“Sure,” Dana replied, leaning back in the folding chair.
“I just don’t have it yet. Can we try the later stuff? I have a feeling they’ll want me to read the scene leading up to the kiss.”
“Yeah, sure. But, no offense, Grace: I’m not kissing you in the catering tent,” Dana joked.
Grace laughed and said, “None taken. I’m straight anyway.”
“Youare?”
“Yeah, I have a boyfriend. Well, he should be a fiancé by now, but he keeps putting off asking me to marry him, even though Iknowhe has the ring, so there’s that. You?”
“No boyfriend.” Dana shook her head. “Nogirlfriend, either.”
“Ah,” Grace said. “Got it.”
Samara felt bad about eavesdropping on their conversation. Watching them read lines was one thing, but listening in as they talked to one another was something else altogether. She turned to go, thinking about Grace’s performance in the four auditions she had seen from her. None of them had been where they needed to be. The other actress who had flown in from Austin and read with Samara earlier was closer, but still not there. Samara knew it was a little crazy, and that was especially true because she didn’t like Dana as a person at all, but if neither of these actresses was impressive, they’d have to open it back up to auditions again, and each day they weren’t filming would mean delays and budget struggles, and the movie might not ever get made. She hadn’t flown all the way here to deal with delays only to have the whole thing postponed again or canceled.
“Hi. Is Bryce here?” she asked when she walked into the office trailer.
“She’s inside,” the PA said, nodding toward the building outside behind them.
“Okay. Thanks,” she replied and headed back outside.
Then, she walked into the building, finding Bryce and Reed sitting at the table, with the casting director staring at headshots, which only confirmed her suspicions that none of them were happy with the two actresses’ performances so far.
“Samara? Was something wrong with your food?” Bryce asked when she saw her.
“No, it was fine. Thank you,” she replied, pulling up a chair in front of the table and sitting down. “Should I assume that we’re all on the same page here? It’s not either of them, is it?”
“We’re going to have you and Grace read the kiss scene and one later, in the art gallery, and see what we get,” the casting director said. “But, so far, yes.”
“Vanessa just had it,” Bryce added, sounding really disappointed. “AndI’msaying that. She’s literally playing me, and I thought she was great at it.”
“Shewasgreat,” Samara agreed. “I’ll still read with Grace after dinner, obviously, but are we bringing in new people?”
“We really don’t have the time,” Reed said. “We’re already condensing the two and a half months of production we need into two months because we’re behind.”
“How are we already behind, besides losing Vanessa?” Samara asked.
“She means that we were supposed to make the movie last year, and it was going to be released this year,” Bryce explained. “But we lost our slot and money then, so we need to get it done and off to the streamer soon, or they’ll push our date out even further or scrap us altogether.”
“What about Dana?” Samara asked.
“Who’s Dana?” the casting director asked.
“Dana, the caterer,” she said. “I overheard her talking earlier; she said she was an actress. Did she audition? You’re friends, right, Bryce?”
“Sort of, yeah. Soph and I moved to LA before Dana joined this big group of friends that we’re part of here.” Bryce smiled. “I’ve met her a handful of times. There were a couple of weddings earlier this year, and she was at one of them, but not the other. That kind of thing.”
“Did she audition?”
“No,” Bryce answered. “I heard from someone that she works in film catering because shedoeswant to break into the business, but she didn’t audition for this.”
“Maybe sheshould,” Samara suggested. “I mean, I have no idea if she’s any good, but she’s here and available if she’s already working on the movie’s catering.”
“Is this your attempt to get someone else to make and bring you your food?” Reed joked.
Samara laughed and replied, “No. I just know she was helping Grace run lines a few minutes ago. I overheard them, and she was reading my part, obviously, so I don’t know if she could pull off Bray, but the little I heard, she wasn’t bad.”
