Chapter 008: The Referee Becomes the Basketball
Chapter 008: The Referee Becomes the Basketball
The instant Eric woke up, he felt as if a stone had been stuffed inside his head. After shaking his head hard several times, he subconsciously reached toward the spot beside his pillow for his phone. Very quickly, he remembered his current situation, smiled, and sat up. It was already past nine in the morning.
This was Eric’s bedroom on the second floor of the Williams house. The fierce summer sunlight passed brazenly through the floor-to-ceiling glass door of the south-facing balcony and spilled into the bedroom. It was already August, and before noon had even arrived, Los Angeles felt stiflingly hot.
For more than half a month since his rebirth, Eric had been busy with all kinds of things, his entire heart floating in the air. He had not even had time to properly examine this brand-new world he was in. Now that everything had a good beginning, his heart finally settled back into his chest.
The bedroom was very large, more than thirty square meters. Even after putting in a large bed, a wardrobe, a desk, display shelves, and all kinds of miscellaneous things, it still looked spacious.
In his memories, Ralph had once thought about dividing the bedroom into two rooms, but in the end, he never did it. This family only had the father and son, and there were already enough rooms. Even if another room was divided out, he would not know what to use it for.
This somewhat desolate reason once made Ralph depressed for many days. But until his death, Ralph never made any move to find a wife or anything of that sort.
Eric wondered whether every alcoholic man had some heartbreaking past behind him.
He went downstairs and spent half an hour tidying up the messy living room after the party. After eating breakfast, Eric drove away from home.
He spent several hours first going to a specialty store to order a Strauss piano. After leaving his address with the delivery workers, Eric went to a bookstore and picked out a thick stack of books on music arrangement.
Eric was not acting on a sudden impulse to become a singer. He did all this only to prepare for future film scoring. With so many classic films in his mind, if he wanted to perfectly recreate them, he had to understand some basic knowledge of music arrangement. At the very least, he needed to reach the point where he could write the melodies in his mind into staff notation. Otherwise, he could not possibly hum them out in front of professional film composers in the future. Don’t be ridiculous.
Hollywood was different from the entertainment industry in the Eastern mainland. Many mainland directors, after finishing a film and preparing the score, usually found a composer. The composer would watch the rough cut and provide some tracks. If the director listened and thought they were fine, he would clap his little hands and call it done.
But in Hollywood films, music was a very important part. Therefore, the production pursued excellence. Leaving aside background music, theme songs alone had produced countless classics. Many classic film songs were even famous around the world, such as “Unchained Melody” from Ghost, “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, “New Divide” from Transformers, “Young and Beautiful” from The Great Gatsby, “Let It Go” from Frozen, and the pleasant songs in Juno, which could fill an entire album.
Carrying the books back home, Eric soon had the piano delivered. He directed the workers to carry the piano into the study on the west side of the living room. It was called a study, but there was not even a bookshelf inside, only a large desk and some miscellaneous objects. All of Eric’s books were upstairs in his bedroom, while Ralph had no habit of reading at all.
After the piano was set up, of course he had to test the sound as usual.
Eric sat in front of the piano and stylishly placed both hands on the keys. Then, under the horrified and disdainful gazes of several delivery workers, this guy calmly played a somewhat off-key version of “Happy Birthday.”
Eric glanced sideways at the delivery workers standing there like wooden chickens and sighed inwardly. Scared you little brats, didn’t I? With this level of mine, I could barely count as a morally and artistically accomplished professional in my previous-life circle.
To punish the delivery workers for looking down on him, Eric directly halved the tip he had intended to pay.
However, the delivery workers clearly did not notice any of that. Even when they got into the truck, the tall, thin white man among them was still muttering, “Strauss... Strauss... That’s a Strauss worth over twenty thousand dollars...” His tone was filled with the sense of collapse one might feel from marrying off a twenty-eight-year-old maiden to an eighty-two-year-old grandfather. It made Eric feel a little embarrassed, but he was also helpless. He could not exactly go up and tell him, Old Yang, don’t worry. I’ll take good care of Xi’er.
...
“What? An audition?” Eric asked in confusion. “Penny, hasn’t my role already been decided?”
After staying at home for several days, spending each day studying music, practicing basketball, and practicing acting, Eric thought this situation might continue until filming began. Unexpectedly, after only three days, he received a call from Director Penny Marshall.
“Of course, Eric. I mean I want you to participate in the auditions for the other roles. After all, you’re the screenwriter. You can provide some input on casting, can’t you?”
Eric inwardly complained that he could probably only provide input and decide nothing. Still, he readily agreed to Penny Marshall’s request. He had wanted to participate in the film’s production anyway to accumulate some experience.
He drove to Fox’s filming base and met Penny Marshall and James Brooks. Casting was a major matter in film, so the director and producer naturally had to be present. It was still the same room where he had auditioned a few days ago. Several other staff members were also involved in the casting, but Eric was the only young person there.
There were still more than ten minutes before the auditions began. Penny Marshall took the initiative to chat with Eric about the preparation status of Back to 17.
“The success of Big has made 20th Century Fox very confident in our film. They’ve set a budget of twenty million dollars. But they hope we can finish production as soon as possible and release it during Thanksgiving, so we have to complete preparations within two weeks and finish shooting the school scenes before summer vacation ends.”
Eric accepted the auditioning actors list handed over by a staff member and said thank you. Hearing Penny Marshall’s words, he said, “As long as shooting goes smoothly, three months should be enough for this film. There are only a few simple special effects shots in the film, so post-production won’t take too long.”
Penny Marshall nodded. “That’s true, but we still need to reserve some time for promotion.”
“By the way, Penny, which roles are we auditioning for today?” Eric asked.
“It’s like this. For the adult Mike O’Donnell and Scarlett O’Donnell, we’ve already invited Dan Aykroyd and Susan Sarandon respectively. James recommended a friend of his for the adult version of Ned. Today, we’re mainly auditioning Mike’s children and some other young actors in the film, so I felt you should come and take a look.”
Although Eric already knew that he, as the screenwriter, was destined to have no real say in the selection of other actors, hearing that several actors had already been decided without his knowledge still made him somewhat depressed. Fortunately, the two actors Penny Marshall mentioned both matched Eric’s expectations. As for the role of Ned, James Brooks would definitely not treat a twenty-million-dollar investment as a joke, so that actor probably would not be too bad either.
Still, Eric felt unwilling. Secretly, he swore that in the future, he had to grasp control over his own films. This feeling of being marginalized was truly terrible.
Depressed, Eric had no mood to continue chatting with Penny Marshall. Penny Marshall did not notice anything unusual about him and turned to the other side to quietly discuss something with James Brooks.
Bored, Eric opened the auditioning actors list. The first entries were all male actors. In the photos, fresh-faced young men displayed their youth and vitality. After flipping through seven or eight profiles, Eric finally discovered a familiar face: Brad Pitt.
And the role he was auditioning for was actually Alex. In the original film, Alex’s image was that of a weak and timid boy. Eric felt the original was a bit too weak. That small frame moving freely and shining on the basketball court felt somewhat out of place.
Based on his analysis, the reason they had chosen that skinny boy instead of a slightly taller and more handsome young man was not only because of the plot’s needs. The director must have also worried that this supporting role would overshadow the lead, Zac Efron, because Zac Efron was only 175 centimeters tall. Among Westerners, especially Western male actors, that height was considered quite short. Audiences who watched that film in Eric’s previous life could also clearly feel this point.
Looking at Pitt in the photo, who was already twenty-five but still looked like a high school student, Eric suddenly felt that letting Pitt play a role who was tall and strong yet bullied everywhere, then finally reversed everything and shone on the basketball court, would be pretty good too. Besides, Eric was fully confident that his own performance would not be suppressed by Brad Pitt.
After Pitt became famous in the future, people would discover that he had once played Eric Williams’s son. Wouldn’t that be very interesting?
The corners of Eric’s mouth lifted slightly as he continued flipping through the list. After that, he did not find any more male actors familiar from his previous life.
Next came a thick stack of female actor profiles. When Eric saw the first female actor’s audition profile, his jaw nearly dropped.
Angelina Jolie.
The whole family had practically gathered today.
After thinking back for a moment, Eric realized that Jolie should have just graduated from acting school this year and was preparing to enter high school. She would only begin her modeling career next year. He did not know why she appeared on the audition list for Maggie.
European and American women matured early. In the photo, thirteen-year-old Jolie was already slender and graceful, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and her signature sexy lips. Her whole person already began to give off a faint wild aura. Eric did not have high hopes for Jolie’s audition result. Perhaps she could participate in the audition because of the influence of her Oscar-winning father.
Continuing to flip through the profiles, Eric found another very interesting girl.
“Hey, Penny.” Eric held up the profile and turned to ask, “What’s the situation with Drew Barrymore? The terrible things she’s done these past two years... you know about them too. She may not be very suitable for our campus comedy, right?”
Penny Marshall glanced at it and smiled helplessly. “Stephen recommended her. That woman shamelessly went to beg him, and he got so annoyed that he recommended her over. But Stephen also hinted that we don’t need to consider his influence at all, so you understand.”
“Steven Spielberg?”
Penny Marshall nodded. “Yes. You know, Steven is Drew’s godfather.”
Eric made a sound of understanding. In that case, the woman Penny’s tone was filled with disgust toward should be Drew’s greedy mother.
But in these few short minutes, through the clues Eric saw and heard, he discovered that Hollywood’s selection of actresses was not as fair and transparent as the media claimed. It was still full of favors, relationships, and various struggles.
Just as he was about to continue looking through the list, Penny Marshall patted Eric and said, “Alright, Eric, organize yourself. The auditions are starting.”
Eric could only arrange the actor forms in order and wait for the upcoming auditions.
He had originally thought he would become a decoration, at most providing one or two dispensable comments and symbolically asking a few questions. Unexpectedly, when the first young male actor came in and answered several questions, the performance stage began, and Penny Marshall smiled at Eric.
“Eric, go up and perform opposite Mr. Wilson.”
Eric shrugged, looked at the storyboard, and walked forward.
...
After the fifth actor walked out of the audition room, Eric sat back down and jokingly complained, “Penny, I originally thought you called me here to be the referee. I didn’t expect to become the basketball on the court.”
“Hehe, that’s an interesting metaphor. Stop complaining, Eric. It was James’s idea. He complained that I canceled your acting classes, and in the end, we came up with this method to let you practice your acting.”
Eric pretended to glare angrily at James Brooks, who acted as if nothing had happened, and complained, “Then why didn’t you just say so directly?”
“Don’t you know now?” Penny Marshall said with a smile.
“Fine.” Eric spread his hands speechlessly.