Then it became time to begin the education of new male talent. You never enjoy times like these. The director wants to get the movie done, and get another job from the company. The producer wants to stop wasting money while everyone stands around with nothing to do. The crew just wants to get done so they can go home. The woman in the scene wants to stop feeling like there’s something wrong with her, and the guy in the scene – who knows there’s something wrong with him – desperately wants to stop feeling like that. Still, the female performer(s) didn’t show up their to be a personal blow-up doll for the male performer(s) … so it became time to begin the education of new male talent.
I retrieved the bathroom key from Laurent’s wife and applied it to its intended use.
Upon my entering the small room, Kurt’s immediate (and quite loud, actually) exclamation was to the effect, “Get out of here! I need some private time with her.” (I’m not 100% sure of the phrasing after all these years, but I remember the private time specifically because for the rest of his short tenure in the business, I called Kurt “Private Time” – or sometimes “Boy Band.”)
"See, here’s the thing,” I began with sagacious tone and affable warmth, “she doesn’t get paid for your ‘private time” so I’m going to take her back out on set. Feel free to have all the ‘private time” you need in here, and we’ll be out there when you’re ready.” (Yeah, well, that’s probably not precisely accurate as to how I approached the conversation, but that account certainly cover the gist of what I said. As I recall incidents such as this with friends, I always seem to remember possessing much more calm wisdom than they claim I displayed. Friends have funny memories.)
So as not to bore you with more details of what turned out to be a several hour ordeal, we’ll just jump to the point with Anais here. …
Eventually Kurt came back to the set, still not suitably stimulated, having determined that I personally bore the blame for his lack of amorous ability. He wanted me to leave the shoot, and … um … I didn’t consider this a prudent course of action. I had been friends with Michael for a dozen years by this point, and had known Laurent and most of the crew for that long, if not longer. When there’s money and the movie on the line, though, friendship doesn’t count for much, just so you know. I ultimately agreed to leave the room to avoid my undue hindrances being further exacerbated. In the midst of this “discussion” amongst all the old players in the room, the rookie Anais asked to speak to me alone. “Don’t worry,” she said, “I’ll take care of it.”
And she did.
Now perhaps having not vacated the set to the precise measure that Monsieur Mockwood might have anticipated, I was able to observe the extraordinary ability of Anais to (rather confidently) “handle” the situation and engineer its desired conclusion. This happens to be one of the moments I remember most distinctly about Anais, as a matter of fact, as I learned two very important things about her that day.
- She would not spend a long time in this business, as she had already mapped beyond it in her personal plan for life, and
- She was young, and beautiful, and she had never relied on merely those attributes to survive.
Those moments make all of the long hours and frustrating efforts involved in building stars in this business worth the headache. They also make for interesting stories at the bar after a long day at the AEE, as a matter of fact.
