PERMANENT - Leonardo DiCaprio

Chapter 2 - Opportunities

Friday 11am

My drive down to the studio wasn't long, only about 40 minutes or so, but in that time I had managed to change my mind 50 times over, pull the car over twice to puke (I never actually did, I think it was a psychological thing), and piss off about half of LA's drivers with my god awful slow driving.

After I got home from seeing Grant on Monday, I threw everything to the side apart from the script, which I had then finished by lunchtime, and cried the whole afternoon after. Between Tuesday and Friday I had re-read the script 5 times, crying more and more each time I read it. My audition on Wednesday went smoothly, but it was far from perfect, and I kind of expected James Cameron to be there so I was beginning to get doubtful.

I pulled up to the building and parked my car, and walked into reception. A woman of a fair complexion in her mid 40's looked up at me "Hi may I help you?" "Yeah I....I'm meant to have a meeting with James? James Cameron I mean." If I had stumbled over my words anymore she would've sent me to the hospital I'm sure. "Can I get your name?" "Penelope Nava." She searched the computer screen with her eyes, and I became so paranoid that I was sure I had dreamed the whole thing up and I had driven exactly to the studio location on instinct, like those weird kids that claim they lived a previous life and can remember every detail of where they used to live.

"Have a seat Ms Nava, I've informed Mr Cameron of your arrival." Thank god for that. No sooner had I sat down, I was being buzzed through to James. I opened the door, and nearly fainted on the spot. "Hi Ms Nava" he smiled, "I've been really looking forward to meeting you." and he stuck out his hand. "Wow Mr Cameron the pleasure's all mine, really." With this, I sat down opposite him. "I was really impressed with your audition tape Ms Nava. I think there's a lot you can bring to the table, the others agreed. How do you feel about the role?"

"I have no doubts that I would bring Rose to life sir, I don't think there's 2 ways about it – I need this role." James stared at me "Mmhm. You've got the part Penelope." I could only sit there, speechless with my mouth open "Are you serious-are you sure?!"

"Congratulations, it's gonna be long months of hard work from now on you hear me?" He laughed, as we hugged, and tears of joy poured out of my eyes like damn waterworks. "I'll be in touch, keep on with those Philadelphian accents okay? Play around with them but remember what this girl really stands for – she's no royalty, at least she doesn't wanna be." "I will Mr Cameron, thank you so much, bye!"

"Oh and Penelope," I turned back around, wiping mascara off from under my eyes "Let's stop with the informalities now. Just call me Jim." I laughed heartily "Bye Jim". And with that, I was off, down to my car to cry some more and call everyone I had ever known – Aaliyah being the first (It was 3am in England, and my parents would be extremely pissed if I even attempted to call them at that hour – that was learned the hard way).

On the following Monday, I was back with Jim, going over details and arranging my dress costume fittings. Papers containing filming information, parts of the script, and photos of dress designs were strewn all over the glass table that stood in the middle of the room; empty cups of coffee littered on window sills.

Jim milled over each piece of paper, concentrating "I also wanted to have a chat with you about the casting of Jack, Rose's love interest." "Oh," was all I could muster. I hadn't met any of the other cast – I wasn't even sure if anyone else had been cast.

"The first choice of studio executives for the role of Jack Dawson is Matthew McConaughey, and we had Stephen Dorff audition too. But there's just something about Leonardo's audition that got me. Can't deny the kid has immense acting abilities." He turned to me "You heard of DiCaprio?" Oh Leo, every girl's dream man – teen heartthrob of the decade. His performance in The Basketball Diaries reduced me to tears last week when I saw it in theatres with Aaliyah, which led me to watch every other single film that he had done. Ever. "Leo. It's gotta be him. Have you got the audition tape that I could watch?" "Yeah give me a sec," Jim stood up, stretching, and walked out of the room. I mulled it over. To be able to work with Leo would be a dream – the boy could turn a shitty low budget movie into a cinematic masterpiece.

Jim held the tape in his hand, waving it around slightly as he chuckled. "Trust me, you're gonna love this." As the tape began to play, he came up on the screen, wearing a baggy beige jumper that looked a size too big for him and hung off his skinny frame. The sleeves hung a good 2 and a half inches past his wrists, and his blue jeans gave way to slightly scruffy converse. He laughed before reading his lines and ran a hand through his famous golden hair, re-fixing his headband that kept his hair out of his face and it was obvious he had such presence – a boyish charm that so many girls fell in love with.

"Jim he's perfect. There's no one else that brings Jack's carefree spirit to the screen like him, look at him." I smiledand turned to look at the director. "So he's interested?" "Well he auditioned,that's a start."

"What do you mean?" "He read one scene, the scene on thistape, and goofed around for the next 20 minutes. You could say he's been a bit reluctant about the whole thing. I mean, he did mention his dislike of 'commercial roles', but I don't know, maybe I can persuade him."

There's no way I would play this part without him – no other actor could live up to the role. "Yeah," I stood up, slinging my bag over my shoulder and picking up my papers "I have to get to my hair appointment,"

"Dyeing it already? That's dedication." Jim mused"Yeah let's hope my hair doesn't fall off," I had always had reservations about dyeing my hair, mostly because I dyed it bleach blonde when I was 15, and regretted it straight after, but no other hair colour would hold on top of it long enough, so I just had to grow it out. "I'll see you tomorrow?" I asked "Yeah yeah, see you tomorrow."