Exploiting Hollywood 1980

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

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

This audition is different from the slaughterhouse-style audition of thousands of people at the same time by the "Famous" 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 target.

Therefore, auditions are released through various performing arts groups, performing arts schools, theater troupes, and brokerage companies. After preliminary screening by various organizations, they are sent to the casting studio for selection by directors and producers.

Even so, I still accumulated a lot of photos of actors. Over the course of a few weeks, director Franco Zeffirelli and supporting actress Shirley Knight would take time to come over, and Julia Taylor would recommend candidates to them.

The habit formed is like this, Julia works with the director and mainly looks at the male lead. Ronald is paired with Shirley Knight, 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 she is sexy, seductive, and makes people commit crimes.

In this movie, the male protagonist David, in order to get close to the female protagonist Jade, does not hesitate to pretend to set fire to the female protagonist's house. If Ronald cannot feel that the female protagonist wants people to commit crimes, this main plot will be Not quite true.

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

What does such a male protagonist look like? It is the middle-aged woman Julia Taylor who has the most accurate intuition.

As for the real reason...

Ronald didn't want to be with the old glass director Franco Zeffirelli, 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 so beautiful that any middle-aged woman who appears around her will be ignored by all viewers like a candlelight in the sun.

Director Franco Zeffirelli was very happy and relaxed. After all, he was given a lot of money. After filming, he could go back to Italy to direct his favorite opera. He could also have close contact with the young and beautiful leading male candidates. It was a pleasure.

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. Privately, everyone has their own thoughts on how hard they will work to make it a classic. own calculations.

After a two-month long casting process, Ronald became even more aware that the so-called casting of this movie, especially the protagonist, determines the final candidate not only because of the fit between the character and the character, but also not only from a commercial perspective. What is more important is actually the selfishness of the insiders.

To get into the final audition list, in addition to not blocking other people's way, you also need to look at the actor's background and connections.

For example, on the "Endless Love" crew, the director and Shirley Knight basically divided their respective spheres of influence. Director Franco Zeffirelli can decide the 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 heroines on Ronald's side basically became two parts: insiders and outsiders.

The so-called insiders are those whose parents are celebrities in the entertainment industry. They have wide connections and strong connections, and have many places where they can exert influence. For example, Jennifer Jason Leigh is the daughter of the famous actor Vic Morrow and she is Jewish.

Ronald felt that she should not be selected. Although she is pretty, she doesn't have the sinful temptation at all. She is more like a girl next door. Can such a girl let her boyfriend set a fire for her? No audience would believe it even if it was filmed.

But Vic Morrow made a call directly to Guber, and Jennifer Jason Leigh 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 he was obviously inconsistent with the role. If he insisted on being cast, it would be a disaster for the film and the actors. In the casting industry, this is called miscasting. ), guaranteed to be a box office disaster.

Another candidate is even more outrageous, called Melanie Griffiths.

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

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

Ronald secretly gave her two words: "Fat and white." Unless she loses 20 pounds, she cannot play the role of Jade. She and the heroine Jade, whose name means Jade, have no trace of each other. Guanxi, it looks like some kind of white jade.

However, Tibby's second husband was Noel Marshall, a well-known agent in the industry, who participated in the production of "The Maeve Griffin Show", one of the three major talk shows. When the producer of such a popular talk show calls, the crew has to think carefully about it. After all, if you are in the industry, there will always be times when you need marketing. If you can sell face, everyone will benefit from it in the future.

So Fat Girl also entered the final audition

Outsiders are beauties whose parents are not from the entertainment industry and who are not supported by big shots. For example, Brooke Shields, although famous, is actually technically an outsider. Her mother, Terry, is a modest model and actress with average looks.

But here's the magic of genes. With average-looking parents and a magical combination of facial features, they can actually give birth to a peerless beauty.

Brooke Shields is the kind of beauty who can make people criminal at the first glance (Stunng). It's a pity that Shirley Knight strongly opposed it, otherwise she would have been one of the obvious choices for the heroine of the movie. But it doesn't matter, even a MILF supporting actor can bully you.

If Ronald were to take the lead in casting, he would probably have to contact Brooke Shields first. If she didn't play, someone else would be available. This is not only because of Brooke Shields's beauty, but also because of her previous role in "The Story of a Beautiful Girl", which is a similar role of an underage beauty.

Ronald estimates that many readers, when reading, use Brooke Shields to represent the protagonist Jed in their minds. This kind of actor who meets the public's expectations should be of great benefit to the box office.

Another typical outsider is Jodie Foster. She is even better than Brooke Shields. She debuted as a child star and played Scorsese's famous film "Taxi Driver". He also played a teenager who swapped bodies with his mother in "Freaky Friday". He was able to play a mother in her thirties at the age of 14, and her acting skills were well received.

Her looks, acting skills, and 17-year-old age are very suitable for the heroine Jade, but because she has no background or connections, she has to compete with everyone from the horizon in every movie.

Shirley Knight said that firstly, she was not tall, and secondly, she had a hoarse voice, which did not suit the heroine, so she had to lower her rating. Fortunately, Ronald's rating classified her as criminally provocative, which raised her rating and kept her on the candidate list.

In fact, everyone has their own interpretation of what the heroine's voice sounds like. There are 100 ways to solve the height problem in movies. This old lady just can't bear to see a beautiful girl stealing the spotlight from her.

She was breathtakingly beautiful and taller. Ronald actually thought of Helen Slater. But when she called her father, as soon as Ronald expressed his intention, Gerald vetoed it. He would not allow his daughter to play the role of a minor eating forbidden fruit.

I don’t know what role Gerald has prepared for his daughter to make her film debut? A flawless character may only be found in comics, and maybe she could be a movie version of the TV series "Wonder Woman."

In this way, the casting process was slow and difficult, and the efficiency was very low. The producers have urged her several times, but Shirley Knight just won't let go and is working against the right direction of casting. Such a self-contradictory casting choice has a lot to do with choosing the right beauty.

Old Glass director Franco Zeffirelli is also slow to advance. The reason is not that he is against good-looking actors, but it is a matter of aesthetics.

There is always a subtle difference between the men he thinks are beautiful and the men women think are beautiful. The ones recommended by Julia are all ones that are full of male hormones. And Franco Zeffirelli prefers handsome men with feminine qualities.

Julia Taylor also complained several times privately that there was something wrong with the director's vision. Ronald was sent by Julia to go to the archives to find stills from films such as Romeo and Juliet that had been shot by Italians.

Ronald took out a few pictures to compare, and he understood clearly. The old man does like feminine men, and prefers dark hair and eyes like Italians. This made Ronald breathe a sigh of relief. He was not his "like" type.

When time dragged on for another month, Peter Gubel, the executive producer of PolyGram Pictures, couldn't sit still. Flying to New York in person to do the casting process, you must decide on the leading actor and actress as early 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 ability to talk. He once went to Cuba to shoot a documentary and was captured by the Cuban military. After refusing, he tried to meet Fidel and actually persuaded the bearded man to open the Cuban beach for him to be photographed by an American.

However, he had little patience with Shirley Knight, and instead of using his charming words, he bluntly asked her to restrain herself and not interfere with the normal casting.

Shirley murmured something to explain, but Guber ignored her and looked at the casting information. Taking the scoring sheet, I started looking at the audition photos one by one.

"Who gave this amazing score?" Gubel raised his head and found that the score was relatively objective. Several connections with low looks were given low scores, while outsiders with good looks were all given high scores. point. "

Gubel, who knew the crux of the problem, found Ronald who was giving the score. After closing the door, he said to him alone, "You got this score. Who do you think our heroine should choose?"

"Without a doubt, Brooke Shields."

"Reason?" Gubel took out a cigarette, tapped it on the box, then crumpled it into a ball and threw it in the trash can.