Page 24 of The Husband Hour
Stephanie visibly stiffened. “Why would you want to interview my son?”
“No, not interview, just film him kicking the ball around. Sometimes things like a shot of scenery or a kid make good footage to juxtapose against interviews.”
She shrugged. “I guess.”
“Matt.” His DP peeked in. “I want to get her situated in the room to check the light.”
“Showtime,” Matt said to Stephanie with a wink.
They followed Derek back into the living room. Stephanie gasped.
“Oh my God, you moved this whole room around. My mother will have a stroke.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll put everything back the way it was.” Derek showed her a photo he’d taken of how the room had looked before they’d made it shootable.
Placated, Stephanie followed Matt’s direction to sit on the bone-colored couch next to a wood coffee table stacked with oversize, glossy books about architecture, great American gardens, and the jewelry collection of Elizabeth Taylor. A tall silver vase had been filled with fresh lavender.
Paul slipped the mic wire down the front of her shirt and hooked the sound pack to the back of her jeans. Matt sat directly across from her. Derek made a last-minute change to the camera, moving it a few inches just above Matt’s left shoulder.
“You ready to get started?” Matt asked Stephanie.
“I’m ready.”
“Are we rolling?” he asked.
“Rolling,” Derek said.
“Action,” Matt said. He faced Stephanie. “I want to thank you for participating in this film. I really believe Rory’s story is worth telling. And I couldn’t do it without the help of the people who knew him best.”
She nodded, looking nervous for the first time.
“When I ask you a question, I need you to respond by repeating part of it. So if I say, ‘What is your name?’ you say, ‘My name is Stephanie Adelman.’ All of my questions will be edited out, so for this to make sense you need to repeat part of what I ask.”
If he got a rambling answer, he would ask her to repeat the one sentence that was usable. Years of sitting in front of screens in editing suites had taught him which answers were usable and which were not. Too much padding or repetition, and no matter how important the idea being expressed, he had to cut it.
He asked Stephanie for her name, and she told him about how her name was technically Stephanie Keller now, but she was getting divorced and going back to Adelman, so should she use…
“Whatever you’re comfortable with,” Matt said.
“My name is Stephanie Adelman.”
“And how did you know Rory?”
“High school,” she said.
“Can you include my question in your answer?”
“Oh—right. Sorry. I knew Rory from high school. We were in the same year.”
“Do you remember when you first met?”
“God, it was so long ago. It’s like I always knew him.”
“Did you meet him when he started dating your sister?”
“No! Is that what she told you? Typical. I knew Rory first. She got to Rory through me.”
Matt refrained from reminding her that he hadn’t interviewed Lauren. “How did she get to Rory through you?”
