The Legendary Actor - Chapter 69

“Good morning, Renly, it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“Hey, Renly, the next time you run into Tom, say hi for me.”

“Renly, you here again today? What, still no news?”

“Yo, my man! Outstanding work, outstanding!”

“Have you picked your next work? A lot of eyes have been on you lately.”

…

People passing by have taken the initiative to greet Renly, with different looks: some with familiarity, some with compliments, with some kindness, some with enthusiasm, some with flattery, and some with politeness – all with different purposes and meanings, in just the small office of the New York branch of the U.S. actors’ union – life is a wonderful thing indeed.

Now Renly is in a very delicate position.

“The Pacific” won him a lot of attention, but it is only a TV series, and it is also a mini-series to boot, so its influence is limited; the producers of the series are the famous Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, but these two giants are not just to be leaned on; after the series was broadcast, there were really a lot of topics of discussion which made him a familiar face, but still after two months, Renly still could not directly benefit from it – the news of “Thor” was secret, at least in the eyes of the public.

This kind of Renly is still not a big hit, though he has shown potential; not an overnight hit, but has made some fame; hasn’t soared to skies, yet even skies won’t be his limit . For the third and fourth tier actors, it is the most appropriate person to make friends with, maybe it is a project for a favor, maybe it is an ulterior motive, maybe it is calculating, maybe it is to catch a big fish in a long line, but no matter what the purpose is, they are happy to deal with such fresh blood.

It’s like Chris Hemsworth before him.

“Reporting back to the union again?” The middle-aged woman sitting at the front desk smiled widely, her chubby cheeks showing a Santa Claus-like amiable blush, and her narrowed eyes shining with a pleasing light, “You should have found an agent, it’s much better than just looking for a needle in a haystack, in the union that is.” Afterwards, she laughed a little exaggeratedly twice, “I’m sure there’s a long line of agents who want to sign with you right now.”

The self-evident compliment couldn’t have been more obvious, and Renly would definitely not have missed it, but he just gave a genial smile and tucked his jaw slightly, “I’m waiting for the day when Fifth Avenue is packed.” The self-deprecating humor was unmistakable, “So, any news updates for this week?”

“The news that was just released today is going to cause a stir by this afternoon!” The middle-aged woman lowered her voice and whispered, with a mysterious expression on her face, and looked around to make sure that no one else beside her had noticed, before saying, “A top-notch commercial blockbuster, absolutely beyond imagination.”

After saying that, she winked proudly at Renly, and then pointed to the bulletin board beside her, “The announcement was only updated fifteen minutes ago, so the news hasn’t spread yet, so hurry up.” The woman sighed, “It would be easier if you had an agent, but …” Her tone of voice was seemingly as concerned about Renly, as he himself should’ve been.

Renly didn’t respond, as if he hadn’t even heard the deeper meaning behind the words, just smiled and nodded, “Thank you.” With a greeting, he quickly walked over to where the bulletin board was.

Lisa Mears leaned out slightly, looking at Renly’s unhurried and unhurried pace, and let out a sigh of relief. She was surprised by Renly’s generosity and tolerance, and even more surprised by Renly’s calmness and atmosphere.

When Renly and Chris came to the union together, she didn’t have a good look at Renly. Every day, the union would receive hundreds of unknown actors, among whom there might not be a single successful actor in the future.

There is certainly no way for her to be corteuos to everyone, so naturally she has to make trade-offs. Compared to Star Trek’s halo in Chris, Renly, then, didn’t produce any light at all, and her calculations didn’t require any effort at all to make a “right” choice.

However, like Renly, there have been many who have met with indifference and then unexpectedly achieved periodic success. Many of them will come back to show off their power revealing their pettines; even if it is not so explicit, it is hard to avoid the bubbling excitement of minute succes between the words, after all, it is Hollywood, the fame and fortune of the world’s spotlight can always bring a great sense of achievement, making people have an illusion of “I am God”.

Lisa was a little worried before, Renly had a good momentum recently. If he was determined to give her a little show, she can only sit helplessly; the result, Renly not only did not have a mean ambition, but also she took the initiative to fawn on him, and he did not taunt that as well. This kind of magnanimity is really not anyone can have, not to mention, he is only 20 years old this year, this is really unbelievable!

“Pity.” Lisa trailed off, not concealing the regret in her eyes.

Marvelous as it was, Lisa’s thoughts were very clear: someone like Renly, who hid his pride in his bones, would rather give up the shortcut of partnering with an agent and instead come to the union to seek a job opportunity, which wasn’t really practical in Hollywood. Even now, shew was still more optimistic about Chris’ future.

Renly didn’t know that Lisa had such an intense inner workings going on, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have cared.

He knew that whether he chose to audition for “Thor” or sign with Andy Rogers; it would be like cutting corners, and anyone else would have been eager to go thorugh that, because no one knew if there would be a next time if one missed this opportunity, and Hollywood was not a fairy tale world, but a real world where could not afford to be wasteful – especially since he did not have the capital to do so yet.

But after a lifetime and living again, Renly understands that society in the Internet age is too impatient and too eager. It is to a point where people start losing themselves. Life is not long, but it is not short. The starting point and the end point are the same, so why be in such a hurry to keep sprinting? Sometimes it’s good to slow down and take a long detour.

More importantly, he knows what he wants and what he doesn’t want. Some opportunities, even if seized, are not necessarily good; likewise, some opportunities, even if missed, it is not necessarily bad.

As far as Lisa’s stomping on the low and holding up the high, Renly didn’t take it to heart at all.

The best solution is not to be cynical or condescending, but to continue to succeed, to go farther and farther, to go higher and higher, and soon, he will leave these little people behind, to a whole new level, while those calculating, grumbling little people will stand still, trapped in their own plane for the rest of their lives.

So, all he needs to do is move on. Just like now.

Hollywood is a huge machine, with at least 2,000 projects established every year, 300 to 600 of which go straight into production, which means that on average a new batch of jobs are created every week, and that’s not even including drama projects. So, without the help of an agent, the union was the best platform for actors to find work.

After “The Pacific” ended, he found a free time every week to come to the U.S. Actors Guild to look for job information. Having given up on “Thor”, Renly was in no hurry because he was sure he could find the next “The Pacific” in the union.

It’s 2010, but the Actors Guild New York Bulletin Board is still an old-fashioned chalkboard with the latest information about projects written in colors, and the colors mean different things: red for projects where an actor must be found within seventy-two hours, green for projects that have just been updated, and so on.

The scribbled chalk, the flying dust, and the unevenly colored chalkboard, under the yellowish light of the union ceiling, conjures up the retro atmosphere of the 1930s and 1940s. The difference between New York and Los Angeles – where the blackboard has long since been replaced by an electronic bulletin board – is obvious just by looking at it.

Standing in front of the bulletin board, Renly skillfully looked for the information he might need on the colorful board, many of which were quite remarkable, Steven Spielberg’s production and J.J. Abrams, the latter who wrote and directed the film “Super 8”, are calling for a small cast of actors, both male and female, under the age of fifteen; “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” was also looking for supporting actors willing to learn motion-capture technology to join Andy Serkis in his computer-aided portrayal of the apes. Confirmed cast includes James Franco and Tom Felton …

Any project has a something to attract, and is indeed open for every actor to compete.

This is also one of the most distinctive features of Hollywood. Unlike the professional and aloof European film industry, in North America, although the resources for the top productions are always in the hands of a small group of people, every now and then, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will be presented to everyone. An important background for the hotbed. If European cinema represents professionalism, then the American film industry represents diversity.

Even if you have nothing at all, it is possible for you to fly to the top. Although this “possibility” is extremely slim, it is enough to make countless people fly like moths to…. you know where they usually fly into.

After carefully scanning the bulletin board once, Renly quickly saw the top-level project that Lisa had just mysteriously revealed, and his pupils narrowed slightly when he saw clearly what the chalked words represented – “The Amazing Spider-Man”!

I never thought it would be “The Amazing Spider-Man”!