"Can I know the reason why have you rejected me?"
Harold couldn't help but ask. He felt very bitter about getting rejected by the director and at least wanted to know why he was rejected.
After all, based on popularity and talent, he was sure he was qualified to play Arthur. After all, [30 days of Happiness] wasn't a hundred-million-dollar project or anything.
It was a very small movie considering that his last movie took 40 million to make. But still, Leo had rejected him.
He couldn't help but have a lot of questions in his mind.
"Yeah, I can obviously tell you," Leo said, trying to explain his decision in the best way he could to not hurt the ego of Harold. "As you know, I auditioned someone else before you, and he has very interesting ideas about Arthur and how he saw the story. I even decided to modify the script after talking to him, and I felt like there won't be a better actor than him to play Arthur. He just suits him that best."
Harold couldn't help but frown hearing that. He wondered what he should say for a second as Leo's reasons were completely valid.
For a director, some actors are just perfect for playing a part, and he had experienced it himself before as early on in his career. Harold had gotten some roles because a director felt like no one would be able to play a role better than him.
'I guess I can't do anything about it.'
He finally thought in his mind and looked up at Leo.
"Then, I hope we could collaborate again sometime in the future, and once the movie is completed, I would love to watch it. Good luck with it." After saying that, he turned to Rodrigo, who still had a shocked expression. "Rodrigo, it seems like we can't work together this time, but if you have any project in the future, please send it to my agent and If I like it, let's work together."
Leo felt like Harold was showing a very professional attitude here and was a bit relieved knowing that he wasn't someone who would try to snatch away the role under any condition.
One of the reasons behind it was that Harold had a lot more resources to get even better projects and work with established directors.
Even if he liked [30 days of Happiness] a lot, it was still a small project with a director that was making his debut. It wasn't worth fighting in his eyes.
"I will excuse myself now. Let's talk again later whenever we get a chance."
After that, Harold left and Rodrigo, who was just shocked still all this while finally bursted out. He felt immense anger inside of him, like someone had snatched away a big fortune from him.
Looking up at Leo with angry eyes, he shouted.
"What the fuck were you thinking? Harold was the way for us to get the movie to a wider, bigger audience. It would be very easy to distribute it overseas because he's a worldwide star. Now, it's all ruined! For fuck sake."
In his anger, he even kicked up the camera beside him, and it rolled on the floor.
"Rodrigo, calm down! I rejected Harold just because I think there's a better actor for Arthur. The film would be way better than—"
"I fucking don't care." Rodrigo frowned at Leo, and his face was contorted with rage. "Do you think I give two fucks about which guy is better suited? I just want to earn a good buck, and I found the perfect opportunity to do it. We are not making a movie for the Oscars. We are making a movie to earn money. Can't you understand that, you stupid fuck?"
Creative differences between actors and directors were very famous in Hollywood. But people sometimes forget that a lot of producers also have creative differences with their directors.
After all, they are investing in the movie and want it to get back their money, and in that process, many times, they won't agree with the way a director is taking forward a movie or an actor the director wants to work with just because they thought that it wouldn't work at the box office.
There are even instances in which a producer would take away the editing rights from a director and just edit the movie in his way. There was a reason the term 'Director's cut' was so popular.
Both Rodrigo and Leo also had differences, especially because the latter had no power or value in the industry.
But Leo had never thought that Rodrigo would behave like this with him.
"Take back your words right now and stop fucking cursing me. This is my movie, and remember that the rights are still with me."
Leo said with a stern face. He wasn't the one to just take any words.
"Rights? You can't scare me with that. Do you really think I care a lot about it? I decided to help you as your script was good, but I didn't know you are such a prick to work with and don't know how to do business."
"Help me?" Leo scoffed at those words. "You liked my script and decided to produce it because you felt like it would make you money. You didn't do it to help me or anything. You are just seeing your own profit."
Once, Leo was talking with Linchon Bradley, the director of [Shadows of War] in a cafe about Hollywood. There was one line that he had told him that he felt was so true at this moment.
'Hollywood is just a dirty business disguised as art.'
Remembering that, Leo decided in his mind. There were a lot of thoughts roaming in his head, but in the end, one thing was very clear he won't be able to work properly with Rodrigo.
"Leo, you don't really know how Hollywood works. That Aiden guy you think could be a good fit as the lead is just one rookie out of a hundred. These are made and destroyed every day in Hollywood."
Rodrigo calmed down a bit and said in a deep and profound voice like he was trying to advise Leo.
"There's still a chance we could get Harold on board for the project. I can get more investments for the movie like this, and we could even target—"
"No."
Leo interrupted his sentence with just a single word, and Rodrigo blinked his eyes.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"I don't want to do this movie with you. I'm sorry, but I can't make it with you when we have so many differences. I don't want to just do what you tell me because it's better for the box office. I seriously want to make a good movie, and I don't want regrets."
At that moment, Leo's fate was sealed.
He knew that his decision could potentially make a stop in his career, but he wasn't scared. He never wanted to be a director for just box office numbers.
He wanted to be a director that at least wasn't lying to himself.
***
"Thank you for the autograph. This means a lot to me."
A girl said and smiled at Aiden before walking away with her friend. He was currently sitting in The Rabbit hole, relaxing after doing shows and going through some more scripts all day.
Looking at her, Aiden smiled and turned to Wade, who was drinking beer.
"You have gotten a lot of female fans these days."
"Yeah, for some reason, Kai is very popular among girls. They somehow like a bit of craziness in his character, or it could be because of 'Revolution'. It's not been a long time since then."
"Yeah, since then, you literally doubled your followers on social media."
Wade said with a laugh.
Currently, Aiden has over 1.3 million followers on Skygram and 1.1 million on Sparrow. This had happened due to consecutive bursts in his popularity.
Though Wade knew that after a while, Aiden's social media growth would stagnate, but for now, it was good enough. They were even getting a lot of sponsorship offers after crossing the million mark, and Aiden had even gotten the blue tick on both platforms.
His social media growth was also due to Wade, who had told him to post stuff on it continuously to keep the engagement going, so Aiden would regularly post about his work and even interact with fans in comments.
"Have you heard from Night Hawk studios or Leo?" Aiden suddenly changed the subject and asked. "It's been a while since the audition, and there's no news."
Wade thought for a bit before replying.
"I am pretty sure there will be an answer soon. They must be going over some other auditions and actors for the lead role in the meantime or just having more meetings. A delay is very common, as you know."
Just as Wade said that Aiden's phone suddenly rang, thinking that it was Uncle Sam or his mom that was calling him, he picked it up and saw that it was Leo.
"It's Leo." He muttered to Wade, who gestured to him to pick up the call.
Knowing that it would be about the audition, Aiden picked it up, but when he heard the voice of Leo, he knew that something was not right.
"Aiden can, can we meet?"
Leo asked from the other side. His voice was a bit hoarse, and Aiden had a hunch that something bad had happened with him as he had never heard him talk in such a deep yet sad tone till now.
...
