Bab 108: **Chapter 109: Female Supporting Role No. 3? Isn’t That a Little Too Low?**
At this moment, she recalled what Eva Green had mentioned during the audition: a girl who got a leading role in a $14 million production just after auditioning with Wayne.
"So, that girl Eva Green talked about must be her."
Although they were over ten meters apart, that brief glance was enough for her to see Martina clearly.
She had to admit, even with her pride, that Martina was indeed very beautiful. She was not any less attractive than herself and even outshone both Eva Green and Naomi Watts slightly.
Moreover, Martina appeared younger, which made her feel an enormous sense of pressure.
But then, her eyes lit up as she thought of something.
"Only the lead actress and second lead for *The Dark Side* are confirmed, right? I can totally go for one of the other roles! Plus, Naomi, that bitch, is busy filming *Resident Evil*, so no one should compete with me for it, right?"
With that in mind, Annie quickly lost interest in shopping and hurried back to her room, grabbing her phone to call Wayne.
"Supporting role No. 3 in *The Dark Side*?"
After a moment, Wayne was a bit surprised when he heard Annie's request.
When Annie first mentioned *The Dark Side*, Wayne thought she would be aiming for the lead or second lead, but to his surprise, she only wanted a third supporting role. Her low expectations completely caught him off guard.
But then again, it made sense. Including her audition for *The Princess Diaries*, Annie had failed three auditions in a row.
This had caused her to seriously doubt her own acting skills, and her ambitions were no longer as high as they used to be.
She had no other jobs lined up, so landing the third supporting role would at least give her another chance to appear on the big screen and earn some income. Of course, she wanted to fight for that opportunity.
"Is that... not possible?"
"No, of course, it's possible." Hearing the tension and uncertainty in Annie's voice, Wayne smiled slightly and agreed.
James Wan had just finished the script and sent it over. The third supporting role was similar to the original version: a violinist named Veronica, a member of the band led by the male protagonist Adrian. She had a brief romantic entanglement with him, which prompted Adrian's wife, Belen, to hide in a secret room to test whether her husband still loved her, sparking the entire storyline.
This character didn't have many scenes, and the performance wasn't particularly demanding. As long as the actress was attractive, anyone could play the role. Since Annie proactively wanted it, Wayne was happy not to waste any more brainpower thinking about it.
"That's great!"
Annie let out a long sigh of relief after hearing this, thanked Wayne profusely, and hung up the phone, satisfied.
Meanwhile, Wayne continued flipping through the script, considering actors for the role of Detective Bernardo, the second male lead.
Suddenly, he thought of Clark Gregg, who had played the "nice guy" Coulson.
Clark Gregg had been acting for 12 years and had appeared in over a dozen films, though all in relatively minor roles. He wasn't as famous or well-paid as Willem Dafoe, but his acting skills were solid. Casting him as Bernardo would definitely be cost-effective.
"Cut all the intimate scenes that can't be done with body doubles or clever angles."
On the other end of the phone, James Wan was momentarily stunned but then burst out laughing: "Don't worry, I've already thought about that. I won't let anyone take advantage of your girl."
Having collaborated once before, James Wan understood Wayne's thinking very well.
"Then it's settled. Work out the audition schedule with Sarah. I just want the film completed as quickly as possible."
"No problem. Matt Damon already said he's ready to sign whenever. I plan to start auditions tomorrow, begin filming on the 2nd of next month, and if all goes well, we should finish shooting by the 15th and complete post-production by the 20th."
Wayne quietly checked the system panel and then agreed to James Wan's plan.
The next day arrived quickly, and the audition for *The Dark Side* was also held at Hemera Films.
Even though it was still the Christmas holiday, every actor who received a casting notice arrived on time. Some even drove seven or eight hours overnight from other cities to make it.
Compared to the *Resident Evil* auditions two days earlier, the scale of *The Dark Side* auditions was noticeably smaller.
The biggest star involved was Matt Damon, who was cast as the male lead, Adrian.
Unfortunately, at this point, Matt Damon was far less famous and successful than Ben Stiller. Despite having been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, he didn't draw much attention from the actors auditioning around him.
This left Matt Damon feeling a bit down, and the smile on his face was becoming hard to maintain, despite dressing up and preparing himself before coming.
His agent, who seemed to know his personality well, quickly whispered a reminder, "Eight million! Think about that eight million!"
Matt Damon took a deep breath, tore his gaze away from the trio of actresses, including Martina, and plastered a humble smile back on his face.
In the last couple of years, Damon had starred in several box-office and critically acclaimed films, such as *Good Will Hunting*, which grossed $225 million globally, and *The Talented Mr. Ripley*, which made $229 million worldwide.
However, his most recent two films, *The Legend of Bagger Vance* with Will Smith, and *Finding Forrester* with Sean Connery, both flopped.
Even *All the Pretty Horses*, which he co-starred in with Penélope Cruz, was currently performing poorly at the box office.
With a production budget of $57 million—nearly four times that of *The Talented Mr. Ripley*—the film was on track to gross only $18 million worldwide.
As of now, it wasn't even ranking higher than *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*, which had been out for nearly a month, sitting at fifth or sixth place on the daily box office charts. This had severely impacted Damon's earnings.
Two years ago, after *The Talented Mr. Ripley* was released, his salary had risen to around $12 million, but now it had dropped to $6 million after the failures of *The Legend of Bagger Vance* and *Finding Forrester*.
Seeing that the box office disaster of *All the Pretty Horses* would likely cause his pay to drop further, he wasn't about to miss Hemera Films' offer of $8 million for this project.
(End of chapter)
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