Page 26 of Method Acting

He smiled at me then. “You really have it all figured out, dontcha?”

“Not at all. I just don’t care what people think, as a general rule.” I shrugged. “I know people don’t like me; they also don’t know me. I know they think I’m weird, or emo, or eccentric or whatever. I don’t give a fuck what they think. Their opinions mean nothing to me. They can bend themselves all out of shape, use up all that mental energy.” I hit Play on my laptop. “I’ll just be over here watching Rick and Morty, living my best life.”

His smile was more genuine now. “I love Rick and Morty.”

“Same.”

“I’m gonna try thinking more like you. Letting shit go and not caring what they think.”

“Would you do musical theater if you didn’t care what people thought?”

His eyes narrowed at the computer screen as he considered this. “Mm, I dunno.” Then he scooted back on the bed to rest against the wall, his feet dangling over the edge. “I mean, do I want Hollywood? Or do I want Broadway?” He sighed then. “I don’t know. Hollywood, I think.”

I wasn’t convinced.

“The Chase I saw singing his heart out in the café earlier was a very different actor than the Chase I see in the classroom.”

“That was just for fun. It wasn’t serious.”

I didn’t need to point out the obvious. That he should do what was fun, what made him happy, because from the look on his face, I was almost certain he knew.

“You could be the next Hugh Jackman,” I said instead. “Blockbuster movies and theater on the side. Win an Oscar and a Tony.”

He grinned at me. “Yeah, maybe.”

We watched Rick and Morty for a bit, laughing at the ridiculousness and crudeness, and it wasn’t weird. There was no awkwardness, no need to fill the silence.

Not on my part, anyway.

“What do you think we’ll be doing tomorrow?” Chase asked.

“Tomorrow? In what?”

“Deirdre said we’d be working on more intimacy exercises.”

Oh.

I sighed. “Not sure. Physical closeness probably.”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

And then it was kind of awkward.

“Are you okay with that?” he asked. “I mean, I know we talked about it on day one, but are you really? Okay with it, I mean?”

I shrugged. “Sure. Are you?”

“Yeah, I’m down. It’s fine.” He frowned as Rick did something hilarious, which kinda told me he wasn’t watching the show. “Are you okay with kissing? I mean, it’s gonna be weird, of course. But we’re both professionals, right?”

“Sure. Haven’t you had to kiss people in a play before? Or embrace or whatever?”

“Yeah, sure. But this is different. It’s... it’s a reality TV show. It’s supposed to be like our normal, everyday lives.” He looked at me then. “And like I said, I’m a touchy-feely kind of person. If I’m with them, I like to show affection. And I know you’re not like that—you don’t like physical touch—so maybe we should work on that.”

“Work on what, exactly? Because that sounds like you want me to adapt to you, and not you adapt to me.”

“See? This is what I mean,” he said quickly. “We need to work out a middle ground that looks believable and something you’re comfortable with.”

“I don’t not like physical touch,” I said. “I told you that. I just have... boundaries. And limits.”

---