“Sorry. This is Gabe Francis.”
Gabe was the head of the studio. I was sure he didn’t want to have to deal with this.
“Laurent claims you were abusive to him,” Gabe said.
“If he considers asking for direction after 96 takes abusive, I guess I was,” I said.
“How many takes?” Gabe asked.
“96,” Roger confirmed. “He spent all morning running David through the wringer. I felt he had the shot after a couple of takes.”
“Was it a ten-minute monologue?” Gabe asked.
“I had two lines,” I said.
Gabe uttered a few words and phrases that put a smile on my face. Several of them I’d wanted to say all morning.
“Do you think Kitty Ellis can handle it for now?” Gabe asked.
“I can get more than two scenes done this afternoon,” she assured him.
“Sorry about that, Gabe. I asked Kitty to sit in. She’s more than capable enough to fill in,” Roger assured us.
“David, Laurent is very good at what he does, but he’s a unique personality. If I can get him to agree to stop the bullshit, are you okay to work with him?” Gabe asked.
“I came here to do a job, and I plan to give you my best effort. If Laurent continues to get in my face without constructive criticism, then I can’t guarantee that I won’t say something back to him,” I said.
“Good man. For now, Kitty or Roger will tell you what they need. If it gets too bad, please call me directly. Roger will give you the number,” Gabe said and then hung up.
◊◊◊
We all went to lunch; Kimberly saw us and invited us to join her mother and her. Everyone was introduced. Kimberly’s mother was Phyllis and could have been a dead ringer for her daughter. Both were blond-haired, blue-eyed beauties. Kimberly had her hair done similar to the legendary movie star Marilyn Monroe. She just didn’t have the same curves.
“I hear it got even worse after I left,” Kimberly said.
“He was nothing. You should hear some of the stuff my coaches yell at me.”
“Is it true that he walked?” Phyllis asked.
“I don’t really know. For now, Kitty will step in and direct us,” I said.
“This afternoon, we have several scenes together.”
Kimberly played Rick’s love interest, Cici. I looked forward to working with her.
“Will you be playing another movie tonight?” Phyllis asked.
“I hadn’t really thought about it, but I have a collection of DVDs with me. I could be tempted to do it again. That is assuming people are interested.”
“I think we need to get a table set up and play poker,” Paul said.
Someone had seen I’d brought cards and chips.
“You’re in charge of that,” I told Paul.
It sounded like if I wasn’t careful, my room would turn into party central while we were here.
◊◊◊
In comparison to the morning, the afternoon session was like a dream. Kitty was easy to work with and gave good direction. Laurent was right about Kimberly in that she moved woodenly. I spent some time with her and gave her some tips on how to hold her body in a more natural pose. Adrienne, my modeling mentor, would have been proud of me.
During the filming, Roger was lurking in the back, taking everything in. He seemed satisfied with what Kitty was getting into the can because he never interfered.
At the same time, Cassidy watched everything like a hawk. She seemed to want to know how everything worked, and more than once, I saw her talking to the crew when they weren’t busy.
Finally, Kitty called it quits at nine o’clock. I’d put in a 14-hour day and was starving; I would have to talk to Caryn about getting me food. But today I was more focused on helping Kitty get caught up with the shooting schedule Laurent had messed up this morning.
◊◊◊
I’d just gotten back to my room when people started to show up. I put Caryn and Fritz in charge while I took a shower. The water pressure again reminded me of LA. Southern California is big on conserving water and put flow restrictors on faucets and shower heads. I think the plumbing was just old here. The good news was the air conditioner was working.
Caryn ordered room service for all my people. Paul had gotten Cedro to bring in a round table for poker. We could comfortably sit six people around it. Paul had found the cards and poker chips. When the food arrived, everyone else did too. Stewart brought the booze, and Heath flipped through the videos with Kimberly to decide what we were watching tonight. They picked
More people showed up, including Roger and Kitty, who played poker with us. Cassidy had invited several of the crew, who at first acted nervous. Heath and I made sure they were welcome.
Stewart got busy and made ‘Little Lies’ for everyone. I decided to have a couple to help me relax.
Cassidy claimed a seat on my knee because she wanted to learn to play poker. We were just playing nickel, dime, quarter. Even so, I ended up losing thirty bucks, mostly because someone didn’t have a poker face and would get excited when I had a hand.
It was close to midnight when Cassidy pointed out the window. My room faced downtown Havana.
“Is that a fire?” she asked.
