Fame

Chapter 3

I woke up at around noon following the premier. I wasn't able to get into bed until around 5 AM and we had nothing planned for this day, so I knew I could afford to not set an alarm. We had an itinerary for a few interviews here in France, and then a bunch back at home. In a few days we would fly back to New York for some morning and late night talk shows. I would have a week there to work and see my family before flying to Toronto for promotion, and then back to LA where we had even more work lined up. We had an idea of the kind of questions they would ask us, but I was informed by my new publicist this morning in an extensive email that he was receiving more and more requests to interview me along with the main cast. Apparently, clips from the premier had gone viral, with the word that my scenes made people cry going around. People also apparently found my behavior on the carpet to be "quirky", further catapulting me into internet meme-dom. I wasn't sure how I felt about being scrutinized in this way but I figured it was good for my career. The fact that these shows wanted to ask me questions and have me interviewed along with the director and lead actors was a good sign that my career might be taking off. I finished responding to the email and put my laptop away. I feared what I would see when I looked at my phone; going viral can either be very good or very embarrassing.

A plethora of texts and missed calls from my friends and family flooded my home screen. The instant adrenaline rush and overwhelm prompted me to put my phone down. I had nothing to say to all of the "OMG I saw you on Tiktok" and "Congratulations!" besides "Wow, thank you" and the like. I was still processing it all, myself. One text in particular made me laugh; it was from my cousin and read "ok I tweeted that you were my cousin and linked my Soundcloud and I think someone from your movie thinks I'm lying and demanded I delete the tweet, can you, like, tell them I'm not? And can you retweet it lol" I replied back and told him we'd catch up later.

Nothing too alarming on the internet; posts about how the movie got a standing ovation, videos from after the movie finished of people coming up to and congratulating us, pictures of me confused as hell on the carpet tagged with "relatable" and such, my awkward "wanna see my shoes?" comment was a sound on Tiktok, and tweets from celebrities that saw the movie praising it and me, were all I saw when I clicked on the tags of my name and the name of the movie. I was glad no one called me anything nasty, or dug up some stupid tweet from 7th grade I forgot about.

I got updated with a new itinerary by my publicist shortly after we talked. We would be spending an extra week in New York and a few extra days in Toronto because they lined up some solo interviews for me. That terrified me. Why solo? Why did I have to do promo without the cast? Was that even allowed? I CC'ed the movie's production team on the email and confirmed that this was allowed. They responded promptly assuring me it was, and that solo interviews were good and necessary. I obliged and updated my parents and friends on how much time I'd be spending with them when I was there. Along with interviews were dinners and drinks lined up with people I had never heard of, some of whom I have. I felt a tinge of panic at Marty's words from the night before about having people make decisions for me. I realized that something like a press tour was probably out of my control, but I wondered why I had no choice in when and where I meet people for dinner. I figured at least the time in between I would have to myself and let it go. This was the process, I suppose.

I spent the day seeing as much of Paris as I could, knowing the next week would be spent exclusively with the cast and production company wandering from interview to interview before heading back to the states for the same shit. I texted Austin later that night.

"Hey. Remember me? We should hang out back in LA. I'll be there in August."

A few minutes later he replied, "I'll be waiting."

I debated entering a back and forth text exchange with him until I'd be able to see him again, but knew that would only lead me to get obsessed with staying in contact and overanalyzing his replies, so I decided against it. I'd rather vibe in person and see where it goes from there, not be penpals for a month and then it be weird in person.