“Can I ask you something?”
“Maybe,” Dana replied.
Samara chuckled at thatandat the look of fear in Dana’s eyes. She was clearly still worried that Samara was going to get her fired, which made her even more interesting because Dana had managed to hold Samara’s gaze during her entire audition despite that.
“How old are you?”
“Thirty,” Dana said with a shoulder shrug.
“And you got out of school when you were twenty-two?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“You came back here and took care of your mom; that, I understand. But if she’s better now, why are you still here, catering? It’s been eight years.”
“I like it here,” Dana replied. “My whole family is here. All my friends.”
“But you want to be a professional actor.”
“Yes,” Dana said. “But not all of us have a parent take us to auditions when we’re, like, seven years old, so we grow up in the industry and get parts thrown at us.”
Samara leaned back and replied, “Okay. Ouch.”
Dana sighed and said, “Sorry. That was harsh.”
“A little bit, yeah,” Samara agreed. “And I was scouted, if you must know; no parent took me to an audition. We were at the grocery store. I was six years old. Some guy walked up to my mom and asked her if she’d ever consider putting me in commercials. He was an agent. She signed with him, and I started auditioning. I got a couple of local commercials, nothing major, until I got the TV show when I was seven, and it started airing by the time I turned eight. So, maybe I’ve gotten more job offers because I grew up in the business, but my mom wasn’t some awful stage mom who stole my money and sold me off to the highest bidder so thatshecould get rich and famous.”
“Samara, I’m sorry,” Dana said. “I didn’t mean it like that, okay?”
“It’s fine,” she replied.
“I think I read somewhere that your mom…”
“Was killed two years ago by a drunk driver, yeah,” she said. “It was splashed all over the tabloids.”
“You and your sister were in the car, too, right?” Dana asked.
“Is this you trying to get your chance at an interview so you can sell it to–”
“What? No,” Dana replied. “God, no. I’m sorry. I was just trying to make conversation.”
Samara cleared her throat and said, “My mom wasn’t a stage mom. That’s all you need to know.”
“Yeah, okay,” Dana said. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Samara cleared her throat again and took a bite of the eggplant, which had grown a little too cold for her liking, but that wasn’t Dana’s fault, so she took another bite. “Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I thought you did well this morning. That’s all.”
“Thank you,” Dana replied, sounding surprised. “And thanks for recommending me, I guess.”
“I want what’s best for the film. That’s all.”
“Yeah, aboutthat. Why, exactly, are you doing this film?” Dana asked, sliding the bottle of sparkling water toward herself. “It’s not your usual thing, is it?”
“No, it’s not,” she said, watching Dana take a drink but trying to avoid the green eyes that had bored into her own blue ones just a few hours ago at the audition, catching her completely off guard. “And I wanted to do an indie movie. I was growing a little tired of the blockbusters.”
Dana laughed and said, “Said only an actress who has starred in ten of them.”
Samara gave her a hesitant smile and said, “I suppose so.”
