by Newbiel
"It's not because I'm not eating at the dinner anymore that I can't look at the menu." Answer Isla unapologetically.
They keep talking about the boy when he was in discussion with the director when Morgan noticed something weird. Looking more closely with narrowed eyes, his face instantly showed signs of disbelief.
"Look at his right hand." Morgan talked for the first time since coming here.
Surprised by the weird demand, they all focused their eyes on it and immediately they understood what Morgan was talking about.
"WTF?"
"What the… ?"
"How the hell is he doing that?"
The four immediately cursing in awe and disbelief. The five of them for the need of the movie had been coached by a renowned magician and their knowledge increased dramatically under their care. They were not considering themselves magicians by a long shot but they learned much more than ordinary people would in their lifetime. They could even perform some tricks themselves albeit easy ones. But none of those tricks that their coach taught them could top what Nathaniel was doing right now.
He was making the two spoons that he was holding turning in his hand. The thing that shocked them was that he was making the two spoon twirl between his fingers rapidly, moving to the tomb at the pinky. Moreover sometimes one or the two spoons would disappear before appearing again elsewhere a few seconds later. The truth was that the last few days that he immersed himself in magic, his fingers were constantly holding things that he was busy making disappear. If only they knew that Nathaniel was qualifying what he was doing as 'simple' it would blow their minds.
"Is he a full fledged magician?" Ask Jesse with disbelief.
"I don't know. Maybe he is just good with his hands?." Said Mark with a bitter smile.
"Hush, he's going to start". Interrupt Isla.
Focusing on the stage, the two men stopped talking as they could see that she was right. Everything was ready and they were just waiting for the director to start which happened a few seconds after that. Curious, they looked at his performance with much more attention than the last three auditions. Once finished, they immediately start talking among themselves.
"It's a pity." Mark was the first one to talk.
"Yeah, it was some basic acting skill right there." Agreed Jesse.
"He has natural charisma, he even managed to catch me in the tricks yet I know everything about it." Isla said.
"He has the magic angle pretty much covered. Too bad his acting skills are so bad." Woody say feeling sorry.
"I'm going to talk to him." Morgan finally set his mind.
"What?"
"Why?"
Immediately, the people around question him.
"I'm intrigued and curious. There is something weird with that young man and I want to find out what. Who is coming with me?" Morgan asked with a smile.
"Me!' Answer Isla first.
"Me too." Woody added.
"Ok, i'll come too." Mark follows.
"I'm also coming, I don't understand your curiosity for a random youth but I hope it will be fun." Jesse finished.
Chapter 39: :
"So what did you think?" Nathaniel asks Maggie, coming down from the stage and taking place beside her.
"Better than what I expected. How much did you practice the trick?" Ask Maggie.
"That particular trick only took two/three hours but I discovered that magic is fun so for the last two days I practiced a fair bit of everything."
"It shows. Alas…" She starts saying when Nathaniel interrupts her.
"It would not be enough?" He finished for her.
"Yes, your acting skills are almost nonexistent. No surprise there as you never had even one acting class in your life but nonetheless you seem good at this. You show promise." She said to make him feel better.
"Don't worry Maggie, I know that this was a long shot and my chance to nail the role was close to none. Still it was fun. What do we have for the rest of the day?" He asked not really bother to have failed.
"If you want to pursue an acting career, I could recommend you a personal teacher. It will help you in the long run. It will cost you but you can easily afford it. After that we can visit Hollywood, I can have a pass to visit virtually every movie being made here if that is an interest for you." Maggie suggested.
"For a movie career we will see, it was fun but I don't know if I would have the time to pursue this further. Taking acting lessons is a sound advice however, I will look into it. For the rest, yes, I would like that."
"Okay, let's go then. I want to take you to a restaurant after that. They make the best burger in the city, it is so good!." Said Maggie almost drooling, making Nathaniel laugh.
"Sound good, my treat." He said smiling.
They didn't have the chance to move before a group of five people appeared in front of them. Nathaniel recognized easily who they were as they were known worldwide. Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher and Jesse Eisenberg. Maggie froze for a second seeing them in front of her but her expression of surprise quickly vanished and she put a professional expression on her face.
"Well hi guys. Long time no see Morgan, Mark." She said, hugging them both quickly.
"This is a pleasant surprise Maggie, It's been what? Three, four years?" Morgan said.
"Sound about right." She answered, smiling.
"Still as beautiful as you were ten years ago." Mark add.
"Coming from you I will take it as a compliment" Maggie said still with her professional smile in place.
"Why are you here? I thought that you were tired of the film industry and you were working now with singers?" Ask Mark.
They knew each other very well as they worked quite often with the other over the years. Mark even tried to poach Maggie a few years prior as she was one of the best agents in the country. Maggie refused but they kept a good relationship.
"I am. Guys, I present you Nathaniel Lyndon, my client. Young singer but I think he has what it takes to become a super star."
"Hi." Nathaniel said with a smile.
"Wait, you are a singer?" Jesse butt in the conversation.
"Yes, I have my own Youtube channel to prove it if you want to check it out." Nathaniel said with humor. Jesse didn't seem to get it because he pulled out his phone and fired up the youtube app on it.
"You are not a magician?" Ask Mark in disbelief.
"A magician? Of course not. Why? Are you messing with me guys?" Nathaniel asks with narrowed eyes, looking at Maggie.
"He checks out, he really is a singer." Jesse provides.
"Are you sure you are not a magician?" Woody insisted.
"What the hell is going on here people?" Maggie intervened.
"Okay easy guys. we didn't want to make fun of you, I promise. We just saw what you did with the two spoon in your hand while talking with the director and we were curious." Morgan clarified.
"Oh that? It was nothing, I have been doing it all the time since I started learning magic for the role six days ago." Nathaniel explained.
"Six days? Are you kidding me?" Jesse says with anger in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm a fast learner and it was really not big of a deal, it's just about hand control and movement." Nathaniel explained in a calm voice. He did not appear bothered to be yelled at.
"Hand control?" Ask Isla for the first time, cutting Jesse off.
"Yeah, look. Can I borrow your pen Maggie plase?"
Maggie did not have a problem with that and happily gave him that after finding it in her purse. Nathaniel then starts making the pen twirl between his fingers, making it disappear at times like he did with the two spoons earlier. Looking at him, even Maggie could not help but to marvel at his dexterity and her eyes showed signs of awe. The five actors around him were in the same state. Previously they were looking at him from afar so they did not see it with much clarity. But now they were seeing it much better and even if he was making only one object move this time they were even more
surprised than the first time.
"How can you do that?" Marvel Isla.
"I have played piano since I'm young so that help me a lot with this trick. I was doing hand exercises when I was little to help me get better like this one." Nathaniel said.
Giving back the pen to Maggie, he opens his hand and shows them his palm with each finger open wide. Then he starts making each finger turn in the exact opposite of the one beside it. Looking at the exercise, Jesse, Isla, Mark and Woody got curious and started trying it themselves but failing miserably. Maggie and Morgan did not even bother to try.
"Are you even human?" Woody exclaimed as he didn't even manage to make three of his fingers turn on the same direction.
"Don't beat yourself up, I have done it since I'm three years old so it's understandable if you can't do it." Nathaniel comforts them kindly.
"Why did a singer like you come to an audition like this?" Mark inquired, putting the conversation back into context.
"Jillian Brown convinced me to come, she thought that I have the charisma to pull it off based on what she saw on the video I turned for my single. I thought it would be fun so I accepted. I knew with six day to memorize the script and zero class in acting whatsoever I would never get it but it would be a nice experience so I came. And here I am, talking with you five so I turn out to be right." He finished smiling brightly.
Hearing that, the five actors around him could not help but smile, even Jesse who did not have a very good impression of Nathaniel did so. They keep talking for ten minutes or so after that until Nathaniel reminds himself that they had things to do.
"Okay guys, it was fun meeting you but we have plans so we need to get going. Best of luck for the movie. bye!" Nathaniel said. He exchanged handshakes with the mens and was surprisingly hugged by Isla.
Leaving the studio with Maggie, he noticed that she was surprisingly quiet but was moving with much energy.
"Okay, what's going on Maggie?" He asks her.
"You know, I insist that you go to that audition to give a good impression of yourself. I was hoping that you could gather the attention of one or two people. I wasn't expecting all five of them to show up. I saw you talk with the director too, this is very good." Maggie say happily
"It was not that hard, they were nice, I wasn't expecting them to be this nice to be honest when taking into account their fame. For the director, he is french and I'm fluent in french so it's about luck really." Nathaniel explained.
"What? Why did you never tell me that you are fluent in french?" Maggie said, feeling wrong.
"Like you are the one to talk, you never tell me anything about you so don't be surprised. Truthfully, it is not that important so i never thought to mention it." Nathaniel says to pacify her.
"Okay, for the question of being nice, trust me, they are not usually this friendly but you were so open and kind that none of them could find it in themselves to hate you. This is really good." Maggie says, stirring the conversation away from her. Things that did not go unnoticed by Nathaniel.
"But not good enough to give me the role, right?" He said with a bitter smile.
"Yeah, we always knew that this was extremely unlikely for you to get it so don't beat yourself up. Trust me, once you have acting class, we will come back here and take everything." Maggie said with conviction.
"Thanks for that Maggie. Let's have fun." He said, stirring her away.
Chapter 40: :
An hour after Nathaniel and Maggie leave the studio, a bunch of people gather in a meeting room. The director of the movie, Louis Leterrier was there with two of his assistant directors and one producer. The other five people were Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg and Isla Fisher who assisted at the audition earlier that day. They were all currently sitting around a table, looking at the screen put at the end of it.
The screen was showing the performance of all the four actors auditioned for the role this morning. The scene that they were playing was rather short so in little less than five minutes, they had already watched the four individual performances. The producer was the first one to talk after that.
"Well, this is a no brainer, number two it is."
"I agree, he is the best that has come today." The director says, his two assistants nodding even if one of the two appears to nod begrudgingly. She was the assistant who gave the prop to the actor before.
Hearing everybody on the other side, the five actors looked at each other a little bothered. If that conversation had taken place just after the audition, they would have voted for the number two guy without problem but now everything changes. Since talking to Nathaniel, they had a change of heart. Even Jesse, who was very much opposed to him, could not argue that this guy was gifted. Once Nathaniel had left, they had all listened to his music and they all loved it.
"What about number four?" Ask Isla finally.
"What about him?" Inquired the producer. "I don't even know who he is. I have the files of all three of the actors auditioned today except number four. I'm really curious to know who the hell fucked up." He said while pointing at the three files in front of him.
The producer was the one who represented the studio. His job was to make sure that the budget did not get spent on useless things. He was also there to see if a movie could or could not be bankable. If it was not he had the power to shut everything up. He had a good amount of power here but he was still overshadowed by the director who had complete power.
"No one messed up. You don't have a file on him because he never played in a movie before." The director said. "He was especially recommended by our casting director."
"Since when a nobody can randomly take an audition here?" The producer started to get angry.
"That nobody has almost one and a half millions followers on twitter." Supplying Isla with a smirk, she had checked it out earlier today and followed soon after that.
"Really? I never saw him before. What does he do?"
"He's a new singer/musician, his first song got viral already." Mark says.
"Okay, what's going on there? Why are you defending him? We clearly saw the level of his acting skill so why are we even talking about the guy?" The producer asked.
"We talked about it among the five of us and we believe that he could contribute a lot to the movie. He has impressive magic skills, huge presence on screen and once we talked with him we realized he's immensely smart." Woody says.
"Are you all crazy!? The problem is not that he does not have enough experience, he has no experience whatsoever! Do I need to remind you this is a huge production movie, we can't have beginners running around on the set." The producer added forcefully.
"We know that. The movie is going to start filming again next week. We are going to teach everything that he can learn in that time. He would be up to standar when the movie is going to start." Morgan says for the first time.
The producer heard that shut up immediately. Coming from anybody else he would have shot that person down but coming from Morgan Freeman, he couldn't say anything. Even he who was an important person could not go against certain people and Morgan was one of them.
"Are you sure about it? I don't have a problem giving him a chance and I have a good impression of that kid too but what if he can't learn?" The director voiced his opinion on the matter for the first time.
"Do I need to remind you that he was recommended by Jillian Brown?" Woody says, smiling.
"Jillian Brown? Why did you not say it earlier?" The producer asked angrily.
If he was indeed recommended by Jillian, that means the kid had indeed talent. The reputation of Jillian in LA was almost legendary and for good reason. A myriad of famous actors today owe their career to Jillian who noticed their potential and talent and gave them a chance. Her opinion was respected by everyone in Hollywood today, the studio included.
"I was going to, I would not have taken anybody on an audition if it was not for someone who I respect." The director says. "Are you sure of
your choice?" He asks the last part to the five actors.
"Yes we are." Morgan says, acting as a spokesperson for the group who nod.
"Well, at least he will be cheap." The producer said with a bitter smile, knowing with the entire cast support and without the director on his side, the battle was over.
Saying that, every actor laughs and even the director smiles a little. That laugh seems ominous to the producer who frowns.
"His agent is Maggie Silver." Mark answered before the guy could ask.
Looking at every face in front of him as a sign of confirmation, he sighed visibly, his shoulder slumping a little.
"F**k me." He finally said.
*****
"You were right Maggie. This burger is really one of the best I have ever eaten." Nathaniel said, after swallowing the first bite of his burger.
After visiting the Hollywood studio they had come here as promised. The entire studio was like a giant city with the decor changing each time you passed a door. It was like a mystical world with magic and fantastic creatures at every corner. Nathaniel loved it and even Maggie who worked in this universe for twenty years was having fun too, taking him everywhere. He understood how well known Maggie truly was when they were stopped a dozen times by director and actors saying hello. She then hastily introduced him, labeling him as a singer/actor, both titles he thought he did not deserve as of now.
He knew better than to try to correct her in front of people and he knew very well that she was just paving a way for the future so he let her say what she wanted. Thanks to her, he did meet Ryan Reynolds, which he found was extremely funny.
"I'm always right, you should know that by now." She said, sounding smug.
"Of course I do." He said, laughing. He was impervious of her arrogance by now and he did admit that she had skill to back that arrogance up.
At that moment they were interrupted by her phone who started ringing. Fishing it out of her purse and looking at the caller ID, she appears surprised for a second before accepting the call.
"Maggie Silver, speaking." She said with her professional, detached voice.