Chapter 11

Thursday morning I got the ladies off to their work and then met Freddie at Sutherland Studios at eight-thirty in the parking lot before we slowly made our way into the main building. We gave our names at the front desk and sat in the lobby chairs until Diana came to get us.

“Good morning Diana,” I said as we all shook hands.

“Good morning Sam,” she replied and then turned to my agent and continued, “Freddie Gant, you just seem to come up with these actors out of the blue and turn them into stars.”

“It’s blind luck Diana,” Freddie replied. “How are Arthur and the kids?”

“Fine, he’s off shooting in Arizona while the kids are in school, growing like weeds and now too busy to talk to their mother,” she responded. “Yours are in college now, right?”

“Yes, both of them finally out of the house so I can chase Rebecca around the house without the usual ‘Dad, you’re so gross’ comments.”

We all laughed as she had us sign in before taking us through the door and down the hallway. This time it was to another, larger conference room where not only the three male producers and Trisha were waiting, but another two men and two women had joined them. All were wearing suits as was Freddie and I, except for the guy waiting in the wings with a small video camera in his hand and a normal camera around his neck.

Introductions were made with the extra people being management of the Sutherland Studio. I sat down with Freddie beside me and the film’s executive producer, Oscar Kellogg, on the other. Freddie checked the copy and then everything was captured on video as all three of us signed three copies of the contract.

Hands and hugs were filmed afterwards and then we all stood together for the obligatory pictures in front of their logo.

After handing over a schedule, everyone left to their own pursuits except Trisha. Freddie pulled me aside and told me that we’d have a signing for the bodyguard role tomorrow morning and then I’d have my first audition for the espionage movie Friday afternoon. I thanked him and then he left, reminding me to keep Aster in mind when dealing with Trisha. I grinned and said the two of them would be conspiring against me by the weekend. He just shook his head and left in his car.

“We can’t leave together or be seen without Aster but I wanted to tell you that I’m glad we’re working together and I hope to see you when before we start filming in a couple of months, maybe with Aster sometime?” Trisha said.

“I’m sure that will happen soon enough,” I responded. “I’ll talk with her and you two will probably get together tomorrow evening or on the weekend and then you two can tell me what the plan is.”

She grinned and said, “You’re wise beyond your years, Sam Rollins. I can’t wait to spend time with both of you. I hope you feel the same or will soon enough.”

“Let’s not put the cart before the horse,” I cautioned her. “You seem to be expecting everything will go exactly as you hope it will but all that’s on the table is friendship.”

“And that’s all I’m expecting,” she responded. “I’m not going to break you guys up or cause any scenes for public consumption. Don’t worry, I would never do anything harmful in any way against you or Aster, I promise.”

“That’s good to hear,” I said. “Alright, I might see you this weekend. Have a good day and it will be good to work with you on this project.”

“Okay Sam, I’ll see you soon,” Trisha responded.

I made sure she got into her car and then let her drive off before I followed her out of the studio but turned the other way. I had the rest of the day off so I got in some workouts and did some laundry before barbequing some steaks and potato patties for supper.

After supper, Aster and Abby did call Trisha and made plans to meet at one of the trendy restaurants in Beverly Hills where they could be seen and photographed tomorrow evening. I wasn’t invited so I gave them a fake pout but really didn’t want to be photographed for immediate publication in all the tabloids.

Friday morning I dressed up in another suit to met Freddie at the Five Guys main studio building and did the whole thing again, taking pictures with the studio brass, the producers, director and Sandra. They asked me to come into the studio starting Monday instead of a week from Monday to get all my costumes fitted, and work with the stunt coordinators to practice more of the stunts they had planned. I agreed and they gave me an updated script and a pass to get on the lot before we left. Freddie let me know to be at the Triumph Studios for one pm this afternoon for the next audition and wished me luck before we split up.

I reviewed the script I had in a park overlooking the city before having an early lunch at a nearby restaurant. I found myself not being nervous at all which would be good for the audition. While either of the roles would be a challenge, I felt confident in my abilities to do well in the audition for either role.

After getting through security at the gate, I parked my car and was in the lobby by quarter to one. A runner guided me to the audition room where there were close to a dozen men waiting in the hallway, either sitting in some chairs or leaning on the wall. I gave my name to the young woman and found a spot along the wall to stand.

I looked around but didn’t recognize any of the men, a mix of guys in their forties down to a few that looked about my age. I was surprised to see so many for a one o’clock start time as I thought I had that time booked, but either they were running late or they just had everyone show up for one and would take them in order of arrival. A couple more men arrived and were signed in before a man came out and looked over the list and the men in the hallway. He whispered in her ear and then went back inside.

The woman waited a couple minutes and then read off a name and had him follow her into the room. I figured it was going to be a long afternoon, even at ten minutes per person. I settled down to wait and just watched while some got restless, others nervous and new ones arrived.

It was fifteen minutes before the first guy left and the woman called the next one on the list. She walked him in and then came back out where one of the new guys, someone who looked a bit familiar starting talking to her while giving her his version of a movie star smile. She gave him a smile back but just told him what we had all figured out that it was going to be first come, first in and he would have to wait his turn. The smile was quickly extinguished from his face and he moved down to stand across from me.

“What a crock this is,” he muttered. “A bunch of has-beens or never-will-be guys who don’t have a chance for these roles.”

I didn’t bother to reply and let him stew on his own but figured he would start needling the guys around him, probably soon getting to me as one of the youngest waiting.

“You’re way too young for these roles, why are you even bothering?” he asked me in a snide voice.

“Oh, I just go where my agent tells me to go,” I replied with a grin. “It seems to work out well so I tend to follow his advice.”

He snorted and responded, “I haven’t seen you in anything so it’s not working out well for you sonny.”

I just smiled and didn’t bother to respond, much to his chagrin. He frowned at me but eventually moved on to other targets. Most others were just doing something on their phones and I pulled mine out to check up on the normal news and then the movie news. Both of my new roles had been released to the public already, with a picture attached of the whole team under their logo for both the nerd and the bodyguard roles. It felt surreal to be in the news while waiting for an audition with over a dozen men in a narrow hallway.

I ended up playing a couple games of chess and gin rummy while others had their turn in the room. It was after three before my name was called and I followed her into the room to find two men and a woman sitting at a table with a couple chairs and a table set up in front of them. There was a camera set up on their table to record the audition.

“Sam Rollins,” was all the young woman said before she left.

“Good afternoon,” I said to the three and stood by the smaller table.

“Good afternoon, do you have a CV?” asked the woman.

“Sorry no, I’ve been a bit busy to get that done,” I responded. “I can give you the short rundown if you’d like.”

“Okay, but I’m surprised an agent like Freddie Gant doesn’t have you better prepared,” one of the men stated.

“Like I said, I’ve been a bit busy since arriving in LA three months ago,” I told them. “I was hired the first week at Axial Special Effects Company to program and run the robots for the Invasion movie and then became the main stuntman for the movie. During that time, the stunt role morphed into the supporting role for the film that finished up last week. Yesterday I signed on to the leading role for the Nerd and the Lady film that starts shooting in a couple months for eight weeks and today I signed on to the Sandra Star wrestling movie in the bodyguard role that starts on Monday for six or seven weeks.”

They looked at each other and the lady got out her phone while the third man took over.

“All right, we can see that you’ve been busy Sam, why don’t you have a seat and we’ll have you read the lines on the table. They’re marked as FBI special agent at the top and then in the bottom section, your lines are labelled as espionage agent.”

“Sure, let me give them a quick once over and I’ll be ready in a minute,” I agreed as I sat down.

I quickly read through the lines and then took a few seconds to get into an FBI frame of mind and then nodded.

“Sam Rollins audition, take one,” the other man said after he had pressed the record button on the video camera.

I read the lines and the woman read the second half of the dialogue. It was a bit hard without the full context but I remembered that this was a scene where they were discussing the futility of their investigation so I put in some frustration into my voice without getting angry.

“Alright, that was good, let’s go to the next lines,” the middle man said.

“Okay, I’m ready for that as well,” I stated.

The scene was where the bad guy was talking to his employer about the status of their operation. This time the other man read the opposing lines and I thought it went much better than the FBI scene earlier.

“Excellent,” the middle man said. “Give us a second to discuss this amongst ourselves,”

I just nodded as they whispered for a minute before they came to a decision.

“Sam, we think you’d be a good fit for the espionage agent, so we’d like you to do a screen test out back in one of our sound stages,” the middle man stated.

“Certainly, I set aside the afternoon for this,” I responded.

“I’ve just texted someone to meet you at the end of the hall and he will guide you to where you have to be,” the woman said. “We have a few more gentlemen to audition but we should be done before you leave so we can review the screen test and discuss things further.”

“Excellent, thanks for your time and I’ll make sure to wait until we talk later,” I responded as I got up.

“Thank you Sam for going through the casting call, we probably should have set up a separate audition for someone of your caliber,” the middle man spoke up.

“No worries, I’m just learning the ropes so this was the first time I’ve gone through that process,” I told him with a grin. “I can at least talk about it the experience now and commiserate with other actors when they bring it up.”

“I’m sure you won’t be having to do many more of them in the future,” the woman stated. “We’ll see you soon, Sam.”

I nodded with a smile and left the room, giving the young woman a smile as I passed her, then walked to the end of the hallway and turned the corner where a young man was waiting for me.