“Huh?” Dana asked.
“I’ve been here,” Samara shared, taking her hand. “It’s hard when you’re just getting started. When you feel my index finger touch your palm, breathe in for me. Then, as it moves away, breathe out. Look down at my hand and watch. Focus on it, okay? Focus on your breathing and our hands.”
When Dana nodded, Samara pressed her finger to herpalm. Dana breathed in deeply for a few seconds, and when Samara’s finger moved, she breathed out. They did this a few more times until Dana had calmed down enough to breathe without it.
“How’s that?” Samara asked.
“How did you know what to do?”
“I told you, I’ve been there. Sometimes, what we do can be stressful, to say the least.”
“You’ve been doing this forever, though.”
“And yet, every now and then, I still get nervous. On my first big movie, I threw up right before we started shooting my first scene, and before my first sex scene, I couldn’t get out of my trailer. Hot lights can be a lot for me, and I was already using all of my energy to deal with that and everything else, so the thought of being pressed up to some actor while we would both be clammy was too much. They had to give me an extra hour.”
“Did you get through it okay?”
“Yeah, but he had to pause next.”
“What? Why?”
“Let’s just say he was very happy that we were pressed up against one another,” Samara said with a smile.
“No…” Dana laughed. “Really?”
“He was… getting there, yeah.” Samara laughed as well. “So, he needed a few minutes to cool himself off.”
“In a way, I don’t envy them. It’s not like they can control their physical response. And youarehot, so that’s got to be hard.”
Samara tilted her head. Then, Dana laughed again.
“Sorry. That was a really bad way to phrase it, huh?”
“Yeah,” Samara replied. “At least, there’s no chance of that happening with our love scenes.”
“Right,” Dana said and looked around herself, testing the blurriness of her vision. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me for this.”
“For the flowers.” Dana nodded toward them.
“Oh. Yeah, no problem. I just wanted you to know thatyou had someone in your corner for today.”
“That means a lot,” Dana replied. “And I’m sorry. I’m trying, but I don’t know how to do all this. Acting, I can do. The rest of it, I don’t know.”
“The rest of what?” Samara asked.
“The wardrobe stuff. The makeup and hair. The PA ushering me around. I know it’s no big deal to someone like you, but I was making you lunch yesterday. I don’t know if I can do this. They want me to cut my hair, too.”
“They do, huh?”
“Yeah. They think it will look good, but I’ve always had my hair long.”
“Doyouwant to cut your hair?” Samara asked.
“It’s hair. It grows back. It’s not a big deal, but I hadn’t been prepared for it, and then, they were asking and moving my head around as if it wasn’t attached to my body, trying to imagine what it would look like.”
“For what it’s worth, I think you’d look great with short hair.”
