Birth of an actor

The most important part of filming is farewell. Some large-scale crews, such as the original "Lord of the Rings", basically have a main actor to say goodbye to everyone every day since the middle of the filming period, because their roles have been wrapped.

In "Milk", although William is the absolute protagonist, he is the first of the main actors to finish filming. James Franco and Tobey Maguire also have several mobilizations, speeches and parades. The scene is going to be filmed, and Leonardo also has an arrest scene and a scene talking with his wife in the church.

Leonardo's wife in the film, Marianne White, is played by actress Naomi Watts, who starred in David Lynch's film "Mulholland Drive." Like many politicians' wives of that era, She is a full-time housewife, but she is not a vase character with only a few background shots. Although there are few lines, it is meaningful.

In Spielberg's script, Marian White is a "good wife" who always stands behind Dan White, supports him and even leads his actions when he is helpless or at a loss.Using the inverted contrast between the real status and the psychological status of the two characters Dan White and Marianne White, it is emphasized that Dan White has a psychological fragility that is completely opposite to his appearance, and that he is often under the expectations of others. Manipulating the lower back to push forward, living like a marionette.

William and Leonardo's city hall escape finally ended under Spielberg's intolerable intervention, and William went to the dressing room to change into his clothes and returned to the set-his suit will be put on later. on a prop dummy for a scene where Milk’s body is carried out of City Hall—Spielberg has got everyone together, William walks over and stands next to him, and the others either walk up or stand Watching them from a distance.

The scenes that need to be filmed at the San Francisco City Hall are considered medium-sized in the film, but hundreds of extras and behind-the-scenes workers are also used. There are about 400 people on the set.Many of these people are gay, especially the extras, more than three-quarters of whom on "Milk" are gay, bisexual and transgender.

This is all thanks to the generosity of gay rights groups in New York and San Francisco. "Milk" has many public debates, speeches, rallies, and parades, which requires a large number of extras. When the major gay rights associations in North America learned of this demand, they contacted the crew one after another. Thousands of Homosexuals are willing to be extras for free, without paying a penny.

Therefore, the crew only paid for a lunch, and hired a large number of gays and lesbians as extras. There is a precedent in Hollywood for recruiting real GAY actors. For example, "Philadelphia Story" invited 53 real gays AIDS patients appeared in the film, but a year after the film was released, 43 people had died-these people had no selfishness, they just wanted to witness the birth of such a film, and felt that it was significant because they had participated in it.

The cameraman had already turned on the camera and pointed at them, and William didn't care, he knew that these would become the material of the promotional period, and some would be included in the movie DVD.

Spielberg clapped his hands and drew everyone's attention: "Ladies and gentlemen, Will's part is over, and we have to say goodbye to him temporarily. You have worked hard during this time!"

There were cheers and applause all around, and many people were saying: "I will miss this good time!"

"Keep in touch with us!"

Seeing that there were still people wiping tears from their red eyes, Spielberg raised his voice: "It's just a temporary farewell, guys, most people will see you again during the promotion period."

But this sentence just makes more emotional people's eyes water, because this is not a series movie, or a superhero movie, everyone will reunite for the sequel every one or two years, and many people are not involved Qualification for the promotional period, I really don't know when they will have to wait for the next cooperation.

Spielberg took a box that had been prepared earlier from the assistant director and handed it to William, saying it was a farewell gift from the crew.

William opened the box, and there was an antique SLR camera inside, which was the Nikon F he used in the film.

"Is this the one I thought? Or a prop model?"

"It's not a model, it's the one you used."

Then this gift is really commemorative and precious.The parting was imminent, and the faces of the people around him showed reluctance, and William also felt his eyes were a little sore, but he suppressed it, held up the camera and hugged Spielberg: "This is really great, thank you Steven. "

"People from Nikon have specially re-examined it. If it is well preserved, this camera can be used forever. By the way, I even stuffed a roll of film in it." Spielberg called the photographer: "Come on, Help us take a group photo."

Then everyone present crowded together and took a big group photo.While getting as many people into the shot as possible, the photographer joked that this would become the most-participated movie crew photo shoot in history. When the photos are developed, it will be a head-counting game. If you want to see who's face clearly, you must Just use a magnifying glass.

——When William developed the photos later, he found that the film had been taken full (no doubt the photographer was Spielberg), and the contents of the photos were mostly various moments of him and other actors in the crew, sometimes in Shooting, sometimes fighting, sometimes getting together to read scripts, sometimes resting or eating, every photo is full of memories, these photos are undoubtedly a more precious gift than the camera itself.

After taking the big group photo, William hugged Leonardo, Toby and others respectively: "Don't mess up the rest of the shooting, and don't miss me too much." He also thanked everyone: "Thank you, thank you, I am very happy It's been an amazing experience getting to know you all, an incredible journey. I love you all and can't thank you enough."

The crowd applauded again, and amidst more enthusiastic applause, several staff members brought a lot of drinks and food, including beer, Coke, and a bunch of pizza and In-n-out burgers. meal.

Talking, hugging, saying goodbye to the protagonists and creators one by one, and wolfing down half a hamburger to satisfy their hunger, William grabbed a new beer and joined Leonardo and Toby in the corner. Discuss how to create a villain that is not hated by others - Dan White is Leonardo's first real attempt to play a villain, and Toby is considering transformation recently, and has also come into contact with several villain scripts, But still can't make up my mind.

"For an actor to play a villain role, if he wants not to be hated by others, the most important thing is that the role itself must have room to play. It cannot be a thin image, but must have rich layers and backgrounds to explore, otherwise nothing will be discussed."

"Like Dan White?" William interjected.

"It's like Dan White. The role of Dan is very contradictory. He looks like a mature man on the outside, but he is full of struggle and impulsiveness on the inside. There is a lot of room for performance in this kind of role that conflicts between the inside and the outside."

Toby seemed to have a little insight, while William was listening, and felt that Leonardo missed one point, that is, in order for this kind of villain to appear three-dimensional and plump, either the actor and the character have some common characteristics, or the acting skills are special. Brilliant to show that quality.

William and Spielberg have specifically analyzed the role of Dan White, and agreed that he is very suitable for Leonardo - this is certainly not to say that Leonardo is a tough and vulnerable, homophobic and closet Human - but Leonardo has a kind of temperament that other Hollywood actors do not have.

Hollywood is the biggest vanity fair, with the environment that destroys innocence the most. Child stars at a young age can learn to smoke and drink too much. Actors in their teens have shrewd eyes, but Leonardo, even though he is 30 years old, You can still find a sense of youth from his face and eyes-although he has tried his best to cover up this temperament-some movies, such as "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator", really require Leonardo to change his disguise Mature, but in "Milk", Dan White looks like a mature man, but his essence is a person who cannot withstand the external storm and has not grown up. He is often at a loss. Leonardo The same mature appearance (gaining at least a dozen pounds), and this magical temperament make his Dan White unique.

At this time, the beer he drank gradually began to play a role, and Leonardo reluctantly said: "This is the happiest part of my filming. I really hope that there will be opportunities in the future. The three of us will continue to make a movie. "

William agrees, but he can't think of any good movie projects for a while. There is no script like "Fight Club" where both heroes are brilliant. It is difficult for him and Leonardo to cooperate again. Bi also became a member of the $2000 million club, and it is impossible to serve as green leaves for them in every movie.

Toby had some fantastic ideas: "Why don't you play superheroes? Didn't the media conduct a survey, and many comic fans are optimistic about you playing Captain America and Iron Man." The more he thought about it, the more excited he became, "So we Then we can cooperate in many movies!"

In fact, Toby is not whimsical. In the already launched Marvel Cinematic Universe, many movie scripts are being written, or have already been written and are waiting to be launched. The current shooting plan has been scheduled for ten years. Toby's next step The Spider-Man movie is included, and it involves the concept of parallel universes.

In other words, although Toby's Spider-Man solo movie has not yet appeared in other Marvel superheroes, and his Peter Parker may retire in one or two movies, but he may appear in future Marvel movies In the movie, he won't even be the only Spider-Man, and Toby may even have a cameo in the new Spider-Man movie in the future.The concept of parallel universes provides many possibilities for the future.

Because of the big sales of the "X-Men" and "Spiderman" series, Hollywood is currently optimistic about superhero movies. Warner has one "Batman" on the left and one "Superman" on the right, and the average production cost is as high as Hundreds of millions of dollars, currently still in the casting stage, several Marvel movies have also attracted all the attention. Many media in the industry, including fans of comics, are more enthusiastic than Warner and Willot, and have given Marvel's movie universe plan A luxurious cast was selected.

In this ultra-luxury list, there are Leonardo as Iron Man, William as Captain America, Brad Pitt as Thor, Charlize Theron as Pepper, Angelina Jolie as Black Widow , Johnny Depp as Hawkeye, and Kate Beckinsale as Peggy Carter, Brendan Fraser as the Winter Soldier, Eddie Murphy as James Rhodes, Bowser · Gooding as War Machine, Sandra Bullock as Wasp and Dolph Lundgren as Vision, Anne Hathaway as Scarlet Witch, Denzel Washington as Black Panther, Ben S. Tiller as Ant-Man, Edward Norton as Hulk, Keanu Reeves as Doctor Strange, Morgan Freeman as Nick Fury...

Not to mention, the fans really blindly guessed a few characters, and there are a few actors that Willlott is really approaching, but more of them are just deliberately making gimmicks by the media. At the very least, Leon Nadeau's Iron Man is completely hopeless.

"Playing in a superhero movie will make me positioned and stereotyped by the role, which is terrible." This is the explanation given by Leonardo.

Now it's Toby's turn to be silent, because he is facing the dilemma of being stereotyped by the role and narrowing his acting career.Since he played Spider-Man, his popularity is known to almost everyone in the United States. He also has many fans in Europe, South America, and Asia. When he walks around Times Square, tourists from all over the world can recognize him, but others usually call him He's Spider-Man or Peter Parker, not Tobey Maguire.In the past two years, he has also tried to take on other films, such as the Oscar-winning film "The Pentium Era", but it still can't change the audience's stereotype. People feel like they are playing "Spider-Man".

Usually at such moments, it is William's turn to smooth things over, or save the world.

"After the Oscars, I talked to Peter Jackson several times about new film projects, about "The Hobbit" and "The Silmarillion". Toby, you are very suitable to play the Hobbit."

Visible to the naked eye, William could see Toby's eyes light up, as if he wanted to ask when the movie would start up in the next second.

Although the Hobbit is also easy to stereotype actors, just like Elijah Wood after "The Lord of the Rings", but the appearance conditions of Toby and Wood have actually determined that their play path cannot be so wide.Therefore, if you can star in two major series of movies, such as "The Lord of the Rings" and "Spiderman", even if the transformation is unsuccessful in the future, you can still earn money for a lifetime.

Leonardo stood by, drinking beer, thinking about whether to refuse when William invited him later.Although he likes the feeling of good friends making movies together, he is still not very interested in fantasy movies. "Lord of the Rings" is great, but it is not the kind of great film art he wants to shoot.

Leonardo prefers tragedies, tragic characters, and tragic stories. He likes to perform such challenging roles, because throughout history, the stories that can really be passed down and remembered by people are often tragedies.

Just when Leonardo was thinking about how to evade William's invitation, and told him euphemistically that he was not very interested in "The Silmarillion", William said to him: "Oh, by the way, Leo, "The Hobbit" There probably isn't a character for you in either The Man or The Silmarillion."

"Why? Leo is not suitable for a hobbit, can't he still play an elf?" The reason why this question was asked by Toby, not Leonardo himself, was not because he was indifferent, but because he was too shocked and forgot to ask. .

Regarding this question, William replied based on the principle of "seeking truth from facts": "Leo is really not suitable to play an elf now, because his face is too round."

Toby: "..."

Leonardo: ? ? ? ? ?

……

In mid-May, Boston is often cloudy and rainy. The daily minimum temperature is seven or eight degrees Celsius, and the highest is only a dozen degrees. However, on the day of Harvard University’s graduation ceremony on the 24th, the sun suddenly shone brightly, and the temperature rose to more than 20 degrees. , the men took off their jackets and only wore shirts, and the women also put on colorful sleeveless dresses.

Under the watchful eyes of thousands of people, William stepped onto the stage of the graduation ceremony. He was invited back to his alma mater today to give a speech at the graduation ceremony for the 2004 graduates of Harvard University, and the theme of his speech was "Don't Set limits on your life."

"Respected President Summers, members of the Harvard Group and the Supervisory Committee, teachers, parents, and students, hello. It is a great honor to be here today. My current mood is the same as when I was a freshman at Harvard in early [-]. I’m in the same mood, maybe a little more excited. Wait, I’m not the first guest ever to walk on stage at Harvard, am I?”

"Four years ago, I was sitting where you are sitting now, listening to Conan O'Brien, who was so funny, turned graduation into a Late Show show, and got all the laughs. Back then I didn’t expect to be back at Harvard so soon, so thank you very much to the graduates and to Harvard for inviting me and for giving me this honor. It means a lot to me to be here today and I really miss it.”

Then William talked about his life at Harvard. He often went to attend courses he didn’t take, and worried about his homework until late at night in the dormitory. It was also sent by a student who once lived in Elm House.

William also talked about Chris Dixon, a friend he made when he was studying at Harvard, and now he is a very famous entrepreneur and angel investor in Silicon Valley. In the early years, Chris gave William a lot of help in investment. Later, William Also gave him a lot of help.

"This demonstrates the importance of making friends on the Harvard campus." This line was met with many echoes and good-natured laughter.

William is most grateful to Harvard for giving him a normal environment for studying and making friends. It was a rare and precious time away from the luxury and money in Hollywood, which will never be seen again in the future.Here people treat him as an equal, and some people tease him and laugh at him, thinking that he is an actor who is not smart enough to be admitted to Harvard after running out of luck.

"It's true," William said solemnly to the disbelief-laughing graduates and parents, which made them laugh even louder.

"Graduates present here, you will get an award tomorrow, which is a degree from Harvard. Perhaps many of you, your parents, teachers, and friends have told you what the path to success is—entering the world's top companies after graduation Work, ten years later, your life will settle down, get married, buy a house, and after 15 years, your life trajectory will be finalized. You will achieve certain achievements in finance, law, and politics, and become a middle-class elite in the standard sense , live a happy life with two children and one dog."

"Are these experiences good? Maybe. Before I was 14 years old, I always thought that I would become a Wall Street fund broker after graduating from Harvard Finance major like my father. Previously managed a hedge fund of more than one billion dollars."

"But now I own a hedge fund like this, and I have some of the best investment managers in the country working for me."

"Of course, I am still an actor. This is a career that I never thought of before the age of 14. I have no experience, and I don't know if I have the potential to be a good actor. What I have is just a fearless job. Courage, and a hundred times the hard work, I used them to make my way in Hollywood and achieved good results. Yes, I won an Oscar."

"I cite this example to tell you, don't let fixed thinking limit your career, don't let anyone's cognitive standards disrupt your life. There is no so-called success standard at any stage of life. When you follow suit Imitate others, but you will lose the greatest wealth you have now."

"Dick Metterschutz spent ten years graduating from university and at 48 started Red Bull."

"Jessica Tandy got her Oscar at 81."

"J.K. Rowling publishes Harry Potter after being rejected ten times."

"Sheldon Adelson was 55 years old in gaming."

"Bill Gates has not yet received a degree from Harvard."

In the midst of laughter and applause, William said: "The common feature of them is that they have never been restricted by their own beliefs and thinking, and have always used their own advantages to try different paths."

"Life should not be limited. Inexperience is your second wealth besides youth, which means that you have innovative thinking and souls, and you have countless ideas out of the box to become different and walk out of a completely unmanned path. The road you have traveled, whether it is smooth and smooth or rough and rough, it belongs to you entirely."

At this point, William said that in order to repay his alma mater and the society, he helped those college students who are burdened with heavy and high student loans start their own businesses. As of now, the scale of American student loans has exceeded one trillion dollars, and more than half of college students are burdened with high debts. student loans that may not be paid off until decades after graduation—he announced a scholarship program.

The Bradley Scholarship aims to encourage college students to study outside the school and start a business. Through this project, the selected college students can receive a [-]-dollar start-up fund, including housing allowances and living allowances, as well as a professional consultant team to give them what they need to start a business Business guidance, network support.

Of course, what William did not mention in his speech for the time being is that they also paid. While accepting investment, if the selected candidates have not yet graduated, they need to take a break from school for at least one year, and part of the original shares of the company they founded will also belong to the cloth. Landry Foundation.However, it is not mandatory for students to start their own companies, and they can continue to retain scholarships just like becoming partners in other people's start-up companies.

——The scholarship program later became the first choice for students from Ivy League schools to start a business. It has incubated many emerging technology companies in Silicon Valley, including many successful unicorn companies (valued at more than one billion U.S. dollars). The rise in fame has made these students known as In order to be a "Bradley Cadet", the scholarship was later called the "Bradley Cadet Program".Many established companies in Silicon Valley believe that the essence of this project is to bring angel investment to the campus. At first, the Silicon Valley giants were a little disdainful, but in the end, there were countless imitators.

At the end of the speech, William ended with a quote from his favorite ancient Greek thinker Epicurus: "If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor. If you shape your life according to people's ideas, you will never be poor." If you live, you will never be rich. Finally, I wish you all the best of luck!"

Amid the standing ovation, William shook hands with the President of Harvard, faculty and others, ending his lecture trip.

……

Back in Cambridge Town, encountering such a beautiful sunshine seems to be rare in school days. William left the podium and was just about to relive the old days on the Harvard campus when he was stopped by two students.

"Mr. Bradley, excuse me, please?"

The two people calling William, one is a very pleasant-looking young man, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, long track pants and Adidas flats, and the other is a more handsome young man in a three-piece suit.

The one in the back is probably a member of which ultimate club, William guessed, because when he was in school, he often saw members of the ultimate club wearing suits, except for them, ordinary students were dressed very casually.

"We just listened to your speech. You said that you are willing to sponsor scholarships for those who drop out of college to realize their entrepreneurial ideals." Seeing William stop and look over, the young man in a hooded sweater immediately said, his speech was fast : "If you're free, I'd like to introduce you to my website—"

"Wait, I didn't emphasize dropouts," William reiterated. "Of course, dropouts can apply for scholarships, but so do recent graduates, as well as suspend students. The Bradley Scholarship does not discriminate."

"But in the ever-changing Silicon Valley, dropouts are more likely to succeed. Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, they all dropped out of college."

Interestingly, the hooded sweatshirt is rebutting Willian, but he's less willing to make eye contact with Willian, and looks a bit like he's talking to himself.

"Your point is good, but please keep your voice down. I don't want the professors to hear you and think I'm encouraging you to drop out of Harvard." William said gently, and gestured: "Okay, before my driver arrives, you can Tell me about your website. What's it called?"

"theFacebook. It's not a capital 'T', it's a lowercase 't'." The hooded sweatshirt spoke quickly, looking, uh, over William's shoulder and saying, "theFacebook is an online dating community, not a date." website, but put the entire school’s social circle online. Everyone publishes their photos and personal information online, and anyone can click in and browse. What are their hobbies, what are they pursuing, all the information, whether you are in the library, in the dormitory or at home, you can just move your fingers to see it. It is a social world that exists on the Internet, and a social is everything world."

"theFacebook has now covered 39 schools, including the Ivy League Eight, and has more than 8 members. Everyone stays on theFacebook longer than other sites. There is also a strong statistic. People who log in to theFacebook once Among them, 67% will log in again." The young man in three-piece suit who had been silent all this time added politely.

"There are already [-] members, Eduardo." The hooded sweatshirt, which looked like a robot, had no obvious expression until now, and finally showed a smug look: "theFacebook is the coolest, most popular, and most attractive website."

"Sounds like a great site, I'm interested," William said, holding out his hand.

The hooded sweatshirt stared at William's hand for a few seconds before reacting to shake it: "Mark Zuckerberg, this is my friend Eduardo Saverin, my investor and CFO , who made $30 in oil futures the summer before last"

William also shook hands with Eduardo Saverin, asking: "So, what's next for theFacebook?"

"I am going to move theFacebook to California, where there is a more suitable soil for entrepreneurship. I have already set up a house in Palo Alto, two communities away from Stanford University, and interviewed some interns, including Harvard and other schools. Yes. We’re going to scale the company this summer and get theFacebook into at least a hundred schools, so we’ll need more people, more servers — more money.” Mark Zuckerberg didn’t seem to be breathing Can say a long paragraph: "Actually, Eduardo also arranged some other meetings for me, with a few potential advertisers. Do you think I should meet them?"

"Mark, theFacebook already has [-] members. It is very reasonable to introduce advertisements at this time. The purpose of business is to make money. This is how all websites start to make money." Eduardo Saverin interjected helplessly.

"TheFacebook is not cool with ads, and I don't want to ruin it with ads." Mark Zuckerberg looked at William: "If you are willing to invest in me, I don't have to see those advertisers."

"Okay," William said.

Eduardo Saverin & Mark Zuckerberg: "What?"

If Eduardo Saverin is pure surprise, Mark Zuckerberg is a complete surprise. He has been very excited since his graduation speech, imagining that if William Brandliken invests in theFacebook, There is no need to advertise, and the funding problem is perfectly solved-now, William Bradley is really willing to invest in theFacebook, just like he once invested in Apple and Google!

After Mark Zuckerberg decided to go back, he immediately turned down all the meetings with the advertisers that Eduardo found, and moved to Silicon Valley as quickly as possible. He will do better than Steve Jobs, because Jobs did not Can't write code.

"How much advertising sponsorship can theFacebook get now, thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars? It's really not worthwhile to exchange the money by damaging the user experience." William said: "I am willing to make angel investment. How much money do you need?"

Mark Zuckerberg looked to his chief financial officer, Eduardo Saverin, and said, "I've calculated that you'll need at least $[-] to get you through the summer."

"Fifty thousand dollars," said Mark Zuckerberg. "We're going to expand."

"I'll give you $50, can you make it into Europe?"

"Then at the end of the summer you're going to see Cambridge, Oxford, St Andrews, Warwick, and LSE students all using theFacebook, Mr Bradley."

William gave him another card: "This is the business card of my fund manager. When you go to his office in Silicon Valley, he will give you a check. When theFacebook really covers a hundred schools, you need to build a When the new equity structure is established, the second round of financing will be conducted."

Mark Zuckerberg accepted the card: "Congratulations, Mr. Bradley, on becoming theFacebook's first outside investor."

William finally asked: "When are you going to drop 'the'?"

"what?"

"Facebook. It's more concise."