CHAPTER 34, BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD

Josh quickly looked away, put his hands in his pants pockets, didn't know what to think about in his head, and the tips of his ears were dyed a thin pink.

Josie felt strange, unexpectedly holding her face with one hand, staring at Josh's side face unabashedly, and the ignored El was indifferent, thinking that he was a table-sharing eating machine.

Josh was uncomfortable watching, but thankfully before he could get impatient, Josie withdrew her gaze.

"So—" Josie lengthened her tone and asked, "How did you recognize me, Josh, I thought my cross-dressing was successful. "

Josh habitually frowned and replied, "This... Can this be called success? He barely managed to hold back the foul language, "I studied photography, and your eyes, and your body, reveal so much." "

Saying that, he glanced at Josie several times with great disgust, from her messy hairstyle, mushy eye makeup, crude necklace, and the fashionable jeans stuck on the straddle.

Diametrically opposed to American sweetheart, a full street girl.

Sensing Josh's disapproving gaze, Josie didn't care, chewed the gum in her mouth, some regrets that she couldn't blow a big bubble, she easily spread her hands, it looked neither elegant nor decent, but very casual.

Josie said: "It's just part of the hands-on performance. Tell me about you, how did you see through me at a glance, this look allows me to appear in the downtown area generously, but I am not recognized. "

Who would associate a rebellious teenage girl everywhere with a rising supernova?

Even if someone thinks that there is a bit of similarity, a rough and direct middle finger and a glaring combination punch, anyone will think that their eyes are not very good, so they will be dazzled.

"Your ears are too clean, your skin is not rough enough, you sit too straight, and the posture of the whole person is not right." Josh explained seriously, "There is no trance that a runaway girl has taken too much drugs, or the shrewd temperament that can break her mouth and curse at any time." "

He was referring to the fact that there was no mess on Josie's ears, only a lone pair of pierced ears, and two exaggerated metal earrings.

Because of his long time in Broadway theaters and dance companies, Josh is sensitive to these things, and he has a good ability to observe.

In particular, he is facing this face that belongs to "Cher".

When Josie heard this, she quickly took out her memorandum from her small pocket and picked up a pen to write on Alan's character biography.

Josh couldn't help but crane his neck to take a look and ask, "Is this your next movie?" Characters who don't look so sweet. "

"Not so sweet", this is already a very euphemistic adjective.

In fact, at a glance, Josie's small book has several important points circled on it: "ruthless", "cunning", "conceited", "aggressive".

"Just a role audition." Josie didn't look up, let alone see her two eyelashes long and upturned from Josh's perspective.

But her smoky makeup is too spicy for the eyes.

Josh felt that his heartbeat rate was not as crazy as in the movie theater.

This is good.

At least it proves that he wasn't really being Josie. Horton was attracted to the man and instead admired her films.

Fall for art, there is nothing to be ashamed of.

Right, Josh. Jones?

Josh comforted himself, and then asked with some swallowing: "Since we are friends, can you give me your number?" "

Josie looked up from her small notebook, glanced at Josh, and said without any surprise: "If I heard correctly, are you asking for my number?" "

This kid is showing affection for me...?

"Yeah, that's right." Josh shrugged seemingly indifferently, "Can't you? "

If there is no unprovoked fever in the back of his neck, his attitude is quite natural.

"Nope." Seeing Josh's expression change drastically, Josie slowly said the second half of the sentence, "But—you can give me your number, maybe I'll call you." "

After that, she showed a signature sweet smile.

Fxxk!

That's foul!

Josh gasped, dizzily wrote his number on a tissue in the restaurant, and waved the person to the hotel in a dizzy manner.

Then he reacted a few times slower: Who was she dating just now?!

What a fucking fuck!

1995 was a very special year.

Windows 95 was officially released, Motorola brought mobile phones into a new generation, British Princess Diana publicly admitted that there were three people in the marriage, Chinese singer Teresa Teng passed away, and the future classic "Journey to the West" failed at the box office, and Jackie Chan of "Red Fan District" entered the North American market.

For Hollywood, the release of "Autumn Legends" at the end of last year made Brad. Pete really became popular, and the future four Mesozoic generation students "Tonki Pip" were officially formed, of which Tom. The movie "Mission Impossible" that Cruise is working on is about to start the era of Hollywood superstardom.

Josie felt her time was pressing, but James. Cameron's "Titanic" has not heard anything about casting, and she has to turn to new opportunities.

And Martha, precisely for the heroine of a new project that is working, invited her to watch a play on Broadway in New York.

The next day, Josie arrived on the second floor of the theater according to the time Martha had agreed, and El stepped forward and politely knocked on the door of the box, and a female voice came from the box: "Please come in." "

Entering the door, there were already two people sitting in the box, one was a tall and slender brown-haired girl with a beautiful face and elegant temperament, and the other was a gray-haired old man wearing an Oxford cloth shirt and beige jacket, facing the door with his back to the stage and looking at the stage.

The girl stood up from her position, smiled and stretched out her hand: "I think you are Miss Horton, I am Rebecca, Rebecca. Miller, Martha should have mentioned me to you. "

"Nice to meet you, Miss Miller." Josie said hello.

At this time, the old man coughed vigorously.

Rebecca said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Miss Horton, maybe you'd like to come with me to a more suitable place to talk." "

"The guest is whatever you want." Josie replied.

Rebecca. Miller is an actress and director, but she is better known for her father as the sexy goddess Marilyn. Monroe's ex-husband, Arthur, one of the three masters of twentieth-century American drama. Miller.

But today, the old man in the box, Arthur. Miller, apparently, did not want to see the visitors.

The famous play "The Crucible", known as the testing ground of human nature, began to be staged on the stage, the actors are full of emotions, powerful lines, body language and ability to control the scene are also good, just the opening scene of the first act, you come and go, sparks will splash.

I have to say that the business level here is much higher than the crew that Josie has experienced.

A casual glance at the actress who was rehearsing, among which there was a young blonde girl at the edge, the old stage still could not hide the beautiful face and figure, more than enough to play the heroine of a popcorn blockbuster.

"Her name is Amy, she is twenty-one years old, and she is from Minnesota." Coming to the box next door, Rebecca introduced, "Her theater agent sent for tryouts, but she couldn't stay, and she had to leave tonight." She smiled, "Please sit, Miss Horton." "

Josie chose Rebecca's right-hand side and sat down, the rehearsal on stage continued, and the blonde Amy was unaware of her fate tonight, and the performance was very hard.

She withdrew her gaze and asked, "Miss Miller, do you also offer newcomer trials?" "

Rebecca replied: "Occasionally, when rehearsing, the starring roles need to rotate AB corners, and there are ordinary actors who cannot complete the performance cycle due to sudden circumstances. "

"Oh, such." Josie nodded, "The atmosphere of the theater and the crew is not the same, which makes me a little curious. "

"Broadway is more experimental and artistic." Rebecca said mildly, "But 90% of the actors here are unemployed all year round. "

In fact, actors in both places are in excess of demand, and the top of the industry pyramid on Broadway is not as exaggerated as Hollywood A-coffee stars, and their work pressure is very high, continuous rehearsals and performances, confusion when there is no drama to perform, and competitors who come and go.

Unlike Hollywood stars, a little fame can live a good life, lucky to perform a popular TV series can still eat a lifetime, and mixed to the extent of Josie, relying on the phenomenal film "Monopoly" can be popular for at least three or five years, maybe ten or twenty years later can still be on the show to a wave of memories.

So Broadway continues to lose talent to Hollywood, but it still doesn't look at Hollywood, because Hollywood represents a compromise between business and reality.

It's so unartistic.

But the road from East Fourth Street to the Avenue of Stars still attracts countless people.

"The Crucible" describes the real events of the Salem Witch Trial in 1632, where the young and beautiful Abigail used the witch trial to pretend to be a ghost, borrow a knife to kill, in order to win the heart of his lover John, he did not hesitate to frame and burn John's wife, John exposed Abigail's conspiracy to the villagers, but it was too late.

The story is absurd, ignorant, and ugly, and some believe that it has profound significance for exposing human nature, while others think it is a strong irony of the domestic mood in the United States at that time.

Playwright Arthur. Miller even went to jail for a year.

But no matter how high the critics blow it, Josie has only one feeling after watching "The Crucible", and that is total discomfort.

Josie hides the depression and boredom in her heart, and politely and thoughtfully talks to Rebecca. Miller said goodbye and praised the play quite sincerely, but did not bring up any talk about the movie version of "The Crucible", as if she had simply been invited to watch an internal rehearsal.

By the time you walk out of the theater, New York's rush hour has not yet arrived.

Josie let out a long, long breath of turbid air, facing the bustling crowd near Times Square and the colorful billboards on Broadway, only then did she feel that the affected mood recovered somewhat.

She couldn't help but ask El, who was with her: "What do you think of the drama just now?" "

"I don't understand it." El replied honestly, adding, "To be honest, I don't have any artistic and literary talents. "

Josie breathed another sigh of relief.

After dinner near Broadway, the two took a taxi back to the hotel, and Josie called Martha as soon as possible.

Josie spoke, "Sorry, Martha, I'm sure I messed up." But Rebecca agreed to let me stay for a few days to train. "

The entire atmosphere of "The Crucible" is extremely intense and crazy, each character has a dark side of his humanity, and the girl who looks like an angel lives the devil in her heart, planning an absurd and dark witch trial for love.

This role, in part has the same thing as the one Josie is preparing, and she wants to stay and see for herself how the top actors on Broadway are performed.

Martha on the other end of the line asked, "Okay, so why?" "

"I couldn't appreciate the script, let alone get into Abigail's role, so I had to give up." Josie was stuck on the hotel bed, not even wanting to move her fingers, "I'm really sorry, but I can't play this role at all and don't want to play this role." "

Maybe I don't want to act more than important.

"Are you learning about the play 'The Crucible' for the first time?" Martha asked.

"That's right." Josie replied, "It feels too oppressive and crazy for me. "

Just after watching the rehearsal, it is already uncomfortable.

Martha was silent for about ten seconds, not mentioning how she had arranged the successful meeting, and of course Josie did not specifically ask, there were always some connections that could not be easily used - even if they might be relatives.

Although the surname "Miller" is a big commodity in the United States, Rebecca. Miller's overly amiable and somewhat tentative attitude, as well as Martha. Miller's performance of not personally accompanying them shows that their relationship is very unusual.

"Sorry, it was my mistake." Martha said, "By the way, Miramax Pictures invited you to join the audition for "Emma", it would be a good choice. Of course, we all know that Harvey. Weinstein has a bad reputation, likes to interfere with the crew's creation, is rude and arrogant. He specifically offered to meet you, what did you think? "

Today's Weinstein has not yet extended its claws to the Oscar, but the two brothers have very rich production and distribution experience, and backing Disney also makes this art label mix.

But they are businessmen through and through, they have no respect for the art of cinema and the creators, they only respect money.

A director who was new to Hollywood once ridiculed Weinstein as a black-hearted capitalist, usually when they bid for the distribution rights at film festivals, they always offered a high price to beat off other competitors, and then told the film's holders in the final stages of the negotiation that they should either deal for nothing or accept a low price.

And this is just one of Weinstein's usual tactics in Hollywood for many years, despicable but effective.

You can imagine their style.

"It sounds like you like Emma, but you hate Weinstein." Josie said.

Martha did not answer positively, only saying: "I don't like sexism, but this is the environment in Hollywood and in my country today." "

Josie agreed, but with their current status, it was far from shaking it all.

She asked again: "See or not, why not give a simple professional advice?" "

"If you want to meet, you must bring your assistant, at any time." Martha said, "You can't turn down every project because of this, otherwise most of the auditions in Hollywood won't have to go." "

Unspoken rules are really everywhere...

Josie went to the Screen Actors Guild to take a lesson in anti-submarine rules, and it is said that most of the new actresses are forced or voluntarily to be infiltrated by low- and middle-class men in Hollywood, such as casting directors and director assistants, and finally get roles that don't even have lines.

Such chaos has made more and more crews have to use women as casting directors.

But fortunately, Josie has survived the most embarrassing stage when newcomers have just entered the industry, she does not need to worry about being taken advantage of by that small role, nor does she worry about script invitations from the six major film industries, as long as she steadily carries out her career planning, everything is actively getting better.

The only thing to worry about is that a rose with buds waiting to be released has already revealed a bit of delicateness, and there are more and more high-ranking mad bee wave butterflies, wanting to kiss Fangze.

Harvey. Weinstein, just one of them.

Or rather, the unspeakable big man behind him is also very interested in the new American sweetheart.

But Harvey's actions were too obvious, and when he heard that he had set the meeting in a hotel room, Martha decisively found an excuse for Josie to dismiss the invitation to "Emma" and turned to look for other projects suitable for Josie.

I have to say that although Paramount's contract is not worth much, it more or less gives a certain amount of protection, coupled with the reshuffled CAA has the meaning of holding Josie on the top, so that she will not be completely unconfident and refuse all kinds of hints in the circle.

To be honest, it was a bit hard work, but Josie felt that it was worth it, and now she had nothing left that really belonged to her, and she couldn't let go of her last pride.

Yes, she really wants to win.

But once the bottom line is lost, the lowered head can never be lifted.

Broadway days weren't quite the same as Josie had imagined.

Perhaps because it was a rehearsal stage, the troupe was more rehearsing plays, occasionally in the Grand Theater, but more often in the rehearsal rooms on Off-Broadway.

But everywhere, they don't welcome Hollywood idol stars, just as Broadway looks down on Hollywood.

Josie was isolated by everyone.

Fortunately, she herself felt that it didn't matter.

On the one hand, Josie thinks that she is just a passerby who has come to steal for a few days, and being isolated does not affect her to experience their performance emotions live and figure out the psychology of the characters.

On the other hand, this situation of not playing with outsiders, no matter which Josie is, is something she has experienced, she has forgotten how to be uneasy about it, but instead appears at the rehearsal site every day with a relaxed expression, like a big-name overseer.

Arthur. Mr. Miller is a rare appearance with his daughter Rebecca. Miller controlled the rearrangement and follow-up to the film "The Age of Passion" (i.e. "The Crucible") - Martha originally set his sights on the project.

Instead of asking Josie how she was doing here, Rebecca asked on an exhausted afternoon, "Do you know if you want to try playing Abigail, Miss Horton, or something else?" "

Josie sat on the floor of the rehearsal room in spite of the image, slowly adjusting her breathing, just like every actor around her.

An hour and a half ago, they had a formal rehearsal, and Josie followed the actress who played the heroine Abigail, holding the script and silently reciting the lines while trying to empathize with her emotions.

After the rehearsal, Josie also seemed to be on stage, consuming a lot of energy and physical strength.

"No, Miss Miller." Josie still refused, "I believe that 'Age of Passion' will be a thought-provoking and excellent movie, but I am not suitable. "

Hearing this, the faint hostile gaze around her narrowed a little, and I don't know whether she thought she was still self-aware, or if she finally said something pleasant.

Jealousy is like a shadow, everywhere.

Josie. Horton, this girl, is really lucky, in the first sixteen years lived a top white rich and beautiful life, once in the middle of the family but soon became a Hollywood star, now casually make a movie can earn millions.

And these people, most of them from poor backgrounds, began to survive in the theater at a young age from one set board role to another, and only now have the opportunity to appear in famous Broadway plays, but all of them add up to earn less than her in a movie.

She played nothing more than a grinning blonde silly girl.

It's just a true color show.

There is no difficulty, anyone can go up.

Rebecca didn't pay attention to the line of sight around her.

Maybe she noticed, but didn't think she needed to pay attention to it.

She asked again, "Maybe you'd like to see us audition, Winona. Red decided to star. "

In fact, the heroine of the movie had been identified three days earlier, Arthur. As soon as Miller let go, everything returned to Hollywood-style order.

Josie raised her head and gave Rebecca a silent look.

The latter's eyebrows were gentle, making it impossible to see what was being thought.

Josie then said, "Good. "

Early the next morning, Josie used the disguise skills she learned in the theater and dressed up as a black and straight pure glasses girl to act as Arthur. Miller's entourage entered the theater that had been cleared.

The film's director and co-writer are surrounding Arthur. Miller besides, Rebecca. Miller doesn't know where to go, the actors needed for this scene gather in the corner to keep quiet, and the hero and heroine are still changing costumes and about to appear.

Arthur. Miller coughed and suddenly said, "Miss Horton! "

Josie, who was standing alone in the corner, almost invisible, did not expect to be named, and asked, "Yes, sir?" "

"Come to me." Arthur. Miller said he sat in the theater's best viewing position, and even had a separate monitor to watch.

Josie hurriedly walked over.

Arthur. Miller glanced at her and said, "Sit next to me, you're responsible for recording what I say!" "

Josie blinked innocently, took out her notepad and pen, and decided to obey the old gentleman.

The official audition began.

As one of the finest actresses of this generation, Winona. Red's acting skills are undoubted, and this crazy character inside is also suitable for her, at least Josie thinks it is more suitable for her than Joe in "Little Women".

There's also more room to play.

The short ten-minute audition clip was quickly finished, Winona. Abigail, played by Reid, uses the sweetest appearance to say the most vicious panic, and the whole performance is crazy, paranoid, and vicious.

But she couldn't take away another actor, even the slightest bit of grace -

The man roared, "God is dead! "

A violent roar of anger and madness on the verge of collapse, but a sense of helplessness that was almost fragile, his voice was perfect, his performance was perfect, and even his shaky eyes as if the world were collapsing before his eyes were incredible.

Josie was shocked.

This shock cannot be expressed in words alone.

She sat there stunned, her heart was stirring, she couldn't speak for a while, even the frequency of breathing became unconsciously slow, and she couldn't get rid of a look and a line from the actor just now, but the whole person was more awake than ever.

For ten minutes, Josie was sitting there.

The performance on stage is over, the actors are leaving, and the theater has returned to the empty silence of the rehearsal day, except for the two leading actors who have left the audience after withdrawing from their roles.

Yet Arthur who did not say a word from beginning to end. Miller made a gesture for everyone to be quiet.

Josie's brain seemed to be caught in an unprecedented storm.

She was so shocked by the charm of facing the theatrical stage and the top actors, and at some point the cool tears had run rampant on her face, and even the rough black-framed glasses had suffered, but had become a blocker of her vision.

She suddenly gasped hard.

Then I heard Arthur next to me. Miller's voice.

"Are you all right?" He asked lightly, "Then stand next to it and listen." "

At this time, Josie came back to her senses little by little.

Her back was already soaked in cold sweat, and her scalp still had a faint tingling feeling after excitement and shock, and the strong depression and anger brought by immersing herself in the play was gradually withdrawing.

Josie slowly blinked her eyes and rolled her eyes.

In front of her stood a large crowd, with a slightly smiling Rebecca. Miller, the inquiring Winona. Red, and—

The disheveled black hair, bearded and still urbane Daniel. Day Lewis.

Facing the face of this male protagonist who was extremely similar to when he performed just now, Josie opened her eyes wide, let out a deep breath, and let out Arthur. The location of the closest distance around Miller.

Daniel. Day Lewis flashed Josie a rather kind and shy smile, as if to thank her for her recognition of the performance.

Josie walked away in a daze.

Days, she felt like she had become Daniel. Fans of Day Lewis.

- True movie fans.