Exploiting Hollywood 1980

John Hughes is from Chicago. His first job was as a copywriter at Leo Burnett Advertising Company. Later, he also wrote humorous articles for National Lampoon magazine.

This part-time job gave him the opportunity to switch to the film industry. He published an article in the magazine, which was adapted into the 1978 hit comedy "National Lampoon's Animal House".

His two sequel scripts, "National Lampoon's Homecoming" and "National Lampoon's Vacation", were both successful, especially the recently released "Vacation", which has a very strong box office momentum. This made Hughes noticed by Ned Tanin and signed a directing contract.

This script is called "Sixteen Candles", which is another script of John Hughes. After being rejected by Tanin, he rushed it out in less than a week.

It tells the story of Samantha Baker, a girl from a middle-class family in the suburbs of Chicago, who was forgotten by everyone in the family on her sixteenth birthday.

Samantha's parents and grandparents were busy with her sister's wedding, and she was also ignored by her crush, Jack Ryan, a rich man in the school. .

With the help of her male friend Ted Farmer, Samantha finally fell in love with her crush Jack Ryan after her sister's wedding, and Ryan lit sixteen candles for Samantha at home.

After flipping through the script casually, Ronald had a general impression of the story. It may be related to Hughes's background. The story of this script also takes place in the suburbs of Chicago, where wealthy white middle-class people live.

All the characters in it are white, except for one high school exchange student from Korea in Asia, whose name is also very strange, Longdukdong.

This somewhat vulgar name for Asians made Ronald a little unhappy, but when he thought that Hughes wrote for the vulgar comedy magazine "National Lampoon", he understood it.

"Farmer and baker? Why didn't they end up together?" Ronald saw the last names of the two protagonists, Samantha and Ted, and thought Hughes did it on purpose. However, the two opposite-sex friends did not end up together, and Samantha went to celebrate her birthday with her crush.

"I had this idea..." John Hughes adjusted his glasses. Ronald was an expert and saw the joke he set at a glance. Samantha and Ted were both from ordinary families, while Jack Ryan was from a wealthy family and his father had a Rolls-Royce.

"But American audiences like beautiful women with heroes, don't they?" Ned Tanin interrupted.

"That makes sense." Ronald put down the script and continued to visit.

"Ronald, this is actually the script I want to shoot, but Mr. Tanin wants me to shoot this commercial film first." John Hughes saw that Ronald also agreed with his point of view that Samantha and Ted being together was the ending that the story should have, so he took out another script for Ronald to read.

"The Breakfast Club?" Ronald flipped through the script and glanced at the synopsis.

"Actually, I really like your 'Richmond High'", John Hughes adjusted his big black-framed glasses again. I really like the idea of ​​focusing on different types of high school teenagers, so I set the protagonists to be five typical high school characters.

Athletes, princesses, criminals, smart people, and deep well ice. Arrange them to be detained on the same day to break the social barriers of high school students and let them get to know each other. "

"Oh, God. John, you have to make this movie first. If it is a hit, then the Breakfast Club is a very simple thing, and the investment is not high." Ned Tanin's temper came up again, and he came over and pulled Ronald aside.

"I invited you here mainly to hear your opinion. Which heroine in 'Sixteen Candles' do you think is a good choice? "

The audition photos of the two leading actresses were placed on the table. One was Ally Sheedy, the heroine of "War Games" whom Ronald had seen on the movie screen. The other was a red-haired girl who looked younger.

"It seems that producer Ned Tanin and director John Hughes also had a dispute," Ronald thought to himself. In today's large studios, producers always give comments on scripts, casting and other things to show their abilities and vision.

However, they rarely give comments on technical jobs such as camera and recording. Because the photographer can generously say, "Why don't you do it?"

As for the screenwriter and casting, anyone who has seen the movie can come out and talk about it.

"Why not choose her? Ally is very beautiful and has been tested by the market. "Tanning likes Ali Sheedy, the heroine in War Games.

As for director John Hughes' favorite Molly Ringwald, he said in a light tone, "No, I wrote this script for Molly Ringwald after seeing her casting photo."

After "The Karate Kid", Ronald saw this kind of controversy in casting again. He did not give his own preference, but asked Hughes what he thought.

"Because Molly has a trait that allows the audience to empathize with her. "

Ronald held up the photos of the two actresses and looked at them for a long time. "Why not let them all come to audition? In this way, we can directly see their acting skills and temperament. If we choose one, we can recall it later and see the chemical reaction with other actors."

"Let's do it." Tanin gradually became confident in his vision and agreed to Ronald's suggestion, "But you have to come when the time comes."

"Yes, you have to come, Ronald." John Hughes was also trying to win Ronald. He saw that Ronald had some influence on Tanin. He also knew that director Ronald's "fast pace" had a deep understanding of the essence of youth films, and he would definitely agree with his judgment. Inviting him to attend the audition would increase his persuasiveness.

During the audition the next day, Ronald came to the Universal office as scheduled. The two actresses, Ali Siti and Molly Ringwald, came in to shoot an audition separately.

Gu 伬\u0026lt;/span\u0026gt;After watching the performances of the two, Ronald was sure that John Hughes was right. Molly Ringwald was indeed the best candidate because she was a teenager herself.

Ali Sheedy was born in 1962 and is 21 years old this year. If she plays the role of Samantha, she must use "methods" to fit into the role.

Molly Ringwald was born in 1968 and is exactly 15 years old this year. She is exactly the same age as Samantha in the play.

There is a very difficult part in playing a teenage role, that is, most people, after adulthood, will forget the stupid things they did in high school, some of the stupid ideas, and the feelings for some inexplicable things.

If you want to re-experience these emotions and ideas, you must go back to high school undercover for a period of time like Cameron Crowe, the screenwriter of "Fast and Furious Richmond High".

Often, when a 20-year-old person reads his diary from the previous few years, he will be surprised at the rapid change of his thoughts, and sometimes he can't remember why he wrote it in the diary.

And a 30-year-old person, when reading his diary when he was 20 years old, will easily remember his thoughts and feelings at that time.

This is the difficulty of teenage roles. And generally speaking, teenage actors are in the rebellious period and are very difficult to discipline. But Molly Ringwald is a spiritual girl, she has a mature side beyond ordinary people.

Molly is in high school, she knows all aspects of high school life, what makes her embarrassed, and which boys make her heart beat.

"I think it's clear, Ali Sidi is good, but Molly Ringwald is Samantha," Ronald told Ned Tanin about his thoughts.

Tanin also nodded frequently, not knowing whether he really agreed with Ronald's ideas, or because he had a step down, it was more decent to agree with John Hughes's opinion.

"Sorry, I have to go to the bathroom." Ronald got up and walked out of the audition room, leaving Tanin and Hughes a chance to chat and communicate alone.

He walked to the corridor outside the door, and his memory came back to the scenes of his battle of wits and courage with Tom Mount. He has made some achievements along the way.

"Excuse me, is this the audition location for "Sixteen Candles"?" A voice interrupted Ronald's memory.

Ronald looked up and saw an Asian face with hair parted in the middle, which was quite funny.

"Yes, are you here for an interview?"

"Yes, I'm here to audition for the role of Long Da Diao. My name is Gerd Watanabe, you can call me Gerd." The Japanese actor stretched out his hand and shook hands with Ronald.

"Hello, Gerd, they are still interviewing the heroine. You may have to wait." Ronald heard Mr. Watanabe speak, and his pronunciation was completely like that of an American born and raised, so he guessed that he was a second-generation or even third-generation immigrant.

"Well, I'm just going to prepare."

Watanabe took out a page of paper, which was exactly what he prepared when he came for the audition.

"A very good dinner. Appetizers, served in interesting round pies." Watanabe began to speak the lines in a funny accent.

"Huh?" Ronald was surprised to hear Watanabe's accent change, from a boy who had been educated in America since childhood, to the dull accent of Koreans speaking English, and speaking very slowly, as if he had thought about what to say in Korean first, and then translated it into English word by word.

Ronald was very surprised, this acting was very extraordinary.

"How did you do it? This accent is exactly the same as the Korean tourists I saw."

"I learned it from the Korean exchange students in school." Watanabe has completely switched to the accent of the Korean exchange student Long Da Diao.

"I like your performance, especially your accent." Later, John Hughes, who was auditioning, was very satisfied with Gerd Watanabe's audition performance, and agreed with him on the spot to let Watanabe vacate his schedule.

"Actually, he is..." Ronald found it very interesting that Watanabe spoke with the Korean accent during the entire audition. John Hughes might have thought he was a Korean actor.

"Thank you, I will make time for it. Thank you for your support, thank you Director Hughes, and thank you Ronald..."

Watanabe thanked everyone in a Korean accent, and winked at Ronald, asking him not to tell anyone that he could speak fluent American English.

Ronald understood and winked, indicating that he would not expose his plan to John Hughes.

....