Page 21 of The Actor: Harrison

She seems to hesitate for a second, but then she says nothing. Her dark, almost black eyes struggle to find mine. I don’t know if she’s ashamed, but I doubt she knows what that emotion is.

“Well, see you tomorrow. I’ll make sure you have your lunch,” she murmurs before turning around and walking out of the trailer.

I have no idea what just happened, if that was her way of apologizing. I appreciate the effort, though. Not sure where this box of pasta leaves us, but I suppose in a better place than where today’s salad left us.

“He’s not here,” Ronan announces when I let him in the trailer.

“What?” My head snaps in his direction from the note on the script in front of me.

“He called in sick five minutes ago,” he explains a bit nervously.

“Are you fucking kidding me? It’s the third day in a row he’s called in sick.” I punch the couch in frustration and the production assistant flinches.

I take a deep breath, trying to calm down. It’s not this guy’s fault. I can’t vent my frustration on him. He’s fidgeting, waiting for me to make a decision, and right now, I hope I don’t throw up. I’m so nervous and tired from this constant fighting with Harrison I’m not sure my stomach will hold the breakfast I ate half an hour ago.

“We have to send everyone home,” I breathe out.

“What? We can film something else,” he suggests.

I know he’s trying to be supportive but I can’t deal with him right now. It’s already humiliating that Harrison is doing whatever he wants on this set, including calling at six in the morning to tell me he’s not coming. I don’t have the strength to share Ronan’s optimistic view of this day.

“No. In the last two days we’ve filmed all the scenes where his presence wasn’t required and we don’t have any left. We’ll have to change location if we want to film other scenes where he’s not involved. It’s too late to do anything right now,” I explain, keeping my composure.

He seems defeated and I can’t shake the feeling that I let him down. I let everyone down. I should have gone to Harrison’s house the first day he called in sick and demanded he come back. He threw a tantrum about eating vegan and the day after, he called in sick. I don’t believe in coincidences. He is clearly punishing me for the fight we had.

“I’m going to talk to Ellen and then let you know the new schedule, okay?” I put on a smile on my face but I feel furious inside.

He nods as he opens the door and we both slip out of the trailer. It’s still dark outside. It’s barely six a.m. and the sun won’t rise for another fifty minutes. Everyone is here doing their job, waking up before dawn, not even having the time to see their kids before they go to school, and he just spits on our job and time because he’s a diva.

I’m so furious with him I even forgot to knock before opening the door of the trailer. Ellen is sipping her cup of coffee, sleepy eyes and a tired face.

“Let me guess, he’s sick” She rolls her eyes from behind the cup.

“How’d you guess?” I grit out of my teeth.

She smiles. “Your face says everything.”

“I’m so furious I can’t even think right now.” I sit down on the couch in front of her, on the other side of the table.

“You’ll have all the time in the world to think because we have to send everyone home. We don’t have other scenes to film here. Even if you use a stand-in, we’d have to reshoot the entire scene for all the close-ups,” she points out.

I can hear the disappointment in her voice. We’ll have to call Kevin about this delay in filming because it will cost us a good chunk of the budget. Considering we’re a women’s team he was reluctant to have on board, he’ll probably be more harsh than usual in yelling at us. She’s just setting her mind and heart up for the yelling that will come in the next half an hour.

“I’ll send everyone home, then we do that call. We’ll do it together,” she says firmly.

I nod. I should be the one going out there and giving the news, but I honestly need a few minutes to calm down and gather the strength to have a conversation with the producer. He called me two days ago when I rearranged the schedule. He called me yesterday to ask if I have everything under control. I’m sure he’ll call me as soon as he knows we had to send everyone home. It’s better if I just call him and avoid pissing him off further.

Ellen comes back and sits down in front of me.

“Put him on speaker,” she suggests, sitting in the same spot as before.

I put my phone on the table between us and hit the button next to Kevin’s name. He answers on the second ring and it’s not pleasant.

“What?” he barks.

I take a deep breath and Ellen gives me a reassuring smile.

“Harrison called in sick and we had to send everyone home,” I spit out almost in a rush.

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