Junior Year Box Set

“You poor ‘stupid boy,’ you can’t regift like that. You need to go ahead and let me pick out my new sunglasses, and I expect you to buy me a cool surfboard for Christmas. If you want, we can stop by the shop, and I can tell you what I like.”

“That would be helpful. When did you think we should do that?”

“Now would be good.”

I sent a text to Fritz, and he replied that he needed a few more minutes. I paid our bill and walked over to Thelma Yates’ table. Halle was reluctant to accompany me, so I just grabbed her hand and dragged her along.

“Ms. Yates, I’m David A. Dawson, and this is Halle James. I was wondering if you might do us a favor,” I said.

“David, Halle, nice to meet you. Are you in need of representation? I hear Saul’s hard to work with,” she said, and I could tell she was serious.

“No, but I might take you up on that one day. What I wanted to ask was if Channing Tatum might be interested in going out on a date with Halle?”

“David!” Halle hissed and turned bright red.

“You’re a funny guy. You do realize that he’s twice her age and married, right?” she asked.

“I didn’t know that, only that Halle thinks he’s hot. Apparently, I myself am just cute, and the light has to be right.”

I decided not to say anything about my butt being too big.

“Maybe I can get you a signed photo,” Ms. Yates offered.

“I know: Halle’s been asking me to find something for her Christmas present. Could you get him to come to a party and dance with her?” I suggested. “Of course, his wife could come too.”

“Have you been drinking?” Ms. Yates asked.

“No, he hasn’t. I’m sorry we interrupted your lunch,” Halle said and forcibly pulled me away from the table.

I looked back, and Ms. Yates had a little smile on her face.

◊◊◊

Halle had a lot of fun picking out her surfboard. She decided she wanted to have a nine-footer custom made. It would look like there was a giant wave breaking the length of the board. I was with her mom on this: I would rather hang it on the wall than surf on it.

When we were done, Halle wanted to go home and call her friends. I let her choose a pair of sunglasses. I decided to go ahead and pick out some for myself. They had a twisted design of gold and platinum intertwined along the top and on the sides. They were nothing if not unique.

I was putting the sunglasses away when I received an email from one of the writers. They were changing the script for tomorrow and had added a long piece of dialogue for me. I decided to go to the set and work with the dialogue coach so I’d be ready.

◊◊◊

When I tracked down our coach, I was happy to see Leah there. She was the one I’d be talking to in the rewritten scene. After the disaster with Faye when she unleashed her magic in the basement and caused the tornado, Adam and Diana had a long discussion about Cassie. It was the same argument: was so much power a bad or good thing?

I was getting better at memorizing my lines. I remembered when I first started, it terrified me that I’d forget them and make a fool out of myself. That was when my college professor had explained about multiple shots and elaborated on how they would work with me to help me learn my lines.

It’s funny what we think before we actually know how something like this works. I just assumed that you did it all in one shot and had to get it right. While that was true, in the sense that you had to get the dialogue on film, what I learned was that you could do the same scene multiple times. Depending on what Jessup wanted, you might have a long shot to establish the scene, one focused on just me, and another on Leah. Then another close-up on both of us, and if he wanted another from a different angle, that would be another shot. Then there might be reaction shots where you had to use your body language and facial expression to show how you felt about something said.

They would then take all those shots and edit them into a coherent scene. When you watch a movie, you’re not really aware of it, if it’s done well. So the more you got the dialogue right, the better. Jessup could work around little mistakes, but it was better if you delivered the lines the same each time. I’m not talking about just saying the words the same. You had to get the same inflection, and the pacing of your words had to be the same.

Then there was your body. That was where being a model turned out to be a big help. I was used to repetitive poses that were precisely the same. With acting, you were just moving. To do it right took a lot of focus and awareness.