I tried to calm my breathing as I thumbed through the pages. A young girl named Alice huddled up with us, and she had the same reaction I did. She would portray the twelve-year old in the story.
G said, “I want to feel this scene in my guts.” He pointed first at Hondo, then Alice, and lastly at me, “Make me feel it,” He slapped his chest, “right here. Make it ache.”
I looked out of the corner of my eye at Hondo. He glanced at me, then rolled his head on his shoulders as if his neck felt stiff before saying, “Let’s do this.”
The scene as written looked simple. Hondo and I walk into a section of bombed village–yes, bombed by the mafia– and see the girl sitting on a boulder. Hondo stops, takes out a Snickers candy bar from his pack and gives it to her, and we walk out of frame. Easy peasy.
G had us shoot the scene twenty-four times, saying things like, “More emotion, Hondo,” or to Alice, “Love the Snickers, Alice, love the sweet, nutty caramel and chocolate goodness like Juliet loved Romeo.”
I snorted on that one and covered my mouth with a hand. G said, “You wish to say something?”
I coughed and said, “No, just allergies. I’m good now.”
We shot one more scene where we return to the village and find the young girl dead. G had her in the same place, but sitting on the ground with her back against the boulder and a small bloodstain on her shirt to indicate a bullet wound. G had her eat a bite of the Snickers, saying, “I want the audience to see your bite marks on it, not someone else’s. The symbolism of that bite being yours is huge in our story, huge.”
Hondo shook his head in slow motion, and I bumped him with my shoulder, causing him to grin. G saw him, frowned and said, “Something is humorous?”
Hondo said, “Not at all. Watching you work in your, ah, unique way is entertaining. It made me smile.” I thought, All this and it’s only our first day of shooting. The pay for doing this movie was better than any other acting job we’ve had, ever, but I knew Hondo had little patience with people like G.
Hondo stepped smell-my-breath close to G, looking down at him, “Don’t be so touchy, G. We’re doing our best for you, but don’t second guess every small thing we say or do when we aren’t in front of the camera.”
I saw G’s Adams apple bob up and down. He gathered his courage, “I’m paying you–“
“You are, and well. We appreciate it. You get our efforts, G, not us, you understand the difference?”
G nodded. Hondo can be intimidating, and that’s what our director felt right now.
I stepped beside them and patted both men’s shoulders, “I’m glad we had th
is talk, aren’t you? How about we get the next scene rolling?”
My intervention broke the tension, and we worked the rest of the day on the Snickers-with-a-bite-out-of-it scene. Forty-one takes.
Hondo let a friend come by the studio and borrow his Mercedes, so he rode with me when we left. The gate guard posed there and pantomimed being Captain Ahab harpooning Shamu as we drove by. I looked in my rearview mirror as we departed and saw him laughing so hard he was bent over with his hands on his knees. “They need to hire better guards,” I said.
“You actors are so touchy,” Hondo said.
Amber called a moment later and I answered, “Hey Amber.”
“Are you going to your office?”
“I can. Where are you?”
“With Bodhi at her apartment. We’d like to come over.”
“Sure. I’ll pick up something to eat. Hondo will be there, too.”
I stopped at a Ralphs store on the way and Hondo picked up items for sandwiches and soup, then we parked at the office and went inside to wait on the women.
Amber and Bodhi opened the door without knocking and took seats across from us at the small table where the condiments were placed for sandwich making. Bodhi’s eyes were red and puffy from crying. She said, “I want you three to sit with me at the service tomorrow at Forest Lawn, the Hollywood Hills one.”
Hondo said, “Sure, whatever you want.”
Bodhi said, “Things are happening so fast I’m feeling like I can’t keep up. Troy made the arrangements and told me the quicker we do it, the easier it will be to get closure.”
I sat in silence with my own thoughts about it. Hondo said, “If you want the service done later, tell us and we’ll make it happen. We can talk to Troy.”
Bodhi said, “No, I…it’s just that Troy has taken over everything and makes all the decisions. He says he’s doing it to protect me and so I don’t have to worry about anything because I need to heal.”