Dreams of Stardom (Hollywood SI)

"Okay," Chris came into view after setting up the scene, "Julie, you and the kids will come from the direction I came." He then pointed towards the pillar where we were shooting, "Troy, you'd be standing here, facing towards that pillar, and will rush to them with your trolley. After your dialogue, you'll run towards the pillar and will stop at that point where you can see the little green cross, okay?"

I nodded in understanding. As per the scene, I had to go through the pillar, but that was not exactly possible, so some CGI would be employed. My running would be recorded from different angles to make it possible.

Don't ask me the details. VFX sometimes just goes over my head.

"And, Action!"

"Packed with muggles as usual! Come, Ginny, Ron! Platform 9¾ is right this way," Mrs. Weasley said while leading her brood toward the designated wall.

"Muggles?" I whispered as realization dawned upon me.

I watched with wide eyes from the side as Percy, Fred, and George did their thing before running away from the camera view.

"Excuse me!" I yelled a little before coming into the Weasleys' sight, “Can you tell me how…"

I trailed off with uncertainty looking at the platform.

"How to get to the platform? Oh, worry not dear, it's my Ron's first time as well…"

"Cut!" Chris' voice cut off the scene, "Troy, Julie, Imogen, excellent work. Jamie, you're not showing enough reaction to being called out. Be a little smug but at the same time embarrassed at being called out by your Mum. Let's do it again from your line, Troy."

Jamie Bell looked a little crestfallen. I put a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry mate, it happens. Just be calm and it will be alright."

He nodded as we all prepared ourselves for the reshoot.

(Break)

Shooting [Harry Potter] was a unique experience in itself. Never had I shot so many scenes (or any scenes) in front of a green screen or blue screen, as the case may be. Other than the broom flight scenes, there were scenes like the Troll attack or the scenes involving Fluffy that required heavy usage of CGI and thus green screens.

Because of my suggestion, all CGI-heavy stuff was being filmed beforehand and the normal stuff would be done later on. This was so tiring. Especially the one I'm in at the moment.

"Do something!" I shouted while hanging upside down with copious amounts of wires.

"But what?" Jamie looked around in confusion.

"Anything!" I replied desperately as Jamie took out his wand and waved it.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The next moment I was lowered down on a green mattress and immediately I crawled back towards Jamie with a scared expression as a giant green doll fell at its designated spot.

"Cut!" Chris shouted, "Terrific work, Troy, Jamie. Emma, next is your scene. Say all your lines one after another."

I heaved a sigh of relief. It wasn't easy doing that stunt take after take. This was already the sixth take; any more and I'd have gone dizzy. To make sure I'm dangling as little as possible, they shot only my and Jamie's scene now. Emma's scene was to be added in post-production to make it look like she is talking between us.

"And cut! Excellent work, kids!" Chris grinned down at us, "That's it for today, we'd be continuing the shoot after the holidays in the new year."

Ah yes. I had forgotten to mention that it had been quite some time ever since we started shooting the film series and the year was coming to an end. It wasn’t just the end of a year or a decade or even a century, but the end of a millennium. The Y2K phenomenon was real, and there were a lot of conspiracy theories floating around on the internet and in the news about the coming year. Among all this chaos, the production team of [Harry Potter] had decided to take the holidays off.

Brimming with the holiday spirit, I decided to have some fun of my own. "Hey Chris," I gave Chris the most innocent smile I could muster, "Is it true that you'd be giving us all presents?"

"Oh really?" Emma squealed, "I want a new laptop computer."

Jamie, immediately understanding the plan, grinned, "And I want a Nintendo."

"Hmm," I hummed audibly, "If we get to choose, I want a new guitar. No, that's too simple. How about a grand piano?"

"Hey, hey, hold up," Chris raised his hands, "when did I promise that?"

"But it's Christmas!" I exclaimed while Emma and Jamie nodded emphatically, "Normally we'd be enjoying our childhood with our school friends but here we are forced into labor by some greedy corporation. I'm so sad that even my Dad is a part of this process."

Chris stared at me in disbelief at the nonsense I was spewing. Even Emma and Jamie were taken aback by my words.

Cough "Are you done with your prank, Troy?" Unfortunately, Dad interrupted more drama from unfolding.

"You ruin all my fun!" I raised my hands in the air in mock frustration before laughing out loud. "I'm sorry Chris." I apologized, "Hope you didn't take it too seriously."

Chris chuckled nervously, "Yeah it's fine. I knew you were joking."

"I’m sure you did!" I grinned, "Still, to make up for it, Dad and I have brought presents for everyone!"

As I announced this, Dad signaled an assistant to bring in a huge bag filled with multiple boxes.

Emma and Jamie and the other kid actors, including Tom Felton, Matthew Lewis, and everyone else, were immediately called back on the set as Dad and I started handing over all the gifts that we had purchased for them. Today wasn’t a scheduled day for everyone, but they were called in with the pretense of filming a few scenes that were later canceled.

"Whoa! Is that a Nintendo!?" Jamie exclaimed, "How did you know I wanted that?"

"I don't know, you only said a million times how much you wanted one but your Mum didn't get you." I answered with a smile, "Don't worry though, we asked her beforehand so she won't take it away."

The whole gifting thing was my idea. I just suggested it to Dad casually and he was so pumped with the idea that he went along with it. Over the past few weeks, I had very covertly asked most of the kids what they wanted for Christmas. Them being kids, they didn’t even realize it.

"A cricket kit? Thank you, Troy! Steve! I love it!" Matthew, who plays Neville, exclaimed enthusiastically.

"My own laptop? Thank you, Troy," Emma hugged me, which I reciprocated.

This continued for several minutes as different kids would come up to us, thanking us for their gifts, which were usually toys or such stuff. We even gave out some generic gifts for the adults, like personalized coffee mugs and pens.

Chris was the last to come up to me holding the cufflinks Dad had gifted him, "Now I feel much worse about not bringing you guys anything." He joked with a grin.

"It's alright," I waved him off, "There's always next year."

"Hopefully," Chris smiled at me.

(Break)

The end of 1999 brought many things. Firstly, I ordered my broker to sell all of my Yahoo shares in the new year.

It netted me more than half a million dollars post taxes and commission out of an initial investment of $190k. No one was more shocked at this than my investment guy, Andrew. He had contacted Dad multiple times to convince me to sell. Dad had only one thing to say to him when I denied, "If he makes a loss, it will teach him a valuable life lesson."

Andrew was adamant about selling early because his commission was based on the amount of transaction, not the profit made. Still, the end result satisfied both Andrew and me. Dad and Mum were also astonished at the profit I made based on my 'hunch'.

Mum even joked that I was blessed and that whatever thing I touched turned to gold. I just chuckled at that. That's just foreknowledge. If not for that, I'd have probably done [Magnolia] instead of [The Sixth Sense] and would be slowly forgotten by everyone.

You must be thinking, why is this guy telling us about making half a million in stocks when he just made a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars with Warner Bros for future investment in [Harry Potter]? You're right, this money is negligible when compared to that, but you ignored one fact. This just proved that any future stock market knowledge I may have is very viable. So I could invest in any other companies that ring some bells about future prices and voila!

Right now, I already know Amazon and Apple's future performance. The only problem is that I also know that the tech stocks will come crashing down in a few months, so it's not practical to invest in anything right now.

Unless.

Yes.

Derivatives.

Derivative markets can be very dangerous for someone who does not know the stock market. However, that rule doesn't apply to me for several reasons. The first one is that I do have the knowledge of derivatives from my past life. Second is, of course, my future knowledge.

With my mind made up, I decided to partake in the stock that I know is bound to fall. Yahoo.

With all that in mind, here I am, on a call with Andrew alongside Dad.

"Let me get this straight," Andrew said, "You want to buy a 12-month Put option on Yahoo share with all of the $500k you have on hand."

"Exactly," I said.

"And you're okay with this, Steve? Didn't you tell me not to buy any derivatives for your son?" Andrew asked.

"I changed my mind," Steve replied reluctantly, "Or rather Troy did. He has put forth some great points. After all, it's his money and he can do whatever he wants with it."

There was silence over the line for a moment before Andrew spoke, "You do realize that because of high price fluctuations, the Put value of Yahoo may go as high as $20?"

"That's fine," I waved him off, even if he couldn't see me, "I can go even higher, but obviously, it's better to keep it as low as possible."

I could see Dad staring at me incredulously but didn't say anything to counter my claim.

"Alright," Andrew answered after a few seconds, "I'll make the transaction at the earliest."

And that was that. It wasn't until the next day that Andrew called to inform us that he had purchased 27,000 Put options at the rate of $18.34 with an exercise price of $420, betting almost all of my money gained from the stock market against Yahoo.

For those of you who don't know what a Put option is, let me explain. Suppose the price of Yahoo falls to $401.3 (420-18.7) after 12 months, then I'll have no profit, no loss. If it is anything above that amount, I would be making a loss. But anything below the value of $401.3 will result in a profit for me. On the conservative side, say the price is $400, I'd still be making $68,900.

The thing is, I know that the price will be below $100 in a year, thus making me a shitload of money. I could've bought a 6 or 9-month option at a cheaper rate, but buying a year-long option will save me up to 30% on taxes. That's millions of my future money. With that done, I only have to wait for a year.

That was my finance front. On the work front, the new year brought a new award season with it. Especially, for [The Sixth Sense].

It began with the Golden Globes, where it received only two nominations. One for the Best Screenplay for M. Night Shyamalam and the other for Best Supporting Actor for me.

Unfortunately, because of my busy shooting schedule for [Harry Potter], I decided to skip the ceremony. It's not like it's the Oscars. Dad had promised me that he would attend in my stead and also do the award campaign for the Oscars alongside Disney so I could solely focus on [Harry Potter].

The Oscar was one ceremony I wouldn't miss for the world if I were to be nominated. Even if I don't win, the chance to see the ceremony that is watched throughout the world by tens of millions of people, live, is a dream that I won't miss for the world. Not to mention that I'd get a membership in the Academy where I can vote for the best actors or actresses and the best film from next year onwards.

This year is tough competition. There's Michael Caine, Tom Cruise, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Jude Law. All of them gave amazing performances, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember who won the award in the original timeline.

Was it Tom Cruise? I think it was. He is a great actor, just more focused on physically challenging roles. Maybe this is the year he belled the cat known as the Academy Awards?

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