Acting (Camren)

4.

Camila

It's still two weeks before filming starts, but Camila is already working hard to get the part right. Even though she and Lauren have their issues, she absolutely doesn't want to mess up this season. She's definitely feeling the weight of responsibility this character brings with it. Camila has always loved playing Daniela. Daniela is confident, strong and sexy, basically everything Camila wants to be. Daniela is also a gay woman like herself, so Camila has always taken that aspect of the character to heart. She remembers growing up with hardly any representation. She never saw gay women on TV and therefore always thought it was wrong to like girls.

Then, when she was about fourteen, all her friends started obsessing over boys. She never really understood it, but thought that she should probably do that too. She changed the background of her phone to a random guy that wasn't wearing a shirt, because that's what all her friends did, but she never really understood its purpose.

On her fifteenth birthday Austin asked her out. She didn't really care, but all her friends were gushing about how hot he was and even though she didn't really see it, she felt kind of obliged to accept. It honestly was an amazing date for one organised by a sixteen year old guy. He brought her out to eat at her favourite restaurant, paid for everything despite Camila's best efforts to try and split the bill and afterwards they just walked around town talking for hours. He didn't even talk about himself the entire time, like many of the other boys at her school always did. He was actually interested in her and listened with full attention to everything she told him.

So, why didn't she feel a thing? Camila really liked Austin and they even went on a couple of dates, but not even once did she get the butterflies her friends always talked about.

Like a real gentleman, he only tried to kiss her after the fourth date.

Where were the fireworks? Why wasn't she loving this?

That night Camila went to bed crying. Austin was attractive, he was nice, he treated her with respect and he honestly was nothing but perfect. Then how was it possible that she didn't feel a thing?

She decided to be completely honest with Austin, because that's what he deserved. Although he tried to hide it, it was clear that he was hurt. Luckily, he didn't get angry or something and just wished her the best.

A year later a new girl named Hailee joined Camila's class. Her parents recently moved to Miami, so she had to go to a new school. The second Camila saw her, she was blown away. She had never seen someone that pretty before. Camila pushed the thought away, because she assumed it was simple admiration.
She quickly noticed that admiration wasn't what it was though, because she couldn't get the girl off her mind. After having the girl on her mind for a couple of days and nights Camila finally reached her breaking point and broke down crying in front of her mom.

"Mom, why do all my friends like boys and I don't?" She cried. "I don't understand why I didn't like Austin and now this new girl joins our class and I can't stop thinking about her for even two seconds!"

Her mom was stunned for a couple of seconds, which made Camila panic even more. "Am I not normal, mom?"

That quickly snapped Sinu out of her daze. "You're absolutely normal, mija. There's nothing to worry about."

"Then why don't I like boys?" Camila asked, still unconvinced.

"No one ever said you have to like boys, honey," Sinu said.

"No offense mom, but literally everybody and everything says I have to like boys," Camila replied.

"How about we ignore everybody and everything and look at what you want?" her mom proposed.

Camila raised her hands in frustration. "I don't know what I want!"

Her mom looked her in the eyes. "I think you do mija."

From that day on Camila kind of accepted the fact that she didn't like boys and luckily, most of her friends did too. The other friends were left behind and never missed.

The only thing she never got over was that she never ever saw people like herself on TV and when she did, they got shot, RIP Lexa. This was her biggest motivation to make it in the tv-industry. Camila decided that if she ever got the chance to play in a big tv-series, she would do everything in her power to become the representation she didn't have growing up.

Fortunately, she got to work with Ally Brooke Hernandez, one of the best directors in the business. Besides being one of the best directors, she's also one of the best humans and immediately wanted to give Camila this chance. So, it isn't only the responsibility of playing Daniela that makes Camila work so hard, it's also her respect for Ally. There's no one she'd like to disappoint less than Ally.

"Yo Mila," Dinah said, snapping Camila out of her daydream, "we're going out tonight."

Camila holds up her script to show Dinah that there is no way she is going out tonight. "I have to study DJ."

"No, you don't," Dinah objects. "You've been studying for weeks now, I'm pretty sure you know my lines better than I do at this point."

"I have to nail this Dinah, you know how much this means to me!" Camila instantly tries to protest.

"You will Chanch, you've never not nailed anything."

Camila raises her eyebrows at that.

"I didn't mean it like that, but speaking of nailing things.." Dinah starts before she gets interrupted.

"No, no, no, not this again Dinah," Camila tries to interject, because they have had this conversation many times before.

"There's a stick up your ass as big as the Eiffeltower at this point, Mila. You, my girl, need to get laid," Dinah wiggles her eyebrows. "And like, for real. Not on camera."

Even though Camila is already extremely over this conversation she laughs at her friend's antics. "I feel like I need to keep telling you Lauren and I don't actually have sex on camera."

Dinah immediately sits down next to Camila, so she can stare into her eyes even more intensely than she was already doing before. "So, like, you do off camera?"

The smaller girl sighs, but also laughs because of course that's how Dinah would interpret it. "No, Dinah, I'll remind you again that she's the Eiffeltower you were talking about earlier."

Dinah laughs, but then instantly turns serious again. "Oh, so you're into butt stuff now?"

Camila looks deeply disturbed and stands up to get a drink from the kitchen. "I really don't know why you're not into politics, seeing as you're so incredibly good at twisting my words."

Dinah smiles whilst following her into the kitchen. She hops on the counter, but immediately jumps back off when Camila gives her the 'get your fat ass of the counter' look. "So, the last person you kissed is Lauren?"

Camila's eyes open comically wide. "Shit."

"So.. we're going out?" Dinah asks Camila, knowing that she's got the smaller girl countered now.

Camila puts down her water, sighs, being slightly dissapointed in herself, opens the fridge and grabs the wine. "Hell yeah."