"David, this is Ronald. Any questions about my contract?" Ronald called producer David DaSilva.
"No, no, that's no problem. I have told the top management of MGM about the adult film of the same name, and I am very grateful to you for this matter.
I'm looking for you because of Jean."
"Gene? What happened to him?"
"He smashed the lockers in the rehearsal space and is now making noises about quitting the crew. He was very emotional and had a conflict with Allen. Allen has restarted Leroy's casting and wants to replace Gene
Lose.
But we have entered the final drama rehearsal, and it is less than two weeks since we left the set. The actors who will play the roles of Allen and two teachers have not yet been determined. If Jean is replaced again, the start of filming will definitely be delayed...
I can't communicate with Gene, and no one on the crew is close to him. He usually only talks to Lucy and Antonia. Lucy is his kindred and stands on his side. After Antonia talked to Gene,
He told me that only you can come and talk to him.
Ronnie, you have to come talk to Gene."
"What? But I'm not black? Well, I'll talk about it when I get there."
Gene Ray was selected into the crew by himself, and he stood by his side when the scripts conflicted. If he could help him, he would still help. But why did Antonia say that it would only be useful if she talked about it herself?
Entering the scene at Harlan High School, Ronald saw a row of iron lockers outside the rehearsal room in a mess. They were usually used for dancers to store sundries, but now they were smashed and had a lot of holes in them. Look at the marks.
It seemed to be a large blunt object, which seemed to be a fire extinguisher.
Ronald saw a fire extinguisher in the corner, which had been smashed and had a lot of paint peeled off.
"Where's Gene? Where is he?" Ronald stopped an assistant.
"He's in the office talking to the producer about terminating the contract."
Is it already this serious?
Ronald walked quickly to the office and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Producer David's voice.
When he pushed the door open and walked in, he saw Gene sitting in his seat without saying a word. The producer was opposite him. When he saw Ronald coming in, he quickly stood up:
"Okay, I'll let you talk to Ronald, and I'll go out first." David gave Ronald a wink.
"Gene, what happened? I heard that you are quitting the crew?" Ronald sat next to him and said softly.
"The director didn't respect my mother. He wanted to drive her away and not let her stay on the set."
"When did your mother come? Why didn't the director let her stay on the set?" Ronald felt that a lot had happened in the past few days, so he asked in detail.
It turned out that Gene's mother, Joan, came from Harlem to Midtown Manhattan to see her son a few days ago. She discovered that Gene's ongoing drama rehearsals were very hard, and he often rehearsed the same scene over and over again all day long.
Gene's mother saw how hard her son was working, so she came to the set every day to take care of her son's life.
In fact, it was said that he was taking care of his life, but he did not take personal care of him like some white parents. Joan only watched the rehearsal for ten minutes at the beginning, then walked away and came back at noon to bring some fried chicken and a bottle of grapes to her son.
Flavored soda.
She came again in the evening and took the subway home with her son. She couldn't say that she had much interference with the live rehearsal.
I don’t know why, but the director didn’t allow Joan to appear on set again yesterday morning, accusing her of interfering with Gene’s rehearsal and dragging down the entire crew.
"I can't stand his discrimination against us, Ronald. I can't stand this. My mother only comes to see me rehearse every day and never stays too much. They just don't like it when they see my mother among a bunch of white parents."
According to Gene, many parents of actors would also drive their children to attend rehearsals. The director disliked Joan, a poor black man from Harlem, who was too eye-catching, so he wanted to drive her away.
"What's going on with the lockers?" Ronald asked.
"They called security to drive my mother away. I didn't let them touch my mother and picked up the fire extinguisher to defend ourselves."
So he smashed the locker? Ronald thought to himself, it seemed that Jean was very angry that the crew wanted to drive her mother away.
“What did the producer say?”
"He advised me to stay and finish the movie, and I would become a star, and all the discrimination would disappear."
Ronald thought to himself, this is actually true. Although American people are discriminatory towards black people, they are much more tolerant towards black celebrities.
"Then what do you think?"
"I also want to be famous, Ronald. But I can't stand this kind of blatant discrimination against our race. Also, I only have my mother as a relative, and I can't watch her being driven away without saying a word."
"Okay, don't make the final decision yet, wait until I talk to the director."
It seems that Jean still wants to stay, so it will be easier to handle. All he needs to do is find out the reason why director Allen wants to drive Jean away and solve it.
However, it is said that director Allen is not a racist person. He has arranged many black characters in the movie. Could it be that the parents of other actors collectively put pressure on him?
After comforting Gene, Ronald walked out of the producer's office. He thought for a while and instead of going directly to the director, he went to the rehearsal room to find Antonia Franceschi to get the news first.
"Antonia, can you talk to me about Jean?" After greeting the drama teacher, Ronald led Antonia out of the rehearsal room.
"I can't say too much, there are many people's interests involved here." Antonia rarely spoke directly.
"Then what can you tell me? David said you asked him to come to me, why do you want me to talk?" Ronald felt more and more strange, who hated Jean and his son so much?
"All I can say is that the director is not a racist."
"I believe this, otherwise he wouldn't have put so many ethnic minorities in the script."
"Well, because you discovered Jean, he listens to you. Ronald, you have to talk to Jean's mother. Maybe it's best to let her go. This will be good for everyone on the crew."
"Why?"
"I live in Little Italy, I can't say. You know Italians in New York have to abide by certain 'rules', and one of them is not to tell outsiders about internal affairs."
"What does this have to do with Italians?"
"Don't ask, I can't tell."
Seeing that Ronald couldn't get anything out of the question, he could only thank her: "I haven't thanked you for your support last time, Antonia."
"It's okay, we all hope you stay on the crew."
"Okay, see you later, Antonia. I still have to deal with this matter."
Ronald still couldn't figure it out, so he turned to the producer David.
"David, does this have anything to do with Italians?"
"Italian? When we chose to shoot here, we already had a good relationship with the Italian gang. They were very supportive of the filming of the movie, especially when we chose Italian Antonia as the number one heroine."
"Gang?"
"Ronnie, you know, near here is Times Square, a territory of Italians, and they control the fireflies in the square. As a filmmaker, you have to deal with these relationships, both in the city hall and the underground city hall.
Make sure you agree in advance, otherwise there will be problems during filming."
"Okay, thank you for telling me this. I'm getting more and more confused."
"Work hard, Ronnie. I don't want to have to audition again. I have to go see the auditions of the two teachers. Allen is still not satisfied with the current candidates."
After asking around, Ronald had no choice but to go to the director's room to see what new information he could find out.
"Hi, Alan. It's me, Ronald."
"You're here. There are a lot of things happening in the past two days, so I won't chat with you."
"That's what I'm here for, director. David asked me to persuade Gene. Is Gene's mother, Joan, really interfering with rehearsals? If they are willing to obey your order and Joan no longer interferes with rehearsals, can you give me some advice?
Jean a chance?"
Ronald's mouth went dry as he spoke, looking at a bottle of Coke on the table.
Allen motioned for him to help himself.
Ronald picked up the Coke and opened it with a bang. Maybe it was left at room temperature for a long time, and the foam splashed out.
Alan Parker was sitting and smoking, looking a little anxious, and put out the cigarette in his hand.
"It would be a good thing if Joan came to rehearse every day instead of wandering around. I wouldn't drive her away."