30 seconds

The audition for "Scent of a Woman" started soon. The interview room was the adjacent meeting room, which was not a temporary setup, but a complete room that could block out the noise from the studio. Several people went in before, but their wait was not long. The shortest seemed to have come out immediately after going in, and the longest was only three minutes. It should be noted that the actors waiting in the reception area all had works to show, but the audition ended so quickly that it was hard to have a good feeling. Could it be that the crew wanted to find newcomers with little experience?

Soon, the person who had told Hugo and Leonardo to shut up stood up. Hugo and Leonardo immediately straightened up and looked at the man with wide-open eyes. There was no particular malice or special expression, just like normal scrutiny, but their eyes were particularly wide. This made the man feel helpless, unable to say anything, he could only speed up and enter the meeting room. Seeing the man's hasty figure, Hugo and Leonardo almost burst out laughing, but considering that they still had a mission to complete, they held back.

As expected, the man came out in a short time, only about two minutes. When he came out, he saw Hugo and Leonardo still sitting upright, like well-behaved children on their first day of school, looking at him curiously with their eyes wide open. The man was frightened by Hugo and Leonardo's gaze, but they didn't mean any harm, so he couldn't say anything and had to run away.

This time, Hugo and Leonardo burst out laughing, but the others didn't complain. Instead, everyone in the reception area couldn't help but burst out laughing, which instantly eased the tense atmosphere.

When Ellen Lewis walked out, what she saw in the reception room was a happy atmosphere. Among the group of actors, Hugo and Leonardo, who were sitting in the center, were so dazzling that they easily caught people's attention, and between the two, Hugo's sunny smile was particularly attractive. The warm, brilliant, and gorgeous halo made the corners of the spectator's mouth involuntarily curve.

However, thinking about Hugo's previous three flopped works and the negative impact of the Golden Raspberry Award, Ellen's smile slightly diminished. She shifted her focus back to her work and said, "Leonardo DiCaprio, you're next."

"Good luck, buddy," Leonardo stood up and Hugo said with a smile, which slightly relaxed Leonardo's expression. Then he followed behind Ellen and entered the adjacent meeting room.

Without his chatting partner, Hugo immediately sensed the tension that was coming his way because all of his attention had shifted to the upcoming audition. The heavy atmosphere made all his muscles tighten and he felt like he was breathing heavily.

Hugo picked up the script again, but he couldn't read a single word of it. In fact, his mind was completely blank, and he couldn't even remember his original plan. Hugo knew he was too nervous. During the audition for "A River Runs Through It", Hugo had just arrived in this world and was still in a daze, unable to understand the situation, and the interview ended in confusion. Today's audition was obviously very different.

Taking deep breaths repeatedly, Hugo forced himself to adjust his breathing rhythm. Although he had never faced a big scene before, and his band's performances were usually in small venues, the performance stage of the Midi Rock Festival was the biggest stage they had in ten years. But Hugo had his own way of dealing with nervousness.

After several deep breaths, Hugo's anxiety did calm down, but his mind still hadn't fully recovered. Hugo knew he could only adapt to the audition process as it happened.

At this moment, Leonardo walked out of the conference room, and Hugo looked up with an inquiring gaze. Leonardo hadn't been inside for long, maybe about three minutes. He gave a helpless smile and shook his head, indicating that the audition process didn't go smoothly. After that, Leonardo didn't come over, he just said "good luck", waved goodbye to Hugo, and went outside to find his own agent.

"Hugo Lancaster!" Ellen shouted at the reception room as Hugo took a deep breath and hesitated before grabbing the script from the couch and making his way to the meeting room.

Whispering a "thank you" to Ellen who opened the door for him, Hugo walked into the room and immediately took note of the furnishings. Despite being called a meeting room, it was actually just a small room of about 300 square feet with a circular table and three people sitting beside it.

Approaching the table, Hugo placed his resume on it - a necessary step for the public audition he was attending. Ellen sat down beside him and pointed to the woman sitting on the far end and said, "I am the casting director Ellen Lewis, and this is the representative of the Screen Actors Union, Lily Stapelcamp." Hugo and Lily exchanged polite smiles before Ellen continued, "Okay, you may begin. You have 30 seconds."

Hugo was immediately taken aback. The two men sitting in the middle of the table hadn't been introduced, and he couldn't help but wonder who they were. Without even looking at his resume, they had jumped straight into the audition. Hugo realized that the longest anyone had stayed during the audition process so far was only three minutes, and the sudden rush made sense.

"Thirty seconds? I don't know what I can do," Hugo pursed his lips and lifted the script in his right hand, speaking honestly.

"What do you mean?" Ellen asked with a puzzled frown, and the two men who were originally looking at Hugo's resume also looked up.

Hugo was no longer nervous at this point, and spoke very fluently, "What I mean is that Charlie is a student, and he doesn't have a concentrated highlight that can burst out in a short period of time. You give me thirty seconds, no matter what content I perform, I cannot show the character of Charlie."

Ellen's face showed a probing look, but the two men in the middle still had no expression, just exchanging a glance. "You haven't read the script, have you? Charlie and Lt. Colonel have several confrontations, and Charlie has a lot of performance space," Hugo opened his mouth, originally wanting to say "this is a scene with a partner, and performance needs to be inspired by each other", but Ellen seemed to know his sophistry and raised her hand to stop Hugo, and continued, "Do you think that a student's role is not challenging and that relying on natural acting is enough?"

"Not like this." Hugo was not discouraged, as he knew that various situations could arise during the audition process, which cannot be prepared for in advance. Even if he had worn out the script for "Scent of a Woman", it would be of no use. Therefore, he remained calm and said, "I mean, you can't act student-like. It's like you can't deceive others about how many books you've read. Even Al Pacino couldn't have played Charlie's role. Otherwise, you wouldn't be holding an open audition today, would you?"

Ellen glanced at the two men on his right and all three of them had a smile of contemplation. "Even if everything you said was correct, it doesn't mean your behavior is correct. Do you think you can just come in and not perform anything within the 30 seconds we've given you and get the role? That's impossible," Ellen ruthlessly crushed Hugo's hope. However, Hugo didn't show any signs of disappointment on his face and maintained his warm smile. "If we follow your logic, how did you get the role in "Dead Poets Society"?"

In reality, objectively speaking, Hugo was very suitable for the role of a student, as he possessed a classical scholarly aura. In "Dead Poets Society", he played a student. Upon hearing this question, Hugo was immediately at a loss because he really didn't know about the audition situation of "Dead Poets Society". He couldn't say that it was Tracey who used connections to get in. So Hugo raised his right hand and waved it gently, "Say... "hello"?"

This childish humor made Ellen laugh, and the faces of the other three people also showed a smile, which made Hugo feel slightly relieved.

"Since you think that you can't show the essence of the character Charlie within thirty seconds, it is obvious that you have your own understanding of this character. Can you talk to us about it?" Ellen glanced at the watch on the table. Thirty seconds had passed, but she had no intention of letting Hugo leave, and the two men beside her apparently had no intention of doing so either.

The two men sitting in the middle were the director and producer Martin Brest and the screenwriter Bo Goldman. Although the person who seemingly held the power of life and death in casting today was the casting director Ellen, the fact that the director and screenwriter personally came to the audition venue showed that they had full respect for the character of Charlie. They did not want to find a bad scene partner for Al Pacino, as this would ruin the movie. Although they had not revealed their identities, it did not mean that they would remain silent. It was just that no actor worthy of their attention had appeared yet.

Although the previous audition process was unexpected for Hugo, this question was not difficult for him. The benefit of repeatedly reading the script became apparent at this moment. His once blank mind now had a steady stream of ideas. Without much thought, Hugo could speak directly.

"Of course, as long as you don't drive me away in a hurry." Hugo's first sentence made Ellen and the others smile again.