Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 134 Insiders and Outsiders

   The news that "Endless Love" began to fully select male and female protagonists was released through the media. Ronald was suddenly busy.

   Countless boys and girls, with the dream of becoming famous overnight, all want to try it.

This audition is different from the slaughterhouse-style audition of thousands of people in the cast of "Famous Around the World". "Endless Love" does not have so many group performances and ordinary actors to recruit. There is only one male lead and one female lead. The main selection object.

   Therefore, the audition is released through various performing arts groups, performing arts schools, theater troupes, and brokerage companies. After preliminary screening by various organizations, it will be sent to the casting studio for selection by directors and producers.

   But Rao is so, he has accumulated a lot of photos of actors. Over the course of a few weeks, director Franco Zeffirelli and supporting actress Shirley Knight would come over, and Julia Taylor would recommend them.

The habit formed by    is like this, Julia and the director are a group, mainly watching the male lead. A group of Ronald and Shirley Knight, mainly to see the heroine.

The reason why    formed such a cooperation is that Ronald is a 20-year-old young man, and he has a natural intuitive view of the heroine, whether it is sexy, whether it is attractive, and whether it is the kind that makes people criminal.

In this movie, the hero David, in order to get close to the heroine Jed, does not hesitate to pretend to set fire to the heroine's house. If Ronald can't feel that the heroine wants to make people commit crimes, the main plot will be Not quite established.

   And the male protagonist David is also like a walking male hormone in the script. Not only does the heroine Jade disregard the opposition of her father and brother, she must be close to him, but after her father died in an accident, Jade's mother Ann wanted to seduce him.

   What does such a male protagonist look like? Or middle-aged woman Julia Taylor's intuition is the most accurate.

   As for the real reason...

   Ronald didn't want to be with the old glass of director Franco Zeffirelli, and Shirley Knight wanted to get rid of the director's interference and prevent Brooke Shields from being shortlisted.

  This 15-year-old girl is so beautiful that any middle-aged woman who appears around her will be ignored by all audiences like candlelight in the sun.

  Director Franco Zeffirelli was very happy. Anyway, with a lot of money, he could go back to Italy after filming, direct his favorite opera, and get in close contact with all the young and beautiful male lead candidates.

No matter what the two of them said in the first issue of "Variety" magazine in 1980, "Endless Love" is a masterpiece comparable to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, how hard they try to make it a classic, everyone has it in private own abacus.

After two months of long casting process, Ronald became clearer in his heart that the so-called casting of this film, especially the protagonist, determines the final selection not only from the fit of the characters and the characters, but also from a commercial point of view. What's more important is actually the selfishness of the insiders.

   To enter the final audition list, in addition to the need to stay out of the way of others, it also depends on the background and relationship of the actors.

   For example, the "Endless Love" crew, basically the director and Shirley Knight divided their spheres of influence. Director Franco Zeffirelli can decide the final shortlist for the male lead, and Shirley Knight, through her relationship with Guber, can also exert a lot of influence on the shortlist for the female lead.

  Because of this division of power, the heroine casting on Ronald's side has basically become two parts: insiders and outsiders.

  The so-called insiders mean that their parents are well-known figures in the entertainment industry. For example, Jennifer Jason Leigh, the daughter of the famous actor Vic Morrow, is Jewish.

   Ronald felt that she should not have been selected. Although she looks beautiful, she doesn't have the temptation to provoking crimes at all, she is more like a girl next door. Can such a girl let her boyfriend set fire to her? No audience will believe it.

   But a call from Vic Morrow, directly to Guber, Jennifer Jason Lee would have to be on the shortlist and go straight to the final audition.

Ronald didn't have any opinion on this girl or her father, but it was obviously not in line with the role. If he insisted on it, it would be a disaster for the movie and the actors. In the casting industry, this is called miscasting. ), a box-office tragic guarantee.

   Another candidate was even more outrageous, Melanie Griffiths.

   She is the daughter of Hitchcock girl Tippy Hedron. Ronald had seen "The Birds" starring her mother, and "The Thief," and was a real stunner.

   was also looking forward to her daughter. But Melanie inherited her mother's blonde hair and looks, but she didn't inherit Tibby's criminal figure and temperament. She was a fat girl.

Ronald secretly gave her two words: "fat white." Unless you lose 20 pounds, this is no way to play Jade, she and the heroine Jade means the name of Jade, and there is no trace of it. Relationship, looks like some kind of white jade.

   However, Tibby's second husband is Noel Marshall, a well-known agent in the circle, who participated in the production of "The Maeve Griffin Show", one of the three major talk shows. The producer of such a popular talk show called, and the crew had to weigh it carefully. After all, you are in the circle, and there will always be times when you need marketing. If you can sell face, everyone will benefit in the future.

   So Fat Girl also entered the final audition.

   Outsiders are those beauties whose parents are not in the entertainment industry and who are not supported by big figures. For example, Bo Ji Xiaosi, although she is very famous, is actually an outsider strictly speaking. Her mother, Terry, was an unattractive model and actress who was also average looking.

   But the magic of genes is here, the parents are average-looking, and the facial features are magically combined, and they can actually give birth to a peerless beauty.

  Borgy Xiaosi is the kind of beauty (Stunning) that makes people criminal. It's a pity that Shirley Knight strongly opposed it, otherwise she would be one of the natural candidates for the heroine of the movie. But no matter what, a supporting actor with milfs can bully you too.

  If Ronald is to lead the casting, it is estimated that the first one will have to contact Brooke Shields, and she will get others if she doesn't act. This is not only because of Bo Ji Xiaosi's beauty, but also because of her previous "Yanwa Zhuan", which is a similar role image of an underage beauty.

  Ronald estimates that many novel readers, when reading, use Brooke Shields as the protagonist Jade in their minds. This kind of actor who meets the expectations of the public should benefit the box office a lot.

   Another typical outsider is Jodie Foster. She is more powerful than Brooke Shields. She debuted as a child actress and played Scorsese's business card "taxi driver". He also played a teenager who swapped bodies with his mother in "Crazy Friday". At the age of 14, he could play a mother in his 30s, and his acting skills were well received.

   Appearance, acting skills, and age of 17 are very suitable for the heroine Jade, but because there is no background and relationship, every movie has to compete with everyone from the horizon.

  Shirley Knight said that firstly, she was not tall, and secondly, she had a hoarse voice, which did not match the heroine, so she just lowered her rating. Fortunately, Ronald's score counted her as a crime-prone category, and the score was raised, and she was still on the shortlist.

   In fact, what is the voice of the heroine? Everyone has their own interpretation. There are 100 ways to solve the problem of height in the movie. This half-old **** just can't see pretty girls stealing the spotlight with herself.

  The beauty is breathtaking, and the height is higher. Ronald actually thought of Helen Slater. But calling her father, as soon as Ronald expressed his intentions, Gerald vetoed it. He would not allow his daughter to play the role of underage eating the forbidden fruit.

  I don't know what role Gerald has prepared for his daughter to star in the movie debut? A flawless character may only be found in the comics, or maybe a movie version of the TV series "Wonder Woman".

  Just like that, the casting was approaching slowly and hard, and the efficiency was very low. The producer has urged several times, but Shirley Knight just doesn't let go and goes against the right casting direction. With such a contradictory casting, choosing the right beauties will be a ghost.

  Old Glass director Franco Zeffirelli is also advancing slowly. The reason is not that he also opposes good-looking actors, but aesthetics.

   There is always a subtle difference between the man he thinks is beautiful and the man who women think is beautiful. Julia's recommendation is full of male hormones. And Franco Zeffirelli prefers those beautiful men with feminine qualities.

  Julia Taylor also complained several times in private that the director's vision was wrong. Ronald is dispatched by Julia to go to the archives to find stills from films such as Romeo and Juliet that the Italians had taken before.

   Ronald took out a few to compare, and he knew it all. The old man really likes feminine men, and prefers dark hair and eyes like Italians. This made Ronald let out a sigh of relief that he was not the type he "liked".

   When the time dragged on for another month, Peter Guber, the executive producer of Polygram, couldn't sit still. Flying to New York in person to cast the cast, we must decide on the hero and heroine as soon as possible.

"Sherry, we don't have much time. It's been a month since we announced the plan in a variety magazine. You still have no progress here." Peter Guber is known for his ability to speak in the industry. After refusing, he thought of meeting Fidel, and actually persuaded the bearded man to open Cuban beaches for him to be photographed by an American.

   But he didn't have much patience with Shirley Knight, he didn't show his charm, but bluntly asked her to restrain herself and not interfere with normal casting.

   Shirley murmured something to explain, Guber ignored her, and looked at the casting information to herself. Holding the score sheet, start looking at the audition photos one by one.

"Who scored this amazing score?" Guber raised his head, and he found that the score was relatively objective. Several low-value related households were given low scores, while those with good looks from outsiders were given high scores. point. "

   Guber, who knew the crux in his heart, asked Ronald, who was scoring the score, and after closing the door, he said to him alone, "You scored this score. Who do you think our heroine should choose?"

   "Without a doubt, it should be Brooke Shields."

   "Reason?" Guber pulled out a cigarette, tapped it on the box, then crumpled it up and threw it in the trash.

   (end of this chapter)