Chapter 13
A week later, the school scenes were completely wrapped up, and the crew began shooting elsewhere.
“Wow. WOW.” Susan Sarandon came up to Eric, outstretched her hands and squeezed his face as she exclaimed: “You look exactly like my husband.”
“Ha, ha.”
“That’s so strange.”
“Yeah, really strange.” Eric agreed.
“What exactly is going on ?” Susan said.
At this time, looking at the monitor, Penny Marshall shouted: “Cut ! Eric, you laughed again, this is the fifth time already, the fifth time ! Can’t you restrain yourself ?!”
People often labeled directors as being bad tempered, but it was to be expected. Every time actors screwed up, they wasted time and money, no matter how good-tempered one was, one would definitely be angry, let alone those whose fuse were visibly shorter.
In this case, Eric could only apologize again and again: “I’m sorry Penny, I promise it won’t happen again.”
Penny Marshall rolled her eyes superciliously, it wasn’t the first time Eric had guaranteed that.
“Everyone in place, get ready to try again.”
Susan Sarandon who was next to Eric said: “Eric, the next time I squeeze your face, try to not focus on me.”
“Yes, Ms. Sarandon, I’ll try.”
This passage wasn’t even that funny, but Eric didn’t know why he would just start laughing every time.
When they started shooting again, he tried Susan Sarandon’s suggestion, and although he came close to bursting out loud many times, he restrained himself and they finally wrapped it at the sixth shot.
During the break, Eric walked towards the woman and said: “Ms. Sarandon, thank you for before.”
“It was nothing, Eric. Just Susan is fine. You’re really talented you know, I’ve never seen a first timer act like you do.”
“Oh, thank you very much. Uhm, Susan, can I ask you a question ?”
“Yes ?”
Eric said: “It’s like this, Susan your body is in an amazing shape, how do you maintain it ?”
“Oh wow, Eric, are you hitting on me ?” Susan raised her eyebrows and smiled as she asked.
Eric noted her meaningful expression and was reminded that sometimes, in Hollywood, older female celebrities would look for younger boyfriends. It wasn’t rare for even sixty-year-old women to try to get their hands on 30 year-old youths.
“No, Susan, actually… my girlfriend has been trying to lose weight recently, so I was thinking on getting some advice from you.”
“Oh, I see, losing weight is indeed not an easy thing. I happen to know a good fitness consultant in Beverly Hills, she opened a women’s fitness club, and used to be an excellent nutritionist. You can bring your girlfriend there to get some advice, she will give her a reasonable weight-loss program that she’ll have to follow.”
“Well, could you give me the address ?”
“Sure, no problem.” Susan Sarandon asked her assistant to bring a pen and a piece of paper, she then quickly wrote a memo and handed it to Eric, who received it, thanked her, and turned around to leave.
Just as he went back to the resting area and was about to sit down, Drew hastily pulled his chair away mischievously as she asked: “Hey, Eric, what did Susan just write you ? Is it the address for a date ?”
Eric noticed that Drew had become cheekier and cheekier recently, he said: “It is indeed, looks like you’re really perceptive for a thirteen-year-old girl.”
“Ha!” Drew chuckled loudly, she was initially joking around, but Eric’s sarcastic comment got on her nerves, so she said: “I heard you grew up without a mother, did you develop an Oedipus complex ?”
Obviously, Eric had some understanding of Drew’s family situation.
“Hey, Drew, let’s not bring out that subject.”
Drew thought that he got angry because she mentioned his mother, so she stuck her tongue out.
“Eric, I’ll call it a day, but you have to invite me to dinner, ok ?”
Eric shook his head: “I’ll have to ask Annie first.”
“That supersized girl again ! Are you planning on adopting that T-Rex or what ?!”
Eric was surprised, did this era really start using dinosaurs’ slang ? (TL: “dinosaur girl” is slang for “ugly girl” in China.)
“Tyrannosaurus Rex ? Drew, don’t you think speaking about her like that in front of me is inappropriate ? If you were a man, I would’ve beaten you up.”
“Don’t think I don’t know that the only reason she got her role, was because James was giving you face since you had taken a liking to her. But with that fatty’s pride, she won’t become your official girlfriend until the end of the filming. Ha! What a hypocritical woman.”
“Drew.” Eric’s expression became solemn: “If you say anything like that again, I won’t care about you anymore.”
“Alright, alright.” Drew raised her hands in surrender: “After we eat we could go to a place and talk about that book you wrote, Jurassic Park. It’s really great, it turned me into Mr. Eric Williams’ fan.”
Eric said: “Stop it, Drew, will your mother even agree to that ?”
“That woman ?” Drew snorted with disgust: “As long as she gets her check, she couldn’t care less about me.”
It seemed like Drew’s prejudices about her mother had penetrated deep into her bones. It’s no wonder she cut all ties with her family once she turned sixteen in the past.
Today, Eric had shot many scenes, and even for his young body, that was a lot.
After they called it a day, he tiredly walked towards the parking lot, but soon found out that Drew was on his heels.
“Hey, Eric, you promised you’d buy me dinner, you’re not allowed to slip away.”
Eric stopped, then said: “Drew, don’t be unreasonable, when did I promise you ? Go back quickly.”
“No.” Drew hurriedly grabbed Eric’s arm, as her arrogant expression turned into a pitiful one: “I have already sent away my assistants, are you gonna let a little girl like me go home alone, what if some bad people corner me and I get raped or killed ?”
Eric had developed immunity when it came to Drew’s lightning-changes in expression, unmoved, he said: “No, you go home alone. And hurry, it’s been a hard day, I want to go back to rest.”
Drew realized that her plan had failed and so she raised her hands and messed up her hair, ripped off her own small vest and gently scratched her skin as red marks started to appear. She then looked at Eric with her eyes blinking with tears as she stated: “If you don’t agree, I’ll sit on the floor and shout for help. Let’s see how the L.A.P.D deals with you then.”
Eric touched his forehead as his temples were threatening to burst.
Amitabha, how did I manage to meet a goblin right now, Buddha are you testing me ?
Bang –
Eric gloomily shut his door and started his car as he asked Drew who had already called shotgun: “Well, you win Drew so, where to ?”
“Mastro’s, I want to eat steak.”
“Aye aye captain, so where’s that ?”
Drew first gave Eric a look of contempt before excitedly saying: “Then I’ll drive ?”
“Not a chance, I don’t want any trouble, hurry and spit the address out or I’ll just randomly pick one.”
Drew pursed her lips as she unwillingly told him, and Eric started to drive.