The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 389

"To you, Eva."

In the heart of the Black Mamba Bar, Matthew raised his glass to Eva, a striking figure dressed in black. She lifted her own glass, clinking it against his, and replied, "To you, Matthew."

In unison, they both finished the brandy in their glasses.

"Where's Depp?" Eva placed her glass on the table. "Isn't he coming?"

Matthew shrugged. "A friend of his arrived, so Depp went to say hello."

Keanu Reeves had arrived at the bar, and Depp had taken him to a private room upstairs.

Matthew knew that he and Keanu weren't exactly on the best of terms, so he didn't go over to say hello, content to keep drinking and talking with Eva.

Alcohol could be a destructive force, but it could also be a remarkable social lubricant; a few glasses of wine often had a way of bringing people together.

"You mentioned you have a twin sister?" Matthew asked, picking up where they'd left off as he refilled their glasses.

Eva raised her glass and replied, "The sister born four minutes after me is named Joy."Perhaps it was the alcohol, but she was far more talkative than usual. "Joy is different from me. Everyone says she's warm like the sun, whereas I always give off a certain coolness. I suppose I did that myself, to set myself apart from her..."

Eva gestured to her hair. "I've been dyeing my blonde hair black since I was fourteen."

"The black hair suits you better," Matthew declared, raising his glass. He took a drink with Eva before continuing, "It complements your features exceptionally well."

Eva smiled and asked, a hint of challenge in her voice, "What do you think is my best feature? Who do I remind you of?"

"Venus," Matthew said. For some reason, he recalled the film 'The Dreamers' and quoted a line. "Flawlessly beautiful, but impossible to possess."

Hearing this, Eva laughed, extending a finger to point at Matthew. "I'm a witch."

Matthew realized she was talking about her character in 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. He just smiled, shook his head, and poured her another glass of wine.

Eva raised her glass, finished it in a single swallow, and asked, her face flushing slightly, "Do you know about the world of witches, Matthew?"

She didn't wait for his reply, providing the answer herself. "If I cannot have you, my dear, I will destroy you."

"You're not Tia Dalma," Matthew said, recognizing the words as if they were straight from the script. "And I'm not Davy Jones."

There weren't many people at the Black Mamba tonight, and even though Matthew and Eva were seated in the main lounge on the first floor, their corner of the bar was quiet.

Eva set her glass down, gestured for Matthew to pour her another, and then changed the subject. "I feel like people only pay attention to me because I'm willing to appear nude on screen."

Matthew didn't deny it.

Eva continued, "Bernardo Bertolucci said my body was captivating and that the sex scenes were what made 'The Dreamers' so compelling to watch. But I don't like Bernardo Bertolucci, nor his sex scenes."

"If you didn't like it, why did you do the movie?" Matthew asked.

"I didn't have a choice," Eva answered. "It's the quickest path to fame, a shortcut to success."

She was clearly a bit drunk, the words spilling out without a filter, yet her attitude wasn't the least bit jarring. "During 'The Dreamers,' I felt like an actress in some low-budget porno. But sex is a part of our lives, so I believe it's perfectly natural. Of course, every actor hates filming sex scenes—no one likes it, it's awful. But I try to approach a scene like that as something objective and rational."

Her words took Matthew by surprise. After a moment of reflection, he said, "I've filmed my share of sex scenes, too."

He suddenly raised his glass. "To sex scenes!"

"Yes!" Eva raised her glass and clinked it firmly against his. "To sex scenes!"

After downing her wine, Eva smiled and said, "I truly love playing the role of the witch."

She added, "I like characters who are strong and hide things, who carry secrets. It reminds me of a quote from Leonard Cohen: 'There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.'"

Matthew felt he was having trouble following Eva's train of thought; he had no idea who Leonard Cohen even was.

Eva was completely different from Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johansson, the other actresses he'd known. Even in Hollywood, she carried herself with the intellectual air of a classic French actress.

"I don't want people to just focus on my sex scenes. As an actress, I want people to see what I'm doing, to see how I perform." Eva closed her eyes and declared, "Every time I perform, I give a piece of my soul... Well, at least, I try to."

Hearing those last words, it became clear to Matthew that he and Eva were not on the same wavelength.

To put it simply, Eva was highly educated and would sometimes unconsciously pepper her speech with quotes that might have come from philosophers or other scholars, but Matthew, let alone knowing their source, had never even heard of them.

The gap between his cultural literacy and Eva's was considerable.

It was something Matthew felt quite keenly.

If he were pursuing Eva as a potential girlfriend, they would soon find they had nothing in common. It was a good thing he had no intention of pursuing her.

The more they drank and the more she talked, the more Matthew realized that Eva was far from what she appeared to be—and she was certainly not just a pretty face.

As he pieced together Eva's drunken words, Matthew gradually formed a clearer impression of her.

She had everything an actress could want: looks that made her stand out from the crowd, an aura of mystery, an introverted but sensitive heart, a family born into the arts, and even a degree in acting.

That was why she was driven to succeed like no one else, but her idea of success was by no means limited to the commercial side of things.

Perhaps landing the role of the witch wasn't just a choice she made after the failure of 'Kingdom of Heaven,' but something she genuinely wanted. With every word, she expressed her preference for wicked, mad, paranoid, and reckless characters; she loved the challenge of the abnormal.

Then again, perhaps she was just drunk and talking nonsense.

Regardless, Matthew's goals hadn't changed.

Whether she was a literary intellectual or simply well-educated, Matthew just felt that Eva radiated a mysterious and eerie darkness, something rarely found in Hollywood actresses, and an allure he couldn't resist exploring a little further.

Of course, he wouldn't be as crude about it as Harvey Weinstein.

****

Around 11 p.m., Matthew and a drunk Eva left the bar and drove off together in a Mercedes SUV driven by a valet.

The car pulled up to a private house Eva was renting on the outskirts of Beverly Hills.

Matthew got out of the car first, walked around to the other side, opened her door, and helped Eva out. "Want me to walk you to the door?" he asked.

Eva, thoroughly drunk by now, gave Matthew a sideways glance and suddenly said, "I'm not Venus."

Matthew smiled and helped her to the front door. "I don't like Venus. I like witches."

But when they reached the closed iron gate, Eva pulled away from Matthew's grasp, fished the keys out of her purse, and said, "Thank you for bringing me home."

Matthew understood the meaning behind her words and, after a brief hesitation, remarked, "It was a lovely evening."

Eva leaned against the gate and looked at Matthew. "Yes, I had a nice time with you, too."

She smiled. "I hope we can meet at the bar again sometime."

Matthew understood perfectly. The Frenchwoman was politely turning him down, while still leaving the door open for the future.

"Of course." Knowing not to press his luck, Matthew stepped back. "Goodbye, Eva. I'll see you on set tomorrow."

More than a little surprised that Matthew wasn't being pushy, Eva raised a hand and waved. "Bye, Matthew."

Like a proper gentleman, Matthew said a polite goodbye, then turned, got back in the car, and left, as if his sole purpose had been to see Eva home safely.

On the way back, Matthew sat in the passenger seat with his eyes closed. Eva was a client of the Angel Agency, and the two saw each other often. There would definitely be more opportunities in the future.

Besides, Helen had mentioned to him that she wanted to cast Eva in the female lead role for the film '300'.