Chapter 5

Mike didn't sleep too well that first night because the nighttime traffic was a real bitch outside the furnished apartment the studio gave him as a base of operations. Mrs. Murphy told him that if things panned out he would get a better place to live later on. She didn't think there would be any problem but you never knew about how new performers came out in the "rushes" and if they were able to project what she termed "a screen presence". He didn't really care one way or the other because it was all a mystery to him. All he knew was he liked the idea of acting like he was a different person and being from a different time with a different story entirely. It was a lot better than old boring Mike who played a mean game of basketball and could beat up guys with one hand tied behind his back. He noticed that most of the new bit players were either young children or innocent looking young females with lots of make-up on their faces. One of the girls told him the men were either "old hands" from the silent days or actors on loan from other studios like hired guns to flesh out a movie. She told him that he shouldn't expect much because they were more interested in handsome good looks than muscle. The muscle was for the stand-ins and the stunt persons who were willing to take the risks of having an accident on the set. He had to laugh at her frankness and discovered she was one of the ones with an actual speaking part in the "Ali Baba" movie and even did a mean hoochie coochie when called for at a censored orgy in the middle of the second reel. Her name was Rhonda something and he found out she was screwing the assistant producer who was married with four children.

The director was a German guy with a goatee that made him like a little like the Devil's Disciple. His accent was thick but Mike suspected it was a little put on and that he spoke English a lot better than he let people think. A tiny Hispanic girl shadowed him like an asshole buddy but he didn't think there was anything going one because he was fairly certain the director was queer as a three dollar bill. That didn't make any difference to him because he had seen it all in the wrestling circles and in the sports clubs.

Mike didn't like the way the director's assistant, Bettina the girl from Mexico, laughed at him when she saw him the first time. He didn't like to be laughed at like he was some kind of freak but in a way he could understand her attitude because he was not the type of person one would expect to be a movie actor. He doubted anyone knew he was an alternate for last year's Olympic Wrestling Team and that he already had his law degree even if he hadn't passed the bar as yet. He looked like a pug or some washed-up fighter with a nose broken beyond repair.

The director circled him holding his chin in his palm.

Mike could hear him muttering something in what sounded like German but he couldn't be sure because he didn't know many German people. The somewhat elderly man had him turn this way and that looking at the small viewer in his hand like it was a little screen.

"All right, big man, show me the voice so I can see if you can talk for my camera."

He thought that was really funny but he kept his feeling to himself and recited something that Sister Veronica had made him memorize the first day of her English classes.

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak and unable to cope with such a formidable and adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next week, next month, or when the British are knocking at our very doors?"

The Mexican girl looked suitably impressed which helped to restore some degree of confidence to Mike's attitude. The director was less than enthusiastic and told him,

"I don't need brains, big guy I need some deep down muscle in those words. Give me your worst."

Mike got the picture right away because, if nothing else, he was not dense.

"OK, youse guys, hit me like a man and not a bunch of little pussies."

He added a snarl to give it substance and the director almost melted at his feet.

"That's it, Mike, spot on, you have a speaking role in my "Ali Babar" movie. See my little Bettina here to get your lines. It's not much but I can visualize bigger and better things for you later on."

The director swished away with that sort of glide that epitomized the "Hollywood" in crowd of a certain category and Mike followed Bettina to a small travel trailer sitting under the shade of a large canopy next to one of the indoor sets. She got him a bottle of pop and plopped down on his lap like a big overgrown puppy wagging her tail for attention.

Mike could not help but agree that her tail was agreeably interesting and wasted no time in pulling down her tight blue jeans and flimsy undies to her ankles and showing her exactly why they called him "Big Bad Mike".

Bettina was shouting a lot of real dirty words in Spanish that Mike had to admit he understood with exposure to such vocabulary on the streets of New York on an almost daily basis. She was one of those "Juicy" girls that seemed to spray liquids at the slightest provocation. When she was naughty, he didn't hesitate to spank her brown-skinned bottom with a heavy hand that knew just how hard to deliver a smarting blow. He was certain they could be heard outside and it seemed to him that the trailer was probably rocking enough to draw attention as well. All he could think was that Bettina must not have a pristine reputation if she was so quick to get her jeans down for his special treatment.

He gave it to her in her other opening as well because she implored him to "make me feel full". It was not the sort of thing that Mike had an urge to get into but he believed in keeping cooperative females satisfied and would seldom turn down any request for special treatment.

Mike sat on the comfortable sofa reading the lines he would have to memorize. There were only about nine lines for him to read but he was overly nervous about forgetting a single word and causing the set to do something again just because of his mistake. There was only one line close to the end of the film that was difficult for him because it was not something he would have said in any circumstance. He had to deliver it to the fairly new actress Rhonda with the flaming red hair.

"You can trust me, my lady; I only want to be your devoted slave."

He found it difficult to muster sufficient sincerity in his tone to make the words believable and each time he thought of delivering them to Rhonda, he was nervous about her reaction and that she might giggle or laugh at his lumbering bulk.

He was asked to fill in for a couple of stuntman shots because he was able to lift the women in the shot easily on his shoulder and climb the wall of the palace to escape the evil sorcerer. Mike had to admit he was not all that interested in the overall storyline because it was not the sort of movie that he liked but it seemed like fun and the rest of the cast was a lot involved than he was in the final outcome. He didn't think the sorcerer or the King was that bad and that some of the girls in the harem were a bit loose in their attitudes when it came to getting their ashes hauled. It seemed strange that it was that way in the script and it was exactly the same way in real life judging from some of the stories that Bettina told him about their off-screen exploits.