Chapter 65: The Transformation of Two People
Chapter 65: The Transformation of Two People
On January 7, in a villa in Beverly Hills, Pretty Woman officially began filming.
Following the principle of keeping benefits within the family, many of the supporting roles in Pretty Woman were chosen from UTA. Kapoor had been right before. These people had no problem with acting ability; they merely lacked opportunities.
Even if they could only get a small role with a few lines in the new film by the director of Home Alone, these minor actors were already very satisfied. Eric also had not promised them anything.
Once Pretty Woman was released, UTA’s signed actors would discover just how lucky they were. In Eric’s previous life, because of Pretty Woman’s massive success, even the elevator operator who only appeared a few times in the film eventually became a comedy actor with constant film offers.
UTA did not have an actor with the right image for Edward’s profit-seeking private lawyer, Philip Stuckey, so Eric had someone contact Jason Alexander, the actor who played the role in the original version.
At this time, Jason Alexander was still an ordinary Broadway stage actor. Although his acting was very good, he had no advantage in appearance and had only played some insignificant roles in a few films and television dramas. When he heard that he could get a heavily featured supporting role in Eric’s new film, he did not hesitate to jump from his original agency and join UTA.
Hollywood was that realistic. As long as Jason Alexander succeeded in the future, no one would accuse him of betrayal. Instead, they would envy his good luck.
Inside the villa, all the actors had already taken their positions. Eric sat behind the monitor and gave his assistant an OK gesture. Filming officially began.
“Pretty Woman, Act One, Scene One!”
With a clap, the slate snapped shut, and everyone in front of the camera began moving.
In the shot, a magician hired from a circus skillfully performed a coin trick while delivering his lines.
“No matter what they say, the topic always comes back to money…”
Soon, the camera moved upward. The magician pulled a gold coin from beside the ear of Edward’s ex-girlfriend, and Philip Stuckey, played by Jason, appeared in the frame with a smiling face, asking a male guest watching the magic trick about the male lead Edward’s whereabouts.
This was a long take of nearly one minute. The performance difficulty was fairly high, and it tested the actor’s ability. To capture this shot well, they had already rehearsed many times beforehand.
Jason Alexander did not disappoint Eric. As the camera moved, Jason maintained a smile throughout on the monitor, smoothly delivering line after line as he moved among the guests, accompanied by rich and natural body language.
After Jason kissed a female guest on the cheek, Eric called out in satisfaction, “Cut!”
Jason Alexander put down the champagne in his hand and walked toward Eric with a smile. “Director Williams, how was that shot just now? Should we do another take?”
Eric could not help giving him a thumbs-up and praising him. “No need at all. It was perfect. This is a good start.”
Several crew members could not help gathering around. Eric replayed the shot they had just filmed, and after seeing Jason Alexander’s performance, everyone nodded in agreement.
After watching the playback again and confirming there was no need to shoot it again, Eric clapped his hands and said, “All right. Relevant staff, prepare for the second scene immediately.”
Everyone scattered. Jason Alexander also entered the villa with Al Pacino and the others to prepare for the next scene.
A room on the second floor of the villa had been converted into a conference room. Al Pacino was currently flipping through materials he had already read countless times.
To help Al immerse himself more deeply in the role, Eric had specially asked someone to prepare more than ten pages of information on Lewis Company and Morse Company. Although these two companies were fictional, the contents of the materials had been designed by professionals using real existing companies as prototypes.
The second scene to be filmed was the meeting discussing the acquisition of Morse Company. Although the room had already undergone preliminary modifications, setting up the camera positions and other work still took half an hour.
After filming began, Eric focused most of his attention on Al Pacino, who was performing for the first time. Al Pacino did not have many lines in this scene. Everything was expressed through facial expressions and body language, and these happened to be what Al Pacino was best at.
Al’s image was very different from Richard Gere’s in the original version. The Edward he created was still elegant and graceful, but his temperament carried more wisdom and coldness, and less gentleness and approachability. In fact, this fit the script’s setting of Edward as a cold businessman who carried out his plans like a machine even better.
Therefore, Eric quickly accepted this new image created by Al.
“Cut.” After filming several shots, Eric suddenly called for a pause just as one shot had begun. He frowned and stood up.
“Eric, is something wrong?” Al Pacino asked in confusion. The previous shots had all gone smoothly, and he did not feel that there had been any mistake in his performance just now.
Eric shook his head. “Al, it’s not your problem.”
After saying that, Eric sat down behind a blonde woman at the conference table. The blonde woman, named Dolly, quickly stood up.
Expressionless, Eric picked up the notebook Dolly had been scribbling in. “Dolly, do you know that because of your negligence, we have to reshoot every shot just now?”
Dolly apologized nervously. “I’m sorry, Director. I… may I know what the problem was?”
“Your role is a meeting recorder, but in the previous shots, you looked distracted the whole time. Do you know that? If this were a real company meeting, you would definitely be fired. Look at what you wrote. ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.’ Is this a poem?”
The blonde woman’s fair face flushed slightly as she explained softly, “It’s… Shakespeare’s sonnet.”
“All right, Miss Literary Youth. Now sit properly.” Eric had Dolly sit down again and took a bit of harmless advantage as he personally corrected her posture, then placed the notebook neatly in front of her. “Next, remember, don’t write poetry anymore. Later, quickly write down every line Al and the others say. Understood?”
Dolly nodded. “I understand, Director Williams.”
Eric returned to the director’s chair and directed everyone to start filming again. The reason he let the woman off so easily was that Eric himself was also at fault.
He had focused too much attention just now on Al and the others’ performances and overlooked Dolly’s mistake. Only when Dolly appeared in the center of the screen in one shot did he react. If he had corrected her in time from the beginning, they would not have wasted so many shots.
However, as the director, in order to maintain his authority over the crew, he certainly would not admit his own mistake over such a small matter.
Although the villa party footage only lasted a few minutes in the film, filming it took most of the day. It was not until after four in the afternoon that they finally reached the last shot inside the villa, which was a conversation between Edward and his ex-girlfriend Susan.
After roughly and directly breaking up with his current girlfriend Jessica over the phone, Edward, who was about to leave the villa, walked downstairs and happened to run into his ex-girlfriend. The two then had a brief conversation.
…
“Susan, can I ask you something?” Edward stared at Susan.
Susan asked in confusion, “What?”
Edward raised his hand slightly and thought for a moment before saying, “When you were my girlfriend, did you talk to my secretary more than you talked to me?”
Susan’s tone carried a trace of disappointment, as though she had recalled their past together. “Your secretary later became my bridesmaid.”
Edward froze for a moment, then smiled awkwardly before saying goodbye to Susan.
This scene seemed ordinary, but it was actually one of the turning points in the male lead Edward’s personality.
There was a reason Pretty Woman achieved box office success and was included on most lists of romantic films. Many people would think, “Oh, this is just a shallow fairy tale about a prince and Cinderella. It could never happen in reality.”
That was not wrong, but the film’s plot design was much more refined than that. Perhaps the original director had only done these things subconsciously, but that did not deny the existence of these delicate arrangements.
If one wanted to talk about lack of logic, then Notting Hill, which Julia filmed after becoming famous in Eric’s previous life, was truly illogical. The male and female leads only met once and barely exchanged a few words before passionately kissing in the male lead’s apartment. The first time Eric watched that film, he was completely stunned by that abrupt scene.
In Pretty Woman, however, the reason the male and female leads finally ended up together was not an illogical forced pairing. In the film, Vivian and Edward’s personalities both underwent at least three transformations.
Vivian’s first change happened not long after the film began, when she saw the prostitute who died violently in a dumpster. In the close-up of that moment, fear appeared in Vivian’s eyes. So when she met her friend Kit Luca, Vivian asked for the first time, “Don’t you want to get out of this life?”
The second time was when Vivian went to buy clothes alone in order to accompany Edward to a banquet, only to be driven out of the clothing store. Walking on the street wrapped tightly in her coat, Vivian felt bone-deep humiliation. This made her once again resolve to escape her original life.
The final time was after Edward gave up on acquiring Morse Company. A furious Philip Stuckey blamed Vivian for it. In the hotel room, Philip Stuckey said harshly to Vivian, “Don’t forget who you are, Miss Vivian. You’re not a little lady. You’re just a prostitute!”
Those words completely awakened Vivian from the Cinderella dream Edward had created for her. So when Edward said he wanted to keep her as his mistress, Vivian ran onto the balcony, not daring to look Edward in the eyes, and instead spoke dreamily of her childhood fantasy. She told him to either give her a fairy tale or let her leave.
In the end, she chose to leave, although that was not the ending.
The transformation of the male lead Edward’s personality began in the villa with that conversation with his ex-girlfriend Susan. He asked his question, and Susan said his secretary later became her bridesmaid. One could imagine how cold and neglectful Edward had been toward Susan back then, to the point that his girlfriend had no choice but to rely on his secretary for companionship. Although this detail could not change Edward’s personality very much, it still made him begin reflecting on his own behavior.
Edward’s second change came after he had dinner with the owner of Morse Company. Returning to the hotel, he sat alone on the balcony and looked out over the night view of Los Angeles. Because the conversation during dinner reminded him of his father, who had died not long ago. He studied hard and worked hard, all to retaliate against his father for abandoning his mother. The first thing he did after founding his company was to acquire the company his father controlled, split it up, and sell it off.
Yet his father had died, and fourteen years of resentment and grievances had vanished like smoke. He finally felt a trace of exhaustion. When a person was exhausted, their willpower was always at its weakest. At that moment, a woman suddenly appeared before him, enlightened him, comforted him, and unknowingly entered his heart.
On the piano in the restaurant, the exhausted Edward burst out with intense emotion for the first time.
The final transformation began that night, when Vivian pestered Edward to play chess. Edward propped up his chin and said, “Why not play tomorrow? I still have to work.”
Vivian asked in return, “Why go to work? Take a day off.”
Edward woke up as if from a dream. “That’s right. I’m the boss.”
And so Edward completely “degenerated.” They went shopping like a couple, lay together on the grass reading, and chatted about everything under the sun in a snack shop…
In the end, he discovered that he could not leave Vivian.
On that sad, rainy day before their parting, amid the song It Must Have Been Love, Edward finally made up his mind to give Vivian a fairy tale. He transformed into a knight, holding a long sword in his right hand, which was an umbrella, and flowers in his left, climbed up the castle window, which was a fire escape, and welcomed back his princess.