Opportunity arrives?

Hugo lifted his gaze from the script in front of him. The dense English letters on the script made him feel a bit headache. This reminded him of the painful years in middle school when he did English reading comprehension. However, the good thing is that he was now a native English speaker, although his memory had only incorporated a part of it. English speaking, listening, reading, and writing were never a problem for him.

Whenever he read a script for a while, Hugo found it strange. Even though he had experienced such bizarre things himself, but still.

Sure enough, the news of Hugo's failure in the audition for "A River Runs Through It" was confirmed the next day. Although the media's main focus was on the 49th Golden Globe Awards, many media still reported the news that Brad Pitt was selected as the male lead in "A River Runs Through It". The reason was simple: the new worst male lead of the Golden Raspberry Awards, Hugo-Lancaster, was rejected. This made Hugo quite bewildered.

Although he failed in the interview, Hugo did not despair for too long. He realized that perhaps this time, his chance of crossing over was real. If he gave up after just one failure, it would definitely be not his style of doing things. Moreover, as long as he remembered the joy he felt while immersed in the performance during the audition for "A River Runs Through It", Hugo would not want to give up. This was the moment he had always dreamed of before crossing over. How could he be willing to miss it? This was the decisive factor for Hugo to recover!

Joseph previously said that there were still many auditions waiting for Hugo, but this was obviously a lie. Although Hugo's situation in Hollywood was not absolutely hopeless, still producers must be more careful and cautious when using Hugo, which was beyond doubt. And Joseph also knew that after three consecutive failures, the selection of Hugo's next work must be carefully done. If it fails again, Hugo's acting career may really come to a temporary halt.

So, after the audition for "A River Runs Through It", Joseph had been busy, trying to find a suitable audition opportunity for Hugo. Unfortunately, without the help of Ron Meyer and Tracey Jacobs, Joseph's power was indeed limited, and opportunities were naturally not as easy to find. But fortunately, this also gave Hugo a buffer opportunity to adapt to the local life in Los Angeles.

Joseph was indeed a very capable agent. Although he was new, his dexterity and mind were excellent. He did not let Hugo wait for too long and got a very outstanding audition opportunity. Under the current circumstances, this was very difficult, and when Hugo saw the script that Joseph brought to himself, he was even surprised, which was an occasion hard to come by.

This time, the script that Joseph brought was the low-budget work "Scent of a Woman" shot by Universal Pictures, one of the eight major film companies, with a budget of 10 million dollars.

"Scent of a Woman" was a remake of the classic Italian film "Scent of a Woman" ("Profumo di donna") from 1974. The movie tells the story of a preparatory school student who acts as an assistant to a temperamental blind retired military officer. The original film focuses more on the past life of the main character, Captain Fausto Consolo, while the adapted script places more emphasis on the relationship between the characters.

The scriptwriter of the classic film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Bo Goldman, adapted the story from the perspective of a young student, gradually revealing the truth of the story through the changes in the student and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade's relationship.

"Scent of a Woman", which was still in the preparation stage, had attracted a lot of attention because the producer had hired the famous Al Pacino to play the Lieutenant Colonel.

Al Pacino's third role as an actor was in the timeless classic "The Godfather", where he played with Marlon Brando and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He then went on to receive three consecutive Oscar nominations for "Serpico", "The Godfather Part II" and "Dog Day Afternoon", and became one of the most outstanding actors in film history with his explosive performance, and alongside Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson, became known as the four mastodonts of the 1970s.

After entering the 1990s, although "Dick Tracy" brought Al Pacino another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, the disappointing performance of "The Godfather Part III" still left many people feeling let down. It was not that "The Godfather Part III" was really that bad, it was just that it couldn't match up to the glory of the first two parts of the series.

Before this, Al Pacino had gone into retirement for four years after the film "Revolution", which had a budget of 28 million dollars but only earned less than a million dollars at the box office. Despite the success of "Sea of Love" and "Dick Tracy" after his return in 1989, Al Pacino was still unable to regain his peak. Now faced with the challenge of "The Godfather Part III", Al Pacino's reputation was not as good as it was ten years ago.

So, when Al Pacino took on the role of Lieutenant Commander Frank Slade in "Scent of a Woman", the response from the media was limited and people were still cautious about Al Pacino's return to glory. Universal Studios only allocated a budget of 10 million dollars, which showed their cautious attitude.

Nevertheless, the collaboration between Al Pacino and Bo Goldman, plus the directing of Martin Brest, who had directed "Midnight Run", was still highly anticipated. Especially for actors, it would be a rare opportunity to play the role of Charlie in the film and to have a scene with Al Pacino.

The character of Charlie required actors to be between the ages of 20 to 25, possessing a student-like demeanor that was modest and polite. This was undoubtedly attractive to young actors, and Hugo was surprised when Joseph managed to secure an audition opportunity for the film "Scent of a Woman".

Despite the conservative attitudes of news media and the caution of the film industry, Hugo, a soul that traveled through time, clearly knew the value of this opportunity in "Scent of a Woman."

The highlight of "Scent of a Woman" was that later Al Pacino's brilliant performance finally earned him an Oscar for Best Actor after six nominations. The film itself also won nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, receiving continuous praise. More importantly, the box office performance of the film was also excellent, making it a rare classic masterpiece.

In "Scent of a Woman", although Charlie was just a supporting role, his role was actually not weak, and it could even be said that it was almost on par with Frank's. Only because of the narrative focus that stayed on Lieutenant Colonel Slade, the roles of the protagonist and the supporting role were made easy to distinguish. Charlie's role was naturally slightly less difficult than Frank's, but there was still a lot of room for the struggle and transformation of the character's inner feelings.

If Hugo could perform in "Scent of a Woman", this would not only become a breakthrough in his acting career, but also an opportunity for him to play against Al, and to learn more from this great actor. The appeal of this movie was enough to make Hugo excited.

When Hugo got the script for "Scent of a Woman" from Joseph, he was almost too excited to hold steady and was about to reveal himself in front of Joseph. At this moment, he deeply realized how rare this time-traveling opportunity was. He not only time-traveled but also brought his knowledge, vision, experience, etc. that covered years from 1992 to 2014. This meant that opportunities and luck that were hard to come by for other actors could be easily attained by Hugo.

What Hugo needed to do was not wait for opportunities to fall from the sky and hit him, but instead, aim for opportunities that suit him, and do his best to grab them. Now, for Hugo, opportunities were not a problem, his talent, his sweat, and his persistence were the keys to success.

After getting the script, Hugo began to prepare for the audition for "Scent of a Woman". Joseph had already done his job as an agent, and he was still tirelessly seeking more audition opportunities. So now, it was up to Hugo's end.

At the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, about a ten-minute walk from Joseph's house, there was a Starbucks located under the shade of the trees on the boulevard. Hugo walked to the entrance of this Starbucks every day to read the script.

The home of the two bachelors was already a mess, and with Joseph's house environment not being good, Hugo simply went outside to the open, spacious outdoor seating area of Starbucks to read the script while also enjoying the sun and the relaxing mood. It was indeed a good choice.

Today, Hugo arrived at Starbucks early as planned and occupied a double seat outside, then started reading the script. This time, compared to the rush of "A River Runs Through It", there was enough time for Hugo to prepare, so he wanted to read the script carefully, not as a spectator to appreciate it like watching a movie, but to stand in the actor's perspective and truly experience the plot, lines, and relationships between characters.

Hugo hoped to take on the role of Charlie and had an unprecedentedly strong desire, so it was a safe bet that he would give it his all!

After reading the script tired, Hugo stretched out his lazy waist, and his stiff back, and in the residual light of his sight, he saw a young man wearing sunglasses chasing a young girl on the street. The girl's expression seen from the gaps in her hair seemed very impatient and she kept shaking her hand to refuse, but the young man wouldn't give up and kept pursuing.

This, in broad daylight, hitting up in the street? That should be "When there is injustice on the road, shout, strike when the time comes, rush into the stage in a spirited manner..."