Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 766 Support Ronald

Outside of Broadway, there are also many theaters that show new plays to new playwrights.Generally, this place is called Off-Broadway, and outside of Off-Broadway, there are some theaters, which are the stage for those who have not even shown a play, but have many dreams.

It's called Off-Off Broadway.Tickets are cheap here, but true theater critics, theater lovers, and casting directors frequent the show too.In addition to those whimsical dramas that can't find a place to be shown, there are also rising stars and pioneering dramas here.

Some big Hollywood actors also came from here.The most famous ones are Meryl Streep and Diane Lane, who has acted with her since she was four or five years old.

With MGM's budget, Ronald rented a spacious and bright house here.He directed all the assistants to put the long tables together to form a huge table.

There are all kinds of snacks that Ronald found from Chinatown on it, and there is a steaming cart like a Cantonese restaurant next to it, ready to replenish at any time.There are also piles of cola, coffee machine, black tea, and some light alcoholic beverages on the table.

Ronald arrived at the scene ahead of time and organized script readings.

He took the lead at one end of the table, next to his DP, David Watkin.Ronald met him on the set of "Endless Love", and he was in charge when Ronald was called to "direct" Brooke Shields's close-up face in a sex scene.

He also won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for "Out of Africa".

He is particularly good at taking ordinary urban scenes into an epic drama.

MGM attached great importance to Ronald directing their first film in more than a year, and recruited the best people in the industry to assist Ronald.

On Ronald's right is another Oscar winner, Philip Rosenberg, Best Art Direction for "Jazz Spring and Autumn" in 1979.

The film also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Philip Rosenberg's artistic design style also makes the bland street scenes look like a tourist postcard.

The two King Kongs sat down on the left and right, and began to chat about setting and location selection from time to time.Philip Rosenberg also took out a photo album from time to time and asked Ronald to choose which one was suitable for the scene in the movie.

Opposite him is MGM specially hired to shoot extras, and the behind-the-scenes filming team, several documentary filming teams of MGM TV.They set up the VCR and started filming from the corner of the wall against the table.

Actors began to arrive one after another. Seeing this posture, everyone clearly felt that MGM attached great importance to this movie.

"Hi Olympia, hi Julie,..."

Ronald left every time, hugged and said hello to them.On the Broadway stage, there are strict rules about who can say hello to the director.Only those actors approved by the director can enjoy hugs and kisses.Ordinary actors and those who perform poorly will be demoted and can only shake hands.

Knowing the sensitivities of these actors who have been on Broadway for a long time, although not a hug lover, Ronald also followed the rules.

"Hi, Nick!" Now came in the actor Nicolas Cage.Ronald stepped out a certain distance and stopped him after he entered the door.And say hello to him first.

Among a group of Broadway veterans with theatrical experience, Nicolas Cage is a bit of a child, and Ronald goes out of his way to show the upgraded treatment of the protagonist and let everyone know that Nick is his man.

Sure enough, although Cage was still a rookie in the Broadway hierarchy, Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia and others also stood up and said hello to him.

"This way, this way", at this moment, a noisy voice came from outside the door.

"It's Xueer."

Ronald recognized the voice of one of her assistants.The assistant opened the door for help, and Xueer walked in with a large group of people.

"Ronnie, I'm so glad to meet you." Cher glanced at Ronald.

He came up to greet Ronald first, and then introduced several important people in the entourage to Ronald, and more importantly, to the actors present.

"This is my personal hairstylist, this is my personal dresser, this is my driver, this is my assistant... and finally, this is my personal pastry chef, Rob Camilletti, with his bagels is my favorite.

"Please sit at the back, the front row is for the actors." An actor suddenly called out and stopped the pastry chef Rob Camilleti who wanted to sit next to Cher.

The young man was very handsome. He glanced at the assistant, then at Xue'er.

"Honey, wait for me in the back and take out your bagel for everyone to taste."

Xue'er knew it was against the rules, so she asked the pastry chef to get some bagels, and then went to the hairdresser's side.

Ronald saw a plate of donut-like bread on the table, only without the frosting.Ronald has always liked all kinds of snacks, so he took one and ate it.

"Ugh..." A smell of German lye bread rushed into his nostrils, and Ronald was caught off guard. Fortunately, the tomatoes and vegetables in the sandwich were okay, so he reluctantly ate them.

Now the concept of weight loss and health has invaded the American market on a large scale. As long as a kind of food is low in calories, it can be sold no matter how unpalatable it is.

Ronald glanced at Cher's new boyfriend, who was sitting there looking around, other than handsome and good at baking bagels, he seemed out of place with this place.

The big battle of Hollywood stars also makes a kind of Broadway character actor not satisfied.

Broadway actors pay more attention to rehearsal and the guidance of directors and screenwriters.In the theater world, directors know more than actors, and it is a rule that everyone follows.

In Hollywood, a director and a star, who has the final say on the crew, is a very interesting question.

Although Ronald helped Xue'er a lot, she was a singer and star who was used to big fights after all.It is normal for her to walk around the city with several assistants.The guy who roasted bagels, he took it with him when he thought it was good, and ate his love food.

Besides, Rob is of Italian descent. If there is anything you don’t know about Italian customs, can’t you ask him on the spot?

However, this kind of behavior, especially Rob's unknowing desire to sit in the front row and participate in the sacred script reading, made the Broadway actors next to him more or less dissatisfied.

Especially Olympia Dukakis, who played Cher's mother, she couldn't stand it just now, and asked Rob's baker to go to the back row.

If it were on Broadway, these irrelevant people would not even be able to enter the door of the rehearsal room.

"Have we started the script reading?" Dukakis asked Ronald.

"Wait for a while..." Ronald looked at the door and replied.

"Who else are you waiting for? Your donut master?" Dukakis complained in a low voice.The Broadway actor absolutely respected the director's protocol, which kept her from continuing.

"The person I'm waiting for is here," Ronald stood up and smiled.

A small Italian man with black-rimmed glasses opened the door and barged in.

"It's really good to see you, Ronald. I'm not late, am I?"

"No, you're welcome to my script reading, Marty."

The comer was Martin Scorsese, who had a high reputation in the New York theater and film circles.He is the foreign aid that Ronald invited to help him calm down on the first day.

"Ha, I just came to see you. I am very happy to hear that you have finally returned to the orthodox drama. Pauline Kael, a famous New York film critic, also said that she will pay attention to you this time. Popcorn chips are delayed, this is the way you should go..."

After finishing speaking, Scorsese began to greet the actors. He talked about how he grew up in an Italian family with a dry cleaner in Brooklyn, New York.

How do I understand the big family of Italian descent?

He told Cher that he had seen her play "The Scivwood Incident" and thought she would have no problem playing such an Italian woman.

He also greeted the screenwriter Shanley, and praised him that although he is Irish, his observation of Italians is more careful and real than Italians themselves.Perhaps only bystanders can capture this delicate and exquisite Italian atmosphere.

He also encouraged Nicolas Cage, saying that when he was a child, there was a bakery on the corner of the street, and the baker inside gave him a lot of yearning. At one point, he didn't want to iron people's clothes, but became interested in baking bread.

Picking up a bagel, Scorsese put it down without taking two bites.When he was a child, an Italian opened a bakery, and the bread in it was much better.

Ronald chatted with Scorsese, then offered him a cameo in his film.

Scorsese said that if it is the protagonist, he can consider it.His mother never made an appearance in the film, though.Ronald, of course, immediately invited his mother to make a cameo, which was set in the bakery scene that Scorsese so fondly remembered.

"Then let's start." Ronald sent Scorsese away, turned around, and announced the start of the script reading.

Broadway actors, the way they look at Ronald now is a little different from before.As an Italian-born film director, Scorsese's films are all centered on dramatic conflict.

He valued Ronald so much, it seemed that Ronald was either very knowledgeable about this drama, or he was also a prodigy in drama.Everyone knows the reputation of film critic Pauline Carr. This person who always likes to severely criticize film directors suddenly expressed his expectation for Ronald's new work. It's a movie with great potential.

On the other side of the film actor camp, their views on Ronald have also changed. Xueer feels that among the three films that will be filmed in the second half of this year, perhaps Ronald's film is her hope of turning around.

Cher's ability to recite is very good, maybe God gave her a kind of compensation for her dyslexia, relying on the tape of actor Julie, she is very accurate in every line.

Nicolas Cage, who played the leading role, also admired Cher's Italian accent very much. The two read the scene when they got up in the morning after the moonlight night, and Cher slapped Cage with a slap. On his face, Cage still felt pretty good.

"You can hit hard, Miss Cher." Cage said to her, "I think your emotions are in place."

"Come back when the actual filming takes place," Xueer didn't expect Cage to make such a request.

The script reading is actually a group of actors sitting in a circle, where everyone reads the lines of their characters.It's a way for an actor to become familiar with a character, and then with an opponent.

In New York, a place with a strong theatrical atmosphere, there are also college students who hold classic scripts and play them as games with their classmates at school.

"Hahaha..." Everyone liked Nicolas Cage's way of being very involved in the role.So they accepted two Hollywood actors. During the break, Julie, the actor who played the aunt, also came over and whispered to Ronald that it was rare for her to see such a co-starring hero and heroine.

By the next day, the Broadway camp and the Hollywood camp had an understanding of each other's strength.The two sides put away the contempt that they might have had at the beginning, and began to read carefully and cooperate with each other's performance
Xue'er also put away the ostentation, and didn't let all the followers come here.Especially that sweet bagel baker.The dialogue between her and Dukakis began to get better.

Other actors also felt that Cher's line skills were worthy of her Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress last year.

They all admire the casting director that Ronald found, and the Broadway team hired by Julia Taylor, which actually set off the reality of the entire Castorini family.

Audiences who have really dealt with Italians in Brooklyn, New York, will soon see on the screen some of the characteristics of their daily acquaintances.

Audiences who have never seen a large Italian family in Brooklyn have stereotyped some characteristics of Italians because of the film education of "The Godfather". Such a performance will satisfy them.

Ronald also gradually understood the characteristics of each actor, and began to redesign some scenes based on their performances.

Among them, the one that surprised Ronald the most was Olympia Dukakis, who played his mother Rose.The timing of each of her reactions was very accurate, and she stuck exactly at the point with the best effect.

Ronald thinks that Dukakis should have a nickname called Staple, and his stagnation has made many Hollywood actors who are said to have excellent acting skills feel ashamed.This special ability is not born, but it is obtained in exchange for more than ten years of careful observation and study.

If she was acting in comedy, she would be a very good candidate.

Especially in her scene with Cher, mother Rose asks her daughter Loretta the same question twice.Does she love that man.

The first time Loretta faced the marriage proposals of various Johnnies, and she answered that she didn't love her. Dukakis' eyes showed a momentary sense of loneliness and regret for his unfortunate daughter.But as a mother, she still agreed immediately to cheer up her daughter, saying that a marriage that does not love can last long.

The second time Loretta confronted her younger brother Ronnie, of course she admitted that she loved Ronnie.Dukakis yelled, "I knew it", but there was a hint of happiness in his eyes that he had found a lover for his daughter.

These two questions and the reaction after the answer are really a few tenths of a second away. In a few tenths of a second, the audience will lose the complex emotions behind the lines.

However, Dukakis's accurate check points allowed this emotion to be accurately transmitted to Xueer, making her response even more glorious.

"That's the reaction I want, very good." Ronald pointed to Dukakis and praised, having such a person with outstanding acting skills in the crew can indeed make other people's performances even better without making a fuss one floor.

Soon, the last continuous reading began.Everyone can't stop in the middle, but follow the entire script, from beginning to end, to find out their own emotional baseline and weaknesses in cooperation with each other.

Ronald couldn't help worrying about the old actor Fedor Chaliapin.He is so deaf that he often misses his opponents' lines.What should Xia Liaping do with such continuous reading?
Sean Connery also said that when he was filming the last movie, he was robbed by Chaliapin.Ronald was a little skeptical, whether it was Sean Connery's poor acting skills, or he had misheard his thick Scottish accent.

When it came to Chaliapin's several scenes, Ronald cheered up and observed his performance.

To Ronald's surprise, Xia Liaping took the lines perfectly.When Ronald looked over, Xia Liapin didn't notice, and smiled at Ronald, as if to say, look, Dad can still act.

Ronald was very surprised, and said something to Wei Qing, very good.

But this time maybe I was too light, Xia Liaping didn't seem to hear it at all.

"The old man has something. If you change your hearing, you will hear it. If you don't change your hearing, you won't hear it at all."

(End of this chapter)