The two of us met on a movie set. For the first time in my life, I was given a small taste of the big time. The movie never took off very much, but it was an unforgettable experience, especially since I got to meet Mr. Alex Winter.
Meeting him changed my life, I hate to say. Sometimes I believe that one person shouldn't have the ability to walk into someone's life and screw it all up forever. Sometimes it can be for the better, other times for the worse, but when one person holds the ability to completely alter someone's life just by existing in it, well, that's just too much power to have.
I remember exactly how I felt on set. I had on this stupid little blue dress which automatically made me feel like I was out of place, given that people were wandering around as mask and cosmetics testers.
The director bounced over to me, happy to see me. His name was Dave, and he was a tall, skinny guy who looked like he'd never had a sandwich in his life. Dave was the reason I got the role in the first place. The script writer had turned me down, but Dave haf said yes.
"Ahh, yes! It's you from the audition!" Dave said from across the set. "You'll have to forgive me, there have been so many new faces. What's your name?"
"Katherine, Katherine Williams," I stammered. I was, admittedly, quite nervous. "Most people call me Katie."
"Nice to meet you, Miss Williams," Dave said politely, shaking my hand. "Welcome to the set. We're about to do a read-through of the script in room 110 if you'd care to join us."
He gestured down the hall. I nodded politely and he handed me a copy of my script.
I could actually hear my feet taking steps down the hall, and felt compelled to try and quiet them down. I could feel my knees trembling with anticipation. Believe it or not, I actually was outgoing. It just took me a bit to get used to a situation. I loved to act and be seen and to be able to pour myself into someone that I wasn't.
I had every right to be terrified, though. I was quirky and weird, which often made people steer clear of me. I always thought it was a good sort of weird. I was enthusiastic. Sometimes a bit too enthusiastic, and I was mentally berating myself not to creep out the cast. I had to keep it in check until I found people I could let loose with.
I got into the room, and just like the student that comes into class late, the group already inside turned to look at me. My face kinda heated up and I ducked into the nearest available chair. It probably wasn't the best impression I could've made, but it was pretty nerve-wracking.
For lack of anything better to do, and for a way to get the time to scope out the other actors, I thumbed through my script to pick out my lines.
My character was Elaine Shields, who, as far as I could see, shared a lot of screen time with a character called Matthew.
I scanned the script until Dave brought in the last of the cast. The last one to come in was a good looking guy about my age, with a messy mop of curly, blond hair, and a strong jaw.
"Hey Alex," a few people through the room said. It seemed like he was Mr. Popular.
"Hey guys," he greeted with a smile. He spotted a guy across the room from him with long, dark hair.
"Keanu!" He yelled. The dark haired one looked up.
"Hey dude!" Keanu greeted. Alex waved, then looked around for a seat. He found me.
"Anyone sitting here?" He asked me, leaning down to try and make it personal.
"Go for it," I told him. He gave me a charming smile and slid easily in next to me.
I continued reading my script until I realized he was peering over at it too. I gave him a sideways glance, since he had his own in hand. I didn't bring it up; I just let my cheeks darken a little and flipped the page.
Dave took a spot at the front of the room and cleared his throat for attention. We turned our eyes to him and he smiled.
"Hey everyone," he greeted. "My name is Dave Simon, I'm going to be the director of this film, so how about we all do a quick introduction and get into reading the script?"
He motioned to Alex, who was closest. He stood up and waved to the crew.
"Hey guys. I'm Alex Winter, I play Matthew Daniels. I'm really excited to see what all of you bring to the table." He had a very casual and charming air to him. He placed a hand on my shoulder as a sign for my to speak.
"Hi, my name's Katie, and I'm gonna be playing Elaine," with nothing else really interesting to add, I sorta nodded to the person next to me.
I sucked at names, but I remembered Keanu, Jay, Liz, Sam, Penny, and Chris. There were a lot more than that at the table together, but it was too much for me to take in at once.
The read-through went well. My dialogue was very believable, and even just through reading, Alex and I got used to each other pretty quickly. Our characters interacted a lot.
In fact... too much. In the second "act," there was a bit of a dirty scene. It was clear that we were playing lovers, and not just the simple quick, cute kisses.
As much as I knew it was only acting, I felt nervously excited for this. I'd never had to kiss anyone I didn't know, and I'd never had to fake a kiss or bedroom scene before.
Images and ideas swam in my mind and I grew more embarrassed. How many times would I have to kiss a guy I just met? Would we actually have to kiss, or was it going to be a camera trick? How much of ourselves were we going to have to expose?
I knew Dave would figure all of this out once we actually started staging, but Alex kept teasing me during our read-through. It gave me nervous butterflies. I knew it would all be acting for the sake of acting, and people did that in movies all the time, but to have it be me...
I had the lead in a play once before and I played lovers with a kid who was almost too awkward to touch me. We made it work by me clinging to him any chance I got, but there was no kiss scene. And I was sure that Dave wasn't just going to write out that scene.
I actually kinda wanted it in there. We could make it fun. I had a habit of laughing at myself a lot. It didn't stop my stomach from dropping out as I had to read a bedroom scene in front of a room of strangers. That was the other scary part. It wasn't just Alex and I. It was the entire crew, sound guys, lighting, cameras, people yelling at us to give us directions...
***
The script was great. Alex was great. I noticed how expressive he was. Keanu was great. He seemed like a lot of fun, and he and Alex had good chemistry already. Dave told us he was glad he chose us.
The read-through took most of the day, so there was no time for much else. I was going to go home and study the lines and prepare to read it all again tomorrow. It was really cool not knowing how long this would take, or what costumes looked like.
I looked forward to seeing Alex again, hoping to strike a better conversation. Maybe getting to know him would make kissing him less weird. Then again, maybe it would make it even harder.
But a job is a job, and if I have to act my way through a make out scene, then I'll have to bite the bullet and do it either way. It's only acting, so as long as we were believable, that's all that matters.