Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Pat Morita followed Ronald's advice, went back to grow a beard and practice his English, trying to speak worse, like an immigrant.

Ronald promised him that he would at least try to get him another audition opportunity in front of Weintraub.

After that, Ronald still focused on getting familiar with the preparations left by Avildsen and his team.

Avildsen chose old teams that he had worked with for many years. Including director of photography James Crabbe and art director William Cassidy. They have been working with Avildsen since "Rocky".

Because "Rocky 4" and "Rambo 2" that Avildsen was preparing were in the very early stages of preparation, the scripts had not been completed, and it would take a long time before the crew was established. Therefore, the two most important characters in the team did not leave with him.

Ronald talked to them separately and said that he admired the style of their previous works, and that his own "The Karate Kid" would be a realistic photography style like "Rocky". If the two have no better choice, he hopes they will stay and continue to work in the crew.

Art director Cassidy quickly agreed and agreed to continue the location scouting work.

Director of photography Karab was a little hesitant. He asked Ronald, "What do you think of the Rainbow Parade in San Francisco?"

"Rainbow Parade?" Ronald remembered that when he went to San Francisco, there were people from all over the country with different orientations singing and dancing on the streets of San Francisco. He immediately understood the other party's concerns.

In the film industry, some people are more tolerant, but there are also stubborn conservatives. Ronald's attitude towards such things is very indifferent. As long as he can do a good job, he doesn't mind.

"I think American laws guarantee individual freedom, and personal affairs are not enough to affect me."

"Then I am willing to stay. I like the photography style of your last movie. Let's talk about "The Karate Kid". What style do you want? Use those colors as the main color tone?"

The crew quickly returned to normal. Ronald kept scouting and auditioning, and returned to the rhythm of the shooting season. Work more than ten hours a day and don't rest on weekends.

However, Ronald still took half a day off at noon today and arrived at Los Angeles International Airport.

Because today is the day Helen Slater and other "Supergirl" crew members return to Los Angeles.

Helen and Maureen Tiffey, who plays Supergirl's best friend Lucy in the movie, walked out of the cabin at the same time. Outside the aisle were two men who had been waiting for a long time.

Ronald held Helen and turned around a few times. In order to exercise to play Supergirl, Helen is now close to 120 pounds, and Ronald feels a lot heavier when holding her.

"Hi, Maureen", after putting Helen down, Ronald greeted Maureen Tiffey. He and the actress have a special relationship. When filming "Famous", Ronald dated Antonia, who was a member of the crew and a classmate of Antonia's character.

Later, he dated Michelle Pfeiffer, who starred in "Grease 2", and Maureen Tiffey played Pfeiffer's best friend in the movie.

In the current "Supergirl", Maureen plays the best friend of Helen's character again.

Ronald did not dare to neglect such a close friend of his ex-girlfriends, "Excuse me, who is this?"

"This is my husband, Alexander Cassini, who is also a screenwriter and director." Maureen Tiffey quickly introduced her husband to Ronald. Maureen has been dating her current husband since she became "famous" and they just got married not long ago.

Ronald is very popular now. Helen said that he recently directed another medium-sized Hollywood production. It is very beneficial to deepen the relationship.

"Hello, nice to meet you." Ronald greeted Maureen's husband, chatted with him for a few words, and left with Helen first.

The two returned to the apartment. Ronald asked Helen to take a hot bath first, then sleep and wait for the evening activities.

"Supergirl" is a super production. After the filming is completed, a formal party will be held to let friends in the media take the opportunity to report on the film.

Helen put on her pajamas and lay in bed. The new quilt and sheets gave off a pleasant smell.

"Will you stay with me for a while?" Helen hid in the bed, her cheeks flushed again, and said to Ronald.

"Okay, I have to tell you something. I told producer Weintraub that I want you to directly participate in the second round of auditions for the heroine Ali in "The Karate Kid."

"Huh?" Helen was a little surprised when she heard the news suddenly, "Why do you want me to play this role? Isn't it just a girl next door?"

"Why, you don't want to play?" Ronald saw Helen's face and felt a little disappointed. He wanted to spend more time with Helen as much as possible, so he didn't tell her in advance this time and asked Weintraub for a favor first.

The film and television industry often shoots for several months, so the two can only rely on international long-distance and international flights to meet. Ronald really wants to make a movie with Helen so that the two can live together on the crew.

"Not really, I want to play some roles that are challenging to my acting skills. In the story you told me last time, Ali was relatively flat. She didn't have much character development and transformation. She was just an important stop on Danny's journey of life."

"This?" Ronald was a little unhappy. Ali was not a character without any room for acting. Although she didn't have many scenes, she was the starting point and the end point of the conflicts in the whole movie.

The conflict between Danny and Johnny, Danny's desire to learn karate, and finally winning the karate championship, were all for Ali. The audience's attention will stay on her for a long time.

"But Helen is now the star of a big production, and her agent may have made other arrangements for her." Ronald thought so and felt relieved.

Helen noticed Ronald's displeasure, "Even if I want to make a movie with you, I have signed a three-movie contract with Alexander and Ilya Salkind, the father and son of the Superman series. If they don't agree to let me shoot, I can't sign the contract. And the preparations for the second part of Supergirl are about to begin."

"Okay, I made my own decision." Ronald promised to find someone else to play Ali.

"Damn Salkind, why did you have to go to the Pinewood Studios in Britain to shoot Supergirl?" Ronald felt that he might be separated from Helen again.

Helen slept for a few hours and woke up near dusk. The two attended the press conference dinner for the completion of the filming of "Supergirl" together.

Helen answered questions from several reporters, and Ronald stood beside her as a foil. Hollywood reporters seemed to have discovered their close relationship, took a lot of photos of the two, and asked Ronald about his thoughts on "Supergirl".

Ronald said that he had not seen the movie yet, but he thought it must be another masterpiece in the "Superman" series.

This flattery made the Salkind father and son at the scene laugh, and they hurried up to chat with Ronald for a while. They knew the relationship between Ronald and Helen, so they invited him to attend the internal screening of the rough cut, and also invited Ronald to participate in future release marketing.

Ronald agreed to watch the rough cut and the subsequent release, saying that he had a directing project recently and it depends on the time arrangement at that time.

Helen, who was interviewed, was still wearing a second-hand evening dress she bought from a second-hand store, a white dress and a red top coat, and the whole person looked very cute. She also liked this dress very much.

Ronald thought that although she looked beautiful in anything, the color, cut and texture of the second-hand evening dress did not match her deep blue eyes and milky white skin.

Fortunately, Giorgio Armani had agreed to contract the dresses for him and Helen for next year's awards season. When Helen stood with him, it would definitely be very charming, and it would kill a lot of reporters' film.

After imagining Helen wearing a backless low-cut dress in his mind, Ronald couldn't help laughing, and Helen turned to look at him. The two smiled at each other and felt very warm.

"Why did your eyes turn green?" Ronald always liked to be intoxicated by Helen's big eyes.

"My eye color will change according to the environment," Helen smiled.

"Oh," Ronald nodded. He didn't know much about the eye and hair colors of this set of white people. His eyes were amber, and he had never noticed whether they would show different colors during the day and at night.

Ronald continued to watch Helen chatting with his crew colleagues and reporters. He found that Helen hardly ate and rarely drank the champagne in her hand. But she was full of energy and dealt with several groups of reporters in succession.

Ronald returned home and waited for Helen to take a shower and change clothes. He opened a bottle of Coppola red wine bought from Coppola's winery, poured two glasses, and then took some salami recommended by Coppola.

After not eating for the whole afternoon and night, Ronald prepared some snacks for Helen.

"No, I've eaten enough." Helen refused the sausage and only drank a sip of red wine.

"I see you didn't eat at night?" Ronald said.

"I want to keep in shape and lose weight." Helen pinched her belly again. Fortunately, there was no fat there. But there was obviously more muscle and fat on her thighs and face.

"Aren't you going to continue to play Superwoman? This figure is just right." Ronald knew that actresses were most afraid of getting fat, and the two ex-girlfriends were the same. They were always afraid to eat delicious food.

"Every day when watching the sample film, Faye Dunaway always said that I was too fat. I don't care. I want to lose weight."

I didn't expect it to be hatred between the actresses in the crew. Ronald knew what made Faye Dunaway's skeleton-like thin body. He quickly comforted Helen.

"It's okay, you have a standard body. I used to be on the wrestling team at school. If you really want to lose weight, as long as the calories burned by exercise exceed the calories consumed."

"Really?" Helen looked at Ronald and ate a few slices of salami obediently.

"It tastes good. Next, change to exercise." Helen pounced, hugged Ronald's neck with both hands, and hung her legs on him.

Ronald kissed Helen affectionately, hugged Helen like this, kicked open the bedroom door, and prepared to exercise.

"Don't say it, hugging like this, I'm really a little fat." Ronald didn't dare to say what he was thinking, and quickly took action to help Helen lose weight.

The two of them lay on the bed sweating profusely. Ronald got up to reach the remote control. He wanted to lie on the bed and watch TV with his girlfriend. It was rare to enjoy such a reunion with his girlfriend. In a few days, Helen would fly back to New York to reunite with her parents.

"I'm going to take a shower. I'm sticky." Helen got out of bed and walked out the door.

Ronald watched TV for a while and remembered that he forgot to prepare a bath towel for Helen. He also jumped out of bed and took out the prepared new bath towel from the closet and walked over to give it to Helen.

"Ugh... Ugh..."

Outside the bathroom, Ronald seemed to hear the sound of Helen vomiting.

Ronald's heart moved. This was not a good sign. Karen Carpenter, a female singer that he and Helen both liked, died of anorexia and health problems because others made fun of her slightly plump figure.

Ronald began to suspect that Helen was also afraid of getting fat from eating meat, so she vomited all the meat she ate.

"Helen, are you okay? I'll bring you a bath towel." Ronald knocked on the door outside the bathroom and said loudly.

"It's nothing. I'm just not used to drinking red wine with this kind of raw salami. My stomach is a little uncomfortable. I'll be fine after vomiting it out."

"It's okay. I was a little worried about you."

"It's okay. Maybe I'm a little dizzy after taking a long flight and drinking some champagne and red wine." Helen opened the door, took Ronald's towel, and then quickly dried herself, changed into pajamas and went to bed.

She hugged Ronald and fell asleep sweetly soon.

Ronald looked at her beautiful face and was a little worried. Helen might also have anorexia.

After Helen got on the plane back to New York, Ronald immediately called Helen's father Gerald.

"Gerald, this is Ronald. Helen is already on the plane. I called you because I recently encountered something that seems to be worrying." Ronald told Gerald about what he saw Helen vomiting.

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while. "I know. When Helen was thirteen, she had severe anorexia. I thought she was fine after all these years."

"Maybe it's because of Supergirl. I heard her say that someone said she looked fatter in the movie."

"Well, this is all a problem between me and her mother."

Gerald confirmed Ronald's concerns on the phone. When they were getting divorced, Helen had symptoms of anorexia, such as artificial vomiting after eating. Later, she sought medical treatment from many places but was not cured until her family doctor introduced a famous psychologist.

The psychologist finally found the root cause of Helen's repeated vomiting. Whenever she encountered something she couldn't handle (such as her parents' divorce), she would blame herself, thinking that it was because she was fat and disliked by her parents. And her solution was to make herself thinner.

Originally, as Helen grew older, she could understand that her parents' divorce was not her fault, and later she was not so taboo about eating and getting fat. Unexpectedly, there were signs of relapse this time.

"I'm worried, Gerald. I want to take the next flight to New York to see her."

"Not for now, I'll contact that famous psychiatrist for her, don't worry about it. Let's keep in touch, and if the situation is not good and I need you to come, I'll let you know."