Going Nowhere

The Audition

"Are you nervous?" Jeanie asked. We were standing in a waiting room for an audition for a huge role in a show that was supposed to air on Fox next fall. So, yeah, I was nervous.
"Jeanie, I've shat my pants about 13 times at this point." I replied. "All these girls are prettier than me. And you know thats a huge factor in who they choose." I told her.
"Okay, even if that was true, you have a connection! You have the upper hand!" She reminded me.
I work at the 'health shop' in my gym in Los Angeles. For a couple weeks a man had been coming in and ordering a smoothie every day and we had been getting flirty. And then last week he told me his brother is a Fox producer and thats when he mentioned the audition, knowing I was an actress. The next day he showed up with a part of the script from the Pilot episode that no one else had. He told me to audition with it. And here I was.
"No one else has that scene, Millie. You got this." Jeanie said.
"Millie Andrews!" A lady called from the door. My stomach jumped to my throat.
"Break a leg!" Jeanie whispered to me.
I walked to the lady holding open the door and gave a friendly smile.
"Right through here Ms. Andrews." She ushered me into the room.
The room was brightly lit with three women and one man sitting at a table on the opposite side of the room.
"Hello, Ms. Andrews, you'll be reading the scene with Jackie Roberts right to my left here, whenever you're ready." The man said to me.
One of the women raised her hand slightly and smiled at me.
"Um, actually I was given a monologue scene to rehearse, would it be okay for me to audition using it?" I asked.
They all looked slightly shocked but excited.
"Go ahead." Jackie said.
I cleared my throat and pretended I was in the scene.
"I am sorry. I'm sorry that what I did got us here, okay? And I'm sorry that your awful mood is because of me. And I am sorry that I could have avoided this whole entire day and I had many many opportunities to avoid allllll of this and I took none of them. And I am sorry that I didn't listen to anything you told me. And you know what, Shane? You were right. When you said it's like I wanted my wedding to fall apart? You were right. Because I have been dating Chris for 9 years. 9 years! And we have tried everything to try and make us fall in love again but the truth is we were teenagers when we met and we aren't the same people anymore and maybe I don't want to marry someone in an effort to save a relationship! Maybe I want to marry someone because I actually love them."
I could feel tears in my eyes as I finished the scene. I then realized I had been using Jackie as my Shane. I recomposed my posture and smiled shyly when I was done.
"That was great, Ms. Andrews. We'll be calling you by next week to let you know." The man said.
I walked out of the room after thanking them.
"So how'd it go?" Jeanie asked me.
"Amazing, I think." I replied.

• • •

6 days later, at 3pm, my phone rang.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Hello, is this Millie Andrews?"
"This is she."
"Well, Millie, I am delighted to tell you that you have been called back for a callback for Going Nowhere , the audition is this evening at 5pm, hope to see you there!"
And with that she hung up. I had been laying in bed watching New Girl. I stood up and ran to my mirror to look at myself. I had two hours to fix the mess standing in front of me. After I call Jeanie.
Two hours later I was in the same waiting room as I was almost a week ago. But this time there were only about 10 other people on there rather than 50-60.
A couple went in and out and then the lady called for me.
"Ah, yes. Millie Andrews. I love that name! You really have star potential honey." Jackie told me.
"Oh thank you!" I relied.
"Okay so this time you weren't given a script because you actually auditioned with the callback monologue the first time. So we decided in order for you to prove you should not only be a part of this cast but for you to be Lillian Sanders, you should show us who Lillian is." She explained.
"Okay, how do I do that?" I asked her.
"Walk out, and when you walk back in, you will be Lillian. And I want you to be everything you know about her and nothing less. You will just talk to us like any normal person would. Except you'll be Lillian. Make sense?"
"Yes." I walked out of the room and stared at the door. From what I knew Lillian was awkward but confident. Much like Jess from New Girl. That was it. I'll channel my inner Jessica Day but with a little Millie mixed in. I opened the door and Jackie greeted me.
"Lil! How are you?" She said.
And the rest was a blur. I don't remember what happened or what I said but I remember thinking I was nailing it the whole time. And I must have been. Because not over a day later I got a call telling me the part was mine.