Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 946 As long as you are not embarrassed, the one who is embarrassed is someone else

   "Is this the sample shot?"

   Ronald sat in the projection room, watching Dustin Hoffman's performance on the screen, and asked back.

   "Yeah...", director Barry Levinson replied with a little embarrassment. It is not such a pleasant thing for a director to be watched by another director to watch his own sample film. But Dustin Hoffman is on the verge of quitting, so he has to live with it.

"Why does he think the acting is not good? I don't think there is any problem? Of course, I am an outsider and I don't know the details of the script, so I still have to ask you for advice. Am I missing something? What is so special about this performance? request?"

   There were only Ronald and Barry Levinson in the screening room, which was specially arranged by Ronald. Directors need authority in the crew, just come and see for yourself, but you can't let the real director feel that he has the idea of ​​​​replacing him. So Ronald didn't even let Ovitz in, saying that it was just a mutual exchange between directors.

“This is the shot where Rain Man (Dustin Hoffman’s character) recalls being a kid, putting his brother Charlie (Tom Cruise’s character) in the bathtub and burning little Charlie red. He said no Know how to act out that feeling of embarrassment and anger at your own incompetence."

  Barry Levinson listened to Ronald's talk or technical discussion, and spoke faintly on the director's side, let go of a little worry, and began to discuss with Ronald.

  This problem is actually a major problem in film performance.

  Different from theater performances where you can find audiences to watch rehearsals and watch their reactions to correct your own performance. When filming, it is impossible to have audiences give you feedback.

  The first time the audience sees your performance is after you shoot the entire film, then edit and score it. At this time, if an actor finds that some part of his performance has gone wrong or is not good enough, it is difficult to have a chance to retake.

  So, after the filming is over, the actor wonders whether he can act well or not, which has become a problem for those actors who have already become famous. Many actors have no idea about how their performances are.

  Some people who have seen the filming scene, but those who have not participated in the creation will ask, isn’t it possible to watch the sample film every day? Actors can refer to their own performance based on the appearance on the sample film, can't they?

  Even without considering the cost of reshooting after the samples are developed, this kind of feedback is very inaccurate.

  The reason why Broadway can make actors improve their acting skills is because they get real-time feedback from the audience when performing on stage.

  The people watching the samples are directors, producers, actors themselves, these industry insiders. There is still a big difference between the creator’s perspective and the audience’s perspective. Coupled with the beautification function of the human brain, it will always instinctively beautify its own screen performance, and many people will overestimate their own performance on the screen. .

  Another obstacle is that the samples are all fragments, without secondary creation by the editor. It is difficult for us to evaluate the quality of this performance from the overall perspective of the movie. It may be very good to watch this paragraph alone, but it is too flawed in the plot. Or on the other hand, the originally dull performance is exceptionally brilliant when placed in the right place.

  So, the only person on the set who can grasp the performance of the actors as a whole is the director who knows the whole script and clearly understands how much the actors should do in each place.

What Ronald meant was that he couldn't see anything wrong, so he asked Barry Levinson if the plot required the performance here to be particularly strong, or to hold back the power and wait for the next play to arouse the audience's excitement. resonance.

"Yuren scalded the younger brother until his whole body turned red. This made the father of the two make up his mind to send the eldest son away. He was afraid that the younger son would have an accident because of the intellectual problem of the older son. This is also the reason for the father's guilt, so he put The inheritance left Rainman, a son who owed a lot, and only left two classic cars to Charlie. This is the starting point of all stories and conflicts."

  Director Barry Levinson said a lot about the background of this scene, but Ronald didn't figure out what's wrong with Dustin Hoffman's performance here.

   This is just a memory scene, Mr. Actor! The viewer learns about the past history, and then gets a deeper understanding of the characters' actions, and that's it. What else can you make? Make the audience cry?

"I said, Director Levinson, we met for the first time, but I'm not afraid to expose my shallowness. I don't see any problem with the performance here? Why is it still not working after more than two weeks of filming? Is it Dustin? A little overly sensitive here, too demanding of performance?"

  Ronald couldn't help it. He felt that telling the truth was the most helpful way to solve the current problem. There was no way Barry Levinson would pass that word to Dustin Hoffman anyway.

  Barry Levinson flashes a "you're so **** right, I think so" smile. But what he said was not like that, "Dustin is a very sensitive actor, how should I put it? Especially at this time, he needs some external affirmation, and then he can have confidence in his performance."

   As he spoke, he briefly explained the origin of Dustin Hoffman's heart disease.

   The problem remains with last year's Dustin Hoffman film "Ishtar," which flopped at the box office.

  Originally, this project was accepted by Dustin Hoffman in order to repay his kindness. To help her get the Best Actor nomination for "My Fair Man", Elaine May did a lot of important script rewriting and added a lot of important scenes from the perspective of women.

  But after the filming started, he himself, Warren Beatty, and director Elaine May all had their own ideas. They believed that the performance they understood was good, and they couldn’t agree on the performance on the set.

  Plus the heroine Isabella Adjani, who happened to be Warren Beatty's girlfriend at that time. She kept asking for more roles on the set, which caused a big conflict between Elaine May and Warren Beatty, and Elaine May almost resigned as director.

  The dispute between the three parties continued into the editing room. The two stars and the director, Elaine May, each hired an editor. It was like fighting in the editing room every day, and everyone kept their own set of assembly plans for the finished film.

  The result of such a multi-headed leadership can be imagined. The distributor Columbia has discovered that the film is destined to lose money during the test screening, and the distribution department wants to reduce the marketing budget. But Columbia's executives are afraid of offending the two film stars, and they will not have a share in their company's future big projects. So instead of reducing it, it increased the marketing budget.

The total production + distribution budget was close to 60 million US dollars, but the box office was only in the early 10 million. For a while, Hollywood imitated the "Heaven's Gate" of the year and began to call this movie "Beatty and Hoffman's Gate". ".

   Now Dustin Hoffman is depressed. It's embarrassing to be called a nickname, especially one that's tied to a box office disaster. Not only will he lose face, but he may also lose the favor of big productions in the next few years.

  When actors face failure, they often don’t find the reason for their interference in the shooting. For example, this time it is mainly the three big bosses who are fighting for the right to speak. Maybe according to someone’s idea, the shooting would not be so bad. But all three of them listened a little bit, and the combination was the worst result.

Most of the actors have not participated in the whole production of the film, so Dustin Hoffman finds the reason from himself: the performance on the screen is not good, there must be something wrong with his acting skills, so the new film "Rain Man" must be based on his acting skills. On the fine button, every detail must be the best, otherwise I will be abandoned by Hollywood!

  This kind of sensitivity and paranoia brought from failed projects, coupled with the lack of suitable feedback channels, made Dustin Hoffman bewildered. It took more than two weeks to shoot a scene, and he always doubted that he would not be able to do it this time, and he had to find that feeling.

"I heard that you made Harrison Ford very obedient. How did you do it?" Barry Levinson actually didn't work with this kind of actor who had already achieved star status. Ronald was so obedient on the set that he finished making complaints about it, and he still couldn't stop asking for advice.

   Ronald thought for a while and said a word. "Maybe the key is not whether he shoots well, but to make them feel that they are shooting well." He knew that Harrison Ford was difficult to handle, so he made a lot of preparations on the set, and let art director Polly Platt Let's all praise Harrison Ford's performance. All in all it was well managed.

   "Daxmnit, you're right." Barry Levinson knew that he had a problem with Hoffman's expectations management. But before the cooperation, who knew that he was such an awkward person?

   "Barry, Barry...I'm done, I'm done,…"

  While Ronald and Barry Levinson were watching and discussing the film in the screening hall, an actor who was shorter than Tom Cruise and had a typical Jewish nose walked in. It was the awkward Dustin Hoffman.

"Dustin, this is Ronald Lee. He came to visit Tom on the set. I invited him to take a look at the sample and think about any solutions. I hope you don't mind..." Barry Levinson was still in front of the big star. Very humble. He knows exactly who is the biggest name in the "Rain Man" project.

   "Ronald, I'm so glad you're here, I've wanted to know you for a long time." Dustin Hoffman came up and hugged Ronald, saying some pompous good things.

"Oh... you're watching this scene, burn him, burn him! Burn them all, I'm doomed, fucked, these dailies are like shit, just take a middle school student from a high school drama club Come on, you can play better than me."

"Don't say that, your acting is not bad. It's just because of your high demands that you have this feeling. You just need to rest for two days, and you will be fine by then..." Barry Levinson was used to Dustin Hoffman's obsessive behavior like a woman acting like a baby.

   Of these two, one is used to self-blame, and the other is used to listening to each other's self-blame. Only Ronald next to him felt too embarrassed. The two of you talk about this kind of internal affairs of the crew, in front of me, an outsider, okay?

   I don’t know what Ovitz said to Dustin Hoffman last night. He is extremely sensitive today.

   "It's not like this, you all tell me the truth, my acting sucks, sucks..." He covered his face with his hands as he said, as if he was sad for his acting skills that flew away suddenly.

   "Then what...I..." Ronald felt that he must have an embarrassed expression, and proposed to leave.

   "You think so too, don't you? Ronald, although I saw you for the first time today, but you are an expert, and you said the same thing, I definitely can't do it, I can't do it..." Hoffman began to speak nonsense.

   "No... I didn't say anything... Don't rely on me..." Ronald felt that when some actors got into the horns, they were more terrifying than mental patients.

   "I can't act, this is the eye of the whole play...it is the foundation of the whole play, the audience must be convinced of me here, and then they will be convinced of the whole movie plot...

  But I can't act out, this most embarrassing, most wanting to escape, the most helpless feeling, I can't act out... This is my problem..."

  Dustin Hoffman seemed to have been hit hard. He suddenly raised his head and said to director Barry Levinson:

   "Barry, go find Richard Dreyfuss, go find Jack Nicholson, go find someone, Barry, because this is the worst job I've ever had in my life. I can't act."

"No, No, you just need to get out of the performance, you have to rest for two days", Barry Levinson jumped, unexpectedly, Dustin Hoffman's pressure reached the peak, he couldn't take it anymore, he really proposed to resign. He glanced at Ronald, and sent out a look for help, meaning that you should hurry up and persuade me.

   "Mr. Hoffman..." Ronald has a new understanding of the fragility of this kind of star. He also feels that his decision to reject the director is very correct. If he meets this kind of star, he will collapse.

"Call me Dustin, Ronald, what do you think I should do?" Dustin Hoffman suddenly reached out and grabbed Ronald, he is like a drowning man now, seeing Ronald's gaze , think maybe this director will have a way to save himself?

   "I..." Ronald was caught by his sleeve, but he couldn't break free, so he had to sit down. I thought, how would I know this? Even an actor like you can't understand?

   "I just think, are you too nervous, let's have a drink?" Ronald wanted to drink some strong alcohol to calm himself before talking.

"Drinking, meditating, doing push-ups, I've tried them all, and none of them can act out that awkward, evasive and helpless feeling." Dustin Hoffman was a bit disappointed, he likes to drink first when shooting difficult scenes One cup, Ronald's trick is useless.

   "I mean, you just relax... don't think about it..." Ronald was amused.

  "What should I do? I have thought of many ways, but my life may be too smooth, and I can't remember the embarrassment when I couldn't find a job.

  I tried everything, and I had Barry talk about his embarrassing moments, and I needed to feel the emotion. But it's useless, we are all successful, and the embarrassment we face is nothing compared to Rain Man.

  Those autistic patients have extraordinary emotional sensibility, but they can't express it. I promised those autistic people to act out their lives, but I didn't..."

Dustin Hoffman babbled a lot, and then looked at Ronald. He remembered that it was said that Ronald was born in a low-level job. He was young enough and not polluted by Hollywood. Maybe he could tell his own story. What were those awkward and helpless moments like?

   "Ronald, you are a genius, I want to ask you for help, can you help me, talk about the most embarrassing, most helpless, most wanting to escape moment in your life?"

Looking at Dustin Hoffman's slightly crazy eyes, there are rumors in the industry that when he filmed "Kramer and Mrs. Kramer", Hoffman couldn't find the feeling, so he had to use the "method school" method, really Throwing a glass against the wall only to have shards of glass bounce back and impale the heroine Meryl Streep in the face, nearly disfiguring her.

   This person really can't act without this crazy support!

  When Diane debuted, she collaborated with the British drama prince, Laurence Oliver. Oliver once also collaborated with Dustin Hoffman on a movie about a man who ran a long-distance marathon. In order to perform the tired feeling of the character, Hoffman ran for a long distance without resting or eating.

  I almost went into shock during the final shoot, and the effect was not good. Laurence Oliver asked him why he did it.

  Hoffman said that he wanted to experience the emotions of the character at that time. Laurence Oliver laughed and said to him, "Why don't you try acting?"

  Each actor has his own way of acting, Dustin Hoffman's acting style, no wonder he doesn't play a murderer.

   "Can you tell me? When in your life was the most embarrassing, the most evasive, the most helpless..."

   Ronald recalled his various comments on the actor's acting skills, and Dustin Hoffman in front of him was still pleading.

   "Ahem..."

   Ronald cleared his throat and glanced at Barry Levinson beside him.

   "The most embarrassing moment, the moment I want to avoid the most, I think, is this moment..."

   "Pfft..." Barry Levinson immediately suppressed the laughter, his face turned red. This guy Ronald is sharp enough.

  I've had enough of Hoffman's awkwardness, and it's nice to have someone point out his problems in this way.

   Dustin Hoffman stared at Ronald, not speaking for a long time.

  He didn't seem to understand Ronald's sarcasm, but just looked at Ronald with wide eyes, as if he said something great.

"I see!"

  Hoffman suddenly yelled, "I see! Let's go to the scene and try to shoot a few later, Barry."

   "Hurry up, I think I may find the feeling... Ronald, you are such a genius!" Dustin Hoffman kissed Ronald on the face forcefully, and then urged the director to take a real shot.

   "What do you understand?" Ronald touched the kissed place on his face.

  …

"Ronald, what did you say to Dustin?" In the evening, Ovitz sat down with Ronald, Barry Levinson, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise and others for the screening Hall, look at the samples that were urgently developed and printed.

   Dustin Hoffman looked at himself on the screen and told the story of the rain man who almost killed his brother Charlie. He was very excited, "That's it, that's it, I think I've found the feeling..."

   "I think we need to let the stars feel that they are on the right path." Ronald replied in a low voice. Anyway, he couldn't see the big difference between this scene and the previous ones.

"It was Ronald who woke me up, so I used the emotions of embarrassment, helplessness, and wanting to escape that I couldn't shoot this scene for more than two weeks into this scene, and the effect was really good." Dustin Hoffman was very happy and revealed the answer himself.

   "That's it?" Tom Cruise saw that the filming crisis was lifted and Hoffman stopped making trouble, so he came to chat with Ronald.

"That's it, so things like acting skills, especially movie acting skills, are often a feeling. You have to trust the director's judgment. If it is a good director." Ronald told Tom Cruise the situation at the time One said.

   "It seems that Ovitz is still different to their own people." Tom Cruise vented to Paula about the unequal pay. Paula persuaded him to calm down, and after the film, Cruise's influence gradually grew. In the future, stars with box office appeal will not be paid less than acting stars like Dustin Hoffman.

  However, Ovitz was more tolerant towards his own people like Dustin Hoffman. After more than two weeks of trouble, he did not really lose confidence in him.

   "Ronald, are you going to New York? I'm going too, where shall we meet?" Michael Ovitz was very happy that the crew's crisis was resolved, and came to talk to Ronald.

   "I'm going there. The film I invested in is about to be released. Are you going to New York too? We may not be able to meet at the same time."

   "Then arrange the time, we are our own people after all..."

   "I'll let Nisita arrange it." Ronald did a good job on the surface. He's his own man. I've never enjoyed the kind of treatment you gave Hoffman.

  (end of this chapter)