Dreams of Stardom (Hollywood SI)

Tobias was an alright fellow, I guess. I’m still a little miffed that his duties were curtailed to become more or less my babysitter by my mother. Not that I’d let him stay that way. Honestly, I’m surprised my mother let me hire him. No one can deny that it is past time that I got a team of my own, but hiring anyone new permanently meant a great reduction in my mother’s duties, which she saw as me growing up. When I first floated the idea to her after receiving Tobias’ email, she had literally cried. I temporarily dropped the idea. I couldn’t hire someone at the cost of my family’s happiness. But two days later, she came to me and said that she may have overreacted.

But still, she wanted to interview a few people locally so that they could stay longer on the job. I agreed with that thinking of hers and let her search for more people. She talked to more than twenty people in London over the next few days but was not satisfied until she finally called Tobias in New York, and the rest is history. It’s weird how life works in mysterious ways. Currently, everything in my life is perfect. I can’t help but thank whatever deity sent me here. My start in life could have been better, but as they say, all’s well that ends well.

Coming back to my work for the past few months, I have been working out heavily and have been taking a pretty controlled diet. The reason for that was obvious to me (although my family may disagree with it.) I had to take a bath in the prefect’s bathroom. I like to think that I’m not an exhibitionist, but if I’m getting half-naked for cameras, at least I can look my best.

“Why can’t I be on the set that day?” Emma whined while pouting cutely.

After receiving that warning from Tobias about our borderline PDA, Emma and I decided that we would meet only in one of our trailers. So here we were in my trailer, with Emma’s assistant/nanny Chloe also present in the room as a watchdog. She was hired by Emma’s father after he came to know about our relationship.

“Because you don’t have a scene that day, and everybody would think it weird that you’re there.” I poked her cheek. She huffed and pushed my hand away, which only made me chuckle more. “You are so cute when you pout like that.”

She blushed for a moment, ready to retort when she realized what we were talking about initially.

“Don’t change the topic by flirting with me,” she said.

“I’m not,” I insisted while raising my hands defensively. “If you want to see me take a bath that bad, you can always ask, and I can give you a good private show.” I grinned at her with all my charm, and seeing the furious blush on her face, it was all worth it.

A loud clearing of Chloe’s throat told me that nothing of the sort would be happening anytime soon.

“Hey!” Emma rebuked Chloe. “As long as we are just talking, keep your ears closed.”

“Believe me, I don’t want to hear this either, Emma,” Chloe retorted before turning to me. “But Troy knows just the things to say to push my boundaries.”

I shrugged innocently. It’s not like I would have done anything more than what I already was doing if Chloe was not here. Maybe there would be some more kissing, but other than that, nothing would change. Then suddenly an idea popped into my mind as I stood up from my seat and walked over to one of my drawers before coming back with my iPod Classic and handing it over to Chloe.

“There you go. Listen to this, and then you won’t have to hear our embarrassing talks.”

She looked contemplative for a few moments before putting the offered earphones on. I grinned in triumph and played the first song on the playlist, [Cry Me a River] by Justin Timberlake, and cranked the volume to full. As Chloe started jamming with the song, I turned to Emma and said, “This is how you do it.”

Emma settled on rolling her eyes before she remembered something and her eyes lit up. “You said something about a private show.”

I shook my head at the audacity of the girl. “She might not be able to listen to what we are saying, but she can see.”

“Didn’t know you were that shy,” she smirked.

“I’m not,” I insisted. “But I’m pretty sure she’d report me to your parents if I do that. And I have no intention to face your father again.” I shivered involuntarily, remembering the last time I had met one Chris Watson. Mostly, Emma stayed with her mother in Oxford, but when we were shooting, she would stay with her father in London. Her parents had divorced, but that didn’t mean Chris cared for his daughter any less. He was a good father. So obviously, I hated him.

“You’re exaggerating,” she waved off. “He’s a total gentleman.”

“Of course he is,” I said with heavy sarcasm. “Only a gentleman would tell a fourteen-year-old how he has a big vintage gun collection that still works.”

“He was just joking,” she waved off my concerns as trivial. “He is the–”

Before we could continue our conversation, there was a loud knock on the door. Hearing my shout of: “Come in,” Tobias walked inside.

“Something the matter?” I asked him.

“The shot will be ready soon,” he said. “For both of you. The makeup team will be here in a few minutes.”

Chloe, who had removed her earphones after seeing Tobias, stood up as well and motioned Emma to come with her. Seeing as it was only the four of us in the trailer for now, I kissed Emma on the cheek and said, “See you on the set, love.”

She didn’t say anything, only blushed before nodding and leaving the trailer.

When Emma and her assistant had left, Tobias let out a tired sigh, “You are incorrigible.”

“And proud of it,” I announced. As my makeup artist came in, I took my chair.

(Break)

The world is full of perverts. Now I know for sure. It wasn’t just Emma who was interested in seeing me half-naked. Most of the crew members, who usually didn’t bother watching the shooting and whose work wasn’t even directly involved in film production, came to watch my scene.

As I looked around the tightly packed surroundings while donning my bathrobe, I turned to Alfonso, “Why are there so many people here?”

He shrugged. “They must be interested to see the shooting. We didn’t close the set because we didn’t think it would be required.”

Seeing the hundred or so people standing there, gawking, I made an instant decision. “It is required,” I said. “Please clear all those people out who are not required.”

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Yes,” I insisted. “Listen, man, I don’t know what sort of perverts they are, but I’ll be much more relaxed if they didn’t get off on seeing me half-naked.”

Alfonso was surprised by my words but didn’t waste too much time because he knew time was money. He immediately turned to all the ADs and barked instructions to clear the set. I waited patiently as they did, while my assistant came up to me and offered me a bottle of water, which I declined immediately.

“Just wait for a few hours, Tobias,” I said. “I cannot drink water right now.”

“You’re being stupid,” he summed up eloquently. “No one cares if a teenager has a toned body or fully visible abs. What you’re doing is not healthy.”

“I care about my body. That's why I am consulting a doctor for this diet,” I emphasized. “Now don’t talk to me. It makes me thirsty.”

When Alfonso came to know about my desire to get in better shape for the bath scene, he postponed the scene for a few months. Initially, it was planned to be shot in January, but thankfully, they were shooting it now in April. A nutritionist and a physician had been hired for me, who carefully monitored my diet and water intake a few days before the scene was to be shot, and since yesterday, I had not had even a single drop of water.

As the scene was finally cleared of unwanted crew members, only fifty people remained behind because their work was “absolutely necessary for the scene,” in Alfonso’s words. Getting instructions from him, I dropped my robe, which was immediately grabbed by Tobias, who stepped out of the camera frame. Looking down at my chiseled body, I couldn’t help but feel proud of my hard work. This was the first time I saw some noticeable muscle development in myself, and I loved it. My arms were double the size of what they were last year. While my chest wasn’t that big because of my age, my abs and pecs were quite toned.

“Admired yourself enough?” Alfonso asked to the amusement of multiple people.

“Yes,” I answered unabashedly. “Now can we begin?”

He didn’t say anything else; simply walked out of the frame while I took my position on the edge of the bathtub, wearing only skin-colored underwear to hide my modesty. That was done because I was meant to be butt-naked in the pool. That’s movie magic for you. I looked around the set and thankfully this time no one was outright gawking at me. I wasn't fully comfortable with the scene even now, but this was just a job for me and had to be done.

“Lights! Camera! Action!”

Hearing that magic phrase, I sat on the edge of the tub with a big golden egg. A few crew members were sitting near me, but out of the camera range, creating small bubbles in the air for that perfect magical bath effect. But I didn’t care about it at all. All I could think about was the puzzle in front of me. Then I jumped into the tub, which was filled to the rim with warm water and a lot of bubbles. I turned back to look at my golden egg and said, “I must be out of my mind.” Then I opened it. Its insides were painted neon green so that effects could be placed on them later. I acted as if the egg was making a horrible screeching noise and shut it close again. “I’m definitely out of my mind.”

Then I turned around to find the actress who was playing Moaning Myrtle sitting there.

“I’d try putting it in the water if I were you.”

“Myrtle!” I exclaimed in surprise.

“Hello Harry,” she said in an overly sweet feminine voice. “Long time no see.” She craned her neck to make me as uncomfortable as she could. I tried gathering some bubbles around me so the visibility of my lower body was as low as possible for the ghost.

She continued rambling some inane things that were of no consequence to me, so I brought her back to what was.

“Myrtle, did you say try putting it in the water?”

“That’s what the other boy did. Cedric,” she giggled while coming near me. I tried to back away from her nervously, only to hit the edge of the bathtub. Then I saw the egg behind me and put it in front of me to preserve some of my modesty.

“Well, go on,” she prodded. “Open it.” I submerged the egg inside the pool and then, after a few seconds of hesitation, lowered my head underwater as well. After a few seconds, I came out of the water, coughing out soapy water.

“Myrtle,” I turned to the ghost. “There aren’t merpeople in the Black Lake, are there?”

“Very good,” she tittered. “It took Cedric ages to figure it out.” With each word, she inched closer to me. “Almost all the bubbles were gone.” I started gathering more of the distant bubbles between us while going as far away from the creepy ghost lady as possible, but it was not meant to be because she ended up resting her head on my shoulder by the end of the scene. In hindsight, the scene was more than a little gross because Shirley Henderson, who played Myrtle, was 38 years old compared to my 14. Not that Shirley was a bad actress, but I still don’t understand why Chris even hired her to play Myrtle in the second part. Were all teenagers in the world dead?

“And cut!” Alfonso called out. “Perfect scene everyone. Troy, let’s do it one more time without Myrtle.”

I nodded and took my position again. Since I was already wet and Myrtle came out only when I was in the tub, only those parts had to be shot again. My dedicated makeup artists ran up to me to dry my hair, and I redid the scene all alone this time.

(Break)

“Troy,” Alfonso called out some half an hour later when the scene was done, and I was all dry, back in my bathrobe, and sipping on a bottle of water. “I think you should see this scene.”

“I trust you, Alfonso,” I said. If you ask directors to watch a just-shot scene, they usually don’t like it because it means that you don’t trust them or their vision to bring out your best performance. But I cannot deny that I was more than a little curious to see how this would turn out.

“Come on,” he insisted.

Not arguing any further, I walked over to the monitor screen Alfonso was standing near, where he replayed the video from the start. I watched how I sat on the edge of the pool and how I went in to solve the puzzle. It looked genuine, but most importantly, my body looked fab. They had used special lighting to make sure that my muscles popped out way more than they usually did. That, when added to everything else, like my increased workouts and water and diet control, made me look the best I have ever looked.

Holy shit! This is too good. I knew Alfonso was good at filming the human body (like [Y Tu Mamá También]), but I didn’t know that even I could look this good.

I turned to Alfonso, “Man, this is the best scene I’ve ever seen of myself. The lights, the camera angles, everything is perfect.”

“Just wait until I correct the color grading in post-production,” Alfonso said confidently. “This clip gave me some ideas about the tournament scenes.”

“Which part?” I asked curiously. Usually, we shoot the CGI part first and the rest later, but since [Goblet of Fire] would be released a year after [Prisoner of Azkaban], there was no such rush to finish CGI at the moment. As a result, all three of the tournament events—dragon-fighting, underwater rescue, the maze—and the climax would be shot at the very end.

“The part for which you have been training relentlessly for months,” Alfonso said as if it was the most obvious thing. “I had this idea that I wanted to float by you. What if the three male contestants shot the underwater scenes shirtless?”

“Why?” I asked the obvious question. On paper, it may look appealing, but the problem with that was I’d have to continue my training and dieting for a lot more days. Not to mention, shooting shirtless for nearly a month underwater is just asking for trouble. That was how long time had been allotted for the filming of the second task.

“Because your audience is maturing with each film,” Alfonso pointed out. “That’s the theme that Rowling is adopting in her future books as well. The one theme most common in teenage stories is puberty and coming-of-age. The girls will go crazy for you if we were to do that whole sequence shirtless given how good you look right now. After all, I’m here to deliver what the people want to see.”

I didn’t expect an auteur director like Alfonso to choose style over substance to shoot such a scene. But then we weren’t making some Oscar-bait film, so it made sense in a way. With the amount of hard work I had put into my body, I didn’t mind showing it off to people as long as they weren’t gawking at me in person.

“The decision is fully yours,” Alfonso continued when I didn’t reply immediately. “I’m asking you first because if you agree then only will I talk to your father and the Warner Bros executives that this is the best route to go. Take your time and tell me in 2-3 days.”

“I don't need to,” I said firmly. “We’ll do it just like you are envisioning it. I don’t want to be the one to hinder your vision. This is your movie first and foremost, not mine, so if you want me to be shirtless, I’ll be shirtless.”

“Are you sure?” he asked for good measure.

“Yes,” I waved off his concerns. “Just make sure that the set is a closed set like today, and we’ll be fine. I don't want any unnecessary gawkers.”

“Perfect then,” he grinned at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle everything. We’ll make this into the best Harry Potter movie of the series.”

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