Chapter 34: Good People

"The girl with the short blond hair?" Murphy looked at James Franco, the geek, in surprise, "Are you talking about Carey Mulligan?"

  James Franco wasn't sure what the other girl's name was, he just looked up that she had come to audition for this show and muttered, "So her name is Carey Mulligan."

  Murphy frowned slightly, seeming to grasp something from James Franco's attitude.

  "She's a great actress." Murphy said tentatively, "The best I've seen in a girl of her age."

  "Outstanding?" James Franco asked in a huff, "Are you planning on using her?"

  "If it goes well ..."

  Looking at James Franco again, Murphy seemed to have a clue, "She'll be the leading lady of the project."

  "OK!"James Franco snapped his fingers, "You guys contact my agent."

  Murphy turned to Jessica Chastain for another word of advice, and James Franco didn't move, and with unerring swiftness, he reached out and grabbed the pen he'd long had his eye on, tucked it into his sleeve, and stood up, "That's it for now, I'm outta here."

  The smile on James Franco's face became even more captivating as he thought about the girl he'd seen at the Screen Actors Guild.

  He waved to Murphy and Jessica Chastain and exited the warehouse, looking up at the bright sunlight and striding over towards the Mittens Café, removing the fountain pen from his sleeve as he went and placing it in front of him for a good look, saying to himself, "Another collector's item."

  In the warehouse, Murphy closed his notebook, only to realize that his fountain pen was gone, and after looking up and down the table and still not there, he couldn't help but wonder where it had gone.

  "Taken." Jessica Chastain seemed to see it.

  Murphy turned his head and asked curiously, "Who took it?"

  "James Franco ..."

  Hearing this name uttered by Jessica Chastain, Murphy was momentarily puzzled, the fountain pen he used was the most ordinary cheap goods on the market, throwing it to the beggar was afraid to be disliked, James Franco, such a little-known actor, touching away this kind of fountain pen to do what?

  However, Murphy immediately figured out, once learned from the network above the Hollywood stars, always full of all kinds of eccentricities, rich family but like to take sheep in the hand of the people are not a few.

  The following two days, Murphy continued to prepare their own projects, and at the same time with James Franco's agent had a preliminary contact with the actor's own intentions are different, the agent are some difficult goods, especially to start the pay to use the lion's mouth can not be described.

  Fruit of the Loom project only 300,000 U.S. dollars of investment, rot Lanlan's agent asked for 150,000 U.S. dollars of pay ...

  After two rounds of negotiation, the remuneration gradually dropped to below one hundred thousand dollars, still not affordable to Murphy.

  When it comes to eighty thousand dollars, the negotiations between the two sides almost broke down, Murphy is very clear, from the agent side is difficult to continue to cut the price, the actor's willingness to often play a role.

  Standing by the window of the workroom, Murphy dialed a number, and when there was a response from the other side, said, "Hey, Jim, it's me, Murphy."

  There were a lot of garbled voices ringing out on the other side of the room, not knowing what they were doing, and it took a while for James Franco's words to come back, "Hello there, Murph, it's been a long time."

  Murphy deliberately squeezed, "How's the fountain pen working out for you?"

  "Ah ... "Listening to the voice, it was clear that James Franco was a little embarrassed, Murphy took this opportunity to say, "Jim, don't you want to join my crew?"

  Who wants to join? James Franco over there belly-aching a sentence, but his mouth said, "Of course I want to."

  "But our negotiations with your agent went badly." Murphy didn't beat around the bush, "The total investment of my project is only three hundred thousand dollars, he asked for eighty thousand dollars for you and wouldn't let go, in which case the movie can't be shot at all."

  James Franco said unconcernedly, "Negotiation is the agent's job, I can't interfere."

  If it was said that James Franco was looking at his own small role in this small project, Murphy would not believe it, after that audition, he roughly guessed a little bit of the other party's intentions, and couldn't help but sigh, "It's too bad, it looks like we can't cooperate with each other, my leading lady Carey Mulligan has already been confirmed, and I can only look for a male lead again. "

  It seemed that James Franco's absence was a matter of great regret.

  "The female lead is confirmed?" James Franco over there paused for a moment, "Murph, I think we're very compatible. Tell you what, I'll talk to my agent ..."

  Listening to James Franco babbling for a long time, Murphy hung up the phone, Rot Lanlan interviewed at his theater group, obviously stored some ulterior thoughts, but it was good for him wasn't it?

  How could an actor like James Franco be more professional and suitable than those actors who moonlighted as car washers and waiters?

  Turning back around, Murphy sat down at his desk, the biggest problem now was getting Carey Mulligan done.

  The British girl herself had no problem with her attitude, Jessica Chastain had informed her yesterday that she had passed the audition, but her age dictated that a guardian had to sign off on the contract.

  Trying to get a parent to agree to their child being in a movie like this is no easy task.

  And failing to get Carey Mulligan would mean that negotiations with James Franco would break down completely.

  Although it wasn't necessary for the two of them, of the candidates who had already auditioned, James Franco and Carey Mulligan were the most suitable.

  Thinking of this, Murphy found the cell phone number recorded on top of the notebook and dialed it.

  "Hello, this is Carey Mulligan."

  A voice with sobbing sounded inside the receiver, the person on the other side seemed to be crying, Murphy hurriedly said, "Hello, Carey, this is Murphy, what's wrong, are you crying?"

  On the other side, Carey Mulligan was nestled on the sofa, hearing that the call was from Murphy, she hurriedly wiped her tears, and said in a very aggravated voice, "They all don't agree that I should play Hayley."

  Murphy asked suspiciously, "They?"

  Sobbing again, Carey Mulligan seemed to have found the tilt floodgates, "Uncle Julian Fellowes is against it, and he called my parents to tell them, and they just called from London and scolded me ..."

  The sobbing sound was unusually obvious, Murphy knew the girl's rebellion hidden under her delicate appearance, deliberately comforted, "Hey, Kerry, don't cry, even if we can't work together, when the movie is done, I can show you the script, your parents are doing this all for your own good."

  "For my good?" The female voice inside the receiver immediately rose, "Ever since I can remember, they have been constantly opposing me doing this and that, but whatever I like to do, they all oppose it, I'm really fed up with it! I don't have any freedom at all!"

  Murphy duly added, "They're your parents, they both love you."

  "If they love me, they should support me in pursuing my dreams instead of repeatedly obstructing me." Carey Mulligan's voice grew higher, "If they loved me, would they have agreed to me coming to LA as an exchange student? And never came over to see me!"

  The girl seemed to have accumulated a lot of resentment.

  "I'm sorry, Kerry ..."

  It was still easier for Murphy to deal with this kind of socially inexperienced little girl, "For the sake of your family's harmony, I have to give you up ..."

  "No!" Before he finished his words, he was interrupted by the girl on the phone, "I must act! Murphy, can you give me some more time ..."

  Her voice lowered, "Please."

  Originally, she did have a lot of interest in such a special story as Lolita's fight against killing her weird uncle, she had read a page of the script and felt good about it, but it wasn't something she had to act in, and it wasn't much of a stretch for a little actress with a bit of a background like hers to get some small roles in other movies.

  However, this age group of children is the most rebellious, parents against the more intense things, but the more to do, coupled with Murphy this trace of incitement, and now Carey Mulligan has made up her mind, no matter what, to play the role of Haley.

  Even if her parents were already on a plane to Los Angeles to get here, she wasn't going to give up.

  Murphy didn't say anything for half a day, revealing a very difficult message, and only after Carey Mulligan said 'Please' again did he slowly say, "Carey, the rest of the cast is already in place, and we're about to go north of Los Angeles to shoot, only missing the female lead. "

  Carey Mulligan seemed like she was about to cry again, "Murphy ..."

  She wanted to prove her parents' objections wrong, that she was old enough to follow her own path.

  "Okay, okay Kerry ...," Murphy finally said, "I can wait for you, but a week at the most."

  "Thank you, Murphy." Carey Mulligan burst out laughing, "You're a good person who understands people."

  In the eyes of the rebellious girl, those who conformed to her were the good guys, and the naysayers were always the bad guys.

  Hanging up the phone, Murphy dialed Jessica Chastain's number again, informing her that the recruitment of the male and female lead roles continued, although he thought Carey Mulligan and James Franco were the most suitable actors, but no one could guarantee that they would be able to act, and there was no harm in searching for a few backups.

  Carey Mulligan, a rebellious girl, can overcome her parents like Natalie Portman did back then, Murphy didn't have half a confidence, after all, he was too much worse than Luc Besson at the time.

  On the other side of the apartment, Carey Mulligan hugged the phone and nestled in the wide couch, thinking about how she could defeat her soon-to-be parents.

  In her eyes, her parents were nothing short of dream-destroying demons, who had destroyed dream after dream since she was a little girl, deadpan, and now they weren't even letting go of the biggest one.

  "I won't give up!" The girl's grip on the phone grew tighter and tighter as she shouted through the empty residence of Julian Fellowes, "I won't give up!"

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