The next week

I remembered that I had forgotten to check the nominees for the award show we were going to at the end of the week, so I looked it up and saw with a jolt of my heart that Chloë had been nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role. I looked at the movie title and realized ashamedly that I hadn’t seen the movie. So I spent Monday watching the movies whose female characters had been nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, leaving the one with Chloë in it for last. I really enjoyed all the movies, and all the actresses in them did an excellent job. But Chloë’s performance in her movie was absolutely incredible, and I felt confident, even outside my bias, that she was the best of all of them. She was very convincing, expressive, charismatic and emotive. She was also, I noticed, absolutely mind-numbingly beautiful. She had better win this award, otherwise the results would be unfair. I texted her after I’d finished the movie: “you’d better win on Sunday, you were absolutely amazing in that movie” She thanked me and followed up with a crossed fingers emoji.

The next day, Chloë sent me a voice message: “Hey Dave, I’ve been looking for a job for you for the past few days, and I saw there’s an audition for a part in the movie I’m going to be in. It’s not really a big part, but still, I thought it would be really cool, so I signed you up to audition. I’ll send you the script now so you can get to know your character, I highlighted the one I signed you up for. Oh, and also the audition schedule.” Sure enough, a huge pdf file titled “script” and a document labeled “schedule” followed the voice message. “I’m not an actor, Chloë. I was the set designer’s assistant. By the way, I think he “resigned” under the same circumstances as me.” – I responded. “Wow, those people you used to work for are awful! Don’t worry about the audition. I think you’d make a very good actor, and this part is a brilliant one to start with. If you pass the audition – great, you’ll get the part. If someone else gets it – it’ll be great for you to get some experience. You have to trust me on this one, Dave.” – she said back. I thought about what she’d said. She was right – I was scared to admit it, but she definitely was. This would be a big challenge for me, but it was one I was ready to face. I looked at the schedule and saw with horror that the audition was on Friday. “It’s THIS FRIDAY?” – I wrote. “Yes it is! But you won’t really need that much time to prepare, trust me, it’ll be fine. Do you mind if I come over on Thursday to check on you?” I sighed to myself. “Yeah, okay, sure.”

I spent the day reading through the text and learning my character’s lines, which, thankfully, there weren’t too many of. The movie was quite a classic story about characters who start out as villains and end up being heroes. Chloë was the main female character, I noticed. My part, meanwhile, was the team’s getaway driver. So, thankfully, I wouldn’t be part of any action scenes, if maybe a chase scene or two. Just sit in a car most of the movie. Excellent. I learnt the lines by heart and began rehearsing them in my own car on Wednesday, much to the confusion of my neighbors.

On Thursday, just as she’d promised, Chloë came and listened to me delivering my lines. “You’re GOOD!” – she told me after I was finished, - “And I’m not even saying that just because it’s you – you have a real talent, it looks like! You’ll kill it tomorrow!” “Thanks, Chloë. Yeah, I’ve really enjoyed working with these so far. Let’s hope it goes well tomorrow.” “I don’t hope. I know you’ll do great” – she said, taking my hand and looking me right in the eyes. “I love you, Chloë.” – I said and kissed her.

The next day, I woke up, quite nervous but confident, charged with the energy of the knowledge that Chloë believed in me. Nothing about the audition stuck in my head – I did my best to imagine that I was auditioning in front of Chloë, and that helped me relax and slip effortlessly into character. “Excellent, Mr. Richards. I’ll tell you a secret – you’re the best we’ve seen so far. We’ll be in contact shortly to tell you whether or not you get the part” – the casting director said to me. I thanked him and left the room, buzzing to tell Chloë that I’d done well. She called me almost as soon as I’d left the room. “Hi Dave! So, tell me, how did it go?” – she exclaimed excitedly. “It went great, I think!” – I said, smiling, - “The casting director said I was the best he’d seen so far” “Oh, that’s a great sign!” – she said, - “First impressions are incredibly important, and if he liked you to begin with, that’s great!” “Thanks for encouraging me to do this, I enjoyed it a lot, I’m glad I trusted you” – I said. “Oh, come on, don’t thank me, this is your achievement!” – she said, “I’ll see you on Sunday then love. Bye!” – she said. “Bye!” – I said and put my phone away. Wow. That had gone great. Hopefully I’d be making my proper cinema debut very, very soon.