King of Hollywood

Chapter 130: Chapter 130 Everything is Interest

In late June, two weeks after “Pulp Fiction” was released, Adrian arrived in London with Kate, having taken in $27 million at the North American box office. They first visited Kate’s family and then went to Emma’s house.

The little girl seemed very happy, her eyes bending into crescents, but she still ignored Kate. Okay, sometimes she reacted, but it was either pulling a face or deliberately putting on an “I don’t like you” look. Kate, although very distressed and indignant, still shrugged helplessly as before.

“Come on, don’t take it to heart, Kate. She’s just a 2-year-old child,” Adrian comforted his lover while driving back to the hotel.

“I know she’s just a 2-year-old child, but…” Kate made gestures and seemed a bit annoyed, “Even if it was because she was excited to hit you, leaving a bad impression, hasn’t this impression lasted a bit too long?”

“This is not strange, Kate. Children have particularly good memories and can remember a lot of things in a day. That’s why we always feel that time is especially long when we were kids,” Adrian shrugged his shoulders. “When she grows up and starts learning some complex things, she won’t keep such small matters in her heart anymore.”

“How long will that take? 2 years or 3 years?” Kate said with a hint of jest in her tone, “You know, you promised her that you would take her to the set to play, which means in the next few months, I still have to watch her mood on set.”

Adrian came to London this time for filmmaking, not vacation, so naturally, he couldn’t stay at Emma’s place, which made the little girl very unhappy. Therefore, Adrian had to promise to take her to the set to play to cheer her up, even though she didn’t know what a film set was.

“Alright, instead of worrying about this, you better think about how to play to your strengths when the time comes, otherwise, you’ll be looking at my expressions,” Adrian laughed, but then he became serious again, “I won’t give you any slack just because you’re my girlfriend, Kate!”

“You’ll see,” Kate said confidently.

Three days later, the entire “Howards End” crew arrived in London, including newly crowned Best Actor, Anthony Hopkins. Although Hopkins was always skeptical about Adrian directing the film, after talking to him and thinking it over for a long time, he eventually decided to take a gamble with him.

“As Ed said, some things you have to try to know what will happen. I believe in him,” Hopkins told his agent, who worried about his reputation.

After two more days of preparation and with the arrival of Emma Thompson to report for duty, the crew immediately headed to Braner Manor, which had been rented early, located in the northeast suburbs of London, and began filming.

“Cut!” Adrian suddenly called out loudly, and the actors in the set immediately stopped their actions and looked towards the director seated not far away. Instead of pointing or scolding as imagined, there was just Adrian’s helpless sheepish smile.

“Sorry, I called it wrong,” he sighed, “everyone is in good shape, we’ll start the next shot right away.”

Kate couldn’t help but snort with laughter on the set, followed by Thompson covering her mouth, and then Hopkins shaking his head and looking down. This contagion spread throughout the place, with low laughter all around.

Adrian said nothing and looked down at Emma in his arms, the little one still happily tugging at his collar, completely unaware of what she had caused. Faced with this situation, Adrian could only heave a long, heavy sigh, which immediately drew more laughter.

The laughter lasted for about ten seconds before finally stopping.

“Everyone relaxed?” Adrian glanced around and then waved his hand, “Then let’s continue.”

The story of “Howards End” is quite interesting. Simply put, it is about Margaret, played by Thompson, and Helen, played by Kate, sisters who by chance befriend the conservative Wilcos family. Mrs. Wilcos gets along with Margaret, so before she dies, she wants to transfer Howards End to Margreta. But her husband, Henry, played by Hopkins, thinks this is an absurd decision, and so do his children, so they conceal the will.

Then, because of a series of events, Henry is attracted to Margreta and eventually marries her. Although Margaret always wanted to harmonize the atmosphere between the two families, it never had much effect. Later on, Helen invites her friend Leonard to visit Howards End, Henry discovers Leonard’s partner is his former lover and in his anger, drives them away. Offended, Helen follows. When she returns to the manor months later, she is already carrying Leonard’s child, and Charles, the Wilcos’s eldest son, thinks this is disgraceful and accidentally kills Leonard, resulting in his imprisonment.

Ultimately, Margaret takes control of Howards End and lives there with Henry, Helen, and Helen’s child, thus fulfilling Mrs. Wilcos’s will, and the barriers between the two families disappear.

Such coincidence is so meaningful, no wonder many people think Edward Morgan Forster wrote a fable about life and praise the story. Many also believe that the Margaret sisters actually represent the new middle class emerging in England at that time, and the Wilcos family, of course, the conservative aristocracy, with the final disappearance of barriers seen as a prophecy that the two classes would eventually come together, and so forth.

For Adrian, what fable the novel told was not important; what mattered was the kind of benefit it could bring to him once it was adapted into a movie. As someone who had been bombarded with information in a previous life, he actually didn’t like this kind of tepid, implicit British-style novels and films — they were too dull, and one needed a lot of patience to get through them.

But everything was for the sake of profit. As long as the movie could bring him the desired benefits, he didn’t mind spending time and energy to bring it to the screen. Although for a director, especially one who directed art-house dramas, it was essential to have enough love for the work to make a good movie, Adrian was clearly not among them.

This was a challenge, and I would complete it perfectly! He thought to himself as he watched Adrian in the center of the set.

It had to be admitted that Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins were both excellent actors, especially Thompson. She portrayed the implicit embarrassment very accurately, no wonder she had won an Oscar for Best Actress for it.

“Anthony, if you don’t put in a bit more effort, I’m afraid Emma will steal the show,” Adrian teased with a laugh after they finished shooting the scene, “Bring out the gravitas of Professor Hannibal.”

“Unless you’d like to see a Henry Wilcos who’s always thinking about eating his wife, I wouldn’t recommend you make that request,” Anthony said humorously.

He was dressed in a Victorian-era black suit, with a slicked-back hairstyle, complementing Thompson’s stately long gown.

“So, are you saying that you’re just going to watch Emma steal the show?” Adrian continued to tease.

“Well… it doesn’t matter,” Hopkins said generously with a wave of his hand, “Don’t jump to conclusions; we haven’t finished shooting yet.”

“Steal the show?” Just as Adrian wanted to say something else, Emma, who he was holding and who was looking at the scenery in the distance, suddenly turned her head, “What is ‘steal the show’?”

“I had forgotten that we have another Emma here,” Adrian shook his head helplessly.

“What is ‘steal the show’? What is ‘steal the show’?” Emma’s eyes grew wide as she grasped Adrian’s collar to ask.

“‘Steal the show’ is nothing, dear,” Adrian patted the little one’s head as he looked at Hopkins and Thompson, who were smiling, “Remember what I told you? We’re about to start working again.”

The little girl, though a bit reluctant and puffing her cheeks, closed her mouth, looking endearingly sulky. In just a few days, her cute and well-behaved appearance had won the love of the entire crew, and, having heard about her past from Thompson, many felt a surge of pity for her. Thus, the whole crew let her wander about.

For a child of her age, who was lively and active, this was a huge privilege. Fortunately, Adrian had repeatedly instructed her not to trouble everyone before bringing her along. Although the little girl was mischievous, she knew better than to anger him, so, despite occasionally disrupting the shooting — such as inadvertently making noise or accidentally walking into a shot — it was all within an acceptable range. More importantly, even though she continued to maintain her previous attitude towards Kate, it was also much more discreet, making one wonder whether it was an instinctive reaction or if she really knew to behave that way. But given the little one’s “once future,” it was probably the latter.

“Gelling, ready yet?” Adrian shouted to the head of the photography team at that moment.

“No problem!” Gelling, who had set up the camera equipment, gave a thumbs up.

“Willard?” He then looked to the other side.

“All set.” The makeup artist hurried over, followed by Kate, who was dressed in a Victorian-era long gown.

It had to be admitted, although her face had some Eastern features, whenever she dressed up like this, she exuded that classical charm, those enchanting qualities that were so typical of poised British women likely lay here.

“Alright, everyone get into position, let’s get ready to start,” Adrian suppressed the impulse to go over and say a few words to Kate and waved for everyone to prepare to begin.

Kate did glance at him for a moment longer, but said nothing and went straight to her place to start waiting. In fact, since joining the cast, Kate hadn’t said much to Adrian, even though most of the crew knew about their relationship. While Adrian inwardly scoffed at her attitude, outwardly he could only shrug his shoulders and pretend to understand. (To be continued. For the continuation of this story, please visit www.qidian.com. More chapters are available; support the author; support genuine reading!)