The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 300

Upon receiving the invitation, Matthew showed it to Helen. She explained that it was a legitimate exhibition; an investment consultant from the Wells Gallery had been canvassing Los Angeles for potential buyers, and a wealthy, famous Hollywood star like him was, without a doubt, their easiest and most promising target.

Helen advised that if he was interested, he was welcome to go, browse, and indulge his artistic sensibilities. However, if he planned to bid on anything, she stressed the need for caution. It would be best, she insisted, to discuss any potential purchases with her beforehand, as the art world was notoriously treacherous.

...

Over the past couple of days, word came from the Mr. & Mrs. Smith production team that Charlize, unsurprisingly, had nailed her audition for the role of Jane Smith. Her agent was now ready to begin negotiations.

Matthew called Charlize, but Stuart picked up the phone. He kept it brief, offering his congratulations on her landing the lead role before quickly hanging up.

The scene he'd witnessed outside the Viper Room had left a sour taste, but Charlize was clearly trying to cover it up. Even now, the media painted a picture of her and Stuart as the perfect, love-struck couple, with virtually no negative press or even a whisper of rumor about their troubled relationship.

While Charlize's team entered negotiations with the producers of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Matthew headed to Warner Studios to begin his own pre-production training for the film.

In addition to weapons and combat training, Matthew spent a great deal of time speaking with the director, Doug Liman, and screenwriter, Simon Kinberg.

His conversations with Doug, in particular, gave him insight into the many metaphorical concepts the director wanted to explore, ideas that went far beyond the scripted scenes and on-screen action.

Doug told Matthew directly that he envisioned the film, with all the conflict between the two leads, as an allegory for the realities of married life.After speaking with the director, Matthew reread the script. Perhaps influenced by Doug and Simon, it seemed to him—a man who readily admitted his own cultural education was limited—that he could now see something deeper within the screenplay, something that resonated with his own past experiences.

The two agencies backing the protagonists in the script, for instance, could be seen as their respective families.

Interpreting the script through that lens, the first two years of the couple's marriage are spent living under the direction of their "families." They love each other, but they never truly reveal themselves, creating what feels like a constant wall between them. That is, until the day their conflict reaches a boiling point, forcing them to take a major step and finally begin to understand one another on a deeper level.

It might seem like a simple internal reconciliation, but things are often far more complex—life isn't always what it seems. In fact, Benjamin "The Tank" Danz, as Doug called him, could represent a child in the family. The couple will always fight side by side for the sake of their child, but friction will inevitably arise in the process.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the situation is even more tangled. More people become involved in their lives, and the two protagonists realize they must stick together for the sake of their love.

According to Doug and Simon, setting the final shootout in a home goods store was a deliberate allusion to the idea that "marriage is war."

The unspoken understanding between the protagonists as they wielded their different firearms reminded Matthew of a romantic couple from the martial arts novels he used to read during his college lectures.

It was only when the two of them achieved a certain level of emotional synergy that they could successfully fight off their enemies.

Considering Matthew's discussions with Doug and Simon, the true heart of the film was family—one of the core values the United States of America loves to champion.

In that regard, Mr. & Mrs. Smith was built on the "right" kind of values.

In the years since he'd arrived in Hollywood, Matthew had learned firsthand that all of its award-winning films and major blockbusters were built on a foundation of "correct" values, never deviating from them by a single iota.

These Hollywood-style values had a profound influence on most films, and those films, in turn, shaped society.

Which was why Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, outside of their own fanbases, were now almost universally condemned by the media and the general public.

But Hollywood stars, Matthew and Pitt included, definitely had skin thicker than the frontal armor of a main battle tank.

While still legally married to Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt took Angelina Jolie on a highly publicized trip to Africa, ostensibly to recover her health and prepare to have a child, all under the watchful gaze of the cameras.

The spectacle they created upon their departure led people to subconsciously see them as celebrity newlyweds preparing for a honeymoon.

Clearly, Pitt and Jolie—and the teams behind them—knew exactly what they were doing when it came to publicity and PR.

An event involving such a sensational celebrity couple inevitably generates pervasive, around-the-clock attention. In today's hyper-informed society, the subjects of that attention can never truly hide, not in the slums of Paris nor the deserts of Africa.

Meanwhile, the reactions from those being watched are always ambiguous. The stars complain about their suffering, about the media hounding them, about losing their normal lives. Yet they remain together in all their glory, performing public scenes of blissful happiness and projecting all the love they can muster.

It all becomes a game of courting and then rejecting the public eye, and the sincerity so essential to a couple's love gets worn away in the process.

What drives the creation of so many of these so-called "power couples"? Is it their own love, or the powerful expectations of an audience that wants to see them together? Is their high-profile romance an expression of genuine feeling, or is it born from a need for shameless self-promotion? Do they want to be loved, or do they simply want to be seen?

Matthew, caught right in the middle of that world, couldn't find the answers himself.