The Sterling Family Wants to Blacklist Her
Director Conrad King knew from the moment Avery auditioned that she could capture the soul of Isolde. Back then, his only real worry was whether she might overshadow Melina Warner, the female lead.
But on second thought, their characters were polar opposites.
One was gentle and quiet, the other flashy and bold.
Even sharing the screen, they'd each have their own distinct gravity, maybe even creating a compelling new layer of tension.
He'd considered every female role in the show, but it had never occurred to him to worry about the men.
After all, they were in different leagues. You just don't see a male lead getting upstaged by a female co-star very often.
But now, that exact scenario was playing out right in front of him.
Avery had such a powerful presence that if an actor wasn't careful, they'd just fade into a background prop whenever they shared a scene with her.
The supporting cast was one thing, but he couldn't have his male lead and second male lead looking like her sidekicks.
In the story, their characters were supposed to be equals.
If she steamrolled them in every scene, it wouldn't matter how good their acting was; there'd be no way to salvage their characters' appeal.
Not to mention the backlash they'd get from the audience once the show aired.
"Alden Pierce is her acting coach. I'll go talk to him, see if he can get her to adjust her performance," the assistant director said with a nod. He'd felt it too, Avery's intensity was a bit much. It was good, sure, but she had to let the other actors breathe.
With that, he stood and walked straight over to where Alden was sitting.
Alden, of course, had already noticed the problem. He frowned, his mind replaying their rehearsal from the night before. He'd felt her gaze was too aggressive then and had told her to tone it down. It looked like she had, but she'd just swapped out the aggression for a heavy, oppressive weight.
There were very few young actors today who could radiate that much suffocating pressure with just a look.
What kind of monster talent had he taken on as a student? Was this just what being brilliant looked like? That level of comprehension, that adaptability?
Thank God Raphael Valenti and Franklin Price hadn't been on camera just now. Who knows how many takes they would have burned through otherwise. A good actor invites their scene partner into the performance, not blows them out of it with a single glance.
It seemed there was still more to teach.
Just as Alden was trying to figure out how to explain the concept of holding back, the assistant director reached him.
They whispered for a moment before the AD left, looking relieved.
Alden took advantage of the break, pulling Avery away from a group of older actors to point out the problem with her performance.
As Avery listened, she replayed the scene in her head.
She hadn't realized it in the moment, but looking back... it seemed she had subconsciously channeled the gaze of a judge in a courtroom. The staring, the scrutinizing, the way you take in the entire room at once.
An aggressive gaze is a declaration of war. An oppressive one is for evaluation and intimidation. They were similar, but the power they projected, and the message they sent, was completely different.
No wonder Franklin and Raphael had seemed a little off earlier. She'd been playing it all wrong, looking at them like they were the plaintiff and the defendant. How could any normal person *not* flinch when faced with the authoritative stare of a judge?
Alden quickly ran her through the next scene in detail. All of Avery's scenes today were set in this grand hall. Next up was a confrontation with Raphael and Franklin, where the three of them argue, setting up three competitions between them.
It was a contest Isolde intentionally provoked.
She wanted to see if the Central Plains had any great generals left after the death of their greatest leader on the frontier.
She planned to use the competition to size up the military commanders and neutralize any potential threats before they could even form.
For this scene, Avery had to fully embody the princess's provocative and cunning nature. Alden was terrified she wouldn't be able to control the level of provocation and would blow the scene again.
"You have to hold back," he warned her. "I have no idea where you, a doctor, get such a powerful aura." In the next scene, she'd be on camera with Raphael and Franklin at the same time. If she couldn't dial it back, who knew how many takes it would take.
"Okay, I'll do my best," Avery nodded obediently.
In her head, she was already pulling up a memory from her first short drama: the way Leo Foster had provoked Joel Duke.
She'd always felt Leo's taunting was a little over the top, that tone of his made her want to punch him every time she heard it.
Applying that wholesale to Isolde didn't seem quite right.
However, that arrogant, condescending look Leo had... that could be useful. After all, her character was about to look down on the entire Central Plains imperial court as an excuse to throw down a challenge.
"What do you mean, 'try your best'? You *have* to hold back," Alden said, clearly unsatisfied. He shot her a sidelong glance, then paused, maybe realizing that she was still new to this and that controlling the intensity of her performance wasn't so easy. He sighed. "Forget it. Just do your best."
Her growth was already ridiculously fast. Acting wasn't something you could rush. There would be plenty of time for him to teach her later.
Avery nodded, running through the lines with Alden one more time so he could help her nail the delivery.
While she was getting ready, Raphael and Franklin were feeling the pressure mount.
They hadn't even been acting opposite her in the last scene, and they still couldn't handle her gaze.
For the upcoming scene where all three of them would be interacting, they were terrified she would overshadow them so completely that their characters would be left with nothing.
But like it or not, the scene had to be shot.
With the director's call of "Action!" the second scene began.
This time, Avery's performance was much smoother.
She perfectly captured the arrogance of the Huihe princess, a trick she'd borrowed straight from Leo.
She had worried she might not be able to pull it off, but once the cameras were rolling, she cleared her mind, and as the lines came out, she felt Leo's smug energy channel naturally into her character.
The scene went surprisingly well, though they had to do two retakes. The first was because Avery's costume got caught on a pillar as she was walking; the second was because Franklin couldn't quite nail the quiet dignity of a future crown prince.
When they watched the playback on the monitor, Director King and his assistant both breathed a sigh of relief. "These young actors are all so adaptable," the director said with genuine appreciation. "Especially Avery. She's really brought this barbarian princess to life."
"Diana Marks found another good one," the assistant director agreed, though when he said the name, both his and the director's expressions turned a little complicated.
"She's definitely got more raw talent than Holden Crane ever did, but..." Director King trailed off, not needing to finish the thought.
The assistant director understood the unspoken warning.
The entertainment industry was a shark tank; one wrong move and you'd get eaten alive.
Holden Crane was the perfect example. The beef between the big entertainment companies wasn't exactly public knowledge, but insiders like them could see the writing on the wall.
The day started off on the right foot, and the rest of the filming went much more smoothly.
Avery had joined the crew late, so shooting eight scenes in one day was a heavy workload, but at least it was all in one location.
She had two costume changes, and by the time it got dark, she'd managed to finish all her scenes for that set.
There were night scenes scheduled, but none were hers.
By the time she finished removing her makeup at the on-set trailers, it was already past nine o'clock.
She'd woken up far too early and hadn't found a single moment to nap, so she was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go home and collapse into bed.
Just as she was about to leave, Producer Sterling, who'd been gone all day, appeared out of nowhere. He had a cold look on his face as he walked right up to her.
"Doctor Hayes, wait a moment. I have something to tell you," he said, stomping the mud off his shoes as he approached.
Avery looked up and offered a faint smile. She didn't speak, just watched him with a questioning look. Producer Sterling was tight with her agent, Diana. If he had something to say, he should have gone directly to her. Why was he coming to Avery?
"How are things going between you and the Sterling family?"
He let out a breath and rubbed his stiff hands together. He tried to make it sound casual, but the moment the words left his mouth, the smile on Avery's face froze.
She didn't answer him.
Her amber eyes narrowed slightly. It only took a moment for her to understand exactly why he was asking. The feud between her and the Sterlings had been all over the internet for so long that you'd have to be living under a rock not to know about it.
For him, a Sterling himself, to be asking about his own family, there was only one possibility: the Sterling family had contacted the production.
No, more likely, they'd gone straight to the investors and demanded they cut her role.
Or worse. The Sterlings probably wanted her blacklisted, wiped from the screen completely. Every time she appeared, it was just another public reminder that their heir was sitting in jail for starting a brawl at her hospital.