"Who is it?" Matthew asked, a little curious. Not many people could be called a common enemy of the three of them. He couldn't help but ask, "is it that devil instructor, Tom West?"
James McAvoy sat down and shook his head, "No." He looked at Michael Fassbender and said, "It's Tom Hardy! His agent pulled some strings with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and through an internal audition, he landed a small supporting role."
Michael Fassbender frowned slightly, "Internal audition?"
"That's right," James McAvoy said. "I heard that Tom Hardy's experience in *Band of Brothers* played a big role in the audition."
Matthew then shared what he knew: "Director Ridley Scott took over the project from Simon West, and time is very tight. All actors will be cast through internal auditions. This is a war film based on a true story, and even the necessary military training time for the actors has been compressed. So, actors who have recently appeared in similar themed projects will have an advantage in the audition."
"Which role are you auditioning for?" James McAvoy asked.
Matthew shook his head, "It should be Sergeant Hoot, if nothing unexpected happens."
James McAvoy confirmed, "Then that's one of the important roles, with much more screen time than mine."
"Watch out for Tom Hardy!" Michael Fassbender warned. "That guy has always been arrogant and conceited, and he got the short end of the stick with us last time. James, and Matthew, if you can pass the audition, you need to be wary of him on set."
Matthew, however, emphasized, "This is Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer's set. If he doesn't cause trouble, it's best if we don't do anything."
Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy nodded, "Matthew's right."
Although he and James McAvoy were young and impetuous, they also had some life experience.
"Look at us talking..." Matthew couldn't help but shake his head. "It's as if we've already passed the audition and landed the roles."
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender both laughed. The former even asked, "Michael, aren't you going to try? Then the three of us might be on the same set again."
Michael Fassbender considered it seriously for a while. "I'll talk to my agent about it later, but I don't have high hopes. My agent isn't familiar with Ridley Scott or Jerry Bruckheimer."
Matthew and James McAvoy had the chance to participate in the internal audition for *Black Hawk Down* all because of their agents' connections, so they couldn't help.
The three of them finished their meal around two in the afternoon and then left separately.
Matthew stayed in Burbank and met with Helen Herman at Angel Agency. Helen Herman had already received an audition invitation for the *Black Hawk Down* production team. Due to the tight schedule, the audition was arranged for next Tuesday.
Helen Herman used these few days to specifically go to the production team's temporary base in Pasadena and met with Ridley Scott. Although Jerry Bruckheimer had more say in the casting of some important roles, Matthew's chances of passing the audition were still relatively high.
In her words, there was a fifty percent chance.
This was an extremely high success rate for a non-star actor audition in Hollywood.
"Don't relax..." Helen Herman specially warned to prevent Matthew from being careless. "If Jerry Bruckheimer directly rejects you during the audition, Ridley Scott won't be able to do anything."
"I know." How could Matthew be careless? He would only put in one hundred percent effort. "You can rest assured about that."
After discussing the audition for *Black Hawk Down*, Helen Herman suddenly changed the subject. "How are things going with you and Britney Spears?"
"Very well."
Matthew was a little surprised that Helen Herman was asking about things outside of work. "Since when have you been interested in my life outside of work?"
"Things outside of work?" Helen Herman raised her voice slightly. "Matthew, do you think your private life is outside of work?"
She showed an ambiguous smile. "For actors, especially star actors, there's no such thing as life outside of work. Private life is also part of the job!"
Matthew thought for a moment and had to admit that Helen Herman made a lot of sense.
"Then you can rest assured," he said straightforwardly. "Britney and I are very stable, and we don't have any plans to go public for now. No media reporters have noticed us yet."
In fact, Matthew knew very well that the main reason why reporters and paparazzi hadn't noticed them was that he and Britney rarely met.
This was also unavoidable; both of their jobs were too busy.
Helen Herman was very curious, but she didn't ask any more questions.
She thought that such a young couple, who spent little time together and were always far apart, would break up before long. Time and distance were definitely relationship killers; how many model couples or lovers in Hollywood broke up because of this?
What she didn't expect was that, judging by Matthew's tone, his relationship with Britney seemed very stable.
She glanced at Matthew and then thought of the rumors about Britney in the agent circle. She couldn't help but murmur: "Perhaps two people whose brains work differently from ordinary people have a unique way of getting along?"
Whether Britney Spears was as rumored to have low emotional intelligence and be rather foolish in daily life, she couldn't be sure, but this guy Matthew... sometimes, she really wanted to crack open Matthew's head and see what was inside such a despicable, shameless, yet principled person.
Matthew stayed at Angel Agency until closing time before leaving for home. After a simple dinner, he found *Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War* and began to read it. This non-fiction report interviewed many people involved and contained detailed information.
For example, it directly pointed out that although some US troops in that operation entered Mogadishu as UN peacekeeping forces to fulfill a humanitarian mission, the Ranger unit was carrying out US intervention policy, hoping to weaken the strength of the Aidid military government by capturing senior Somali military generals and ultimately overthrowing Aidid.
Although he had read many non-fiction reports, Matthew knew very well that there was a big difference between a non-fiction report and a script. *Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War* could only be used as an important reference.
The news from Ridley Scott's bearded assistant, Jack, was that this internal audition would focus on two things: resume and appearance.
Matthew suddenly remembered Hawk Braton, the instructor who had specially trained him before his audition for Ronald Spears. He quickly took out his phone to find the number. Fortunately, his phone number was still there. Seeing that it wasn't too late, he dialed it.
The person who answered the phone was indeed Hawk Braton. Matthew only stated his name, and he remembered the training at that time.
Matthew briefly explained the current situation to him, intending to hire Hawk Braton to guide him in a crash special training again in the days leading up to his audition for *Black Hawk Down*.
Hawk Braton happened to have time and readily agreed. After all, Matthew was paying him to hire him, not asking for free guidance.
Although he didn't know how much it would help, Matthew, with the idea that even a last-minute effort is better than none, spent the next two days, in addition to continuing to study the relevant materials provided by Angel Agency, once again borrowing Helen Herman's small farm to begin a short-term basic military skills crash course.
Helen Herman also supported his approach. Matthew also asked her to use a digital camera to take several photos of him during training.
This crash training continued until the day before the audition. Although it was only for a few days, Matthew felt like he was back in the state he was in when filming *Band of Brothers*.
The last day of training only lasted half a day. Afterwards, Matthew settled the fees with Hawk Braton, left the farm and returned to Westwood. He thoroughly tidied himself up, for example, cutting his growing hair short and intentionally growing out his long-unshaved beard to fit the image of Sergeant Hoot.
Back at his apartment, Matthew turned on his computer and specifically searched online. Through Yahoo's search, he couldn't find any news about *Black Hawk Down* recruiting actors. It seemed that the casting news was only circulating within a specific circle.
The popularization and development of the internet here far exceeded Matthew's imagination, and it also allowed him to enjoy the convenience brought by the network.
Matthew browsed several movie websites and came to a website dedicated to box office statistics. He found that *Gladiator* had closed in North America a few days ago, with its final North American box office stopping at over 187 million US dollars. Its global box office was also close to 400 million US dollars, and the film's screenings in overseas regions were far from over.
Subsequently, he read several news articles related to *Gladiator*. From the reports, he learned that *Gladiator*'s global box office had already ranked among the top forty in the overall global box office chart, and it was also a strong contender for the annual box office champion.
These were all differences brought by the times. Matthew vaguely remembered that after 2010, movies with box offices of over one billion US dollars often appeared.
Currently, only *Titanic* had a global box office exceeding one billion US dollars.
As it grew late, Matthew prepared to go to bed early. Before resting, he specifically took out his USB drive and uploaded the training photos taken by Helen Herman to his personal blog.
Matthew only uploaded one photo. In the picture, he stood tall and gazed into the distance.
"Wait! Witness!"
These were the words he added to the photo.
Now his blog had five followers, but the only one leaving comments was still Iliana Boyar.
After posting this blog with pictures, Matthew shut down his computer and went to sleep. The next morning, he woke up on time, got ready, called Helen Herman, and drove to Pasadena, a satellite city of Los Angeles, to prepare for the *Black Hawk Down* audition.