Rum Cider

12

After the end of the meeting, Nancy got even more angry. She was frosted to the point of just flat out ignoring me. Even after we parted ways, she refused to talk to me for a week, only acknowledging me with the nod of a head whenever she came by Eddie's. This continued up until she was forced to talk to me as I picked her up the day of auditions for her film. Her film, which she was being forced to audition for.

    At her apartment, we exchanged pleasantries, then walked to the trolly stop. The entire time we were walking and riding, she was chewing a pen and staring at the blank pages of a note-pad. Her hands were shaking, which I assumed was due to the chill floating in the air. "Are you ready for your read?"

    "No," She answered shortly.

    I released a heavy sigh, my frustration close to the boiling point. "Why are you not? You do know your script better than your own apartment, don't you?"

    "Yes," I flashed a short smile and turned away from her, murmuring under my breath.

    If she doesn't want to talk, I won't talk. She can have it her way.

    Despite my annoyance, I felt unsettled as we rode next to one another. The entire time I'd known her, Nancy-Anne had been very expressive and chattery, no matter how angry she was, or what ever was going on in her head. I couldn't help but feel something was wrong with her. Unfortunately, this little tidbit did nothing to help me, what with her ignoring me.

    The trolly came to a halt, and we climbed down from it. Instead of walking towards the office, like we had the other times we were there, we moved into a small studio that was cleared out and set aside for auditions. A small group of actors was scattered around the room. Some were grouped together, laughing and joking while others stood around the room by themselves, reading or warming up their voices.

    "I'll see you on the other side," I said to Nancy, turning to leave. Before I could, she grabbed my hand, her face turned white.

    "Wait," Her voice came out softly, the most timidly I had ever heard her speak. It was strange.

     "Are you alright?" I asked. She shook her head, eyes aimed at the ground. "Are you nervous?"

    Nancy flushed, giving a tiny nod. She had a slightly annoyed and dissatisfied look painted across her face. "Yeah, I guess."

    My laughter bubbled up and out of me. "I never would've thought the fiery and loud Nancy-Anne Carter could possibly be nervous about anything."

    She punched my arm, her eyes watering up. "Oh, ice it. Not everyone can lie about being an amazing writer every single day of their life."

    "You'll be fine," I said, placing my hand on her shoulder to reassure her. "Have you ever read for an audition before, or have you just been a reader and writer your entire life?"

    "I've auditioned for stage productions,"

    "It's not exactly the same," I pulled her from the room, leaving the group of merry actors to themselves. "You'll be called into the room, and be given a scene to read after you introduce yourself and the role you're reading for. You'll be reading by yourself instead of with a partner,"

    "Why? Isn't the point to see which actors work the best together?"

    "Well, yes," I said with a wave of the hand. "But at the same time, they want to see how well you do on your own without another person to lean on. You also need to remember to be subtle with your acting."

    "I can be subtle!"

    "It's different than stage acting, Nancy. The camera catches everything. You don't need to be as loud as you are in theater auditions, but still be loud enough that we can understand you."

    She affirmed she'd heard me with the nod of a head, her lips moving quickly.

    "Why are you talking to yourself?"

    "I'm repeating your instructions so they don't fade out of my head the moment I walk back into that room."

    I smiled at her, shaking my head. "You'll do fine. Oh, and won more thing you need to know. Do you have a good memorization of the lines?"

    Nancy gave me a look. "I wrote it."

    "Well, yes, but are you able to recite it word for word?" A guilty look flashed up on her face, and she looked down to the ground.

    "Yes, I can."

    "But?"

    "I can already tell that my vision for the story is completely different from what these people want. If I were a part of this, I would never ever cast someone who looks like me in the role of Wanda."

    "Who would you cast, then?" I started hearing her back into the room.

    "Probably someone like Shirley Yamaguchi..." She murmured under her breath.

    "I didn't get the idea that you would have Wanda be an asian woman," We stepped back into the room. Nancy had stopped shaking, but her face was still pale.

    "And I didn't get the idea that my script was written in the style that could be passed off as the style of a man, but you seem to have everyone else fooled, don't you?"

    "You're cruel,"

    "And you're an actor," said Nancy, turning around to shove me from the room. "No go. Go do my job for me,"

    We exchanged smiles, and I left the room, walking to the meeting place for my casting team.