A Chance Encounter

I walked to the spot. The Clapper loader stood in front of the camera; "Renee screen test take one!"

"Camera to speed, roll it and Action!"

"I can't understand what I'm doing here, what does he want me to do, what does he want me for. I'm not ready for this kind of commitment, I don't fit into his world at all. Just look at me, I'm a nothing, I was born a nothing, I grew up to be a nothing, and I'll die a nothing, yet here I am in this place and they're expecting me to be something. I can't go through with this, but I can't get out of it, what am I supposed to do?" I had turned and was walking towards the mirror. As I approached it something inside me decided to go for it, ignore the fact that there were no specific directions as to how I should react to seeing myself in the mirror, I went for broke. "What are you looking at? Why are you looking at me like that? You think that you're something and I'm nothing don't you." I was only a metre from it. "Will you stop fucking looking at me like that!" I screamed at my reflection and, reaching for a vase that was on the mantelpiece, I hurled it as hard as I could at the mirror. There was glass all over the place and I turned and dashed to the sofa, throwing myself down on it, sobbing into my hands.

"Cut! That was great Renee." I stood and went to where was standing by the camera as the scene was replayed. When it had finished he turned to me. "I don't think we need a second take, that was brilliant. Are you sure that you've never acted before?"

"Not even a school play."

"We've got a wait before Chance gets here and gets through make-up and wardrobe, why don't you sit over there and watch while we set up for the next scene."

"I'd like that, I know that the stars and the actors are the thing that everyone sees, but to me it's what goes on behind the camera that's just as important, a good Director can make even a mediocre actor look good."

"Do you have anyone in mind when you say that?"

"No, I don't have anyone in particular in mind." I did but I won't mention who.

It was interesting watching them moving the sets around, marking the spots on the floor, measuring the focal lengths for the camera. The lighting director wandered around with a light meter checking that it was perfect, it must have taken over an hour just to set up for a two minute scene.

It took Chance and I seven takes to get our scene together right, I'm not saying that it was all his fault, but I had my cues right and my timing was good, Dewey said so to me after we'd eventually finished and the scene was wrapped. Chance missed his spot on the first take, forgot his line on the second, came in too soon and talked over me on the third. By this time I was a little frustrated, after all it was a simple enough scene.

"Okay guys, that's it for today. Renee, what happens now is that we have to cast the rest of the film and the Producers have to make sure that we have the funds before we begin shooting. As far as I'm concerned you have the part, but then it's not up to me, it's up to the Producers and the Backers, if they like you great, but if they decide that, no matter that you've got this part nailed, they want a name star, then there's not a lot that I can do."

"I understand. I guess that I'll just have to sit by the phone and wait for a decision."

"Do you have an agent?"

No, not yet." I hadn't even thought that I'd need one just yet.

"Get one and soon, let him do all of your worrying for you, after all if he can't get roles for you he won't get paid."

"I'll do that."

"What did he want?" Chance asked as I left the set.

"Just letting me know that he thought that I was great and if he had a say in casting I've got it."

"I meant to have a word with him."

"What about?"

"I wasn't happy with the camera focussing on you more than me."

"It was my screen test, they needed to focus on me."

"I just hope when it comes to the real thing that they remember which one of us is the star."

I said nothing, but I was beginning to have doubts about Chance and me. Was our affair for real or just something that was cooked up to gain publicity and financial backing for the movie.

It was over four months before the shooting of the interior scenes began. Chance and I were seen together all the time, we even made an appearance on the red carpet at a premiere. This led to Chance complaining about me hogging the cameras. "I don't have any control over what they take, I was thinking that we worked it pretty well as a couple." He said nothing but there was a subtle change in his attitude.

I had to take leave from work when filming began and we were only a week into the shoot when Chance chucked his first hissy-fit. In the middle of a scene he stormed over to Dewey. "What the fuck are you doing? Have you forgotten who the star of this movie is? This is my film, not hers, and yet you focus on her more than me."

"It's her scene, if you'd read the script you'd see that it calls for her to be on screen pretty much all of the time, while you come in and out as directed."

"We'll see about that!" He stormed from the set.

"What happens now?" I asked.

"We just wait for him to get over it." Dewey said. "We have at least one of these in every movie he does, we've just about gotten used to it."

"Forgive me if I'm wrong here, you're the Director and it's your job to direct everything, even the stars, I'm an actor and it's my job to follow your direction. It's more your film than mine, isn't it?"

"I don't believe what I'm hearing, an actor who knows her place in the scheme of things."

Things between Chance and me went from wonderful to fucking awful in one night. "What do you think you're doing? This is my movie, I'm the star and here you are stealing it from me."

It was all that I could do to stop myself from telling him that his attitude and unprofessional behaviour was what was the real problem. "I'm doing my job to the best of my ability, that's all."

"To the best of your ability, you have no fucking ability, if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have this job, so you'd better start doing as I tell you."

"Are you telling me that I'm to ignore Dewey, ignore the Director?"

"There's something going on between you and him, isn't there?"

"What do you mean, there's nothing going on between us."

"I see the way that he looks at you, I've seen the way that you get the good shots, there's something there, don't lie to me, I can see what's going on."

"There is nothing going on!"

"Liar! You're lying to me!" He screamed at me just before he hit me and stormed out of my apartment.

"Don't tell me, you and our star had a falling out last night." Siobhan said as she tried to repair the damage to my face. "The make-up will cover the shiner but there's nothing we can do to disguise the swelling, we'd better tell Dewey to try and shoot around you for the next couple of days. To say that Dewey wasn't happy was an understatement. He stormed off and rang Chance's manager to tell him that any further incidents of this kind will see him thrown off the set and be replaced.

I went home and Chance rang to apologise. I let the machine take the call, along with the four other calls before there was a knock on my door. I wasn't home to him. The next day it was the same, the phone calls and the knocking on the door and pleading with me to let him in. I heard him but still wasn't home to him.

I was on set early the next day and the swelling around my eye had gone down enough to be hardly noticeable. Chance apologised yet again. "I was upset, I'm sorry that I got angry with you, it won't happen again."

"You can count on it not happening again. I think that we should keep a distance from each other for the time being."

I don't know whether Dewey had decided that he'd had enough of Chance but he shot the scenes the same as he had a couple of days' ago. Chance was seething by the end of the day. If this had happened six months ago I would have been a quivering mess by now. Dewey rang Chance' manager telling him that Chance was no longer required for the part. Chance rang his manager demanding a meeting with the Producers and backers, assuring them that I'd be there to show them that we were still a loving couple and that the problem was Dewey. What he hadn't counted on was that I would not be there to support him, I'd had enough of him and I was strong enough, had enough self-confidence now, to stand up to him.

"Where the fuck are you?" The voice on the other end of the phone was screaming at me. "You were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago, I have important clients with me, and they're waiting to have dinner, and you aren't here. Get your arse into gear and get over here, NOW!"

I tried to be calm but it wasn't easy in the face of this barrage of abuse. "I have told you that I am not meeting you, I am not meeting you now or in the future. I will not put up with your abuse any longer, and if you call me again, or try to see me I will take out an intervention order," I paused for a second, "And if you ignore this I will go to the media and they will crucify you." I didn't give him a chance to respond, mainly because I didn't want to hear his voice again and I didn't want to give him the right of reply. For once I regretted that we no longer had those old phones that you could slam down for dramatic effect, pushing a touch pad just doesn't give you the same satisfaction.

There's this old song I remember from my Grandpa's record collection that goes; 'what a difference a day makes'. What a difference six months makes in a relationship like the one that I'm trying to extricate myself from.

The new self-confident me was back in my old job on Monday, and yes I had to run the gauntlet of the media wanting to know what happened and why funding had been pulled on the movie. My response was, as usual; 'No comment'. The industry was rife with rumours, especially when Chance disappeared from sight, they included a stint in rehab, (no comment) a death in the family (no comment), the suggestion that he'd taken off to the states and was appearing in porn films where his obvious talents were put to better use (no comment with a knowing smile).

Jennifer and Nadia bugged me for a while and then we settled back to normal, almost.

I owned the room as soon as I walked through the door. It was my looks, my body and the way that I walked, but I didn't scope the room to select a likely guy to hit on, I went straight to the table that Jennifer, Nadia and their boyfriends had chosen, with me, and holding my hand was Bryce.