The moment seemed to last forever, stretched out with tension and desire and all sorts of things that I wasn’t supposed to want. I could have gotten completely lost in it, but then the director was speaking into that damned megaphone of his.
“And now the scream!”
Mickey opened his mouth and roared at me, the fake beard they had on him rippling from the effort. I returned the loudest bellow I could, absolutely electrified, and we lunged for each other.
“Perfect! Cut!” The director paused, watching the shot on one of the many screens set up beside him. “Yeah, that’s good. Let’s get over the shoulder from our male lead, then we’ll do over the shoulder female, then the tight close ups.”
There was a flutter of activity as we proceeded to do just that, spending about a half an hour just staring at each other and screaming every once and a while. I had expected it to be awkward, after all, I had been to enough shoots to be familiar with how painstaking it could be to get all the angles, but it was anything but. I felt flushed with adrenaline, and more connected to Mickey than I had ever been.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that we had found each other. Sure, it hadn’t really happened how I would have liked, but sometimes life was like that. Maybe, once we got the annoying marriage business out of the way, we could be friends with benefits. Or just really, really good friends. I realized that I missed what we used to have, and how much time I used to spend with both him and Michelle. Maybe it would be good for me to think about something other than work for once.
Maybe. I needed to get through the shoot first, I supposed.
After we finally finished all the shots with the two of us just standing there, there was a break. We went to grab some water, used the restroom and then had our make up touched up before we were right back in the field.
But this time, it was for the fight.
I gripped my sword anxiously, excited but worried. I couldn’t just be average, or even good. I knew I needed to be exemplary to prove to the producers that they hadn’t made a mistake. It wasn’t exactly fair, but I was used to it.
Meanwhile Mickey was grinning at me like he couldn’t be happier. I did suppose that he was probably having a great time, filming and fighting and being pampered over by the crew. I didn’t mind though; he was a great scene partner and we just seemed to have a natural sort of rhythm.
Maybe it was because we already knew each other’s bodies so well? The thought made me chew at my lip and make up yelled at me before coming over to fix it.
Whoops.
“Lead fight, wide shot, take one!” The PA cried, slamming the clapperboard again and then suddenly it was business time.
Since we’d ended in a lunge, Mickey and I started by being pressed right up against each other. It made my heart race and my body thrum, but I just channeled that into my acting. That was what the professionals did, right? Calling on everything I was supposed to teach Amelia, I dove to the side, tucking myself into a roll and bringing my sword up over my shoulder to catch the downswing of his axe.
To his credit, Mickey really sold the swing, his muscles rippling and another bellow punching from his throat. But there wasn’t any actual force behind it, almost all of it being just for show.
That was pretty impressive.
I didn’t have much time to admire it, however, because then we were onto the next move. I pushed his axe away and faked a headbutt as I surged upwards. Mickey snapped his head back just like he should, the wild, red wig on his head helping to sell the bit. He stumbled a few steps and I charged him just like I was supposed to.
We went through all of it smoothly, not faltering even once. I couldn’t believe it. Normally with a new scene partner it took several takes just to get comfortable with each other. And it wasn’t like we’d had weeks of practice for it. And yet it felt like we did, my body falling into it naturally.
We finished just like we were supposed to as well, both breathing hard and having managed to get on opposite sides of where we started. It was supposed to be pretty clear to the audience that we were in a solid stalemate before we raised our weapons and charged each other again, jumping at the last moment. The commercial was supposed to end while we were still in the air, flying towards each other.
“Alright! Cut! Lets get our tight takes! You two good to go right away?”