Susan
hugged the coat to her body as the cold wind blew through the avenues and
streets of
The last
thing she wanted to do was walk down bitterly cold 57th to the little French
café she had yet to figure out how to pronounce the name of. Yet there she was, flipping up the hood of
her coat as she walked with a crowd across the street. She walked another block and mumbled to
herself how much she really hated Brenda at that moment. She knew all she’d want was for her to
audition for another rejected role, or perhaps she had finally come to her
senses and was going to tell her what she had been waiting for her agent to
tell her for the past year, that she just wasn’t good enough.
She had
followed the dream of so many young people and packed up her things and moved
to the big city in search of the spotlight.
The truth was she really didn’t want the spotlight, she just wanted to
act. She couldn’t remember a time when
she wasn’t daydreaming, or using her imagination. Even in high school, every play, every skit,
had Susan Waters as the star. It wasn’t
an attention device, though attention never bothered her. She really felt she was born to be an
actress. She was thankful for the small
part she played in three episodes of One Life to Live and for the prostitute
role in an episode of Law and Order: SVU.
She had done a handful of commercials but only 2 of them were ever
aired, and she was going to be the leading lady in a Maroon 5 video, but she
had gotten the flu the day before the shoot and apologetically had to
cancel. Of course there had been
modeling jobs, but those were often boring and she found having someone blow
smoke up her ass was possibly worse than having someone tell her she was the
worst actress they had ever seen.
Brenda
was sitting in the window seat of the café and she waved frantically and smiled
through the glass. Susan smiled back and
entered the café, pushing her hood off and pulling off her gloves as she went
to sit with her agent.
“Suze!” Brenda said with a smile, setting down her latte. “I’m so glad you came. I’m sorry I had to call you at last minute.”
“So
what’s all this about Brenda?” She sat down with a huff and plopped her gloves
on the table. She didn’t mean to sound
bitchy, but the last thing her mind was on was work. “You know I’d love to stay but I have so much
I have to do before I leave tonight.”
“I know,
I know. And I wouldn’t have called you
today if this wasn’t important.”
She
shook her head when Brenda didn’t say anything back to her, “Well spill it.”
Brenda
opened her mouth and then shut it again.
She paused and looked down to the coffee table, wiping away the ring of
liquid her mug had made on the surface with a napkin. “Remember a couple months ago I had you read
a script.”
“Yeah,
the one I told you was perfect and would probably star Hugh Grant and Julia
Roberts.” Susan narrowed her eyes at her
agent, hoping she hadn’t gone behind her back and sent in her information for
an audition. She would love to be in a
movie, but she knew there was no possible way she would get a part with her
lack of experience, especially in a big
“Right. You just said that because it was written by
the same guy who did Love Actually.”
She
sighed, “That is the best movie.”
“I
know.” Brenda put her hand up in a movement that said stop and then leaned a
little across the small table, “But listen Suze, You
said you loved the role right?”
She felt
a migraine coming on. This was the last
thing she wanted to hear before the holidays.
She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes, “Brenda tell
me you didn’t. We’re starting off slow,
remember? No movies yet. I’d love to, but hell,
I haven’t landed anything even small in months.”
Brenda slapped her hand on the
table and Susan looked up at her agent a little shocked. Brenda was a sweet girl and it was odd to see
her so forceful. They were close to the
same age and were both newbies in the entertainment
business when she hired her to be her agent.
Lately, she had been thinking maybe that was a mistake. “We’ve been going slow
for the past three years Susan! I’m tired of you on the verge of quitting. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t
think you had a lot of talent, and folding jeans at Bloomingdales is a waste of
that talent.”
Susan sighed, “Look, I know you
just want the best for me. I want that
too. But there’s no way in hell I’m gonna land a movie role.
I mean, there’s a possibility I’ll play waitress number three or
something but…”
“I already sent your information
in.”
“Brenda!” She had never done
that. She had never done something
without having Susan ok it first.
“Look, I didn’t think we’d have
anything to lose,” she said in her defense.
“So I sent in your interview tape and some of your work. And…”
Susan tugged at her hair and
frustratingly pulled it back into a ponytail.
“And they hated it and you came here to tell me that I’m actually gonna be scrubbing toilets in the next Mr. Clean
commercial.”
“Susan will you
just listen to me!” Brenda snapped at
her.
She felt the tears coming. She just wanted to go home. Lately she really had been thinking about
moving back there. Life would be cheaper
and easier. She could go back to college
and maybe get her teaching certificate or something. She had once been told that the city would
eat you up if you weren’t hard enough, and her hard shell was starting to
break. “Brenda I…I can’t do this. It’s
almost Christmas and I can’t afford to have my hopes blown up just to have them
crash down.”
She looked up at her agent with
tears threatening to spill. She had
cried to her many times before and even though Brenda wasn’t her best friend,
she certainly was a good friend. She
just didn’t understand why Brenda was so happy about all this.
And then she said, “But you got
the part Suze.”
“What?” Susan replied in a hoarse
whisper.
“They loved you. They said you looked exactly like the Valerie
they had imagined. They wanna take a chance on you.”
She shook her head, thinking this
had to be a dream. “I don’t believe
this.”
Brenda laughed and rolled her
eyes. “I didn’t either when they called
me, honestly.”
“What…” She shook her head again and leaned forward,
grabbing Brenda’s wrist and squeezing it, hoping somehow she’d squeeze out the
truth. “No are you sure they want me? I mean maybe they just want a second
interview.”
“Susan…” Brenda sighed and pulled
up a satchel into her lap. She slid out
a manilla folder and placed it on the table, opening
it up for her. “Look at this.”
Susan stared down at it but all
she saw was words typed on a page. She
couldn’t get her eyes to focus on anything.
“What is it?”
“It’s a contract they faxed me
this morning. They wanna
fly you out right after the new year to LA for a meeting to let you know what’s
up.”
“Is that where it’ll be filmed?”
She asked quietly.
“Yeah. I’m already
starting to help look for a place for you to stay.”
Her eyes started to focus on the
logo at the top of the page, it was the Universal Studios
logo. She shot her head up and stared at
the woman across from her. “Brenda…tell me again.”
Brenda laughed and smiled
brightly, “You’re gonna be a star in a movie
Susan. It’s happened.”
“Get out!” Now it was Susan’s turn
to slap her hands on the table.
They both squealed at each other,
causing a few odd looks in their direction.
“Ahh I know!
Isn’t this great?”
“This is seriously the best
present I’ve ever got!” She wiped the tear away that had fallen from her watery
eyes and shook her fist as she sat there.
She was so excited that she didn’t know how to contain herself.
“This is it, girl.” Brenda said,
“This is your big break.”
Susan was still shaking with
excitement when she blurted out the first thought in her head, “Well who else
is gonna be in it?
I know it’s gonna be directed by Richard
Curtis.
Brenda nodded. “This is gonna be his first time working with a pure American cast I
think.”
“That’s crazy.”
“I know. And Zooey Deschanel, who was in Elf…”
Susan squealed again. “That’s the best movie, too!”
“I know! She’s gonna be Elle in it.”
She thought back on the script remembered Elle being the best friend in
the story. She was trying her best to
remember all the parts of the script. It
was a simple love movie laced with wonderful humor, based around young unknown
Her smile dropped when it
registered that this was a love story, so of course, there would be a leading
man. She shied away a little and asked,
“Do they have a Daniel yet?”
“Yeah, Justin
Timberlake.” Brenda said in an amused voice.
Susan laughed, “Wait, the singer?”
“Apparently he acts, too.” She
shrugged and shook her head.
“Wow.” She was a little uneasy about all that. She liked his music but had never seen him
act and wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. At least she got to act romantic with a guy
who was decent looking.
“So, I need a yes,” Brenda
exclaimed.
“There’s no other option?” She tried to remain serious but couldn’t help
cracking a smile at her agent. She knew
that this wasn’t just a big break for her, but for her agent as well. It was her dream to be in the movies, but she
never really thought it would happen, and lately she had started to think the
whole show-biz thing was just a waste of her time. It was funny that, two days ago she was
thinking about quitting and now here she was, the
leading role in a new movie.
“Hush you!”
She couldn’t help herself anymore
and got up out of her seat and clobbered her friend in a hug. She smiled to herself and said, “You know my
answer Brenda.”