Ch 34: Hello, New York!

Wed, 2nd April, 2008

{1st Person POV}

"Uhhh…" I groaned as I opened the door to my house and walked inside, taking off my suit and getting into more cosy clothes.

I walked towards my bed and jumped onto it.

"That was too much work." I muttered.

It had been five days since the private audition that I held for both me and Scarlett Johansson. Since then, I've been calling and meeting the agents of prominent and good actors from morning till night. FOR FIVE WHOLE DAYS.

And while my hard work did pay off as I got basically every actor for the remaining characters, there was still one empty slot in the cast.

Sarah, Borden's wife who ultimately hangs herself after constantly arguing with him frequently, and of course, also because of Borden's "affair" with Olivia.

Why hadn't I gotten someone for the role already? Well, to be quite frank with you, I wanted someone who's standing in the industry was small, because until now, the actors I had signed up with were all B or A-listers, aka people who had a higher standing than me.

This is not to say that I want to rule over or bully people of lower social standing than me; No, infact, I wanted the total opposite.

I wanted to give someone their big break, akin to the one I gave to Keanu with 'The Departed'.

Call me arrogant or narcissistic, but as Uncle David said, I, as a director, could easily make or ruin an actor's career. And that's why I was looking for unknown but good actors.

But either the actresses acting chops or their personality were, to put it politely, quite horrible.

Hell, I even tried looking for actors from the Old World, but I guess my social standing in the industry wasn't high enough to have the same reach that Mr. Bird did, as I got basically none of the well-known actors from my Old world.

Speaking of Mr. Bird, he went on a vacation to Hawaii, leaving me with no one to search for some actors.

Perfect timing, I must say.

"Guess I'll have to do it myself." I spoke out aloud, and jumped off of my bed.

"Okay, unknown-ish actors that can get a big break from this role. Hmm."

I was using all of my brain's power to think of some actors while walking around here and there with my hand underneath my chin.

"Unknown-ish actors, unknown-ish actor…" I repeated it over and over again.

Then, I stopped dead in my tracks, and muttered, "Emily."

A big smile formed on my face and I threw my arms up into the air.

"Yes! Finally!! I finally found someone!" I shouted until I was out of breath. "I can finally sleep!"

And with that, I got back on my bed and slept like a log, which caused me to wake up late.

Fuck me.

***

Thur, 3rd April, 2008

{1st Person POV}

"Haa, what a time to be alive." I whispered in a low tone while sipping on the tea in my hand.

My agent, who was standing behind (technically ahead) the table, stared at me as if I had a screw loose.

"Hm? What is it, Sean? Is there something on my face?" I asked in a polite manner.

This only seemed to have made Sean look at me in disgust, as he covered his body with his arms.

"Don't talk like that! It rubs me the wrong way." He said in a disgusted tone.

I put the tea cup down on the desk, and at the same time, dropped my 'act'.

"Why not? Did you not like the way that I behaved?" I asked, clearly amused.

"No! That act or whatever just felt… creepy! Don't ever do it again!"

"Fine, fine." I waved my hands, and then continued. "Did you do the thing I asked?"

"I did." He confirmed, and quickly sat down on the chair opposite of me. "About the whereabouts of Emily Carter, she's in New York City, performing in stage plays and musicals on Broadway."

"Ooh, Broadway?" I cooed. "Guess someone's doing something worthwhile, at least." I muttered, now back to how I usually behave; that is, being all serious and overthinking stuff.

"What do you mean?" Sean asked me.

"Oh, it's just that the rest of the cast from 'Halloween' hasn't been able to find much work. The offers they do get are mostly relegated to horror." I explained.

"Isn't it your fault then?"

"I guess." I said and moved around in my chair, getting into a more comfortable position. "But at the same time, luck is also a major factor."

"Fair enough."

"Alright. Please book me a flight ticket to New York." I casually said.

"What? Couldn't you just contact her or something? Why the hell do you want to go to New York?"

I smiled at Sean, and said. "I just wanna explore the place, and I also want to find some inspiration for my future endeavours."

Sean sighed at my explanation and said, "You're a weird one."

I just silently smiled at Sean as he walked out of my office.

***

Fri, 4th April, 2008

{1st Person POV}

I walked out of JFK Airport and took a taxi to my hotel, which was located in Midtown.

I was going to stay here for two days, today included.

I can't waste my precious time by roaming around New York, can I?

That is why, I had to quickly meet Emily and get back to Los Angeles to start the production.

Speaking of production, the pre-production stage, that is, the costume creation, props and set building had been kickstarted this week. To top it off, the work was being done at a pretty quick rate.

Though, there wasn't much in the way of set building as I was only going to build a permanent set for the theatre Angier performes his magic tricks in. The rest would be temporary sets, and after the scenes from those places would be done, the make-up, aka the props would be taken off and stuff.

All of this only made me coming to New York a less enjoyable experience than I would have wanted, but it's whatever.

Anyway, I put my luggage in my hotel room and walked to the Broadhurst theatre, because I'm insane.

I got a ticket to a showing of 'Les Misérables', something which surprised me when I looked it up online, but I put my shock aside and entered the theatre and took a seat.

'Les Misérables', originally a 1.4k pages long historical novel written by Victor Hugo, the novel begins in 1815 and follows the struggles of the ex-convict Jean Valjean who served 19 years in the prison Bagne of Toulon.

The novel reaches its climax during the June Rebellion of 1832.

It was turned into a Broadway musical in the 1960s, and became one of the most popular Broadway shows.

And back in my world, a film based on the musical was released in 2012, which became the highest grossing live action musical of all time with a worldwide gross of $446 million.

That's the most I know about 'Les Misérables'.

I've never read the novel, and have neither watched the Broadway show nor the film. So, this would be a new experience for me.

After waiting for a few minutes, the show began.

I took a look around, and the theatre was around 80% full.

'Guess it's still popular even in this world.' I thought.

After that, I completely focused on the show.

Quite some time later, Emily showed up as Cosette, the illegitimate daughter of Fantine, a struggling factory worker.

The show went on, reaching it's end with the death of Jean, whose spirit is guided by the visions of Fantine and the Bishop from earlier to join his friends and family in the afterlife.

My verdict? It was nice, I guess. Not a big fan of musicals, so this is the best I can say.

Well, after the ending of the show, I went outside the theatre and waited there for God knows how long, until I saw Emily walking towards the exit/entrance.

I straightened my posture, and greeted her. "Hi there."

"Ah!" She shouted.

This brought the attention of the people around us, which was uncomfortable as fuck.

'Guess I scared her.' I thought sheepishly.

Emily, after seeing who it was, composed herself and straightened her back.

"Oliver? What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Came to watch your show, of course." I said in a matter-of-fact manner.

Emily had confusion written all over her face. Then, she asked me, "Why? What reason does someone like you have to meet with me?"

"Quite a lot, actually." I smiled. "Follow me."

With that, I walked away from the theatre, with Emily following me from behind.

"Hey! I asked, why are you here? Don't you have work to do?"

"I am here for work-related stuff."

"Oh really? What is that work, then?"

"I have a role for you in the film I'm currently working on." I revealed.

"Wait what?!" She exclaimed, her shock quite evident.

"Yep. Although, I'll only reveal the character's personality and such after you've signed an NDA."

"You're walking around New York with an NDA?"

"Yeah? What's wrong with it? Anyways, let's get to a restaurant or something." I said, and walked inside of the nearest restaurant.

I ordered something random off the menu, and brought out the NDA from my small bag.

I handed the NDA to Emily who quickly signed it and gave it back to me.

"Alright. So, as you know, I'm currently working with Michael Young on my latest film, 'The Prestige'." Emily nodded furiously.

'Guess she's excited about the job.'

I went on to explain the role and character of Sarah to Emily, who at the end had a quite thoughtful look on her face.

"So, what's your opinion? Think you can pull it off?" I asked while eating the food I had ordered.

'This is good.' I thought. 'Maybe I should come here tomorrow too.'

"I'll accept." She said.

I, who was too focused thinking about the food, couldn't hear what she said. Good job, me.

"Hm? What'd you say?" I asked.

"Are you mocking me?" She asked with a frown.

"No, I just didn't hear you."

"I see." She nodded. "I said I'll accept the role."

A soft smile formed on my face.

"Welcome to the team, Emily." I said and shook her hands.

"Thank you, Director." She returned a smile of her own. Her cheeks were also a tad pink, something which I overlooked, because I was too busy celebrating the end of my hectic week.

'I'M FREE! HELL YEAH' I mentally shouted.

"I'll be leaving for L.A on Sunday, so I was hoping you could come with me. I think it'd be a waste of time if we came back to L.A at different times. So, just tell me if it's possible."

The contrast between what was happening inside my brain and the sophisticated act I was displaying physically was quite amusing to me.

"W-with you?" Emily asked.

I tilted my head, and asked. "Is there any problem?"

"N-no! It's fine! I'll go with you!"

"That's settled then." I said and got up from my seat. "I'll take my leave."

I paid the bill and went back to my hotel.

~~~

A/N: HOLY JEEBUS! How the hell did this become 2k words long?!

But more importantly, VOTING IS NOW ALLOWED! FUCK YEAH!

Thank you, @SilverGriff, for being the first person vote on this book!

Back to the chapter, the contents of this chapter were something that I had planned for well over a month ago, a bit after the idea for the IMAX chapter. And I've finally done it! Not like I how I wanted it to be, but it's still good.

And yes, I tried my hand at some romance. And while I knew I was terrible at it, this chapter only proves that notion.

Anyways, see ya later!