Hollywood Domination Chapter 9: It’s not easy to be an actor

Jenny Jane signed the performance contract and officially got the role of Juanita, and the performance fee was 5,000 US dollars per episode.

It's not too high, not too low. It's exactly the same salary as her one-month salary in a restaurant. Emma Swan also said frankly that the salary of Dunst, who they originally wanted to invite, was nearly 200,000 U.S. dollars. Jenny Jane, of course it is impossible to offer the same price, the producer must save some budget.

Jenny's reaction to this was very calm. She and Dave also talked about the compensation in the TV drama industry. For a fledgling unknown, five thousand is quite a generous amount. Expecting to get the same amount as Dunst, a veteran child star, is pure nonsense. Her luck is not bad, she chose CBS for the first show. If it was a small TV network like WB, she might not even get five thousand dollars.

Chen Zhen still pays close attention to the trend of the entertainment industry in later generations, and has read some related news and articles. She is quite familiar with the salaries and salaries in the American drama industry. Bottom line', and there is so much room for bargaining that it would take a day to go into detail. In short, this is actually a contest for the right to speak. Whoever survives this drama depends on his ability, and whose initiative is greater. Of course, it also has a certain relationship with the lead actor's own mentality.

For example, in the popular "Friends" now, the six actors in the film have already achieved fame, and there is no more demand for the series itself. In the later period, due to the portrayal of similar roles for seven or eight years, more than half of the six leading actors were not willing to continue acting, so they jointly quoted a high price of one million dollars per episode, and the production company Warner could only grit their teeth and bear it. Down, because the group of six appeared as an organic whole, the story lines have become entangled with each other, and it is difficult to continue without one of them. But after "Friends", there is also the popular sitcom "Modern Family", because there are many starring actors, and the plot itself is not strong enough to catch people, it all depends on the screenwriter's brilliant pen to give funny plots and lines, the actors' Acting skills are relatively secondary, so although he has won awards time and time again, and the ratings have skyrocketed, the range and determination of the lead actor to raise the salary are not very great.

Of course, if "Modern Family" continues to be popular and the characters in the film become more popular, the strengths of the film and actors will change again. In Chen Zhen's opinion, Hollywood is the place where there are no rules. The only eternal rule is that every negotiation is a game involving multiple factors, and every contract is the result of compromise by multiple parties.

Closer to the subject, basically, characters like "CSI" come and go, and for a long drama that relies on the case itself to attract people, as long as one or two core actors remain unchanged, even the regular actors and even the main actors It is difficult for actors to negotiate prices. A criminal suspect like Juanita who has passed one episode is even a small role that can be dismissed for five or six thousand. The high price of more than one hundred thousand US dollars was just for the new season. To stimulate ratings, a well-known movie star was invited to make a cameo, but now that Jenny is replaced, the budget has shrunk to 5,000. Fortunately, CBS never defaults on salary, and the checks are always sent on time. This is the benefit of cooperating with big TV stations.

After confirming the approximate shooting time, Jenny returned to Hollywood Star to continue working. Except for discussing the upcoming performance with Dave, she did not disclose the good news to anyone. Jessica thought that She failed the audition again, and Johnny was in a good mood to persuade her to give up losing weight again.

Jenny didn't take these words to heart, she started to work **** them after receiving the script - the performance during the audition, more importantly, her aura, she showed the aura of a big star, it was enough to overwhelm the competition the ones. After all, everyone can see the temperament of a big star on TV, but it is not so easy to imitate it in place-but in real shooting, the most important thing is that she cannot be divorced from the emotional expression of the actor in the show, otherwise a body language When the self-restraining expressionist meets the experiential one who fully enters the role, the play will give people a sense of incompatibility and ironic disobedience. And once such a situation arises, of course the director will not ask for a compromise from the main protagonist.

Because of this, she has been studying the role of Nick, who is mainly playing against her, played by George Edes. Since she has never seen this movie before, she does not know the future of CSI. , How long did George stay? From the current point of view, he is a good sunny handsome guy with a good-looking appearance. As for acting skills, firstly, CSI did not leave much space for his acting skills, and secondly, his performance was not the kind of aura full of experiential style, but more like a well-regulated expressive style, with quite restrained emotional expression and not personal temperament. Like the kind that can release hormones at will, there may be a lack of tension in the two-person show, or the problem that Nick's limelight is completely overwhelmed by Juanita.

Chen Zhen kept trying, practiced several performance plans, and used the performing arts space to choose an episode to play with Nick repeatedly, until she felt that she had nothing to criticize, and the start date of filming was approaching.

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Because they are filming and broadcasting at the same time, the filming cycle of American TV dramas is very long. The actors usually stay on the set for nine months a year, compared with the 30 to 50 episodes of TV dramas in China that are shot in three months. , the time of American drama crews is almost extravagant—this is also because their budgets are more extravagant than those of their counterparts in other countries. The life of an actor is more stable than that of foreign counterparts. As long as he gets a regular role in an American drama, even if it is not a supporting role, it is actually enough for an actor to survive in Hollywood. If he can get a supporting role, it is almost equivalent to having a job. , good pay, free time.

This is the case for many professional supporting roles. First find a stable supporting role, accumulate a certain amount of start-up capital, and then run a restaurant or clothing store while auditioning around in your spare time. Paving the way, I hope to get to know more people, and I can guarantee that there will always be supporting roles. In this way, although they seem to be unknown, they actually live a very nourishing life. In terms of money, they will not lose to those semi-newcomers who have worked hard in the film industry and have had one or two small productions as the protagonist.

So, when Jenny came to the crew, she didn’t feel the hostility she often felt in the Chinese crew—it’s not that the Chinese crew just enjoy intrigue, but the producers often ask Complete the work within an ultra-short time limit, and the result of working overtime for a long time is that everyone is under a lot of pressure, and the resentment of working overtime cannot be easily resolved.

It is much easier in the United States. The perfect labor protection law makes their working hours relatively fixed in a week. Even if they want to work overtime, the film crew will not allow it. The work efficiency is at least three or four times lower than that in China. After Jenny got her pass, she went to make up and try on clothes. For these two procedures, the make-up artist and costume artist insisted on discussing for three hours before deciding on her makeup.

"You are amazingly beautiful, my dear." Anna, the makeup artist, said appreciatively to her - the crew did not mean to discriminate against the newcomers. Although the attitude of the two towards her was unfamiliar, they were very friendly. "Don't worry, you will be an instant hit."

"Thank you." Jenny smiled at her, but didn't take the words seriously. She stood up and brushed her hair, the hair stylist quickly stopped her, "Don't move, it took me a lot of time to blow it out."

"OK, the director's meeting is probably over now." Anna looked at her watch, "Let's go over and show him."

After all, this role is relatively important. It seems that the director also said that he has to see it himself. No wonder they are not in a hurry, and they have to wait until the relationship is established before then.

Most of CSI's indoor plots are done in a fixed studio. As a new drama with excellent ratings, they rented a large studio at Universal Studios in the new season, but the director is not in the studio now. The four of them had no choice but to go out to find him—it was also because the main actors had completed the new season's makeup test before, and the only one who came to try on the makeup today was Jenny, and it was because the director was on a whim, so they had to catch up with him for the pre-shooting meeting Come and show him at intervals.

She was not short in stature, but wearing high heels made her even taller. Surrounded by makeup artists, costume artists and hair stylists, she walked to the studio. Jenny thinks her outfit is also one of the reasons—because there is a very important scene where Juanita is taken away at a feast, the costumer chose a close-fitting evening dress for her, the more revealing one kind.

Anna seemed to like this kind of scenery very much, and kept giggling. Jenny felt that her behavior was a bit weird, but she didn't think it was disobedient. The entertainment industry has always been a place where weird people gather. The dressier and hairdresser, who looked more normal, were also more indifferent to her.

Now, wearing a fancy dress, walking inside Universal Studios, looking at the tall studios, and all kinds of people walking between the studios—Jenny seemed to have seen Harrison Ford just now— — She finally felt like she was beginning to fit into Hollywood. But Jenny also knew clearly that all of this was just an illusion of warmth. In fact, she just stepped into the deep water of Hollywood with one toe. With this little contact area, she couldn't even test the temperature of the water.

"Wow, it seems like even George Clooney was looking at you just now." Anna poked Jenny excitedly, "You look like a real star."

Jenny was speechless at what she said, and she smiled calmly, "The main reason is that I dress too solemnly."

"After all, you have to be taken away at the awards ceremony." Costume designer Van Burl said, "Here we are."

The screenwriter, one of the directors and producers of this episode—that is, the operator of the show that has just emerged in the past few years, and he just ended the meeting. He glanced at Jenny and asked her to perform a clip, and then said Satisfied, Jenny saw Dave's friends smiling at her in the crowd, and Emma Swan was there, and she greeted them with a twist of her fingers.

"Okay, let's go back and change clothes." The director is a red-haired middle-aged man in his forties, and he looked at Jenny with satisfaction, "Now I know why you chose her."

A lot of admiring glances came from the crowd, and Jenny could almost predict how many people would come to strike up a conversation with her after the filming officially started—I have to say that she was in a pretty good mood, after all, she She is also a very normal young woman, and the results of her hard work are appreciated, which naturally makes her happy.

Her eyes inadvertently passed a few middle-aged men standing at the other end of the corridor, and those well-dressed passers-by who seemed to be high-spirited also smiled at her: in any corner of the world , beauty can give her privileges.

For example, one of these people, a fat man, was obviously fascinated by her, and he looked at her with a pair of eyes, his salivation was very explicit, and it was a bit funny.

Jenny was amused by his expression, and couldn't help but look at him a few more times before turning around and leaving Shi Shiran.