Chapter 107: The Sensible Girl
Chapter 107: The Sensible Girl
“I only said that casually. You don’t have to keep following me, do you?” Eric said helplessly as he drove, glancing at Drew, who had planted herself in the passenger seat.
Drew snorted softly, chewed her gum hard a few times, and continued lowering her head to play with the handheld game console in her hands. Beeping sounds drifted through the car.
“Jennie will be back in Los Angeles at the end of the month. She’ll probably move in then.”
“Mhm.” Drew’s voice was slightly louder this time, but she did not mind that.
From the very beginning, Drew had not been optimistic about Eric and Aniston’s relationship. Deep down, Eric had an extremely forceful personality. Although he usually seemed pleasant and easygoing, as if everything could be discussed, once he became overbearing, he would not allow anyone to go against his wishes. Meanwhile, that girl Aniston was so stubborn, with a self-esteem that was both competitive and tinged with inferiority. In the short term, they might get along fine, and when friction occurred, both sides might compromise a little. But once enough time passed, that mutual tolerance could not possibly be maintained. Besides, Eric was so flirtatious. It would be strange if Aniston could endure it.
Drew often fantasized that perhaps she was the one most suitable for Eric. She could tolerate, even indulge, his forcefulness, his flirtatiousness, everything about him. In order to get along with him better, Drew, who usually grew dizzy the moment she opened a book, had even deliberately read quite a few books on personality psychology, all so she could understand him better.
Although she loved him, the kind of love where she could give everything for him, she knew that he would never truly belong to her in the end. Thinking about it was really quite sad.
The reason she was clinging to him so much today was not because she was jealous. Alright, she was a little jealous.
But more than that, she just wanted to show her presence. She knew he definitely understood. He was so smart, how could he not understand? She only wanted a little bit more. Just a little. She was not greedy at all.
This was Drew’s first time visiting Firefly headquarters. Although she had grown up in front of cameras, she did not know much about the internal operations of a film company. She was full of curiosity about everything here, so she specifically dragged over a female employee working overtime on the weekend to guide her around. She wandered through the dubbing room and editing room, and even curiously fiddled with some equipment. But Firefly was not a very large film company after all. After ten or so minutes, she had already made a full round, then obediently stayed in the small screening room to watch videotapes instead of continuing to bother Eric.
After instructing someone to add the names Drew had given him to the audition list, Eric began flipping through the actor roster that had already passed the first round of screening.
After roughly looking through a few pages, the actors listed basically matched the screening conditions he had set. As for whether any private favors had been slipped in, there was no need to guess. That was definitely the case. Even he himself had added quite a few favors into the list, let alone the others in the company.
He could even be certain that during the auditions later, even the audition order arranged by the staff would contain tricks. But as long as no major mistakes occurred, it was fine. As for whether this would be unfair to those actors who had no connections but good acting skills? Sorry, this world had never had anything truly fair.
As the company grew and its affairs increased, Eric could not possibly keep every bit of power in his own hands. The casting rights for some secondary roles would slowly be handed over to other people.
The people in charge of casting would not gamble with their own careers. Once the actors they selected failed to meet requirements and affected filming, the person in charge would most likely be fired. Therefore, those actresses who fantasized about sleeping with an assistant casting director to obtain a role would most likely end up empty-handed on both sides if their acting skills were not up to standard.
After reviewing part of the audition list, Eric did not hurry to leave. Since he was already here, he also looked through the detailed budgets for Running Out of Time, The Others, and Scent of a Woman. Since Running Out of Time was being funded by Columbia, Eric set the budget at forty million dollars. For a non-special-effects film, this counted as an extremely high-cost production. But Eric did not intend to save money for Columbia. If the money was not used up, Columbia would not transfer the remaining funds into his account anyway.
So Eric shifted his spending target onto the actors. For the female role of the Interpol supervisor, he directly sent a cameo invitation to the Alien Queen, Sigourney Weaver. She accepted, of course. Her cameo fee was not low either, but that did not matter. Money was not lacking, and it was not his own money anyway.
As for the scene-stealing “Chief Inspector Wong Kai-fat” who stole scenes until no one else had friends left, Eric had his eye on Joe Pesci, the actor who played the bumbling thief Harry in the original Home Alone. When Eric was preparing Home Alone, he had considered inviting him, but unfortunately the budget had not been enough, so he could only make do with a television actor. In the end, that actor had his scenes directly stolen by newcomer Matthew Perry. In the new version of Home Alone, the one who stood out was no longer the older thief, but the younger thief.
Joe Pesci happened to have received an invitation from another major film, Warner’s Lethal Weapon 2, which was also one of Warner’s quite profitable film franchises and had gone on to produce five installments in the parallel timeline. While the man was hesitating between the two films, he received Firefly’s salary offer, and then there was no more hesitation. Of course, Eric also specially arranged an audition for him. The result was quite good. Joe Pesci had a very comical Donald Duck-like voice and came with a natural comedic talent. He just wondered whether, once filming began, Tom Hanks, whose acting was also outstanding, would still have his scenes suppressed.
As for the other supporting roles in Running Out of Time that had not yet been cast, Eric also set the standard at the level of second- and third-tier actors. Anyone without two or three films’ worth of acting experience and without connections would be directly eliminated without even receiving an audition qualification.
Meanwhile, the budgets for Scent of a Woman and The Others, which Eric was personally funding, were much smaller. The investment budget for Scent of a Woman was set at ten million dollars. Al was filming this movie mainly for the Oscars, so he only took a salary of three million. As for The Others, the budget was only five million. Jonathan Demme’s directing fee was five hundred thousand dollars, while Virginia’s salary was the same as Julia’s in Pretty Woman: three hundred thousand dollars. Since all the film’s scenes took place inside an English-style manor, the remaining funds were more than enough to complete filming.
After reading through the long budgets for the three films, Eric stretched and looked at his watch. It was already six in the evening, so he got up, intending to leave. After asking the staff member on duty, he learned that Drew had already left ahead of time. Since the little girl was being so sensible, Eric felt embarrassed not to go home tonight. He called Virginia to tell her he would not be going over tonight, then drove back to the Beverly Hills mansion.
The girl was clearly very happy to see him return, but dinner was still takeout. Eric had been busy all afternoon and was too lazy to cook. Drew had absolutely no talent for cooking. If he insisted on making her cook something, it was not that she could not do it. Although she was not so stupid as to confuse salt and sugar or mix up soy sauce and vinegar, the things she made were simply difficult to swallow.
“Eric, why don’t we hire a chef?” Drew had clearly grown tired of delivery pizza too and suddenly made the suggestion at the dining table.
Eric cut off a piece of pizza and stuffed it into his mouth, then nodded. “Better yet, we should hire a few maids too. I prefer Japanese maid outfits. What about you?”
“I like…” Drew had only just begun speaking when she shut her mouth and glared fiercely at Eric. “You really are a male creature with a possessiveness so strong it’s practically perverted. Even if your territory is empty, you still won’t allow any of your own kind to appear in it.”
“Tsk, tsk.” Eric curiously looked Drew up and down from across the table. “I didn’t expect you to actually say something so reasonable. I really underestimated you before.”
Drew curled her lips, lowered her head, and continued dealing with dinner, no longer paying Eric any attention.