Speak Now

Winter and Williams

None of my lines were completely memorized by the next day, but I did spend a majority of my night practicing facial expressions and different voice inflections in the mirror, script in hand.

It could be a lot worse, I thought. At least Alex was a good looking guy.

I even imagined the kiss scenes. As awkward as that was to do in the mirror, at least I had a bit of an idea of how it could work. The good part was that no one was around when I was rehearsing to see or hear what I was doing.

***

Returning to set, I was still jittery and uncomfortable, but at least I had a bit of confidence this time. I was still scoping out the cast, getting to know them, sticking to the walls and letting them come to me.

Alex spotted me across the way, and he and Keanu came over.

"Hey," Alex said casually.

"Hey guys," I smiled. Keanu was about a head taller than me, and his dark hair hung in his eyes. He bounced a bit on the balls of his feet. He reached to shake my hand, and my small one was completely engulfed by his.

"Hey, I'm Keanu, Keanu Reeves. We didn't really meet yesterday."

"Yeah, hi. I'm Katie," We shook hands, and I smiled.

"I'm Alex," Alex said after running his hand through his curly hair. It looked really tempting to do the same for some reason. He gripped my hand tight and shook it, a charming smile on his face. "It seems we'll be getting to know each other a lot for this movie."

I scuffed the ground with my feet.

"Yeah, I guess. I was reading the script last night...,"

Alex chuckled, "Dave had a feeling you'd be kinda worried about that... scene."

"I'll live," I shrugged, chuckling a bit and fiddling with the pages of my script.

"You ever act before?" Keanu asked, not wanting to drop the conversation.

"School plays, yeah. It's my first time on screen though,"

"You're in for a riot," Keanu promised. "I've worked with Alex before, he's great."

"You're just saying that," Alex rolled his eyes, "Don't get all sentimental on me, Keany."

Keanu chuckled so casually and flicked the hair from his eyes.

"Anyway, you guys wanna run lines until Dave gets here?"

I nodded and Keanu grinned. There was one awkward moment before we all simultaneously gestured to the floor and took a seat in a small circle. We all sat cross-legged with our knees together.

"Well I don't know what to do next!" Keanu was reading, "Everything I try just blows up in my face."

"Does it look like I can help with that?" Alex countered. For a second, he sounded genuinely angry.

"Will the two of you shut your blasted mouths for once in your lives?!" I cried. They stopped and looked at me, just like the script had directed. Alex skimmed his script, murmuring to himself after he lost his place looking up.

"Crap, uhh.... Wow Elaine. Got something to say, do you?"

We laughed, though, because the mood was broken after he missed the line.

The arguing scene was fun and all, but honestly, I was curious to see what the director's vision was for the blocking. Were we reading it the right way? What would the set look like as we're yelling at each other.