The sun was just peeking over the horizon when Matthew arrived at the Disney studio. There was no filming scheduled for the day; the main cast and crew were simply gathering for a et-and-greet before production began.
Due to a power struggle within the Walt Disney Company, preparations for the two "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels were moving slower than originally planned. So far, aside from the returning cast of the first film, the roles for many new characters, including Davy Jones and a sorceress-priestess, had yet to be confird.
Furthermore, the two sequels required a vast number of props, with the total count expected to exceed a thousand.
What struck Matthew most upon entering the Disney studio was the sheer number of people: hundreds of extras were lined up, waiting to audition in a studio near the main entrance.
From his experience on "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," Matthew knew it wasn't easy for an extra to land a pirate role. They had to have the right look, and soone with his own features would almost certainly fail the audition.
For this production, for instance, the crew had so very strange requirents for aspiring "pirates": aged 18 to 50, either very thin or just skin and bones, crooked teeth were a plus, crossed eyes were ideal, the aner-looking, the better, with long hair and a thick beard.
Matthew didn't approach the audition studio but instead stood at a distance, looking toward the office building near the entrance. The eting was taking place there, in a large conference room.
The director's and casting director's offices were also in that small building.
Upon entering the building, Matthew first made his way to the offices of the casting director and the film's director, Gore Verbinski. Seeing they were empty, he continued on to the conference room.
He always rembered what Helen had told him and did his best to help her however he could.
Besides, Eva Green could never be his rival; they were different genders and up for completely different types of roles.
After walking down a long corridor, Matthew slipped into the conference room and found that soone had arrived before him.
"Hey, Keira." Matthew spotted Keira Knightley, who turned her head to look at him. He imdiately walked over, greeting her casually. "You're here early."
Keira smiled at Matthew. "You're pretty early, too."
Matthew gestured to her hair and asked with curiosity, "Last ti at the estate, I was in too much of a rush to ask—why'd you cut your hair so short?"
At his recent engagent party, he had noticed that Keira's long, light brown hair had been cut short, which didn't fit the look of Elizabeth Swann at all.
Keira touched her short hair and replied, "I was just shooting a movie that required short hair."
She thought for a mont, then added, "I cleared it with the crew. They didn't mind, and it won't be a problem for playing Elizabeth Swann."
Matthew pulled up a chair and sat beside Keira. "The short cut looks good with your angular features," he said. "It's beautiful."
Keira rolled her eyes. "Are you complinting
or making fun of ?"
"Of course I'm complinting you," Matthew said with a serious expression. "You always look beautiful, long hair or short."
"But I'm not as beautiful as Charlize Theron," Keira suddenly declared.
Matthew shrugged. "She's my fiancée, so anyway—"
"Oh, forget it, Matthew." Keira cut him off imdiately. "Do you think I can't see you're just playing the part of a love-struck guy?"
Matthew gave a short laugh and didn't deny it.
Keira added, "I have to admire you sotis. Last ti, we had a fake relationship. This ti, you're staging an engagent with Charlize Theron. What's next? Are you going to fake a marriage with soone?"
"There won't be a next ti." There was no one else around, so Matthew spoke freely. "It wouldn't work as well again."
Helen had told him long ago that they wouldn't be using this kind of hype again anyti soon. Now that he was established, with nurous fan groups created through the efforts of his agency and Bella Anderson, there would be very little room for similar stunts in the future.
"Scared?" Keira bit her lip. "You don't have to worry about the fans getting angry if they find out. They'll forget."
Matthew just shook his head. "They'll forget, but even if we were to pull this trick again, we'd have to wait a good seven or eight years."
He wasn't worried about the fans. "It's like with this 'Pirates' sequel," he explained. "It doesn't need any special promotion."
Keira nodded, glancing at Matthew again—the guy who, despite his looks, had never beco a teen idol.
Not being pigeonholed as a teen idol was a blessing for any actor.
This was the United States, after all. A celebrity romance was unlikely to cause much of a stir among fans, with the major exception of teen idols, whose fanbases could be easily scandalized.
Of course, even in the relatively open society of the United States, there were extremist fans—like the one who killed John Lennon, or the one who attempted to assassinate President Reagan for Jodie Foster.
But fans like that were exceedingly rare these days, and the most rabid ones were still few and far between. Even so, in modern Hollywood, it was inevitable for a teen idol to lose so fans after their romance beca public.
In recent years, Matthew had worked closely with Disney Pictures, a company famous for creating teen idols. He had seen so of these dynamics firsthand, and combined with his observations of the hype surrounding pop stars on the other side of the Pacific, he had ford his own understanding of the phenonon.
In Hollywood, for example, there was a saying about teen idols: Disney's Mickey Mouse never took off his head in front of people.
In a way, idols—especially from certain countries—were criticized by outsiders for falling in love, for being unprofessional, and even for digging their own graves.
From the perspective of industry insiders, unlike actors or singers, teen idols didn't provide value through content creation or skilled performance; often, teen idols simply lacked sophisticated skills.
However, this relative lack of skill didn't stop them from getting their fans to willingly open their wallets.
Why were teen idols so popular? Looking back after several years in the industry, Matthew believed that idols created an idealized object of affection or sexual satisfaction in the minds of their fans, so much so that for so hardcore fans, following and "consuming" the idol was the most mature solution currently available for their physical needs.
In other words, teen idols were entertainnt industry practitioners who could stimulate sexual arousal in their fans, provide them with a suitable space and outlet for masturbation, and profit from it.
Matthew had once been just a moviegoer and a consur of entertainnt gossip, with no real familiarity with the industry. He hadn't understood the teen idol phenonon in certain other countries, and the teen idols he'd seen at Disney weren't commodities that could be asured in concrete terms, because they lacked the established production systems and specialized skills of their counterparts elsewhere.
However, it was easy to see how an image crisis—like underage drinking and drug use, or promiscuity—could quickly trigger a backlash from fans and even destroy an idol's career.
Two things could happen next: either they would sink completely, or they would use the scandal to break out of the teen idol category.
The specific commodity value of teen idols could also be assessed in this way—maintaining a stable and effective persona.
The situation was relatively better in Hollywood, where the social environnt for teen idols was comparatively calm.
"Matthew..." Keira began, suddenly changing the subject. "We're still friends, right?"
"Of course we are," Matthew said with conviction. "We've always been good friends."
Keira bit her lip again. "I have a friend who's auditioning for..."
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