Once again standing at the entrance of the studio, Hugo was clearly already much more accustomed to it. Although his rapidly beating heart still revealed his nervousness, at least he was no longer completely clueless, and this allowed Hugo to concentrate his mind a little. Standing beside him, the young boy with an earpiece and holding a folder was waiting for the director's command before notifying Hugo to go on stage.
The boy listened carefully to the sounds inside the studio, confirmed that it would still take a little time, and then glanced at Hugo just within arm's reach. After much hesitation, he finally gathered his courage and said to Hugo, "Hugo, you're really amazing! This movie will definitely be a success!"
Although after Scent of a Woman was released Hugo had truly felt his recognition improving in many aspects, every time he encountered someone cheering for him, Hugo still felt a joy rising from the depths of his heart. He showed the boy a brilliant smile. "Thank you!"
Being able to win the recognition of insiders in the circle was not an easy matter for any actor. Maybe today it was only a small assistant, but who could say that tomorrow Hugo would not achieve even greater success?
"Not long ago, this young actor came to our show and had a very delightful conversation with me. Today, he has once again brought with him his brand-new work A Few Good Men to the scene. Let us welcome: Hugo Lancaster." Jay's voice echoed inside the studio.
The young boy gestured for Hugo to enter. Hugo smiled, patted the boy on the shoulder, and softly repeated once more, "Thank you," before stepping forward. The young boy remained where he was, and the smile on his face could not help but bloom as well.
As Hugo walked into the studio, the two hundred audience members on his left all immediately stood up, giving Hugo the warmest applause of welcome. Hugo smiled and waved at the audience. At once, he saw that familiar sign, "Hug here," and today the person holding the placard was Meredith Morris, whom he had once seen at the premiere. Hugo's gaze fell on Meredith, and his smile deepened a little, which instantly sent Meredith's screams soaring up another octave.
Retracting his gaze to look toward Jay's direction, Hugo had barely turned his eyes halfway when his vision was caught by the comical sculpture group before him. The Golden Raspberry trophy-shaped sculpture that had been there since his last visit remained in place, but today around it was added a circle of raspberry sculptures the size of fists, looking as if they were the children of the Golden Raspberry trophy.
This scene carried the comedic effect of an animated cartoon, and the laughter it produced was even more astonishing. Hugo could not hold back and clapped his hands in laughter. It had to be said, The Tonight Show team really had spent a lot of effort to mock Hugo.
Hugo, chuckling, walked up to the stage, gave Jay a big hug, and even deliberately patted his back twice with force, expressing his feelings toward this "gift."
"Welcome back, buddy, so glad to see you again." Jay sat down in his spot, leisurely greeting Hugo.
"So am I, so am I." Hugo simply repeated, sitting on the sofa and chuckling, "I had a premonition that something 'good' would happen tonight, and indeed, indeed…"
"Of course, we are in Los Angeles, this is how we work here, you should get used to it." Jay said proudly, clearly more than satisfied with this trophy building cluster.
"No, no, no, I think I will take them all home." Hugo pointed grandly at the circle of Golden Raspberry trophies in front of him.
Jay immediately replied, "Oh, oh… that means a lot of movies, are you sure?" Meaning that in the future, Hugo would have many movies winning Razzies.
Faced with such teasing, Hugo raised both hands in surrender. "I'm not sure, but at least I think they owe me two trophies, and I will get them back." Hugo was self-mocking, saying that Hudson Hawk and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane also should have won Golden Raspberries. This remark of ridicule set off applause, laughter, and whistles at the same time.
"Did you see last week's Vanity Fair?" Jay pulled out a magazine beside him. It was the latest issue of Vanity Fair, with Kevin Costner on the cover.
Kevin and Whitney Houston had co-starred in the film The Bodyguard, which, although attracting a storm of criticism from reviewers, achieved unparalleled results in terms of buzz. Especially since several songs Whitney sang in the movie had won countless attention, among them I Will Always Love You, which exploded across the entire music world. This also made Kevin the cover figure of the newest issue of Vanity Fair.
"Oh no, I don't remember doing an interview with them." Hugo shook his head, looking puzzled. To be precise, Hugo had never yet accepted a feature interview with a magazine. Up until now, interviews with newspapers and magazines such as The Los Angeles Times had all been relatively brief, not full feature reports, so Hugo was very unfamiliar with magazines.
"No, they didn't interview you, but they made a predictive commentary on your soon-to-be-released A Few Good Men." Jay explained. "In the article, they briefly described your outstanding performance in Scent of a Woman…"
"Oh, that's a good thing." Hugo nodded with a smile.
"And then they focused their attention on your upcoming film. The magazine said you would ruin the movie because your student air is too strong, and this time it isn't Jack Nicholson driving the plot forward—you are the lead, so the outcome is worrying. Do you agree?" Jay's following words were the bad news, yet they made Hugo laugh.
The success of Scent of a Woman was beyond doubt. But aside from praise, there were also many discordant voices. On one hand, they believed Hugo's outstanding performance was thanks to Al Pacino's brilliant acting, while Hugo himself contributed little. On the other hand, the roles Hugo had truly succeeded in so far were all students, with Dead Poets Society and Scent of a Woman being the most obvious examples. Clearly, the scholarly aura around Hugo brought him opportunities and acclaim, but also limited his development.
Vanity Fair was one of the representatives of this viewpoint. They still did not hold much optimism for A Few Good Men, believing Hugo would ruin the movie.
"No, of course I don't agree." Hugo flatly denied it. "If I agreed, then I wouldn't have taken this film, would I?" Hugo's simple rhetorical question already expressed his standpoint. "You think I look too much like a student—that's because you haven't seen my manly side. Once you do, you'll no longer have such ridiculous thoughts. You must know, first of all, I am a man, and at the same time I am an actor." Hugo said jokingly.
"Oh, I'd rather not see it." Jay raised his eyebrows and replied. The subtext was that he was heterosexual and had no interest at all in Hugo's masculine traits. This instantly set the audience into laughter, and Jay pressed on, "What, you want to show me right now?"
Hugo could only smile helplessly. The laughter forced him to pause before speaking again. "Of course, I don't mind showing it. Unless you have a secret to hide—afraid my masculinity might expose it?" Which was basically to say, "What, are you gay and afraid you'll fall in love with me?" Hugo's counter was indeed sharp, and the laughter in the room nearly drowned out the sound of the microphone.
Jay clapped his hands and laughed heartily. After the sound finally settled, he raised his hands. "Believe me, if I had a secret, I'd choose a marriage." This was a direct jab at the heated rumors surrounding Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's marriage.
Although Tom and Nicole had married at the end of 1990, rumors had long circulated that Tom, to cover up the fact that he was gay, was forced to divorce his ex-wife Mimi Rogers—who had once worked with Hugo in Hudson Hawk—because Mimi was unwilling to keep concealing it. So Tom chose another safe haven: Nicole, a new actress eager to rise by using Tom. And indeed, Tom had a second marriage, the gay rumors were suppressed again, and Nicole successfully became famous overnight through the marriage.
But recently, rumors about this marriage had begun to swirl again. Nicole's acting career still had not made any breakthrough, and after two years of marriage there was still no sign of pregnancy. Added to this was the publicity storm surrounding the soon-to-be-released A Few Good Men, which brought the rumors back into the open.
The back-and-forth between Jay and Hugo, without ever naming names, slyly mocked Tom and Nicole, drawing wave after wave of whistles from the audience. Everyone knew Jay's eloquence was excellent, but Hugo's calm and witty response brought the audience a delightful surprise.
"That's a wise choice," Hugo said with a meaningful tone. He and Jay both couldn't help but smile at each other.
"So, you don't agree with what the magazine says." Jay brought the topic back again, pointing at the magazine in his hand.
"Oh no, of course not." Hugo waved both hands repeatedly. "If you don't believe me, you can just go into the theater and watch. If after watching you still feel that way, then I'm willing to accept your criticism."
"Cunning fellow." Jay immediately saw through Hugo's little trick—he was in fact urging the audience to go watch the movie, boosting the box office. "But I like it." Jay chuckled. "Next, we'll take a break. After the ads, we'll have even more exciting content."
As soon as the house band began to play, Jay leaned closer to Hugo and said quietly, "So, you've got guts." To openly joke about Tom, who was at the peak of his fame, took great courage. Even if they hadn't named him, everyone in the industry knew what was being implied.
But Hugo just shrugged innocently. "Did we say anything?" After all, he hadn't named names—whoever wanted to take it personally, that was their choice.
That made Jay immediately laugh, shaking his head. "No, we didn't, we didn't say a thing."
...
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