The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 625

As night deepened and the camp, crowded with the crew's vehicles, settled into silence after a grueling day, Matthew sat in his trailer, scrolling through his blog and Facebook page, occasionally replying to a few messages from fans.

Although his blogs and social accounts were now managed by someone else, he still checked in from time to time, sometimes posting a blog entry or a tweet himself.

Once that was done, he opened his email to sort through the messages that had piled up over the past few days.

The first was from Lily Collins, who mentioned she hadn't been able to reach his cell phone and asked him to get in touch when he was back in Los Angeles.

Matthew typed a brief reply, unable to help but shake his head. Ever since he had arrived in this remote wilderness, his phone hadn't picked up a signal once.

Sighing internally, he moved on to the second email, which was from Helen.

Helen had just returned from Geneva, Switzerland, having finalized the last round of negotiations for his Rolex endorsement. Starting in July of this year, his status would be upgraded from a simple print media representative to a full Rolex brand ambassador, on par with tennis superstar Roger Federer. The deal included media advertising, and his annual fee would increase from the previous $3 million to $6 million.

That $6 million figure had the potential to climb even higher; if the endorsement proved successful, the fee would increase by ten percent each year for the next five years.

Matthew was pleased with the deal. Among Rolex's many celebrity sponsors, his treatment was second only to Roger Federer's.

In a way, Roger was the undisputed number one endorser for Rolex, and he possessed an advantage that was hard for others to match—he was a Swiss citizen.Furthermore, tennis tournaments were Rolex's primary sponsorship focus.

The new contract would be signed upon his return to Los Angeles.

Helen also mentioned Armani. George Clooney's contract with the Armani menswear brand was set to expire at the end of the year. After leaving Switzerland, she had traveled to Milan, Italy, to meet with Armani executives and Giorgio Armani himself, who had expressed interest in having Matthew replace Clooney, though a final decision had yet to be made.

After Clooney began endorsing Armani men's underwear, the brand had seen a significant surge in sales, becoming one of the top-selling luxury brands on the market for the past several years.

Matthew replied to Helen with a simple "Got it" and closed the email.

The last email was from Kevin Feige, the president and CEO of Marvel Studios, reminding him to attend two screenings of "Iron Man" when he returned and not to forget the film's premiere in early May.

The Marvel-produced superhero film had completed all post-production work back in February. The first teaser had aired during the Super Bowl, followed by the official trailer. While many fans had praised the trailer, the media and the industry were not particularly optimistic about the film's prospects.

The two main points of skepticism were Marvel's lack of experience in independent production and the fact that Iron Man was considered a second-tier superhero compared to icons like Spider-Man or Batman.

Having lived in this world for many years, Matthew knew that the Iron Man comics were nothing like the films he remembered and were not particularly impressive.

From the nineties until now, Marvel Comics had sold off the film rights to nearly all of its most popular superheroes in exchange for enough cash to stay afloat.

Matthew had been busy and hadn't seen the final cut of "Iron Man" yet, but judging by the trailer, it looked quite good—exactly as he remembered it.

If this superhero film could detonate the box office, the fate of Marvel Comics would change for the better.

He sat in the trailer for a little longer. Perhaps from staring at the computer screen for too long, his eyes felt a bit strained. He couldn't help but rub them, but that only made it worse. He shut down the computer, went to wash his face, then opened the trailer door, intending to get some fresh air.

The night breeze carried a refreshing chill that washed over his face, and Matthew immediately felt better.

He straightened up, grabbed the small walkie-talkie always kept on hand for communication, and headed out of the trailer.

Just as the door closed behind him, the door of the adjacent trailer opened, and Brown stepped out. Matthew gestured with the walkie-talkie in his hand and said, "I'm just going for a walk. It's fine, you don't have to follow me."

The camp was dotted with trailers, and since the U.S.-Mexico border region had never been known for its peace and quiet, Matthew didn't get far before he encountered two security patrols—an essential guarantee of safety.

Matthew took the crew's security seriously. If even downtown Los Angeles was far from safe—he still hadn't solved the mystery of his stolen underwear—then a place frequented by drug traffickers was another matter entirely.

A little further on, he saw a tall woman in a form-fitting white t-shirt and dark, slim-fit jeans walk between two trailers ahead of him and disappear around the back of another. He quickened his pace to catch up, recognizing her as Gal Gadot.

Gadot seemed to hear footsteps behind her and turned around.

Matthew walked right up to her, greeting her as he approached. "Good evening."

"Good evening," Gal Gadot replied with a nod.

Matthew took a few steps to her side and asked, "Why aren't you asleep?"

Gal Gadot smiled. "What about you?"

"Too much work," Matthew said casually. "So I came out for some fresh air."

"I couldn't sleep," Gadot said.

Matthew asked curiously, "Too much work and stress?"

For the past few days, the main scenes being filmed involved a gunfight featuring Gal Gadot, and action sequences were challenging for many actresses.

Gal Gadot began to walk slowly forward, saying, "This amount of work is nothing. It's much easier than my daily training in the army."

She glanced at Matthew, who was walking beside her, a hint of doubt in her eyes. Before joining the set, she had heard countless rumors about him, which had inevitably left her with a negative impression. But from the moment they started working together—through training, rehearsals, and shooting several scenes—Matthew had proven to be nothing like the rumors suggested. Not only had he never harassed her or any of the other women in the cast, but he was clearly a dedicated and hardworking actor.

According to the stories she'd read, Hollywood's biggest stars were arrogant and difficult to work with on set.

But the Matthew standing before her was clearly not that kind of person.

Thinking this, Gal Gadot smiled sheepishly. "I'm homesick."

Her steps were especially light as she ambled along. "It's the kind of problem that can easily keep a person up at night."

Matthew let out a soft sigh. "Missing home is a good thing."

As they walked out of the residential area and neared the edge of the camp, Gal Gadot asked him, "Don't you miss your home or family?"

Matthew hesitated. "I haven't had a family for a long time. I haven't been home in over ten years. I don't even think about it."

Gal Gadot smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry."

Matthew waved it off. "It's fine."

Then he prompted, "Tell me about your home."

"Israel..." Gal Gadot shook her head and asked instead, "What do you know about Israel?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Matthew said, "A country born from endless wars."

Gal Gadot spread her hands. "Well, there's not much more for me to add."

Matthew nodded and decided not to press the topic. Instead, he asked, "Your pistol shooting is excellent. How about we find a place to have a marksmanship competition sometime?"

He added deliberately, "I'm a well-known marksman at my gun club. I can hit the bullseye a hundred times from a fixed position, and I can shoot much better than I do on set."

Hearing this, Gadot's interest was piqued. "Sure. When we have time, we can head back to Los Angeles and have a competition."

As they were talking, they rounded the back of a large box truck. Just then, Matthew saw two Latino men crouched by the tire of another van in front of them, fiddling with something on its side.

A black backpack lay on the ground at their feet.

Their footsteps must have been quiet, because the men were completely focused and didn't notice their approach.

Matthew sensed something was wrong. He grabbed Gal Gadot's arm and pulled her back behind the large box truck. Gadot, ever vigilant, also felt that something was amiss.

Leaning against the back of the truck, she whispered to Matthew, "Are those two from the crew?"

"I don't know." Matthew slowly shook his head. "There are hundreds of people on the crew, I wouldn't recognize them all."

He stole another glance at them and lowered his voice. "But from the way they're dressed, they don't look like crew members."