Page 21 of Best Served Hot
Nicole could have taken bets on who was who, but she’d probably be wrong. She’d seen mediocre actors rise to the top and kids with real talent fall off the edge.
She’d once met a young actor named Eliza on a set for a music video back when she was a runner, and she’d been certain Eliza was destined for greatness. However, Eliza was an accountant now. So many factors were at play in this rabid little world that you could never say for sure.
It was the same on the other side of the camera. The fight was insane, and it was not remotely a meritocracy. Nicole’s rise was an outlier. And she knew it could be over in a heartbeat if she somehow managed to ruin her own reputation. She would have to step lightly here to make sure the only reputation ruined was her bastard husband’s.
‘Right, let’s get cracking, shall we?’ Ethan said with a jolliness that would have irked Nicole had she believed it was real.
The first scene was a two-hander between a young doctor and a nurse with a bit more experience than him. They were arguing over how to treat an elderly woman with a broken leg. The fresh young doctor (played by a kid called Zeke, of all things) was being a bit of an arrogant prick.
‘Dr Jennings, I know you’re fresh out of medical school and you think you know it all, but—’
‘I’m gonna stop you there, nurse. I know you’ve worked here for seven years, but you’re not a doctor.’
‘Neither are you, yet. You haven’t fully qualified. And I’m an experienced nurse. My experience counts for more than your education right now.’
‘Don’t give me that Karen shit!’ he screeched.
Nicole wanted to put her earphones in, but she thought it might look a bit amiss if the director was doing her best not to listen to the scene.
The actors trundled on, finishing up. They looked at her expectantly. ‘Any notes, Nicole?’ Zeke asked.
Nicole was being paid, so she supposed she’d better earn the money. ‘How about we take it down a little? Less shouting. Zeke, why don’t you imagine that this person is… Do you have a mother by any chance?’
‘Yeah,’ he snorted.
‘If your mother undermined you like that, would you scream at her?’ Nicole asked.
‘Fuck no,’ he said, and you could hear some fear in his voice.
‘Well, I want you to think about what kind of unconscious stuff might be going on for your character right now.’
‘How do you mean?’ Zeke asked.
‘That maybe he’s projecting some stuff.’
He looked at his pages. ‘That’s not in the script.’
Nicole smiled, wondering whether this was one of those kids who’d gone the model-to-actor route rather than drama school. Looking at his cheekbones, it was a real possibility. Drama schoolers might have had their difficulties, but if they’d been taught one thing, it was what the unconscious was.
‘Well, not everything is in the script. Some stuff, we have to find it ourselves,’ she said. What she actually wanted to say was, ‘Sometimes you have to look at a puddle and imagine an ocean,’ but the writer was sitting right across the room. ‘I mean, he called her Karen, right?’
‘Yeah, so?’
‘She’s less than ten years older than him,’ Nicole explained. ‘Hardly in the Karen zone, is she? So maybe he’s not really talking to Nurse, er…’ She checked her script quickly. ‘… Bartlett. Maybe he’s thinking of a different authority figure. The original.’
Zeke looked down at his script, and his head looked like it needed a lightbulb above it. ‘Oooohhhh,’ he said quietly. ‘So you’re saying that I should imagine the way it would go down with my mum?!’
Nicole shrugged lightly. ‘Let’s give it a go, shall we?’
They did the scene again. With every word Zeke said, he sounded like he didn’t quite dare to go off the way he wanted. Passive aggression had slipped into his performance. It was better. Not great, but improved. It went that way with every scene. Almost all of the actors needed a lot of notes. Only a couple seemed seasoned.
They struggled on through to the end of the episode, Nicole adding notes where wanted. If no one asked, she didn’t bother. She’d slapped some lipstick on the pig, but she wasn’t battling to get the eyeliner on.
At the end, everyone clapped for the actors, including Nicole. Then the room began to clear out. As everyone was shuffling out, Ethan sidled up to her.
‘Great work, Nicole. Glad to have you on board,’ he smiled and tipped her a little wink.
Nicole cleared her throat, possibly of bile, and smiled back. ‘Thanks. Glad to be here.’
