“Is it safe to drink the water?” someone else asked.
“Cuba is a very clean and hygienic country. However, drinking tap water is not recommended. It might leave you with a nasty case of diarrhea or upset stomach. I recommend you opt for bottled water,” Anita shared.
“I tried to order papaya, but the woman selling it was offended. Did I do something wrong?” a young man asked.
The people at the front table laughed.
“Sorry, but here, papaya is vulgar slang for … a vagina. They’ve renamed it ‘fruta bomba,’” Anita shared.
She turned to the table she was sitting at.
“Did I forget anything?” she asked.
“Personally, I like the rum here. A rum and coke with lime is normally called a ‘Cuba Libre’ both in the US and in Latin America, except in Cuba. Here, it’s called a ‘mentirita’ or ‘little lie,’” Kitty Ellis, the assistant director, shared.
“Speaking of rum, you’re able to take both that and cigars home with you. In Cuba, cigars are called ‘puros’ or ‘habanos.’ Americans can bring back $400 worth of goods from Cuba, including $100 in cigars and rum,” Roger Brooks, our producer, said.
With that done, Anita sat down, and Laurent stood up to talk.
“I have some good news. If you noticed, the actors only received scripts for their part. I usually am not one for secrecy, but we needed to obtain permission to film reenactment of certain events. Our movie is set in the chaotic time after President Fulgencio Batista was ousted on January first, 1959.
“The new government led by Fidel Castro took power. One of their first actions was to confront the American Mafia. The Mafia had been pouring money into Havana and built hotels with casinos. Castro required his people to be present in the counting rooms. The Mafia didn’t like that, because the counting room was where large sums of money disappeared.
“Castro decided to remove the Mafia. Then he shut down the casinos. His own people talked him into reopening them because they thought the loss of tourism dollars would be devastating to the economy,” Laurent told us.
He took a drink and continued.
“Also in play was the revolution. In 1957, the US imposed an embargo on Cuba and withdrew its ambassador in protest over the brutal means President Batista used to subdue insurrection. The US was even less happy when Castro’s revolutionaries took power. The US then attempted to achieve regime change but failed, most notably at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Because of the US’s hostility, Castro turned to Russia for support.
“The storyline for the script was originally based on Sir Richard Jackson’s accounts of his time in Cuba as a teenager. Lord Jackson has helped us as an advisor. The reason for the secrecy is that some of the events that happened had been classified, and we needed to get permission to show them in our film,” Laurent explained.
I remembered reading the Richard Jackson saga, though I only recalled a brief description of him in Cuba, where he met some Soviet missile soldiers at a hotel in Havana.
“Lord Jackson has allowed us to take great license with his story and expand the role that Rick plays in events. We’ve gone far enough off the original story that it bears little resemblance to what really happened. We did that because we wanted to expand the scope to include much more of the actual history of what occurred during that turbulent time,” Laurent further explained.
“Tomorrow, we’ll get started early. I will need the actors to be on set first thing so we can get costume sizes confirmed and give you all period haircuts,” Kitty announced.
Hearing that someone as successful as Lord Jackson was involved in this project made me happy. He’d actually been a movie star in his youth. I really hoped that I would get to meet him at some point.
◊◊◊
After dinner, I was relaxing in my suite when I heard a knock on the door. I looked out the peephole and saw it was Caryn.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I have some DVDs and was deciding what to watch. Rita is determined to educate me on what makes a movie good.”
“Pick something out, and I’ll be right back,” she said and left.
I had the choice down to three when my door opened, and people started to come in. Along with my group were the two other actors who had flown in today, Stewart and Heath. There was also a girl, about my age, who Cassidy had found. It turned out she was Kimberly Fillmore, who would play my love interest.
“What are our choices?” Heath asked.
“I thought something with a little action. I have The Wild Bunch, The Searchers, and High Noon,” I suggested.
“Those are all good,” Heath acknowledged.
I decided that we would watch The Searchers since it had John Wayne in it. I picked that as a nod to Rick Jackson and the movies he’d made with the Duke. Stewart had a bag with him that had both gin and rum in it. It soon turned into a relaxed party as everyone got to know each other and half-watched the movie.
Heath browsed through my movies.
“All of these are great.”
“Rita James sent them with me in the hope that I would learn something.”
“I didn’t know you knew her,” Heath said.
“I met her through her daughter, Halle. Halle and I were in Star Academy together, and we also did The Secret Circle, which comes out in a few weeks.”
Heath had been in movies for nearly forty years and had great stories about the business. He’d gotten his start in The Eagle Has Landed, a World War II film that starred Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, and Robert Duvall. He’d never had a leading role but had made a good living as a supporting actor.
The movie was soon over, and everyone left because we had to get up and be on set early in the morning.
◊◊◊ Monday May 16
I woke with a start. Sometime during the night, the air conditioning had failed, and I was a hot, dripping mess. I felt trapped in my sheets because they were stuck to me. After I extricated myself from the bedding, my very next action was to open a bottle of water and down it. I needed to buy a fan because the room was stifling even at this time of day. If it was this bad now, I hated to imagine what it would be like by late afternoon.
I took a shower, and even the cold water seemed warm. The other problem was that the water pressure made me think I was back in LA; it barely got me wet. I decided that shorts and a t-shirt would be the dress for the day.
I heard a knock at my door. It was Paul; I guess he was there to walk me to breakfast and then to my fitting.
“Last night was nice,” he told me.
“I think everyone had a good time.”
We took breakfast on a patio that overlooked the ocean. The sun was just coming up, and there was a slight breeze. I asked the waiter to suggest something, and he picked a dish called ‘fufu.’ It was plantains, bacon, onion, and garlic with mayo that made a sticky, gooey concoction. In addition to fufu, we were served eggs in pepper boats. They sliced a Cuban pepper—which I thought was the same as a poblano pepper—in half, removed the seeds and stem, and then cooked it. They then put two eggs into each and cooked them until the egg whites were firm, but the yolk was still runny, and then sprinkled some cilantro on top. It was filling.
I was told no Cuban meal is complete without a ‘cafecito,’ or Cuban coffee. Cafecito has sweet ‘crema’ floating over strong espresso coffee. Despite its name, crema had nothing to do with cream—it’s a foam made from sugar that’s been thoroughly beaten with a splash of coffee.