The Wonder of You

Chapter One

Post by @CelebRaterAdmin: WOMAN CRUSH WEDNESDAY: EMILY MONTGOMERY

Inspired by her appearance on the frow of every major show at last month’s LFW, this week’s topic of discussion for WCW is Emily Montgomery. Cast your votes, ladies (?) and gentlemen . . .

@ParticularWorm Nice symmetrical features . . . small nose . . . straight hair . . . body kinda meh. Shame about the big eyebrows.

@Drone_Philosophy Don’t get the hype tbqh. She’s no Darcy Jackson.

@MovieFan69 Everyone says she’s plain but i think there’s something about her.

@hardtrade Does anyone else think she seems kind of stuck up???? Would be a 9 if she wasn’t so uptight but personality knocks her down to a solid 6.

@BeanieWeenies Ovverated. Total plane Jane.

@WonderWickedlyTalentedAdeleDazeem Her casting ruined Wonderwick. Linderley should NOT have been played by a Brit. But looks? I’ll give her a 7.

@WhatUpNerds different coloured eye thing is freaky.

@Dandelion_Express Pretty for sure but something kind of unsexy about her especially if you compare her to Darcy Jackson (sidebar: when the FCK are they going to announce Darcy as Loreia Buckthorn for the next film). Frigid vibes maybe?

@Joe14573 Feminine face good harmony, ears too big.

@CarnivoreDude Ideal skull shape, excellent breeding stock.

EARS? TOO? BIG? My left hand instinctively flew to my ear as my right swiped the webpage closed.

My ears felt a perfectly normal size to me .

. . but I would say that, wouldn’t I? I was used to them.

Maybe Threadsy user @Joe14573 was right?

Maybe they were too big? Is that what people were thinking when they were watching the Wonderwick Woods films?

That Emily Montgomery (now ‘legal’, potentially ‘ovverated’, in possession of symmetrical features) had freakishly large ears?

And that was without getting into the comparison with Darcy Jackson. The less said about that the better.

‘Nearly there!’ Mum chirped as we finally turned off Euston Road. I’d been so deep in my scroll hole I’d almost forgotten I wasn’t alone.

‘Oh! I was miles away,’ I said, throwing my phone into my bag and snapping it shut with the familiar satisfying magnetic click.

I usually gave away the fancy handbags I got sent to various friends, family and colleagues but this one I kept.

The leather felt reassuringly soft but sturdy under my fingers.

‘Mum, you know you don’t have to come to these things anymore, right?

’ I asked, gently. Once upon a time she was my chaperone, and now I was old enough to be able to conduct my business on my own, or with the help of one of my team, but it was like she hadn’t realised that the chaperone days were over.

It’s not that I didn’t appreciate it, but part of me wondered if she was still going to be coming to kick-off meetings with me when I’m forty.

‘Well, you need someone looking out for you, don’t you,’ she said, resolutely, flicking her hair back off her shoulders.

‘That’s what people like Glen and Chloe are for,’ I said with a smile. ‘You know, if there was something else you wanted to do today? Something more fun than going to a meeting?’

‘I wouldn’t miss it. Now remember, Emsie, you’re not going to mention that film you’ve been threatening to do during the next Wonderwick hiatus, are you?’

I let out a sigh, almost against my own will. ‘Mum, “that film” is really important to me, and more to the point, I’m going to commit to it soon.’

‘But you haven’t yet?’ She remained optimistic.

‘No, we’re still working it out.’ I didn’t want to give her false hope, but I wasn’t going to lie to her either.

‘I know there’s not much I can do to stop you, but it’s about the money. If they know you’re agreeing to do these silly little independent films for no money that doesn’t exactly give you and Glen great bargaining power for the rest of the franchise, does it?’

‘But that leaves me with nowhere to go! If I’m only allowed to do films that pay me as much as Wonderwick, I’m going to have zero choice in what the rest of my career looks like!’

‘You’re up to your eyeballs in offers! And Lord knows I hope you always will be, but in case you’re not, you have to be making smart choices while you are in demand. I simply do not understand why it has to be this one.’

‘I keep telling you, Mum,’ I said gently, reaching across the middle seat to squeeze her hand. ‘It’s because I really want to work with Edgar Malek. I’m shocked that a director like that is interested in me after doing nothing but Wonderwick for so long.’

‘And what is wrong with Wonderwick, exactly?’

‘Nothing.’ I shook my head. ‘I love it. It’s my home. But I know it won’t be there forever, and I have to start thinking about doing other things. There’s only a finite number of books and we’re coming to the end of them.’

‘Well, you know what your father thinks you should do next.’

‘That I should do the half-animated kids’ comedy where I’d be playing a sixteen-year-old?’ It was called Dinky Daffy and the Detective Squad; the character description had said ‘she just loves to wear primary colours!’. That’s all you need to know.

‘You make it sound so juvenile! It’s written by that man who wrote that adorable film you loved about the cat!

Anyway, don’t you want to go to Hollywood for a while?

Wouldn’t that be nice? A bit of sun on your skin, an ocean breeze?

Shopping on Rodeo Drive? Where’s this other one shooting again? Cork?’

‘Outside of Galway,’ I corrected her, but she waved her hand dismissively as if they were basically the same thing.

‘I’m sure the film is going to be great and yes, it would be nice to go to LA and see the sun for more than a day at a time, I just don’t know if I want to be playing a literal child again!

’ I ran my fingers through my hair, the heavy, straight, glossy dark locks of my signature style.

I felt a rogue frizzy strand under my fingertips and yanked it out straightaway. I didn’t want a hair out of place.

‘You might as well do it while you still can!’

‘May I remind you that I’m a whole twenty years old?’ I said with a smile.

‘Well, you’ll always be a baby to me.’

‘I think Hollywood can wait – at least until I’m old enough to have a Martini there, don’t you?’

I gazed out of the car window at the Eurostar terminal as we trundled past St Pancras. I imagined jumping on a train and disappearing into the streets of Paris instead of going to this meeting. But that wouldn’t be very Emily Montgomery of me.

‘Mum, I’ll always be a baby to everyone if I don’t start taking more serious roles. People still see me as the thirteen-year-old girl I was when I first started playing Linderley.’

Mum twitched her nose as if she was thinking seriously about what I was saying. Maybe, just maybe, I was getting through to her on this.

‘Well, darling, I just wish you would think more about the longevity of your career. You’re so young, you’ve got so many years ahead of you.

Don’t you want to be set up for life?’ This was an idea my parents kept coming back to, as if it wasn’t enough that I was earning exponentially more than anyone my age doing a normal job.

It was like they were trying to create a world where I wouldn’t have to work past twenty-five, without considering the fact that I actually wanted to work, that to me acting was not just a wildly lucrative childhood hobby.

‘I am set up for life,’ I said with a shrug.

I knew it was a crazy thing to be able to say at twenty, but Wonderwick and all the associated brand deals meant I wouldn’t have to worry about money for a very long time.

This was something I felt vaguely uneasy about, but I told myself it could be worse, I could have been an oil heiress or, just as bad, a Hollywood nepo baby.

Mum raised her eyebrows at me sceptically.

‘Anyway, I don’t think we’re going to be talking about my plans for the hiatus at this meeting.

’ I uncrossed and re-crossed my legs uncomfortably, shooting my mum a sideways glance.

There was only one hot topic on the agenda for this meeting, and I was not happy about it.

‘Everyone’s so excited about this bloody kiss, aren’t they?’ She rolled her eyes.

I swallowed hard and tried to sound nonchalant. ‘It’s what they’ve all been waiting for.’

We pulled up outside the studio offices in King’s Cross and before the car door was even fully open, a flashbulb went off in my face.

‘Emily!’ said a voice from outside the car.

Better this than surreptitious photos with a long-range lens, I supposed.

Better to know they’re there than wondering where I was being photographed from and at what angle, because the fact remained, I was almost always being photographed from somewhere.

I untucked my hair from behind my ear just in case @Joe14573 had a point, and let it fall across my face. A little veil of privacy. It wasn’t so much that I minded having my photo taken, I just preferred it to be on my terms.

‘Smile,’ my mum urged me as she smoothed out the chic grey herringbone wool coat that was draped over my shoulders, on top of the most perfect cream cashmere sweater and wide-leg black jeans with my signature Chanel flats. A very Emily outfit: sleek, classic and put-together.

We were escorted from reception by an assistant, even though I’d been there loads of times before.

Always the same conference room on the highest floor, overlooking Coal Drops Yard.

Same conference room, different film. This Wonderwick Woods instalment was the big one.

OK, they’re all big ones. Big budgets, big shoots, big expectations.

But for me, the next film was . . . big for other reasons. Reasons that had me feeling nervous.