Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

44 Chapter 044

After coming back to New York, the first thing that Aiden did was to open up his social media accounts and make a post, saying he was alive and was just busy somewhere.

He even posted a photo of him outside his apartment.

During the shooting, Aiden had not used social media even after the shooting, and he kept thinking of his character and making notes about him.

He also got into the habit of reading books about war to understand a bit more about what goes on in a soldier’s mind.

So, he never really got the time to be on social media. Though, he knew a bit of what was going on.

‘Hold on to me’ has gone viral, and many people have streamed it on Melody and MeTube, making him famous. It was especially used a lot at weddings.

Because of this, he was getting a lot of messages, and even some people wanted to book him for a show, but because he was busy shooting, he was not able to accept those.

Currently, Aiden was staring at his screen, where two messages could be seen.

[127,000$ has been transferred to your bank account ending with XXXX]

[146,000$ has been transferred to your bank account ending with XXXX]

These two messages were from MeTube and Melody, respectively, where just ‘Hold onto me’ was getting a lot of reception.

Even his other songs like ‘Lonely’, ‘Life is a story’, and ‘I can’t seem to forget’ were getting more views every day thanks to one viral song of his.

Every single one of his songs has crossed a million, and his money problems were more or less solved for the next few months._.

Thanks to that, he doesn’t have to work in the bar now. 

If he could keep churning out songs each month, Aiden won’t be able to worry about money even if he didn’t get any other roles. This proved that he was moving steps in his career.

But if he truly wanted to make a huge jump in his career, he needed better connections, and because of that, today, he had come to meet his Uncle.

‘The restaurant still looks the same.’

Aiden thought as he looked at the restaurant in front of him. It was named ‘Dungeon of Food’ and had been started by his Uncle Sam a few years ago.

Although the restaurant has a peculiar name because of his Uncle’s hobbies, the food was great, and it was a bit famous.

“Welcome!”

As Aiden entered the restaurant, he was greeted by a familiar voice. He smiled at the girl who was behind the counter and asked, “Hello, Lisa, it’s been a while.”

The blonde woman stared at him for a second, surprised because she hadn’t seen him in a long time. Her name was Lisa Silvereye, Aiden’s cousin, and she was a few years older than him and was already married.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were in Australia.” She asked as Aiden’s eyes scanned the filled restaurant, not finding his Uncle there.

“I came back yesterday,” He replied, then asked. “Where’s Uncle Sam? I wanted to meet him.”

“He’s in his office, playing some new video game. You know his childish hobbies.”

Lisa replied, pointing at the door that led to his Uncle’s office.

He thanked her before walking toward his Uncle’s office. He quickly found it and knocked on the door.

“Who’s there? I’m busy.” A rough, middle-aged voice came out of the room.

“It’s me, Uncle Sam. Aiden.”

“Aiden! You finally remembered to come back? Get in!” 

With that confirmation, he opened the door and saw his Uncle sitting on the sofa with a large screen in front of him. He was playing some sort of FPS video game and was in the middle of killing an ugly octopus monster.

“I didn’t know you would come back so soon.” His Uncle said as he gestured to Aiden to sit in front of him.

Uncle Sam looked like a buff, white guy who must have been through many wars. But Aiden knew that the latter just looked like that. The closest his Uncle had been to war was by playing video games.

“How are you these days? It looks like the business is booming.” Aiden asked.

“Yeah, it’s good enough that I could buy games without worry. Not a lot of stuff gives me excitement in life these days. Your aunt stopped doing that years ago.” He chuckled. “Anyway, how was Australia?”

Uncle Sam looked at him with keen eyes. He was very happy that Aiden was finally putting a foot in Hollywood.

“It was pretty good. My days just went by sitting on the set.”

“That’s boring.” Uncle Sam frowned. “You know when I went to Australia once, I spent my time on beaches. Beach and Bikinis are the reason to go to Australia, and you just wasted it on shooting. You should have stayed to have some fun.”

Saying that Uncle Sam shook his head, looking disappointed. Though, in his heart, he was also happy that Aiden was giving more priority to work than having fun.

Something that was very important in the long run.

“Anyway, Uncle, I actually came to meet you for some reason.” Aiden quickly changed the subject and came to the main topic.

“What reason? Do you need money?” Uncle Sam asked, but Aiden quickly shook his head.

“No, I have enough of it for now. The thing is more to do with my career.” Uncle Sam became serious after hearing that.

“I need an agent.” Aiden added.

An agent is something that every actor in Hollywood needs, and a good agent can easily make the career of an actor, and a bad one can end it too. 

Uncle Sam clearly understood the value of a good agent as it was an agent who would get roles for an actor and make out a plan for career growth. There were countless actors whose careers have gone downhill because of a bad agent.

So, it was something very important.

Not only getting roles, agents also help with legal matters. For example, Aiden still hasn’t gotten the full payment for his role in [Shadows of War], even if it was in his contract.

He had called Zero International, but they had not given him a proper reply. If he had an agent, he would have already handled everything, and Aiden would get his payment.

“You won’t be joining an agency? Something like SGA or Red Ant Agency will surely be good for you.”

Steve Grant Agency (SGA) and Red Ant were both top agencies with countless actors in them. Every rookie would dream of getting such an agency due to the connections they have.

“I don’t want to be bound by a contract. And you do know these agencies have a lot of actors, and it’s hard to get resources for themselves.”

Aiden said, thinking of a line from an article he had read – Agencies would make a star every year, but that one star is standing on hundreds of others that failed.

“I do know that. But finding a good agent that’s not connected with an agency but still has connections is very hard.” Uncle Sam muttered, sighing a bit, but Aiden smirked.

“That’s why I have come to you.”

“I lost my contacts a long time ago, Aiden. You do know it’s almost been a decade.”

Uncle Sam frowned, thinking of the old days. He used to own a mid-sized movie studio called Silver films, and it had done very well at the start. But over the years, he got tired of Hollywood, and after a few flop movies, he closed his studio and started this restaurant.

He was earning less, but now he had peace.

His previous connection to Hollywood was also the reason Aiden had come to him to start his search for an agent.

“I know you don’t attach yourself to Hollywood, but I don’t really have anyone else to go to,” Aiden said. “I can’t depend on guild agents to handle the contract every time.”

“Well, let me think.”

Uncle Sam finally said, not wanting to disappoint Aiden. He knew his nephew had a lot of talent, and he didn’t want it to go to waste.

But in the free-agent market, there were only a few good ones. Others were just fringes that would try to scam actors out of their money.

A good agent would get gobbled up by an agency as soon as they realize his talent, as, unlike actors, a good agent is much rare to come by.

‘A good agent. Someone who could truly help Aiden… Ah, Yes! There’s one!’

Uncle Sam suddenly thought and made a smile. But it quickly turned into a conflicting one as Aiden asked.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. I just thought of a good agent that would be perfect for you but…”

“But?”

Aiden raised an eyebrow and shook his head a bit, Uncle Sam explained.

“He doesn’t have a good character. More like, he’s too straightforward for his own good. Just purely on work, he’s top-notch. But he doesn’t work with someone he doesn’t like. There are even cases where he has punched an actor he was working with.”

Hearing that, Aiden couldn’t help but think that people in Hollywood truly loved punching others.

But he didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity.

“He has a bad character, but he’s good, right?”

“Very good. He has worked with many actors, and although he never really worked with someone for long, he helped them greatly in the short time he was their agent.”

“What’s his name?” Aiden asked.

“Wade Spectre”