Child Star

At the party that day, Levi said that Winona might win an Oscar, but Winona didn't answer but just laughed it off, thinking that Levi's movie had just won the best actor, and he was a little overconfident. However, what she didn't know was that Levi was full of confidence in this.

Firstly, it was indeed because Kevin Spacey won the award, which made Levi know that he had changed something, and he had more confidence in changing the future. Secondly, it's also because he has enough trust in this film and also has great confidence in the year that this film participated in the selection.

This is 1998, and Levi still remembers very clearly Gwyneth Paltrow's level as the Oscar Queen in 1998. It is no exaggeration to say that she is the worst actress in Oscar in 20 years, and the one who can compete with her for the worst Best Actress is only Nicole Kidman. She was able to win the award to a large extent because of a considerable advantage: her competitors are similar to this year's situation. Among the four people, three are foreigners, and the last is Meryl Streep. The Oscar selection has always discriminated against foreigners, and Meryl Streep was nominated so many times that people were tired of looking at her, so she won the award. And if he can train Winona Ryder's acting skills, even if she doesn't act too well, defeating Gwyneth Paltrow is still a piece of cake.

Levi doesn't dislike Gwyneth very much, and Levi doesn't care about her feud with Winona. However, she is the weakest Best Actress among the heroines in the past 20 years. If you want to make a particular actor famous, you naturally have to pick the weakest first. If you don't target her, who else can you target? It's not a matter of hostility; it's a matter of her being too weak.

Moreover, if it were another movie, Levi would not have such great confidence, but this time the movie is 'Emily.' This movie is a romantic comedy. Compared with a drama, a romantic comedy is not as good in terms of plot, and it doesn't highlight the theme enough, but there is no doubt that the image of the heroine can be highlighted in such a movie.

And there is still a big difference between the movie of Emily and other movies. This movie can be said to be a one-person show of Emily in a sense. Other actors' roles appear in the movie, but their roles are all supporting roles. Those roles' purpose is only to set off the heroine. Even including the leading actor, the roles in this movie are not that important. This is a movie that belongs to the heroine herself. Compared with other good movies that require the cooperation of others to produce the effect, this movie definitely highlights the heroine's status. In any awards ceremony, the heroine will be absolutely worthy of admiration and can win favor.

Moreover, besides these things, Winona also has a very good background: she has already been nominated for two Oscars and has a reputation as a 'lady' in Hollywood. Her image is still very good now. If she can really stand up and succeed, it's not a big problem if she wants to overwhelm Gwyneth.

And if she can win, then Levi will be the one who nurtures the Oscar queen. With this kind of fame, when he cooperates with actresses in the future, the other party must be more willing to help him unless he had to play with unspoken rules at that time.

Well, he is overthinking. What he had to do at that time was to be upright, abide by the righteous, and reject evil. What unspoken rules? They must be categorically denied. Hollywood has no unspoken rules, and they only had a brief spark of love!

These thoughts were a bit joking, but Levi did not take them too lightly. He knew that if his two films could win two Oscars, he would gain an excellent reputation for promoting actors' acting skills. Actors, of course, like to work with directors who can highlight their acting skills. Improving a person's acting skills is a lifetime thing. Of course, if you want to help the actors perform well, you have to understand these things yourself. If he wishes Winona to get an Oscar, he has to work hard to choose the rest of the cast in this movie. Apart from Bale, the other actors, most of whom were recruited by Winona, were drama actors acting on Broadway. The roles in this movie are relatively scattered, and many people of all ages are needed, and they all have a few lines and performance opportunities. It is best to use drama actors.

Theatre drama is very popular in New York, and there are many top-performing masters here. Compared with movies and TV dramas, they are more respected by actors because a scene in movies and TV dramas can be shot multiple times for better performance. Still, in theatre, the scene must be passed in a single cut, which is a greater test for people's acting skills. After many actors became famous in movies, they went to Broadway to act in theatre because they could better satisfy the actors' drama addiction and improve their skills.

These supporting roles are basically no problem, and the remaining two significant issues are the narration dubbing of the movie and the actor who played the role of childhood Emily.

The actor who played Emily in childhood is a big problem. It will be very troublesome if any movie involves uncontrollable factors such as children, cats, and dogs. These actors cannot be controlled by reason and logic. They can only be coaxed and persuaded to come. Dog food can be used to feed the dog to ensure that the dog is obedient.

And children are even more troublesome. First of all, when they are acting, they don't understand what is called positioning and what lighting is. They just follow their thoughts when performing, and they have to be coaxed like kittens and puppies. Second, there are only two possibilities for children when they act in a play: one is that they don't act, and the result is a mess; the second is poor acting.

In this movie, he didn't have to worry about taking Emily when she was a child – she didn't have many roles in total, and she didn't even have lines. Basically, it was just a child eating, screaming, taking pictures, etc., in four scenes. She has almost no lines or counterparts, so worrying about this issue is unnecessary.

But the age required for this actor is very young. According to the setting in the script, it should be a child of five or six years old. There are very few actors at this age, and finding a suitable one is even more difficult.

But Levi still has requirements for this role: a good child actor can add a lot of color to the movie, and a small actor like Natalie Portman or Christen Dunst is impressive after the performance. Levi still hoped to meet someone like that. It's just that it's hard to find such an actor. The theatre doesn't habitually use children, and this actor can't be found on Broadway.

Unfortunately, the only child actor that Levi has worked with is Lindsay Lohan - she has acted in Levi's TV series CSI, but unfortunately, she is now in other movies. Her fame has grown, and she is unwilling to act in such a five-minute short segment again. And she is already 12 years old, and her age does not meet the requirements. Since Levi wanted a younger child, he had to find someone else.

The group of child stars born in the 1980s obviously couldn't do it. They are all a bit old, and acting as five or six-year-old children is impossible for them. Among the child stars born in the 90s, finding a suitable one is difficult — they are still too young to show their talents.

Winona has also prepared candidates: she mentioned to Levi some young actors who have acted in some commercials: for example, Kristen Stewart is only eight years old but has already filmed commercials. However, the child's appearance is a bit too boyish and doesn't match the sweet Emily required in the movie. This dissatisfied Levi. In the film, Emily's big eyes are an essential feature.

And this actor, under Levi's insistence, quickly found a new replacement: Someone recommended another commercial actor, Taylor Momsen. This actor is only four and a half years old now, but she has also had the experience of shooting commercials in front of the TV—although it is only a 17-second commercial for Shake 'n Bake in 1997. She is very consistent with Levi's requirements: not only has a cute round face, but she also has a pair of big eyes. She only had one issue, i.e., the hair color was wrong. As long as the brown hair is dyed black, It couldn't be better.

The only trouble was that she was a little young. However, if they push back her scenes, they can wait until she is almost five years old to shoot - children grow up very fast, and she will be able to act in this play in a few months.

"I really didn't expect that a child would become a problem... What's even more unexpected is that these children have good acting experience and families." When Levi and Winona talked privately, he also mentioned his own views.

"Of course, people who are not related to the entertainment industry, who would send their children to make movies? They are people in this industry. They like to send their children to shoot some commercials." Both Winona and Bale were child actors, and they knew it very well. Levi admitted that he still underestimated their method, but now that he has found someone, he is not in a hurry.

And the last question is about the narration.

The narrative style of this movie is quite remarkable, and narration is needed to tell the story in many places, so a good narrator is also one of the essential characters in this movie. For this factor, Winona has also thought about the actor.

"I can contact Al Pacino. I think his voice should be fine. I have a good relationship with him; he is willing to act for only 5 million dollars."

This made Levi quite satisfied. Al Pacino's acting skills have always been considered too dramatic, but his voice is indeed recognized as excellent and contagious, and it couldn't be better to have him as a narrator.

This result can be said to be a bit overjoyed for Levi. He asked carefully again to find out the situation: Al Pacino and Winona both have insomnia, and they have a common language on this issue, and they also went to the same doctor, so they became friends.

"You have so many friends." Levi also praised this.

"If you want, I can also ask Keanu Reeves to make a cameo for free." Winona also showed off without restraint, "I have a good relationship with him." A big-name actor, Levi can only say admiration for her, but Levi rejected her idea, "It's not necessary. Our show has almost enough actors."

Yes, it almost has enough — With Al Pacino's voice, Bale's supporting role, and the help of Broadway actors, the cast of this play is almost there.

With these people, this movie will definitely be able to be made great.

*****

Thanks and kudos for my patreons

Cherif Doghri

Adam LV

Danny York

Scott DePaepe

MMMCMXCIX, or 3,999

The Main Man.

Sandra Torres

You can read advanced chapters on my Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.