The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood! Chapter 66

As images flickered across the screen, Matthew waited, a knot of feelings tightening in his stomach—excitement, impatience, and a sharp sense of anticipation.

After all, this was his first time appearing in a movie. A real movie!

Even though Britney's music video was in heavy rotation on major networks, featuring him in plenty of scenes, in Matthew's mind, a music video paled in comparison to a feature film. The difference was vast.

Then, finally, Matthew saw himself on screen.

There he was, walking down a hallway toward the patients' lounge. The camera offered a wide shot, his face visible but indistinct. He then bumped into Winona Ryder in the doorway of a ward. The camera's focus shifted smoothly to Ryder, following her gaze to Matthew's back as he entered the room, before returning to her face.

The close-up of his face, the one they had filmed in the room, was gone. The scene remained focused on Winona Ryder, and Matthew's two lines were delivered as voice-over, heard but not seen.

Matthew's character was on screen for less than five seconds. No one in the theater, aside from him, would have even noticed such a minor part. It was to be expected, of course.

The audience's attention was rightfully fixed on Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder.

Still, on reflection, getting nearly five seconds of screen time for his very first role was a solid start.

This good mood had persisted ever since his confrontation with Kate.

Perhaps in the eyes of more principled people, his actions might have seemed childish, but Matthew was not the type to tolerate being pushed around—not for a moment, and not over the smallest thing.

After the movie, Matthew was leaving the theater when he overheard a pair of critics discussing the two lead actresses. He lingered for a moment, listening as they spoke favorably of both Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. One of them even declared that Jolie could be a contender for the next Oscar.

An Oscar for acting...

The thought of an Oscar stayed with him as he walked to the bus stop. He’d been in Hollywood for the better part of a year now; it was impossible not to understand the status and influence the award carried in this town.

It was no exaggeration to say that an Oscar was the most coveted prize in the entire North American film industry.

"When will I ever win an Oscar?"

The thought was inevitable, but when he considered the performances of Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder, he was struck by the vast gulf between their skill and his own.

He understood perfectly well that an Oscar could only be a distant, long-term goal. For now, he needed to focus on simply reaching the level of a mid-tier Hollywood actor.

Once he became a real Hollywood star, he believed his life would be completely transformed, and all the goals he had set for himself would finally be within reach.

...

He spent the next few days back at the Los Angeles School of Performing Arts. He visited his former acting coach, David Astor, returned the videotapes he’d borrowed from the set, and picked up a new batch to continue his studies and practice.

In preparation for the upcoming shoot, Matthew went to great lengths to contact the real Ronald Speirs, the man his character was based on. Although Tom Hanks was flying many of the veterans out to the set, Speirs himself was in poor health and couldn't make the trip to London.

So Matthew decided to visit him in person.

Given Speirs's poor health, Matthew only spoke with him for half an hour. He focused his questions on the persistent rumors about Speirs executing German prisoners of war, but the old soldier offered no answers. He just laughed and remained silent.

It felt blunt, asking such a direct question, but Matthew was desperate to understand the man's motivations.

In the end, Matthew left without an answer. It seemed the truth of the matter would be a secret Ronald Speirs would take to his grave.

After his meeting with Ronald Speirs, Matthew returned to Los Angeles. With Britney away in Nashville, he faced the holidays alone. But he was used to solitude, and his apartment was still stacked with videotapes and books—plenty of acting practice to make the time fly.

Of course, his practice at this stage was focused primarily on the role he was about to play.

He found several war films, watching and rehearsing countless scenes with tough-guy archetypes to compensate for his own lack of experience.

As for the original "Band of Brothers" novel and the accompanying memoirs, he reread them until he knew the material by heart.

He felt ready.

On Christmas Eve morning, Matthew received a phone call. After lunch, he dropped everything and headed to a small park near his apartment for a meeting.

He walked directly to a bench in a wooded section of the park and saw the tall woman waiting for him: Ilana, an old acquaintance.

"It’s been a while, Matthew." Ilana, who was already seated on the bench, looked him up and down. "You look like a completely different person."

"More handsome?" Matthew replied cheekily. "Or have my muscles gotten bigger? All this training had to be for something."

"No." Ilana rolled her eyes. "But something about you has changed."

"I'm a soldier now," Matthew said, taking a seat beside her. "Or at least, I've been thinking of myself as one lately."

Ilana took his words her own way and gave a pointed scoff. "Are you trying to impress me?"

Matthew raised an eyebrow. "Am I?"

Then he asked, "Did you need something from me?"

"Actually..." Ilana seemed to hesitate. "Didn’t Helen tell you? I made a deal with her."

"I know." Matthew cut straight to the point. "And now you want information from me?"

Ilana got down to business. "Weren't you trying to date Britney? How's that going?"

"When did I ever say I was dating Britney?" Matthew countered. "That’s a fake story you pulled out of thin air."

"You're really not dating her?" Ilana sounded incredulous. "Britney herself said you two were good friends."

Matthew couldn't be bothered to give her a straight answer. "Think whatever you want," he said dismissively.

Frustrated by his evasiveness, Ilana pressed, "You can't be serious. You're really not going after her? I was counting on you to feed me the latest scoop so I could write the biggest entertainment story of the new year!"

"You're overthinking it," Matthew said lightly.

"You're just..." Ilana’s brow furrowed in frustration. "What am I supposed to tell my editor now?"

Matthew replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Make something up. Isn't that what you tabloid reporters do best?"

"Are you trying to piss me off?" Ilana snapped, slapping her hand on the bench. "Fine! I’ll just report that you cheated on Britney and then dumped her!"

"Don't do that." Matthew held up a hand, suddenly serious. If Ilana really wrote something like that, knowing Britney, she might actually believe it. He changed his tack, spreading his hands. "Besides, think about it. I'm a nobody who supposedly used Britney. How many people are really going to care about a story like that?"

Ilana’s expression was thunderous, but she knew he was right. A story like that would never get past her editor, let alone into print.

With the new year approaching, she was desperate for a story. "Aren't you on that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg project? Any news from the set? Actor scandals, maybe?"

Matthew shook his head firmly. "We're all under a gag order. I can't tell you anything."

Ilana sighed. "If I don't find a story, I'm going to get fired. You'll lose a valuable press contact—one who could be very influential in the future."

Matthew shrugged. "You might as well talk to Helen."

According to his agreement with Helen, he couldn't just feed a story to Ilana without clearing it with his agent first.

Agreement aside, Matthew couldn't think of any juicy gossip anyway. And he certainly wasn't going to tell Ilana the truth about him and Britney, was he?

Ilana stood up, clearly fuming. She kicked the bench, flipped Matthew the middle finger, and stormed off without another word.

"Hey! I just thought of a great story for you!" Matthew called out after her.

"Oh yeah?" Ilana stopped in her tracks, unable to help herself.

Matthew grinned. "You could write a public confession. Admit you fabricated the story about me and Britney and issue a formal apology. I bet a lot of people would read that."

He was just trying to get a rise out of her, payback for the middle finger. He didn't realize she was even more shameless than he'd imagined. After a moment's thought, she muttered to herself in surprise, "That could actually work!"

Matthew could only stare in disbelief as Ilana hurried away.

...

On his way back from the park, Matthew called Helen and gave her a brief rundown of his meeting with Ilana. She was an entertainment reporter, after all; it was best to keep his agent in the loop on things like this.

The next few days, through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, were a blur of continuous practice—studying his craft and delving deeper into the character of Ronald Speirs. He didn’t go out at all, but he felt the time was well spent.

As soon as the Christmas holiday was over, Matthew headed to the Los Angeles airport. He picked up the tickets the production had arranged and boarded a flight back to London, bound for Hatfield Airport—or, to be more precise, what was now known as Hatfield Studios.

Filming for "Band of Brothers" was about to begin on the newly constructed sets.