Chapter 3
For those who have collated my story so far and just your casual readers, what movie do you want to see the MC write next? I will use it depending on how well it fits with the story. The only thing is that it has to fit the time period, so CGI does play a factor in what I use next.
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"So, Brad, can I call you Brad?" Graham Norton asks with a smile.
"I prefer Mr. Pitt, but sure, why not?" Brad says in a very chill voice that makes the audience laugh.
"Very well, Mr. Pitt," Graham says in that very British voice that sounds between a mix of uncaring and friendliness. "I have always wanted to ask you what is, to you, your most defining movie of all time," Graham asks him with a smile.
"Wow, come out with the hard questions right from the get-go, why don't you?" Brad says with a smile and a laugh.
"Well, it's just you had so many over the years, what with such movies like Ocean's Eleven…." The crowd starts to cheer, "Legends of the Fall. Tory, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. So, really, what is your most defining movie?" Graham asks.
Answering nearly right away, Brad says, "Well, I mean if I had to pick one, it would have to be Se7en."
The crowd starts to cheer again.
"Se7en, really wow. I did think that would be your pick." Graham says with some surprise in his voice.
"Well, come on, Graham. Before that, I was just another pretty face in Hollywood. One of many, but it was Se7en that put me over the top. It allowed me to break away from that pretty boy background and take on more flawed characters. To show that I could be more than a pretty face." Brad says to him.
Graham smiles and says, "And I suppose it helps that the great Caesar Espinar wrote the script."
Again, the crowd starts to cheer at the name, and even Brad smiles widely and claps his hands with the crowd.
"That…that is very true, Graham. But you know that was his first script, right?" Brad says to him.
"Was it really? It's been so long since then, and he has written so many classics that I have forgotten," Graham says.
"It was, and I have to say it was my honor and pleasure to be part of what can only be called the legacy that is Caesar Espinar," Brad says and means it.
"Did you know from the start that he would become so huge when you first met him?" Graham.
A question that makes Brad laugh, "Are you kidding me, Graham? I mean, have you ever seen or met the man?"
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-1994-
Yawing as I sat in a room with David and several writers whose names I couldn't remember, I not for the first time regretted not giving David the whole script to Se7en. In what I had thought was a calculated move to protect myself, I had only given him a partial, thinking that if I gave him a fully polished script, it would seem suspicious, to say the least. No matter my background, the fact was that I was an 18-year-old dropout who never got past the 7th grade. Something too perfect would lead to questions, and while those questions would lead to nowhere, they were ones I didn't wish to answer. So what I had sent to David was a script full of mistakes.
Well, mistakes were perhaps not the right word. I, in fact, sent him about a 3rd of what would have been the finished product. Only leaving out certain things or adding things that just didn't fit. Nothing so horrible that it would end up with David trashing the whole thing, but just enough to make it believable that an 18-year-old could write it. That said, if I had known, I would have ended up trapped in a room with five other guys arguing over what worked here and what didn't. I would have sent him the completed work. Suspicion of my abilities be dammed.
Well, it was too late to do anything about it now. All I could do was try to guide them to the completed work and move on. After all, there was still a lot to do, and David had pretty much told me he wanted me there for most of, if not all of it, from casting to set design and storyboarding. I was getting a very hands-on education from a guy who, from what my memories told me, was fated to make several highly acclaimed movies in his lifetime.
While I was reviewing the revised script with David, he said, "Things look like they are finally coming together."
"Yeah, only after four or was it five revisions now?" I say calmly, not showing disappointment that they were changing my script.
"This should be the last one. I think we've got it where we want it now," David says. He was fed up with all these changes himself at this point.
Yes, David had realized the original script for Se7en needed changes and don't even get him started on the spelling. But even with all the spelling and grammar mistakes, it was still a masterful piece of work from an 18-year-old who, according to his own words, didn't spend more than a few months in high school before dropping out. That is why he got so frustrated with the studio when it tried to force Caesar and him to change the ending. They found it too depressing, and that bad guy at the end kind of wins. Luckily enough, he was able to convince them that the original ending Caesar wrote up was better than any ending they could come up with.
"If you say so, " I answered. I knew a few pieces were still missing, but I wouldn't say anything just yet. I would let David find them on his own, and if he couldn't, well, it hardly mattered.
"We need to start thinking of casting. Did you have anyone in mind when you wrote the script, Caesar?" Arnold Kopelson, who still didn't like me but was coming to at least consider my options after all the help I had provided them with the revisions of the script. While he wouldn't say it out loud, he had to admit he was interested in seeing this movie after all the work they had put into it so far.
"Not really. A few people come to mind, however. Like Denzel Washington and Sylvester Stallone for the leads. Maybe Al Pacino, but then I saw Legends of the Fall. Now I think Brad Pitt would be good for the Mills and Morgan Freeman role for Somerset." I answer him after taking a puff of my cigarette.
Those suggestions actually get both Arnold and David nodding their heads.
"Washington would be good, but Freeman, I don't know. He has this old wise mentor thing going for him," Arnold says after thinking about it for a while.
"It's the voice," I point out, and Arnold can't but nod his head.
"Brad Pitt, however. I don't know. He has the acting range but is a pretty boy." David says he didn't want someone like that to play Mills.
Arnold agrees, but at the same time had to think of things from the producer's point of view. Brad, while coming off the success of Interview with the Vampire and Legends of the Fall, wouldn't cost that much. Plus, he heard that Brad was looking to play more serious roles. Se7en was a serious movie. If approached correctly, he could probably get his agent to agree to a lower pay, of only a couple of million dollars. As for Freeman, he wouldn't cost that much either, and he was a solid actor to boot.
"We will send invites to both, along with a copy of the scripts. If they screen poorly, we can revisit." Arnold says closing the discussion for now.
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You know, you hear things on the streets about Hollywood: rumors, and stuff like about the casting couch and all that shit. Well, I don't know about any of that, but I can tell you one thing. Casting for a movie is a drag. I mean it really, really sucked but David wanted me to be part of the whole process. He called it a learning process. If I really wanted to make it in Hollywood, I would have to be more than a screenwriter. How he knew I wanted to be big in Hollywood, I don't know. I never told, but neither did I deny it. I just took what he gave me and ran with it. But really, casting was a slow and painful way to torture someone.
Suppose you hate someone in Hollywood, what do you do to get back at them? Send them to the casting department. Why was it so bad? Well, let me put it like this. In Dante's Inferno, there were many different levels of hell. Casting was basically the same way. There were many different steps to take during casting. It wasn't just picking the actors you wanted, and that was it. No, you had to look at everything, from how they looked to their acting ability, the cost of hiring them, and so on. Of course, these are only some of the things you have to look at, there was also marketability, likeability, personality. No one wanted to collaborate with a difficult person who would cause problems on set.
And because David clearly didn't like me or got some sick pleasure from my suffering, I had to sit through it all. Now, granted, I had some say. So, I wasn't stuck sitting there like a fly on the wall with no voice, but if you have never been forced to look through stacks upon stacks of resumes and headshots, then you don't know what torture is. I would have honestly prefer get shot or stabbed again over this shit. But I manned up, and after a week of pain and suffering, we arrived at the final stages of auditions, which wasn't so bad, to be honest. I got to see a number of actors and actresses that I knew would one day be a big deal if I just went by the information in my head.
Actors like Mark Sinclair, who would go by Vin Diesel one day, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, and so on and so on. None of them got the part, of course. They were too raw at this point in their careers and were not called back after their first reading. In the end, only three actors made it to the last round for the role of David Mills. Brad Pitt, of course, was my pick, but surprisingly, there were also Tom Hanks and Willem Dafoe.
Of course, Tom Hanks was dropped nearly right away. After his success with Frost Gump, his asking price to star in a movie was just too high. Plus, he was set to do the voice-over for Toy Story, so it wasn't a good fit for him anyway. As for Willem Dafoe, he was definitely a strong 2nd, but David wanted someone slightly better looking, who had grit about him. When Brad walked in with his beard and youthful attitude, he had the part. We all knew he had the job. The only question was how much it would cost to hire him. Not that I cared, as it had nothing to do with me. Thank God.
As for the part of William Somerset, well, the moment Denzel Washington refused the role, it was Freeman all the way. We just went through the dog and pony show to help keep the price down. If Freeman or his agent caught wind that he was our number one pick, no question, they would ask for a lot of money. That only left Tracy Mills and the villain John Doe to decide, as everyone else had been cast already.
Now, according to the information I had in my head, Gwyneth Paltrow got the role through the combination of Brad recommending her and Fincher liking her. The truth was, however, that out of all the actresses who tried out for the role, a number of them could have done the part. However, knowing Pitt and David wanted her before casting started, I put her at the top of the list. Then, I nudged David towards the person he would have picked anyway. I did this for two reasons.
First, I wanted the movie to cast the same people as those in my head. I had no idea if you could just replace an actor in a hit movie and still have the same success, so there was no point in risking it. Second, this gave David the impression that we were on the same wavelength, so to speak. The more he believed we thought the same way, the more likely he would be willing to help me down the road. Manipulative, yes, necessary, also yes.
After Gwyneth Paltrow was cast, that only left one more person, and he proved to be a bit different to get. First, Kevin Spacey's asking price was too high. The executives didn't want to pay his asking price, and David thought we could do the movie without him. That was where we had our first and only fight. That is, if you can call it a fight. I mostly just talked about how Spacey was perfect for the role, and he kind of listened to me. In the end, however, I had little say, but this allowed me to speak with Brad, who also wanted Spacey for the part.
Now we didn't talk for long; in fact, I would say we said less than a few sentences to each other in total. After all, we didn't know each other. All he knew about me was that I was close to David and had his ear. So it was easy to get him to talk with me, and when we did, I told him what he wanted to hear. That his reading with Spacey was the best out of everyone else, and that Spacey should play the villain in the movie. Brad agreed but knew the executives would not pay Spacey's asking price. So again, I gave a little nudge to someone, in this case, Brad. Hinting that perhaps he could help cut a deal on Spacey's behalf. Show that he was a man of action and could get things done. He liked that idea and went with it.
This put me in a good light with the future superstar. The belief that someone in casting was taking his opinion seriously fed his ego. And wouldn't you know it, Brad was able to cut a deal with Spacey and his agent in the end. Getting them to the table and agreeing to a lesser fee in exchange for keeping his name out of the opening credits. Having been in the room with David when this came up, I looked at him and said that was inspired. After all, once people see his name in the opening credits, it would be easy to guess who the killer is, making the movie predictable. Spacey just smiled at me when I said that. Happy that someone realized what he was going for.
Thank God, after him, the rest of the casting was easy. It was all just background characters who anyone could play, so after several months of screening, we had our cast. And I was free from that bullshit—or so I thought at the time. Honestly, I never told David how close he came to me killing him for that shit.
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Have you ever been on a movie set? No? Then trust me, you are not missing anything. Because it is boring as fuck. I mean, filming is not like what people think. It isn't like a stage play where people come on to the stage and start playing their roles till the end of the play. No, it was far more tedious than that. I wasn't on set for more than a few hours before I wanted to quit this shit, but couldn't. After all, so far David despite being a total asshole in making me part of the casting team had done right by me.
Giving me, an unknown, a chance to work on a major motion picture. And while I may have only been in lights. He had told the cinematographer that he wanted me to be given as much of a crash course in lighting as possible without delaying filming. David really was going too far for me, but what was done was done, and I couldn't make him look bad at this point. So, I got to work. Doing everything the cinematographer told me to do. Put lights here, dim lights there, move them over here. It was fucking endless. But slowly, I started to get it. I began to understand why it was all necessary. Bad lighting, after all, could ruin what could be a great movie.
It was midway through filming, however, that I got to meet perhaps one of my favorite actors of all time. While I may not have cared all that much about making movies, I did love them with a passion. They were, after all, an escape from my shit-filled life up to this point.
"Caesar Espinar?" I hear the unmistakable voice of one Morgan Freeman say from beside me.
Turning to face him, I kept my cool. After all, I wasn't like other people. I didn't get starstruck at the sight of an actor I just so happened to like. They were like everyone else to me—people who had to die one day. It was only after I got to know you that I started to give a shit about you.
"You're Caesar Espinar, correct?" Morga asks me.
"That would be me, and your Morgan Freeman. I have to say Glory and The Shawshank Redemption are two of my favorite movies." I said to him, and it wasn't a lie. To me, Morgan Freeman was one of those great actors who didn't get the credit he deserved because of his skin color, but going by the info in my head, that would soon change in the coming years.
Smiling at hearing this, Morgan says, "Thank you, young man. I am happy to hear someone mention Shawshank."
"It's hard not to, Mr. Freeman. I think it is perhaps the greatest movie made this year. If not the last decade." I say to him.
This earned me a good natural laugh from him: "Again, thank you, but the box office would disagree with you."
I nodded, knowing all too well how badly The Shawshank Redemption did at the box office. Mind you, it wasn't a flop, but it wasn't a hit either, even though it should have been. "True, but I think it will be seen as an all-time classic in the coming years, if not decades."
Again, that earns me a smile from the man as Morganas thought the same thing.
After neither of us speaks for a while, I ask, "So what can I do for you, Mr. Freeman?"
Almost like he was remembering what it was he was here to talk about, Morgan says. "Oh, nothing much, young man. I just wanted to meet the person behind this script. I have to say it's very….."
He stops as if trying to find the right words. So, I say, "Dark, twisted, disgusting to read?"
Hearing me put my own script in such a negative light, Morgan just laughs, "All of the above and more, young man. I have to say I was at first surprised to learn from my agent that an 18-year-old wrote this."
I nod my head and ask, "And now?"
"Now? Not so much. Tell me, are you okay, young man?" He asks with a hint of worry in his voice.
If that was out of genuine concern or not, I couldn't tell, but I answered him, "About as much as the next crack baby is."
He nods his head at that and says no more. After all, what was there to say? From the tattoos on his body to the scars on his arms and neck. Morgan knew Caesar came from a life he couldn't imagine. While he was black and raised during a time when racial tensions were at an all-time high. He rarely had to face such racism himself and had a loving and supportive family. Something he could tell Caesar didn't have.
As he walks away, Morgan stops momentarily, looks back, and asks, "Oh, before I forget, Caesar. I wanted to ask. What is in the box?"
Giving the man a smirk, I look at Morgan and say, "That is for me to know and you to find out, Morgan."
At that, Morgan walks away with a smile on his lips. As he does, he suddenly feels that Caesar will soon be huge in Hollywood.