The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 100: The Conservative

Sunlight streamed through the curtains, chasing away the darkness in the room.

Matthew opened his eyes to a pounding headache, the miserable aftermath of a hangover. He couldn't help but shake his head forcefully as he pushed himself up with his arms. The first order of business was stumbling to the bathroom for a shower.

He had been out celebrating with the main cast and crew the night before. Since it was his farewell party, he’d inevitably had too much to drink. He’d come back half-drunk, collapsing into bed without even showering.

After showering, Matthew felt completely human again, the last remnants of his hangover finally gone. He checked the time, grabbed some breakfast, then hailed a taxi. With his luggage in tow, he left the hotel, ready to head to Heathrow for his flight back to his now-familiar home, Los Angeles.

He was looking forward to going back and relaxing for a few days.

To be honest, it had been a stressful period. He'd been auditioning for Almost Famous, The Mummy Returns, and The Fast and the Furious, never getting a chance to relax or take a break between tryouts.

Now that filming for The Mummy Returns was over and there were no new roles to fight for, he could finally stop thinking about work for a while.

Once settled in the taxi, Matthew sent Britney a text: "Busy?"

There was no reply, so it seemed Britney was indeed busy.

It wasn't until the taxi pulled up to Heathrow that his Nokia phone chimed with the short alert of a new text message. He took it out and read it."The choreographer changed the dance routine for the song, so I have to learn it over the next few days. I just stepped out to get some water, be right back."

Matthew didn't text back. He put his phone away and waited for the taxi to stop in front of the terminal. He got out, dragged his luggage inside, and was about to head for the ticket counter when his Nokia started to ring.

Pulling out his phone and glancing at the screen, Matthew frowned. The call was from Helen.

Helen never called him for personal reasons; when she called, it was always about work.

He pressed the answer button and brought the phone to his ear. "Hi, Helen."

"Are you on the plane yet?" Helen asked from the other end. "The crew from Band of Brothers just notified me. They need you to come to the studio for some post-production dubbing."

"When does it start?" Matthew asked, all business. "It's not tomorrow, is it?"

"You need to be on set this Wednesday."

"Alright." Matthew had no objection. After all, he had signed a contract and was obligated to participate in the production.

He was about to hang up when Helen added, "One more thing. Jack told me that Ridley Scott has taken on a military film project on short notice. The schedule is extremely tight, so the team will apparently only be holding internal auditions. They're giving preference to actors with experience in military roles, so you might want to consider it."

"There's nothing to consider," Matthew replied instantly at the mention of Ridley Scott's name. "Helen, sign me up."

He was far from the point in his career where he could be picky about scripts and roles. For him, it was enough to simply land another suitable job after one ended.

Helen said, "I'll get in touch with Jack."

After hanging up, Matthew collected his boarding pass, entered the departure lounge, and sat down on a bench to wait for his flight. His mind was already racing, trying to recall what war films Ridley Scott had directed around this time.

He remembered something about a war film Ridley Scott had made about soldiers in Somalia, but the details were hazy.

It was late at night by the time he got back to Los Angeles, so Matthew went straight to his apartment and fell asleep. The next day, after texting Britney and Helen, he continued to rest in his apartment until Wednesday morning. Feeling refreshed, he headed straight for the Angel Acting Agency.

What he didn't expect was that Helen wasn't in the office. She had gone to Malibu to handle some agency business.

As an agent, she didn't just represent Matthew, but also a number of less established actors.

These clients not only brought in revenue for the Angel Acting Agency but also served to keep Matthew feeling the pressure of competition. Even if he failed, Helen would have someone else to promote.

Matthew called Helen, who had an agency employee hand him a stack of papers and told him to pick up his payment for The Mummy Returns.

Although The Mummy Returns production had only paid the first installment of $30,000—he would have to wait patiently for the next two—Matthew had also received $30,000 from The Fast and the Furious for his departure. And while he had to pay Helen her ten-percent agent's commission on all of it, he still had a substantial amount of money on hand.

It wasn't a huge fortune, but it was enough to keep him from worrying about living expenses.

With his basic needs taken care of, Matthew could fully dedicate himself to his acting career—or more accurately, to his pursuit of becoming a Hollywood star and enjoying a life of fame and fortune.

He wasn't going to touch that money for the time being. His recent experience on the red carpet for Gladiator had made him realize that while actors might seem to earn a lot, they also had a lot of expenses.

After signing the paperwork in the finance department and having the fee transferred to his account, Matthew didn't leave the Angel Acting Agency. Instead, he took the papers to a conference room on the first floor to look them over.

He also had a long phone call with Helen to get a better understanding of the project's fundamentals.

It was information about the project that Jack, Ridley Scott's bearded assistant, had passed on to Helen. While it didn't contain anything confidential like a script, it offered a basic overview of the situation. As Helen had said, it was a war film—a modern war film, at that.

According to the information from Jack, Ridley Scott's new film was based on a true story that took place in 1993 in Mogadishu, the capital of the politically unstable African nation of Somalia. It depicted a secret operation carried out by a special task force of 160 elite soldiers from the U.S. Army's Delta Force and Ranger units.

The project's working title was Black Hawk Down, and it was to be adapted from the book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden.

This project wasn't originally Ridley Scott's; he had stepped in to take it over.

It was initially proposed by director Simon West, who had convinced renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer to buy the rights to the source material and begin pre-production. However, due to a series of changes at Columbia Pictures, Simon West dropped out of the project to direct Lara Croft: Tomb Raider instead.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer pushed forward with the film and approached Ridley Scott, who, as it turned out, was interested in the subject matter. The two quickly found common ground.

Although Ridley Scott wasn't taking over mid-shoot, he still faced significant time constraints. Columbia Pictures was planning to release Black Hawk Down by the end of the following year, which didn't leave the production team much time.

Therefore, Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer reached an agreement with Columbia Pictures to forgo open casting calls for the film. Instead, they would hold internal auditions for most of the roles to save as much time as possible.

The two producers even compressed the military training—an inevitable part of making this kind of Hollywood film—from a month down to just ten days. Priority would be given to actors with certain military qualities and those who had played military roles within the last two years.

Furthermore, it was an "ensemble film," meaning no single character would be given special focus.

The preliminary budget for the film was between $80 and $100 million, which definitely put it on the level of a Hollywood A-list production for its time.

After reading through the information, Matthew felt his chances of landing a role in Black Hawk Down were still pretty good. For one thing, it hadn't been long since he'd finished filming Band of Brothers, and he had relevant military training from pre-production through the shoot. For another, he knew from his time on Gladiator that Helen had a close relationship with Ridley Scott.

He had heard Helen call Ridley Scott "uncle" on more than one occasion, instead of addressing him as "director" or "sir."

That had to mean something.

From Matthew's understanding of how Hollywood worked, being in a film like Black Hawk Down offered an additional benefit: if he could land a decent supporting role in such a top-tier production, he would have the leverage to later go after a leading supporting role, or even the lead, in smaller-scale productions.

An actor who didn't want to be a leading man definitely had no place in Hollywood.

He did have one small reservation, however: the film's shooting location.

Although the crew wasn't going to film in the exceptionally chaotic parts of Somalia, the information indicated that the entire movie would be shot in Morocco, Africa. It could last four to five months, which meant that if he got a major role, he would be spending the better part of the next six months in Africa.

"Africa," he muttered with a sense of resignation.

After a quick scan of the information, Matthew called Helen again. Then he left the Angel Acting Agency and headed home to prepare for the next day's dubbing session, but not before making a special trip to a bookstore to buy a copy of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War.

Michael Fassbender had called him yesterday; he would also be at the dubbing session for Band of Brothers tomorrow.