8 days passed and things got a lot better for me. Angelina's idea helped me a lot, the fact that I could practice on the set for a while helped me act better in front of everyone and also helped me once the camera was filming. The reputation I had destroyed in less than two hours on the first day was slowly being rebuilt and I also felt myself becoming a better actor, me and Elle would usually practice different movie scenes together and sometimes when she was around Angelina would even help us a lot. Robert Stromberg and I had also started talking a lot more and he was quite a nice guy, though he sometimes gave blond's a run for their reputation.
Overall I felt myself slowly but surely gaining confidence, it seems like over the years I had subconsciously taken a hit in confidence every time I was rejected from a role, but as more and more days on set happened, that was changing
Since not all my scenes were being shot at the same time, I wasn't forced to go to the set everyday but I usually would still try to go just to experience as much of the production as I could. Today however, James had come from America to see how things were going and wanted to talk to me. This had made my mother plan for all four of us to go to the British museum after our little meeting. She and I would leave first and then my father and brother would join us for the rest of the day.
"What do you think he wants to meet us for?" I asked my mom.
"I think he probably just wants to know whether everything is going well or not, he'll probably come with you on set for a day or two and then go back to taking care of his other clients."
James actually had more than 21 clients at the moment, most of them in their teens or early twenties, before I was just 1 out of 21, but now that I had gotten a speaking role I was miles ahead of most of them.
"I think there's something else" I said, my mom raised a brow at that.
"You do ? Why?" she asked
"Because if it was only a check-in he would've just met us tomorrow on set, he wouldn't have wanted to meet us in a coffee shop like he is right now."
We soon took a taxi and promptly arrived at the coffee shop. We chose a place near the British museum to join my brother and my dad in an hour or two.
We took a seat and decided to order something since we hadn't had breakfast yet and 15 minutes later James arrived just in time.
"Hey kiddo, how are you doing? Is the production treating you alright? I heard you had some trouble on the first day?" he said, giving me a side hug before taking a seat facing me.
"I had a little bit of trouble but nothing too bad, things are much better now and everything is going very well." I replied
"That's good, that's good, remember to tell me if anything happens on set alright ? It's my job to be the bad guy in front of the production"
"Yes yes I know, so did you have something else to tell me?" I asked
"What? Can't I just be here to look after my dear client, you wo-" he said, openly teasing me, I swear it's like a pastime of his.
"James, please we have to be at the British in less than an hour, don't piss me off." I replied, rolling my eyes but still unable to hide a smile, despite his need to tease me all the time he was a nice guy to be around.
"Alright fine, I'm here because a friend of mine who works with Jason Blum told me that he's developing a small horror movie for Universal, they have a tentative title: The Purge it's about a family during the said event of the same name." he said, pausing for effect.
I took a second to register everything, he said family so I guess they need a teenage boy for a role ? "That's great" I said grinning at the idea of another role coming so soon, "Is there a role for me?"
"Yeah there is, I was talking to my contact and they said they initially were going for a 15 year old girl and 11 year old boy, however it seems like the screenwriter had a good bit of trouble selling the script so they're no longer too strict on that" he replied."Because of that you can try out for it."
"Great" I said, "When is the audition?"
"Well that's the thing" he said, hesitating a little,"The pre-production has run into quite a bit of trouble, their budget was slashed and this caused the initial main character to drop out of the movie since they could no longer afford him, this further delayed the production and because of that they've had to adjust their budget down, they'll be holding auditions in a little less than two weeks, more precisely on the 25th of July to start filming on the 1st"
I frowned at that, this would mean we would have to cut our vacation short, I turned to my mother, who was also frowning, not sure what to say.
"I know that you guys have a vacation planned after the shooting is done but this is a pretty good script and I think it has the potential to make a lot of money at the box office." he stated.
"But you said pre-production has been troubled" interrupted my mom,"Isn't this usually a bad sign for a movie?" continued my mom, visibly hesitating.
To be honest I wasn't sure either, productions that are troubled can either have a really good outcome or a really bad one, there's usually no in-between.
"Before deciding anything can we know what's the concept of the movie?" I asked
"Okay so basically, America experienced a really bad economic crisis where crime, homelessness and everything you can imagine has spiked. In the last election, a new political party was put into power that organised an event, The Purge, where for twelve hours one night every year all crime is legal including murder." he stated. "That's as much as I got from my contact."
I took a second to take it all in, this was probably going to be a slasher film with a bit of suspense. Honestly I wanted to take it, slasher films were pretty cool, and I really enjoyed things like Halloween or Scream. This was also a new concept that sounded pretty interesting and more importantly, this was a Blumhouse Productions project and their biggest movies were horror movies like Paranormal Activity, Insidious or even Sinister that came out this year, they had a good track record when it came to stuff like that.
"I don't know how much they'll be able to pay you, but I know it won't be nearly as much as this production that's for sure." he continued. "I know that might be a lot to ask but this would fill up your resume quite nicely and you need that to be honest."
I kind of expected that, for small movies you usually don't get much of a salary and make most of your money in a big bonus if the movie is successful. I honestly still wanted to do it, but I didn't want to force my parents to stop the vacation either.
"Where would the movie be filmed?" asked my mom." We probably won't be able to afford another long break, even me, I'll probably have to start working again pretty soon."
James relaxed at that,"That won't be an issue, they're filming in LA" he said,"They also want actors living in LA as much as possible since they don't want to pay for lodging and food."
"We'll need time to think about all of this," I said. "I'll try to get you an answer before you leave."
Honestly, my mind was made up, I knew I wanted to do this movie and I was going to convince them to come back earlier by any means necessary.
(Break)
"Are you sure you want to do this movie?" asked my mom after James left.
"Yeah I'm sure" I replied."I'm in the very special position where I need to take on as many projects as possible to build up a reputation. I also told you what happened on the first day on set. I panicked and I wasted a lot of time for a lot of people because I was a newbie."
"This was your first time though, you should cut yourself some slack." stated my mom, worried. "Also, aren't you worried about overexerting yourself? It'll have barely been a week before the end of this movie."
"Well yeah, but that's only the auditions, they start filming later than that, plus considering this stage fright thing I have, if I want to move on from it as soon as possible, I'll need to be in front of a camera as much as I can." I replied, I then further stated, knowing I needed a good argument if I wanted to convince her.
"I also think I should do it because I don't know when the next opportunity will present itself for me, it could be in a year, it could be in five, heck I could never get another opportunity again... And, didn't you put more hours in, in the first few years of your career? You said that that's what made the difference when it came to promotions, so what's the problem if I work harder now? It's the same thing." I argued.
She looked at me and sighed at that," You know, with the way you argue you could become a lawyer." she said, pausing, thinking for a while, then said. "Alright I'll talk to your father, though he'll probably agree anyway."
I grinned at that, gave my mother a big hug before saying,"Thanks mom, I love you."
"I love you too baby, now come on, let's visit this damn museum." she said.
We soon arrived at the British Museum, where we were joined by Luca and my father.
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Hey y'all, sorry for the late update, some work got done late so could only post now, still thanks for reading. 😁