Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 366 Roots

"Here are the biscuits I baked. Ronald said that you are going to exercise soon to gain muscle so that you can play Supergirl, so you shouldn't be afraid of getting fat." Aunt Karen handed over a box of biscuits she baked after dinner , tied with a red ribbon, and presented to Helen Slater.

"Thank you, Karen." Helen took the biscuits, thanked her, and put away the small box.

"Bring more, the biscuits baked by Aunt Karen are delicious." Ronald grabbed another handful of biscuits, wrapped them in paper and put them in Helen's pocket.

"It's okay, Helen. The biscuits baked by my mother are not high in calories, unlike other people's homes that are full of sugar and butter. Diane also eats them often, so I won't gain weight." Donna said.

"I'll take Helen back to her father's house first." Ronald got up and put on his coat.New York winters are colder than Los Angeles.

"Stop driving, call a taxi." Seeing that Ronald drank a lot of red wine, the aunt got up and called a yellow taxi.

Helen put on her scarf and kissed Karen and Donna goodbye.

"This little box is pretty, but I can't eat more." Helen put the little box into her bag in the car, then took a piece of loose biscuit from her pocket, and carefully bit into half of it.

"It doesn't matter, anyway, if you go to London to exercise, you have to eat a lot of high-protein, high-starch food." Ronald advised Helen to eat more.

"You don't know, it's very troublesome to control your body as an actor. I get fat from eating everything now." Helen pinched the flesh on her face in distress.

"I think you're even a little skinny, even by anamorphic standards."

"Hahaha... you are good or bad."

Nowadays, medium-sized productions in Hollywood generally use 1.85:1 widescreen, while large-scale productions often use 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. This kind of lens stretches actors more horizontally, and there are many strange distortions. .Very thin people can also look fat on anamorphic.

Ronald deliberately said that Helen wasn't fat enough on the Transformer screen, and told her to eat healthier.

"Your aunt's baked biscuits are quite delicious, and she made the box very beautiful." Helen finally ate another small biscuit, very satisfied.

"She wanted to give you cookies as a Christmas present, but she knew you were Jewish, so she simply wrapped them."

"Well, then I'll take this as a Christmas present. When I was a child, I went to a mixed school in Long Island. My classmates all had Christmas presents. I didn't have one. I was always envious."

"Well, I'll give you double Christmas presents and make up for the ones you didn't receive before." Ronald said as he took out a small box and handed it to Helen.

"It's so beautiful." Helen opened the box and saw a pair of shiny earrings. She took out the makeup box, put it on in the mirror, and looked at it for a while.

"Thank you, Ronnie." Helen hugged Ronald's shoulder, feeling very happy in her heart.

"Helen, you are so beautiful today." Ronald put his arms around Helen and kissed her on the lips.

The two kissed quickly, and Helen was afraid that the driver in front would see it, so she gently pushed Ronald away.

"I said beauty, are you an actor? I know many people and I can introduce you. The most important thing in this circle is relationship."

Maybe because he heard what Ronald said about the movie scenes before, Helen said that the actors were going on a diet, etc., the South Asian taxi driver who was driving suddenly interrupted and struck up a conversation with Helen.

"Huh?" Ronald was surprised, he didn't expect the driver with a curry accent to feel so good.

"She is already an actress, so you don't need to worry about it." Ronald put his arms around Helen's shoulders, and kissed Helen again, declaring his sovereignty.

"Then you must be a bad actor. What movies and TV shows have you acted in? Let me hear about two of them."

"..."

"Can't you tell? At first glance, you are an unsuccessful actor. Let me tell you, the most important thing for an actor is the relationship. If there is no relationship, you can't play any role. If you have the relationship, you can play the protagonist."

Ronald frowned, feeling a little impatient, the driver was too stingy, and even teased his girlfriend Helen in front of his face.

Helen pulled Ronald's arm, signaling him not to get angry because of boring people.

"You might as well date me at Christmas. I know a lot of bigwigs in the entertainment industry. I'll introduce you to play the heroine of a TV series."

"Hey, are you blind? I'm his boyfriend, you want to compete with me?" Ronald patted the front seat, then pinched his fingers.

"There is no need to resort to violence, my friend. Mahatma Gandhi taught us that violence is not good, whether against individuals or nations."

The driver who spoke with a curry accent immediately changed the subject, "I just think your girlfriend can play the heroine. I really know a lot of people in the industry."

"Who do you know?" Seeing this, Helen interrupted to prevent Ronald from getting angry.

"George Hamilton, do you know him? The star of the TV series 'Roots', he was in New York last time, the crew was short of drivers, and he hired me as a temporary driver. I tell you, he is a very good guy, I Beg him, your girlfriend must have a chance to be a TV actress."

"Puchi..." Ronald couldn't help laughing, saying that he was a fool for a long time.That's right, not all New York taxi drivers are from showbiz like Diane Lane's father.

"Do you really know Hamilton, the star of 'Roots'? Then you are very good." Helen also suppressed a smile while patting Ronald's hand.

"That's, let me tell you, this TV series is very profound..." The driver boasted to himself.

Ronald thought of this TV series, which was about black people being captured by slave traders from Africa to North America. He and his descendants have always hoped to find their own roots. When it was released, it caused a lot of ratings and discussions.

"I don't know where my roots are?" Ronald thought to himself.

The car finally drove to a high-end apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Ronald and Helen got out of the car. Ronald deliberately only gave the driver the lowest tip, but the South Asian driver thanked him happily and left.

"Hahaha..." Helen couldn't help laughing, she had been holding back in the car for a long time.

In the lobby of the apartment, a figure was waiting for his daughter's arrival. Hearing Helen's voice, he walked out of the lobby.

"Mr. Slater." Ronald handed Helen's hand to her father.

"Helen is going to London soon, you can spend more time with her when you have time." Gerald Slater saw the earrings Helen was wearing, nodded to Ronald, and explained a few words.

"Bye!" Helen and Ronald kissed each other, bid farewell to their boyfriends, and entered their father's house.

……

"Auntie, what ethnicity am I? My father and mother's families immigrated from which countries?" Back home, Ronald asked Aunt Karen.

"Why do you care about this?" Aunt Karen was a little surprised. She had just sent Donna to bed, and she was drinking black tea leisurely after tidying up the room.

"Helen told me she was Jewish and I was taken aback. I never thought she was Jewish. She didn't look like a typical Jew either.

Then, I met a South Asian driver on the road, so I became interested in my origins. "

"I don't know much about your father's family history, except that he was born near New Haven, Connecticut, in the New England region.

Your mother and I are both natives of New York. It is said that our ancestors can be traced back to the English immigrants in the eighteenth century.But since your grandfather's father started relocating to Staten Island, he lost contact with his original relatives. "

"What? We're not from Staten Island?"

Aunt Karen shook her head, "No, your grandpa's family used to be from Manhattan. When he passed away, my sister, your mother, went to the Manhattan family to find relatives, but I don't know where the surname is Parker. people."

"Oh, why did grandpa move to Staten Island?"

"I don't know about that. Your mother seems to know the reason, but she doesn't want to tell me. It must be something unpleasant." Aunt Karen didn't know either.

"Your grandmother's family is a native of Staten Island. Their family is the descendant of German and Irish descendants. It seems that there is some blood in the country, which is the case in America. The people of the old continent have merged into a new nation in the new continent. .

In America, people should be judged for their excellence, not their race.The incoming governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, is of Italian descent, while the mayor of New York, Koch, is of Jewish descent.

People's birth is not their final judgment, Ronnie my dear. "

Ronald nodded. Aunt Karen was very open-minded in these matters. I guess it would be fine even if I brought a black man back, let alone mentioning that my girlfriend was Jewish.

Considering the relatively conservative atmosphere on Staten Island, it may have something to do with the family education of the grandfather's family.

"Grandpa Parker's family, are they all so enlightened about race?"

"Yeah, we, Parker, are Quakers. You know the Quakers were the first to support racial equality. In the beginning, Pennsylvania was named after an aristocrat's surname, and they were the Quakers, who advocated peace and equality.

It's in Donna's middle school history textbook. "

Aunt Karen got up and poured Ronald a cup of tea, "I have to go to bed early, so don't make it too late."

Ronald kissed his aunt on the cheek and sat on the sofa in the living room thinking about it.

He still couldn't help but want to know where his roots are.

My mother is of Quaker Anglo-German mixed race. I don’t know what race my father is, and where did he come from in this life?Who was he in his previous life?Why is there such a wonderful connection between the two?

"In the future, if I have the opportunity, I will go to the New England area in the north to see what life is like in my father's place."

(End of this chapter)