Hollywood Domination Chapter 207: Transition role

Although Los Angeles in November can only be regarded as slightly chilly, in the mountainous area of ​​Wicklow County, Ireland, November has already entered deep winter, and Ireland in winter is humid, foggy, and quite cold-but, In the manor where Daniel Day-Lewis and his family hide, of course, there are perfect heating measures, so that the two young children will not be frozen, and the wife from the other side of the ocean is used to the Americans who have perfected the almost luxurious heating system.

Although Daniel himself is not against central heating, he prefers the raging fire in the fireplace. The old school library is extremely cold every winter, and the heating is almost a symbolic warmth. He and his classmates compete for the limited space in front of the fireplace, cuddling with each other to read his father's poetry collections and Shakespeare's plays , these words may seem too esoteric for a middle school student, but Daniel was so arty at the time.

After entering middle age, the life in the boarding school was like a dream, just like his father who died young, leaving almost little traces in Daniel's life, only the fireplace and carpentry Woodworking can make Daniel feel calm. Every time the sandpaper rubs the surface of the wood, it can remind him of a memory hidden in the past, a meaningless glimpse, a flashing picture, A loud laugh from his teenage years - all these information can help Daniel get out of the role and regain control of himself little by little. For this method of reshaping his personality every time he plays a role, he is a master It is said that this is the best way for him to grasp the balance in the intricate inner world, so as not to be completely lost.

Today he is going to make a chair. The most basic wood is almost polished, and he can start to carve the wedge head. Daniel picks up the tape measure and measures the size again along the ink line. Although he is already a very experienced carpenter, he has never The habit he left behind from the first time he built furniture has always been with him: before the real start, the size must be repeatedly confirmed many times. Carpenters are not like performances. Performances may be repeated, but scrapping a good piece of wood is irreparable. of.

All kinds of numbers and calculations floated in his mind, suppressing another nightmare phantom from "There Will Be Blood". Recently, these difficult memories appeared less and less frequently. Daniel even I feel a bit of reluctance—he doesn’t know how other actors deal with performances. Daniel doesn’t have many friends in the same industry. For him, whenever he enters a role, he will set up a personality for the role. The whole life, the ins and outs, and many small stories with full personality, and the only way to get out of the role is to forget these details and say goodbye to the role. Sometimes for his cherished character, it's like seeing off an old friend, and worse than seeing off real friends, no one else mourns their loss except Daniel.

Gouging, knocking... like the sound of an ax chisel from an oil construction site, another Daniel seemed to come alive in such a sound, showing a vivid scowl in front of his eyes——Daniel flinched and put down his hand The chisel in the movie: Daniel Plainview is a character who resonates highly with him, so it is extremely difficult to get rid of, lingering like a ghost.

Walking out of the carpentry room to the bathroom, Daniel wandered into the living room, his wife Rebecca looked up from the book and smiled at him, without commenting on his premature departure from the carpentry room, "Honey, You have a call from America - Rob Marshall wants you to call him back."

"Didn't Lucy tell him?" Daniel was a little puzzled, "I'm not ready to start building Contini yet."

Contini is the leading actor in "9". This is a plump and complicated role, and it does make Daniel a little bit itch, but there is still a long time before the start of the show, and he is still in the stage of getting out of the previous role In the film, for Contini, he is just getting to know him, and he has not yet reached the stage where he will frequently talk with the director on the phone to discuss the role.

However, even so, Daniel, who is in the 'rehabilitation stage', has always had a high degree of cooperation. After checking the current time in the United States with Rebecca, he still called Rob back, "Rob , I hope I didn't disturb your lunch..."

He and Rob Marshall had known each other very early. When Daniel was acting in a play in the West End, he had lunch with Rob Marshall, who was also unknown at the time. Rob also introduced him to a well-known psychiatrist from the United States. Doctor——Daniel suffered from severe mental disorders when he was young, and often had hallucinations when he was at its worst. Over the years, the two have maintained infrequent contact, mainly because Daniel was shy and introverted by nature and didn't have many friends, especially after spending the time driven by sexual desire and fanatical pursuit of physical pleasure, He is more inclined to a life of a recluse, satisfied with self-entertainment in a small world, socializing is sometimes an unbearable change for his world, and Daniel is busy maintaining the balance of his inner world, for such activities It is somewhat unaffordable.

"Of course not. I'm looking forward to your call back, Daniel." His tone was a little hesitant.

"What's going on, Rob?" He didn't like to go around, so he asked directly, "Is there a problem with the funding of the project? The female lead has been cast?"

"No, no, the project is going well." Rob said quickly, "I just wanted to ask how you feel recently, you know, have you come out of the role--I'm reading the script of "9" , you know, I want to talk to someone about it."

"Ah." Daniel also relaxed. He doesn't like to socialize, but he likes to talk about the role he has chosen with his bosom friend. There are very few people in the world who can carry this kind of conversation. "Yes, I also read its script a few days ago. "9" has been adapted very charmingly. The feeling of interlacing and repetition is like fabric, isn't it? The warp and weft are intertwined, weaving Contini's personality , it’s like a rigorous math game—it’s really cute.”

"Yes, this is indeed impressive," Rob's tone relaxed, "Every woman's influence on Contini is reflected in his personality, of course, as well as his personality. Mid-life crisis - Contini is a very special and very common character, his talent makes him very special, but his mid-life crisis makes him confused by himself like everyone else..."

They had a relaxed chat about Contini and his midlife crisis, a topic Rob seemed interested in chatting about, Daniel a little confused, and finally he said honestly, "I haven't Starting to think about Contini, Rob, maybe we need to answer your question in a few months..."

"Of course, of course, no problem..." Rob's voice sounded more uncertain, he seemed to be thinking about something, and Daniel couldn't help being more confused—and finally, Rob finally made up his mind to ask , "Daniel, have you ever experienced a mid-life crisis? I mean—of course you are middle-aged now, and your psychology may change—"

Although he had a premonition that Rob might have some questions that were not easy to ask, but when Rob finally asked, Daniel was still dumbfounded—a mid-life crisis... Of course, for all normal people, No matter rich or poor, high or low, it is impossible for a person to reach middle age without a sense of crisis of going downhill, but the problem is that for Daniel, he has never lived a normal life.

Middle age, when do you start counting? years ago? Or did it start after he won the actor? Has he really entered middle age?

The messy thoughts were tangled in his mind, and Daniel found himself unable to answer this question for a while. He said honestly, "Rob, I'm afraid-I don't know, I don't have an answer to this question. .”

"Yeah." Rob didn't sound disappointed. If he wanted to say it, it would be better to say that he had a feeling of final affirmation, "It's okay, Daniel, we still have a long time to prepare..."

#

On the other side of the ocean, on the snow-covered streets of New York, Rob sat at the window of his study and looked at the empty intersection in the distance. Thoughts: Jennifer and Cesare are right, maybe Daniel is the best actor in the world today, but there is no doubt that he is still a long way from the role of Contido.

"Contido is a very delicate character. Playing him is like a surgical operation. The influence of nine women on him must be faithfully reflected on Contido one by one, and these messages must be conveyed to the hearts of the audience. Let them understand Contido’s mental state and the reason why he is in a midlife crisis.” Jennifer’s analysis now seems more and more reasonable, “Lewis’ golden period of career appeared after he won the Oscar, which is In fact, it is a paradox—any middle-aged Hollywood male star who is still active in the public and has excellent grades is very difficult to suffer from a midlife crisis, especially Daniel. Stable."

Rob himself has to admit that what Jennifer and Cesare said makes sense: he himself is like this, even before "Chicago", with his excellent professional skills and good income, he is not middle-aged The feeling of crisis, now that he reached the pinnacle of his career with "Chicago" and "Memoirs of a Geisha", he is still a long way from a mid-life crisis, and of course Daniel is the same. Besides, the main psychological obstacles Daniel has faced over the years have always been It's difficult to play, and it has nothing to do with a midlife crisis.

Of course, actors don’t need to kill to imitate the feeling after killing. Robert De Niro never drove a taxi before filming "Taxi Driver". Of course, Daniel can experience life in various ways , to restore his middle-aged crisis, Rob also has a lot of confidence in this, but——

"In fact, to restore Contido, there are two major difficulties for actors. They must have a deep understanding of the midlife crisis and Contido's artist character, but for Lewis First of all, he probably knows nothing about the midlife crisis. Secondly, he also needs time to separate Contido from his own character. Contido has no mental disorders, and the dialogue between him and his dead mother in the script is more Like symbolism, if Lewis played himself, this character will undoubtedly go astray. "9" is a very big project, Rob, you need to deal with the narrative angle of 10 big actors, Lewis' performance can't barely meet the standard , in fact, he can't even just be 'nice', he has to be otherworldly to hold his ground and really bring out Contido's inner intricacies. And if you allow Lewis to understand Contido at his own pace, He will probably not find form - maybe he will be confused by the similarities between Contido and him."

Although Cesare Vijari is young, Rob has always been very optimistic about him. In his opinion, Cesare's taste is undoubtedly trustworthy, and his vision is so precise that it is scary. The desperate and fanatical pursuit of "Chicago" is still fresh in Rob's memory today, and his relatively unenthusiastic attitude towards "9" (Rob is very clear that Jennifer will only agree to appear in "9" just to repay his favor ), has also become a shadow in Rob's heart. He will not give up this project because of this, but every time he thinks of Cesare's reservation, his heart will be covered with a faint haze. He had a feeling that Cesare did not use this rhetoric to persuade him to give in. On the contrary, it was precisely because of this rhetoric that he was not so interested in "9", and he did not even actively recommend other women under his command. Star auditioned.

Judging from Daniel's attitude, he really has no understanding of midlife crisis, and this can't help but make Rob a little uneasy-in fact, there is another point about Cesare's words that makes him very concerned: Lewis The reason why he decided to take over "9" is because Conti in "9" reminds him of himself to some extent.

For Rob at the time, he was of course ecstatic to find such a top actor to perform the extremely difficult "9", and he would not care about so much, but now that he has got Lewis , then Rob’s mentality is different: Contido is definitely not Lewis, Contido has no mental illness, and some of his abnormal performances are just exaggerated expressions of his midlife crisis. If Daniel follows this line of thought to shape Contido, there is no doubt that he has gone astray.

"Lucy says he hasn't come out yet, and it's simple math...he took a year to get into his last role - we don't mean to belittle Daniel Pu in There Will Be Blood" Ryanview, but the complexity of his personality is incomparable to that of Contini... Even if everything goes well, Lewis may need more time to enter the drama. According to his usual pace, it is hard to imagine him two years later. Contini will give you a surprise." The voices of Cesare or Jennifer mixed together, rumbling in Rob's ear, "Maybe you need some extraordinary means to help, need a little Crazy."

"Michael Clayton is a very suitable transitional character. Compared with Contini, his personality is relatively simple. At least there are only a few contradictions in front of the audience, and the most important point is that Michael is in a midlife crisis."

"In terms of echoes, Michael's dirty work at the beginning of the film also echoes "There Will Be Blood", his confusion echoes "9", and of course his self-salvation in the end is also comparable to "9" And together."

"This role may help Lewis understand the mid-life crisis. He doesn't need to deal with two major problems at the same time. This will be his first mid-life crisis role. After passing him, he will understand Conti more. Anxiety in "9"."

"In terms of time, he also has plenty of time to film "Michael". After the filming, you have plenty of time to discuss Conti's artist side."

"Of course it will be a win-win situation in all three aspects - the premise is that Lewis can become interested in "Michael", then the magic will happen." Jennifer's voice is full of confidence, "Talk to Lewis, Luo Uncle, let's see if he really understands the midlife crisis and Conti..."

Miraculously, Rob finds himself actually somewhat convinced and calls - and is even more surprised to find that Jennifer is right, they are right, and Lewis doesn't really understand Contido——This is very unbelievable to Daniel Day-Lewis, but Rob still has to say: If he follows the current way of thinking, maybe... Contido will be very important to Daniel. Rare miss.

For Daniel, a miss will not affect his career, but Rob can't bear his hard work, and the team of all-Olympic award actors who worked so hard to put together was finally destroyed by Daniel's miss. He made "9" not to win an award, but to create a masterpiece of art, to create another peak and another masterpiece of him in art musicals and movies. Even if this is just an idea, a possibility, it also makes Rob feel heavy. What makes him even more anxious is that, according to Daniel's introverted and stubborn personality, the communication between the two is destined to be cautious. It is very likely that even if he realizes the deviation, he will not be able to correct it.

Of course, even if Daniel is open and willing to cooperate, Rob doesn’t know how to help him——When Robert De Niro experienced life, he was engaged in a very common job as a taxi driver, and where did Rob go? How about finding a world-class director in mid-life crisis for Daniel to experience? Besides, some characters with strong professional characteristics may be able to make progress through experiencing life, but midlife crisis, which is a purely psychological and individual problem, needs two to three months of actual experience to get the hang of it. extremely low.

In fact, generally speaking, when there are almost two years of gap in the schedule, the director seldom interferes with the actors to take another film, or intervenes to let the actors take another job. This kind of situation is also very common, just because Lewis The situation is special, and the two-year gap is not too long for him, so Rob will feel hesitant, otherwise, according to his friendship with Cesare and Jennifer, matchmaking is just a matter of one sentence, but it is not related No one can cross this red line in his own work. If the Zhenqie duo play the emotional card to close it, he would rather offend the two people with deep backgrounds than agree-in fact, it is the short period of time when they listen to their explanation , Rob also has a kind of unhappiness about being offended by his exclusive desire, but during the short time of talking with Lewis, his mood fluctuated violently, and now he has really begun to consider the idea of ​​"triple win": at least, this is not the two of them A theory made up by opening up her own joint... Although I don't know why Jennifer said so confidently, "If this continues, Contini will be Lewis' Waterloo", but it is true that such a danger cannot be ruled out.

"It's okay, Daniel, we still have a long time to prepare..." He was thinking quickly, making a decision, and kept talking, so that Daniel would not hang up the phone—— How reclusive is Daniel? Just look at the difficulty of talking to him on the phone. If Rob hadn’t known him for a long time, today’s call might not have been able to get through. First of all, Daniel usually doesn’t disclose his home phone number (he doesn’t have a mobile phone). Secondly, even if you get a residential phone number, he is often not the one who answers the phone, and Rebecca will not let him answer the phone, and what is even more frightening is that even if she tells Daniel, Daniel will not call back. On the phone, his contact with the director is always one-way. He can contact the director at any time, but the director cannot contact him... In fact, Daniel will take the initiative to call back today, which makes Rob a little flattered up. If he ends the call now, there is no guarantee that he will be able to contact Daniel next time.

"Yes, Rob, I may need a little more time..."

Aware that Daniel's tone had a tendency to hang up the phone, Rob finally made up his mind: maintain the status quo, and the possibility of messing up is very high. Turning point, anyway, "Michael Clayton" is only going to be filmed for nine weeks, and Daniel has plenty of time to prepare for "9"...

"Actually, I have another matter to call, Daniel." Without any hesitation or wandering time, he said, "Do you know Jennifer Jefferson? She is working on a very interesting project recently , "Michael Clayton"-George Clooney, the original Michael's actor, suffered from depression and had to quit halfway..."

"But..." Daniel's surprise and puzzlement were clearly expressed in his voice, and he paused—in private, Daniel has always been very shy about expressing his wishes, "Rob, you know I habits, I need time to work on each role—"

"It is true, but I think the role of Michael may help you understand Contini..." Rob explained carefully, "Besides, I have seen Jennifer's performance material."

He paused for a moment, and a faint sense of regret floated through his heart: Jennifer is too young to be a husband and wife with Daniel, otherwise, she must be the heroine of "9". What is even more embarrassing is that in the next two years, he has to prepare "9" with all his strength, and cannot be distracted from directing "My Week with Monroe", and missed the opportunity to cooperate with Jennifer... He is not obsessed with Jennifer , but every director who has seen the Karen material must have a similar feeling.

"...I watched Jennifer's performance material." He regained his attention and continued, "Maybe you should watch it too, Daniel, I don't know, maybe that girl's performance will help ignite you The passion that made you come out of "There Will Be Blood"..."

#

"What's the matter?" When Daniel hung up the phone, Rebecca Miller also walked back to the living room from the kitchen. She just went to the kitchen to make tea, so she missed the second half of the call, "Dan, listen It seems that the director has done something that confuses you."

"Indeed..." Daniel admitted, frowning, "Rob made a rare request...but I'm going back to carpentry now, and he sent you an email, Rebecca, Can you put... I don't know, that thing is called 'Appendix' for me, can you show it to me after we have dinner?"

"Of course no problem." Rebecca said with a smile, "By the way, that thing is indeed called an attachment, and I will download it."

These new terms made Daniel dizzy as always. He nodded sloppily and went back to his woodworking room, doing chores absent-mindedly while thinking about Rob's request: this is for the director he is working with. , is very rare. He knows he's a hard-to-find actor, and it's rare for directors to bridge other films when they have joint projects ahead of them.

And Jennifer Jefferson, does Rob think too highly of her? Daniel also watched "The Fifth Sally". Of course, Jennifer's acting skills are very good, but in his opinion, the switching between roles seems a bit blunt. He doesn't know how to describe it, but Jennifer's performance It seems that he hasn't grasped that point yet, at least, he himself doesn't have much interest in playing with her.

Continuing to work on the carpentry absent-mindedly, after dinner, Rebecca slipped him a script, and half an hour later pulled him into the audio-visual entertainment room.

"You should watch her act." She said with a mixed expression of annoyance and admiration, "Of course, I don't approve of you acting in two plays in a short time...but I can't stop you Watch this footage - I know if I do this, you'll hate me for it one day."

Daniel was a little surprised, but Rebecca made a 'quiet' movement, turned on the projector, and turned off the lights.

With the rustling sound of the machine running, a piece of material that was obviously not edited and only roughly spliced ​​appeared on the white screen of the home theater. A woman——Jennifer Jefferson—appeared on the top of her head In the camera, and then the camera slowly down, she closed her eyes half-closed, her gasping expression as if she was about to suffocate, and immediately grabbed Daniel's attention——

In silence, the camera rotates slowly, Jennifer's character—Karen? Just leaning against the toilet partition quietly, breathing lightly and quickly, pure and unreserved panic was written on her face, but it was not exaggerated. These emotions were restrained in her half-closed eyelashes, hiding in the In the frequency of her panting -- no lines, no need to understand the script, nothing, just look at her to understand, her posture and expression are already telling her own story --

After a burst of rustling noise, another shot begins, George Clooney's hero (Michael Crichton?) and Jennifer's Karen confront each other across a coffee table, Michael's face Nervous smile, he squinted his eyes - he wanted to express an emotion, but Daniel couldn't tell what it was, he felt that George was nervous, but he was not sure if it was a script request, after all, he just did it A rough reading, in contrast to Karen, Michael looks exaggerated and dissociated, he doesn't seem to want to laugh, but for some reason, there is an unnatural smile on his face, as if he can't control it, as if it is Radiating from his eyes.

As for Karen, she looked so desperate, but in an instant, she was professional, aggressive and domineering, "You're late."

"I know," George said, his tone was dull and slow, as if he couldn't remember the lines accurately, but he jumped too fast in the next moment-this is definitely not Michael Clayton, George's performance made him Surprisingly bad——

Rebecca put a piece of paper in Daniel's hand. He looked down, but he didn't look at his wife. No, Daniel didn't have the heart to think about his wife, real life, or even the Daniel Plainview that just ended. You, now all these things have faded into invisible phantom bubbles, and only the movie is important, and only Karen is important—the Karen who is vivid and jumps off the paper, only the scene full of tension—

Daniel said to Karen in the picture, "I know."

His expression is very bored, not to Karen, but to the current mess, and of course to Karen who is unreasonable, "Sorry, things are a little complicated... No, that won't happen..."

His tone gradually increased, he became more and more impatient with Karen, just like Karen was also getting more and more impatient with him, this information was not in the script, not in the lines, between him and Karen — that happened naturally in the communication of these two creatures they created from the script.

Lewis stretched out his hand, and Rebecca silently put the next page of the script in his hand. He glanced at it quickly, and his tone fell again, as if he was trying to restrain himself, "But you hired him? Because he's depressed, you hire him because he's the best, he's smart, he's crazy about his career..."