Chapter 10

Wednesday morning the girls were grumpy as they got up with barely enough time to make it to work. I had a nice breakfast, talked things over with Freddie before driving to Five Guys Studios for the Bodyguard audition. I was wearing my nice black suit, with sun glasses in the inside suit pocket just in case. I brought along a gym bag with several changes of clothes, including the snug short sleeved shirt, shorts, a tee and sweat pants just in case they wanted to film some action scenes. The script was tucked inside as well. It took a bit to find the right room in their sprawling main building, but finally I found it and checked in with the lady waiting outside. There was no one waiting and she brought me right in, even though I was fifteen minutes early.

The conference room she led me in was relatively small, with a marble circular table with six leather office chairs spaced out around it. Three men and two women were in the seats with one empty, assumably for me. One of the women was the star of the movie, Sandra Sullivan, or her stage name Sandra Star. They were all in conversations with each other and didn’t stop when we came in.

My guide coughed and then announced in a slightly louder than normal voice, “Sam Rollins is here for his audition.”

“Thanks,” I said to her and she smiled at me before heading back out to her post, shutting the door behind her.

The team stopped their conversations and they turned towards me.

“Hello Sam, I’m Paul Simmons, the executive producer of this film, which we’re tentatively calling it ‘The Rise to the Top’.”

“Hello everyone, thanks for inviting me to audition for your film,” I replied. “I think the script was great and I’m really interested in the role.”

“And we’re definitely interested in seeing what you can do in the role,” another man spoke up. “I’m Henry, a producer and this is Tom, the director. Helen is a co-producer and Sandra is the star of the movie.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” I said with a smile.

“Have a seat and we’ll begin,” Tom said, waving to the empty chair.

I had a seat and put the bag down on the floor beside me.

“Alright, we’ve all seen the clip of the helicopter crash and rescue of the pilot so we know you’re fit and can handle serious stunt work,” Tom continued. “We’ve heard good things about the movie Invasion, you just finished, not only about the stunts but about your supporting acting. What we need is a sense of how you see the role and then we can get you and Sandra to do some lines together before we move on to seeing you in action. Does that sound alright to you?”

“That sounds perfect,” I replied. “I’ve read the script a couple of times and I have an opinion about how the role is meant to be portrayed but I can certainly see it going in a few ways. I’m open to playing it anyway you want, so don’t think I’m focussed on how I think it should be played.”

“Understood,” Tom acknowledged.

“Okay, it seems to me that the bodyguard is meant to be played as a serious, no nonsense bodyguard who has been protecting high level government officials and then A list stars before taking this assignment,” I started. “That’s why I wore this suit. He doesn’t always have to wear a suit but he needs to be professional. He’s the odd ball to everyone else in the movie as all the hoopla and stars come in and out, he is just in the background, making sure Sandra is safe. I think that the comedy with this role is having him throw around, take down or otherwise remove all Sandra’s suitors or stalkers while being relatively smaller than the average wrestler. My various martial arts black belts will come in handy when I disable or use their weight and momentum against the bigger stars and then simply straighten out my tie, put my sunglasses back on and then take up my position beside or slightly behind her.”

“That’s an interesting take on it,” Helen stated.

“I thought so,” I replied. “You could go in so many ways with it. Show me in the background taking out someone while Sandra is on TV or signing autographs or having me take on increasingly larger men and women with the same competence and brevity of effort. Or you can go in the opposite direction and make each new scene more difficult, and the bodyguard looking worse for wear as the opponents are bigger and better. He’d be less serious and reacting with a what’s next, weary attitude. I see either as being effective as a secondary role to add some comedic action without taking away from the main focus of Sandra.”

Everyone looked at each other and then began talking about the two ways I suggested. I listened in and it was interesting to see how they discussed the pros and cons. Sandra was relatively quiet but listened in and interjected her view a couple of times. In the end they couldn’t come up with a consensus.

“You have some great ideas Sam, and we’ll get with the screenwriters to get their viewpoint but for now, how about you portray as the serious bodyguard and play it that way throughout the film, and the comedy will come from playing it straight and you throwing around the bigger, louder men and women and then going back to form?” Tom proposed.

“Alright, I can definitely do that,” I agreed. “Do you have some lines you’d like me to read? I brought a change of clothes in case you want to see some physical interaction as well.”

“Certainly, how about Sandra and I accompany you to a small sound stage and we can record the audition and then we can get you on a set with a couple stunt men to see how you do in a physical setting?” he suggested.

I grabbed my bag and said as I stood up, “It was nice to meet everyone, hopefully we’ll meet up again after this to discuss the role further.”

They nodded and smiled before I followed Tom and Sandra out of the room. Sandra was close to six feet tall and probably one-sixty to one-eighty in weight, but I was never good at judging a woman’s weight, especially one who had a very muscular body.

“So, have you watched much wrestling?” Sandra asked in a pleasant voice.

“Sorry, I haven’t actually,” I apologized.

“No need to apologize, I know it’s not to everyone’s taste,” she responded with a grin. “It will probably be better that way for your role so you have no preconceptions and can act stoic when all the wrestling celebrities show up.”

“True,” I agreed.

Tom led us to a small sound room and we sat down on a table with a mike on the table between us. He handed us a sheet of lines and we quickly read them and then practiced our first meeting.

“Miss Starr, I’m Donavan Stone, here about the bodyguard position,” I said as I pulled my sunglasses off my face and tucked them inside my suit jacket.

“Yes, Mr. Stone, please have a seat,” she replied. “You come highly recommended by people I trust. Can you give me a quick rundown of who’ve you protected and how you would see your role with me?”

“Certainly, I’ve had a few years protecting high level government officials and then transitioned to the private sector, with several movie and music star clients in California, New York and in Nashville,” I responded. “I’m called in on emergencies when there is a credible threat against a client or their families but I’ve also been just hired to analyse the security and/or provide normal protection both out in public or at their residence.”

“Good, that was how it was explained to me as well,” Sandra said. “In this case we need both from you. I’ve been getting unwanted proposals to be my boyfriend, lover or husband by men from all walks of life, including other wrestlers, music and film stars and other well-known men, and even some women. I need someone to ensure my house is secure, as they try to get at me there first. After that, I need protection every time I go out, whether it’s shopping, to a restaurant or just out for an outing at the beach, as well as at all my promotional and wrestling events.”

“I’m sure I can handle all of that, though we might need more than just me to cover everything,” I read off the page.

“Oh, you can handle getting everyone and everything you need, right?” she asked. “The house has a security system, but we might need more things added.”