Hollywood Domination Chapter 30: Human investment

"You are well dressed." When Jenny drove to CAA to look for him, Cesare complimented politely.

"Thank you." Jenny suddenly discovered that Cesare was also wearing a black suit today, and they had chosen the same kind of accessories by coincidence—he wore pearl cufflinks and tie clips, and she also chose pearl earrings.

This detail made her a little uncomfortable, "Seriously, your dressing taste is from the 1920s. Is there a second agent in the city who would choose pearl cufflinks in his daily wear?"

"A good manager will." Cesare's eyes lingered in Jenny's ear for a moment, his eyes narrowed, "Are you wearing fake pearl earrings? I thought I made it clear to Lilian that day, I'll pick you an outfit that can be seen by others, and I'll pay for it."

"Believe me, if I let her come that day, you would have gone bankrupt." Jenny felt that Cesare was a little suspicious of Lilian's stinginess, and quickly clarified, "Pearls, it doesn't matter if it's true or not. ? Most people can’t see it anyway.”

The problem now is that their attire is too sweet, which may cause Rob to misunderstand... But after thinking about it, Jenny thinks that there is no need to avoid this misunderstanding. Received magic.

"But I know that you are wearing fake pearls." Cesare said coldly, obviously worried about it.

"Can't you stand all the fakes?" Jenny asked, secretly laughing in her heart: This is probably a very rare moment of Cesare's humanity. "So what do you do when you go to Manhattan? The ladies there wear fake jewelry so much that you can't stand it."

Cesare puffed through his nose and did not answer Jenny's question, but Jenny was a little excited. As the two entered the elevator, she said, "Of course, if you can't stand my earrings, you can give them to me." Take some money-making jobs, not musicals. With the current audition schedule, the day when I can afford real pearl earrings is still far away.”

"Can you please shut up?" Cesare said quietly.

"OK, OK." Jenny also felt that she was a bit too much. In fact, Cesare has done a good job. Even if he didn't help her get a lucrative movie right away, it was because of Jenny's career planning. . If she wants to go another route, she can indeed make money now. ——A supporting role in a B-level film, or a leading role in a small-scale R-level film, can get hundreds of thousands. But if the career starts here, almost the entire career can only roll in the hundreds of thousands, and the film contracts of several million can only be nothing, let alone the Golden Globes and Oscars.

The two remained silent until they arrived at the parking lot. Jenny drove her own car, but she changed her mind, and instead of walking to her car, she walked towards his Bugatti Wei with Cesare. dragon.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Facing Cesare's puzzled eyes, Jenny explained, "Maybe I'm going to drink tonight, I'm not good at drinking, you don't want me to drink and drive?"

Cesare did not express any objection, and the two got into the car together. During the driving, he ordered, "Don't rashly talk about the audition at the beginning, wait for my signal."

"No problem," Jenny said.

"Robo is not a vegetarian, so don't be too personal, tonight is not the time to go on a diet." Cesare paid close attention to the details, "Don't be too talkative, keep your part."

Jenny agrees to everything.

Coincidentally, Rob's car arrived almost at the same time as them. The three of them greeted each other at the entrance of the restaurant, took a seat by the window, and each ordered food—Rob and Cesare both had a lot, After thinking about it, Jenny also ordered the main dish and dessert, of course, salad is indispensable.

Jenny and the two are not familiar, Cesare is such a robot, and Rob is a perfectionist control freak, this meal should be very embarrassing. Surprisingly, however, this is not the case—Jenny has also seen what Cesare said, "When necessary, I can also be polite and humorous."

He was really polite and good-humored, almost finished the meal with laughter, and didn't mention the Chicago musical audition at all.

"Yeah," said Rob, putting the last bite of his salad into his mouth, "Yeah, I have to admit I'm starting to miss Broadway, it's so hot in California, and you know I don't usually drive myself in New York, but in California , Public transportation is just a decoration, I think I may be the only exception in the city, everyone in New York is eager to escape immediately, but what I want is to go back to that high-risk city and continue to work.”

Cesare and Jenny laughed together: His words may seem strange more than ten years later, but in the months after 9/11, there was indeed talk that the next wave of terrorist attacks would target New York City .

"Affected by 9/11, the box office of Broadway in autumn and winter should be at a low point this year." Cesare took a sip of his wine, "Really, you should be glad that you are in California at this time, the advertisers don't care 911, they just stare at the theater manager and of course the theater manager—"

"Take it out on the poor director." Rob spread his hands, "So, who can blame the director for having a bad temper?"

The two laughed again, and Rob glanced at Jenny, "Frankly speaking, when you mentioned that matter to me before, my attitude was very conservative. But today, my opinion has This has changed, and these days, we need some actors with a professional attitude, not arrogant big names who pick and choose."

He must be talking about more than Broadway, Cesare's eyes flashed, "I heard that Renee complained frequently in private."

"She's a bitch." Rob took a sip of his wine, and his words were a bit fierce, "Catherine is too, and Richard is even more—for God's sake, what is he? If it wasn't Marlon Brando We rejected this role, we will not consider him at all. I even object to Harvey's decision, Richard's voice is too bad, I would rather have a younger one than him."

The Harvey he is talking about is Harvey Weinstein, the main investor of this film, and also the Oscar master of later generations-the probability of winning an Oscar for a film produced by Weinstein Company is higher than that of other companies, The operating policy of their entire company revolves around Oscar.

"Who wasn't like this in the first movie?" Cesare comforted Rob, "When James Cameron was filming "Piranha 1", he dissed (see note) the actors and crew at the bar every night until Things only improved after he made Jaws, not because of his temper, but because no one dared to fight him anymore. Rob, all you lack now is a movie to prove yourself , trust me, Chicago will let you do that.”

Rob has a very good temper tonight, and he doesn’t show any irascibility and nervousness on the set. He smiled and said to Jenny, "Chesa is an important factor in persuading Harvey to invest more. After reading the script, he commented very well. Gao, you came to me directly to promote you, and I fed back his promotion to Harvey, which directly caused Harvey to make a lot of concessions in our budget wrangling. ——In fact, if it wasn’t for Chesa’s recommendation, Harvey would They may not have noticed me at the time."

"I didn't know that Cesare used to act as an acting director in addition to his film career as an artist," Jenny said.

"He doesn't," Rob shook his head, "but he's very helpful, always willing to help, and there are a lot of guys on Broadway who owe him a favor, and this guy is like a **** angel. "

"Only for people with potential." Cesare shook his head and said, "I'm not happy to help others, I'm only happy to help tomorrow's superstars, let them owe me a big debt before they take off."

This flattery is very good, Rob Joy raised his glass and touched Cesare lightly, then turned to Jenny, "Tomorrow's superstar, Cheers."

While talking and joking, the three of them ate dinner, and soon came to the point of the whole meal: tasting wine and drinking, and talking time for dessert.

After a pleasant dinner, Rob was obviously in a good mood. He tactfully got to the point without any guidance. He stopped talking about Broadway's personnel disputes and play gossip. Instead, he praised Cesare for Jenny. Performance. "You know, I was uncomfortable when Catherine said it to me, I mean, it's my first movie, I want everything to be professional - of course I know she's your entertainer, I It's even more uncomfortable, according to our friendship, you don't have to start with Catherine, and I figured it out later, you want to save that favor and save it to advance her musical interview with me now."

Rob’s words may be very confusing, but Jenny understands: Americans are a little more straightforward than Chinese in this respect, and Cesare is going through the needles between Rob and Harvey Weinstein , let Rob's script find a shooting opportunity, and Rob owes Cesare a favor. The "Ioweyou favor" here is very straightforward. After Rob returned the favor, there would be no favor relationship between him and Cesare. In the future, he would work in a business-like manner, and there would be no phenomenon of repaying debts for one favor in the workplace in China. (Of course, if Rob and Cesare are good friends, then there is no human relationship between them, but a natural mutual help.)

So Cesare asked Catherine to say hello and insert Jenny into the interview at the beginning, just to avoid using up this precious favor, and then Rob decided to use Jenny as 'Kitty'. Rob's own decision was not based on his sympathy and against his will, so it had nothing to do with Favor.

Tonight, Cesare hopes that Rob will use his influence to put Jenny, a candidate who is obviously not qualified enough and has no professional background, who is supposed to be rejected at the first pass, into the "Chicago" musical The final interview, this is a real favor, and it can pay back what Rob owed Cesare this time. Of course, if Jenny was ugly and fat, then Rob would try his best to pay back the favor next time, and would not agree to his obviously unreasonable request.

Judging from Rob's tone of voice, he is very satisfied with Jenny, and he is willing to use favors on this, and even took the initiative to make an appointment for dinner to facilitate this repayment. But Jenny can analyze it from Cesare's attitude: he is a bit reluctant to waste this favor here, so he hopes that he can impress Rob during this dinner and let him facilitate the interview for other reasons, Save this Favor for later use.

Some of the information she pieced together from tonight's conversations, micro-expressions, and body language, some of which she already felt, and now with Rob's blunt words, all the puzzle pieces have fallen into place , presenting a complete human context, Jenny took a sip of wine as a cover, thought for a second or two, then raised her head and smiled confidently, "Actually, Rob, Chesa does have this intention, but I persuaded him to temporarily Don't use this precious favor, let me try to convince you."

Rob really has a good impression of her, and instead of being unhappy about her conversation with Cesare, he showed an interested smile, "I finally heard your voice, Jenny, it seems that now Is it time for your show?"

The topic they have been talking about before, Jenny can only be a qualified listener, know how to laugh when it is time to laugh, and agree when it is time to echo, and will not be out of place or spoil the atmosphere, but she is not familiar with Broadway enough to be able to Participation, so Rob said he finally heard her voice, and happily handed her the stick of conversation leadership, obviously giving her the opportunity to perform.

"I can't talk about performance time, I don't intend to 'conquer' you with my charm." Jenny gestured a double quotation mark next to her ear with her hand, which caused Rob to chuckle. She could feel that Cesare also I watched her with interest, but chose not to care. "What I want to convince you, Rob, is that I personally deserve this interview."

She leans slightly forward, a posture commonly used by Cesare, which can enhance the sense of oppression and persuasion. "And I deserve you to invest in a favor, Rob."

There was a slight pause in Rob's movements, and then he burst out laughing, "Chesa, your little girlfriend is really interesting-she really doesn't look like the kind of little actress who is satisfied with marrying you , is it?"

Sure enough, he misunderstood. Jenny was relieved: the coincidence of pearl cufflinks and earrings had worked, which not only showed Rob's attention to detail (not surprising, Jenny had already seen this from the three-hour tragedy), but also showed that he Definitely no sexual innuendo.

It’s not that Rob’s character is despicable, but this may be regarded as a common practice in the Hollywood circle. For example, today Rob was persuaded to recommend Jenny without Cesare’s favor. Then Jenny owes him It's a huge favor, and when you see him later, you must greet him with a smile. If he proposes to go to the bar to renew the stall after a while, the two chat happily, and he will give her a look, leaving her room for rejection. Small, at least harmless rejections can become difficult. But now that he thought she was Cesare's girlfriend, everything was different.

Now we will see how Cesare responds.

"Rob, you know I don't hang out with my entertainers," Cesare said—but his tone was casual and relaxed, with a slight smile, "It's unprofessional for the company .”

Rob smiled and raised his hand, "I understand, I understand, OK, I won't talk nonsense. Well, Jenny, I already know that you can act, you are very dedicated, and you can withstand the pressure over and over again." Repeated performances are very important qualities for acting in dramas. More importantly, you are also very beautiful. Whether it is Hollywood or Broadway, handsome men and beautiful women are not uncommon, and acting schools are everywhere, but you can combine the two. It is scarce resources, I admit this, and Cesare admits it, otherwise you would not be signed by him—I believe that Cesare would not be dazzled by love—and I would not choose you to play "Chicago". "

He took a bite of Angel White Cake, "Your singing is good, your dance is good, I can see all of these, yes, you can compete for Roxy, you have the qualifications. But what I want to know now is , why did you play Roxy."

"You mean—" Jenny was slightly confused.

"A musical isn't going to make those earrings real for you, honey," Rob said, "and it's not going to make you Angelina Jolie overnight. Your power is limited, why did you come to act? Don’t tell me that this is Chesa’s arrangement, this is not a reason that can convince me——You have the ability to play Roxie well under the arrangement of others, and you really desire it from the bottom of your heart Playing Roxy, the effect is completely different. If you don't want me to recommend you just to pay back, then you have to convince me that the person I recommend can really make the musical better, You know, I am not in charge of casting the "Chicago" musical, and I have to use my connections to recommend you."

Although he drank some wine, his eyes were calm and clear, faintly revealing the pickiness unique to perfectionists. Jenny knew that this was the core issue tonight, and this issue determined her success or failure this evening.

She took a deep breath.

The author has something to say: Note: 1 diss means scolding, for example, two hip-hop singers scolding each other in a song is diss. It can be simply understood as "mounting" in China, or even simpler and vulgar: tear...X...

2 Jenny is not yet 21 years old, so she is not allowed to drink alcohol, but she dresses more maturely, so she doesn't look old, and Hollywood is not very strict about this, just don't go to bars.

3 Once again, I declare that I have no malice towards all the characters. It is only necessary for the plot. I am not black. If there are some characters that I hate, I will explain it in the comments and it will not affect my objective description. , will not be dark.

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I'm stupid! I forgot there is such a thing as favorites

There will be a collection of more than a thousand plus changes later tonight, please don't go away XD