C
Bobby Moresco grew up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, a tough working-class neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side. But Hell’s Kitchen lies right next door to Broadway, and the bright lights attracted Bobby from the time he was a teen. Being stage-struck was hardly what a street kid could admit to his partners. Fearing their ridicule, he told no one, not even his girlfriend, when he started taking acting lessons at age 17. If you were a kid from the neighborhood, you became a cop, construction worker, longshoreman or criminal. Not an actor.
Moresco struggled to make that long walk a few blocks east. He studied acting, turned out for all the cattle calls, and during the decade of the 1970s made a total of $2,000. “I wasn’t a good actor, but I had a driving need to do something different with my life,” he says.
He moved to Hollywood, where he drove a cab and worked as a bartender(酒保). “My father said, ‘Stop this craziness and get a job; you have a wife and daughter.’’’ But Moresco kept working at his chosen craft.
Then in 1983 his younger brother Thomas was murdered in a mob-linked killing. Moresco moved back to his old neighborhood and started writing as a way to explore the pain and the patrimony(继承物)of Hell’s Kitchen. Half-Deserted Streets, based on his brother’s killing, opened at a small Off-Broadway theater in 1988. A Hollywood producer saw it and asked him to work on a screenplay.
His reputation grew, and he got enough assignments to move back to Hollywood. By 2003, he was again out of work and out of cash when he got a call from Paul Haggis, a director who had befriended him. Haggis wanted help writing a film about the country after September 11. The two worked on the writing, but every studio in town turned it down. They kept pitching it. Studio executives, however, thought no one wanted to see a severe, honest vision of race and fear and lives in collision(冲突、碰撞) in modern America.
Moresco believed so strongly in the script that he borrowed money, sold his house. He and Haggis kept pushing. At last the writers found an independent film producer who would take a chance, but the upfront money was too little, Moresco delayed his salary.
Crash slipped into the theaters in May 2005, and quietly became both a hit and a critical success. It was nominated for six Academy Awards and won three---Best Picture, Best Film Editing and Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Paul Haggis and the kid from Hell’s Kitchen.
At age 54, Bobby Moresco became an overnight success. “If you have something you want to do in life, don’t think about the problems,” he says, “think about other ways to get it done.”
10. Rearrange the following statements in term of time order:
a. His work Half-Deserted Streets drew attention as it opened at a small Off-Broadway theater.
b. Unexpectedly Crash became both a hit and a huge success.
c. He moved to Hollywood to be a taxi driver and a waiter.
d. He started to learn acting in spite of hardness with the belief of doing something different.
e. His younger brother Thomas was killed in conflict among bullies.
A. d; c; e; a; b B. d; e; c; b; a C. c; d; e; a; b D. c; e; d; b; a
11. Why Bobby Moresco did not tell anyone that he started taking lessons at age 17?
A. He wanted to give his girlfriend a surprise.
B. His girlfriend did not allow him to do this.
C. He was afraid of being laughed at.
D. He had no talent for acting.
12. The Studio executives turned the script Crash down because ______.
A. they thought the script would not be popular
B. the script was not well written.
C. they had no money to make the film based on the script.
D. they thought Moresco was not famous.
13. What’s the best title of the passage?
A. The Road to Success
B. Try It a Different Way
C. A Talented man---Moresco
D. Moresco’s Perseverance
14. Which of the following can best describe Bobby Moresco?
A. initiative(主动的) and persistent(坚持的)
B. shy but hardworking
C. caring and brave
D. aggressive and modest
