Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Jane Fonda wore a simple sweater and jeans, with her hair blown high and curled down from her ears. This hairstyle has become popular among American stars since last year.

"Ronald, I'm glad you're here. Hello Diane. Hello, you must be Bruce's daughter Laura."

After the greetings, Ronald sat down with the two little girls, looking at Jane, waiting for her to invite him.

Compared with the last time Ronald saw her, Jane Fonda had more wrinkles on her forehead. She was not in a good condition, and occasionally there was a trace of sadness in her eyes.

"I invited you here for one thing. My father Henry is in poor health and has been recuperating in the hospital for several months. I bought the copyright of the original work for the movie "On Golden Pond" and asked him to film it with me.

Henry never won an Oscar in his life. Last year, the Academy awarded him the Lifetime Honorary Award. I was in the audience when he gave his speech. I don't believe that this is the brilliance of his acting career. He deserves an Oscar.

Now the nominations for the Oscars are about to begin. I decided to ask all my friends and my father's friends to vote for Henry. I don't want him to have any regrets.

The day before yesterday, my agent reminded me that Ronald, you are also a member of the Academy, so..."

"I will vote for Mr. Fonda."

Ronald has been busy with his own movies recently and has not watched other people's movies. He only had time to go to the cinema these few days and watched On Golden Pond, which was released just a month ago.

Henry Fonda is indeed a veteran star. He played an old father who has a bad relationship with his daughter very well. His performance deserves an Oscar winner.

Anyway, I haven't watched any other movies. If the Oscar nominates Henry Fonda for the Best Actor award, I will certainly vote for him. After all, Jane Fonda gave me the first opportunity and sold the first script. A series of opportunities later all started from here.

"Jane Fonda must be very sure that her father will be nominated." Ronald thought to himself. Henry Fonda has been in Hollywood for decades, and stars such as James Stewart are his close friends. There must be no problem with a nomination.

The Oscar nomination is more complicated. Each member of the Academy can only nominate people in their own category. Ronald can only nominate directors, Jane Fonda can only nominate actors, and Walter Merz can only nominate editors.

As for winning the award, it depends on the voting results of all members, and no one can say for sure. After the nomination list is announced, all members can vote across categories, so Ronald can also vote for the best actor candidate.

An actor's network is limited to his profession. If he can get some votes from members in other categories, then he can be insured for this award in the last moments of Henry Fonda's life.

After talking about the most important things, Ronald began to chat with Jane Fonda about the trivialities during the filming of "Golden Pond".

"The most difficult shot was the close-up of my father Henry acting with me by the lake. You know Henry is an old school, all the lines cannot be changed, and you can't improvise on the spot, otherwise he will criticize me.

So I deliberately saved his close-up for the last shot of the day. I held his hand and improvised a line that was not in the script. 'I want to be your friend', at that moment he was moved, and then I saw a flash in his eyes, he lowered his head and put his hat down, and then looked elsewhere."

As she spoke, Jane Fonda's emotions also became excited.

"Oh, I can't say this, every time I say it, I will cry."

Ronald hurriedly comforted her.

"Mr. Fonda will be fine. How is his health now?"

"He is in the hospital. His condition is much more stable now. I have been with him all the time. I didn't even participate in the marketing of Golden Pond."

"Golden Pond" is now being screened in major cities. I think the hairstylist Universal is also learning from the previous "The Deer Hunter". After the movie wins the Golden Globe Award and Oscar nomination, it will take advantage of the news to take advantage of the audience's interest in Oscar-nominated blockbusters and expand the scale of release.

Ronald saw Diane eager to try next to him, so he asked her, "Do you have anything to ask Jane, Diane?"

"You shot the shot of the pond so well. How did you do it?" Diane really wanted to learn from the actress' acting skills.

"It's a long story. My close-up shot was taken right after Henry's shot. But I had exhausted all my emotions in the last shot. This is the situation that actors fear the most. You should know." Jane said to the two young actors Diane and Laura.

"I felt empty inside, without any emotion, and I didn't know what to do, so I had to tell the director that I had to turn my back to you to build up my emotions, and when I was in the right mood, I would turn around and you would start the camera to shoot me.

In fact, I didn't know if I could perform emotions by turning my back, but I had no choice. At this time, I saw Katharine Hepburn lying in the bushes, where the camera couldn't capture her. She saw that I had exhausted my emotions and came to encourage me.

She clenched her hands and mouthed to me, 'Jane, you can do it.' Suddenly I found the source of emotion, and I acted very well in that close-up shot."

Diane and Laura were very excited to hear these superstars gossip about how to inspire their acting skills during filming. Diane Lane's eyes lit up, and she wished she could have such a level.

"What about you, Laura? If you have any questions, you can ask me." Jane Fonda rarely saw the children of her brother Peter's best friend, "Peter's daughter Brigitte is a few years older than you, and she also wants to enter the film industry. , but no luck yet.”

Ronald smiled beside him. Henry Fonda's granddaughter and Jane Fonda's niece are definitely not short of audition opportunities. It's probably because there are no good heroine opportunities, so she hasn't made her debut for the time being.

Laura Dern also asked a few questions, and Jane Fonda answered them one by one.

"Are you here to serve as Miss Golden Globe at the Golden Globe Awards?" Jane Fonda discovered Laura Dern's new role at the Golden Globe Awards this time.

"Yes, I'll be working at the awards show." Laura Dern's parents are a notch below Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda. So I used this method to let my daughter debut.

"The Golden Globes, oh, I will go too. They promised to give Henry the Best Actor Award if I go."

Although they were all insiders, Ronald was still a little uncomfortable hearing Jane Fonda expose the Golden Globe Awards so directly, and he squirmed twice on the sofa. He himself also won the Golden Globe Award.

"Pia Zadora's husband invited the Hollywood Foreign Press Association judges to play at a luxury resort hotel today. He wants to buy a Best New Actress award for his wife. I heard there are a lot of delicious food." La Dunn revealed another inside story.

"Although they all say they buy the Golden Globes and choose the Oscars, this is going too far. NBC will not be happy if it is broadcast on NBC." Jane Fonda has been in Hollywood for many years and knows a lot of inside information.

It turned out that the Golden Globe Awards had been exposed to an award-buying scandal before. The Federal Communications Commission (f) suspended NBC's live broadcast of the awards dinner for seven years on the grounds that the winners were not determined before the awards were awarded. It was not resumed until 1975.

However, the Golden Globe Awards organizing committee relies on broadcast ratings to make money. In order to attract more celebrities to come to the award ceremony, they will continue to exchange the celebrity's attendance for awards.

Seeing that Jane Fonda was a little tired, Ronald said goodbye.

"By the way, let me show you this." Jane Fonda took out a box of video tapes and handed it to Ronald, "This is the Jane Fonda fitness video tape I took."

"Oh", Ronald took the videotape, which showed Jane Fonda wearing high-cut yoga clothes and leg warmers. This is the cover of the new edition, and there is a number next to it, "The choice of one hundred thousand people. You That’s okay too.”

"Is the business of leg warmers okay? I haven't cared about this for a long time." Ronald thought of his cooperation with Jane Fonda in supplying leg warmers through mail. She is also a big customer of her factory.

"About one in 10 customers will purchase a pair of leg warmers, which is pretty good."

So 10,000 people bought leg warmers? Ronald was quite happy because the inspiration he had had an idea and copied from his dream was already selling well. Even if the market segment is not big, improving the living standards of my aunt's family and dozens of families of Vietnam War veterans is still a good thing.

As several people walked through the huge living room of the Jane family, Ronald suddenly remembered the script "My Brother's Keeper" he had written for Jane Fonda.

"By the way, Jane. What's going on with the script? It seems like the two-year deadline is coming soon, right? Has it been shot in Colombia?"

"No, I just want to spend more time with Henry. This is the closest relationship I have had with him in decades." Jane Fonda shook her head and said she would not appear in the movie during this time.

"And don't you know? After Columbia was acquired, Frank Price, who had originally nodded, was severely impacted by the executives sent by the new owner. He no longer had the energy or interest to advance the project."

"Is that so?" Ronald felt that he should call his agent to see what would happen with the script. If his "fast-paced" new film was a hit at the box office, he could also move forward with the project.

"By the way, I forgot to ask you, how is the new film you directed?" Jane Fonda said goodbye to Ronald and the two little girls, and remembered Ronald's identity as a director in the porch.

"The film has been cut and the audience will be invited to test screen it immediately. If there are no problems, it will be released in six months, at the end of July or early August this year."

"Ah, it's always hard waiting for the first movie to come out. You reminded me of when I was making my first movie. I waited every day for it to be released. It took me a full year to see myself on the screen. After that... Someone took the initiative to send me a script.”

"Yeah, now I'm hoping it will be released tomorrow."

Ronald said goodbye and left.

"Ronald, if you were the director, could you really cut the ending of 'Ladies and Gentlemen, The Amazing Stains'?" Diane asked Ronald.

Diane Lane and Laura Dern have also been waiting for that movie to be released for a long time. The two of them did not have a big hit with their first movie like Jane Fonda. Now there are no new scripts coming to their doorsteps, and they have to go to various crews to audition.

If Ronald could cut "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Amazing Dirt Band" and release it theatrically, it might become a hit.

"Of course. Your director is a novice. He used to run a record company. Professional things should be left to professionals like me."