Let alone the fact that this was just a little girl's game—other than dizzying camera tricks meant to deceive the audience, she had done absolutely nothing!
It was like The Emperor's New Clothes: people pretended to see a magnificent robe on the emperor just so they wouldn't appear stupid. The same went for those flattering and praising Laila—they couldn't see anything worthwhile in that piece of trash; they were just hoping to scrape up some benefits from between her fingers.
Three hundred million!
It sounded like a lot. But to the Moran family, that was just pocket change. Old Mr. Moran had truly gone to great lengths to help his granddaughter break into Hollywood.
Cooper flat-out refused to acknowledge Laila's past accomplishments. In his eyes, everything she had achieved was bought with money. Box office results could be bought, good crew members could be bought, post-release reviews, theater attendance, word of mouth… everything could be bought with money.
It wouldn't take many tries before people around the world were completely fooled. They came to believe that any movie made by the Morans was automatically a classic. And hearing that lie enough times, even the Moran family had come to believe it themselves. Otherwise, how else could Laila say, in front of the whole world, that she planned to top the all-time box office charts with her new film?
Under the dim yellow light, Cooper's eyes gleamed with occasional flashes of cold fury.
Laila Moran! If he had once crushed Reynolds so thoroughly that the man couldn't get up for over a decade, then today he could make her suffer the same fate!
He refused to believe that with his decades of experience in Hollywood, he couldn't handle a mere woman!
Jealousy and hatred had completely consumed him. He had never gotten over the shadow of his past conflict with Reynolds. It clung to him like an iron chain around his neck, forever dragging him back into a past too bitter to face.
And yet the person he so deeply resented—Laila—was living every day joyfully. Making movies was exhausting, but the kind of exhaustion she felt wasn't mental; it was physical, just her body struggling to keep up. Whenever she thought about how hard it had been in her previous life to even get a film made, everything she faced in this life seemed trivial.
So even when the entire crew was crushed under the weight of her immense workload—longer hours, more lines, more physical exertion—Laila, who served as the brain of the whole crew, never once uttered the word "tired."
Was she tired? Of course she was.
No matter if it was early morning or late at night, the moment she got into Roy's car and leaned her head to the side, she would fall asleep. But as soon as she appeared on set, everyone would see the same energetic and radiant Laila.
"The boss loves making movies," Demi said. It wasn't her first time on set, but every time she saw Laila filming, she was deeply moved. Laila was a completely different person from her calm and composed office self—on set, she was all passion and drive.
It was as if she had limitless energy. While the actors could rotate in and out for breaks, Laila had to keep going nonstop—from start to finish.
"Yeah," Roy replied, hands in his pockets, gazing gently at the filming of Laila. "Movies are her life."
"That's why she keeps making classics. I remember she once said, 'If I can't even like my film, how can I expect others to like it?'"
Roy smiled. "That's just the kind of serious person she is."
At that moment, Laila called "Cut!" and walked over from the camera to the group of actors. "Your expressions in that last take were too relaxed. I need you to look more tense."
They were filming a scene in New York City, where people suddenly realized the city was being invaded by some rather unfriendly visitors from outer space—and panicked as they came under attack.
What made this scene particularly challenging was the sheer number of extras. She had already tried to cast people with at least some acting ability, but it wasn't possible to do that for everyone. Not because of money, but because some were "connections"—people who had helped in one way or another and wanted a cameo in return. How could she say no?
Some of them were shopkeepers from the street where the scene was being shot. They'd rather waive compensation just to appear in the movie. Speaking lines would be great, but they didn't mind being silent—just a bit of screen time was enough.
Requests like that were hard for anyone to turn down—not just Louise, but even Laila.
But this led to a certain problem: these people really had zero acting ability. Worse yet, they had no self-awareness about it.
"Remember," Laila said, pulling a few people over to show them the playback. "The sky above, the tall buildings around you, the street in front of you—they're all crawling with aliens. They're armed, and the moment they see you, they'll attack. You can't fight back against their terrifying high-tech weapons. It's either run or die! Now look at what you just did."
"See that? You don't look like you're fleeing for your lives—you look like you're at a carnival."
Her words made the extras chuckle sheepishly. Watching the playback, they were even surprised by how bad their acting looked. Still, to them, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If it weren't inappropriate, they would've already posted everything on Facebook to share with the world.
Oh my god! Laila Moran was personally giving them acting instructions!
How many people could be that lucky? Even Hollywood stars didn't get this kind of treatment, right? And she was willing to talk so patiently to a bunch of extras—what a great person! Who on earth had spread that rumor she was a set tyrant, no less fearsome than James Cameron?
Laila had no idea that, in these people's minds, she was now firmly associated with being a "good person." If she had known, she could only give a wry smile.
If they were professional actors, she definitely wouldn't be explaining the scene in such a calm tone. But since they were first-timers with no experience and were supporting her film, she gave them the respect they deserved.
What she didn't expect was that this small gesture would make her go viral again on Facebook.
"Laila is such a serious director. Just to clarify, I'm an extra who somehow got into the new movie. Never acted in TV or film before—just really like acting and wanted to try. There are quite a few people like me in the crew, all doing this for the first time. We kept messing up with take after take, but Laila never lost her temper. She just kept explaining what to do, what kind of expression to have. I think it's no accident that she became such a great director."
—A self-proclaimed extra wrote a long post on their Facebook account.