2006年VOA标准英语-Will Ferrell Stars in "Stranger Than Fiction"

By Alan Silverman
Hollywood
12 November 2006

Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman co-star in a comedy-fantasy about an author with writer's block and the ordinary man who discovers he is a character in one of her books.

Will Ferrell stars in Columbia's Stranger Than Fiction

Novelist Karen Eiffel is at work on her latest book, filled with intricate details about a lonely income tax auditor¹ at the Internal Revenue Service. So imagine the surprise of lonely IRS auditor Harold Crick when he begins to hear the author's voice describing details of his life. The trouble for Harold is only he can hear her:

It seems like a petty annoyance² until the novel's plot takes an ominous³ turn ...ominous for Harold, that is.

To save his life, Harold must discover whose voice he is hearing in his head ...and then convince her not to bump him off on the last page of her novel, as she does with the main characters in all of her books.

Will Ferrell, best-known for broad comic characters, taps into a more subtle humor as Harold. "It was actually a welcome change for me to get to be not so overt⁴ with everything. It was a nice challenge to play things subtly for the run of an entire movie and be as close to, for lack of a better term, a 'real person' than I've ever gotten to be," he says. "It's very usual to underplay as much as I was doing, at least for me. It wasn't something I was used to doing, so there were moments when it did feel slightly foreign to be so still or quiet. I was wondering 'I'm speaking so softly; I wonder if the microphone is picking up what I'm saying.' But once you start playing something and living in that world and character for a while, it starts to settle in."

Emma Thompson plays the reclusive author who prefers dealing⁵ with characters on the page rather than meeting them in person. "There is nothing in the flat where she writes. There is no evidence, really, of her; and it is as though she's trying to wipe herself out time and again. When she suddenly realizes 'I kill them all' you know that she's talking about herself," she says.

In his search for answers (and a way to save his life), Harold turns to a literary expert: university professor Hilbert, played by Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman who says this character's quirks⁶ - such as constantly gulping⁷ down coffee or occasionally lounging barefoot in his office - come from a a key concept he studied at the beginning of his acting⁸ career: behavior.

"And behavior simply means that we get more information out of each other by their behavior, not their words. The words are just words. Sometimes they are insightful, but many times when you are listening to me there is so much other stuff that you're thinking about and some of it is being revealed in your behavior. I wanted the audience to know this guy, so I said to myself 'this guy has no life except here.' Almost all my stuff takes place in this office [which is] where he lives his life. This is his house. That's why I'm barefoot. That's why I'm always with the coffee. That's why I'm lying down. He doesn't have a home to go to. Wherever he lives, he probably doesn't want to be there.

The cast also features Maggie Gyllenhaal as a free-spirited - and tax-evading - baker⁹ who captures Harold's heart in the romantic screenplay by Zach Helm. "One of the big themes about the movie is how we look at the details of our life and it was really important to make the script detailed¹⁰ in that sense. Mies van der Rohe said 'God is in the details' and it's a fun thing for me to be able to play around with that stuff and, for all that's in the film, I try not to take it too seriously. So to put little puzzles and hints and foreshadowing is just great fun for me," he says.

Stranger Than Fiction is directed by Marc Forster, whose previous films include Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland. The German-born Swiss film maker¹¹ is currently at work on a screen adaptation of The Kite Runner, the acclaimed¹² novel by Afghani-born author Khaled Hosseini.

1 auditor   

n.审计员，旁听着

参考例句：

• The auditor was required to produce his working papers.那个审计员被要求提供其工作底稿。
• The auditor examines the accounts of all county officers and departments.审计员查对所有县官员及各部门的帐目。

2 annoyance   

n.恼怒，生气，烦恼

参考例句：

• Why do you always take your annoyance out on me?为什么你不高兴时总是对我出气？
• I felt annoyance at being teased.我恼恨别人取笑我。

3 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

4 overt   

adj.公开的，明显的，公然的

参考例句：

• His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。

5 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

6 quirks   

n.奇事，巧合( quirk的名词复数 )；怪癖

参考例句：

• One of his quirks is that he refuses to travel by train. 他的怪癖之一是不愿乘火车旅行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All men have their own quirks and twists. 人人都有他们自己的怪癖和奇想。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 gulping   

v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的现在分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住

参考例句：

• She crawled onto the river bank and lay there gulping in air. 她爬上河岸，躺在那里喘着粗气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• And you'll even feel excited gulping down a glass. 你甚至可以感觉到激动下一杯。 来自互联网

8 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

9 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

10 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

11 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

12 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。