My character was supposed to be Halle’s best friend, in whom she confided everything. It was a plot ploy to let the audience in on what Halle’s character was thinking, which can be hard to do sometimes.
I’d known that they’d been toying with the idea of me being in the film for a while. Rita had just confirmed it yesterday. Word had gotten back that they had changed their minds several times as to what they wanted out of my character. It’d run the gamut from ex-boyfriend to gay best friend. From reading the script, they’d decided on something in the middle. I was to play her longtime friend who secretly had a crush on her.
Kitty Ellis, the director and my former director on
“We’ve kept it secret that you’d be here today. I want to surprise Halle and catch an honest reaction from her when she sees you.”
“I guess we better get it in one take then.”
“It might backfire, but I think it’s worth the risk,” she said and smiled. “Thank you again for suggesting me for this. I’ve enjoyed working with Halle and Ben.”
Ben Doman and I had worked together on
Kitty explained what she wanted for the first scene. My character was supposed to come home from college and find Halle and Ben together at a coffee shop. Kitty wanted me to show that I was a little upset at seeing Halle with Ben, but I would put on my game face and stop by their table. Halle had been given a different script that said she was having a serious talk with Ben about some perceived misunderstanding that all these love stories seemed to have.
I had strict orders to hide in wardrobe before the scene. When it was time, Lexi came and got me. Walking through the building, I observed a stark difference from what I’d encountered on the J-drama. They had everything you would ever want to shoot a movie right at their fingertips here. The J-drama almost felt like they were filming a college-budget concept piece by comparison.
The pace was also different. They claimed they were doing a compressed shoot schedule to get
Finally, I was up. The crew waited until Ben and Halle were set, and then Kitty called “Action” to start the scene.
Ben grabbed Halle’s hand and pulled her towards him. He leaned over and kissed her, and her eyebrows knit together in concerned surprise. The old Alpha Male suddenly rose up, and I strode forward.
“Hey!” I barked.
Halle twirled in her seat, and her whole face lit up.
“David!”
She came out of her seat and about knocked me down as she put me into a fierce embrace.
“What do you think you’re doing with my girlfriend?” Ben asked, still in character.
“Girlfriend?” I asked as my eyebrows raised.
Halle looked back and forth between us, confused. Then the light bulb came on. She looked at me and ruffled my hair.
“You didn’t expect me to wait for you forever, did you? What did you do to your hair?” she asked.
“I heard you liked blonds,” I said.
Ben had a mop of blond hair. That earned me a slug in the chest.
“‘Stupid boy,’ your girlfriend would kill me if she thought you were stepping out on her.”
I pulled Halle to me and kissed her. She didn’t fight me too hard for someone who was supposed to be in love with Ben. He cleared his throat to remind us where we were and that the cameras were rolling.
“Do you have any other ‘friends’ like him?” Ben asked.
Halle came back to her senses.
“No. Just him, and he’s taken. You don’t have anything to worry about,” Halle said as she disentangled herself from me and let Ben put his arm around her.
“Cut!” Kitty called. “I want to see that on playback.”
While Kitty did that, Halle did a little bunny hop and was in my arms again. Ben just rolled his eyes and left us alone.
“Come on,” Halle said as she grabbed my hand and dragged me off the set. “They’ll take a while to get the next scene ready.”
We’d just made it back to her trailer when her cell phone rang. She looked down and smiled at me.
“It’s Brook.”
“Put it on speaker,” I urged.
“Guess who’s here,” Halle said as she answered the call.
“I know exactly who’s there. I just saw the video of you kissing my boyfriend.”
“How did you get that video so fast?” I asked.
“Lexi posted it on her social media,” Brook said.
Suddenly, several pieces of the puzzle started to come together in my mind.
“Hey, did you tell Lexi that I was not to call you after school because you were busy?” I asked.
“I didn’t talk to her. Why do you ask?”
