Second Chances – Chapter 8 October 21, 2009
After a few hours of filming, they broke for lunch. Beth quickly retreated to her trailer. She needed some quiet and time to herself. It was almost too much for her to process. To be able to process her emotions, Beth booted up her laptop and began to write about her experiences and feelings. It seemed like writing was the only way she could handle life sometimes. Before she had written Aria’s Song, she had only dabbled in writing. Now she was known as a great writer. She had that fear that someone someday would realized she wasn’t the great writer everyone thought she was and that terrified her. Beth was surrounded by professionals who had been writing for years and here she was, a regular woman from New Jersey creating a multi-million dollar major motion picture. Now if she was to be found out, the whole world would know her as the ‘hack’ writer who couldn’t act as well.
Deep into her writing, Beth was startled when there was a knock on her trailer door. She asked who it was and Rob replied. Beth invited him in as she finished typing her thoughts down.
“I didn’t see you at lunch so I thought I would bring you a sandwich,” he told her as he entered.
“Thank you but you really didn’t have to,” she said as she smiled at him as she turned from her computer and offered him a seat.
“So what do you think about being a movie star so far?” he asked.
“I can’t think of myself as a movie star. I barely call myself a writer.”
“Beth, you have a talent for this. You will see.”
“There is just so much to deal with. I feel so out of place,” she told him, trying her best to not unload all of hr burdens on him.
“You are doing a great job. I’ve been doing this for so long that it is difficult for me to remember the anxiety you must be experiencing.”
“Thank you, Rob for trying to understand. I really appreciate you checking up on me. Any bits of wisdom you could bestow on me?”
“Don’t read any of the papers. Don’t listen to the reporters and don’t let them get to you or your kids.”
“But what should I do?”
“Just keep doing what you are doing,” he said as he smiled at her.
Beth returned the smile. Before she could say anything in return, an assistant was knocking at her door to let her know that she was needed on the set.
The two left the trailer and headed off to the set to finish the scene. Watching the dailies was very educational for her both as a writer and an actress. It was weird to see herself on the screen. After getting out of her costume and make up, Beth gathered some papers she had been given and got in the car to go home.
During the drive home, she was reading the memos and schedules she had received that day. The studio and Harry had decided to try to make Aria’s Song in secrecy, therefore giving the movie more free press than if they hadn’t tried to keep the lid on it. Beth liked the idea because it kept her from the world’s critical eye for a little bit longer.
The next schedule she looked over was for her personal appearances she was going to have to make around the release date of the movie. There were the talk shows like Leno, Letterman and O’Donnell plus the local interviews she was going to have to do, plus all the “Entertainment Tonight” type shows that would be craving their sound bites of her saying how wonderful the movie was. The more times she was heard talking about the movie, it sold more tickets and more copies of the book which was scheduled to come out in paperback about the time of the movie premier. The last paper she had time to look at was the tentative shot list. If they kept on schedule, she would be able to go home for Thanksgiving and her tenth high school reunion and be able to bring her parents out for Christmas and New Years. Soon after the holidays, the kids would go stay with her parents as Beth and the cast headed off to the Caymans for a month of filming. Once that was over, they were to return to LA to finish the movie, hopefully by mid-March so the film could be released that Fourth of July.
Beth was grateful to be home and spend some time with her kids. All she wanted to do was to hear how Mikey’s day at school went and try to relax.
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