Hollywood Domination Chapter 24: Frustrated

The temporary family formed by Cesare-Lilian has several cars, and although Jenny has received her salary and a check from CBS, she is too busy to buy her own car these days. Cesare temporarily continued to drive his Audi A6 to her, while he drove his Bugatti Veyron to and from get off work. Lilian even told her directly that if her finances are still relatively tight recently, she also has a spare car that can be lent to her for a long time.

Jenny is tactful about this. She still upholds the Chinese attitude in this regard. The so-called emergency does not save the poor. A month or two is fine, but borrowing someone else's car for a long time would be a bit disrespectful. Although Lilian doesn't care, she has a clear score, otherwise Cesare would not be able to hold her head up.

Whether it is China or the United States, there are not many opportunities for a manager like Cesare to meet his artists. Of course, if he is willing, then there is nothing wrong with letting Jenny go to the company to find him every day, but generally, everyone communicates more by phone. After the agent contacted the job opportunity, he called the artist and informed the artist, and then the chores at work were left to him. In China, there may be an assistant to accompany you to the audition and help with daily life and other things, but this is not very feasible in Hollywood.

Hiring a few housekeepers in your mansion and taking in a few friends as your little friends are all your business, but it will not happen that the company prepares everything for you at work. Generally speaking, attendance is important Someone will take it with you during events, but when it comes to filming or something, it’s all up to you. You want a driver, an assistant, a bodyguard, and an exclusive manager who will take care of everything for you. Yes, you pay for it yourself. If it is an exclusive manager, generally 10% of your remuneration will be taken as the price for the service.

A senior manager of Cesare's level, according to the CAA system, has brought many international superstars with others. It is conceivable how busy he is. If it wasn't for Jim, he would contact Jenny from time to time. , telling her that Cesare was filtering out the many audition offers for his CSI appearance, Jenny almost thought Cesare had forgotten about her. Anyway, since the two met on the day Cesare came back, it has been more than a week now, and she has not heard from Cesare at all, even though she goes to Cesare's house to walk the dog every day, she has never met him. Cesare seldom arrived home before twelve o'clock in the evening.

According to Jim, although there are many invitations, there are very few who can satisfy Cesare, so at present, all she can count on is the audition for "Chicago". The audition had been postponed for more than a month because of 9/11. It was originally scheduled for early October, but Jenny received another notification the day before the audition and pushed it to mid-October.

If Jenny passed the audition, she should have joined the group to start singing and dancing training by now, so the courses arranged by the company have also ended some time ago, and she even considered whether she should take on more dog walking jobs, the United States Labor is expensive. For a big dog like Washington, according to the market price, if it is one-on-one, walking the dog for half an hour is $25, and it is $50 for an hour. If she walks Washington twice in the morning and evening, $100 will be credited, which is 3,000 a month. , and because it is not affiliated with the company, it does not need to pay taxes. ——Of course Cesare gave her a few hundred dollars more, but after Jenny understood the situation, she was not so guilty about getting this salary.

If there are two more walks with the dog every day, one-to-many walks... Wow, she earns more than being a waiter in a restaurant, and she can walk to exercise, which really kills two birds with one stone.

There is already her page on IMDB, but a lot of information is very crude, and there are hundreds of comments on the message board one after another. I guess this Jennifer is a guest star from Europe, because Her 'temperament is very classic', in short, she guesses Jenny is very tall, Jenny sometimes looks at the message and has a wry smile on her mind: How awesome do her fans think she is? Would they be surprised to know that she still wants to develop into a professional dog walker?

However, even though she is a little confused now, Jenny never thought of questioning Cesare. Although "CSI" is a good opportunity to appear, it is said that because of this performance, it has attracted a lot of people. Opportunity, that is too much to take for granted. The level of this kind of public TV series is probably fixed. Maybe her joining will make the TV series more dazzling, but it is impossible to make the series itself reborn. It should be like that, and it will still be like that. This level of excitement will not be attractive. With the attention of big directors and big producers, most of the people who will come to her now are supporting roles in small productions, or more simply, they are directly producing B-grade movies and R-grade movies with a sensual meaning. Maybe let her be the main character. After all, she is not only beautiful, but also has the **** and seductive temperament of an old movie star when performing. She is also a newcomer, and the price is cheap, so she will naturally attract small filmmakers who have relevant needs—this is what Cesare told her at the time It means, 'If you only have this kind of acting skills, you can only develop towards a genre actor'.

For a person whose goal is to dominate Hollywood, the only meaning of these opportunities is to waste her time. If she is willing to exchange sex. means, even if Cesare asked her to act, Jenny would not bother. Of course, now she can only trust that Cesare didn't contact her because the opportunities are not good enough, instead of calling Cesare to ask questions.

Building trust is a long process, and she must be the first to show more sincerity.

After the course was over and the audition hadn’t started yet, Jenny had some free time, so she took Jim with her and bought a Volkswagen Passat in good condition for more than 4,000 US dollars. high. In the United States, cars are cheap and gasoline prices are not high. The entire auto industry is much more developed than in China. Even second-hand cars are still the same as in China. You have to be good at scouring, otherwise it is easy to be fooled by car dealers.

Fortunately, Jim knows a lot about cars. The two of them ran a few places, and they successfully picked out the car and went through the formalities. Jenny wanted to invite Jim to dinner to thank him. Jim waved his hand and said, "Forget it, after you get the first one Before the protagonist, let me invite you."

He chuckled, "But I thought you would ask Dave for help."

Jenny shook her head, "After a while, I hope you don't laugh at me for crossing rivers and tearing down bridges."

"If you are still in close contact with him, I will laugh at you." Jim didn't take it seriously, "It's for his own good now-but Jenny, I have to say that I admire you very much."

"What do you admire about me?" Jenny signed the check to the car dealer.

"Generally speaking, young beauties always have a lot of bad things in their love life." Jim walked out the door together with her, "Especially you are still in the dormant period, although Chesa does not allow you to fall in love, but I think You will hang on to Dave all the time, and find yourself a sense of security."

"Isn't it a bit too cheap to do that?" Jenny smiled.

"At this point, Hollywood female stars are almost all bitches," Jim said, "People are almost used to it, and even if this incident is spread, most people will just laugh at Dave as a maniac. I just want to eat swan meat, because beauties and celebrities have this kind of privilege. In Hollywood, beauty and fame are the hardest currency, and middle-aged men without power and power are the weakest vulnerable group and can be trampled on at will.”

Jenny made a face and refused to comment. She changed the subject, "What I'm thinking about now is when the next audition will come, not someone to be my security blanket."

"Don't you think about tomorrow's "Chicago"?" Jim asked with interest.

"I actually didn't have much hope for "Chicago,"" Jenny frowned. "After all, this is a Weinstein movie, and I'm just a nobody."

"It's enough to perform well." Jim said meaningfully, "As long as you are good enough, Chesa will take care of everything else for you."

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Compared with "CSI", the audition level of "Chicago" is much higher. As Jenny predicted, she met Lucy Liu at the audition venue. Besides, there were several familiar faces, probably second-tier and third-tier movie stars, although in 2014, no one remembered them. name, but now, each of them is more famous than Jenny, and the biggest celebrity is of course Lucy Liu who just starred in "Charlie's Angels (Charlie's Angels)". The investment of "Charlie's Angels" is close to 100 million, and the global box office is more than 200 million. Lucy Liu is one of the leading actors.

Since most of them are well-known in the circle, there are more people who know each other, and most of the actors are greeting each other intimately—although they are competitors now, they are just small roles for a few minutes, not yet As for fighting each other openly and secretly. After all, most people come to audition because of the fame of Weinstein and the original musical. Although this is a big production, the director Rob Marshall has never directed a movie before, and he has never even directed a TV series. People naturally have doubts about the quality of the finished film.

After observing around, Jenny was relieved a lot. From a preliminary point of view, she is the only one who is determined to win this role.

As a fresh face, she was of course excluded by the small circle, and Lucy Liu also became the center of communication: not only did she have the series of commercial films "Charlie's Angels", but she also had a relationship with Quentin Tarantino This great director has also cooperated, and she is currently the most popular among the Asian faces in Hollywood. Even Jenny looked at her a few more times curiously, but she didn't go over to strike up a conversation. As a nobody, she is still very winky and self-conscious.

The order of the audition is alphabetical by last name, but there are no other tricks. Jenny sat with a glass of water and didn't strike up a conversation with anyone. She just silently reviewed the details of the film "Chicago". This audition was the only thing she had to prepare for within a month. Of course, she had studied it very thoroughly, and she was fully prepared for the audition.

"Are you Jennifer Jefferson?" Not long after the audition started, someone approached her and asked, "Can I sit here?"

The girl sitting next to her had already gone in for an audition, Jenny looked up, "Of course, it's an honor to meet you, I like your "Charlie's Angels" very much."

"Thank you." Lucy Liu looked extremely thin in real life, her face was the size of a palm, and her body was so slender that she could be sent flying with just a single punch. She shook hands with Jenny. shake hands. "Nice to meet you too, I'm a fan of "CSI" and I was very impressed with your performance in that episode."

"I believe you are not being polite, at least you persisted to the cast list and found my name." Jenny said.

Lucy Liu smiled, "Wow, you are really different in real life, I almost didn't recognize you just now. In the camera, you are very flamboyant, but here I can even say that you have some Inconspicuous, although you are beautiful."

Jenny fully agrees with her statement. Both Chen Zhen and Jenny's original body are actually of the flat temperament type. ——This kind of description may be abstract, but in reality, everyone can understand it. Some people are beautiful but inconspicuous, and some people are average-looking but have an eye-catching temperament. This is the so-called celebrity aura.

"Are you complimenting me on my acting skills?" Jenny winked at her.

Lucy laughed, "Yes, I'm complimenting you on your acting skills."

She lowered her voice, "In today's audition, you are the most dangerous opponent to me."

Although she said so, her tone was very casual. Lucy Liu obviously wasn't very determined for this role.

Jenny looked at the people in the room, and there was indeed no well-known acting school, and her performance in front of the camera was actually cheating, so she thought Lucy had a good eye, "But in front of you, I'm nothing Confidence, you are famous and have acting skills, and you are very beautiful. What about me—”

She shrugged.

"No," Lucy Liu shook her head. "Although you are right, I don't have much confidence in front of you. If we perform equally well, I think you should get the role."

"Why, because I'm cheap?" Jenny asked.

Lucy Liu said calmly and naturally, "Because you are white and I am Asian, it's actually that simple."

Jenny has nothing to say—in fact, the reason why she still tries to complete the so-called task of dominating Hollywood is entirely because she at least has good conditions and is a Caucasian beauty. Or reborn into an Asian body, then Chen Zhen would never try it. The entertainment industry is the most racist and sexist industry in the United States. This is not because the practitioners are narrow-minded, but the natural result of the market's concentrated audience's preferences and needs.

However, when it comes to "Chicago", judging from the final results, it was Lucy Liu who finally got the role, so Jenny still has little confidence in this audition. She said, "Why don't we make a bet? I will wait for you after the audition, and then bet on who gets the role?"

"Haha!" Lucy was amused, "No problem, we can discuss bets during lunch."

The name of Jenny started to be called at the door of the audition room. Before Jenny could say anything more, she nodded and smiled with Lucy, ignoring the bright or dark eyes from the room, sorted out her best state, and walked into the audition room inside.

Of course, as usual, there were several people in the audition room, but to Jenny's surprise, one of the two people sitting behind the long table was the director Rob Marshall himself.

It appears that Marshall took his first film so seriously that he had to personally audition for even a few minutes of the role. Of course, when he sits down, the other person will not be someone else. It should be the producer, or the representative of the producer. After all, only a person of this level can resist the director's decision, and the audition will not become the director's decision. of one word.

Jenny thought quickly in her heart, and showed a bright smile to both the director and the producer. She had practiced this smile for at least a week, and it was absolutely gorgeous.

"Jenny, we have all seen your video resume. Although your resume is weak, you are more than beautiful." Marshall cut to the point, gestured for Jenny to sit down, and flipped through the information. "And you can sing and dance, which is very important for movies."

Jenny didn't even know that she still had a video resume, which was probably written by Cesare again. She kept smiling, "Thank you."

"However, the main reason why you finally entered the interview list is that I like the golden age of Hollywood in you, arrogant, sexy, very good old days," Marshall said, "but the role of Kitty needs more Grumpy feeling, she is crazy and desperate, just like Thelma & Louise, with a charming atmosphere of Beastism, now I want you to make a few grumpy expressions."

Jenny didn't expect that Marshall didn't even arrange to read the script and audition, and went directly to the basic skills assessment. She was a little flustered instinctively, but fortunately, the sufficient preparations she had made in the past few months saved her. Even without the help of Goldfinger, Jenny could easily immerse herself in the role that she had practiced repeatedly and watched the finished product. ''s identity showed a few disdainful expressions towards the camera.

She acts more restrained, as if she is facing a boring reporter who is constantly asking questions, and she is watching the other person's joke.

"Very well, now I want you to show a few furious expressions, can you tell the difference? You can say some lines and make up your own." Marshall immediately continued without giving her any room for adjustment.

Jenny felt that if she stopped to adjust, she might lose points. She didn't even have time to choose a cheat sheet, so she could only rely on many times of practice, instinctively struggled and twisted under the hands of the virtual prison guard, and shouted at the reporter. Said, "I'll give you three words - go to hell!"

"OK." There was no expression on Marshall's face. "Now can you sing me a few lines?"

Jenny had no choice but to get rid of her emotions immediately, and sang the famous song "Nowadays" in "Chicago" to Marshall. Because she has always liked this song and learned it, she feels that she sings it pretty well.

Then the interview ended here. She didn't have the time to reverse all sentient beings, even if she wanted to impress the director, she didn't have the opportunity. When Jenny walked out, she felt that what she just went through was a complete human audition, and the other party was just going through the motions, and then she could be brushed off.

Her and Lucy's surname letters are very close, so after her is Lucy. Xi Liu went in for a full twenty minutes.

She was still smiling when she came out, obviously, it was a very pleasant interview.

Although she had prepared for a long time, Jenny was still in a bad mood: this audition should be over, and she had already missed this great opportunity. The most frustrating thing was not her failure, but that she had already been judged as a loser for not performing at all.

Note: There is a difference between an agent (Agent) and a manager (Manager) in Hollywood. The agent is responsible for negotiating film contracts, remuneration, and cooperation details. The manager is mainly to maintain the relationship between all parties and determine the schedule. For example, the agent It’s the father, working hard outside to earn money for the children (negotiating a good movie, high salary), and the manager is the mother, responsible for taking good care of the children (the star’s work is smooth, and the relationship with all parties is good). Another big difference is that the agent only cares about one aspect of her, a movie is a movie, a record is a record, and so on, but the manager will take care of all the business of the star.

Many people start by finding a manager, get some interview opportunities, and get their own agent after entering the industry, but there are also those who have an agent as soon as they enter the industry, such as Jenny. Brokers are rarer.