by Chloe Summer
‘Gravitas.’ The producer again cut in again.
‘Yes. That to, plenty of gravitas.’ The director agreed again, smiling at the producer. ‘I want a new scene in two days. That’s when filming for it is scheduled to begin and that’s what you get. Fucking Golding sold you like a freshly polished turd, said you were the best. Let’s see how good you really are. Capisce?’
‘Capisce.’ Liana agreed, nodding slowly as she got to her feet. The job would be easy; she knew this film like the back of her hand. What was going to be hard was finding time to talk to its star. She knew she wouldn’t be able to write a thing until she did.
‘Good. Now be gone.’ The director said, waving her from the office. ‘You’ve got pages to write.’
--
Now that she was on set, getting to Jason shouldn’t be too difficult…she hoped. As Liana made her way to his trailer, she ran through her head all the things she was going to say. She was going to start off by apologizing. She had over reacted. But then he was surely going to apologize too? Hopefully he would admit that he had taken her for granted, and hadn’t been as good to her as she deserved? If he admitted that then she could admit…over and over it went as she got closer to his trailer. She planned out every word, every meticulous detail. This was going to be the perfect make-up argument, she was sure of it.
Her writer’s brain was in overdrive as she powered through the studio, barely even noticing were she was going. She played out all the likely situations in her head as she hurried to the trailer, beating on his door. As such, when the door swung open to reveal Jason, Liana was caught totally off guard, leaving all her work and preparation for naught.
‘Liana? Hey…What are you doing...?’ Jason exclaimed, clearly shocked at the sight of her.
‘Hey -- Jason. Can I come in?’ Liana stumbled over her words, barely able to string two of them together.
‘Sure, yeah. Come in.’ Jason stepped to the side, allowing her room to enter the trailer.
But of course any chance she had of saving the moment was all but destroyed when she spotted Scarlett, perched in the corner like a tiger waiting to pounce.
‘Liana? What a…interesting surprise.’ Scarlett offered, sounding more bored than anything.
‘Oh Scarlett hey I didn’t think that…that you would…do I say hi?’ Liana, more than a little flustered.
‘Liana what are you doing here?’ Jason asked curiously, clearly still in some state of shock over seeing her. ‘How’d you get on the lot?’
‘Oh that I…I…’ Liana did have a plan. She was going to open with a speech she had written in her head. It was one that perfectly laid out all the dot points of their breakup and ways that they could resolve them. It was tender and sweet, making sure to share the blame. Neither of them was perfect but she knew that they could work it out. Unfortunately that was gone now, replaced by a stuttering mess. Unable to say the things she wanted to say, Liana instead chose to lie. ‘I’m just here to say hi. I’ve been hired as the on-set writer, and I knew we’d bump into each other sooner or later so I thought I should pop on over. Say hi you know? So…hi.’
‘Hi. I’m Jason Kobe. This is Scarlett Levine.’ Jason responded, smirking to himself as if he were in on the joke. Something told Liana that he didn’t entirely believe her.
‘Well...I’ve got to go. Pages to write. So ah…by.’ Liana practically leapt for the trailer door as quick as she could, desperate to get out of that tiny room. She didn’t wait for a response or to even give Jason a chance to apologize.
Trudging slowly through the emptying studio lot, Liana cursed herself and her stupidity. That was without a doubt the worst way to try and speak to Jason. And now she didn’t know if she’d get another chance.
--
The next day was going to be impossible to get Jason alone. Liana managed to get a hold of his schedule and was crestfallen to see that he was on camera literally the entire day.
The scene he was filming was to take place inside an alien spaceship. The majority of this set piece had been constructed on sound stage three, where Liana was right now. As Jason stood in front of the camera, reading his lines, Liana watched from a distance. She was tucked away, past the makeup, behind the snack stand. Perched in the corner, laptop balanced on her knees as she watched Jason.
The set that he stood in was constructed of giant pink walls, curved to look like the hallways to a space ship. Huge green tentacles the size of tree trunks, grew from the walls like vines; creeping along the floor and roof. Jason was standing on one of the prop-tentacles, wielding an axe in his hands.
Surrounded by a handful of extras, they joked and laugh with him in between takes as he pretended to chop the tentacle in half with the axe. Watching the whole thing, Liana couldn’t help but smile. This was Jason doing what he did best, entertaining.
As the cameras began to role and Jason began to act, Liana watched. Jason had full control of the moment. There were no interruptions, no unexpected twist or turns. Just what was on the page. Read as written.
And just like that, Liana had an idea.
The cruel irony was that she was so good with words and yet so often unable to properly express them. She had so many things that she wanted to say to Jason but knew that she would never be able to. Not the way that they were meant to be spoken anyway. What she needed was a vassal, someone else to say what she needed to say.
With only a few hours left to finish off the scene that she had been hired to write, Liana got to work. For in that scene she had a plan.
--
The scene that she had been hired to write was perhaps the most key scene of the entire movie. It was the scene where Jason’s character confessed his love to Scarlett’s character before sacrificing himself to save her and kill the aliens. It also just so happened to be the scene that Jason read before making love to Liana for the very first time. And yes, this was a film about aliens taking over the world. But more importantly, it was also a love story. It was the love story between a CIA agent and the President’s Daughter that drove this movie. For the whole movie to work, this romance needed to be believable. The importance of this moment could not be overstated.
She submitted her new scenes with some reservation to the film’s director, sure that he would turn them down. It’s not that they were bad pages, quite the opposite in fact. It was just that he seemed like the kind of director that would do this. But, much to her surprise, he loved them.
‘Yes…yes, yes!’ He chortled as he read the pages she handed him. ‘Perfect! Inspired!’ He continued, finishing up the last of them. ‘How did you write this?’
‘From the heart.’ Liana confessed.
The scene took place on top of a large wall fortification. Like a futuristic Great Wall of China, this modern contraption stretches as far as the eye can see. Part of the wall was built on set, while the other half and most of the finer details would be left to green screen. An isolated scene, it was just Jason and Scarlett, alone…not to mention the dozens of cast and crew watching and filming them.
Liana was amongst them. She had made sure to be standing opposite Jason, all the better to see him as he read the lines. But still, she made sure to stay hidden behind a particularly rotund crewmember, as she didn’t want to distract him from the scene.
Then the moment came. The crew settled down, the lights on set burned bright as those in the background dimmed. A hushed whisper as Liana watched Jason ready himself.
‘ACTION!’ the director screamed from off camera.
‘It was my fault.’ Scarlett pleaded, taking Jason by the hand as if attempting to stop him. ‘I shouldn’t have --,’
‘Yes, it was. But it was also mine.’ Jason said, pulling his hand from hers. ‘I should have listened to you earlier rather than ignoring. I should have --,’
‘Don’t go!’ Scarlett screamed. ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’
‘You don’t have to be sorry --,’
‘I do!’ Scarlett confessed with more
passion that Liana could have ever shown. ‘I was selfish and stupid. I just wanted to be with you…Everything about you is right. It makes me want to be a better person and….and If I had known it would drive you away…’
‘Hey…’ Jason said, putting his hand on Scarlett’s cheek, looking into her eyes. ‘This isn’t you driving me away. This right here, this is something I have to do….’
As he spoke the words to Scarlett, Liana became enraptured, as if he were speaking directly to her. Without thinking, she stepped out from behind the large crew member as she attempted to get a better look. And, as she did, Jason spotted her. Looking past Scarlett, and past the cameras, his eyes locked on to hers.
‘It’s got nothing to do with you.’ Jason said, looking directly to Liana, speaking to her. ‘It’s me, it’s always been me. Ever since I was a kid I’ve struggled to open up but you…you brought it out in me like I never knew anyone could. And when this is all done and over…well let’s says that when that happens we can look into starting that life together.’
‘I don’t blame you for doing this. I know, deep down that you have too. Just so long as I know you’re coming back. Promise me you will.’ Scarlett said, totally unaware of Jason’s distraction.
Liana was slowly walking forward now, closer and closer to the set. Her mouth moved as Scarlett spoke, all the while holding eye contact with Jason. He smiled as Scarlett spoke, eyes watering just a bit, just enough to show he cared. All the while watching Liana.
‘Babe,’ he said, so clearly breaking character for the first time ever. ‘You know I’ll always come back for you. This, this whole thing is only temporary. I love you.’ It was the first time he had ever said I love you to Liana, something she had wanted to hear from him for weeks. And now that he finally said it, it was all she could do to keep from rushing onto the stage then and there. Lucky she didn’t have too.
It wasn’t the ending that the director had expected and it surely wasn’t one that Scarlett had predicted, but it was the ending that Liana wanted. As Scarlett leant in for the big kiss, Jason pushed her to the side, running off set towards Liana. And Liana, trying not to trip up on the camera and wiring, rushed at Jason, throwing her arms over him the moment he got to her.
Yes the cameras were still rolling and yes the director was screaming and yes the entire cast and crew were focused on them right now; their love on display for the world. But Liana didn’t care. She had finally realised what it was that she was missing. The dream career was nothing if you had nobody to share it with. That was what had made Jason so happy, that was the dream that she had been chasing for so long. The only problem was that she didn’t realise it until now.
She had started out content to go it alone. But meeting Jason had set her life on a course that she couldn’t have predicted. Sure, it wasn’t the typical romance that she had always envisioned, with a few more setbacks then she thought necessary. But now, that he held her in his arms, real tears in his eyes, she couldn’t wait to see where this course was set for next.
THE END
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