Jace
“Voilá!” Claire says as she kisses the tips of her fingers and floats them out in the air.
She just added the final touches to the hair piece that I’m wearing for the first scenes that we’re filming today.
I turn my head to the side and the feathering on the top of my head bounces like it’s made of soft strands of clouds, but the back is thick with dark blond curls hitting the bottom of my nape.
“Oh my god,” I say in shock. Even the light makeup on my face makes my appearance look younger to match the age of James during this time.
“It’s fabulous, yes?” Claire’s soft French accent pulls through as she asks for approval.
I’m not sure I’d use that word, but it is perfect for the scene, and there’s no denying that I look like the spitting image of the 80s version of James Davis.
“Claire, you’re brilliant,” I tell her honestly, as I shift my reflection from side-to-side.
As I’m side-eyeing myself, Lennox rounds the corner coming into my side of the hair and makeup trailer sipping from his plastic water bottle.
He takes one look at me and spits out his water, heaves over pressing his palms into his thighs to hold himself up, and starts choking and laughing simultaneously like his body has no idea how to fix itself.
My lips squeeze in a tight line, partially because I’m slightly annoyed, the other part trying not to catch his contagious hysteria.
The hypocrite laughs even though he also looks like he fell out of a decades old music video, with his long hair and head bandana.
“Oh my god, I knew you’d look good with a mullet. I had no idea you’d look that good.” He breathes out as he pushes himself off his knees, standing to his full height.
His entire wardrobe and final look comes into full view, and my mouth parts slightly at how much he resembles Ryan Wilson without even trying.
We look back at each other, now in full costume, taking each other in. Suddenly, it feels so real.
This is usually the time when my mindset shifts and I dive into the character.
When I look back at my reflection and I see someone completely different.
It helps transform my personality into the character I’m portraying, but seeing how well he’s morphed into Ryan Wilson, my confidence skyrockets knowing I’m going to be able to feed off both his look and energy.
“You ready to do this?” I ask, holding my gloved fist out. The leather is cut off at the knuckles exposing my fingertips, and he fistbumps me back, then we both spread open our fingers, wiggling them in between each other.
It’s this moment that I know we’re the perfect match for this. Neither one of us talked about that but James and Ryan were seen doing it multiple times on stage when they’d finish a song or James would rock out a guitar solo.
We’re speaking the same language without even talking and it feels just as easy as it did back in the cabin. I find myself smiling back at him as he pats my shoulder and we head toward the door.
“Let’s fucking goooo,” he belts taking the first step out of the trailer.
He stops and I slam into his back, stumbling off the middle block of the stairs.
Photographers and journalists are lined up along the side of the fence, only a few that I recognize from different media outlets.
Sofia must have allowed only a few of them an access pass to this part of the set in order to get the strategic media photos she wanted.
Lennox wraps his arm around the back of my shoulder, the leather squeaking as he pulls me into his side and uses his other arm to wave back to them.
This is all part of the plan, playing into everything and allowing the media to create a narrative that drives the public's curiosity.
I shift my gaze to him, he’s wearing the goofiest look on his face as he waves with purpose. I can’t tell if he’s just excited to be here as Lennox Rome or if it’s an act playing into all of this, but I can’t help but smile as I take him in.
“Jump on my back,” he mumbles without moving his lips.
My brows furrow as I question what he said.
“I said, jump on my back.” His words are slower this time, still hissed through his stilled lips. “Do it.”
I step back, placing my hands over the tops of his shoulders and hike myself up as he bends down and leans forward, taking all my weight with ease.
“Gotta go now!” He waves and runs in a circle, playfully bouncing me, before rounding the trailer away from the lenses.
That seemed so ridiculous, something I would have never done, but the paparazzi loved it. Lennox is reveling in this as well, riding this out like his favorite thing to do is carry me.
“Okay, you can let me down now,” I say as I tap his shoulder.
“I’ll put you down when I die. This is way too much fun.” He belts out over his shoulder, chuckling.
“Okay, Superman.” I let out a lighthearted chuckle. I’m all for dressing it up for the cameras but we’re behind the trailers now and we don’t need to continue the charade.
I press my hands into the tops of his shoulders, attempting to push myself off, but as I lean to the left, he decides to spin on his heel to move us in a different direction and we throw each other off balance.
He takes one step to the side and starts to fall, both of us reaching a hand out to protect ourselves from hitting the ground too hard. He pulls me forward in a last ditch effort to grab me and soften my fall, but instead he just lands squarely on top of me.
“Oh my god. I’m so sorry,” he can’t help but laugh, clearly not really sorry at all.
He presses his palms into the asphalt on each side of my head, and now his overly amused face is only inches away.
“You fell,” he whispers and that makes me chuckle.
“You made me fall,” I reply, defensively.
“You’re clumsy,” he says as his gaze flickers between my eyes and lips.
My hands rise up, naturally wrapping around the sides of his waist, as if I told myself I was attempting to help push him up. But they don’t do that. They squeeze a little, almost holding him in place.
I’m frozen solid, unsure of how to respond. The same tension that seems to follow us around anytime we end up close to each other is overflowing into something I can’t control.
The column of his throat bobs as he swallows thickly and he slowly inches closer to me.
“Lennox, where are you mate?” Graham’s voice echoes from the other side of the trailer, jolting us both off the ground to standing within seconds.
I lean down wiping off the back of my pants, looking at Lennox, as he does the same to the front of his shirt. His eyes wide, looking like we dodged a bullet, he calls out, “Back here.”
Graham rounds the corner in between Lennox’s trailer and mine, looking around then to the both of us, and asks, “What are you doing back here?”
“Nothing,” I say.
“Hiding,” Lennox overlaps.
“You? Hiding from the cameras?” he replies back incredulously.
“I mean, we already did what Sofia asked. We left and hid back here so they couldn’t get too many photos.” He shrugs. “You know, just trying to be compliant.”
Graham side-eyes me suspiciously, like that’s the biggest line of bullshit he’s ever heard. Because, he’s right. I highly doubt Lennox is compliant in much of anything.
“They’re looking for you both on set.” Graham tilts his head in the direction of the studio, holding his hand toward the building.
“Perfect timing,” I say, walking past both of them. Doubt swims in my head that we’re not going to be able to ‘lean into this’, like Sofia wants, if every time Lennox stands close to me I completely lose control of everything.
I’ve never been distracted on set, or in life in general. Especially by some unknown and unpredictable sexual tension and even more specifically, by a guy. A guy I’m supposed to hate.
I palm my temple as I reach for the studio door handle, swinging the door open as I step through. I turn to hold the door for Lennox as he follows me through the threshold with an audible gasp as he takes in one part of the set.
James’ garage sits in one section and looks identical to the ones I’ve seen in pictures and documentaries of the two of them. A second hand drum set sits at the back corner of the mock stage, along with a guitar standing upright in a holder opposite the percussion set.
A wired microphone sits on a table with a bunch of papers strewn about over the top with hand written lyrics scribbled on them.
“Wow,” Lennox breathes out.
Another set on the opposite side of the studio is the high school auditorium, at least the portion of it they played in for their talent show, another scene we’ll be recording this week.
There are two other areas of set design that still look under construction for later scenes that we’ll need to film.
I’ve never worked with Pierre before, but I’ve heard his overly ambitious attention to detail often drives the crew crazy.
No stone goes unturned when it comes to what the set looks like and how closely the actors represent his vision.
He avoids CGI and green screen filming as often as possible and his set designs are unmatched in every detail.
Utilizing less computer generated imagery mixed with his long take scenes and uninterrupted recording is more challenging during filming.
But, Pierre is well-versed in his preferred style, which allows him and his post production team to edit faster and the time between filming and a movie release reduces dramatically.
I step up next to Lennox, giving myself a moment to take it all in. I love this about my life. I love acting and stepping into someone else's life. Being able to portray different people and different emotions.
James’ character is far beyond my comfort zone but I can wholeheartedly say that I’ve never been more excited about playing a role before. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt butterflies in my stomach on the first day of filming.
“You ready?” I ask as I turn my head to look at him.
He’s also in his own moment of awe. Taking it all in with a grateful expression on his face.
He shifts to meet my gaze.
“Whatever it takes, Moose.”