In the 80', Hollywood had yet to become a worldwide landmark, so the Walk of Fame wasn't that famous yet.
When night fell, the street was no different from the others; packed with shops, crowded by pedestrians, and homeground to the occasional scantily clad girls.
In the pa.s.senger's seat of an inconspicuous car parked in the street, Eric watched with interest as men sometimes stopped to accost Julia Roberts.
Right now, the girl was wearing heavy makeup, and even those familiar with her wouldn't be able to recognize her. She was somewhat lazily laying against a lamppost, nonchalantly gazing at the ongoing traffic. She looked exactly like Eric remembered Vivian did in the movie.
Within half an hour, the men who struck up a conversation with Julia had exceeded the number of 10. Just when he was thinking of putting an end to the test, Eric noticed three to four youth dressed quite pompously encircling her.
He turned towards the robust man sitting in the driver's seat and said: "Drive, Tony. You handle them."
"Yes boss." Tony started the car and pulled next to Julia. The girl could barely maintain her smile in front of the youths, so when she noticed the car, she quickly said: "See guys, my client came to pick me up, I told you I was waiting for someone. And he's big money."
The several youths turned around and eyed the car with contempt as they struggled to contain their laughter: "Honey you're kidding, right ? How can someone with such a broken down car be from money ? Look, we'll give you 200 $ for the night, how about it ?
All the other girls on the street only charge 70 $."
Tony opened the door and got out. He was nearly two meters tall and built like a bull. He glared fiercely at the youths, who suddenly felt weak in their knees. They all smiled apologetically and scrambled with their tails between their legs.
"Miss Julia, please." said Tony, as the fierce expression on his face vanished and he considerately opened the rear door for Julia.
Julia thanked him and got in, while her a.s.sistant, Alison Green, hurriedly put a jacket on the actress. Los Angeles' nights were cold at this time of the year.
"So Eric, what did you think of my performance ?" Julia hastily asked the man who was sitting in the pa.s.senger's seat.
Eric praised: "I'm very satisfied with it, if it weren't for Tony, we might have run into some trouble."
The movie therefore held its first meeting with both main actors present, and everyone talked for an entire morning. Eric also took this opportunity to give out new pointers about the script to the cast.
After all, Al had replaced Richard Gere, and their acting style were completely different, so Eric couldn't only rely on his past knowledge to shoot this time.
He also let Al and Julia act a few scenes together. The actor tried his best to lower his acting level to hers, but in the midst of performing, he still somewhat pressured her.
Al Pacino was only a meter and seventy centimeters tall, while Julia was nearly one meter eighty with high heels on. If it had been before, Eric might have allowed Julia to wear flat shoes and Al elevator shoes in order to get rid of the height difference.
But after seeing them interact together, Eric gave up on the idea. Julia's only advantage at this point was her height, if he got rid of it, she would be crushed by Al Pacino.
Since they had agreed to spend a million of sponsorship fees for Pretty Woman, Lamborghini and its parent company, Chrysler, attached considerable importance to the project.
Two small truck parked on the training ground of a Los Angeles driving school, and under the command of the staff, two Lamborghini Diablo were carefully unloaded.
Eric and Drew were standing around, and when the la.s.s saw the two vehicles, one silver, and one purple, her eyes sparkled. "Wow, those sports cars are so cool !"
She was about to get closer when Eric stopped her, so she turned around and said: "Eric, I want the purple one, it's so beautiful !"
Eric pinched the la.s.s' small nose and laughed: "It's not a toy, you can't just have it."
Next to them, Ian Brewster, who was part of the Lamborghini staff, smiled proudly at the girl's reaction and introduced: "Miss Drew has the eye, the purple color represents n.o.bility, luxury, wealth, power, independence, pride and mystery, which tends to appeal to women a lot.
The car was specially made to meet Mr. Williams' demand, it is not yet on sale."
They chatted with several other people, then a staff leader directed Julia and Al to the two cars and began to carefully explain how it was to be operated. While they had their driver's licenses, they had never drove a Lamborghini, especially Julia, she hadn't even seen one before.
In Pretty Woman, the car appeared in the first twenty minutes of the movie, and the two actors had to drive for a long time as they introduced some of the its aspects and latest innovations.
In order to ensure there would no accident during the shooting, Eric decided to have Julia and Al go through a three-days training session. Lamborghini was also very eager to cooperate, and deliberately sent a Ian Brewster to supervise.