My Leading Man | Timothée Chalamet

chapter nine

I rode the bus all of fourteen minutes before I arrived.

Oh.

I didn't expect to arrive so quickly. Looking around nervously, I grabbed my backpack, swung it over my shoulder, and then stepped off the bus.

I was immediately greeted by a glaring morning sun, beaming right into my eyes. I sneezed and looked down at my feet as I walked to the bar, our first filming location.

On the outside, it was a fairly run-down looking building, with brick that had peeling gray paint over the top. I approached a glass door to the side of the building, with white letters on it that read GRANDMA'S CEL AR. I could tell the 'L' was missing. I laughed to myself at the name, and noticed a paper taped over the hours saying it was "CLOSED FOR FILMING" in scrawled sharpie. A burst of pride shot through me, and I peered inside through the window.

Golden light streamed in through the windows onto the bar, catching the dust floating through the air. It was all wooden, but for the leather covering the tops of the stools. I smiled to myself. It would be perfect. I could just see my characters Theo and Naomi sitting at the bar, sipping from their beers, flirting with each other. This was the scene that they first met each other, where they were each undercover, playing a role to seduce the other, though Theo is much more subtle than Naomi. I grinned again. I was so excited to be creating this. I looked around the room once more, then jumped back when I noticed a figure standing behind me in my reflection.

"Ah!" I whirled around.

I found myself face to face with a girl around my age, her long red hair tucked loosely behind her ears that lay over her shoulders and down her back. She stepped back and smiled.

"Sorry," she laughed. I gave a half smile in return. "I just came early to get set up." She motioned to the big duffel she was carrying, one that I'd managed to miss.

"Oh- no worries." I smiled and took a step back as well, folding my arms across my chest. Finally, I realized she was probably a member of my crew.

"Are you-"

"I'm DP," she said at the same time as me.

"Oh! You're..." I paused a moment in thought, mortified I didn't know all my crews' names yet. Talk about bad directing. "Ava," I finished.

Ava grinned widely. "Yep. And this is my uncle's place." She gestured all around her.

"Grandma's Cellar?" I asked, smiling.

"Yes," she laughed. "My grandma threw a fit when she found out what he'd named it."

I laughed too. "I'm Violet," I began, sticking out my hand when she interrupted.

"I know who you are. You wrote our movie." I was slightly taken aback, not used to being recognized or hearing other people call my script "our movie." I wasn't offended though. 

"That's me!" I said awkwardly, and there was a brief moment of silence before Ava broke it.

"Well, I've got the key, so..."

I quickly moved away from the door. "Oh. Right." Ava unlocked the door and opened it, and I noticed a few other crewmen start to pull up into the parking lot.

We walked into the bar, Ava leading the way, and she set down her duffel and immediately started pulling tripods out and setting them up.

A little nervous, I tried to fill the silence. "So, you're from USC, right?"

"Yep," she said, not looking up. Just then, two guys walked in holding tall light fixtures. I suddenly became self-conscious of my lack of helping get things ready.