Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 754 The Unlucky Actress
Mental exhaustion can weaken a person's fighting spirit more than physical exhaustion.

After a month of wrestling with actors and various unexpected situations on the set, Ronald's mental exhaustion has been very severe.

He also brought in Walter Murch because he didn't want to devote all his energy to editing "Dirty Dancing."Because in two months, we will start the preparations for the shooting of "Moonlight Sultry".If you can't rely on rest and vacation to restore your spirit, it is very likely that you will encounter big problems in the shooting of the next film.

As soon as he was on vacation, Ronald became lazy.He lived in Gail's hometown of Palm Springs for a few days, emptying his mind every day, only soaking in hot springs and doing new hot stone massages.

There are also people there who are promoting the new so-called "Transcendental Meditation", which is said to be a method handed down by the Guru of India to use Mantra to guide into Transcendental Meditation.

"This is a very ancient meditation technique. Many practitioners in Hollywood are learning it, and many directors have also received very good results. It is said that it is like dreaming. You can think of the movie you want to shoot, and the picture after the film is finished. What do you do in Hollywood?"

A young girl in a bikini sells the meditation instruction to Ronald, who is in a hot spring.

"Hey, is that right? I'm a member of the directors' association, and I shoot MVs and commercials. Then how do I study? Does your association charge?"

Ronald was very interested when he heard that he could dream about the finished film.Isn't this the biggest source of reliance that I rely on to maintain my vision and shooting methods that surpass those of my contemporaries?If this transcendental meditation can also trigger dreams, can it be superimposed on one's own secrets, so that one can dream more frequently, or can one dream more episodes?
"I am a certified teacher of the Transcendental Meditation Association of Los Angeles. The six-day course only costs you $2980. You are a member of the Hollywood Directors Guild, and you can also enjoy our free trial class."

The girl has a nice voice, Ronald lives in a very expensive hotel, and the food is not cheap, so he is a good customer.Hearing that Ronald was interested, he immediately changed his appearance and began to sell hard.

"Ah? That's it." Ronald felt that it was quite expensive, but in order to dream of movies, this price is nothing.

"For customers like you, we also have an upgraded version of the course, which can provide you with our special botanical medicine 14 days in advance. Taking it continuously before and during the course can make Transcendental Meditation better. .”

The girl took out a cloth bag, opened it and let Rona smell the "herb".

"Ugh, what are you talking about, take it away." Ronald asked. There was a strange smell, which stinks.

"Don't you want it?" The girl was surprised that Ronald didn't like the taste, "It's okay, we also teach the same course content to ordinary customers. You can see, we are all formal teaching institutions, many Hollywood directors They are all our customers.”

The girl opened the exquisite course introduction and showed him several photos.

"David Lynch took our courses to make such critically acclaimed films as 'Blue Velvet'."

"What the hell, take it away, take it away. I won't learn anymore."

When Ronald heard that David Lynch, a weirdo, learned something, he felt even more disgusted. Could it be that "Blue Velvet" was created by practicing this kind of Transcendental Meditation?
The main character, Isabella Rossellini, has been under a lot of pressure in the media lately.

Her mother, Ingrid Bergman, is an icon symbol of America's golden age.

Although Bergman's derailment at the time also caused public disgust in America.But since the 60s, with the progress of society, she has also been understood by the public.The Senate also issued a statement that year, denying the attacks on her by conservative senators.

After Bergman's death, the people's nostalgia for her has all been moved to Isabella, the daughter who is most similar to her and is also an actress and model.

In "Blue Velvet" this time, Isabella plays a very lowly role, and there are a lot of nude scenes.People are very angry, how can they take pictures of beautiful women in their memory like this.

Unlucky for her, not only did she not get better resources for this movie, but she almost lost Lancôme's endorsement.

"Really, I still have the videotape here. Director David Lynch certified it for us."

"I really don't like this, you find someone else."

"You are also a member of the Directors Guild, don't you want to be as successful as David Lynch?"

"I don't give a fucking thought, Security?"

After dismissing the salesman, Ronald didn't have a long time in Palm Springs when he was interrupted by an equally unlucky actress.

"Really, they won't let me see the dailies, bro Ronnie. I'm so scared that my first movie back in mainstream Hollywood is a failure, can you help me figure it out and go into the editing room to see it How is my role?"

It was Diane who came to find Ronald.

Diane, who just played the heroine in "The Running Man" starring Schwarzenegger, always has an anxious expression on her face.

As soon as she found out from her agent Richard that she had finished filming "Dirty Dancing", she couldn't wait to come to him for help.

"Did you know that in Hollywood, the cutting room is the privilege of the director? If it is not signed an agreement, even the leading male star has no right to enter the cutting room. I am not familiar with the director and leading actors of this movie, and I am afraid I have no The way into the editing room."

"But Arnold has a great say in the film, he can enter the editing room, I think..." Diane put his arm around Ronald and shook it.

"Hey, I'll try to call him." Ronald acted coquettishly and begging for help to this sister-like Diane, and he couldn't refuse.Pick up the phone to call Richard and ask him to contact Schwarzenegger's agent.

"I asked, and Arnold agreed to let me watch the clip and give my opinion. But you can't go in, this is the rule." Ronald and Schwarzenegger said a few words, and the other party immediately guessed what he meant, and took the initiative Invite Ronald as a friend to see a copy of the clip.

"Okay, thank you." Diane let go of half of her heart, feeling that she was being a good boy to Ronald.Massage his head.

To my surprise, Diane smelled very relaxing. Ronald's mental stress was relieved a lot, and he fell asleep on the recliner.

When I woke up, it was already dark.

Diane got out from the side and asked the waiter to push a cart of delicious food, "I know you are a carnivore, so I ordered sausage and bread, and vegetable salad."

Then Diane arrived and handed Ronald a glass of orange juice.

"You can eat something with me too." Ronald slept comfortably, his mental exhaustion recovered a lot, and his appetite increased.

"Bard Jr. will pick me up later, we'll be in Los Angeles, and tomorrow I'll go to 'Pass the Bard' to have a look.

By the next day, Ronald was in the editing room at Columbia.

"Hi, Arnold. Thank you for inviting me to see your new work."

Ronald is careful to give director Paul Michael Glaser an excuse to talk about the past.After all, everyone is a member of the directors' union, so don't break the unspoken rules among directors just because of Diane's plea.

"Arnold's friends are my friends." Glaser didn't show a big ego, at least he didn't have a strong disgust on the surface when he saw the rough cut copy.

"I came to see my friend Arnold's performance. I heard the story is very exciting, so I want to see it first."

A rough cut of the entire movie was done, and Ronald sat down to watch them play with the edited copy.

In this movie, Diane plays a beautiful woman who works out every day. Unfortunately, she is hijacked by Schwarzenegger, and finally she is thrown into the "Running Man" competition. She and Schwarzenegger escaped from the stars. She also memorized the password given by the hacker, helped the rebels invade the broadcast satellite, and finally showed the truth to all the audience.

In short, Diane's appearance is very good, there is no problem with her acting skills, and the chemical reaction with Schwarzenegger is also in place.It looks like in an action movie with a sci-fi background, she has achieved 120 points for the heroine.

But Diane's worry is justified. The question is not about her and Schwarzenegger's performance, but about the director.

The whole movie, how should I say it?It's like a very low-budget TV show.

The sets in many places are dark, without the texture that the movie needs at all.Mirror movement is also a very simple pros and cons commonly used in TV dramas.

What's worse, even the lighting is not very good. It seems that the director himself doesn't know how to make the details of the movie and let the audience immerse themselves in this dream you created for them.

"How? Do you have any insight into my film?"

Director Glaser looked confident after finishing the rough cut.He felt that his own works were not much worse than Ronald's.Everyone came from filming MVs.

"Ah, very good, I'm still thinking about the plot. Will we all watch TV to get information in the future, thinking that what is said on TV is the truth?"

"Hahaha, this is also a theme I want to talk about in this movie... By the way, which part of my movie impressed you the most?" Director Glazer did not intend to let Ronald go.

"Ah, it's the opening dance of the TV show Running Man, who choreographed it?"

That dance was a group dance. Under the lights, the actors wore sci-fi costumes, and the dance was very dynamic, which impressed Ronald deeply.This is completely different from the ambiguous style in the Dirty Dancing I shot, full of the sense of future technology.He is very curious about choreography.

"It's Paula Abdul, the original Janet Jackson choreographer. It's her first film work, and it's pretty good. Any more? You don't watch a sci-fi movie about a dance project." The deepest. Don’t you only focus on the singing and dancing scenes when you make musicals?”

"..."

"Ronald, didn't you say you want to introduce me to Harley's new car?" Schwarzenegger saw that Ronald was in a bad mood when he was told by director Glazer's aggressive words, so he found an excuse to go with Ronald first. .

"Ronald, don't talk about it, it's also the first time I've watched a complete rough cut, and I'm very depressed now, and I don't feel right when I'm shooting." Schwarzenegger took the initiative to complain to Ronald.

The close-up of Diane did not impress the audience with her, but under the poor guidance of the director, her skin appeared to be a bit dark, not at all like the very agile new Grace Kelly back then.

"Shxt! Why did Samsung hire such a TV director?" Ronald scolded when he saw that there was no one around.I thought I could give Diane a chance for the audience to remember her again.

"With a budget close to 3000 million US dollars, how did you find such a guy. He's in a TV series, right?"

"Yes, he was a TV actor before, and later he switched to a TV director." During filming, Schwarzenegger felt that the set and props were wrong, and it smelled like plastic, which was not suitable for movies that pay attention to details and textures.

"No wonder it smells like a TV series. It's dark." Ronald complained.

"Do you think there is still help?"

"To be honest, it's very difficult. Even if you ask Jim, I'm afraid you will have to reshoot on a large scale before you can cut a passable version." Ronald said truthfully.

"Hey, I should have insisted on it." Schwarzenegger, as the actor who brought in financing for the film, actually had the right to ask the company to change the director.

However, he is a foreign immigrant with no foundation in Hollywood, and he doesn't want to appear too strong. People say that he uses the influence of his wife, Maria Shriver, a descendant of the Kennedy family, at least not in Hollywood.

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect this movie to be so bad. It can't be saved." Ronald brought bad news to Diane who was waiting for him at home.

"what……"

Diane looked disappointed.

"My new film is about the love of middle-aged people. There are only a few young female characters. Do you want to come and play a cameo?"

"Okay, don't forget." Diane was a little worried.

"For this movie, I pushed two small productions, and one was co-starred with my old partner Matt Dillon."

"Don't worry, with me here, you won't be out of action." Ronald held Diane gently in his arms, combed her hair, and comforted her.

Diane was actually very unlucky. Her last movie that left a deep impression on the audience was "Love on the Sunset Bridge" as a child star. After she was a teenager, there was no movie that made the audience remember her screen image.

Coppola's "Urchin in the World", "Betta Fish", and "Cotton Club" are actually a waste of her talent and the most critical period of time.Now that the audience sees her, it is difficult to connect her with the little girl who fell in love back then.

No matter how beautiful an actor is, it takes one or two roles in a movie to be remembered by the audience.What they remember is not your beauty, nor your temperament, but that shining character.

Just imagine if Vivien Leigh did not have Scarlett Scarlett in "Gone with the Wind", and Elizabeth Taylor did not have Cleopatra, would the audience still respect them as much as they do now?
"Hey, you're really comforting me, bro Ronnie. I know actresses get in trouble after this period. The competition is so fierce. I've only been out of the mainstream film industry for less than two years, and I don't have a good script anymore. Handed it over to me."

"Otherwise, I'll forget about acting in TV dramas."

"Let's take one step at a time. I think you are a very talented actor, and you can play until you are old."

(End of this chapter)