Chapter 3: Bull

TWO DAYS LATER Abi was on a soundstage in LA with her co-star Bull Donald. He was a large and handsome man, a former college football star if his publicity handout wasn’t over exaggerating. He was about 55 and married to one of the hottest stars in Hollywood, but he still had a bad reputation for hitting on his leading ladies.

Fortunately, Abi had thought, back in January when they started principal filming together, the leading lady in this film was Uma Thurman, so there was no chance that Bull would bother either of the principals in this movie. Abi only worked with Uma on two days, firstly during the read through of the whole script in LA and followed five or six weeks later by a day’s studio work in Toronto. Bull was pretty much ever-present in the film. The filming had only been for 33 days altogether, spread over a two month period, with the first scenes being shot out of sequence in the snowy mountains of Montana. Bull was in his element in the mountains, as he loved action.

Now the cast were gathering in LA, filling in voice dubbing on the film they had shot on location over four months previously. The photography had been edited and now they were re-recording the sound. Some of the time Bull and Abi were together in the studio, sometimes they recorded separately, with one actor waiting with the other actors for the current recording to finish. Bull was pretty well in most scenes, a third of them with Uma, almost half with Abi.

This was a romantic comedy and was curiously coincidental, Abi had to admit to herself. The gentlemanly Walker was now constantly in her thoughts, especially held up in regard, in stark contrast with the old rogue Bull Donald. The film was about a developing relationship between an older man and a much younger woman, a theme common enough in film, but in this one it was the sweet innocent young woman that held the power in the relationship.

The difference between this plot and the situation she would like to develop with Walker, was that in the film the relationship was between a mega-rich and powerful man and an innocent girl. Abi felt she’d have to be careful with Walker not to overwhelm him with her current wealth and potential fame, which was presently confined to her home country, but this film plus a second very different film, which she also filmed during her six month sabbatical from the show, had the potential between them to launch her career internationally.

The first two days on the sound stage they were running to scripts as per schedule, the last day they were doing any revisions or retakes once everything has been checked and synced. All the while they were standing by, Bull kept avoiding her, but she just smiled contentedly through the recordings, happy that he was aware of the clearly defined boundaries between them that she had established some months ago at the outset of primary shooting.

Back when they were on location, Bull had tried to work his usual charm offensive on Abi and received a resounding smack on the cheek for his trouble, which took some considerable make-up work to disguise enough for him to appear on camera. It also made it difficult to make facial expressions during those two or three days, so his performance was even more wooden than usual. This time around though, he behaved himself, especially as his lovely and equally successful wife was present with him on the last day of recording.

Bull’s wife was Crystal Macintosh, a beautiful A-list actress. Abi was delighted to find that Crystal was friendly and charming. The famous actress seemed to give the impression that she was pleased to meet this rising young British star and complimented her on the way she had played her character with a convincing Californian accent.