From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

The conversation was underway, but neither Brad nor Anson moved an inch, relying solely on their mouths, their bodies completely still.

Then, they both looked up and exchanged a glance, noticing each other's immobility, and chuckled, "Looks like we still need Chris."

Last night, Hayden Christensen and Chris Evans, the two roommates, were absent, not because they didn't want to attend, but because they both had work commitments—

Hayden was still filming "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones."

Compared to "Star Wars: Episode II," the production cycle of "Spider-Man" was relatively short.

Hayden joined the cast last November, working at 20th Century Fox's studios in Sydney. After three months of filming, Hayden took a brief three-week break.

Subsequently, he entered the cast for the second time this March, traveling around the world to film in Serbia, San Diego, London, Vancouver, and even some filming in Italy and China, although the locations were kept secret. He finally finished all his work in July.

Originally, they all thought filming was completely over, but to their surprise, director George Lucas felt that the timeline of the plot was incomplete, and the crew needed to return to the studio for reshoots. So, before July ended, all the actors returned to the Sydney studio.

Moreover, no one knew when this return to the studio for filming would end.

Of course, with such a long production cycle, post-production had already begun simultaneously. For projects like "Star Wars: Episode II," release dates were arranged long in advance, and publicity campaigns were coordinated with the filming schedule. Every step was planned, so it was impossible to easily change the plan.

At the same time, Chris finally ushered in a significant turning point in his career—

His first leading role in a movie.

After experiencing setbacks, being ignored, and forgotten, Chris finally tasted the sweetness of success, landing his first important role in his career, playing the male lead in "Not Another Teen Movie."

Under this roof, Chris's career had been the most difficult. It wasn't until all his other roommates had already gotten opportunities that it was finally his turn.

However, despite arriving late, it didn't mean Chris was lagging behind. In fact, in "Not Another Teen Movie," Chris played the absolute lead.

"Not Another Teen Movie," like "The Princess Diaries," was a teen romance, coming-of-age movie, but the difference was that the film was from a male perspective, and Chris would take on this role, equivalent to Anne Hathaway's role in "The Princess Diaries," becoming the lead in one step.

Earlier than Brad and James, he won the opportunity to be the absolute lead.

The filming crew started in early July, and Chris was wholeheartedly committed to filming. In fact, Chris very much wanted to attend the premiere of "The Princess Diaries" to cheer for Anson, but unfortunately, filming kept him tied up.

Chris was especially regretful.

This was indeed inconvenient, but at the same time, it also had a positive side.

For the general public, they often wouldn't buy so many newspapers, maybe just one or two. If this one newspaper said that the movie was worth anticipating, even if all the other authoritative media were complaining, they would still be willing to buy a ticket and go to the cinema to support it.

Of course, there were exceptions.

"The Hollywood Reporter" and "Variety," these two professional and authoritative industry magazines, would compile reviews from all media outlets and give the movie a comprehensive score. If you were willing to wait patiently and not rush to the cinema on the opening weekend, you could wait for this guide before choosing a movie to watch.

It had always been like this, so you could often see some movies with completely collapsed reviews still achieving excellent box office results. The lag in information allowed audiences to go to the cinema for the director or actors; later, with the full popularization of the internet, the speed of information disclosure became faster and faster, and the impact of initial reviews on box office results became more and more obvious.

This turning point appeared in 2001.

At the beginning of this year, the Metacritic website officially went online. This was a review aggregation website. They would collect movie reviews from major mainstream, professional, and authoritative media outlets, convert them into a unified score, and finally give the movie a rating to determine the work's reception.

The purpose of establishing the website was very simple, which was to try to share information using the convenience of the internet. Moreover, the creators' screening mechanism was very strict, selecting reviews from traditional professional authoritative film critics to ensure the professionalism and objectivity of the score, which also enabled the website to quickly stand out.

Everything was like the French "Cahiers du Cinéma."

In just half a year, Metacritic had already made a name for itself in Hollywood because they themselves were not responsible for scoring, but only collected objective reviews, equivalent to a database. Not only the latest movies, but also the professional reviews of old movies were being gradually compiled. Major film companies, agents, and publicists used it without any burden, and it quickly spread.

Especially at a time when Rotten Tomatoes had not yet appeared, the reference value of Metacritic was even more prominent.

However, for actors, it was still unfamiliar.

The reason Anson knew about it was because Metacritic became the most authoritative reference data for major film companies and countless movie enthusiasts twenty years later, especially when other scoring websites fell into suspicion of taking bribes, manipulating, and trading, Metacritic, with its professional and authoritative media sources, always maintained its image like a clear stream.

In 2001, it was even more so.

Snap.

Anson placed the laptop on his lap, turned on the screen, and entered the website address, feeling a strange sense of driving a tractor for a joyride while looking at the router that was still using dial-up internet.

"...Are you sure? Is this reliable?" Brad was full of doubts about the internet.

Anson couldn't help but reveal a smile, "It's just a reference anyway."

While saying this, he entered "Ghost World"—

This independent film could be described as receiving rave reviews. When it was released for limited screenings three weeks ago, it won applause, and now Metacritic had also finished compiling its reviews.

Ninety points.

In a scoring system with a full score of one hundred points, "Ghost World" achieved a high score.

Anson showed the computer screen to Brad.

Brad, "O," his expression was directly stunned, not daring to believe his eyes.

Then Anson re-entered "The Princess Diaries" and pressed the enter key to wait for it to refresh.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

The network speed of dial-up internet felt more torturous than ever before, and it wasn't until the end of the world that the page finally appeared.

"Ah!" Brad exclaimed.