<Double Barrel>
On December 4, 1989, Natasha entered the crew of <Double Barrel>.
In the past few weeks, she had been staying at home and practicing hard. The acting skills and experiences she got from her counterpart's memories will not matter much if she didn't put in effort.
Natasha already knew that this role was very important to her. Whether it was the memory from her counterpart or advice from Marvin, Natasha was aware of how important this role was to her career development.
She had already offended a bigwig to grab this role. If she didn't do a good job, then she will easily leave handles for others to use against her. She knew that negative news about her will come out when the film releases no matter what. So, all she can do is not give any more ammunition for her enemies to use.
That meant performing splendidly in the movie.
By staying home and practicing her acting skills, Natasha began to slowly get comfortable with the role that she had been cast for. The amount of preparation she had done for this role was not small and even Tony was impressed by it.
<Double Barrel> tells the story of a young black man who becomes a gangster when he was a teenager. The story portrays the struggle faced by young black men who want to get out of the hood and become clean.
However, as this was a commercial film, the focus of the story was not on the issues in black society. Rather than dig in their own backyard, <Double Barrel> tries to entertain the audience while turning the focus on racial discrimination stuff and other things black people are angry about.
Jason Wallas, the protagonist of the story, becomes a member of a gang like many black kids in his teens. He only cares about money, girls, and getting high. He is lost in this lifestyle and thinks he has everything he could ever want.
That's when Trinity Shaw walks into his life. Trinity was a prostitute who was forced into this lifestyle due to her family conditions. She wants to get out of this lifestyle and live a clean life.
One day, Trinity accidentally saves Jason from a rival gang's assassination. This makes Jason take an interest in her. When Jason learns that Trinity wants to walk out of the hood and live clean, he is initially enraged and accuses her of looking down on her fellow brothers and sisters.
But, after an emotional confrontation between Jason and Trinity, he realizes that Trinity is not ashamed of being black, she only wants to provide a life free of gangs, guns, and violence for her children. So, moved by this, Jason decides to help Trinity accomplish this.
However, that is where they run into a big problem named racial discrimination.
While trying to help Trinity, Jason runs afoul of a corrupt police chief named Terrence Gills. Terrence Gills is a racial bigot who thinks all blacks are violent and messy people. He becomes a stumbling block in Trinity's quest to leave the gangs and violence.
The rest of the story is about how Jason helps Trinity leave the hood while opposing Terrence. The entire story is filled with violence, sentiment, racial discrimination, and a lot of other stuff that will tickle the black audience's bones.
But, a film can't succeed just based on the black audience alone. Moreover, most of the movie-going audience in the current times was whites. So, how can a film that portrays them in such a bad light succeed?
That's where Natasha's character comes in. Natasha is the second female lead. Her character is set up as a young, passionate district attorney who helps Trinity leave the slum and gangs. She is set to be righteous, courageous, and very helpful. An ideal role setting to please the whites.
Daisy Hill was an ambitious young DA who had been recently transferred to the city. She is in her mid-twenties and is determined to make an impact on the crime rate of the city. Trained by her ex-military father, she doesn't have scruples in tangling with gangsters at all.
She is very courageous and righteous. While she follows the law most of the time, she doesn't mind bending it to suit her purposes. Initially, she comes into conflict with Jason and Officer Terrence while pursuing a case of gang violence.
Later, she gets to know about Trinity's situation and is touched by her determination to walk out of the crime-riddled slums. So, he joins forces with Jason to help her walk out of the slums.
Such a character setting that is both righteous and very courageous, while being kind and helpful is very in-line with mainstream values. Moreover, Daisy is primarily a vase. Young, ambitious, and sexy were her character settings.
As for whether such a young person could become a DA, such logic was never considered at all. The role was to satisfy white conservatives and also help grab eyeballs.
Such a role was perfect for someone young and beautiful like Natasha. While she may be a bit on the younger side, makeup can handle the age issues. Natasha's body wasn't too far off the mark and the only thing to take care is her age.
While she doesn't have many scenes in the first half of the story, she becomes a central figure in the second part. She even has some fight scenes to show off her courageousness and young body.
Unlike a typical vase, Daisy is far more proactive and has her own goals. Even though she despises a gangster-like Jason and conflicts with him, she is kind and helpful towards Trinity. She doesn't back down while confronting Officer Terrence either.
Such a role setting was very difficult to come across for females in this day and age. Most of the female roles in the current era are helpless chicks who need a hero to rescue them. But, Daisy's role setting differed from this formula.
The reason for that was twofold. One, being a black lead movie, having a black man beat up a white man was going to be inevitable. To assuage the majority of the audience, a white female with strong fighting power was introduced as a good guy.
The second reason is that, due to the setting of the story, Daisy can't be a wallflower. But, she also needed to be eye candy to satisfy the commercial aspects. So, her setting was modified to be tough and sexy.
Due to all these reasons, the role of Daisy can be said to be one of a kind in this day and age. That was the reason Dean Aston wanted this role to go to his chosen candidate.
Unfortunately, with Cody Murphy remaining firm in his decision and Natasha not withdrawing when pressured, he could only watch such an impactful role fly away from his hands. That was the reason Dean Aston was very vexed with this issue.
Even a novice like Natasha could see the potential for this role. As long as she acted sexy, had decent acting skills, and did a few stunts, it would be enough for this movie. But, Natasha didn't want to just stop there.
With the memories of her counterpart, Natasha knew that fighting roles featuring females would become a prominent part of the future. If she could do a good job in those scenes, she knew that she would be a step ahead of other actresses in the future. This was really a good opportunity for her to grab.
So, she didn't want to just play this role. She wanted to own this role. She was confident enough in her abilities to perform stunts. People who grew up in the streets have always encountered a fight or two. And Natasha wasn't an exception to this. So, she knew she could do those stunts convincingly.
As for the sexy part, Natasha didn't worry about it. She had a good figure. If the director is competent, then he could shoot her in a sexy manner easily. And she also suggested through Marvin to make her costumes a bit tighter to showcase her body.
The only worrying part was the acting. She knew that this role didn't demand too much acting skills. As long as she had an imposing posture and acted tough, she would be able to nail it.
Ordinary audience will be happy as long as she showed up in tight clothes and had a sexy look. And conservatives wouldn't nitpick about her due to her role setting. So, this role wouldn't be much of an issue to act out.
But, if she could perform above average and really make this character shine in ordinary literary dramas, then this role will make more of an impact. From Marvin, she knew that being the only white female in the film that matters, it is inevitable that some publicity will be diverted to her role.
It is very rare for newcomers to get publicity during film promotion. Especially, for commercial films, it is even harder for female supporting roles to get some promotion. This was a very rare chance.
Natasha didn't want to waste such a chance at all.
That's why she decided to constantly practice and get her acting skills online before the shoot began. And now that she was entering the group, all that was left to do was to perform well and make an impact.
The rest was out of her hands…
*****
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