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204 Yes, Mr. DeMille They're squeezing me!' With the air of a mother scolding a petulant child he said, "Look at the way you're holding them. Just relax your grip and they'll be all right/ I did, and they were." DeMille treated his lady players with an almost fatherly patience, once having impressed upon them a few ground rules. He was extraordinarily indulgent Those who reported some anxiety over a line of dialogue, perhaps suggesting a change, would receive a grateful hearing, often with a word of advice, such as, "Speak the line which seems the most natural. Writers, you know, don't often realize how people are supposed to talk." While he obliged with small concessions, no amount of weep- ing on his shoulder could prevail on him to permit basic changes in a portrayal. He saw to it they were amply forewarned. If there was one tenacious precept in the DeMille operation it was that no leading player was hired without benefit of a ceremony in the boss's office. DeMille did not cast a part cas- ually, either as to person or price. Agents were morbidly aware that they always faced the same problem, DeMille prestige vs. player salary. The former, De- Mille felt, was great enough to warrant a modification of the latter. To win over one agent he unreeled a long list of players owing their stardom to DeMille pictures. In the usual procedure, a producer instructs the studio cast- ing head to suggest this or that player for a certain role, and the deal is made. DeMille looked upon this method as slipshod. Poor casting reflected on a man's pride, no less so than poor writing. He worked on his stories, day after day, through each step of the plot, engaging his writers in a continuous round of pungent debate, denunciation and malignant outcries. DeMille, more than any producer, sired his plots and was keen to every little nuance in them, and therefore not just any player was qualified to bring the narrative to life. He made it not a point but a ceremony to tell every player just what a part meant and how it might be portrayed.