Chapter 438: Harvest

Chapter 438: Chapter 438: Harvest

Irene quietly looked at Anne before her, and she still clearly remembered what the two looked like when they first met.

Back during the grand premiere of "The Princess Diaries," a green Anne was brimming with spiritual aura and exploded in popularity overnight, sweeping across America with her pure and sweet princess image and becoming the screen white moonlight of countless youths.

At that time, although Irene already had representative works under her belt, she had not yet completely soared into the sky. Strictly speaking, the gap in their industry status and social circles was not drastically huge, and when they met, they could chat easily and get along as equals without any rigid hierarchical barriers.

Yet in just a few short years, the world had changed, social circles had been reshuffled, and everything was long since not what it used to be.

Relying on "Million Dollar Baby," Irene reached the summit of the Oscar, held the grand prize for Best Picture, and created a global box office myth with "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Achieving divine status across both art films and commercial films, she firmly established herself at the top tier of Hollywood with the dual identities of Producer and director.

Advancing like a broken bamboo and rising rapidly in fame, she had long since stood at the very pinnacle of the new generation of filmmakers and even the entire industry, becoming an existence that the entire new generation of Hollywood needed to look up to.

In contrast, Anne Hathaway was still trapped within the labels of a youthful sweet girl and a Disney princess, with a solidified acting path and difficult breakthroughs. While she seemed to retain her popularity and outstanding national recognition, in reality she constantly drifted outside the core mainstream circles, unable to complete her transformation and upgrade.

The drastic status gap caused the interaction mode of the two to unconsciously change.

Prior to this, Anne’s agent Cole had solemnly reminded her more than once that the shallow friendship of equality and goodwill from the past was already worthless and devoid of any weight in today’s industry landscape.

Facing the current Irene Coppola, she had to completely let down her past peer posture, put away all her pride and arrogance, and proactively approach and attentively maintain ties with a more obedient, more humble, and lower posture. Only by tightly hugging this thickest connection thigh would she have the opportunity to break her current awkward career deadlock.

Anne had always firmly remembered these words in her heart. Tonight’s proactive expression of gratitude and respectful posture were both the result of deep deliberation and her only way out to break the dilemma.

Irene took in all the restraint, sincerity, and apprehension in the depths of her eyes. Although she felt somewhat melancholic inside, she could understand.

Furthermore, in her past life she had deeply liked Anne Hathaway’s appearance, favouring her lively expressions, gentle temperament, and the healing sense on screen. She had even followed every single one of her works, naturally holding full goodwill and expectations for this actress who possessed both talent and beauty.

But having deeply cultivated Hollywood for so many years and having grown accustomed to the hypocritical flattery and persona packaging of the vanity fair, she also slowly saw through the essence of the industry.

Maintaining a perfect persona, managing public image, and submissively bowing to curry favour were inherently professional compulsory courses for every traffic actor and screen darling; it had nothing to do with character, only survival.

The ups and downs of years and the industry had long since smoothed away the filters and partiality she held for these stars in her past life.

Looking at Anne now, she no longer had fan-like adulation and goodwill, and her mindset was as peaceful as looking at any ordinary collaborating actor, with her greatest evaluation standards being only acting skills, attitude, and ability.

"I can see your progress. This time as Lureen, you completely cast aside Mia’s sweet halo from ’The Princess Diaries,’ reined in all your outward spiritual aura, and portrayed the character’s forbearance, helplessness, and the compromise and growth under secular coercion with delicacy and truth. The completion degree is very high."

Irene spoke to give a very pertinent acknowledgment and also sent her most pragmatic expectations: "You are willing to step out of your comfort zone to precipitate yourself. This attitude is very rare. Keep it up, and your future will be even brighter than now."

A simple affirmation instantly relieved Anne, who had been nervous and tense all along, by more than half.

In the solidified impression of many people, she was a vase actress who could only play sweet princess roles, and very few people were willing to see her efforts and breakthroughs, let alone top-tier filmmakers who were willing to sincerely affirm her growth.

Irene’s recognition surpassed countless irrelevant praises for her.

Taking advantage of the good atmosphere, Irene changed the subject, and with a calm tone yet carrying clear purposefulness, she softly asked: "Are your schedules for the second half of this year still empty?"

This sudden inquiry made Anne perk up. Her heart beat fiercely, her entire body instantly tensed up, and the depths of her eyes were filled with undisguised surprise and anticipation.

Over the past few years, she seemed to have evergreen popularity and consistently high national recognition, but in reality her position in Hollywood was exceptionally awkward, caught between advance and retreat with arduous steps. The anxiety and distress within it were known only to herself.

Hollywood never lacked young and beautiful actresses, and the speed of renewal and iteration was astonishingly fast. Appearance, youth, and spiritual aura were always the most worthless things.

Merely the batch of new-generation actresses of her same age had already broken through one after another, firmly planted their feet, and left her far behind.

Take that batch of young actresses who had collaborated with Irene, for instance.

Reese Witherspoon had long since established herself in the art film track with solid acting skills, gained mainstream award recognition, and firmly held her place in the first tier; Rachel McAdams relied on a delicate and versatile acting path to conquer both art and commercial films, achieving a bumper harvest in both reputation and box office;

Scarlett Johansson broke through the shackles of a vase and rapidly climbed into the ranks of top traffic with her unique temperament and screen tension; Keira Knightley firmly occupied mainstream resources relying on her unique British temperament and dual acting paths in period and art films.

Every single one of them pulled out had a gorgeous resume.

In comparison, Anne’s development became increasingly lagging and her situation was awkward.

Trapped within the princess label, she was caught in a dilemma of advance and retreat. What the public always remembered was her sweet appearance, failing to see her acting potential, and the market’s positioning of her was extremely single and solidified.

Even more cruelly, Hollywood’s film and television ecosystem had always been male-dominated, with male-oriented projects occupying the mainstream.

Among the massive amount of films released every year, the vast majority took male characters as the core. Female roles were mostly just icing on the cake as margin supporting roles and vase tools, with thin screen time, flat personas, and no room for performance, utterly failing to reflect the actors’ value and strength.

As for the few big heroine projects that could highlight female power, feature stereoscopically full personas, depth, growth, and highlight moments, every single one was a top-tier resource scrambled for within the circle.

Either they were booked in advance early on by first-tier actresses, or they were bound by capital to enter the group with funding, or they were left to powerful actors with awards under their belts. Truly high-quality resources that could flow into the hands of middle-tier actors were scarce and few and far between.

Anne had now fallen into a career deadlock of being too high to reach and too low to condescend to.

She was unwilling to take dime-a-dozen margin heroines and vase supporting roles; taking them would only further solidify the vase label and consume her own reputation. As for high-quality big heroine scripts that could truly achieve a transformative breakthrough, she could not scramble for them or get her turn.

When she originally accepted "Brokeback Mountain," her heart was actually full of hesitation and entanglement.

At that time, she was in a period of career confusion. This art film centred on homosexual love did not have absolutely dazzling female lead highlights, and even possessed quite a bit of thematic controversy, so it could not be considered high-quality resources in the secular sense at all.

If agent Cole had not repeatedly persuaded her that starring in this play could leave an important impression in the heart of top Producer Irene and maintain her only top-tier connection, she would never have made up her mind to accept this role back then.

She silently paid, endured the character’s unsuitability and the thematic controversy, put down the princess halo, and solidly polished her acting skills. Now, the moment had finally arrived to wait for the harvest of returns and wait for the other party to feed back resources.