“I understand that you’re booked through next year. That’s good for you, but bad for me. I wish I’d gotten to you first because I have a couple of projects I think you’d be right for. If something falls through, give me a call,” Gabe said and gave me a card with his direct line.
I would bet Saul would give his left arm for that phone number.
The after-party turned out to be great fun. I convinced the girls in the J-drama to do a K-pop dance with Halle and me because I wanted to show Brook some of their moves. As we finished, I looked around and saw that everyone had their phones out, recording us. I just owned it. This was my new reality.
◊◊◊ Friday December 23
Brook bailed on me when I had to go to the
Kitty Ellis had told me last night at the premiere that she wanted me to come in early to do a test shoot with Kimberly Fillmore. I’d promised Kimberly that I’d see if there was a small part for her to help get her career restarted.
When I arrived at the studio, I’d gone to my trailer to read today’s script. There was a knock at the door, and Manaia beat me to answering it. Technically, I expect he should be the one to answer for security reasons. Who knew, it might be a fan wanting to show their appreciation with baked goods. I could go for a cinnamon roll and a cup of tea about now.
“I’m here to see that sexy actor.”
That caught my interest. Food might be overrated.
“Ben’s trailer is the next one over,” Manaia helpfully offered.
It was sad to see Kendal’s career cut short. Manaia turned around and looked at me because she’d burst out laughing. The unfortunate part was, Manaia didn’t realize he’d just cut me to the quick. Then again, maybe he did.
“Kendal, get your butt in here,” I called out.
Manaia stepped aside as Kendal, Kimberly, and Saul all came in. I noticed that Phyllis, Kimberly’s mom, wasn’t with them. It looked like she’d taken my advice and hired professional representation.
“Mr. Dawson,” Kendal said as she came over and shook my hand.
Someone wanted to show Kimberly this was a job interview and not just Kendal and me catching up. I took her cue and tamped down my retort about the ‘sexy actor’ comment. I thought it sort of blew her ‘professional’ image.
“Manaia, can you see if they’re ready for us?” I asked and then turned to Kimberly. “You good to go?”
“I’m a little nervous,” she admitted.
“You’ll do fine. You’ve worked with David before,” Kendal said confidently.
Manaia sent a text with my phone, and it chirped back after a minute. He showed it to Kendal, and she nodded. I let her and Manaia lead the way, with Kimberly in the middle, as Saul and I followed. Saul planned it this way so he could pitch me the next mega-project he’d found.
“I have a TV series I need you to look at. The working title is
“Send the script to Lexi,” I said to shut him down.
“You’ll actually consider it?” he asked.
I would consider anything, but I’d learned to use a decision process that reduced my stress. Lexi would send the script to Kent and his team to review before I would get it. Saul seemed to find a lot of scripts that were ‘right’ for me; this approach weeded out the duds. My guess was that Kent had people who read the scripts for him. Only the better ones were sent to him to review. He read them, and if they were good, Kent would forward them to me.
When I first got into the business, Saul would send over stacks of scripts for me to read. I’d enrolled my parents and Kendal into helping me wade through the clutter. Frank, my publicist, caught wind of what Saul was doing and helped rein him in. I had to chuckle when I remembered how at the time, I’d thought I had to read every one of them. This new system was much better.
Kent also knew that if it caused me to miss any school, he had to get it approved by my mom. It was amazing how that had cut down the number of scripts I was sent. The only one I’d seen recently that’d caught my interest was the new Superman TV series coming out next year. It was a small recurring role, but I thought the whole concept looked like it would be fun.
I was saved from Saul when he spotted Kitty Ellis and hurried over to pester her about Kimberly. She shooed him away, and we got down to business.
“Thanks for coming in,” she greeted Kimberly. “We’ll do a scene with David so I can show it to the executives and get their okay before we move forward.”
It was a short scene. From Kitty’s body language, I could tell she wasn’t sold on Kimberly’s performance. I personally felt Kimberly had forced it, and it came across as overdone.
“We’ll be in touch,” Kitty said.
