Page 10 of Script
“To a bar.”
“A night club, or I don’t know what you’d call it, but there were a lot of naked women, and I have this bra thing that I don’t know what to do with now.”
The noise this time from Atlas’ end was somewhere between a growl and a snort, and then he let out a high-pitched whine and I could picture him pacing his room.
“That explains the photos. You know there are photos, right?”
“Of Cameron Chavkin? I know. That’s how I found him. He’s the third sexiest hockey player right now.”
“Not of him. Of youandChavkin together. At the bar. They’re onTMZ. It’s not good. You’re looking up at this woman who… jeez… I can’t…” He wheezed again, and this time I felt as if maybe he was taking this way too seriously.
“Are you okay?” I asked with caution.
“Am I okay? Am. I. Okay?”
Nope. It seemed he wasn’t okay.
“Fuck’s sake, Finn. You tell me you stalked a man to a bar, you propositioned him, you were staring at strippers, and fuck me, do you not understand the meaning of keeping your head down? These photos do not align with your clean-cut media persona and your core values.”
That didn’t make sense. “If I was there in the bar, then I made a conscious decision to be there andsurelythat is the very definition of one of my core values—”
“Not the core values I wrote down for you to adhere to in public. Not the ones that get you parts. I created your character as the slightly less-than-clever-hero type, who does his acting, does it well, doesn’t drink, smoke, swear, or touch drugs, and then gives the impression he goes to church on a Sunday with his steady girlfriend who he’s categoricallynotsleeping with until their wedding night.” He took a deep breath after that insane run-on sentence.
I parsed all the information.
“Well,thatperson sounds kinda boring. I mean, I’m nearly thirty-one and surely the character you’re making up would be sleeping with his girlfriend by now.”
“That’s not the fucking point!”
“And I do fucking swear,” I added as an afterthought.
“Do you even wantLadybug2?”
Hope flared inside me. “Wait. What? They’re actually making aLadybug2?”
“With over half a billion in receipts and merchandising on the first one, of course they are. I don’t get why, but the kids loved it. They want you for Hobart-the-Elf again, and they’ll have the script with you in two months or so, shooting for next year’s Christmas release. You want it, then keep your nose clean, otherwise you’ll lose that,andyou’ll lose the Grierson movie.”
I didn’t want to lose the kids’ movie I knew I’d love. And the intense hockey story that might take me to the next level in my career as a serious actor, able to come out and be authentic and not be laughed out of the house.
“Okay.”
“I got a quick message at the end of a very short meeting with Luca.”
“Yeah?” Luca not only shared the headline on theRapidmovies as the psychic sidekick, but we shared Atlas as an agent.
“He said, and I quote. ‘Sorry dude will call you when back from Machu Picchu’. I assume he’s there doing whatever sidekick actors do when they’re not filming.
“Sleeping mostly, and he emailed me the same thing.” One friend down, and I was definitely running out of people to talk to.
“Finally, we need to issue a statement about these photos, because not only do they show you seemingly fascinated by the naked form of a dancing woman with the perky jiggly… um… breasts… but the way you’re staring into Cameron Chavkin’s eyes made it look as if…”
“As if?” I prompted, but got the feeling I wouldn’t like the answer.
“I’m not spelling it out for you. Look, Finn. I’m doing everything I can to hide your secret, but random visits to stare at strippers, stalking hockey players, then staring at them like you want to eat them, will make sure that people see right through to your life character and see the real you. Do you want to end up like Elias Lake? Do you recall what happened to him?”
Of course, I did, but tried to fluff it off as if I didn’t because it was too scary.
“To refresh your memory, Elias Lake just last year was outed by some twinky social media celebrity.TheElias Lake. Outed as being gay. He ended up hiding in some tiny Maine town where he hooked up with a potter and—”
