Choosing Eva Mendes might pave the way for the future filming of the fast and the furious 2 and add a touch of chemistry.
In Hollywood, this kind of foresight sometimes brings unexpected convenience.
"Reply to Jimmy," Landon closed the folder and said to Zoe,
"I appreciate the company's recommendation; these candidates are all very excellent. However, if possible, I'd like to try and invite Eva Mendes. I feel her temperament is very suitable for the story Burn wants to tell."
Zoe noted it down, nodded, and turned to make the contact.
She thought to herself that the boss's eye for talent always possessed an unfathomable personal preference.
After the decision was made, Landon pulled his attention back to the set.
Not far away, Jennifer Connelly was seriously discussing the blocking for the next shot with Director Howard, her profile appearing focused and soft under the studio lights.
That night, after returning to the hotel, Zoe finished washing up early, even changing into a set of particularly soft and loose silk pajamas, wearing nothing underneath; the feeling of the fabric rubbing against her skin made her shiver slightly.
Then, she laboriously dragged a relatively light single sofa from the Room to the wall shared with Landon's suite, pressing it tightly against it.
She didn't want to end up slumped on the cold carpet like the previous few times.
She even took a small bottle of red wine and a few individually wrapped butter cookies from the mini-bar, placing them on a small tea table she had dragged from the window.
After finishing all this, she curled up in the sofa, hugging her knees, like waiting for the opening of an exclusive movie screening.
She couldn't explain why she had developed such a strange and private "listening" habit, but the deep-seated urge to know tonight's "plot" next door suppressed all shame and reason.
In the suite next door, Jennifer's mood was also unsettled.
As the filming of A Beautiful Mind neared its end, the day Landon would leave the crew drew closer, making her cherish the time they could still spend together day and night, especially the nights when they could freely share private creative moments.
She hoped every night would be special enough, memorable enough.
Tonight, the "play" she prepared was quite ambitious, a small, personal "breakthrough" in her acting career.
As an actress, she would play three roles by herself.
The inspiration came from a slightly absurd film she starred in early in her career called Some Girls, but she had significantly adapted and deepened it.
The story was set in Quebec, Canada, during Christmas.
The male lead, Michael (played by Landon), was an ordinary college student invited by his girlfriend Gabriella (played by Jennifer) to her home in an old, dilapidated family mansion in Quebec, expecting a romantic holiday.
However, as soon as he stepped into the mansion, it was like entering an otherworldly realm.
At the same time, Zoe's radio drama began.
She heard Jennifer's voice first become willful and emotional, sometimes as hot as fire, with sweet calls and endearments that seemed to melt someone through the wall;
At other times, it was cold and sharp, full of impatient rebukes and detachment.
Then, there was a clear "pop" sound, like a champagne cork popping, followed by Landon's sudden cry of pain and a muffled curse.
The first act of the good show ended.
Zoe's fingers clenched the edge of her pajamas, her heart pounding.
Michael met Gabriella's two sisters in the mansion.
First was Lucy—Jennifer's voice changed abruptly, becoming low and raspy, full of cynical ridicule, her words like a knife, constantly cutting away at Michael's confidence and fantasies.
Zoe seemed to be able to "hear" the embarrassment and oppression brought by those words.
Then, Irene appeared.
Jennifer's voice changed again, becoming ethereal and lazy, carrying a heart-tugging allure.
In Zoe's imagination, the lights in the suite next door must be dimmed very low; Irene might be wearing thin gauze clothing, her figure flickering in the gloom like an elf or a succubus of the night.
The vocal interaction became ambiguous and intense, with the soft rustle of clothing, breathing getting heavier, Jennifer's seductive low moans as Irene, coming as if from afar, and Landon's muffled groans from restraint to abandoning resistance... eventually, they merged into a hearty "battle" full of the sense of conquering and being conquered.
The walls seemed to vibrate slightly; Zoe bit her finger, her other hand already uncontrollably sliding into her pajamas.
Her body rose and fell slightly, the red wine forgotten on the tea table.
However, the plot didn't stop there.
The cynical female voice of Lucy appeared again, having seen the show just now.
After a brief silence, there was Landon's somewhat flustered and embarrassed whispered explanation, and Lucy's signature playful and ironic response.
Then, in a situation with only the two of them, that cynical Lucy's voice actually changed as she began to seduce Michael.
Landon's voice revealed a contradiction of struggle and gradual surrender... the third act unfolded with a different tone, Lucy's initiative carrying a vengeful, inquisitive fervor.
It was completely different from Irene's mysterious temptation.
For Zoe on this side of the wall, this was simply the torture of information overload.
Listening to Landon maneuvering between the three sisters with vastly different personalities.
Because Zoe couldn't see the scene or Jennifer's changes in attire, she could only rely on sound and scattered dialogue to piece together the plot, which created a strong sense of "discontinuity" and "fragmentation."
She had barely projected herself onto Irene before she had to switch to Lucy in the next second.
This left Zoe mentally exhausted, unable to achieve the relatively continuous sense of immersion she had before.
However, her body's reaction was honest and strong.
Despite the fragmented immersion, the three plots with distinct styles were like three waves of precision-strike waves, washing her away one after another.
Every time the battle next door paused briefly, she could take a short breath, realizing her loss of composure with a flushed face.
The cookies on the tea table were untouched, but she had unconsciously drunk more than half of the small bottle of wine; the tipsiness made her hearing sharper and her body's reactions even more uncontrollable.
As the plot next door reached the final cinematic climax—the three sisters conspiring to tell Michael the absurd hoax that he had a fatal infectious disease and was about to die—Zoe's attention instead began to wander.
Zoe was now left with only a lazy exhaustion and a slight sense of emptiness.
She vaguely heard Landon's (Michael's) performance ranging from fear and anger to final acceptance, and heard Jennifer switching between different roles, performing hypocritical sadness, persistent irony, and morbid comfort.
Finally, everything returned to peace, as if Michael had seen through the hoax and left that twisted mansion, exhausted in body and mind.