“I feel like a great burden has been lifted,” he said.
“That was fun,” I said.
Bree must not have believed my sincerity. We called this one quits after that.
Later, we had this British girl interview us. She was busy asking Bree questions.
“You must get asked to read a lot of scripts. What made you decide on this one?”
Bree’s phone chirped, and she took her time and pulled it out of her bag by her chair, then looked at the text.
“Hey, look, the guy from last night,” she said as she handed me the phone to read it.
She continued the conversation with the interviewer. I texted her date back.
‘Had a great time’
‘You free tonight?’
‘Depends …’
‘On what?’ he asked.
‘R U into anal?’
That was when the interviewer asked me a question, so I put Bree’s phone down and forgot about it.
◊◊◊
After the marathon session of interviews, Frank and Caryn wanted to talk to me and decompress. Caryn had taken my suite at the hotel. The studio was being generous, and I would have to thank them when I saw them at the premiere.
“Towards the end, you got sloppy,” Frank started.
I took a deep breath and let it out.
“Did I do anything I wasn’t supposed to?” I asked.
“David, that’s not the point, and you know it,” Frank chastised.
He was right. I was doing this for a purpose, and I had gotten sloppy. Suddenly I remembered I’d forgotten to warn Bree about the text messages. I wondered if what I’d done had crossed some line. Surely not. It then struck me that I’d forgotten to tell Frank about the 69 Naturals photo op. I thought that might distract him from dissecting my every little comment from the day’s interviews.
“Do you know what 69 Naturals is?” I asked.
Caryn looked at me curiously, while Frank looked confused.
“Google is your friend,” I said as I looked at Caryn.
She pulled her phone out and sucked in her breath.
“I will kill him,” Caryn fumed.
“Care to clue me in?” Frank asked.
I came clean about going to the party and letting them take pictures of me.
“Did you sign a release?” he asked.
“No, but what’s to keep them from saying they were candid shots? I bet they could make them look like they came from a cell phone,” I said, reminding him that he had done that when he released pictures to Hollywood Central.
“And you’re just telling me about this now?” Frank asked.
“You do know when they’ll release those pictures, don’t you? They’ll get splashed all over the net during the premiere,” Caryn said.
“Star Academy is supposed to be a family-oriented movie, even with the PG-13 rating,” I admitted.
They’d had me do a voice-over for my language in one scene in particular. With that, we’d gotten the film rated down from an R to appeal to a broader audience. Frank got a faraway look on his face.
“Let me cogitate on this,” he said and then left.
I then told Caryn what I’d done to Bree. She just laughed.
“Do you remember how they hazed you as the new guy?” she asked.
As part of her education process, Caryn had sat me down and wanted to know all about what I’d done on the set of Star Academy. I told her the stories of the lip-sync contest and the dance video. While Craig was the ringleader, the rest of the cast had their hands in it.
“So you don’t think she’ll be mad?” I asked.
“Oh, she’ll be furious, but you can remind her payback is a bitch.”
I liked Caryn more and more as time went on.
◊◊◊
Chapter 28 – Just Enjoy What Comes to You Monday January 4
My morning started early, as I had to be at the studios for America at Daybreak by seven. Today was when the real interviews would begin. Craig and I were scheduled for the first half hour of the show before we were whisked off to the next one. Frank and Caryn were already in the car when it picked me up.
“You ready for this?” Caryn asked.
“Yeah. I could’ve used some more sleep, but let’s get this started.”
“Our first stop is America at Daybreak. The studio called and said they’ve sent over the clip of you and the rest of the cast at orientation where you first met your team,” Frank said.
“Isn’t that where Craig has a long monologue, and I just stand there?” I asked.
“He is the draw,” Frank said.
I tamped down my competitive side. It was all about selling the movie, not me. When we arrived at the studio, we found the guy from our studio with Craig and Kent. Craig ignored us when we came in.
“Tammy Shafer will be interviewing you this morning. She’ll do a brief introduction, show the clip, and then do a five-minute interview,” our studio guy told me.
I stepped up to Craig.
“So, what do you want to talk about?” I asked.
“I’ve done this hundreds of times. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. Just follow my lead,” Craig said and then walked away from me.
Kent grabbed me before I followed Craig.
“He thinks you’re upstaging him,” Kent said.
“How could I do that? The movie’s already done.” I said.
“It was the interviews yesterday. Everyone who saw Craig asked about you and what it was like to work with you. They had all just been in the interviews with you and Bree before they talked to him. That, and you have more interview requests than he and Bree combined,” Kent said.
“I had nothing to do with that, and in fact invited Craig to join us,” I shot back.
“I know that, but he doesn’t get that you tried to help him. Don’t worry, I’ll get him in line,” Kent said and left to find Craig.
Hearing how Craig was acting made me mad. His ego was about to get him his ass handed to him.
Tammy Shafer stopped in to meet us. She was as nice as she seemed on TV. I was sent to makeup and didn’t see Craig again until we sat down to do the interview. We weren’t on the main set. They’d set up a side set with our large movie poster and a smaller one showing Bree, Elizabeth, Craig, and myself in our full Star Academy garb. I smiled when I saw that I was shown without my shirt on and with all my tattoos for the movie on full display.
“You look like a cartoon character,” Craig snorted.
“You look like a nerd,” I said, not missing a beat.
“Up yours,” Craig responded.
“Bite me.”
Frank was suddenly on set and pulled us both apart.
“I don’t know what your problems are, but you better make nice, or you might not like what happens.”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“Suck-up,” Craig shot my way.
“If you don’t settle down, you’ll be pulled from the interview,” Frank said.
“You know what? I’ve had enough of this shit,” Craig said and stormed out.
Kent and the studio rep ran after him. Frank found the producer to explain that Craig wouldn’t be joining us. When it was time, I was handed an AAD coffee cup with tea in it and sat across from Tammy.
“This week, a highly anticipated film, Star Academy, will be debuting. My son and daughter, Conner and Stephanie, have both told me that they can’t wait to see my guest. Let’s see a clip of the movie and then we’ll talk to David A. Dawson,” Laura said.
They showed the clip of Craig’s character, Royal, giving his talk, and then it was back to us.
“Alright, we are so excited to have David A. Dawson with us this morning.”
“Thank you for having me. I hope I get to come back to see you again someday,” I said.
“If the reaction of my teenage daughter is any indication, I’m sure you’ll be back. Tell me what it was like …”