Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

[Searching for the OneAugust 27-2016Act 12Scene 3Take 2]

The scene was of a supermarket where people were busy checking out things. There was a long line in front of the counter as employees worked.

On one corner of the supermarket, Alan was squinting his eyes at Hazel, acting like he was in the middle of a big negotiation.

His eyes were constantly checking her facial expressions.

"How about this? We will go to your house if you don't want to go to mine."

"I'm going to no one's house."

"So, you like some outdoor action. I have dealt with girls like you before — Ouch!"

As Alan was in the middle of his sentence, Hazel hit him with a bottle of perfume and started walking away.

She was just shopping for supplies when Alan came out of nowhere and started hitting on her.

"C'mon, you are acting like you don't feel anything after seeing my amazing and handsome body?"

Alan quickly followed her up, and Hazel clicked her tongue.

"No, I don't."

"How could that be? Are you sure you are a girl — Ahh! Stop hitting me with that bottle. And why are they making perfume bottles so sturdy these days!"

Alan winced in pain as the live audience chuckled, seeing his expressions. It was then that Amelia's voice came out, and the scene ended.

"Cut! It's a good take, but I think we could do it better. Let's take another take and see if we can top this one up. Yeah, but after a ten-minute break."

Everyone around the set nodded, hearing her words. It was very common to take multiple takes of the same scene, so everyone took it very naturally.

"You did well. I feel like I need to put in more effort to match your energy and expressions."

Elison Harrington said, giving Aiden a smile.

"I'm just trying to keep up with you, actually."

"Now, don't be humble."

Elison knew that Aiden was constantly trying to add new things to Alan.

It was evident in how he acted around the set, constantly having discussions with the directors and writers to add new things to his character.

His behaviour had even made her try to give more focus to her acting, especially because she realised she was taking her character for granted after playing her for so many years.

It was inevitable as she had gotten a bit lazy and had not tried to do more than the bare minimum.

Both of them talked a bit more about the scene before Elison walked toward the makeup artist. Aiden also returned back to sit with Wade, who gave him a water bottle.

"You are doing good," Wade said as Aiden gulped down the bottle of water. "By the way, I got a text from Leo. The whole team is already in Toronto. A lot of them are visiting the Toronto film festival for the first time, and it seems like they are having a good time."

"That's nice. We will be there in a few days. The shooting is in its final act now."

"Yeah, if everything goes well, your appearance in [Searching for the One] will be broadcasted right after the film festival."

[Searching for the One] had a weekly broadcast on IBC, and it would have its finale at the end of September, a few days after the Toronto film festival ended.

It meant that two of Aiden's projects were going to be released around the same time.

'He's still working around on the set.'

As Wade and he was talking, Aiden's eyes glanced toward Harley, who was helping to carry a prop.

Every scene he was going to appear in had been shot, but the reason he was on the set was to earn a bit more money by working as a crew member.

When Aiden had asked Harley about it, he had said that he liked being employed, even if it was for a while longer.

'I keep thinking about his story. He's talented, but he's still out of work.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

He knew that the only reason he had gotten interested in his story was because of what the system had shown him — His skill level and special skill.

Despite having those, he was struggling.

For some reason, it made Aiden think about himself before he had gotten his system. If he didn't have a system, he might have been like Harley.

"Why are you looking at that guy? Do you know him?" Wade suddenly asked when he followed Aiden's eyes.

"I talked to him before. I feel like he has a lot of talent."

"I can't say that. He's good-looking and stands out a little, but I felt his acting was subpar. Though, his scene was too short for me to judge."

Wade gave his reasoning, and Aiden glanced at him, hesitating before asking a question that was running through his mind.

"Do you think there are a lot of talented people in Hollywood that never got any chance?"

"Obviously. This is Hollywood. One thing it doesn't lack is talent. Actually, every industry has a lot of talented people but rarely does someone get famous. There are too many factors other than being talented."

As an agent, Wade had seen a lot of people becoming famous, even helping to make people famous as an agent. But one thing was very clear.

Unless one was an absolute genius, he needed a lot of luck and connections to get anywhere.

He even felt that some people were just destined to achieve success while others weren't.

"I don't think you should think a lot about it." Wade suddenly said, looking up at Aiden.

"What?"

"Knowing you, you feel bad about him and want to help him out. But currently, you are at that stage of your career where you should help yourself out first. A flop or two, and you would be sidelined, so think about yourself."

Aiden realised that Wade thought he wanted to help Harley.

But that wasn't really the case.

He knew that he was nowhere near powerful to help other actors.

"I'm not really thinking about helping him." He explained. "It's more like I'm very interested in his story."

"His story?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about it. There are just too many struggling actors in Hollywood, especially those with a lot of talent. No one has actually talked or written about them in an extensive way. Those extras are just in the background, and no one remembers them. I feel like they have a great story hidden in them."

Aiden explained the thoughts that he had been thinking of since he had talked to Harley.

As he was thinking of a topic for his first writing project, an idea struck him.

'A story about an extra in movies. A background actor who never gets his dues.'

He wanted to base his first story on that as he felt like it was a topic that was very close to his heart. As an actor who had struggled himself, he knew how hard it was to keep faith when nothing worked out.

"Writing about them? Are you thinking of becoming an author?"

Wade asked, finding his words very strange. Aiden had never mentioned something along these lines.

"Not exactly. I just wanted to write as a hobby. Thought it might help me get my mind off work."

Aiden lied, not telling Wade about his real intentions of not wanting to waste a skill. Fortunately, it seemed like Wade accepted his words.

"That's not a bad idea. You even have that author look at you if we get you glasses." Wade squinted his eyes at Aiden. "Anyway, if you can actually write a novel, it would give you another edge and would add a lot to your 'Talented young guy' persona."

***

The shooting of [Searching for the One] continued as Aiden decided to talk to Harley about his life story after the wrap. Harley was luckily going to continue working as a crew member, so he had time.

With that settled, Aiden focused more on his acting.

Unlike his previous characters like Kai August or Arthur Reeves, Alan Gellar was way more eccentric and perverted, and Aiden didn't use a lot of method acting while portraying him.

It was because one scene was shot a lot of times, and it was pretty exhausting for him to continue it with method acting, so in the end, Aiden didn't really go for that.

He instead went towards Classical acting, which is commonly used for stage performances in theatre and was always considered too over the top for the screen, but because the whole character of Alan was over the top, this acting method really fit the character in some scenes.

But in other scenes where there was a need for more emotional depth, Aiden went for a more emotional performance that was very subtle.

Though, his immersion helped him out a lot no matter what type of scene he was doing.

Like that, the shooting continued.

Finally, on 31st August, the final scene of the shooting was shot perfectly.

"Okay, everyone, it's a wrap! You all worked hard!"

Amelia shouted after giving an okay to the last scene, and everyone showed excited expressions at the end of the shooting. A lot of people clapped as a joyous atmosphere covered everyone.

The shooting was finally over after so many days.

Everyone congratulated Aiden, too, as he was the actor with the most number of scenes during the whole shoot of the last three episodes and he had worked very hard.

But he just casually thanked everyone for their support and walked toward Harley, who was clapping in a corner.

...