Birth of an actor

Chapter 148

"The movie is beautiful, both the picture and the soundtrack are pleasing to the eye, and it also tells a lot of stories and truths. Director Brest, what do you think is the theme of "Meeting Joe Black"? Love, life, death or religion?" The reporter of "New Yorker" was the first to ask his own question, and cleverly bypassed all embarrassing questions, and started from the theme of the movie instead.

The journalists of professional film magazines like "The New Yorker" and "Film Review" adjust their mentality relatively quickly, because the truth they pursue in film magazines is the four words "objective and fair", although it is a bit self-defeating to scold before boasting Suspicion, but for the magazine's reputation, they should slap themselves, or they should damage their magazine's authoritative status in the industry.

However, there are also many media reporters who are thinking about the shortcomings of the film. They do not want or want to change their positions. "Meeting Joe Blake" was so full of criticism that he could only stick to his own position. No matter how good the film is, even if he wins an Oscar next spring, Andre Acheson will not change his point of view.

Director Martin Brest took the microphone from the host, thought for a while, and said: "Family, love, life, death, and religion are all involved in movies, but what I think is that the theme of the movie is not Which one of them, but all of them, if you have to use one word to sum it up, it should be 'beautiful'. The beauty of love, the beauty of family, the beauty of friendship, the beauty of life, and even death have their beauty On the one hand, of course, I think the most beautiful thing in the whole movie is Will. Just now, when he appeared on the big screen for the first time, I found that the eyes of many people around me were straight, just like when he was filming When he came out of the dressing room, everyone else in the studio reacted exactly the same way—God, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and even Merlin’s beard, who couldn’t help but speak up? I bet I heard a lot five gasps."

The scene was quiet for a second, and then everyone burst into laughter.

The audience grinned "hahahaha", they were amused by Martin Brest's last humor, which reminded them of the nympho appearance that they and their friends were drooling at the god of death on the screen just now. Wife is stupid.

But the only ones who simply find it fun are the audience. On and off the stage, many film creators and the media are extremely surprised in their hearts.

Especially when Martin Brest answered the question and handed the microphone to William proactively and friendlyly, William couldn't help showing a slightly surprised look while reaching out to take it.

William and the media were surprised by the same content: a few months ago, there were several disputes within Universal over whether the film should be re-edited. On the completely opposite position, it even prompted Universal President Ron Meyer to veto the release of the version edited by Martin Brest in North America, causing Martin Brest to be furious, not only unilaterally interrupted the friendship with William, I didn’t even think about bringing the protagonist with me to the Venice Film Festival. This matter is not a secret in Hollywood. Everyone knows that the director and star of “Meet Joe Black” had a falling out. Why is Martin Bryce now Tet actually took the initiative to show his favor to William?

"After Venice, I have realized how big a mistake I made when I was stubborn. Your persistence is correct, Will." When handing over the microphone, Martin Brest deliberately turned the back of his head to the audience, In a very low voice, he quickly said to William: "I think you saved me from a career Waterloo, thanks, Will, and sorry for my stupid behavior before."

This makes sense: Since Universal made the decision to take away Martin Brest's final editing rights, Martin Brest has not paid attention to the post-production of the film for a long time because of anger and stubbornness, and also I have never seen the two-hour North American release version announced by Universal, but after experiencing the embarrassing trip to the Venice Film Festival and the premiere tonight, Martin Brest finally found that it was not him who was right this time, Universal The version he chose is indeed better than his own, and the good thing is not at 01:30. The story is easier to understand, the main line is clearer, the rhythm is tighter, and the plot distribution of each branch story is more reasonable. After comparison, Martin Bly Sturt had to admit that he had been wrong.

What would happen if instead of Universal's version, a three-hour film edited by myself was shown tonight?

Probably, the reaction of the audience will be the same as it was when it was screened in Venice - some people were yawning during the one-hour screening, a large number of people left early, fans criticized and complained mercilessly, reporters asked sarcastic and sarcastic questions, The next day's newspaper news is even more capable of directly causing a heart attack in popularity.

Such a scenario would be a nightmare for any director, and, Universal can tolerate Martin Brest failing in Venice, but will never tolerate him also screwing up the film's North American box office market, thank God the release is better If the European version edited by Martin Brest is released nationwide, and the European version does not win the audience's approval, so that the box office is not good and the word of mouth is not good... His career is over.

Maybe Martin Brest hated and hated William Bradley before, thinking that the other party and Universal teamed up to ruin his movie, but after today, all those negative emotions turned into gratitude.Martin Brest was very annoyed, he hated himself for being too inflated before, and for not seeing the facts clearly earlier.

Because of Martin Brest's initiative to show his favor, the atmosphere on the scene became more relaxed, and the press conference ended in a pleasant atmosphere.

Fans who had been waiting at the scene for a long time flocked towards the actors almost at the same time as the media dispersed. If you just chat for a few days, then you will be very lucky. If not, a signature can also give people a great sense of satisfaction.

……

'Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. '

'Breathe in and out Jonathan!Don't act like you have asthma! '

'Say something, say something quickly, Jonathan, Will has already come over and gave you a hug, hurry up and regain your senses, don't faint from excitement! '

Even though Jonathan Bates' inner howl broke through [-] decibels, and he used all his rationality to coordinate his physical actions, but probably because of the excitement and enjoyment, he only felt that all the strength in his body seemed to be exhausted , his throat was so thirsty that he couldn't make a sound, and he couldn't even move his eyes flexibly. He could only stare straight ahead mechanically, looking back and forth between the envious and jealous expressions.

And his upper body is caught in a hug at the moment, a hug from William Bradley-this is why Jonathan Bates lost all his mobility in an instant, and everyone else is using their arms. The reason for staring at him from generation to generation.

How did all this happen?Jonathan Bates thought, it's actually very simple. Just now, he lined up and walked up to William Bradley, expecting to get a group photo, but he knew in his heart that the most likely thing he got was just an autograph, or not at all. The queue ended when he signed his signature, and then William Bradley looked up, passed through at least three rows in front of Jonathan and saw him, showing a recognized expression and a small smile, and William asked him: "Jonathan Bates, I should remember your name correctly, right? Have you graduated from Harvard? I don’t seem to see you on campus very often. I heard that you even created my personal website? My fan club in school It won't be your participation."

William's words carried magic power, and the people in front of Jonathan took the initiative to step aside, leaving a passage between William and him, just like Moses dividing the sea.

Jonathan Bates was stunned at the time, he hadn't thought of this at all.

Unexpectedly, William did not cast a strange look at his exaggerated attire (green hair, tight leather pants and piercings), unexpectedly, William still remembered his name and appearance clearly, unexpectedly, William remembered that they were Harvard alumni , I didn't expect William to try to find him on the Harvard campus, let alone William knew what he had done for him.

A warm current flowed directly from his throat through his heart and into Jonathan's stomach. His body was trembling slightly. Only by clenching his teeth desperately did he not let the bomb-like excitement in his body really explode.

'Don't be so excited that you lose control', he warned himself in his mind, because he would be so crazy that he would be scared when he was completely excited.

"All the answers are 'yes', except for the point that I have already graduated. I will not graduate until next year, but now I have found an internship job in New York." Jonathan Bates finally spoke, and he was deeply moved. Different from being nervous, the calmness he put on is still very bluffing.

"You're in an internship and you're working with someone else to create a website for me? I think I need to say thank you."

Then the Apollo in Jonathan's heart showed a smile brighter than that of Manhattan on a sunny June day, approached him, and gently gave him a hug full of good smell.

Maybe it was those dark green eyes that cast a spell on him. Jonathan felt that the whole world seemed to be pressed for slow playback, and everything around him was frozen, time, space, William's hug that made him shudder, Everyone in sight had envious and jealous expressions on their faces, and even his thoughts began to tremble, as if he had just drank two glasses of vodka.

This hug seemed to be very long, and it seemed to last for a moment. Soon, an agent came to inform William that they had to leave. When the hug ended, Jonathan felt lost, but he was patted on the back very quickly, and Jonathan looked up. , heard his Apollo say, "Before I say goodbye, can I ask you what you think of this movie?"

"Love it to death, the movie resonates with me a lot." Jonathan said sincerely.

"That's good." William seemed to be greatly relieved: "Since the Venice Film Festival, most of the media's evaluation of the film is not good. Criticize and criticize, so I want to know what the general audience thinks of this movie, after all you are the most important and broadest group. Thank you, Jonathan, I will probably be able to sleep well tonight."

William's question just now, and his words that he valued the general audience's opinion of the film made Jonathan Bates feel respected and a little surprised at the same time-he has also participated in many premieres before and met many big Hollywood stars , but those actors, without exception, are all eager to get praise from the media and film critics, and they don't pay enough attention to the opinions of ordinary audiences who actually pay for tickets to go to the cinema.Today, Jonathan, as an ordinary movie fan, is asked by an actor for the first time in history "Do you like this movie?"

There's no doubt that Jonathan Bates loved "Meet Joe Black," and from what he's just seen in theaters, he's pretty sure most of the rest of the population is, too.

While surprised by William's question, Jonathan Bates felt proud. The actor he liked was so good and different. Today, William gave Jonathan too much happiness, and he felt his chest was full of joy I can’t help but want to give back to William more. This kind of thinking, Jonathan Bates brewed a movie review all night, and logged on to the IMDB website the next day, planning to leave his own movie review on it, but accidentally saw Some of the content that made him burn with anger, fermented to the maximum——

……

Many years later, when some media, or biographers, or Hollywood movie screenwriters re-examine the last two months of [-], they will find that an event that occurred during these two months not only It has changed Hollywood and even the marketing model of the world film industry.

This is a veritable "butterfly storm". Although the cause of this incident is very simple, it is just a campaign launched by some people from the US website. , and even in other countries and regions, the effect of the event finally caused a sensation all over the world—some people say that Hollywood’s first real celebrity fan movie was born since then, but because the "fan movie" covers too much, this conclusion is not true There are few objections, so I won't give a detailed introduction.

To talk about an event that even has an impact on the Hollywood landscape, it has to start with the personal website fans created for William, which is the cornerstone of everything.

No matter from which aspect, William Bradley's personal website is the most unique.

Because I heard that the website was founded by Harvard’s William Fan Club, and the first group of resident members were all students from Harvard or nearby Ivy League universities, and a reporter from The New Yorker who went to the website and lurked for a while wrote: “ Maybe it’s just like the old saying, what kind of idols have what kind of fans——William Bradley was half an actor, ran to open a film company, became the CEO and producer, his The personal website created for him by movie fans is also full of various Hollywood elements."

William has a personal website, which was created by fans spontaneously, and the homepage and internal functions are well designed. This has aroused a lot of discussion in Hollywood. Who are the current Hollywood actors who have personal websites?More representative, Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Julia Roberts, etc., are all A-list or Transcendent A exists, and almost all of them are born in the 50s or 60s.

Among Hollywood actors born in the [-]s, William and Leonardo DiCaprio were the first to have personal websites, which in a sense is a symbol of rising popularity and status, not to mention William's personal website Still so unique.

First of all, unlike most of today’s personal websites of celebrities who need to register to view and post posts, and even the posts will be reviewed by the administrator before they are published, any visitor to William’s personal website can browse the latest information on the website, only by posting and You only need to register when you enter some internal sections, just register and do not need to go through any review. This kind of full respect for everyone's privacy and openness is easy to make people who browse the website feel good.

Secondly, William's work trends published on the website are also the latest and most timely (Amon Goffman and Barbara Wilson have followed the website, so it is likely that they provide information), and because William is a bachelor and often hangs out with friends, Most of his friends are also stars or celebrities, and the website will also publish inquiries from other actors. At first, they were from friends around William, and later expanded to include his neighbors in Beverly Hills and even filming partners. Because the website is very open and free, and the atmosphere is great (most of them are fans of William or friends, so naturally they can't fight), so it also attracted many other star fans who don't have a personal website to station here.

Finally, a large number of fans of Tolkien and J.K. Rowling flooded into the website at some point. When will "And the Sorcerer's Stone" be filmed? Later, even the LGBT community at Harvard came to station, and then the LGBT people in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. There is even a section on the website named after the rainbow flag.Of course, in this era when the mainstream society does not yet recognize the gay community, this section is also one of the few areas on the website that requires verification to enter.

In the words of one of William's movie fans: "I have never seen such a personal website. It is like a United Nations of fans, a paradise for like-minded people to make friends, and even the website version of "Hollywood Report."

Amon Goffman, Barbara Wilson, and even Danny Bourne would browse the website from time to time, but William himself hadn’t been there, because he felt that such behavior was a bit too narcissistic, but if William himself had If he goes to experience the website, he will find that his personal website is a bit like the embryonic form of social forums and news websites for later generations.

In the simplest terms, it's awesome.

On November 1998, 11, the day after "Meeting Joe Black" was released in North America, one of the founders of William's personal website, Jonathan Bates with the website ID "McCawby" pinned a post on the website , this post is like a torch, burning from the website, to IMDB, which is already very mature in operation, to Rotten Tomatoes, which has just been launched not long ago, to all other film and television review and scoring websites, and finally to the entire Internet. and even the real world.