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Helming Hollywood (Fanfic)

Levin, who had experienced ups and downs in the entertainment industry in his previous life came to Hollywood in 1996 from 2014. It's a slow-paced novel. Unofficial translation of the novel by heracross. Raw version can be found at https://www.uukanshu.com/b/24330/. You can read advanced chapters on my Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.

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Contrast Between Internal and External Performance

Although he doesn't know where Levi's confidence that Brad Pitt will like the script comes from, since Levi said so, Clark also believes that Levi still believes in Brad Pitt's appreciation of the movie script.

If an actor really likes a script, the effect of the performance will be very different. Clark knows this well, and he also has confidence in Brad Pitt's ability. He believes that he can perform well.

However, Levi said Brad Pitt's name, which still surprised him, "I thought you didn't like him very much."

"I really don't like him very much, but there is no need to deny his acting skills; just like I don't like how Day-Lewis treats Adjani, but I admit that his acting skills are great." Levi answered this question immediately, but after he finished speaking, he thought of something, "If they really all agree with our arrangement, so in other words, in this play, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston will act as husband and wife?"

"Is there any problem?"

Levi shook his head and should keep this idea in his heart. Anyway, what does he need to worry about in his crew?

"If this role is also decided, then only one final protagonist is left. The undercover agent that the police broke into the gang is also the core character in the whole film - the choice of this character is the final difficulty."

He has his own good life, and he doesn't want to lose his life and struggle. The undercover agent who broke into the gang lost his good life and struggled to return to society. This person's performance requirements are higher than the other undercover agent.

"According to the requirements in the script. This person should be around 30 years old. If someone is around 30 years old, the actor who plays him must be an actor born in the 60s... It's really hard to find." Clark said, and Levi also nodded.

Theoretically speaking, the gap between the age of the actors and the age of the characters in the play is about 8 years old, which is an acceptable range. But when it comes to acting, it's generally better for men to be older and women should be younger.

Needless to say about women, young women are always attractive in movies - for women, youth is capital. And for men, sometimes, age is the capital.

Among the young actors, it is not that there are no good actors, but they are not able to do this kind of play for the time being. For example, Leonardo is just 25 years old, he is too young in appearance, and he has a handsome face. And Leonardo has been a little slack since he finished filming the big boat, as far as Levi knows. He had to wait until after 2002 before he started to do things seriously. During this period of time, he still doesn't have much ambition.

For the same reason, though equally talented, for the younger Heath Ledger, it is very difficult for a 20-year-old to perform the vicissitudes of being an undercover agent for ten years, and his biggest problem is his age mismatch. Levi wouldn't think about him either.

But now it's 1999; if they want to find someone in the right grade, they have to find people born in the 1960s. Finding someone who can act in this play among these people is still very difficult.

The group of people in the 60s happened to catch up with the improvement of media conditions at the beginning of their debut. When many of them debuted, they debuted as young idols. And their status as idols also largely limits their growth. The best example is Tom Cruise because after he starred in Interview with the Vampire, female fans protested with a sign against him playing a villain, so he made a promise not to play a villain anymore - such an extreme example also shows the self-limitation of their group of actors.

Among the idols in the early 1990s, Brad Pitt was relatively successful in transformation, while Johnny Depp had a relatively large limit on himself. Throughout the 1990s, he was more individual. He was a character who did not take an unusual path. Until the filming of Sleepy Hollow, he was on the right track.

Despite his acting skills, Matt Dillon's reputation has fallen into a trough among other idols. Robert Downey Jr and Charlie Sheen are playing themselves to death. River Phoenix can only be said to be really unfortunate, and Keanu Reeves simply lived out of the world - among this group of people, few of them really took the road of acting.

In the late 1990s, most of them were still lingering on their idols and acting schools. It is difficult to find a suitable person in the identity.

"I also hope this actor finds someone with better acting skills..." Levi also thought more about the name, "I also have an idea; what do you think of Edward Norton?"

Levi thought the most for this character and proposed the candidate he was most optimistic about. Among the actors in the 1960s, Levi believes that Edward Norton's acting skills are the most suitable person to play this person. This character is the absolute protagonist, and Levi naturally hopes to find a better actor.

"Edward Norton is not suitable, is he? This actor is very good at playing a psychopath but is a little worse when playing a normal person." Clark frowned, "Norton is suitable for roles that are cowardly on the outside but weak on the inside. Treacherous and cunning characters who can even be described as perverted — like his famous work Primal Fear, or the character in the X-Files, this is the way. The protagonist in this play requires a melancholy appearance; can he play such a role?" Clark was a little hesitant about Edward Norton's acting skills.

The performance of this actor since his debut is indeed very talented. Levi remembers that in several movies, his acting skills are amazing. But later, people also gradually discovered that most of his good performances are those characters who are more neurotic and crazy. Whether it's Primal Fear or X-Files, his roles are similar. He plays such roles brilliantly, but other roles are not so classic.

Ordinary people can play normal people well in acting, but they can't play crazy people well. Therefore, when seeing a person who can play a lunatic well, people will naturally think that his acting skills are extraordinary.

However, with the increasing number of his acting, people think he is also a more idiosyncratic actor - he can play a neurotic that ordinary people can't play well, but he can't play ordinary people who are good at ordinary people.

Although when he first debuted, he was shocked by Hollywood and thought that his acting skills were outstanding, his evaluation declined as time passed.

Although Brad Pitt has never played a successful person, he has played many different characters, all successful. In contrast, the successful ones played by Norton are all psychopaths. Although the protagonist in this play is doing psychological counseling, this is, after all, not a real psycho.

Clark's worry also came from this.

"I don't think he can only play psychopaths. His acting skills are actually pretty good. He is suitable for playing roles that greatly contrast his heart and appearance. The greater the contrast between his heart and appearance, the more brilliant the acting."

Levi thinks that he can act well, so naturally, he has his reasons: in Levi's memory, Norton has not only played psychopaths, but he has also played other roles. For example, in "The Kingdom of Heaven," which left a deep impression on Levi, the Baldwin IV he played is not a psychopath.

Moreover, that play is also the key to Levi's belief that Norton can perform well: in that play, he always wore a mask, but he performed a movie with his eyes, body, and voice. And in this play, Levi also very much hopes that the actors in the movie can show good enough eye contact.

This is to play an undercover agent, and the undercover agent is a person performing a play within a play. They cannot express too many facial expressions, and most of the time, they have to rely on their eyes to complete the performance. The actors in the Hong Kong version are very good at expressing their eyes, which is what Levi hopes to show in his movie.

"This role is also an actor with a big gap between his heart and appearance, so I think he can try it. And most importantly: this actor needs to have a lot of confrontation scenes with De Niro and Liam Neeson. Playing against these actors; can ordinary people do it?"

In this play, the biggest problem is that the actors have many rival scenes, and many parts are suitable for top actors to play rival scenes. If the acting skills are slightly worse, they will be completely suppressed in the dialogue with the top actors.

When top-level actors perform, their demeanor, eyes, and movements are all controlled and rhythmic. When playing with such actors, you need to consider not only the individual but also the overall environment of the play.

It is very difficult to do this.

"I think Norton is the best candidate. Of course, it may take more preparation and hard work for him to act in this play, but I believe he can perform well."

"Then let him try; anyway, I can't think of a more suitable candidate." Clark thought for a while and agreed with Levi's statement, and at the same time, he also laughed, "Nick, look at what we are doing? There is no script yet, but we have already started to select actors by name."

"What's so strange about this? Isn't it what every director needs to do to choose the most suitable actor in Hollywood?" Levi just smiled at Clark's exclamation, "We do this because we can do it — and, trust me, people would be raving about my films even if I didn't even have a script."

*****

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