Cinnamon Twigs (27 page)

             
‘Yes, and wouldn’t that be magnificent?’

             
‘Oh, magnificent…’

             
James lit a cigar.

             
‘Would you like one? They’re Cuban.’

             
‘No, thank you.’

             
‘You’re a big name in the industry, Daniel Mace, though you can mainly thank that insufferable detective you played.’ He smiled wryly.

             
‘Don’t I know it.’

             
‘But I know business. And I know a businessman when I see one.’

             
‘I have to be honest. My understanding of numbers isn’t very good.’

             
‘I’ll take care of the figures. I’ve had it with being a line producer. I’d like to sit in my office and oversee things from a distance. You remind me of a younger version of myself.’

             
‘Uh, really…’

             
‘You’re hungry for diversity. I was starving when I was younger and I suppose I still am. I’d like to make more money before I snuff it. A union between us could be most beneficial. I’ll take care of the numbers, you take care of the proceedings and the profits will take care of themselves.’

             
After a long conversation about producing, executive producers, associate producers, co-producers, sales agents, studios, deals, what producing meant and all sorts of topics consisting of parenthetical assurances, I asked the big question.

             
‘What should we name our company?’

             
And on that day,
Mace and Johnson Productions
was born.

             
‘Magnificent! I’m looking forward to working with you, Daniel Mace. I’ll get this show on the road. Just leave that to me. I’m very old and very rich, so you’ll find me a most magnanimous partner,’ he squealed.

             
I skipped out of the office (not literally, but my walk was jaunty to say the least), a smile etched on my face. My career had just been reborn.

             
Business with James wasn’t just about numbers. There was never a dull moment. He came up with all sorts of droll epigrams and he made everything so much easier for me. Together, we made a great team. I have a lot to thank him for. Although I’d been in the acting business for a while, I didn’t have enough experience to be a producer. But James had a wonderful way of teaching me the ins and outs of producing, and I became an astute student.

             
Lauren also helped me whenever I got confused over the pages of figures. She was great at bringing me down to Earth with a thud when I started believing my hype, but also helping me to be the best I could be. As an actor, I’d been generally ignorant to many of the processes that went into making a movie. I just read the lines. But I could see everything now from a fresh, God in heaven aerial perspective, and I knew that would help me develop as a performer. Ensuring that a movie was made could be hard work, but I enjoyed taking charge. I’d do my best to make sure people admired my films, sat up and took notice. The movie industry lay at my feet, and my prospects looked magnificent.

CHAPTER FORTY

Ins and Outs

‘The key to producing a box-office smash is to get the press on your side,’ James Johnson said.

              We were sitting at a table in the garden of his beautiful London mansion. Insects buzzed around the rhododendrons, taking care of menial duties. A kaleidoscope of warm colors patterned the air, and the hypnotic sound of running water sifted through the foliage. A birdbath stood at the end of the garden, beside an autumn clematis that crept up a wooden fence.

             
‘I don’t doubt it.’ I took a sip from my glass of Premier Cru Chablis.

             
‘The press determine whether your film is worth seeing. If you don’t have a decent ad campaign, then you can forget it. But the press can stop people seeing your picture, even if you have a
magnificent
ad campaign.’

             
‘I don’t follow you.’

             
‘Let’s say that you, as the star of your new movie, piss the media off in some sort of way. Newspapers, in malice, claim your film is tripe. Readers are discouraged and tell their friends, with certainty, even though they haven’t seen the movie, that it’s not worth watching. The public ignore the advertising campaign, no matter how much they’re bombarded by it, because they’ve also been bombarded with the claim that the movie’s rubbish.’

             
‘Hmm, I can see what you mean now.’

             
‘Online media, television, newspapers, magazines, they’re deemed the necessities of everyday life - I can assure you. The media can manipulate discourse. They can use hyperbole or make statements that appear truthful, even if there’s no evidence to back them up. Columnists make very careful lexical choices that affect the reader on a subconscious level. Suddenly, your movie is derided before it’s even released. That’s the power of the unconquerable media tyrant.’

             
‘Well, I suppose people see the news as being truthful.’ I breathed in the floral notes of my wine.

             
‘Yes, people tend to have blind faith in the news. “In the beginning there was the word”. Media moguls have taken the place of God. People often believe in the juvenile nonsense they read in the tabloid newspapers. They’ve never known anything else.’

             
‘I’m hoping I won’t piss the media off any time soon!’

             
‘They’re always looking for heroes and villains. The news is one big narrative. I’ve always made sure that popular actors are cast in my pictures. It’s very difficult for a vilified star to claw themselves out of the clutches of media induced despair.’

             
We had a popular cast organized for our next movie,
Curious Pandora
. The best British talent had been chosen. I couldn’t wait to start rolling.

             
‘Everything pertains to ideology.’ He poured himself another glass of wine.

             
‘What do you mean?’

             
‘A movie script is ideologically motivated. The plot has to fit the dominant ideologies of modern society. Then we market the movie, because we’re motivated by money. If our film fails to go along with certain conformities, the media will probably criticize it. We all have our beliefs but someone, or something, has to help us form those beliefs. It’s the same with religion. We all seek to believe in something, so we become sheep. If we want to know how the world was made, we read the Bible. If we want to know what’s going on in the world, we read the newspapers.’

             
I raised an eyebrow.

             
‘People feel the need to believe in something autonomous, something that transcends history, something universal.’

             
‘Essentialism,’ I murmured, although I knew very little about the subject.

             
‘Can you imagine a world without reality, without meaning, without Nature or freedom?’

             
‘There would be no world at all.’

             
‘These things are mere notions,’ James retorted. ‘Is there really such a thing as freedom?’

             
‘Of course there is.’

             
‘You say that because you’ve never questioned the concept of freedom. We live by rules, codes and conventions. You are not free to break the law. If you were caught, you’d be arrested. There
is
a law. Can there be freedom while this law exists? Is freedom really freedom within legal confines?’

             
‘I think real freedom is related to justice.’

             
‘Again, is there any such thing as justice? I mean, what exactly is justice anyway? Is justice what the law says it is?’

             
‘Um…’

             
‘And what is beauty? Beauty is what the media tells us beauty is. If magazines said obesity was a beautiful thing then, eventually, the public would be indoctrinated. People would go on high cholesterol diets because they were told to do so. This would be a long process, because ideologies take a while to change, but essentially we would all be revealed as sheep, without even knowing it. Incidentally, check out Rubens and his paintings as examples of Baroque conception of beauty to see how ideologies change. Justice and beauty are
just
nouns.’

             
‘And what has all this got to do with producing?’ I asked.

             
‘We are producers. We make movies and create cultural verisimilitude. But the media make us.
Noli irritare leones
! Never forget that.’

             
‘You make life sound like one big lie!’ I chuckled.

             
‘Life is a lie that you choose to believe. Our world has been fabricated. Our reality is fiction and our lives are governed by others.’

             
Despite James’s dark speech, I was very enthusiastic at that time. I wanted to do everything and embarked on the tightrope act of producing, directing and acting. I’d always wanted more control over my projects - now I had ultimate control. I’d become the money, the authority and the star of my pictures. Well, James was the real money, but our partnership proved effective.

             
Although James had said he wanted to survey everything from a distance, he often appeared on set to help me. If things became too stressful, he was on hand to aid me with his experience. I never witnessed one of his renowned, furious outbursts. He’d mellowed with age.

             
Critics praised my style, calling me a maverick filmmaker. James had groomed me. I also felt happy with my acting performances. I’d had the opportunity to play diverse roles. It suddenly didn’t matter what the press said. I was doing what I wanted to do. My real fans took an interest in my work, and not just my private life. I couldn’t have done any of this without Lauren though. She definitely wasn’t content with just sitting around at home like a WAG. She controlled a lot of the aspects of the production company from our place in Marbella, and although the distance between us could be hard at times (I’d often find myself missing her like crazy while on set – something I could never get used to), I knew that she was always thinking about me and working hard to ensure our success. She also did a voluntary course teaching English to Spanish students to satisfy her love of languages, and probably to get away from the whole Hollywood thing occasionally.

             
‘We’ve made a magnificent amount of money since we became business partners,’ James said to me in his office during an autumn afternoon.

             
The autumnal winds blew leaves against the windowpanes, and frost clung to the branches of the tall trees outside. The office was located in a grey building not far from his mansion, in the quietly elegant area, Barnes.

             
‘We certainly have. I can see that, even though I’m not good with numbers.’ I smiled, adjusting my double cuffs. I wore a high collared white shirt and classic cut black trousers. I looked the part of a businessman now.

             
‘That was my ambition. I wanted to make more money before I died. But I also wanted someone to carry on my work. There are too many conventional directors out there, Daniel.’

             
‘I agree.’

             
‘But you’re not one of them.’

             
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I learned from the best.’

             
‘You’ve certainly grown prosperous.’

             
I smiled again.

             
‘You recognize the beauty of art, the splendor of the Sistine chapel, the wonder of Shakespeare’s sonnets and Beethoven’s symphonies.’

             
‘I do. I’ve always wanted to visit the Sistine chapel…’

             
‘There’s plenty of time for that.’ James grinned. ‘You were never young to your art. You always showed great subtlety in your acting performances and your written works. I always knew you’d make a good director.’

             
‘Thank you.’

             
‘I just helped you to unleash your talent. It was always there. Any fool can recognize art, but a real artist takes note of subtlety, and knows what defines art. You’re an excellent director, wise beyond your years. You could be great.’

             
‘What are you driving at?’