Chapter 37: Control

  Under the strong insistence of Rot Lanlan, after five more days of negotiation, the cast of Fruit Hard Candy finally had a male lead, for which Murphy paid a lump sum of forty thousand dollars, although the current James Franco could not be compared to the future, he had also appeared in two film and television dramas with major roles, and this was not his true worth.

  Murphy was well aware that James Franco had entered the cast with impure intentions, but didn't care, everyone was just getting what they wanted.

  At this point, "Fruit Hard Candy" filming crew formally formed, including Murphy, a total of only fourteen people, of which there are three belonging to the interns who do not get paid, can be said to be economical to the extreme.

  In fact, Murphy would also like to take care of all the work by himself, and save all the salary offered, but this is obviously impossible, he is just a person, although he has gone through systematic study in the film school, but it is impossible to be proficient in all the behind-the-scenes work of the movie.

  There are two main actors in the film, a little girl, Hayley, and Jeff, the cameraman, in addition to the largest part being a female neighbor of Jeff's, who has been forced by Murphy to give a cameo to Jessica Chastain.

  There is also a tragic death of the girl in the opening scene, Murphy also finalized the candidate, but the other side of the scene is extremely small, to wait for the opening of the shooting will not enter the cast.

  Those other passerby roles are basically cameos by Murphy and the cast and production crew, and the waiter who will inevitably appear during the filming at Mitton's Café will be filled by someone from Mitton's Café, and the old Lynch has been preparing for this for some time.

  Even though this was in Los Angeles, the chance to appear in a movie was still rare for the average person.

  "Let me do the introductions."

  The warehouse that served as a makeshift studio, the three of them, Murphy, Carey Mulligan and James Franco, were gathered together for the first time, and he, the director, took the initiative to introduce them, "Carey, this is James Franco, great actor."

  He then turned to introduce, "Jim, this is Carey Mulligan, the future Rose of England."

  Murphy took a step back of his own accord after he finished speaking.

  "Hello, may I call you Carey?" James Franco put on a charming smile and took the initiative to step forward, extending a hand, "I'm James Franco, you can call me Jim."

  Seemingly only just getting a good look at his face, Carey Mulligan said in slight surprise, "Why you?"

  "We meet again." James Franco's hand was still outstretched there.

  Carey Mulligan, however, had no intention of shaking his hand, and turned his head directly to Murphy, "Murphy, he's not a good person."

  James Franco's smile stiffened and he resentfully withdrew his hand, his face more or less embarrassed.

  Murphy, completely confused as to what had happened between these two men, rushed to round up the conversation, "Carey, did something happen? Jim is a very good actor."

  "Hmph ...," Carey Mulligan just grunted through her nose twice.

  Not many girls that age would like the kind of guy who had outed himself.

  Looking over at James Franco, Murphy didn't want to care what was going on with these two, and with that agent of Carey Mulligan's coming over in a few minutes, he didn't have time to waste with these two.

  Murphy walked over to that simple desk, took out two schedules, handed them to James Franco and Carey Mulligan respectively, and instructed, "I require you to go through all the scenes in the schedule before shooting."

  Every movie has a lot of rehearsals for the actors before filming, and Fruity Hard Candy would be no exception.

  The knock on the door sounded at this time, after Murphy shouted please come in, that agent called Bill Rossis pushed open the door, still carrying packed juice and coffee in his hand, came over and first greeted Murphy to deliver a cup of coffee, and then similarly politely exchanged a few pleasantries with James Franco, also delivering a cup of coffee.

  It had to be said that to become a qualified entertainment agent, being able to handle interpersonal relationships as well as being eight-sided was a necessary skill.

  Murphy was a first time director, and the current James Franco was unassuming, even the location of the rehearsal was just a warehouse, yet Bill Rossis did not show any contempt, at least on the surface.

  In Hollywood, stars are allowed to be proud and unassuming; agents are not.

  Since Carey Mulligan was underage, the agent or acting guardian usually had to be on the job site, Murphy had no problem with that, and James Franco wasn't stupid, even though Murphy seriously suspected that he had ulterior motives, but he acted courteously from the moment he saw Carey Mulligan, and even if there was the occasional word of proximity, it was all in the form of a normal chat.

  "Director Stanton ..."

  When a few people finished their drinks, Bill Rossis opened his mouth at the right time to remind Murphy, "Carey still has class this afternoon and must finish work at twelve."

  Murphy nodded and gestured to James Franco, "Let's get started."

  Rehearsal began with James Franco reading a monologue, seemingly warming up and finding his form that way, he had a fair amount of experience and wasn't one of those actors who moonlighted as a waiter, Murphy wasn't too worried, and after a brief moment of watching, his eyes fell on Carey Mulligan.

  In the initial audition, and in the several subsequent communications, the girl showed some acting credits, she had been performing in theater groups since she was in elementary school in England, what she lacked was a real acting opportunity.

  In Murphy's eyes, the girl's acting talent wasn't top notch, but it was good.

  Of course, he was only a novice and his reading might not be accurate.

  A few minutes later, Carey Mulligan and James Franco started the rehearsal of the first scene, which was the scene where the two had just met.

  James Franco walks up to Carey Mulligan from behind, "Hayley ..."

  Carey Mulligan turned back and wiped her lips lightly as the script had written, "Jeff?"

  There was a little surprise in her voice, but not so much on her face, Carey Mulligan had just shown that she didn't like James Franco very much, and with a character like hers, her emotions were almost always written on her face, even without the use of a camera in close-up, Murphy could see the nastiness in those bright eyes, and even came close to writing on her face the words "I'm going to kill you, you bad guy! "I'm going to kill you, you badass!" was written on his face.

  "Kerry ...," Murphy interrupted the pair's rehearsal and beckoned, "Come here."

  Scratching her short blonde locks, Carey Mulligan walked across the desk where Murphy was sitting and asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

  She could read quite a bit through Murphy's expression.

  Murphy immediately remembered that she wasn't just any girl, with a particularly strong rebellious streak, and after a moment's pause, changed his words, "Carey, I remember that time we talked in the café?"

  "Uh-huh." She nodded softly, "I'll never forget. It's never how we think, it's what we do that can determine our future."

  Murphy smiled, looking at her and then at a puzzled James Franco.

  Carey Mulligan, naïve and rebellious but no fool, understood immediately and leaned in closer to lower her voice and said, "I know, an actor has to be a professional actor, don't worry about it Murph, I won't let you down."

  The voice was not high, but the warehouse was not that big in the first place, James Franco and Bill Rossis both heard it and looked at Murphy at the same time.

  James Franco cocked his head, realizing that his handsome face and charming smile, which used to be so useful, didn't work as well as a few words from the guy across the room.

  The other guy seemed to be very good at dealing with girls his age, and was simply the best person for him to learn from.

  Unlike James Franco, who was full of eccentricities, Bill Rossis, a professional entertainment agent, had learned how rebellious Carey Mulligan was, and knew that this was a very difficult girl, and he would not have served as her agent if it hadn't been for the introduction of his longtime client, Julian Fellowes.

  Even, he could imagine that this rebellious girl who had pushed her parents to the point where there was no turning back and had to let her step into the acting industry would make a mess of this small theater group.

  But what appeared in front of him completely overturned the previous point of view, and this newcomer director called Murphy Stanton was able to suppress Carey Mulligan ... No, more precisely, he was manipulating Carey Mulligan in an extremely skillful way.

  Interesting ah ... Bill Rossis clasped his hands on his chest and looked over there, but did not say a word.

  He was a little skeptical that Carey Mulligan's farcical desire to be cast in this role was not also related to this little director called Murphy Stanton?

  If that was the case, this could be a talent.

  Seeing Carey Mulligan realize what the problem was, Murphy stood up and gave her an approving nod, waiting for the girl to show a happy smile before speaking again.

  "Carey, you see in the scene we just rehearsed, Haley didn't like Jeff, was very disgusted, right?"

  "Yes." Carey Mulligan nodded busily.

  "Jeff talks about Hayley being mature," Murphy analyzed it briefly for her, "but can't wait for her to be an idiot, and Hayley is trying to make Jeff think she's an idiot, so ..."

  Murphy looked at Carey Mulligan, who was no less perceptive, and interjected, "So Haley's naive eating of chocolate cake, liking those bands, and liking cool t-shirts, which is totally naive girl stuff, so as to get Jeff to let his guard down, and misdirect him in the wrong direction."

  "Bingo." Murphy snapped his fingers, "I have to say you really are so smart."

  Carey Mulligan was only the bait to attract James Franco, even if he wasn't there, the previously said independent rehearsals for the male and female leads couldn't really be realized, Bill Rossis, the agent, would basically stay by Carey Mulligan's side.

  These Murphy had long considered.

  On the other side, Carey Mulligan unconsciously tilted her chin and smiled in an unusually cute way, only that this smile was only given to Murphy alone.

  Looking over there, James Franco's heart thumped as if it was going to break out of his chest, he took a deep breath and suppressed the rising and boiling blood.

  What a powerful guy ah, James Franco's eyes fell on Murphy's body, and said to himself that if he had such a means, he wouldn't have always had more targets and less rewards in the past.