PERMANENT - Leonardo DiCaprio

Chapter 12 - Mr Sassy

Sunday 4.30pm

By the next morning, we had re-filmed some shots from yesterday, and could begin filming the first water scenes. Leo had seemed in a much better mood after our conversation last night, maybe getting it off his chest would help him re-focus on filming.

The crew was setting up the set – a huge, chilled indoor tank with a dark backdrop so that we could film Jack's death scene. Currently I was sitting in the dressing room, and Dan was finishing putting the last of the spirit gum and gelatin on my face and hair, to look as if it had been frozen. "So how you handling it so far? The whole filming part of it? I never asked you." Dan questioned.

"It's not so bad. Actually I'm really enjoying it – the whole set. And with Leo, I mean, this set is his playground. He's a big kid really, he's the one that really makes it bearable, always lifting the mood. If it wasn't for him I think filming would be so much harder really. You can't forget this is a real thing that happened, real emotions that people felt. This isn't fantasy, so there's always gonna be that sad element to it." I said solemnly, and then smiled to myself. "You should've seen how he was playing around yesterday, imitating Rob. He's a goofball," I reminisced.

"And he's quite a dish too." Dan replied. "The other day I spent an hour working on his face just so that I could look at him." I laughed, "Yeah real subtle Dan." Dan shrugged, "Ay can you blame me?" I snorted at his comment and looked ahead in front of myself in the mirror. The crystals had melted, and they looked incredibly realistic on my skin.

"Alright honey you're all done. Good luck out there, hope you don't actually freeze to death." Dan joked. "Urgh and the worst part is that I can't wear a dry-suit because my dress and my corsets don't allow for it." I moaned.

Dan raised his eyebrows "Well cuddle up to lover boy and you'll be alright," he said, winking as he walked past me to the dresser. "I have a boyfriend, Dan, and he has Kristen. AND, it's not like that." I countered, remembering last night's conversation.

"Yeah well," Dan started, "I would ditch that boyfriend of yours. Has he even visited? How many times has he called?"

"Next week, actually. He's visiting me next week so zip it Mr Sassy."  I joked, just as Rob the assistant peeked his head in through the door, clipboard in hand.

"Penelope we need you on set now." he broke in. "Alright I'm coming." I waved bye to Dan, and he blew a kiss in return. At least I knew if the film was a total flop, I would still come out of it with amazing friends and I'd be $2,000,000 richer.

Once I got down to the set, Jim talked us through health and safety (the tank was cold, pumped right from the Pacific Ocean and the air was chilled by the industrial size fans so that we didn't get a build-up of steam coming from the water, so we couldn't stay in there for prolonged periods of time) before we got in. I waded into the tank, my mouth wide open as I tried to get accustomed to the temperature of the water. To my left, Leo was getting in too, only he was making shrieking noises and occasionally swearing "Shit! Shit shit shit!"

I laughed "You know this water is like 30 degrees warmer than the other scenes we're gonna shoot right?"

"Ahhh god, shut up Nel. In case you didn't know I'm very temperature sensitive okay," I laughed even harder now "Awww you delicate little flower," I said, pinching his cheeks as he swatted my hands away in irritation, then decided to push me over so that I was fully submerged in the water, my body in shock from hitting the cold water. Now it was his turn to laugh. I clambered up to my feet and punched him in the shoulder, him still laughing. "Alright simmer down, let's do this. Penelope we need you here on this piece of wood. Leo we need you here too," Jim instructed through the megaphone, and we followed.

//

After filming some of Jack's final scenes (and leaving me emotionally scarred for at least a couple of months), we headed down to the hot tubs to warm up, in full costume, and as I sat in the warm water, I closed my eyes and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep.