Off-Broadway, there are also many theaters for new dramatists to show their new plays. Generally speaking, this is called Off-Broadway, and outside of Off-Broadway, there are some theaters that do not even show a play, but
A stage for people with many dreams to play.
It's called Off-Off-Broadway. Tickets here are cheap, but real theater critics, theater lovers, and casting directors often come here. In addition to those whimsical plays that can't be shown anywhere, there are also rising stars here.
and avant-garde theatre.
Some major Hollywood actors also came from here. The most famous ones are Meryl Streep and Diane Lane, who has been acting with her since they were four or five years old.
Ronald used MGM's budget to rent a large, spacious and bright house here. He directed all his assistants to put the long tables together to form a huge table.
On it were various snacks that Ronald had found from Chinatown, and there was a steaming trolley like the one in a Cantonese restaurant next to it, ready to be replenished at any time. There were also piles of Cokes, coffee machines, black tea, and some light snacks on the table.
Alcoholic beverages.
Ronald arrived at the scene in advance to organize a reading of the script.
He sat at the head of the table at one end of the table, next to his director of photography, David Watkin. Ronald and he met on the set of "Endless Love," when Ronald was called in to "direct" Brooke Shields.
When there were close-ups of faces in the sex scenes, he was the one taking the shot.
He also won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for "Out of Africa."
He is particularly good at taking ordinary urban scenes and creating an epic and dramatic mood.
MGM attached great importance to Ronald directing their first movie in more than a year and hired the best people in the industry to assist Ronald.
On Ronald's right side is another Oscar winner, the best art director of "Jazz Spring and Autumn" in 1979, Philip Rosenberg.
The film also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Philip Rosenberg's artistic design style also gave the bland street scenes a tourist postcard style.
The two kings sat around and began to talk about setting and scene selection from time to time. Philip Rosenberg also took out a photo album from time to time and asked Ronald to choose which scene was suitable for the movie.
Opposite him were the behind-the-scenes shooting team specially hired by MGM to shoot the behind-the-scenes footage, several documentary shooting teams from MGM TV. They set up the video recorder and started filming in the corner facing the table.
Actors began to arrive one after another. Seeing this posture, everyone clearly felt that MGM valued the film.
"Hi Olympia, hi Julie,..."
Ronald always left the meeting specially to hug and say hello to them. On the Broadway stage, there are strict rules about who can say hello to the director. Only actors approved by the director can enjoy hugs and kisses.
.General actors and those with poor performance will be demoted and can only shake hands.
Knowing the sensitivities of these actors who have been on Broadway for a long time, Ronald also followed the rules strictly, even though he was not a hugger.
"Hi, Nick!" This time it was the actor Nicolas Cage who came in. Ronald walked out a certain distance and stopped him after he entered. He said hello first.
Among a group of actors with rich theater performance experience on Broadway, Nicolas Cage seemed a bit immature. Ronald specifically showed the upgraded treatment of the protagonist to let everyone understand that Nick is his person.
Sure enough, although Cage was still a rookie in the Broadway hierarchy, Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia and others also stood up and said hello to him.
"This way, this way." At this time, a noisy voice came from outside the door.
"It's Xue'er here."
Ronald recognized the voice of one of her assistants. The assistant helped open the door, and Xueer walked in with a large group of people.
"Ronnie, I'm so glad to see you." Xueer glanced and saw Ronald.
First he came up and said hello to Ronald, and then introduced to Ronald, and more importantly to the actors present, a few important people who were accompanying him.
"This is my personal hairstylist, this is my personal dresser, this is my driver, this is my assistant... and lastly, this is my personal pastry chef, Rob Camiletti, who bakes bagels
It's my favorite.
"Please sit a little further back, the front row is for the actors." An actor suddenly said, stopping the pastry chef Rob Camiletti who wanted to sit next to Cher.
The young man was very handsome. He glanced at the assistant and then looked at Xueer.
"Honey, please wait for me behind and take out your bagels for everyone to try."
Cher knew this was against the rules, so she asked the pastry chef to get some bagels, and then went to the hairstylist's side.
Ronald saw a plate of donut-like bread on the table, but without icing. Ronald always liked all kinds of snacks, so he took one and ate it.
"Ugh..." The smell of Kraut's lye bread rushed straight into his nose, and Ronald was caught off guard. Fortunately, the tomatoes and vegetables were okay, so he reluctantly ate them.
Nowadays, the concepts of weight loss and health have invaded the American market in a big way. As long as a kind of food is low in calories, it can be sold no matter how unpalatable it is.
Ronald glanced at Cher's new boyfriend. He was sitting there looking around. Apart from being handsome and knowing how to bake bagels, he seemed out of place in this place.
The huge array of Hollywood stars also makes a kind of Broadway character actor unsatisfied.
Broadway actors pay more attention to rehearsals and the guidance of directors and screenwriters. In the theater world, directors know more than actors, and this is a rule that everyone abides by.
In Hollywood, between a director and a star, who has the final say on the crew is a very interesting question.
Although Ronald helped Cher a lot, she was a singer and star who was used to big battles. It was normal for her to bring several assistants to show off. The young man who baked bagels felt that
It's a good idea to keep it with you and eat his loving food exclusively.
Moreover, Rob is of Italian origin. If there is anything he doesn’t understand about Italian customs, can’t he ask him on the spot?
However, this kind of behavior, especially Rob's lack of self-awareness to sit in the front row and participate in the sacred script reading, made the Broadway actors in the circle next to him more or less dissatisfied.
Especially Olympia Dukakis, who plays Cher's mother, she couldn't stand it just now and asked Rob's baker to go to the back row.
If it were on Broadway, these irrelevant people wouldn't even be able to get through the rehearsal room door.
"Are we starting a script reading?" Dukakis asked Ronald.
"Waiting for a moment..." Ronald replied looking at the door.
"Who else are you waiting for? Your donut chef?" Dukakis complained softly. The Broadway actor absolutely respected the director's rules and kept her from continuing.
"The person I was waiting for is here," Ronald stood up and smiled.
A short Italian man wearing black-rimmed glasses opened the door and barged in.
"Ronald, I'm really happy to see you. I'm not late, am I?"
"No, you are welcome to come to my script reading meeting, Marty."
The person who came was none other than Martin Scorsese, who had a high reputation in the New York theater and film circles. He was the foreign aid that Ronald invited to help him manage the situation on the first day.
"Ha, I just came to see you. I'm very happy to hear that you have finally returned to orthodox drama. Pauline Kael, a famous film critic in New York, also said that she would pay attention to you this time. She feels that your talent has been ignored by those commercial
The popcorn chips were delayed, this is the way you should go..."
After speaking, Scorsese began to greet the actors, and he talked about how he grew up as a child in an Italian family that owned a dry cleaning shop in Brooklyn, New York.
How do you understand your big Italian family?
He told Cher that he had seen her performance in "The Scooter Incident" and felt that she would have no problem playing such an Italian woman.
He also greeted screenwriter Shanley and praised him, although he is of Irish descent, but his observation of Italians is more careful and true than the Italians themselves. Perhaps only a bystander can capture such a delicate and exquisite Italian atmosphere.
He also encouraged Nicolas Cage, saying that when he was a child, there was a bakery on the corner of the street, and the baker there gave him great yearning. At one time, he was unwilling to iron clothes, but became interested in baking bread.
Picking up a bagel, Scorsese put it down again without taking two bites. When he was a kid, there was a bakery in Italy, and the bread there was much better.
Ronald chatted with Scorsese and invited him to make a cameo in his movie.
Scorsese said that if it was the leading role, he could consider it. However, his mother had never appeared in the movie. Of course, Ronald immediately invited his mother to make a cameo, which was set to be in the scene that Scorsese would never forget.
The bakery scene.
"Then let's get started." Ronald sent Scorsese away, turned around, and announced the start of the script reading.
The Broadway actors look at Ronald a little differently now than they did just now. As an Italian film director, Scorsese's films all have dramatic conflict as the core.
He thinks so highly of Ronald. It seems that Ronald either has a lot of research on this play or is also a drama wizard. Everyone knows the reputation of film critic Pauline Carr. This person always likes to criticize film directors severely.
, suddenly expressed their expectation for Ronald's new work, which also made them feel that this "Moonlight" seems to be a movie with great potential.
On the other side of the film actor camp, their views on Ronald have also changed. Cher even feels that among the three consecutive films shot in the second half of this year, perhaps Ronald's film is her hope for a comeback.
Cher's recitation skills are very good. Perhaps it is God's compensation for her dyslexia. Relying on the tape of actress Julie, her every line is very accurate.
Nicolas Cage, who plays the leading actor, also admired Cher's Italian accent. The two read the scene where they got up in the morning after the sultry moonlight night, and Cher slapped Cage in the face.
On his face, Cage thought it looked pretty good.
"You can hit hard, Miss Cher." Cage said to her, "I think your emotions are in place."
"You can come back when the actual shooting begins." Cher did not expect Cage to make such a request.
A script reading is actually a group of actors sitting in a circle, where everyone reads the lines of their characters. This is a way for actors to become familiar with their characters and then their opponents.
In New York, a place with a strong theater atmosphere, there are still college students who take classic scripts and play them as games with their classmates in school.
"Hahaha..." Everyone liked Nicolas Cage's approach of being very involved in the role. They accepted the two Hollywood actors. During the break, Julie, the actor who played the aunt, also came over to quietly talk to him.
Ronald said that it was rare for her to see such a perfect match between the male and female protagonists.
By the next day, the Broadway camp and the Hollywood camp each had an understanding of each other's strengths. Both sides put away their possible contempt at the beginning and began to read carefully and cooperate with each other's performances.
Xueer also put away her arrogance and stopped letting all the followers come here. Especially the sweet bagel baker. The dialogue between her and Dukakis began to get better.
Other actors also felt that Cher's line skills were worthy of her Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress last year.
They all admired the casting director that Ronald hired, and the Broadway team that Julia Taylor hired actually brought out the reality of the entire Castorini family.
Audiences who have actually interacted with Italians in Brooklyn, New York, will soon see on the screen the characteristics of some acquaintances in their daily lives.
Audiences who have never seen a big Italian family in Brooklyn have stereotyped some characteristics of Italians because of their education in movies like "The Godfather". Such a performance will satisfy them all.
Ronald also gradually understood the characteristics of each actor and began to redesign some scenes based on their performances.
Among them, what surprised Ronald the most was Olympia Dukakis, who played the role of his mother Rose. The timing of each of her reactions was very accurate, and she hit the point with the best effect.
Ronald felt that Dukakis should be nicknamed Staples. His stuttering would put many Hollywood actors with outstanding acting skills to shame. This special ability is either born from birth or requires more than ten years of careful observation.
In exchange for learning.
If she were to act in a comedy, she would also be a very good candidate.
Especially in her scene opposite Cher, mother Rose asked her daughter Loretta the same question twice. Does she love that man?
The first time Loretta faced various Johnny's proposals, she replied that she didn't love him. There was a brief moment of loneliness in Dukakis's eyes, and pity for his unfortunate daughter. But as a mother, she still immediately
Only a marriage that agrees, cheers up the daughter, and says you don't love it will last long.
The second time Loretta faced her brother Ronnie, of course she admitted that she loved Ronnie. Dukakis shouted, "I knew it", but there was indeed a trace of happiness in her eyes that her daughter had found her lover.
The reaction after these two questions and answers are really just a few tenths of a second apart. In a few tenths of a second, the audience will lose the complex emotions behind the lines.
But Dukakis's precise timing allowed this emotion to be conveyed to Cher accurately, making her response even more glorious.
"That's the reaction I wanted, very good." Ronald pointed at Dukakis and praised him. Having such a person with outstanding acting skills in the crew can really make other people's performances even better without making a sound.
One floor.
Soon, the last continuous reading began. No one should stop in the middle, but should read the entire script from beginning to end to find out their own emotional baseline and the weaknesses of each other's cooperation.
Ronald couldn't help but worry about the veteran actor Fedor Chaliapin. His deafness was very serious, and he often missed his opponent's lines. What would Chaliapin do if he read continuously like this?
Sean Connery also said that when he was filming his last movie, he was upstaged by Chaliapin. Ronald was a little doubtful whether Sean Connery's acting skills were too poor or he had misheard him.
Strong Scottish accent.
When it came to Chaliapin's scenes, Ronald braced himself to observe his performance.
To Ronald's expectation, Chaliapin picked up the lines perfectly. When Ronald looked over, Chaliapin didn't realize it yet, and smiled at Ronald, as if to say, "Look,
Dad can still act.
Ronald was very surprised and said to Qing Qing, "Very good."
But maybe he was too light this time, as Chaliapin didn't seem to hear it at all.
"The old man has something. If you change what you hear, you will hear it. If you don't change what you hear, you won't hear it at all."