Difficulty

Nigel Cawthorne, a well-known editor, and writer who worked for "New York Times" and BBC Radio for many years, once wrote two books "Sex Lives of the Hollywood Goddesses", revealing the absurd industry rules in the early days of the Hollywood film industry. In these two books, he covered almost all the insider stories of the movie industry's debauchery and extravagance before the 70s.

Later, with the rise of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), actors' interests had been increasingly protected, and sexual transactions in Hollywood had been largely controlled. However, the existence of hidden rules was deeply rooted, just as Hollywood's discrimination against women and homosexuals had always existed.

Now, with the maturity of the union system, there was hardly any coercion, it was basically a matter of mutual consent because producers and directors must also take the risk of the failure of the work and take responsibility if they want to follow the rules, not everyone could sleep with them. But still, for lower-level actors, just sleeping with producers or directors could win a chance to become famous, and many people couldn't stay patient.

So, this also allowed the so-called unspoken rules to further develop and become overt rules.

Hugo Lancaster was born on November 20, 1967. He first appeared on the big screen at the age of 15 in 1982, in the director Barry Levinson's debut film "Diner", where he played one of five young men, along with a young Mickey Rourke and Kevin Bacon. A few years later, Levinson directed the classic Oscar-winning film "Rain Man". It can be seen that Hugo Lancaster's career had a great start.

Subsequently, Hugo was noticed by one of the three top Hollywood talent agencies, International Creative Management (ICM), and successfully signed as an artist under the management of agent Ron Meyer. Under Meyer's arrangement, Hugo appeared in David Lynch's "Dune" (1984) and several other works. Although he was not a big hit, every work was solid and he gradually grew into a powerful and well-regarded actor.

In the audition process for "Dead Poets Society", Hugo met producer Tracey Jacobs. Tracey was an up-and-coming excellent producer in recent years, who developed the "Die Hard" series and was also the producer of the 56th Oscar Best Picture "Terms of Endearment" and "The Color Purple" on the 58th Oscar with 11 nominations but came back empty-handed.

"Dead Poets Society" was a work facilitated by Tracey.

Director Peter Weir and the male lead, Robin Williams, both successfully negotiated with Tracey, and Hugo was interviewing for the role of Neil Perry in the movie at the time. His handsome, sunny appearance won Tracey's favor.

What followed was simple. To put it nicely, Hugo and Tracey became a couple and Hugo got the role, becoming famous. To put it unpleasantly, they had a relationship based on mutual consent, and Hugo successfully starred in the movie, attracting attention.

Subsequently, "Desperate Hours" and "Hudson Hawk" were productions led by Tracey as producer, and Hugo undoubtedly became the first male lead. Tracey even gave up her favorite Bruce Willis, which showed how important Hugo was to her. Unfortunately, both works failed, and Hugo's acting career, which had just begun to take off, fell into a trough due to the failure of three consecutive works, and he was in a predicament. To make matters worse, after the release of "Hudson Hawk", Tracey and Hugo broke up.

Originally, the coming and going of lovers was nothing more normal, especially in the relationship between Hugo and Tracey, which had no emotional foundation, like a sand castle. When the tide recedes, it is spectacular and magnificent, but when it rises, it collapses in an instant. But this time the timing of the breakup was very sensitive, and the breakup was not pleasant.

In this situation, the Golden Raspberry award had come, and Joseph felt that Hugo didn't need to attend the awards ceremony, but Hugo chose to ask the opinion of his former agent Ron, in order to remedy the series of negative impacts. Ron, who was also a partner of ICM, carefully considered and suggested that Hugo attend the 12th Golden Raspberry Award, hoping to use this sarcastic feast to shape Hugo's image as someone broad-minded and humorous, thereby paving the way for Hugo's future work. Although Joseph didn't agree, he ultimately didn't resist Hugo's trust in Ron, which led to yesterday's situation.

The producer list of "A River Runs Through It" was originally without Tracey, but the audition opportunity was decided before Tracey broke up with Joseph. Looking at the list of interviewers: Elisabeth, who had a close relationship with Tracey, and Jon, who had worked together with the latter many times. If Tracey and Hugo were still together, maybe everything would be fine, but unfortunately, the two people broke up. Tracey accepted the invitation to join the producer list just before the audition, which put a crest on the result of Hugo's audition.

Before this, Hugo hadn't read the script for "A River Runs Through It". The script was thrown under the bed and accumulated a thick layer of ash, which showed Hugo's attitude. However, after last night's Golden Raspberry award, Joseph hoped that Hugo would not give up easily, without mentioning Tracey's joining, trying to convince Hugo to participate in today's audition, and was surprised that Hugo agreed so quickly and prepared for the interview so seriously, which made Joseph impressed.

Unfortunately, Hugo's efforts were in vain.

The name "Tracey" evoked so many memories for Hugo, allowing him to gradually adjust to his current role. At this moment, he finally understood why Elisabeth and Jon acted the way they did during the audition. The playful insults from wood and stone guys were likely due to rumors spread within the industry.

Interestingly, in Hugo's memories, the "he" didn't play the roles in these works. The direct proof lay in "Dead Poets Society" where the role of Neil was played by Robert Sean Leonard, who later became well-known for his role in the TV show "House". But now, apparently, history had changed slightly and it was not Robert but Hugo Lancaster who played Neil.

Hugo took a deep breath and put his doubts aside. He carefully remembered the appearance of Tracey in his mind, a woman in her early thirties, with deep chestnut-colored curly hair simply draped over her shoulders. Her mature charm was evident in her straight nose and sharp lips, which showed her strict working style.

Hugo had a feeling that he had seen this woman somewhere, and after careful consideration, his eyes suddenly lit up. "Is the role of Paul finally going to be tossed to Brad?" This inference was not because he remembered that "A River Runs Through It" was played by Brad Pitt, but because he remembered that Tracy was the woman he saw on the fifth floor with Brad!

Joseph didn't know where Hugo's speculation came from. He only saw that Hugo was silent for a while and then suddenly burst out with a light cough, "That's what's being said in the circle." Joseph didn't need to say that Hugo already knew what was being said in the circle, that Tracey and Brad were together.

Hugo raised his eyebrows, "Is Tracey's name on the list of producers for "Thelma & Louise"?"

Joseph shook his head, denying Hugo's guess, but then added, "Callie Khouri, the screenwriter for "Thelma & Louise", knows Tracey." After that, Joseph turned to look at Hugo, their eyes met, and they both suddenly broke out into a big smile and looked away.

It seems that Brad's sense of competition with Hugo was not limited to "A River Runs Through It". No wonder Joseph initially said that Brad saw Hugo as his biggest competitor. Clearly, everything had a cause and effect.

After understanding the whole situation, it seemed that the adrenaline rush Hugo had from yesterday evening had mostly worn off by now. It looked like the situation he was facing after coming through was even more complicated than he imagined. Putting aside the depravity of this body, Hugo was confident in overcoming any addiction he may face. The physical dependency may be there, but it was not as deep-rooted as the mental one. At the moment, the new Hugo mentally was free of any addiction, so overcoming the body's dependency would be less difficult. However, Hugo's acting career might've proved to be more troublesome.

In Hollywood, producers generally tolerate actors for three works, meaning three strikes and you're out. Hugo had now bombed in three movies and had been nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award three times. Even the Oscar-winning actor would be in a sorry state if they had these three failures, let alone Hugo who hadn't yet made any substantial contributions to the industry. So, the negative impact of the Golden Raspberry Award was likely to continue for a while, and Hugo was definitely facing some challenges.

Additionally, although Hugo may not have known how unpleasant his breakup with Tracy was, it was clear that Tracy was now rejecting him. It was uncertain whether Tracy would create more obstacles for Hugo's acting career in the future, considering she was not currently on good terms with him.

So much trouble, Hugo's encouragement to himself last night had almost been exhausted, he didn't have any thoughts right now. He just wanted to go home, go back to the familiar era of 2014, go back to the side of the Glory or Death band members, go back to Midi Rock Festiva which had no real influence in the world...

"Uh, Joseph, do you know any other female producers? Preferably those who are willing to follow the unspoken rules." Hugo stretched his waist lazily and said, almost making Joseph sitting next to him spray spit with those words. He was choking so badly he was almost choked by his own saliva.