As the interview moved forward, Tyler kept to himself. From time to time, he would glance at Aiden, giving off a bad vibe but other than that, he didn't do anything else.
Aiden was glad for that as he could focus more on giving better answers than a useless struggle with Tyler.
Though, everything wasn't easy enough for him.
After Aiden 'roasted' Tyler, Leona seemed to want to get back at him, probably to impress Tyler but it was just a futile attempt.
All she did was to interfere whenever Robert would ask something of Aiden.
It was not a good behaviour and everyone realised it but it didn't seem like Leona seemed to care.
'She's just hurting her favourable ratings in front of the audience by doing this. US Weekly is known to edit things too much. She knows it but it doesn't seem like she cares a lot for it.'
Aiden made an assessment of Leona in his mind.
She probably thought that it was a small sacrifice for a larger goal. At least Tyler seemed to appreciate her moves.
Sadly, she didn't take into account that Aiden could also retaliate.
It happened when Robert asked a specific question.
"What do you think has changed in the current climate of Hollywood, particularly in female led movies? We have seen a lot of them every year compared to before. Do you think the audience has been receptive to it?"
It was very clear for everyone to see that Hollywood has a habit of going with what is popular and as America has seen a lot of feminist movements, it had motivated filmmakers to do more female based stories.
Leona didn't think about the question a lot and quickly replied.
"I think it's a great thing. We need more female led movies and there are great stories to be told by them but no, I don't think the audience has been receptive to them."
Aiden raised an eyebrow at that and listened.
"Why do you think that's the case?"
Robert asked and Leona curtly replied.
"Simply because I feel like a lot of people don't want to see female led movies. It's a pretty sick environment if I'm being honest. Take my movie [Criminal Attorney] that was released last year or even my Zetflix show [Agents of Doom]. Both of them were bashed because people can't stand strong female characters."
'I feel like that's the most ridiculous thing I have heard in the interview.'
Aiden thought, his mind moving to the two shows that Leona mentioned.
[Criminal Attorney] was something that Aiden had watched and it was an indie movie with Leona as the protagonist and although he only had two episodes of [Agents of Doom], he knew why the show was criticised a lot.
And it had nothing to do with what Leona had mentioned.
Taking a look around, Leona was still blabbering. Micah looked like he wanted to say something but didn't have the courage to while Tyler just listened.
Finally, Robert turned towards the three male guests to ask their opinions about it.
"What do you think about it?"
Aiden was the one to answer as the two don't seem to respond.
"I don't think it's anything to do with people unable to stand certain types of characters." Leona squinted her eyes at that. "If a movie doesn't get good reviews, both from the audience and critics, then the problem lies in the product. I think it's very simple."
"I don't think you know what you are talking about. If what you said is true, so many female led movies won't—"
"It has nothing to do with the lead of the movie but everything to do with the story."
The atmosphere turned a bit hostile as Aiden said that. A feeling that he was walking on landmines came but he tried his best to keep composed.
Watching all of it, Wade almost seemed to be sweating. Aiden was suddenly talking about something very sensitive in today's world.
One wrong move and a lot of things would go wrong.
"Can you elaborate, Aiden?" Robert asked, knowing that he had something that would be controversial.
Controversy meant more people talking about the interview.
"Just take the two examples that Leona gave. [Criminal Attorney] is about the justice system but in a lot of court scenes, the procedures aren't done in the correct order. That's a basic technical fault and I think that's the reason the movie failed."
Leona was about to open her mouth but Aiden continued without any hesitation.
"Let's move to [Agents of Doom], it's a superhero show but the major criticism I have seen is bad writing. I watched the first two episodes and the series just fails to make a connection with the protagonist and if people look into her character, she's not really the hero type. So, the criticism is justified."
"That's not true. It's not justified." Leona almost shouted, glaring at Aiden but he didn't lose his composure.
"It is. You can't hide bad writing by using ideologies as a shield. That won't work. In the first place, movies are not to appease people and if someone is doing that, then the product won't turn out well."
Aiden finished there and no matter what Leona said, her words sounded dumb. She was trying to defend something that can't be defended.
This was something that Aiden didn't like in modern day Hollywood.
As a writer himself, he wasn't going to blame the audience if what he wrote was bad. He knew that there are extreme individuals but the majority watches shows for entertainment.
If you can't provide a good story, the product is bad.
***
After the roundtable interview, Aiden felt a bit refreshed. Maybe because he had really talked about the things that he believed in.
Although he knew that his conversation with Leona was going to be controversial, he didn't feel like he had something that would make people oppose him.
Wade also felt like he had said what needed to be said without touching upon the more sensitive side of things.
Tyler and Leona had left straight after the interview had ended. Though, they both were giving him murderous glares while leaving.
Aiden had wondered if Tyler was going to do anything towards him again but it didn't seem like it.
Even if he tried, Aiden knew that he was a ticking time bomb who Aiden could end anytime.
Time moves quickly after that as Aiden basked in the success of [Sherlock of the Shadows]. The series which he had worked so hard on was receiving worldwide praise.
Working with a streaming platform meant that it was easy to touch down upon people living in different parts of the world.
Both [Disconnected] and [Sherlock of the Shadows] helped him in doing that.
It was a positive thing early on in his career.
One week after the shooting of the roundtable interview, it finally released on the MeTube channel of Zetflix.
It was easy to say that it didn't take a long time before the video blew up, thanks to the topic that was being discussed on the show.
Viral clips of the interview were everywhere and a lot of people who have watched it couldn't help but feel like Aiden was just face slapping Tyler and Leona.
The part where Aiden educated Tyler about the differences between them due to the privilege he had was appreciated by everyone.
Due to Aiden acting very calm in the clip, many people just saw him as the outsider fighting against what was nepotism.
Only Tyler's fans tried to bash Aiden on it, claiming that he was being disrespectful but no one listened to their opinions.
The clip that got more controversial was the one where Aiden talked about movies that are made to appease people.
Anyone could tell that it was a landmine but surprisingly, Aiden got a lot of support on his stances.
One of the reasons was because a lot of people were truly sick of it because most of the time a movie or a series don't focus on entertainment because of these things.
At the same time, Leona also didn't have a lot of fans to defend her. Even her superhero series fans didn't like her character, so they felt no need to defend her.
Even to a neutral person, just the calm composer of Aiden made them feel like he was right.
On the other hand, Leona just seemed loud and crass and someone who didn't have a lot of knowledge on movies.
An older actor commented on his Sparrow handle, "These are extremely true words said by Aiden. Art should be kept separate from things like appeasement. Hollywood needs to learn how to tell good stories instead of ideologies. The latter don't work mainly because the characters in these movies are very hypocritical".
Another female filmmaker also supported this, saying, "Hollywood do have a habit of using whatever is popular in the media. There's a reason why they can't come up with new and better franchises and are still dragging what came in the 90s."
Her words were supported by many but due to how many people were discussing it on Sparrow, trends related to it popped up on the trending section.
Tags like #Interview, #Appeasement, #Aiden and #Leona started trending.
In the controversy, Aiden's fan group played a major role by leading an 'attack' on those groups that were trying to portray Aiden's words as hateful.
Led by the user Chad Putin and Moaning Frodo, the fan group supported Aiden in the controversy.
