Chapter 44: Women’s Conflict

There was a slight delay in Edie's makeup because of the foundation incident, and by the time she got to the set, Zoe was there and having a nice chat with director Lane. Seeing her arriving late, Zoe was acting very unusual, "Miss Edie is indeed a big star. Look at her making us all wait for her."

Edie simply ignored Zoe and said to the director, "Director, I'm sorry for the delay. I'm ready."

Zoe saw right away that she was ignoring her, but she didn't care. There was a little smirk on her face. It was rare that she didn't use sarcasm, "Humph," Zoe said. "I guess we're up."

Director Lane understood the terrible relationship between them, but as a man. He knew it was challenging to resolve women's conflict, so he just said, "The script looks good. We are ready to shoot." The ironic thing was that they didn't get along in real life, but they were going to play a sisterly role this afternoon.

In the play, Zoe played the role, which was Susan's scheming girlfriend, Lola Salazar. She made friends with Susan only because she was the mayor's daughter. She was secretly in love with the lead actor Hank Atkins. She framed Susan, it was a sleazy character role, and that was one of the reasons why Zoe didn't want to play this role.

Lola was playing a close friend of Susan. So, this afternoon, their roles were to play a good sister.

"Ready, Action!" The director said. As soon as they heard the director's voice, Edie immediately entered the stage, and her character instantly changed.

Susan was dressed in a white dress. She had bright eyes that almost seemed to speak. She gazed out the window. Her body was slender and straight, which was rather unflattering. "Susan," Lola walked in. "I brought you a cake."

Susan did not speak. She turned slowly, and her eyes lit up at the sight of Lola. You could see her subtle expression of joy and confidence in Lola. Zoe's was stuck on her next line and could not speak.

Every action and expression director Lane saw from the monitor was magnified. He secretly praised Edie's performance, and he frowned when he saw that Zoe could not say her lines. "Stop!" The director said. "Zoe, what is wrong with you?"

This was the first day of filming, so director Lane did not want to make the scene too tricky. Even though he was dissatisfied, he was trying to take it easy on her. By Zoe's expression, you could tell she was embarrassed.

"Sorry, director, I lost my train of thought."

Director Lane waved his hand, "Okay, start again!"

Second time - "Stop!"

Third time - "Stop!"

It happened eight times. Zoe either stumbled or looked very unnatural. If compared to Edie's acting, you would have thought Zoe was a new actress. The director Lane was furious because it was only a simple part.

Director Lane threw the script on the ground and asked again, "Zoe! What's wrong with you?"

"You are not new at this. This is a simple dialogue, because of you, we are now delayed two hours!"

"Are you okay? If not, we can get another actress to play the part!"

Zoe was getting worried, but for some reason, whenever she looked into Edie's eyes, it was like her memory would freeze. "I'm sorry, director. I'm not feeling well today. I honestly don't know what is wrong with me. Please forgive me and give me another chance?"

Edie suddenly opened her mouth and said, "Director Lane, let's take a rest and give Miss Zoe a chance to go over her lines." The actors and actresses were not the only ones who were tired. The director had to stare at the monitor, the prop group had to adjust the lights, and the recording group had to follow up on the shooting, so everyone was exhausted.

Director Lane was unhappy, but he waved his hand and said, "Taking a break for ten minutes."

However, Zoe did not thank Edie for her help. She hated her acceptance and turned to her assistant without acknowledging her.

Edie didn't care. She went over to where Rhoda was and had a drink of water. "Edie, are you tired? You are drinking a lot of water." Rhoda said.

"A little bit," Edie said.

"Edie, you did a great job. I was peeking at the director's face. I could see how happy he was with you. I didn't expect Zoe to have such a bad performance. She was embarrassed to say that you stole her part. Honestly, as bad as she was today. She would have never been able to play the role of Susan."

Edie took another sip of water and said nothing. She was the only one that knew that it wasn't because of Zoe's acting skills, but because she had Zoe under her control. Edie had graduated from Film Academy and was much more professional than Zoe, who never studied acting.

Pressure play refers to the action of one side, which is too strong, and to the other side, it created a massive sense of pressure, and it affected the performance of the other side. This was a difficult thing to do. You needed to have superb acting skills, but also a certain degree of mental control. There were not many people that could do this in showbiz.

Edie was one that could do it. She was just trying to teach Zoe a little lesson. On the other side of Zoe's resting place, the pressure remained low. Zoe brought three assistants with her, and all three of them saw that Zoe was about to get mad. No one dared to open their mouths.

"Why aren't you saying anything? You want to make jokes about me, don't you?" She didn't like the fact that they weren't saying anything, so that just made Zoe even angrier. "Zoe, drink some water." One of her assistants carefully handed her a bottle of water.

Zoe reached for it and let the bottle fall to the ground. Zoe, as crazy as she was, hit her assistant in the face. "You can't even pass me a bottle of water. What is wrong with you?" Her assistant's face was so hot and painful, but she didn't dare touch it. She just said, "I'm sorry, Zoe, I was wrong," and picked the bottle up quickly.

The other assistant had been spending more time with Zoe and gathered the courage to say to her. "Zoe, didn't you say you had a headache when you came today? It may have affected your performance."

It made Zoe feel a little better, but she knew that was not the reason why her acting was so poorly today. She couldn't understand, all she had was a few simple lines, but yet she could not look at Edie. What was it about Edie?

Zoe looked in the direction of Edie and found that she was chatting with the other actors and actresses. She was acting as though nothing had happened. She clenched her jaw to suppress her anger...slowly she released her breath through her clenched teeth. She didn't believe that Edie was better at acting than she was. She could never be compared to her. She would not allow it to happen. No one compares her to anyone.