Kapitel 18: Open audition

Universal Studios was located in the northwest suburbs of Los Angeles, initially attracting movie producers due to its favorable natural environment for filming. It had since become a famous tourist destination, known for its movie-themed theme park, attracting countless tourists every year for the "Universal Studios Tour." However, the studios still maintain many sound stages, and movie companies like Columbia Pictures and Paramount still continued to film here.

Joseph and Hugo set out for Universal Studios by car from Joseph's house, only a six-mile drive away. Even with traffic, it would take only half an hour to reach, but they left at 8:30 in the morning to avoid missing the 9:30 audition. Although the audition for "Scent of a Woman" was open and even if they were late, they could just line up at the back, they still left an hour early.

On the way, Joseph and Hugo didn't communicate much, the silence in the car was palpable, and you could clearly feel the tension between the two. In fact, Hugo wasn't too nervous originally, but Joseph's expressionless face this morning made him nervous as well. He didn't know Joseph that well, and he didn't know what Joseph's behavior meant, so he just stayed silent.

"Why is today's interview at Universal Studios?" Hugo tried to break the heavy atmosphere. "There should be many other suitable venues." As he looked out the window, the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign on the hill was gradually coming into view. Although Hugo had seen this sign several times in the past few days, he still couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.

Joseph did not respond immediately, which made the tension even more unbearable. After about a dozen seconds, Joseph finally spoke, "Because it's appropriate here." Hugo only felt that he could clearly feel three black lines on his forehead slowly sliding down. Joseph's answer was equivalent to saying nothing.

The car traveled a distance, and soon they saw the entrance to Universal Studios, as well as the famous globe logo. Surrounded by countless tourists, everyone stopped to take pictures with the logo, and as a result, everyone gathered together and pressed the shutter. It was impossible to distinguish who was the protagonist of the photo.

Seeing the magnificent crowds in front of him, Hugo was speechless. He hadn't been to tourist destinations like the Starlight Boulevard, Disneyland, and Chinatown in the past few days. He surmised that the tourist situation everywhere wouldn't not be inferior to Universal Studios. Moreover, this was January, a low season for tourism. If it was in July, the scene would be even more spectacular.

"Because today is an open audition." Joseph suddenly spoke out of the blue, shifting Hugo's attention from the crowds of tourists outside the window. Then he saw expressionless Joseph slightly furrow his brows, "I guess there will be many, many people coming."

Hugo finally realized that Joseph was adressing his previous question, and also the source of his concern today.

When two people arrived at the audition gathering place, they were shocked by the dense crowd in front of them, this was the real "sea of people". In front of them was a spacious photo studio, and the surrounding tripods, crane cameras, and dolly tracks were still in usable condition, but now these props were pushed to the side to clear the center space, and all participants in the open audition stood in the photo studio.

Looking around, there were at least three hundred actors, which made the entire photo studio bustling and crowded.

Hugo had seen more spectacular scenes when he participated in the extras audition, where thousands of extras rushed to the film set, but today this was the main audition and only for the role of Charlie, and so many actors gathered, which was the largest audition Hugo had ever seen.

Before, when he saw news reports saying that some roles were selected from eight hundred people and others were selected from a thousand people, Hugo did not have any real feeling and thought it was just a number, but the crowd of more than three hundred people in front of him directly told Hugo: to get the role of Charlie, you must defeat everyone on site!

Among these more than three hundred backup competitors, there were those who were good-looking, those who were competent, and those who were hard-working. Almost all kinds of actors were here, and it was not so simple to stand out from such a hot competition. Moreover, it was not yet nine o'clock, and there were still more than thirty minutes until the audition started, who knew if the number of competitors would continue to rise.

This suffocating feeling that came over made Hugo speechless. He finally understood the reason why Joseph had a blank expression all morning. Probably Joseph already knew that the scale of the open audition today would far exceed imagination. Joseph was not only worried about Hugo's audition prospects, but also because he was frustrated with his own lack of preparation in intelligence work.

When Joseph fought for Hugo to have the opportunity to audition for "Scent of a Woman", not only Hugo but Joseph himself was very happy, because now he was a real agent that Hugo could rely on. Similarly, he also needed Hugo to find a job. Hugo was his only artist at the moment, and they could only rely on each other. But the result was not only an open audition, but also one at a scale of 300 people. In other words, all the young male actors from 20 to 25 in Hollywood who mingled in the cirlcle were attending the audition, which meant Joseph's work as an agent was worthless.

Imagine, one year ago, Hugo was still the male lead in "Hudson Hawk"; one year later, he now had to participate in an open audition for "Scent of a Woman". Such a huge gap was really unacceptable. Although Joseph did not see any complaints on Hugo's face, he was still very unhappy with his work.

This was really too depressing for Joseph!

"Joseph." Hugo's voice made Joseph, who was expressionless, turn his head. Although Joseph had this stiff face all morning, Hugo has already completely adapted to this kind of Joseph, because he knew that Joseph was definitely also worried about the upcoming audition, so Hugo showed a big smile, "It looks like today's audition is going to take a long time in line. Do you have any problems? Let's shorten it a bit..."

Joseph naturally knew that Hugo's words were a joke. In recent days, Hugo had been fully dedicated to preparing for today's audition. Even if he wasn't fully prepared, he wouldn't be out of form just because the waiting time was long. Hugo's words were actually meant to comfort Joseph: since he has come, he should make himself at home, and instead of being frightened by intense competition, he should face the challenge head-on.

Looking at Hugo's familiar but strange smile, Joseph's nervousness subsided slightly. "You wait here," Joseph said, and then stepped into the crowded crowd, fulfilling his duties as an agent.

In fact, Joseph's worries did not exist for Hugo. Although he was now officially Hugo Lancaster, for the soul of Chen Yuguo inside his body, first was the audition for "A River Runs Through It", and then was the interview for "Scent of a Woman". These were super big opportunities that he couldn't have imagined before he crossed over. Even a public audition was equally rare. The opportunity was already in front of him, and what Hugo needed to do now was to use all his skills to seize this opportunity.

So, Hugo's mentality was very good. Whether it was a competition of 30 people or 300 people, to impress the director, you must use real arsenal. If you don't have enough strength, even if it's just a competition of three people, you won't be the one selected in the end. It's that simple.

The reason was so, but when Hugo looked at the sea of people spreading in front of him, with densely packed heads surging in his sight and noisy whispers coming from all around, this real tense feeling still made Hugo involuntarily clutch. It was not so simple to break through the intense competition.

Hugo took a deep breath, but the hot air in the photography studio made him feel uncomfortable. The tense emotions not only did not go away, but intensified instead. Anyway, his current position was only a few steps away from the door of the photography studio, and Joseph wouldn't be able to see him when he cames back, so Hugo decided to go to the door to breathe some fresh air.

Hugo turned around and walked only two steps when he saw two familiar faces coming towards him, the golden straight-haired man and the black curly-haired man. The cheekbones of the two men were almost distorted with nervousness, but as soon as they saw Hugo, the expression of the golden straight-haired man changed. He put on a haughty look, raised his chin, and looked at Hugo through his nostrils, "Isn't this Hugo Lancaster who was just eliminated from "A River Runs Through It"?"

Hugo's originally turbulent mood was suddenly lightened by this expression and this sentence. The corners of his mouth curved into a faint arc, "If I'm not mistaken, this is the male lead of "A River Runs Through It", or is the male lead you?" As Hugo spoke, he looked at the black-haired man standing next to him. The black-haired man was slow to react and hadn't had time to speak when Hugo aimed right at his heart, causing his cheeks to immediately flush.

Everyone knew that the male lead of "A River Runs Through It", Paul, had already been confirmed to be starred by Brad Pitt, and Hugo was just pouring salt on the wounds of the two people. But Hugo seemed to be completely unaware and showed a regretful expression. This expression made both the golden straight-haired man and the black-haired man feel much better, thinking that Hugo was going to be soft. But Hugo's next words nearly made the two of them explode.

"Then again, sorry, your names are ...?"