Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

“What did you just say?”

The tattooed man turned around hearing Aiden’s words. His eyes looked at Omar, Wade, Asano and a few more employees that had followed them before landing on Aiden. 

“You have some problems in your ear?”

“I don’t but I feel like you have a problem with your mouth. You shouldn’t just say anything especially when it’s against people you shouldn’t cross.”

The tattooed man frowned. For some reason, he looked like how Aiden imagined Wade to be in high school if he was a delinquent. 

Aiden scanned the room with his eyes before replying. 

“I don’t see anyone I can’t cross in the room and let’s stop with the bullshit. You are harassing a guy for a reason that’s as dumb as it gets.”

“How is it? It’s breaching a promise.”

“Those types of promises are made daily in Hollywood but a good movie takes precedence over everything. That’s what professionals think which your client isn’t.  He’s just sitting while his agent harasses a poor employee of a new production company.”

Aiden looked at the actor who was about to light up his cigarette with a glare. 

Wade chipped in at the moment. 

“When this goes out, I’m pretty sure production companies would love to work with someone who sends his agents to harass their employees because his scenes were cut. You would surely be rewarded the nicest actor award in Hollywood.”

His sarcasm made a few employees chuckle and the actor’s face went red with anger. 

“Enough!”

The tattooed agent finally had enough and tried to swing his arms around, trying to hit Aiden. He moved a few steps back, dodging the strike and gave out a glare. 

‘Okay. Now, it’s in self defence.’

Thinking of that, Aiden didn’t hesitate and thought about Finn and the boxing training he had gone through for the role. The next second, a punch landed straight on the agent’s face, knocking him down. 

A ripping sound came out like the punch had fractured something.

He nearly fell onto the employee he was harassing as he struggled to get out of the way. 

The atmosphere froze in a second. 

“What the fuck?”

Someone muttered on the back and the sentiment was shared by everyone as they were too shocked. 

The tattooed man was taller than Aiden and due to him being very bulky, he looked like a wrestler. But he was knocked down in just one punch. 

Obviously, there was a factor of surprise as the agent hadn’t expected Aiden to do that. Still, it was a big deal. 

The actor on the side had dropped his cigarette and was shaking now. 

‘Damn, it hurts. It’s really a different thing practicing boxing and punching someone.’

On the other hand, Aiden was flinching with pain but he tried hard to not show it. 

After all, he noticed a gaze that was continuously on him. Asano was looking at him with shining eyes and enjoying what was happening. He was the only one with a smile on his face. 

“Hey, leave with your agent. Leave as fast as you could and never be back. I’m the CEO of the production company and we are not going to work with you from now on. Not you or any other actor from your agency.”

Omar opened his mouth at the moment and glared at the actor. 

“Y-you can’t do that.”

“I can.” Omar scorned him. “Do you really think I fear you or your agency? I wouldn’t have opened up a production company if I was scared of thugs like you.”

The actor was about to say something more but he saw Wade glaring at him from behind Omar. 

Going by what Aiden had done, he felt like he would be beaten up if he didn’t leave right away. In his mind, Aiden and Wade were already looking like people from a gang. 

He picked up his agent and left with him quickly. The tattooed agent was glaring at Aiden all the way but Aiden didn’t seem to give it any heed. 

After he left, Omar scratched his head. 

“What a headache.”

His gaze moved to Aiden and it was not his usual carefree one. It was a serious one. Other people were also looking at him with the same gaze mixed with admiration and fear. 

“Aiden, you should not have punched him. That guy would surely try to get you in a lawsuit.”

“It won’t work. See that.” Aiden pointed at the security cameras. “There’s enough evidence to prove that I was acting in self defence. Pretty sure that guy has previous offences. He seemed like the type to get riled up at everything.”

“That’s true.” Omar sighed. “Just call me if that guy tries something. It happened in my office. You were trying to save my employee. I will get you the best lawyer.”

“Sure.”

The conversation moved back to the meeting room after that but before Aiden could say anything, Asano opened his mouth.

“I think I have seen enough.” He smiled. “I feel like you would be as good as Ray Stark.”

With that, it was fixed. Aiden got his first role after [Sherlock of the Shadows]. 

***

In one of the meeting rooms of Zero International, Theodore Price was handling a meeting related to the movie based on Agnas. The draft title was also ‘Agnas’ and although it wasn’t official, they were going to use it if no better title came up. 

Besides Theodore, an old man with a long white beard was sitting. He had a kind of expression that you would expect from an old king in a medieval TV series. With long hair, beard and a serious looking face. 

He was Baz McCarthy, one of the most prominent directors in Hollywood and he was also the script writer and director for Agnas. 

Currently, they were looking through the resumes of the people they have selected down to play the role of Agnas. 

“I never thought Joseph’s grandson would be interested in playing Agnas. He hadn’t acted before, right?”

“He hadn’t.” Theodore replied to Baz. “But I think every musician would want to place himself in his footsteps. He probably was interested in acting before and just took his chance. He’s a great singer but I can’t really say anything about acting.”

“His voice is pretty good and there’s hints of Agnas’s music in some of his songs. Joseph probably told him all about Agnas growing up big. I also don’t think he would be a great actor. Maybe in a rom com.”

In the last quarter of last year, Cameron had released an album that had been hit. Two of the songs have gained over a hundred million views and after years of not being in the limelight, his name was again getting thrown in among rising musicians. 

At the same time, he has also worked on the soundtracks of a few movies. 

Baz didn’t find Cameron to be unpleasant but he didn’t like him enough to give him the main role. With the face he had, he was way better suited for rom coms than anything. 

An eye candy for young girls. 

“Then, we have Greg Hendricks. He acted in a few musicals before. Ah, I think Aiden Silvereye is a good choice.”

Theodore suddenly changed and a couple of employees in the room chipped in. 

Aiden was a much known face than any other name that had came up. 

It was due to the fact that Baz wanted people to see Agnas and not the actor when the movie finally releases. If an actor is too famous, people tended to see him like that rather than the character he’s playing. 

The old man was being extra careful this time. 

“He had good past roles. Nothing extraordinary though.”

“No, his performance in [Sherlock of the Shadows] was great. I heard he might get an Emmy nomination for that. Zetflix seems to be pushing his name for it.”

“He sings nice. A few of his songs are on my playlist constantly.”

Hearing that, Theodere looked at Baz who had one of his fingers touching his chin, seemingly in thought. 

“What do you think?”

“He’s good but I would need to see more of him to decide. He has past acting performances and a career in singing but I don’t know if he would feel like Agnas on the screen. The resemblance isn’t there.”

His words clearly meant that Aiden would have a lot to do to persuade Baz. 

“He’s half Indian. Maybe because of that.”

“Nah, his features aren’t a problem. He just seems like an actor who looks good when you see him for the first time but you know that he’s not a generational talent. Someone who would meet a wall too hard to climb as he moves in his career.”

“We ain’t looking for generational talent, are we? Those actors get famous the fastest because every script passes through them due to their sheer talent.”

Theodore laughed. Obviously, there were other factors in play like agencies, luck but a generational talent was someone who was bound to reach the top of Hollywood sooner or later until he didn’t destroy himself. 

Agnas was also one of these. A bad example in the context. 

“Yeah, anyway, let’s move on. Ah, ain’t this guy going through a massive scandal?”

Baz looked at the photo in front of him. It was a familiar face that he seems to have seen in every newspaper he had read in the last month. 

“Liam Wilde.”

“I heard his agency pushed for the audition a lot. They probably think that the scandal will be left behind if he gets a big role.”