Exploiting Hollywood 1980 Chapter 66

   Chapter 66 Into the enemy

   "Aren't you going to drive Director Parker?" Meg put one arm around her boyfriend's shoulders behind Ronald and fed Ronald a Coke with the other.

   "No, I'm not open. The director is preparing for the audition, and I've already checked into the Ambassador Hotel. I also have my own work to do, and I'm writing the script."

  Ronald was chapping on the typewriter as he dealt with Meg.

   "Which character are you writing now?"

   "I'm writing the play of the rich girl in the dance department, Hillary, and her classmate, Lisa Monroe." Ronald stopped, tore the letter from the typewriter, and handed it to Meg.

  After the black character Lydia was excluded from the lead role, the director added a role to the white character Lisa in the dance department and became the lead role.

   "Which role are you going to audition for, Meg? Hillary or Lisa?"

   Meg has always wanted to go further, and she also has ambitions to be the protagonist. And Hillary and Lisa, the two white dance characters, were the perfect fit for Meg. Ronald's thoughts these days are spent on their play.

"I mainly prepare Lisa, Hillary and my family background are too different, I was in Stella acting school, I performed for Erin several times, and it was not ideal. But she thinks I should challenge myself and find a way to find out Hillary's motives."

   "I asked my sister Jennifer, she thinks Lisa's middle-class background is more in line with ours, and she has a lot of roles. It is a good choice to choose a character with a similar background to her in the first movie."

   Ronald frowned, he and Meg had quarreled twice already because of Jennifer's various suggestions. Maybe it was because of the deep feelings of the hour, Meg believed in Jennifer more, even if Irene was a professional acting teacher, her advice was more appropriate.

"But Lisa Monroe is a lazy girl, and was finally dismissed from the dance department by her teacher because she couldn't dance well. You dance so well in ballet, can you play her well?" Ronald echoed from another point of view Acting teacher Erin.

   "Well, you're right, maybe I can try both." Meg continued to look down at Ronald's play.

   "Hey, why did you copy what I said into the script?" Meg read halfway through the script, raised her hand and twisted it hard around Ronnie's waist.

   Ronald smiled. This was her dream when she went to the Statue of Liberty with Meg. Ronald thought it was a good fit for the scene in which Hillary went for an abortion, so he added some changes.

   This is Hillary's monologue as she waits at the door of the clinic.

  " (Holding the abdomen with both hands crossed, monologue to the little baby in the stomach)

  Look, I got an offer from San Francisco Ballet, and I decided to accept it.

  Look, I'm a good dancer, better than average, and the best in school. If I go to the dancers of the NYC Dance Company, everyone will think I bought it with money.

  Look, my dream is to dance all the classical ballet characters, Giselle, Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty, and Black Swan before I turn 21…

  I wish I could hear the audience yelling Bravo at me on stage in New York, Leningrad, London, and Paris! There was even a ballet written just for me.

  Look, there is no room for a baby in my dream. (sobbing softly)

   The clinic nurse asks) Are you paying with Mastercard or American Express, Honey?"

   Meg hit Ronald again:

   "Ronnie, you are cruel to Hillary by writing this. I forbid you to write that."

   "Why? This scene happens to be the ending of Hillary's story. I think it's a good way to handle it? For the sake of career, it is Hillary's character to give up the little baby."

"Besides, you can familiarize yourself with this scene. I think the director Parker will like it, maybe he will use it in the final script, and he is used to auditioning actors in strong emotional scenes." Ronald hopes Meg will win Sheila role in.

   "No, I don't want everyone to know about my dream." Meg shook her head.

   Ronald remembered the truth he heard when interviewing painters in the same apartment before. Don't tell others about unfulfilled dreams. Nodding, crumpling the letter paper and throwing it in the trash.

   "Oops, I'm going to be late for class at the Academy of Performing Arts," Meg exclaimed and hurriedly packed her bag and left.

   "Go in my car." Ronald handed the keys.

   "Thank you, Darling." Meg kissed Ronald and went out.

   Ronald looked at the wads of waste paper in the trash can. He took him out again and spread it out on the table, carefully smoothing out the folds.

   I read it twice, it's really well written. This is the best scene I've ever written. Dialogue from real life is very powerful.

  Ronald carefully folded it and stuffed it into the plastic cover of the notebook as a souvenir.

   "Ronnie, how many auditions do we have now?" Margery asked.

   "There are more than 620 applications in total."

   "In that case, maybe 500 people will showUp (appear on the scene), which is still not enough."

   "Where else can we do some commercials?" asked director Parker.

   "No, we will deliver it wherever we can. Except for the Performing Arts High School in New York, we have posted advertisements for the audition in other arts high schools." Margery shook her head in distress.

   "Would you like to try newspapers again? In addition to casting casting ads in professional newspapers and magazines such as Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, Backstage, and Performing Arts, we can also try mass media.

   A lot of students read The New Yorker, Harper Fashion, and the New York Post, and the entertainment section of that paper works too. "Ronald had an idea, remembering his ad in Los Angeles.

   "It's too late for magazines. Let's get into newspapers. Since the Post was acquired by Australian tycoons, gossip news can appear on the front page." Producer Da Silva decided.

"We will be selected next Saturday. We will be divided into two interview groups and will be held in the two business rooms of the Ambassador Hotel. They will be held by the casting directors of Margaery Simkin and Howard Fair respectively. .

  Each group has 4 casting directors for the first test, mainly to see their talents: musical instruments, singing, dancing, acting, etc. "

   Producer Da Silva begins assignments

   "The candidates who pass the first test will go to the room on the second floor, and the director, Margery, Phil, and I will check together. For the candidates who pass, we will re-test at another time."

"We were aiming for eight leads, now seven. 16 secondary characters, and 24 resident actors. 48, 47, no, minus Meg Tilly, and that's 46. "

   "According to the ratio of 20:1, we have to accumulate about 1,000 audition candidates, and we are still about 400 short."

   "Think about it, think about it, where to find these people."

  The producer started several people present to do a brainstorm.

   "Would you like to contact the art schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts to arrange auditions?" Casting director Howard Fair had an idea.

"It's very troublesome to move across states, and they are minors. Different states have different regulations and may need to be accompanied by their parents. It's best to solve it in New York." Margery expressed a different opinion, "Of course if you have a good candidate, That's another story."

   "So? What's going on in Hollywood?" Da Silva asked the director again.

  The director has been back and forth between Los Angeles and New York twice, and no one has been finalized.

"It's not optimistic, we can also organize an audition there, but now the whole of America, there is a shortage of young actors who can act, and when using adult actors, we have to consider that the close-up of the face is not good enough, so we can only find those with tender faces. "

   "Who else has a good idea? Ronald, how about you?" The producer called Ronald's name.

   "I don't have any ideas. We can't get in in New York except for the Performing Arts High School. We have traveled to other places."

   In fact, the solution is very simple, everyone knows it, but no one says it.

  The biggest selection base is the New York Performing Arts High School, which fell out with the crew after hearing the script content leaked by the director. There are thousands of students in the graduating class + senior year, and all problems have been solved.

   But after the last lesson, Ronald does not speak lightly now, and is cautious in his words and deeds.

   "Ronald, try to sneak in and find a way to spread the news of the audition." The producer directly assigned the task.

"Okay, I will. You have to give me some money. I may have to bribe the security guard, buy off the teacher or something." Ronald said angrily, the producer Da Silva was still dissatisfied with him, and put the This task was entrusted to him.

   If you do it well, you may not be successful, and if you don't do it well, it's a matter of his ability.

   But Ronald also has his own way to deal with it.

   "I'll give you a $100 credit, you can bring a few bottles of wine, the janitor likes this, you can get in," Da Silva said, "Remember to buy me a receipt for reimbursement."

   "Drinking wine for the janitor and sneaking into the middle school dormitory? Could it be the producer's own experience? Do you really think that you will go to the acting high school by yourself and fool people?" Ronald thought to himself.

After the meeting, only Margery comforted Ronald, "Remember the last time Julia Taylor invited you to join us? You should think about it, you will be in charge of auditioning some actors this time, and you can come to the studio after school starts. practice."

   "Thanks, Margaery, I will," Ronald replied.

   The next morning, Ronald drove to a parking lot opposite the Academy of Performing Arts, then turned off the engine and waited.

   After a while, Gene came over with the two boys, "Hi, Ronnie, this is John, and Morgan, my good friends from acting high school."

After saying hello, Ronald got out of the car and opened the trunk. It was full of advertisements for the "Hot Lunch" audition. This was copied by Ronald at the Xerox copy shop after typing it out on a typewriter yesterday, a total of 2,000 copies. .

   "Help me move in together." Several people moved the audition advertisements into the campus near the cafeteria. Two of Jean's friends were senior dance students, and they knew the heads of almost every department. Each leader will send one or two hundred copies, which will soon cover all the graduating and senior classes.

   In fact, it was the school board of directors who prevented the students from performing arts majors from auditioning. As for students and even teachers, who doesn't want to be selected by the crew and become famous overnight?

  The producer doesn't understand the hierarchal complexities of public schools, which are not as tightly governed as the private schools of his generation were. It will take at least a few days for the high-ranking school directors to get the news, but as soon as the news spreads, who can stop them from auditioning?

   "Here", Ronald handed Gene five pieces of $20 cash to hand out to his buddies.

  What Ronald did not expect was that the news was not only circulated in the high school of performing arts, but through the network of classmates between schools, it had spread to art schools and performing arts venues throughout New York within a few days.

   (end of this chapter)

Chapter end