Universal Studios is located in the northwest suburbs of Los Angeles. It was originally established because the surrounding natural environment was very suitable for filming movies, so film producers gathered here, forming the world-famous studio. Today, all of Hollywood has matured, and it has become a tourist attraction famous for its movie-themed amusement park, attracting countless tourists every year to participate in the 'Universal Studios Tour.' However, quite a few soundstages remain here, and film companies like Columbia Pictures and Paramount still continue to shoot movies here.Driving from Joseph's house to Universal Studios is only a distance of six miles; even in bad traffic, it takes half an hour to arrive. But Joseph and Hugo still set off at 8:30 in the morning, just because they didn't want to miss the 9:30 audition. Although today's 'scent of a woman' audition is an open audition, even if they were late, they could just line up at the back, but they still arrived an hour early.Along the way, Joseph and Hugo didn't communicate much; the car was filled with silence, and one could clearly feel the tense atmosphere between the two. Actually, Hugo wasn't originally that nervous, but he ended up getting nervous because of Joseph's expressionless face all morning. His understanding of Joseph was still very limited, and he didn't know what Joseph's behavior meant, so he could only passively remain silent.'Why do you think today's audition is being held at Universal Studios? There should be many other suitable venues.' Hugo tried to break the dull atmosphere, looking at Universal Studios gradually approaching outside the window. The world-famous 'HOLLYWOOD' sign on the hilltop had already come into view. Although Hugo had seen this sign many times in the past few days and it didn't seem strange anymore, at this moment, as the distance to the sign kept closing, the impact of the head-on approach was still very strong.Joseph didn't reply immediately, which added a touch of awkwardness to the tension in the car. After about ten seconds, Joseph finally said, 'Because it's suitable here, I guess.' Hugo felt his forehead darken; Joseph's answer was as good as saying nothing.The car drove a bit further, and they soon saw the gate of Universal Studios and the famous globe logo. It was surrounded by countless tourists; everyone stopped to take pictures with this logo, and as a result, everyone gathered together, pressing the shutter, making it impossible to tell who the main character of the photo was.Seeing the spectacular crowd, Hugo couldn't help but click his tongue. He hadn't been to tourist attractions like the Walk of Fame, Disney, or Chinatown in the past few days, but he estimated that the tourist crowds there would definitely not be inferior to Universal Studios. Moreover, this was during the off-season in January; if it were mid-July, the scene would probably be even more spectacular.'Because today is an open audition.' Joseph suddenly said something out of the blue, diverting Hugo's attention from the tourists outside the window. Then he saw Joseph's still expressionless face frown slightly, 'I estimate there will be a lot, a lot of people coming.'Hugo finally understood; Joseph was answering his previous question, and this was also the source of his worry today.When the two arrived at the audition meeting point, they were shocked by the dense crowd in front of them; this was the real'sea of people.' In front of them was a spacious soundstage. The surrounding scaffolding, crane cameras, and pulley tracks were still in usable condition, but now these props had been pushed to the side, clearing the open space in the middle. At this moment, everyone participating in the open audition was standing inside the soundstage.Looking around, there were at least three hundred Actors, which made the whole soundstage bustling, shoulder-to-shoulder, and very lively. Hugo had seen more spectacular scenes when participating in extra auditions before, with thousands of extras swarming on set at once. But today this was a lead role audition, and just for this one character, Charlie, so many Actors had gathered. This was the largest scale audition Hugo had seen so far.Previously, when reading news reports saying that a role was one in eight hundred, or that a role was selected from a thousand people, Hugo didn't have any real feeling, thinking it was just a statistic. But the group of more than three hundred people in front of him was telling Hugo in the most direct way: to get the role of Charlie, you must defeat everyone here!Among these three hundred plus candidates, there were those with looks, those with talent, and those who were hardworking; almost every kind of Actor was there. Standing out from such fierce competition was not an easy thing. Moreover, it was not yet nine o'clock, and there were still more than thirty minutes until the audition started. Who knew if the number of competitors would continue to increase endlessly.This suffocating feeling made Hugo speechless. He finally understood the reason for Joseph's expressionless face all morning. It seemed that Joseph had long known that the scale of today's open audition would far exceed his imagination. Joseph was not only worried about Hugo's audition prospects, but he was also annoyed by his own lack of preparation in intelligence gathering.When Joseph secured the 'scent of a woman' audition opportunity for Hugo, not only Hugo but Joseph himself was very happy, because now he was the agent that Hugo could truly rely on. Similarly, he also needed Hugo to be able to find work. Hugo was his only artist at the moment, and they could only rely on each other. But as it turned out, this was not only an open audition, but also had a scale of three hundred people. In other words, it was estimated that all young male Actors in Hollywood between the ages of twenty and twenty-five who had a bit of a connection had come to participate in the audition. This also meant that Joseph's work as an agent was worthless.Imagine, a year ago, Hugo was the leading Actor of 'hudson hawk'; a year later, he had to participate in an open audition for 'scent of a woman.' Such a huge gap was really hard to accept. Although Joseph didn't see any complaints on Hugo's face, he was still very dissatisfied with his own work.This was really too frustrating for Joseph!'Joseph.' Hugo's voice made the expressionless Joseph turn his head. Although Joseph had this stiff face all morning, Hugo had already fully adapted to such a Joseph, because he knew that Joseph must be worried about the upcoming audition to be like this. So Hugo revealed a big smile, 'It seems that today's audition will take a long time to queue. Do you have any connections to shorten our waiting time? If I wait too long, my acting state will decline.'Joseph naturally knew that Hugo was joking. Hugo had been devoting himself to preparing for today's audition for the past few days. Even if he wasn't fully prepared, he definitely wouldn't lose his state just because of the long waiting time. Hugo saying this was actually to comfort Joseph: when you come, you are safe; instead of being afraid because of fierce competition, it is better to face the challenge head-on.Looking at Hugo's familiar yet strange smile, the tension in Joseph's heart couldn't help but loosen slightly, 'You wait here.' After saying that, he strode away, weaving through the crowded crowd. Joseph was now fulfilling his duties as an agent.In fact, Joseph's worries didn't exist for Hugo at all. Although he was now known as Hugo Lancaster, for the soul of Chen Hugo in his body, first the audition for 'a river runs through it', and then the interview for 'scent of a woman', these were all super big pies that were hard to come by before he transmigrated. Even if it was an open audition, it was equally rare. The opportunity was already in front of him, and what Hugo had to do now was to use all his strength to seize this opportunity.Therefore, Hugo's mentality was very good. Whether it was thirty people competing or three hundred people competing, to impress the director, one had to come up with real skills. If there was not enough strength, even if only three people competed, the final winner would not be you. It was that simple.That was the logic, but as Hugo looked at the sea of people spreading out in front of him, the dense heads surging in his line of sight, and the noisy whispers coming from all directions, this real sense of tension still made Hugo involuntarily nervous. Breaking out of the fierce competition was not that simple.Hugo took a deep breath, but the hot air in the soundstage made him feel very uncomfortable, and the nervous mood not only didn't ease but showed signs of intensifying. Anyway, his current position was only a few steps away from the soundstage door, and Joseph wouldn't fail to see him when he came back. Hugo decided to go to the door to breathe some fresh air.Hugo turned around, and after only two steps, he saw two familiar faces coming towards him, a blond-haired man and a man with black curly hair. The two men's faces were almost distorted with nervousness, but as soon as they saw Hugo, the expression of the blond-haired man changed immediately. He raised his chin arrogantly, pointing his nostrils at Hugo, 'Isn't this Hugo Lancaster, who was just eliminated in 'a river runs through it'?'Hugo's originally upset mood couldn't help but relax because of this expression and this sentence. He outlined a faint arc at the corner of his mouth, 'If I remember correctly, this is the leading Actor of 'a river runs through it', or are you saying the lead Actor is you?' Hugo said, looking at the man with black curly hair standing next to him. The man with black curly hair reacted half a beat slow. Before he could speak, he was hit in the heart by Hugo's shot, and his face flushed red directly.Everyone knew that the leading Actor for 'a river runs through it', Paul, had been confirmed to be played by Brad Pitt. Hugo was completely rubbing salt into the two people's wounds. But Hugo seemed to be completely unaware, showing an apologetic expression. This expression looked at the blond-haired man and the man with black curly hair, and suddenly made them feel a lot more comfortable, thinking that Hugo was going to give in. But Hugo's next words made the two of them almost explode.'Sorry, what are your names...'
