You Must Be the One

Blue-Trust

",it'll be this kind of deep blue," she said. "The kind of color that somehow sucks your eyes and your ears and all your words-the color of a completely closed-in night."

- Banana Yoshimoto

The scene's not working. Not only is it not working, it feels flat. She knows it, he knows it, the whole crew knows it. The frustration is doing that annoyingly slow build underneath her skin; subtle, so that it's just below the surface, but off putting enough that it's starting to bubble up.

"Can I speak to you for a second?"

She nods, glancing apologetically at the other actors in the scene. "Yeah."

He takes her to a corner of set where they can talk and not be heard. It's classic Bradley to pull someone aside, rather than addressing them in front of everyone and that soothes some of the irritation.

Some, but not all.

"We're trying it how we discussed, but I dunno, Bradley, I'm still not feeling it. Something's off."

Who she's upset with is herself, really, and Bradley obviously realizes that. Still, she's got a sharp edge to her voice, the type that'll cut somebody if they're not careful. It's easiest to take out the reason for the scene tanking on him, even though it's not fair.

He's calm, though, unaffected by her foul mood and gently, he rests a closed fist against her hip, drawing her in so that he's able to speak into her ear.

"You're right. It's not working. We've gotta try something else."

"I hope you have an idea because I sure as hell don't."

She puts her head in her hands. "Sorry. That's not fair. I'm not---I'm just really fucking at a loss. And I can't help think it's my fault."

This is her third studio film as a lead and her second with Bradley. She's completely safe, totally taken care of, she's not the new kid anymore, she should know what the hell she's doing. Falling apart isn't an option. It's not only unjustified, it's plain stupid and she swipes angrily at the tears of frustration that prick her eyelids.

"Hey, hey," he drags his thumb in quick, comforting trails down the length of uncovered arms.

Generally speaking, they try to refrain from too many outward displays of affection, which when she thinks about it, is hilarious, because they certainly weren't worried about it the first go around. They remained in character, that's what they told themselves, at any rate.

Still, they've agreed it's better to keep a professional face in front of the rest of the cast. Everyone is well aware that they're together; it's no secret and they don't do anything to keep it as such, but for the sake of mixing business and pleasure, being careful worked well.

"Is she getting to you?"

She shakes her head, drawing her robe more tightly around herself. "No. At least, I don't think so. I dunno."

A part of her wishes that was the case, that stepping into Sally's shoes and the parallels between them was making her into a cranky witch, but she's much more adept now at shedding the skin of a character than she was able to be before. It's not to say that she didn't fully immerse herself, still; it simply no longer affected her mental health in the same way.