Chapter 11

People outside the entertainment industry seem to think that making films is all action and glamour. Actually, it’s mostly sitting around waiting for the next setup. In short, it’s boring. My first day in the studio, however, wasn’t boring. Peter picked me up at seven thirty, and ran me into the studio, and I spent the morning having costume fittings, make-up tests and generally getting ready for the shoot, followed after lunch, by a read through of the entire script with the rest of the cast.

There weren’t any big stars in the film, but some of them did later become big stars as a result of it, but there were one or two that I recognised at least the names of.

Steve Gore and Jenny Bristol played my parents, and a veteran actor, Robert Graves played the General, but all the juvenile parts were played by kids like me. We had a good run through, and I think I impressed the director because I was the only one there not reading my lines from the script, I’d already learned them. My love interest in the film was played by a young actor called Alison McLeod, not a star, but she had made three or four films for Disney before this one.

“How are you liking California so far?” she asked me as we stood drinking orange juice during a break in the read through.

It’s fine, so far,” I replied, “but then so far, I’ve seen the airport, the inside of my flat and been shopping.”

“Then you should get out and meet some people. Look my parents are having a pool party this weekend, why don’t you come?”

“I don’t know, I wouldn’t know anybody there, and I’m not that good around strangers.”

“You’ll know me,” she answered, “hell, by then you’ll have kissed me more than once.”

“More than once?” I objected, “but the script just calls for one kiss.”

“Oh dear,” she responded, “an innocent. You’ve never done film before have you?”

“No,” I confirmed.

“Well, even if nothing goes wrong with the actual scene, the director will want to do multiple takes, of every scene, from different angles.”

“Oh, well, you see the thing is, I have a girlfriend back home, and I’m not sure about the whole kissing thing, or the other romantic scenes.”

“David, it’s just acting. Just because we kiss on screen, doesn’t mean anything, it’s a job. Don’t worry, I won’t take advantage. Look, just come along, the two of us and my brother will be the only young ones there. And even though I love my brother to bits, he can be a bit of a drag.”

“Ok then,” I agreed, “I’ll come. Do I need to bring anything?”

“Just your swimming things, it is a pool party after all.”

“Great, where is it?”

“Do you have a cell phone?”

“Yes, two actually, one UK one local.”

“Wow a man with two phones, must be rich,” she answered, “give me the number of your US one.”

I did quickly and she tapped it into her phone and a couple of seconds later mine bleeped. The text message gave me her address and what time to be there.

“I’ll see you then,” she said, as she left the trailer area to get back to the set.

“Actually, you’ll see me tomorrow, I think I’m finished for the day now” I corrected.

“No you won’t I’m not on the call sheet for tomorrow,” was her final word.

“You are, and it’s in your trailer,” a male voice behind me said.

It was Mark Selwyn, the director of the picture.

“Oh, hi Mr Selwyn,” I said, “what is?”

“The call sheet for tomorrow, you’ll see that only you and your parents are due in tomorrow, we’re going to start with the scene between you and them. I’ll want to do a number of shots, and some of the set-ups will be pretty complex, so there’ll be a lot of time between takes. I suggest you bring a book, or something to do in between. Oh, and David.”

“Yes, Mr Selwyn?”

“It’s Mark, please.

“OK, Mark.”

“Though it is nice to meet a polite actor. I hope we’ll enjoy working together, and we can become friends.”

“I hope so too.”

He nodded.

I stepped into my trailer and found the next day’s call sheet on the table, picked it up and read it. As Mark had said, tomorrow called only for me and the two actors playing my parents to be on set. But the call was for a seven am start. I’d just picked up my script when the phone rang, and the studio security guard informed me that Peter was here to pick me up.

When I got back to the flat, I texted Cal to let her know my first day as a working actor was over, it was just gone six o’clock, just gone three am in Munich, so I knew I wouldn’t get a reply until morning. I still hadn’t done any food shopping, but, a few minutes spent surfing the web, revealed that I could get groceries delivered from local supermarkets. I picked one called Gelson’s and did an online order. Less than two hours later, I had a full fridge and freezer and enough food to feed a small army. Now all I needed to do was work out how to pilot the microwave. For tonight I ordered pizza from the local Domino’s, well it was never going to be from Pizza Hut, and had it finished before the groceries arrived.

My evening was split between TV and games on the PS2, with a detour to email Cal with an account of my day, and read the rest of my emails, there was a lot of rubbish, a couple from friends back home, along the lines of how many surfer girls had I scored with so far. It seemed that my routine was set for the next seven weeks. Get up, go to studio, come back, spend a pretty lonely evening, exchange texts and emails with Cal at various times, and go to bed. However, Friday was a break from the routine. The studio needed to break down a couple of sets that we’d finished with and build two new ones, and so we were given a long weekend. My next call was on Monday morning.

So, there I was, seven thousand miles from home, alone with two out of the next three days empty of anything to do. Oh, there were plenty of beaches around, but I wasn’t really a sitting alone on the beach type of person. Then I remembered that James’ two girls had asked if we could go to Disneyland while I was here. I could ask if they wanted to go on Friday. I went downstairs and across the path to the kitchen door of the main house, knocked and walked in.

“Hi David,” Marta greeted me, looking up from doing her holiday homework, “Mom and Dad are in the family room.”

I walked through to the family room, where James, Amanda and Melissa were watching TV, some mindless game show.

“Hi David,” they greeted me in chorus, “what brings you down?”

“I have the day off tomorrow, and Melissa asked if I’d take them to Disneyland while I was here, so I thought maybe, if they’re free we could go tomorrow.”

“Please Mommy,” Melissa pleaded.

“That’s fine, if you both want to go, but how will you get there?”

“I’ll ring for Peter, my driver,” I replied, “maybe he has kids who’d like to go too. If not there must be a chauffeur service somewhere around, this is America after all.”

I took out my phone and punched in Peter’s Number.

“Mr Barker,” he said as he answered.

“Peter are you free tomorrow?”

“Yes, do you require my services.”

“Yes, I’m planning to take a couple of young friends to Disneyland for the day.”

“Yes I can do that,” he replied.

“Great, er, Peter do you have children?”

“Yes, I have three, why?”

“Would they like a trip to Disneyland too?”

“They would love it I think, but unfortunately money is not that plentiful in my household.”

“That’s not a problem,” I answered.

“I’m sorry but I couldn’t let you pay for my children.”

“Peter, I have a VIP pass from Disney, it will get all of us in free.”

“Then in that case, I will bring them. Would it be all right if Svetlana, my wife accompanied us?”

“Of course, on one condition?”

“What is that.”

“My name is David.”

“Thank you,” he said, then paused, “David.”

“OK, see you tomorrow then, around nine thirty?”

“Nine thirty it shall be.”

True to his word, peter was there at dead on nine thirty the following morning, in a minibus rather than a town car.

He was accompanied by his wife Svetlana, who was as small as he was big, I doubt if she was even five foot tall, and his three children. Pyotr, the eldest was about twelve or thirteen, and the two girls seven year old twins Tanya and Anya. Our introductions done, Peter climbed back behind the steering wheel, turned on the ignition and we set off on the drive to Anaheim.

Once there, I told Peter to head for the VIP parking area, and once we were out of the vehicle and gathered together, we set off to the gates of Disneyland. At the gate, I presented my pass and we were each given a golden bracelet.

“What’s this for?” Pyotr asked, as I handed him his bracelet.

“That bracelet will get you onto any ride in the park, and it will get you to the head of the queue for the rides,” I explained, “it tells the park staff that you’re an official guest of the Disney organisation.”

“Wow,” he said, his eyes wide, “you can get all that for all of us? Are you a big exec in the studio?”

“No just an actor with a small part in one of their films.”

“Wow,” he replied, “what do they do for actors with big parts?”

He blushed bright red.

“I erm meant, in films.”

“I know you did, it’s OK Pyotr Petrovich, I’m only fifteen myself I know all about saying accidental rude things.”

I spotted his parents behind him hardly able to suppress laughter.

I looked at him seriously.

“It’s something they do for all their young actors, they may even do it for the adult ones.”

“Wow, that’s cool,” he said, “so you can come here as often as you like?”

“Any Disney theme park, Here, Florida, Japan, Paris or the two in China,” I replied.

“Pyotr,” Svetlana said to him, sharply, “stop being nekulturny and let David alone.”

He strode over to rejoin his parents.

We started our tour of the park with a ride on the Railway, and let the younger kids dictate the first part of the day, leaving me, Marta and Pyotr to choose our own thrills.

We ate lunch at one of the fast food outlets in the park, at first Peter objected to the idea of just letting the cashier scan his band, but when I pointed out the disparity between the Disney organisation’s annual income and his, he quite warmed to the idea. Eventually, around six thirty, everybody had had enough, and we headed back to the minibus. I noticed as we did, that not only did Pyotr and Marta walk together, but they sat together in the bus.