It was fascinating to see Lezlie’s reaction as she watched the crocodiles enter the water behind us. I was reminded of how loudly Kimberly could scream when she spotted them in the film. I chuckled as she tried to climb up me to get away and shook my head as I watched myself sprint out of the marsh. Lezlie about jumped out of her seat when they showed the crocodile jump out of the water to snatch Cassidy’s hat.
“Wow!” was all Lezlie said.
“I admit there wasn’t much acting on my part when I saw we had company in the water,” Kimberly acknowledged.
“The girl can scream,” I offered.
“I can’t wait to see it.
And we were done. I got up, we walked off set, and we found Phyllis on the phone. She looked up when she saw us, smiled, and gave Kimberly a thumbs-up. When Phyllis hung up, she was excited.
“The studio wants you to go to the next interview with David,” she announced.
“Wait, was this going to be the only one you did?” I asked.
“Yes,” Kimberly admitted.
My phone chirped to tell me I had a text from my publicist.
I was impressed he was up this early. Then I remembered that Lily did most of my tweets. I wondered if it was really Frank or just one of his underlings.
◊◊◊
Kimberly tagged along for the rest of the morning interviews. At noon, we parted ways and promised to keep in touch. I would see her again at the premiere. In the afternoon, my first stop was at Hollywood Central. There I found Stewart Thatcher, who played the MI6 agent in
“I hear you’ve been causing trouble,” Stewart said as he gave me a bro hug.
He was talking about the dustup I’d caused with the singer who’d performed the title song for the movie. The phrase ‘voice of an angel, disposition of a witch’ came to mind.
“I wasn’t thinking,” I admitted.
“I’m sure it wasn’t as uncomfortable as when I was questioned about Laurent accidentally shooting himself.”
Stewart was right. I would rather deal with a politically charged pop star than talk about that. Yes, I’d come to hate the guy, but it still bothered me to know he’d died in front of me. I just shook my head in sympathy.
“Guess what?” Stewart asked, suddenly brightening. “I get to interview you.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Hollywood Central thought it would be interesting to have me interview you instead of their usual format. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a terrible idea. You know way too much about me,” I worried.
“Ah … it’ll be fun,” Stewart announced.
◊◊◊
Hollywood Central set us up in two director’s chairs facing each other in front of their logo. Stewart had large index cards with his questions written on them. He shuffled through them, trying to decide what to ask first.
“I wrote these last night when I got back to the hotel. Reading them today, I can tell I may have had one too many cocktails,” he said and then looked up at me. “I say we go with it and have a bit of fun.”
“Sure, why not?” I asked hesitantly, and Stewart smiled to see me squirm.
“So, the movie is called
“Uh, not really. You did see it, right?” I asked with a grin.
“Oh, yeah, I did, uhm,” he said, playing it like he really hadn’t.
“We shot it last summer. Remember going to Cuba and drinking too much rum? Then again, I understand someone your age forgetting what they had for breakfast. So, maybe not,” I said.
“Good one,” Stewart said with an evil smile and a glint in his eyes.
“Ruh-roh, I’m in trouble now!” I said as I fake-squirmed in my seat.
I probably shouldn’t have tried to provoke him.
“Many actors enjoy performing their own stunts,” Stewart said, getting into the role of interviewer.
“Yeah.”
“Do you do your own acting?”
He had a huge grin on his face. My first thought was to call him a dick.
“Only when there’s singing or sex involved,” I said with a straight face.
“I know firsthand you’re terrible at both.”
I just raised my eyebrows, and it took a moment before he realized the double meaning.
“A-HA! I guess it all comes out,” I teased. “I hear you Brits are into that kind of thing.”
“It’s where the real craft comes in when you have to work with someone like you who couldn’t get a scene right if he had to. I believe we have a clip of that,” Stewart said, throwing me under the bus to divert the focus from him.
They showed a series of clips of me doing a scene over and over again, and the comments Laurent Vance made. Looking back, it was funny. You could see me get more frustrated each time we shot it. The funny part was that each one seemed almost identical.
“How did you even get the role?” Stewart asked, acting confused.
After that series of takes, I could see why he would be perplexed.
