The Legendary Actor - Chapter 66

Chris leaned against the door of his room, as if he was afraid Renly would break in. His heart was beating like a drum, his dry throat began to itch, and he couldn’t help but cough twice, he could only hold his mouth hard to avoid making a sound.

When his breathing settled down, Chris unlocked the door to his room, walked quickly to the bed, and pulled out the “Thor” script from under the mattress.

Calm down, calm down!

Chris had to force himself to calm down and start planning for the next step.

He would have to fly back to Los Angeles right away and read the script by heart to really understand the character of Thor, maybe even seek out an acting teacher to make sure he would be a perfect fit for Kenneth’s vision; then through his agent, make contact with someone at Marvel or Paramount, just a peripherally insignificant person, if he could meet the director, that would be great, get a chance to present himself, and then wait to be called.

If necessary, he could also get in touch with Bryan Burk, the producer of Star Trek, which was also produced by Paramount, as Bryan had some contacts within Paramount. Bryan had always shown him affection when he was working on Star Trek, and it was time to take advantage of it.

In the absence of a script, it was too narrow a path to get into a top-tier production, either through contacts or work, especially for actors like Chris who had no solid acting skills. But now the situation has changed drastically, he can prepare in advance and according to the film’s official standard, as long as the slightest crack is opened in the airtight network of relationships, this is enough.

Thinking of this, Chris couldn’t help getting excited!

During his time in Hollywood, he has seen enough of those arrogant and indifferent faces, who seem to be high and mighty aristocrats, but in reality are just a bunch of lapdogs who bite their tails to please others! They have been discriminating against him and won’t even look him in the eye, and in the future, he will pay them back tenfold! And Renly, Renly as well!

Renly was given the opportunity to be the “God of Thunder”, but he didn’t appreciate it, and his self-righteousness was disgusting as ever. But he had to thank Renly, didn’t he? Now that the initiative is in his hands, he will never give up easily, and when he stands at the top of the Hollywood pyramid, if he is in a good mood, he can pull Renly out and show him some gratitude.

As for the guilt? Why should he feel guilty? This is Hollywood, you can push through by hook or by crook, and he took his chances wisely, so he’s the one who will get the last laugh!

Once upon a time, Gwyneth Paltrow and Winona Ryder were two of Hollywood’s most famous besties, a pair of beautiful sisters. Winona became famous when she was young, her acting was flexible, so she was an object of desire for many directors; Gwyneth’s father on the other was a producer, her mother was an actress, and Steven Spielberg was her godfather.

In 1997, Winona at the time was tired of Hollywood’s intrigue and public attention, and her mental state fell into a trough, and her acting career began to fall into quagmire as well. But even so, she was still the directors’ darling, so she was constantly invited.

One day, Gwyneth went to Winona’s house to play, but Winona was lying groggy on her bed because she had taken too many medicines for cold. Bored, Gwyneth played around until she looked under the coffee table in Winona’s living room and found a script.

Gwyneth read it out of curiosity and immediately fell in love with the script, and in her desperation, she took it with her.

Winona was not informed of this. She, who was in a terrible state of mind at the time, didn’t even notice it. Gwyneth researched the script, found a producer and director through her connections, auditioned for the role, and won an Oscar for Best Actress for her work.

Yes, the film was “Shakespear in Love”.

Later, Winona found out about this and confronted Gwyneth about it. Gwyneth confessed, but the two once-sisterly friends were completely torn apart and became strangers to each other. Winona went further and further down the road of self-destruction, while Gwyneth’s career flourished despite being voted by Americans as the most hated actress for many years.

This is Hollywood, and the winner is the one who has the last laugh. As for the means? No one cared.

In his mind, Chris had a picture of everyone prostrating before his feet, and his smile blossomed at the corners of his mouth, and because he was so happy, he almost burst out laughing, Chris buried his whole head in the pillow and laughed sulkily and unrestrainedly into the dusty cotton. Amusingly though, from the side, it looked like as if he was in great pain, so being unable to bear it anymore he seemingly bit the pillow hard.

“Chris?” Renly’s worrying voice came from the living room, “Are you okay?”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Chris explained in a panic, the script in his hand was once again tossed under the bed in a flick, just in case Renly came right in, “Just, just hit the threshold.”

“Haha, Hulk smash, Hulk hurt” Renly’s ridiculing words came again, Chris laughed twice in response, but his back was already sweating cold.

After such a small accident, Chris’s mind finally calmed down, as he took the script and hid it in his private bathroom, and began to read it carefully.

Fate is a wonderful thing, and many people always blame “fate” for their luck and misfortune in life, as if this is the answer to all their problems, that an invisible hand of God is controlling everything, and that this will make life easier.

But the truth is that fate is always in everyone’s hands, and one critical choice at a critical moment will lead to a completely different truth of life. But no one knows if they would make the same choice if they were to revisit the past from a future point of view – perhaps, destiny has long been determined by character and choices have long been made.

Renly looked at the door of Chris’s room, he could feel that Chris was acting a little strange tonight, topsy-turvy and panicked, and he also looked as if he had done something wrong. But after thinking about it carefully, Renly still couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Could it be that there is a woman hiding in Chris’ room right now? An idea popped into Renly’s head, and if that were the case, it would make sense, especially if the woman was a famous actress. They didn’t want others to know, or to expose it to tabloid reporters, so it was only logical to keep a low profile.

At this thought, Renly laughed softly, turned off the hall light, and turned to go back to his room, leaving Chris some privacy. See, he was such an understanding roommate.

The next day, Chris packed his bags again and flew to Los Angeles, without even greeting Renly, who was a little startled by his stern gesture.

However, this is not uncommon in Hollywood, where new actors travel long distances for a single audition, desperately hoping that it will be the breakthrough that breaks the dam, but the results are often not what they seem. This is why most actors choose to settle in Los Angeles and New York – there are enough opportunities here that they don’t have to travel long distances to be available for auditions, and even if they do have to go to a different city, it’s much easier to get around in both cities.

Renly didn’t gossip too much about Chris’s career, but after cleaning and washing up, he made a phone call to Roy, and after an evening’s consideration, he decided to decline the audition invitation.

Both Thor and Loki, from the development of the last life he could see what the development would be; even though Tom Hiddleston through Loki won a huge popularity, Marvel still refused to give Loki more room to play. In the entire Marvel universe, the actor’s importance is negligible.

All things considered, Renly simply passed up the opportunity without a hitch which made Roy frown deeply; however, Renly didn’t care, so he packed his things and left the apartment. This morning he will be going to Brooklyn, where there is a street skateboarding contest, he is one of the contestants.

As for the script, after deciding against it, Renly just left it behind, completely unaware that the spot where it had been placed was now empty.

As a matter of fact, Renly’s skateboarding skills were not superb at all, and even if he had participated, he would have been at the bottom of the list. But for Renly, the result of the competition is not the focus, it’s the process, and that’s one of his major goals after his rebirth – to enjoy life to the fullest, learn to skateboard, learn to play the guitar, learn to surf, all of it.

Dreams are important, life is important, and in this life, he will live it out in his own colorful way.

Walking down the stairs, Renly threw his skateboard to the ground and slid out with a swoosh, but there was a call from behind him, “Renly! Renly!”

Renly stepped on the floor with his left foot, looked back, and then saw a chubby figure in a dark gray shirt with a black windbreaker, even the round belly was just about right to land him a role of some powerful Italian mobster, but the person ran all the way over, panting hard, so the looks he gave was not really imposing, and even a little pitiful. Sweat on the forehead poured down with big drops, making people around wonder whether that man just ran a marathon.

“Whew, God … God …” he used both hands to support his knees, breathing heavily, Renly looked at the distance between him and his door – not even thirty yards -, and then looked at the sweaty figure in front of him, it was somewhat funny. “Give me a minute.” The fat man said, adjusting his breathing, his face glowing red.

Renly made a polite “please” gesture, “I’ll have a minute on this fine morning. Mr. Rogers.”

The fat man standing in front of him was Andy Rogers, an agent with Creative Artists Agency, who had visited Renly in Pioneer Village before the start of “The Pacific” broadcast. Originally, he thought he would come right after the series began airing, but he didn’t expect to show up until today, as the series finished airing last week.

“Is it only a minute?” Andy pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, “I don’t know if you have half an hour so we can sit down and talk.”

He still needed to fly back to Los Angeles this afternoon, the “Thor” casting competition was at its fiercest moment, the three actors in the hands of the Creative Artists Agency were infinitely closer to the final victory, he had to be there in person, involved in the audition process; but even so, he still gave up the plan to fly back directly from Chicago, but took a detour to come to New York. As he arrived at the airport at 6:30 a.m., he immediately rushed over without stopping, because he knew that the time was ripe to sign with Renly, and he didn’t want to miss out on this potential star.

“I’m on my way to Brooklyn right now, so if you don’t mind, we can walk and talk on the way.” Renly wasn’t flattered, as he had been contacted by more than double-digit numbers of agents during “The Pacific” run, at least three of whom were from the top five agencies, and Andy was only one of them.

Andy was not at all surprised by Renly’s answer, and made an inviting gesture, “Of course, there’s no problem. As if the afternoon flight didn’t even exist, he continued, “There’s been a lot of discussion about you in Hollywood lately, I wonder if you’ve heard anything in New York.”

“I hope it’s some kind of compliment.” Renly’s reply made Andy chuckle lightly, “Of course, that’s right. If I’m not mistaken, you’ve received some big project invitations, and this is the best proof of that. For example, “Thor”.”