Chapter 851: The Quirks of Hollywood Stars

"Just who is she playing?" James Franco asked Duke in a low voice from behind the director's chair. After collaborating a few times, he had grown quite familiar with Duke. "To think you're keeping it such a secret that even we don't know."

Duke took the water cup handed to him by Tina Fey, took a sip, and said, "You'll find out soon enough."

Anyone who fully understood Batman and the original comics would be able to guess who Margot Robbie was playing after watching the upcoming shoot.

However, Duke had already warned everyone that the news was not to be leaked.

"Lighting ready!"

"Camera ready!"

"Props ready!"

"Makeup ready!"

"Actors ready!"

On the soundstage decorated as an asylum, Margot Robbie appeared on set right on time. Dressed in a tailored professional suit and wearing appropriate makeup, she looked astute and capable.

"Mary!"

Seeing Margot Robbie, Duke waved his hand. When she walked over, he instructed, "Pay attention to the character's attitude and temperament. You are an ambitious, strong-willed woman with a natural interest in this type of psychological criminal."

Margot Robbie nodded earnestly.

Duke waved her off, letting her enter the set to prepare.

Once everything was ready, Duke gestured to the clapper loader, who walked up to the main camera with the slate.

"Scene three, take one!" the clapper loader shouted. "Action!"

Leaning back in his director's chair, Duke didn't look at the monitors; instead, he kept his eyes on the set in front of the camera.

This actress named Margot Robbie had been recommended by Leonardo DiCaprio. She also had another identity—Xiao Li's new girlfriend.

Of course, this was only one of the reasons Duke had cast her. On the other hand, she was genuinely suited for the role. Otherwise, even with a recommendation from Leonardo, he would have rejected her without hesitation.

In an office within Arkham Asylum, a middle-aged man introduced Margot Robbie to an actor dressed as the warden. "This is the new psychological consultant for the inmates, Ms. Harleen Quinzel."

Then he turned to Margot Robbie to make the next introduction. "This is Quincy Sharp, the warden here."

"Hello, Warden Sharp."

Margot Robbie shook hands with the actor.

The test shoot went smoothly. During the actual filming that followed, Duke announced it a wrap after just one take.

Afterward, it was another scene for Margot Robbie. She strongly demanded to become the attending physician for a certain deranged criminal locked up in Arkham Asylum.

The camera also gave a massive close-up to the documents she held. The close-up revealed the mad criminal's name—the Joker!

In Duke's conceptualization, the Joker would not appear directly in the film, but he would still influence this city in another way, especially through this newly added character.

This woman named Harleen Quinzel was originally a renowned authority on criminal psychology in Gotham City, specially hired by Arkham Asylum as a psychological consultant for the inmates. In the script's setting, Harleen Quinzel was an ambitious, strong-willed woman with a fierce drive for research. Driven by her identity as a psychiatrist, psychological researcher, and her own curiosity, Harleen possessed an intense interest in and desire to conquer Gotham City's legendary criminal, the Joker.

She spent a great deal of time and energy researching the Joker. Though she strained herself, it yielded no results. Later, without permission from the relevant authorities, she illegally began researching the Joker's mental state and psychological world. Believing his completely chaotic, unconventional, and utterly mad logic was a psychological treasure trove, she wanted to uncover his mental construct and the secrets hidden within. Unexpectedly, through her time interacting with the Joker and the accumulation of day and night research, Harleen unwittingly fell deeply and inextricably in love with him. She was later arrested, her medical license was revoked, and she was deemed a psychiatric patient herself.

After the morning shoot concluded, Leonardo DiCaprio visited the set.

"What role did you actually give Mary?" Leonardo asked, brimming with curiosity when he found Duke. "She wouldn't even tell me. She even said she signed a non-disclosure agreement with the production team."

Instructing his assistant to tidy up the director's workstation, Duke turned to Leonardo and said, "While the non-disclosure agreement is in effect, Leo, you don't have the right to know."

Leonardo understood Duke quite well, so he simply said, "Lunch together? My treat."

"Your treat?" Duke looked at him in surprise, unhesitatingly calling him out. "You're not going to make me foot the bill in the end, are you?"

"Definitely not!" Leonardo didn't mind the jab, quickly shaking his head.

Despite how Leonardo DiCaprio would always throw around massive sums of money without a second thought when investing in famous paintings and artwork, he had a strange quirk: whenever he ate with others, even if he was the one treating, he never liked to pay the bill.

It wasn't just Duke; many insiders knew that there was a man in Hollywood who could earn at least 20 million dollars per film, yet incredibly made his girlfriends pay the bill every time they dined out. This person was the famously handsome Hollywood star, Leonardo DiCaprio.

Back when he was dating Gisele Bundchen, the supermodel had once told Duke that she leaned toward a more masculine role in their relationship. Whenever she went out to eat with Leonardo, she footed the bill ninety percent of the time. However, she didn't mind it; paying the bill felt great anyway, so it didn't matter.

In truth, quite a few Hollywood stars who made heaps of money also had a very stingy side.

At the very last minute before Julia Roberts and Danny Moder's wedding, she was still out on a massive shopping spree at Walmart. The famous wide-mouthed star bought hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, cabbage, and the like. The guests who had flown in from thousands of miles away ended up eating exactly that!

Even more outrageously, in February of this year, Julia Roberts took a liking to a somewhat expensive suit at a thrift store and actually tried to negotiate with the clerk to trade the clothes on her back for it.

Hollywood also had another famous penny-pincher who was extremely stingy—Catherine Zeta-Jones. Her donations at charity galas had never exceeded four figures. At a charity fundraising gala in Los Angeles, she had shockingly only been willing to offer 25 dollars for a bid. This act stunned the entire audience and completely exposed her extremely stingy nature.

Of course, the quirks of Hollywood stars were endless, and these were nothing in comparison.

Things like Johnny Depp liking to collect Barbie dolls, Tom Hanks enjoying walking around completely naked on his balcony, Jennifer Lopez preferring to eat breakfast naked with her friends and family, and Nicole Kidman breaking down if a butterfly landed on her, were long past being secrets.

Perhaps it was because Hollywood stars had too much money and nowhere to spend it, or perhaps their mental stress was simply too immense. Whether it was in their daily lives, diets, spending habits, pets, or even sexual preferences, they all harbored a variety of strange quirks.

For example, George Clooney liked sleeping with a white pig, while Nicole Kidman would inevitably bring her own bedsheets when staying at a hotel. Mariah Carey owned thousands of pairs of designer shoes and would try on new ones wearing lingerie whenever she was upset. Madonna absolutely loved eating popcorn and could sit naked in a movie theater as long as she had some to eat. Meanwhile, "The Godfather" Robert De Niro couldn't work without eating a salad or cold dishes.

Then there was former "vegetarian" Liv Tyler, who started binge-eating meat after suffering a heartbreak. Wealthy men like Bruce Willis and Spielberg truly had too much money with nowhere to spend it; the former built a villa resembling a palace, while the latter actually installed his own traffic lights inside his estate. Megastars, so empty inside that they only had pets for company, dared to raise absolutely anything. From tiny insect-eating spiders to large African chimpanzees, there was nothing too bizarre. And as for the stars addicted to sex parties, their sexual quirks were even more nauseating.

During the early stages on the soundstage, Margot Robbie didn't have many scenes. It only took three days for Duke to wrap up all the scenes Harleen Quinzel needed to shoot in Los Angeles before he moved on to other shots.

Since Michael Caine was getting older and had other film commitments, Duke moved his scenes up slightly. The interactions between Michael Caine's Alfred and Christian Bale were also one of the highlights of this film, and the relationship between the two would undergo a major shift.

In Batman Begins, Duke had revealed the relationship between Alfred and Bruce Wayne. Back then, the reason Alfred was able to support Bruce Wayne using extreme methods to forge the iconic figure of Batman was because, eventually, all these necessary acts would lead to a perfect conclusion.

Batman was like a catalyst that would turn Gotham City into a continually renewing, crime-free new city, allowing Bruce Wayne to finally embark on his own wonderful life.

But coming to The Dark Knight Rises, the script's Alfred grew increasingly troubled because he realized Bruce Wayne hadn't been able to free himself from the heavy burden of being Batman; instead, he was sinking deeper and deeper.

Although Bruce Wayne no longer donned the Batsuit every night to weave through the streets and alleys punishing criminals, it was obvious he hadn't completely let go of that period of his life. Alfred felt a responsibility to help Bruce Wayne break free from this experience that left him so profoundly conflicted.

It was exactly this mindset that caused the major shift in their relationship.

In truth, Alfred's perspective wasn't entirely wrong. Aside from pain and disaster, Gotham City, which Bruce Wayne had guarded with all his heart, seemingly hadn't brought him a single thing.

Filming in Los Angeles lasted for two full weeks. The action scenes were mostly shot inside the hangar at the Hughes Aircraft Plant, while the dramatic scenes were filmed at Warner Studios. Although they encountered an accident midway through where three IMAX Cameras broke down simultaneously, forcing the crew to pause, Duke and the team still managed to complete this portion of the shoot within the planned timeframe.

Moving forward, Duke would lead the crew out of the soundstage, traveling across three continents for the shoot: Britain, India, and North America.

And right as Duke was preparing for the location shoots, a company that had stood against him for many years quietly declared bankruptcy.