Chapter 571 - 372: Welcome to Hollywood

Chapter 571: Chapter 372: Welcome to Hollywood

Ryan Reed jerked his head up.

"Come find me after work tonight," Li Wei said. "I might not be able to guide you on the theoretical side of things, but I can teach you the feeling and how to figure out a character’s inner thoughts."

"That’s more than enough!" Ryan Reed said in ecstasy, thanking him repeatedly. "Thank you! Thank you!"

"Right," Li Wei paused. "One more thing."

"Tell me!" Ryan Reed blurted out.

"Move out of the way first." Li Wei honked his horn. "Stop blocking the parking spot."

"Oh, oh." Ryan Reed embarrassedly shuffled a couple of steps to the side.

***

Two days later.

Studio 9.

Auditions for the mage role took place in a small booth inside the studio. Del Toro sat behind the monitors, flanked by the casting director and two producers. A total of five candidates participated in the audition, with Ryan Reed being the last.

After everyone had finished auditioning, Del Toro and the others stepped out of the booth and bumped right into Li Wei.

"How did it go?" Li Wei asked. "He was decent, right?"

After all, Li Wei had personally coached Ryan for two days, and on top of that, he was tied to 0.4 of Li Wei’s free attribute points. Naturally, Li Wei cared quite a bit about Ryan’s audition results.

Del Toro glanced at Li Wei and sighed.

"You think highly of him?" He flipped through the forms in his hand. "Do you have a connection with him?"

"He hasn’t had it easy," Li Wei said. "I helped him work on his scenes for two days."

Del Toro scoffed.

"He was indeed the best," he said. "We’ll go with him."

The casting director next to him also nodded.

"Then what about the previous Guard Captain role?" the casting director asked. "The Guard Captain only has one shot."

"Just find an extra to replace him," Del Toro said after thinking for a moment. "Let the executive director shoot that scene. It’ll be good practice for him."

"Thank you," Li Wei said. "Do you want to grab food together later?"

"I didn’t pass him out of respect for you," Del Toro muttered. "Call Depp tonight. We’ll all go out to eat."

With that, he waved his hand and left.

During lunch, Jason Miller told Li Wei what he had heard from the casting director.

"Originally, both Ryan Reed and another candidate had pretty good auditions," Jason said. "But Director Del Toro still took your status into consideration, Boss. In the end, he decided he’d rather go through a bit of trouble to bring Ryan Reed on board."

"Director Del Toro really is a good guy." Li Wei nodded.

"That’s not the only reason," Jason said with a smile. "As the lead actor and the biggest investor, you haven’t intentionally given Director Del Toro a hard time or interfered with his creative vision. It’s actually making his conscience a bit uneasy." He paused for a second. "That’s what the casting director told me."

"Looks like you’ve familiarized yourself with the crew." Li Wei smiled. "But why would not making trouble for him make his conscience uneasy?"

"Boss, you have no idea how much trouble these big Hollywood stars can cause," Jason Miller said, lingering fear evident in his tone. "I once hosted a major reality TV star who demanded that the hotel replace every single white item in her room with champagne-colored ones. That included the bedsheets, towels, and bathrobes. They even had to remove the toilet seat. Her reason was that the color white made her look haggard.

"Then there was a Golden Globe-winning actor," he continued. "He was shooting a blockbuster with a 200-million-USD budget, but his contract explicitly stated that no one was allowed to make eye contact with him."

"What about me?" Li Wei asked curiously. "Have I been a bit too casual these past few days?"

"Your reputation among the crew is that you’re Jesus descended to save them," Jason said. "Director Del Toro supposedly even suffered from insomnia for two days just because you didn’t pull any stunts."

"Looks like I’ll have to intentionally make things difficult for him a few times." Li Wei picked up his water glass and took a sip. "Otherwise, he won’t feel at ease."

Jason chuckled, saying nothing.

Around 7:00 PM that evening, the casting director called Li Wei. He formally informed Li Wei that Director Del Toro had officially signed the role confirmation letter, and that they would shortly notify Ryan Reed that he had officially landed the mage role in the main cast.

"Great," Li Wei said. "Thanks for your hard work."

"Then... regarding the salary," the casting director paused. "We’ve set the salary for this role at 400,000 USD. Do you think this number is acceptable? Do we need to adjust it?"

Li Wei had just been wondering why they were asking him about the salary, but on second thought, he realized the casting director probably saw Ryan as Li Wei’s lackey.

"Just follow the normal procedure," Li Wei said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Don’t give him excessive treatment just because of my presence."

"Oh, understood, understood," the casting director said immediately.

After hanging up, the task progress updated on Li Wei’s panel:

[Task: Lifesaver Updated]

[With your help, the farmer from the countryside has joined the Knight Order and officially become a Knight’s Squire. His destiny has been rewritten because of you.]

[You have received: 0.1 free attribute points]

Meanwhile, outside Studio 9, Ryan Reed was still crouching on the ground, eating a cold Mexican burrito.

He had already finished his work for the day and should have gone home. Instead, he just kept crouching outside the studio. Whenever he thought about going home and Claire asking him, "How did the audition go?", Ryan Reed’s heart would ache.

He didn’t dare to go back; he had been waiting the whole time.