[US Entertainment] Actor

The lights are warm and bright, the music is blaring, the colorful Christmas tree and the roasted turkey complement each other, and at the dining table that is wiped clean so that its reflection can be seen, Leonardo and Ebert raised their red wine glasses at the same time : "Happy New Year, next year will be a better year."

The light illuminated their faces, and every eyelash and every trace of blush on their faces were reflected extremely clearly. Compared with when they first met, Ebert was much more mature, and Leonardo's face was more mature. There are a few wrinkles, but everything is moving in a good direction. In such a beautiful and warm Christmas, looking back on the bits and pieces since we met, everything is full of infinite fun.

Ebert felt that his relationship with Leonardo was more than just lovers.During the three years, their relationship has gradually become stronger, and what surrounds them is not the dynamism of love to madness, but a flat, warm feeling like family.

In fact, this has something to do with them being the same sex. Their relationship cannot be exposed at this stage. Compared with heterosexual couples, they face more difficulties, so they cherish this relationship more than others.Hollywood love is always mixed with various factors, and is more easily affected by external turmoil. Even the strongest relationship is fragile in the face of reality.

Ebert and Leonardo had a happy Christmas. After Christmas, Ebert specially met with David Fincher, the director of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". It can be seen that Fincher Doubts remained about his ability to play the role, but after Ebert talked about his understanding of the script, David Fincher's doubts finally disappeared.

Great actors are always adapting to the role.In the history of film, some characters can become classics because actors endow them with vigor and vitality.Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal is a classic, and Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump is also a classic, but if they were played by a not so good actor, these roles would not be so brilliant. The place where an actor's understanding and acting skills are tested the most.

The way Ebert chose to make David Fincher trust is that he let David Fincher know that he will definitely play the role of Benjamin Button well, because he has this strength, and he is already adapting to the script and adapting to this The state of the character, not because he looks like Benjamin Button, or his age fits, his personality fits, none of these fit Ebert's understanding of acting.

His understanding of acting is that he can play a murderous, crazy and cold-blooded demon well, and he can also amuse elementary school students in comedies. He will not stick to a certain type of role, and he can control all types. In this way His development will not encounter any resistance.

The new year has come in such a relaxed and happy atmosphere.Of course, although Ebert is doing well, Hollywood has been in a miserable state since the beginning of 2008.

Things started with the Hollywood screenwriter strike in November last year. On November 11th, the Hollywood Writers Guild East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild West (WGAW) jointly launched a general strike against the Alliance of Film and Television Producers (AMPTP), protesting unfair treatment, overlord clauses, and the use of non-members in the entertainment industry. Many kinds of phenomena.11 screenwriters participated in this event. They fought against the Producers Association for many controversies in the work process. The wave of protests spread to almost every aspect of Hollywood and had a huge impact on the entire American entertainment industry.

In Hollywood, the status of screenwriters is actually quite embarrassing. They earn less and are often bound by the overlord clause. Although the average income of the 12000 members of the Screenwriters Guild is around $20, there is a huge disparity between the rich and the poor. For example, the screenwriters of "Grey's Anatomy" earn as much as $500 million a year, but the screenwriters who work hard at the bottom of the industry even earn less than $5 a year.

What's even more embarrassing is that they may not be able to achieve even this job with an annual salary of less than 5 US dollars. According to the internal statistics of the association, many screenwriters have been unemployed for a long time. They have no job invitations, and many of them even have to Give up your job as a screenwriter.

Work on many talk shows, TV series and movies has been affected since last November.The season of the hit drama "11 Hours" was canceled, and the filming of "Angels and Demons", a companion piece to "The Da Vinci Code", was postponed. In early January, the Screenwriters Association announced their boycott of this year's Golden Globe Awards. Writing lines, some of the nominated screenwriters also announced their refusal to attend the Golden Globes.

From this moment on, the capital predators in the circle had to start to face up to the power of screenwriters. Although their presence in the entire entertainment industry is weak, there is no doubt that without screenwriters, neither the Oscars nor the Golden Globes were held. possibility of going down.

A new round of negotiations is still going on, however, the shadow of a screenwriter's strike still hangs over Hollywood. Big companies have to adjust their plans for the beginning of the year in time, and some high-investment scripts have to be postponed. Minimize the impact of the writers strike.

"I think I should have telepathy. As soon as I refused the Golden Globe, the Golden Globe was simply not held."

"A wise decision. This keeps you from getting into an embarrassing situation, and you get a lot of praise." Leonardo rubbed Ebert's hair with a smile, his eyes full of pride.

Things developed so unexpectedly. On January 1, the Screenwriters Guild just announced its boycott of the Golden Globe Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild followed suit and joined hands with the Screenwriters Guild to boycott the Golden Globe Awards.Under the pressure of the two, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had to announce the cancellation of this year's Golden Globe Awards on January 4.

In fact, the moment the Screen Actors Union made a decision, this year's Golden Globe awards were doomed to fail. Those like Ebert who declined the invitation to the Golden Globes in advance were lucky. Those actors who accepted the invitations of the Golden Globes excitedly They are undoubtedly embarrassed. As members of the trade union, they have to follow in the footsteps of the trade union and join the army to boycott the Golden Globe Awards, but others have no way of knowing what they think in their hearts.

In short, what happened on January 1 was undoubtedly an embarrassing thing for those actors who announced in advance that they had received invitations to the Golden Globes.

But now no one cares about their embarrassment, even the tabloid reporters who are usually keen to track hot spots have no time to pay attention to a certain star making a fool of himself in front of the public.Now, from the moment the Golden Globe Awards were announced to be cancelled, the eyes of the entire Hollywood are focused on the 2th Academy Awards ceremony scheduled to be held on February 24.

Whether the Oscars will be held smoothly depends on the outcome of the negotiations between the Writers Guild and the Producers Union.If the negotiations go well, the screenwriters' strike will naturally be stopped. Of course, they can contribute to the Oscars, which will be held more than a month later. But if the negotiations break down, the screenwriters' strike will continue. Had to stop working.

For the world film industry, the suspension of the Oscars is definitely earth-shattering news!

In the 80-year history of the Oscars, the awards will be held every year on the scheduled time, and there have only been three postponements.The first was in 1938, when the Los Angeles floods delayed the ceremony by a week, the second in 1968, when the date of the ceremony clashed with the funeral of human rights champion Martin Luther King Jr., and most recently in 1981 , because someone attempted to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan, and the awards ceremony was delayed for 24 hours.

But no matter before or after the war or during the economic depression, the Oscars never stopped!

Of course, when the United States is faced with various emergencies, people of insight will also advocate the cancellation of the Oscars that year, but no matter how strong the voices are, the academy has always remained silent and insisted that the annual Oscars be held as scheduled.For example, in 03, the voice of anti-war in the United States was particularly strong, but the only change made by the academy was to award the Oscar winner to "The Pianist", which symbolizes peace.

This has always been a tradition of the Academy. For example, when the opposition to the Vietnam War in the United States was the most intense, the Academy awarded the best film to "The Deer Hunter", which opposed the Vietnam War. At the Oscars in 1942 during World War II, the best film was awarded to I chose William Wheeler's "House of Courage", because this movie told the story of a middle-class American family defending their home and country, which was in line with the mainstream values ​​at the time.

However, those are the consequences of changes in the current situation. The postponement is only a change in time. However, if the strike of the Screenwriters Association goes to the end, it is impossible for Oscar to stop.

After all, without a screenwriter, who will write words for the host and guests, who knows how to use the most elegant rhetoric to introduce a best candidate film, the actors are all masters of fraud, but they are not born with the ability to write, even if They can still maintain their composure on the court, but it is almost impossible to make a witty joke.

"I don't know how long the strike will stop." Taking advantage of his free time, Ebert drove to the Endeavor Elite company building.I don't know if it's his delusion, but since the screenwriters association went on strike, all the places where Hollywood people hang out seem to have become a lot deserted. The awards season, which was in full swing in previous years, has not had much media coverage this year, and even the gaming companies seem to have closed their businesses. It seems that at this time last year they were still betting on who would be the final winner, Forest Whitaker or Ebert, but this year, when it was uncertain whether the Oscars would be held or not, no one had Thinking about wasting your money.

Of course, the strike has little impact on a top actor like Ebert.If he was nominated for an Oscar this year, he might still be anxious for a while, but he has nothing to do with the Oscar this year, and his worries should belong to other people, not him at all.

The manager couldn't help sighing, "What a lucky boy."

Ebert, the headquarters of the Endeavor Elite Company, does not appear many times, but every time he comes, he always has some fresh feelings.

As soon as he entered the building, the staff at the front desk and the elevator kept smiling and greeting him. Ebert just walked to the floor where Lynn was, opened the door and chatted for a few minutes, and the company executives who heard the news laughed. I went up to him and talked with him for more than half an hour.

"Think strange?" The agent snorted lightly, taking in Ebert's discomfort and embarrassment.

Ebert nodded: "I remember...the last time I came here, they didn't seem to be so enthusiastic."

"Of course, stupid boy, it's a businessman's instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. You don't show up in the building once a year, and you don't have many contacts with high-level officials. The newcomers who have joined the job in recent years know that there is a man named Ai Burt Dawson's guy hasn't even met you once outside of the company's signing star." Lynn continued, "You just won another Oscar. Do you know how you feel to the upper echelon? Dissociation. You This company doesn’t have deep feelings, but you are the most profitable star, of course they want to do their best to keep you. The influence brought by a superstar is worth ten second-tier stars.”

"Superstar? Are you just a self-proclaimed one? I've never thought so." Ebert found Lynn's tone extremely funny, so he couldn't help interjecting.

"In short, the senior management of the company is worried that you will withdraw and leave. After all, everyone can see that you have a bright future and great potential. If you switch to CAA or WMA, there must be many people rushing to get you."

Ebert admitted this.Endeavor Elite is, after all, a company that mainly focuses on contracted TV artists. Although there are many big-name movie stars under its umbrella, such as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, in terms of potential and development speed, none of them can compete with Ebert compared to.Lynn can even say with pride that Ebert is now the number one superstar under the Endeavor Elite.

When he first joined, Ebert was only a rising star in Hollywood, but his development was really ferocious, and he rose to the top in just over six years. His achievements on the Internet are impressive, and in terms of awards, he also surpassed most of the veteran stars under the Endeavor Elite, and won the statuette at such an astonishing age of 27 years old.

When it comes to future development, Ebert is also not weak.David Fincher's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is going to win an Oscar. The second "Dark Knight" in the Batman series is also scheduled to be released this year. It has a good foundation laid by the first one. With Christopher Nolan's word-of-mouth as a guarantee, and the participation of popular villains such as "Joker" and "Two-Face" in the trailer, the possibility of this movie becoming a hit is more than 50%.

Ebert's development is outstanding, and the upper echelon of the progressive elite is both proud and contradictory.Ebert's success will inevitably attract a large number of young actors to join the progressive elite, especially film actors. The company's shortcomings in film have been well supplemented.But as Ebert's momentum became more and more prosperous, the company's top executives found that they seemed to have nothing to attract and keep Ebert, except money, oh, more than that, and his agent Lynn Hawke.

But Lynn Hawke is a thorn in the side!He can dominate most of the top executives of the company by relying on the share of income given by Ebert every year. Even if the progressive elites are willing to spend more money to keep him, the shareholders have different views on this matter. Some powerful old-fashioned brokers also don't want Lynn to break their previous income level. In addition, they are also worried that giving money will increase Lynn's appetite. In this way, they can only slightly increase Lynn's year-end dividend ratio and other resources are very limited.

So a new question arises. Under such circumstances, can Lynn help them keep Ebert in the Endeavor Elite with all his heart?

The answer is unknown.

In fact, Endeavor Elite does not need to be so distressed. Ebert is still very satisfied with the status quo. Although Endeavor Elite has given him very limited help in terms of scripts and resources, but in the rising period of Ebert's career, in order to For him to get more and better opportunities, Endeavor Elite still spent a lot of thought.

Moreover, when an actor really comes to the front line, the role that the agency can play is very limited. This is often the time when the star returns to the company.The reason why the Endeavor Elite is worried is that the frequency of first-line actors leaving is also very high. This situation is like the peaches that they cultivated so hard are picked by others, and the reputation and influence of that actor will only be returned to others on the new company.

Ebert's biggest advantage now is that he is very young. Among the first-line actors who are still active in Hollywood, he is the youngest, so he does not have many competitors of the same age.When a good script calls for an actor his age, he's the studio's first choice.

The situation of those actors around 40 years old is even worse. There are only so many good scripts. There are acting masters like Tom Hanks and Daniel Day-Lewis in the past, and then there are Leonardo who was born in the 70s. The juniors who are equally good in strength and acting skills are all rivals of these actors in their careers.

Every year, there are only five seats in the Oscars. In order to compete for a good script to take their careers to the next level, the usually elegant men will tear their heads and blood, but in the end, someone still needs to accept it. Those scripts are not too high quality.

To become famous as early as possible, this is Ebert's biggest emotion after he came to Endeavor Elite for a circle.For example, he, Leonardo, they can’t play middle-aged men facing marriage crisis, nor can they play gray-haired politicians who have fought for the country all their lives. The film company doesn’t trust them to play such roles well.But after all, there are some movies in Hollywood that require young actors to play the leading roles. At this time, Leonardo and Ebert will be taken into consideration.

"In short, I have no plans to take you to CAA and WMA. There are too many big-name stars in them, and the resources will not be allocated to you. But here, I can make conditions with them as much as I want. Those fools only need me I can meet any conditions without asking them for money, and I am very happy here.”

"Because you are a gold agent?" Ebert smiled slightly as he looked at Lynn who handled everything with ease.