“It sounds like something’s happening behind the scenes. Let’s hope they deal with Laurent. It makes me sick to think about what he did to her,” Caryn said.
“Allegedly.”
“Let’s not play word games. He did it, and he needs to be in jail with all the other pedophiles.”
At least Caryn wasn’t holding back.
We went back out to the party and had a good time. No one got out of control, and there was a lot of laughter. Keeping your crew happy is always a smart move. They could make you look either good or bad. I opted for good.
◊◊◊ Saturday May 28
“Hey, David, great party last night.”
“Thanks for letting me come over.”
“Let me know when you plan to do it again.”
These were some of the greetings I received as I walked onto the set in the morning.
“What’s all that about?” Heath asked.
“While you were out last night, there was a little get-together in my suite. A lot of the production crew showed up,” I said. “How was the show?”
“It was okay. You were right, it was sort of Vegas-lite. We had a good time, though. Thanks for suggesting it,” Heath said.
“There’s my favorite. Come get your makeup done,” offered the makeup gal.
“What about me?” Heath asked.
“Wait your turn.”
“But I was here first,” he complained.
“I think if you want to be first, you need to buy a round of drinks,” I told him.
The crew thought it was funny that all the other actors noticed my special treatment. I knew that the next one to throw a party would then be treated like a king or queen. I sighed. My people’s loyalty was so fickle. It was good that Caryn was around, or all this might go to my head.
If I needed to be brought back to earth, all I had to do was wait for Laurent.
“What was that?” Laurent asked during my first scene.
“I was trying to give you an honest emotion.”
“Honesty isn’t enough for me. Honesty is boring. You’re boring today. If you can convince me your acting is real and bigger than life … now that’s exciting. Excite me.”
I’d found that if I took a deep breath, rejected the insults, and focused on what he was trying to tell me, there was usually something worth learning. Don’t get me wrong, I hated the guy. But I knew that if my goal was to get better at my craft, I could learn from him.
The only problem was that sometimes he just confused me. The next take, I tried to go over the top.
“An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.”
I took that to mean it needed to be dialed back a little. I tried it again. Laurent just walked off the set. Everyone looked around to figure out if we were done or not. I threw my hands up.
“That’s a wrap,” I said.
◊◊◊
When we took a break for lunch, Caryn came and found me.
“Saul called. They’re starting to get numbers for The Secret Circle. It looks like it’ll take second this weekend. The X-Men movie is going to put up a huge number. They project it will do over fifty million.”
I felt a little disconnected from the movie. I’d been in Cuba and hadn’t helped with the promotional tour or done the red-carpet events for this one. Rita had understood that I was working, but it still made me feel bad that I hadn’t been there for Halle. This was her first significant role.
“What does second mean?” I asked.
I knew that the studio would be happy with anything over fifteen.
“They expect they’ll do over twenty million, based on early numbers. Saul said they could even do twenty-five.”
“I need to call Halle,” I said and pulled out my phone.
She answered on the first ring.
“Did you hear?” Halle asked excitedly.
“Saul is saying it might hit twenty-five million this weekend.”
“It’s doing three times that internationally. My mom is out-of-her-mind excited. We’re number one in Japan and China. It seems that someone is big over there,” she teased.
“David!” Rita must have grabbed the phone from Halle.
“Congratulations. It sounds like your first producing credit is going to be a success.”
“Thanks in no small part to you. You stepped up when we needed it.”
We told each other how great we were. Halle finally took the phone back.
“How is everything going there?” she asked.
“I hate my director and my love interest quit. Besides that, I’ve enjoyed Cuba.”
“Hey, I have to go. I know you, you’ll make it work,” Halle said and then was gone.
This film was a big deal for both Rita and Halle. I was glad it was holding its own over the holiday weekend. No one would expect our movie to take down a franchise film like X-Men. But the crowds to watch that movie were big enough over the holiday to help us do better than we would have done on an average weekend.
◊◊◊
When I returned to the set, Anita, our production assistant, met me.
“Two things: one, we have press that would like to speak to you, and two, I hear you have a medical bag.”
“Is someone hurt?” I asked with concern.
“No, but we’ve run out of supplies. We have the usual stuff like upset stomachs, headaches, and the like. Then there’s the issue of what heat and humidity does,” she explained.
I knew about heat and humidity. In fact, I’d gotten a mild case of jock itch. I was thankful Tami had packed some spray that took care of the problem.
“Ask Caryn to get it for you. It’s in my closet in the front hall,” I said and then tackled the other issue. “What do the reporters want?”
One advantage of being in Cuba was there were no paparazzi running around. Although, if the Cubans ever figured out they could sell actors’ pictures, I was sure all of us would be swarmed.
“I have no idea,” Anita said and then left.
I wasn’t scheduled to do a scene for a while, so I stepped into the hotel to the front desk. They pointed me to a reporter and cameraman sitting in the lobby. I guess that would account for the plural ‘reporters.’
“Hello Mr. Dawson, Nino Suárez with Cubavisión Internacional,” the reporter said in Spanish.
“Nice to meet you. Please call me David. My Spanish is not very good. I can try if you like.”
We sat down and talked for quite a while. There were the expected questions about my thoughts about my visit to Cuba. I responded that I’d really enjoyed my stay and getting to know the people. I was careful not to criticize the government in any way. The first day we’d been here, we had a talk about topics to avoid here, and that was one of them.
The conversation turned to my new movie that had come out, and the one I was currently shooting. I explained that I was dressed to do a scene later in the day. Then we got to what Nino really wanted to talk about.
“I understand that you met Bianca Cisco.”
“Yes, I was lucky enough to see her dance. She even pulled me onto the dance floor. She is very talented,” I said.
“Miss Cisco says that you are helping her possibly get work in the United States.”
“I called someone on her behalf, but I haven’t heard back yet,” I admitted.
He told his cameraman we were done and had him leave. He then got an earnest look on his face and looked around.
“Is there someplace we could speak in private?” he asked in English.
◊◊◊
Nino and I took the elevator up to my suite.
“I’m Bianca’s godfather. I just wanted to make sure that your offer to her was legitimate. Since I heard that you had her strip down, I worried that someone was taking advantage of her,” he said, not looking happy.
“I haven’t made any offers to her. Bianca approached me to see if I could find her a job in the States. I explained that I didn’t have any contacts for dancers, and she suggested something either in the movies or as a model. Her command of English would limit her opportunities in the movies, so I called a friend of mine who has ties to modeling.”