5 Hollywood Rules

Paul threw the third cigarette butt on the ground and took out another one to smoke. He has been waiting for more than two hours, and there are still no signs of the kid

coming out. He shouldn't have told Mateo that he will pick him up from the audition. In his calculation, the audition should've ended by 3 pm, but now its already past five. Its getting late and he has a lot of office work to deal with.

After waiting for another half an hour, he finally caught the sight of the familiar face coming out of the studio. He got out of the car and raised his hand to signal.

"Mat, look here."

Seeing that the boy had identified him, Paul went back to the car and sat on the driver's seat. Two minutes later, the side door opened, and the boy sat on co-passenger seat. He hurriedly asked: "How was the audition?"

Since the project was being operated by Caa, so the copy of Mateo's audition will arrive in the agency tomorrow, but he still wanted to get the first hand details. "X-men" is a big project, and getting a part in it can give Mateo's career a good initial push as an adult actor.

Paul was so immersed in the excitement that he didn't even pay notice to the unusual quietness of his client, who is usually a chatter box. So, when he raised his head, he was stunned by the boy's pale face and red eyes.

"Mat, Are you alright? Tell me what happened."

Paul brain stopped for a moment, and then started spinning rapidly. Did the audition not go well and he was sad? No, this isn't it. He immediately denied the thought. Mateo has been rejected many times before during the audition, but he still never behaved like this. This isn't just sadness. He looks more of a scared.

"Mateo, tell me, what happened? Don't behave like a statue. I am asking you something." Paul was too panicked by Mateo's strange state that he didn't realize that his voice was raised a lot.

After dozen of inquires and persuasions, the boy finally opened his mouth to speak.

Mateo looked at his agent, and recalled the scene of few minutes ago.

After the producer nodded to start the audition, the cameraman stood up, turned on the camera and aimed it at Mateo.

Mateo took a deep breath and looked straight into the camera: "Rogue, what did you do? They said you stole the abilities of other mutants."

It is the scene where Ice man confronts Rogue when she almost killed Wolverine while trying to help him. In fact, the lines here are mostly for Rogue's character to play. Ice man's dialogues are almost negligible. Anyway, he has to go with the script given by the studio.

The perfirmance lasted for three minutes, and then casting director gave the verdict to stop the performance.

"Let's stop here, thank you for your performance. We will notify your agent if there is any news."

Mateo nodded. He was a little dissapointed that he couldn't see anything from director or producers expressions. They were like blank wood, but its normal. Even if the director or producers like your performance, the results are never announced on the spot.

He turned to leave the conference room, but was stopped by Director Bryan Singer.

"Wait a minute."

This was the first time director spoke since he entered the room, so he hurriedly turned around to listen attentively. Maybe he can get casted on the spot.

The director stood up from his chair and approached him. He handed him a paper: "There will be private party on the address tonight. Many famous people will come. We can discuss the remaining things there." After handing the note, he rubbed Mateo's shoulder lightly while taking his hand back.

Mateo was stunned. It took him a whole minute to digest the meaning of the sentence, and horrified expressions appeared on his face. He looked at the remaining people in the room, but everyone behaved like as if they didn't see or hear anything.

He knows about the unspoken rules in the industry, and Paul had warned him many times about it. But it was his first time encountering it in real life. No, it couldn't be called unspoken anymore, because the person opposite had made his intentions clear.

He doesn't know how he did it, but he still smiled and walked out of the audition room like a normal person. It took more than just self-control and all his focus to stop himself from screaming and punching the person in front of him. Because he knew he couldn't do it, even if he wanted to do it badly. After working in Vanity fair for many years, he still understand some things clearly even if he never experienced them himself. You can reject the unspoken rules if you want, but you can't retaliate openly if your status isn't better or at least equal to the other person.

Back to the present, Mateo felt disgusted and humiliated just by thinking about it. Knowing about unspoken rules is one thing, but experiencing them yourself is another matter.

Paul patted his client and comforted. He felt both angry and helpless. In small crews, he still had some say through his connections. But in front of a giant like big six, there was nothing he could do.

If one wants to work in this industry, one has to follow the rules. And unspoken rules are the most unshakable truth of Vanity Fair.

Unspoken rules, rough producers, audition sofa, each has its own name, but what it mean is the same. They are an irreplaceable part of the Hollywood culture, and no can stop or deny them.

This usually happens to new actors who are not well-known and want to become famous or rich in one fell swoop, regardless of gender. Of course, the victims are female actors in majority. In comparison, male actors have to face much less, but they are still not safe completely.

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P.S. There might be some mistakes in writing, but I will continue to revise the chapters regularly.