Thirty-Eight. Thirty- Eight of us plus the additional managers and publicists in this room and I feel claustrophobic. It’s the same thing; over and over again. Greet a new face. Shake their hand. Tell them your name. Ask who they’ll be playing. It’s all too much for me at the moment and I can’t really remember a name or match a face with a name and by the end of the day I’ll probably just end up calling them their character name anyway, so who cares?
They’re all nice and all, but I am just too tired to really take any notice. I like the woman, Renee Zellweger, who will be playing Cecilia; and she and Elizabeth seem to be getting along real well. The man who will be playing Darius has fiery red hair and is quite the jokester. I reckon he and Josh will get along well, too. I also like the females who will be playing Wiress and Johanna.
I start a conversation with Michael Emerson, who will play Betee, about our careers and our passion for acting. He’s quite interesting, actually. Despite the character he plays.
Little did I know, the new characters are also all meeting each other for the first time, unless they’ve already known a few from previous performances, which a few have.
I glance over at Josh, who is talking to Kate Hudson. I haven’t seen her yet, so I don’t know who she’s playing. I decide that I’ll go introduce myself. She’s one of my favorite actresses, so if I stumble of my words, I always have Josh there to help.
Josh sees me right away, so I’m lucky when he directs me to her and introduces myself. ‘’Aaahh, this is my good friend Jennifer Lawrence, and she plays Katniss.’’ Josh says.
I lift my hand up and wave and wink at Josh as a sign of thanks. ‘’Hi, Jennifer. I’m Kate Hudson.’’ She holds out her manicured hand and I place mine in it. ‘’Hello. How are you?’’ I ask.
‘’Fine, thank you. Lovely party.’’ She says.
‘’Oh I know. So, who will you be playing in Catching Fire?’’ I ask, solemnly.
‘’Oh, I will be playing Enobaria. From District 2.’’ She replies as she waves hello to Nico Tortorella, who I already know to play Gloss.
‘’Oh, that’s great! Well, it was nice meeting you.’’ I say.
‘’You too, dear.’’
Josh follows me over to the big buffet of food with a scowl on his face. I pick at a platter of succulent strawberries dipped in chocolate and Cool Whip. Strawberries get me all the time.
‘’What’s the scowl for?’’ I say, stuffing my face with the berries and filling my plate with cut turkey, strawberries, cherries, creamy mashed potatoes, salty almonds, and sautéed steak. I watch as Josh piles his plate high with creamed corn, roasted ham, mashed potatoes, deep fried pickles, steak and Boston crème pie. We sure have a lot to eat.
‘’I don’t…I don’t get her. I don’t get these people. We’re nothing alike,’’ He replies, as we carry our plates of food over to a table that consists of Liam, Lenny, and the woman who will be playing Wiress; Jane Adams.
I wave hi to her, for we have already met, and continue on my conversation with Josh. ‘’Me either. She was so… I don’t know. Out of it. I mean, she wasn’t rude. But she seemed like she’d rather be anywhere but here,’’ I retort, raising my eyebrows. ‘’But I mean, they aren’t all bad. I like Renee and Michael and some others. They seem like good, hearty people. Like you.’’
As I say this I can feel my heart begin to flutter, like butterflies carrying it away. I look at Josh and his deep green eyes with the brown flecks glitter as he begins to smile. ‘’Why thank you,’’ He laughs.
