finalize the details of the merger." Harrison Ford's face was full of puzzled expressions. He opened the thick merger contract and continued to work.

"Cut!"

Ronald stopped the filming and led everyone to applaud.

After the filming of this scene, only the final ending was left, and some outdoor scenes that had nothing to do with the main line were handed over to the second group for reshooting.

"Very good, we are going to have a Chinese dinner today..."

...

After dinner, several stars went to enjoy the weekend.

Ronald had to continue working, watching yesterday's sample film, and preparing for the finale filming starting next Monday.

He picked up the phone and talked to Cameron Crowe, "I think the ending is not strong enough, do you have any good ideas?"

"Do you want a stronger ending?" Crowe communicated and revised with Ronald every evening in the apartment.

"The previous scenes were so exciting, and the rivalry between the actresses would whet the audience's appetite. I was worried that the original ending would not be able to hold it back."

"This is a classic Hollywood reversal. Why are you still not satisfied? Tess proved that she was the original creator of the plan to acquire the radio station, Teske believed her, Catherine was fired, and in the end Tess and Jack kissed each other. It was a classic Hollywood ending."

"I always feel that it won't work. We have revealed enough information before. The audience will more or less guess the ending. We have to give them something unexpected..."

Ronald deeply felt that if the previous filming was too exciting, it would cause the structure of the script to be unbalanced. The later part had to be suppressed so that the audience would still recall the plot when they walked out of the cinema and recommend it to their friends.

"Okay, I'll think of a way. At this time, you need a Billy Wilder-style reversal ending..." Cameron Crowe scratched his head. If he had to say who was best at this kind of powerful ending, it would have to be his idol, Billy Wilder, a famous director and screenwriter in the 1950s.

"Well, do you have any inspiration? Let's talk about this... The crew is resting tomorrow, so let's have a face-to-face meeting. No, those supervisors from the Writers Guild are still supervising me. I have to think of a good place to get rid of them. So, I'll call you when I've arranged it."