Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 134 Insiders and Outsiders

The news that "Endless Love" has begun to comprehensively select male and female protagonists has been released through the media.Ronald suddenly became busy.

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

The audition this time is different from the slaughterhouse-style audition of thousands of people in the "Fame" crew. "Endless Love" does not have so many extras 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 each organization, it will be sent to the casting studio for directors and producers to choose.

But even so, I have accumulated a lot of photos of actors.After a few weeks, director Franco Zeffirelli and supporting actress Shirley Knight will find time to come over, and Julia Taylor will recommend candidates to them.

The habit formed is like this, Julia and the director are in a group, mainly looking at the leading actor.Ronald and Shirley Knight are a group, mainly looking at the heroine.

The superficial reason for forming such a cooperation is that Ronald is a 20-year-old young man who has a natural intuitive view of the heroine, whether it is sexy, attractive, and criminal.

In this movie, the hero David, in order to get close to the heroine Jed, pretended to set fire to the house of the heroine. If Ronald could not feel that the heroine wanted to make people commit crimes, the main plot would be Not quite established.

The male protagonist David is also like a walking male hormone in the script. Not only does the heroine Jade insist on getting close to him despite the objections of his father and brother, but after his father died in an accident, Jed's mother Ann also wanted to seduce him.

What does such a hero look like?Or Julia Taylor, a middle-aged woman, has the most accurate intuition.

As for the real reason...

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

This 15-year-old girl is too beautiful. Any middle-aged woman who appears around her will be ignored by all audiences like a candle in the sun.

Director Franco Zeffirelli was so happy and relaxed. Anyway, he was given a lot of money. After the filming, he could go back to Italy, direct his favorite opera, and get in touch with all the young and beautiful leading actors. He was very happy.

Regardless of 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. Everyone has their own secrets about how hard they try to make it a classic own abacus.

After two months of long casting process, Ronald became clearer in his heart. The so-called casting of this movie, especially the protagonist, is not only determined by the fit of the character and the character, nor is it only considered from a commercial point of view. What is more important is actually the selfishness of the insiders.

To enter the final audition list, in addition to not getting in 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 respective spheres of influence.Director Franco Zeffirelli can decide the final shortlist for the male lead, and Shirley Knight, relying on her relationship with Guber, can also exert great influence on the shortlist for the female lead.

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

The so-called insiders are parents who are well-known people in the entertainment industry, with extensive connections and backgrounds, and many places where they can exert influence.For example, Jennifer Jason Leigh, she is the daughter of the famous actor Vic Morrow, and she is Jewish.

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

But when Vic Morrow made a phone call and called Guber directly, Jennifer Jason Lee had to appear on the final shortlist and go directly to the final audition.

Ronald didn't have any objections to the girl or her father, but it was obviously inconsistent 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 miscast casting. ), a guarantee of box office disaster.

Another candidate is even more outrageous, called Melanie Griffiths.

She is the daughter of Hitchcock girl Tippi Hedren.Ronald had seen her mother in "The Birds," and "The Thief," and was a real stunner.

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

Ronald secretly sent her two words: "Fat and white." Unless she loses 20 pounds, she can't play Jade anyway. She and the heroine Jade, which means Jade, have no trace of Relationship, it looks like some kind of white jade.

However, Tibby's second husband is the well-known agent Noel Marshall in the circle, who participated in the production of "The Maeve Griffin Show", one of the three talk shows.When the producer of this kind of popular talk show calls, the crew has to weigh it carefully. After all, if you are in the circle, there will always be times when marketing is needed.Being able to save face will benefit everyone in the future.

So Fat Girl also entered the final audition.

The outsiders are those beauties whose parents are not from the showbiz and have no big shots to support them.For example, Brooke Shields, although well-known, is actually considered an outsider strictly speaking.Her mother, Terry, is a modest model and actress, who is also very ordinary.

But this is where the magic of genes lies. Parents who are average-looking, with a miraculous combination of facial features, can actually give birth to a peerless beauty.

Brooke Shields is the kind of beauty (Stunning) who makes people commit crimes at first sight.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 it doesn't matter if you cover it up, a supporting actor with a milf can bully you.

If Ronald is to lead the casting, it is estimated that the first one has to contact Brooke Shields, and if she does not act, it will be the turn of others.This is not only because of Brooke Shields' beauty, but also because of her previous role in "The Legend of Yanwa", which is a similar role image of an underage beauty.

Ronald estimates that many readers of the novel, when they read it, use Brooke Shields to replace the protagonist Jed in their minds.This kind of actor who meets the expectations of the public should be of great benefit to the box office.

Another typical outsider is Jodie Foster.She is better than Brooke Shields. She debuted as a child star and acted in Scorsese's business card "Taxi Driver".He also played a teenager who switched bodies with his mother in "Crazy Friday". He was able to play a mother in his 14s at the age of 30, and his acting skills were well received.

Looks, acting skills, and 17 years old are very suitable for the heroine Jed, but because there is no background and relationship, every movie has to compete with everyone from the horizon.

Shirley Knight said that first, she is not tall, and second, her voice is hoarse, which does not match the heroine, so she just lowered the score.Fortunately, Ronald's score counted her as a crime-provoking category, which raised her score and kept her on the candidate list.

In fact, everyone has their own interpretation of what the heroine's voice looks like, and there are 100 ways to solve the height problem in the movie.This half-year-old mistress just can't see a beautiful girl stealing the spotlight from herself.

The beauty is breathtaking, and the height is taller. Ronald actually thought of Helen Slater.But when she called her father, Gerald vetoed it as soon as Ronald expressed his intention.He would not allow his daughter to play a role like a minor eating the forbidden fruit.

I don't know what role Gerrard has prepared for his daughter, and she will star in her movie debut?Flawless characters may only be found in comics, and maybe they can act in the movie version of the TV series "Wonder Woman".

In this way, the casting was slowly and difficultly approached, and the efficiency was very low.The producer has urged it several times, but Shirley Knight just didn't let go, and went against the correct direction of casting.With such a contradictory cast, it would be a ghost to choose the right beauty.

Old Glass director Franco Zeffirelli is also approaching slowly.The reason is not that he also objected to beautiful actors, but a problem of aesthetics.

There are always some subtle differences between the men he thinks are beautiful and the men that women think are beautiful.The ones recommended by Julia are all full of male hormones.And Franco Zeffirelli prefers those beautiful men with feminine characteristics.

Julia Taylor has also complained several times in private that the director's vision is problematic.Ronald was sent by Julia to go to the archives to find the stills of Romeo and Juliet and other movies that the Italians had taken before.

Ronald took out a few photos to compare, and he knew everything in his heart.The old man did like feminine men, and preferred dark hair and eyes like Italians.This made Ronald heave a sigh of relief, he was not his "like" type.

When the time dragged on for another month, Peter Guber, executive producer of Polygram Pictures, 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.

"Shirley, we don't have much time. It's been a month since we announced the plan in Variety Magazine, and you still haven't made any progress." Peter Guber is well-known in the industry for his eloquence. He once went to Cuba to shoot documentaries and was accepted by the Cuban military After refusal, he tried to meet Fidel, and actually persuaded the bearded man to open the Cuban beach to an American for him to shoot.

However, he had no patience with Shirley Knight, and instead of displaying his charming speech skills, he directly asked her to restrain herself and not interfere with the normal casting.

Shirley murmured to explain something, but Guber ignored her and looked at the casting materials on his own.Holding the score sheet, I began to look at the audition photos one by one.

"Who scored this stunning level?" Gu Beier raised his head, and he found that the score was relatively objective. A few related households with low looks were given low scores, while outsiders with high looks were all given high scores. point. "

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

"There is no doubt that it should be Brooke Shields."

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

(End of this chapter)