From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Training gradually became a daily routine.

Matt officially joined the "Ye's Martial Arts Gym" and began training with Anson. With fixed times and fixed training, day after day of repetition, time flew by. It seemed like there wasn't even time to count the days before Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then, the New Year arrived.

Unfortunately, the days of Anson and Matt going in and out together and training side-by-side soon came to an end, because they each had other things they needed to learn. Although they still insisted on reporting to the martial arts gym, the time allocated to training at the gym gradually shifted.

— Yoga, rock climbing, strength training.

Anson's schedule was already full.

Moreover, Anson arranged extra tasks for himself.

He went to the library to borrow books related to nature, biology, and astronomy — including spiders. He truly put the tasks he prepared for the audition into action, using this method to make the character of Peter Parker full and vivid, filling it with Anson's understanding of the character.

It could be 100% certain that these contents would not appear in the movie, but they could help Anson understand the character, understand the story, and understand the state, filling the character's soul with these invisible and intangible details.

Although Anson couldn't be sure of the effect, there was a first time for everything.

He sincerely believed that acting could become an interesting thing.

Therefore, he couldn't continue daily training with Matt at the martial arts gym, which was a bit of a pity; but Anson found equally interesting things to start an adventure.

Focus, dedication, wholeheartedness, and not paying attention to the passage of time.

At the same time, the pre-production of the "Spider-Man" crew was also in full swing.

One thing was the battle suit.

For superheroes, the battle suit is an important part of their image. An excellent battle suit can add a lot to the character and the movie.

The crew had a team of thirty people dedicated to designing the battle suit, which not only needed to look good, but also couldn't affect the actor's performance.

Anson was temporarily living in New York, which saved the crew a lot of trouble, not only because Anson could go to the studio to test the battle suit at any time, but also because Anson could participate in the design of the battle suit, give feedback based on his own tests, and have discussions with the styling team—

Brainstorming.

In fact, Anson's hands-on approach and active participation helped a lot, laying the foundation for the final design version and winning praise from the styling team.

Filming hadn't even started yet, and Anson's cooperation with the crew had already set sail smoothly, conquering some of the staff and reaping a wave of positive reviews.

Here, there was also a small interlude.

After the Christmas and New Year holidays, the styling team returned to the studio to prepare to continue work, but unexpectedly discovered that the studio had been broken into and robbed —

Four costumes were lost.

Although Sony Columbia had enough supplies and wouldn't delay the start of the crew's filming; and, the stolen four costumes were not the final version, even if they were leaked in advance, it wouldn't affect the confidentiality of Spider-Man's shape.

However, Sony Columbia still issued a high reward of $25,000, guaranteeing that it wouldn't pursue legal responsibility, but only hoped to redeem the four costumes, and specially set up a telephone hotline for reporting.

This matter became the headline news on the entertainment pages of major newspapers and magazines, becoming the hottest and most widely discussed focus since the New Year of 2001, and the low-key "Spider-Man" crew made its debut on the headlines.

In fact, Sony Columbia had been strictly guarding against leaks, maintaining a sense of mystery. Not to mention the costumes, even the news of Anson and James' successful casting was completely blocked, and not a word was leaked from beginning to end.

This was also the reason why Sony Columbia hoped to redeem the costumes —

Sincerely, they didn't want Spider-Man's battle suit to be leaked in any form before the movie was released, even if the stolen battle suit wasn't the final version.

But no matter what, the stolen costumes were never found, and the hotline didn't provide any clues, to the point that some people began to suspect that this was a stunt directed and acted by Sony Columbia itself. There were no thieves at all, it was purely a means for them to promote "Spider-Man".

Sony Columbia declined to comment on this.

As for the others?

Still confidential.

This action, on the contrary, stimulated the curiosity of the paparazzi. Even if there was a suspicion of fishing, the paparazzi still couldn't control their curiosity and jumped into the pit, trying to dig out the truth.

Before officially joining the crew, "Spider-Man" had already started creating topics.

Another thing was casting.

Not only the media was curious about the news of the stolen costumes, but Anson and James were also curious about what Sony Columbia was secretly covering up and what it was doing, and what stage the casting had reached.

As a result, it was still unsatisfactory.

In Sam Raimi's view, Anson was very handsome, and it was already not easy to choose a beautiful actress to partner with Anson; but their expectations were more than that, because Anson's temperament could bring more, so naturally they also expected the actress for the female lead to be able to spark a spark with Anson.

After going around in circles, until a month before the crew was ready to start filming, all the other roles had been finalized, but the female lead's position was still vacant.

Then, things finally took a turn —

After Kirsten Dunst learned that Anson was about to play the role of Peter Parker, she was deeply impressed by this unexpected choice, so she nodded and agreed to audition. After passing the first round of auditions, she personally flew to Berlin, where she met Sam, who was inspecting filming locations, and started the second audition.

This move showed Kirsten's sincerity.

Kirsten and Anson were the same age, eighteen this year. This actress who started as a child star, gained a firm foothold with her stunning performance in "Interview with the Vampire" in 1994. Kirsten, who was only eleven years old that year, was not stage-frightened even when performing on the same stage with two major stars, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

To be precise, it wasn't just that she wasn't stage-frightened, her lively and vivid performance became the highlight of the entire movie.

In the past few years, Kirsten's career has been smoother than her peers. "Little Women", "Jumanji", "Get Over It", "Bring It On", although she hasn't become a big hit, she has gradually shown her acting talent, and has undoubtedly become an important actor of the new generation.

Of course, like all child stars, Kirsten also faced the pain of transformation.

It was because of this that Kirsten was slightly hesitant when facing the "Spider-Man" audition opportunity, not wanting to define herself as a vase in superhero movies.

No matter what, Kirsten took this step and showed her sincerity, and finally moved Sam with her audition, while persuading other producers.

Mary Jane finally found her actress, which also marked that the "Spider-Man" crew was ready for everything.