The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 371

The landscape was unimaginably beautiful, with crystal-clear blue water, soft golden sand, and towering coconut trees.

A sampan drifted toward the shore, trailed by a camera-mounted speedboat.

Seated on the sampan, Matthew, clad in a white shirt unlaced to his chest and revealing his muscular physique, asked the oarsman across from him, "Why have you stopped?"

The bald, black man answered in a French-accented English, "I can go no further. That island... it is cursed!"

"Come on," Matthew urged. "It's not much farther."

The black actor immediately shook his head, his expression tightening into a grimace. "No. I cannot."

Matthew's gaze shifted to the green screen standing on the distant beach, and he rose to his feet, his expression turning serious.

"Goodbye, sir!" the actor added. "Have a good day."

Aboard the speedboat, the director, Gore Verbinski, instructed the cameraman, "Get a close-up of Matthew as he undresses."

The cinematographer understood; he knew it was time for Will Turner to show off his physique again and quickly complied with the director's request.Atop the sampan, Matthew pulled off his shirt, revealing toned muscles sculpted by years of consistent training into lean, naturally fluid lines.

His physique was built through natural exercise, unlike the artificially inflated muscles of those who relied on performance-enhancing substances.

Matthew had heard from Nibora that some Hollywood stars supplemented their training with substances to rapidly build explosive muscle mass.

These drugs, mostly steroids and testosterone, were said to allow for a dramatic increase in muscle mass with very little exercise. However, the side effects were severe. For instance, discontinuing the drugs could lead to a degree of muscle atrophy. And since testosterone is a male hormone, prolonged use would cause the body’s own production to plummet, leading to decreased penile function and even atrophy after stopping.

Despite this, plenty of people still used that junk.

Through the camera's lens, Matthew casually tossed his shirt aside and dived into the water with a single, graceful motion.

"Cut!" Gore Verbinski nodded, satisfied. He yelled out toward the sea, "Matthew, we're done here!"

Matthew surfaced, wiping the water from his face with one hand, and swam to the speedboat. Someone immediately reached down to help him aboard and handed him a towel.

Even though it was hot in the Dominican Republic, a constant wind was blowing. Matthew took the towel and wrapped it around himself. The boat then sped toward a nearby pier where a large part of the crew had set up, waiting for filming to resume.

A makeup artist approached to touch up Matthew's face, but Gore stopped him short. "No!"

Without pausing, the crew headed for the beach where the green screen was set up, ready to film the next sequence.

Matthew shrugged off his towel, tossed it to Bella, and waded into the water to his mark.

In fact, he wasn't wearing any makeup anymore. For these sequels, Gore Verbinski was continuing the styling approach from the first film for all the actors who spent significant time at sea, especially the main trio: Matthew, Depp, and Keira Knightley.

Simply put, all the characters' appearances were meant to evolve.

Matthew had seen several styling concepts for Keira's character, Elizabeth Swann. Not only was her hair going to be straightened, but her skin would also be darkened and coarsened to reflect her time on the high seas.

This attention to detail was crucial. It would be utterly ridiculous for a character who had spent so much time at sea to still have fair, delicate skin.

Soon after arriving in the Dominican Republic, Matthew, Depp, and Keira had shot a new promotional poster for their characters against the local seascape. One of the shots featured Elizabeth Swann wielding a pirate's scimitar.

The photoshoot was done without any makeup. Instead, lighting and camera lenses were used to darken Keira's skin and add definition to her face. The goal was to emphasize a weather-beaten complexion that reflected her adventures at sea, creating a stylistic harmony with the pitted, sea-worn metal of the pirate scimitar she held.

Of course, a character's appearance is always shaped by the aesthetic preferences of the target audience.

It's difficult to explain the logic behind a certain visual style. For example, Matthew recalled watching some of the TVB martial arts dramas from the 80s and 90s. He used to wonder why the warriors were always so elegantly dressed in damask and satin, with long, flowing robes and cloaks. Wouldn't that be impractical in a fight? But he never gave it much thought and eventually just got used to it.

By the time he started making action movies himself, every character in a fight scene—even the gentlemanly Will Turner—was dressed in simple, practical attire for combat, for fear that their clothing would hinder their movements.

Different aesthetic sensibilities gave rise to entirely different styles in film and television.

A pirate film set in the 18th and 19th centuries was naturally tailored to the tastes of a North American audience. Consequently, with the exception of a few early scenes—like Elizabeth Swann's introduction as a noble lady—the characters played by Matthew, Depp, and Keira were overwhelmingly styled with a typical pirate aesthetic: primitive, coarse, and wild.

To be blunt, "Pirates of the Caribbean" wasn't aiming for realism; it was designed to meet market demand.

The lapping waves made Matthew's footing a bit unsteady. A makeup artist appeared behind him with a spray bottle and misted his face and body with warm water, making him look as if he had just climbed out of the ocean.

The moment the makeup artist stepped away, the cameras started rolling.

With an unsheathed sword resting on his shoulder, Matthew strode toward the green screen on the beach, treating it as if it were the deck of the Black Pearl he was searching for.

He approached one of the support cables for the green screen and yelled, "Jack! Captain Jack Sparrow!"

When no one answered, Matthew pressed on, calling out the names of the others on board. "Marty! Cordon! Anyone!"

Still, there was no reply.

Without breaking his stride, Matthew walked into a dense grove of coconut trees until he reached a broken one. He stopped short, looked at the fractured trunk, and spoke to the empty air. "A familiar face."

According to the script, this was where he was supposed to encounter the pirates' parrot.

After a beat, Matthew shook his head toward the broken tree. "I'm not going to eat you," he said. "I don't eat parrots."

With that, he took a step forward, moving out of the camera's frame.

Director Gore Verbinski's voice rang out again. "Cut!"

Then he shouted, "Get the Dominican actors ready!"

An assistant director came over to Matthew to discuss the choreography for the next scene to be filmed.

The next scene on the schedule was Will Turner's capture by the island natives, played by actors who were mostly locals from the Dominican Republic, some of whom were actual members of indigenous tribes.

"You're looking for Jack and the others," the AD explained as he led Matthew toward a large tree. "You find some clues, and then you're trapped by the natives."

Matthew frowned slightly. "And that's it?"

The assistant nodded. "That's how the scene is blocked out."

Matthew frowned, thinking. The script only stated that Will Turner was captured by the natives; the specifics of how he was captured were left to the director and the stunt team. This approach felt far too simple.

He wasn't happy with the scene. "I don't like it," he stated.

Matthew was one of the film's male leads. Hearing his objection, the assistant director couldn't argue. He could only suggest, "Matthew, you should probably talk to the director about this."