King of Her Desire

46

I got to do some fancy fighting in the scene we shot the next day. And the sibs got to sit off to the side and watch me because Abra and her assistant, Louis, came to get us the next morning and decided to give them all this special attention.

That included fresh-baked "unicorn" bagels--those weird, rainbow-colored ones--and all kinds of other goodies set out for breakfast in the car. And an AD gave them a little tour of the studio, too, to keep them occupied while I was being trussed up with all kinds of straps and things so that I could discover my "special power."

The special power they gave me was to "sense" evil and sort of scramble the minds of the bad guys while I kicked their asses with some kind of weird energy that I could throw off of my hands and feet when I felt particularly threatened. And in that episode I got to throw it at some asshole at our school who went after a nerdy kid in our chemistry class. Problem being whatever we were mixing up that day turned out to be toxic, so I got suspended for endangering the lives of all the rest of the students.

Yeah. It still cracks me up that I was on a show like that but then people really get into that shit, though. To this day people remember me as that "Buzz" kid from Indigos.

Cody was fascinated with the green screen process and everything else, really. That made me happy because knowing the technical stuff was a good way to make a serious living in the business.

If you were into numbers, too, like being an accountant or something, you could get in even faster and for life, probably. People always think about the glamor but the other producers, the ones that got to say how much money you could spend every day, those people were God on the set. And if you're real good at keeping people within their budgets, you get hired a lot—you also get a rep for being the "bad cop," so you have to develop alligator skin to survive.

I still had that fear of being without food and shelter, obviously. Keeping an eye out for regular workaday jobs, not the artsy stuff most people come out there to do.

I even liked it when Wanda showed the girls the character makeup, like how to make scars and things, not just the glamorous stuff. Kelli got all into the different kinds of pupils you could have with contacts. Indigos got weird eyes when they were in their power modes.

You could do that with a computer, too, but they put on contacts sometimes because apparently viewers really prefer what they call "practical effects" to CGI if they're going to be doing closeups and stuff like that.

That's the thing about Wanda. She was all into the technical stuff, too, in her way. Even when she did the "fashion" makeup, she was reading people's bone structure and whatnot in an almost scientific way.

And she was also thinking about "...all the little bitches that come through here thinking some little stupid part is going to be their big break."

"Couple of 'em'll bag a producer, maybe, but these mother fuckers are like Henry the VIII. And a few years later, they're back out trying to find some kinda way to make some money after Mr. Big kicks them to the curb for that younger model."

She said it made her sad having to "put three coats of concealer on these chicks that came in here all fresh and firm a few years ago. All they're going to get once they're past that prime is maybe two episodes as somebody's aunt or nosey/sexy next-door-neighbor if they're lucky and the old man hasn't talked too much shit about them around town."

Reality bites. But I wanted them to know these things. And that people in real life would try to make you believe in "magic," too. But there were always strings attached. Those emotional, psychological ones that were 'way more dangerous than any of the stunt tricks they were watching me pull.