Chapter 31: End Of The Year
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
American blockbuster fans would definitely not know who Sarah was, but that was not the case for Adrian who watched plenty of films and American dramas. Sarah Michelle Gellar, one of the very few acknowledged quality idols during America’s mid to late ’90s. She was a quality idol, because she was a young actress who was beautiful, lively, had a good image, and was liked by adults and children.
She mostly acted in teen films or TV series, and although she was only known in North America, she was quite popular. The films that gave Adrian a deep impression of her were none other than ‘Scream 2’—yes, the sequel of the teen horror film he sold to Universal—and ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’—another teen horror film, which had a complicated relationship with ‘Scream’.
Nonetheless, the TV series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ was what made Sarah popular. It was a series that was a fusion of adolescent worries and vampires and had a similar style to ‘The X-Files’. Though it was not as famous as vampire novels 20 years later, where they depicted love as a matter of life or death, it was one of the classic American dramas. Being a quality idol, there was no doubt about Sarah’s beauty. She had an egg-shaped face that was rare among Westerners and delicate facial features, but there was a hint of a gloomy look between her brows.
Of course, she was still a 13-year-old at that moment. She still had a little baby fat on her face which made her look adorable but it had the shape of how it would look like in the future. Despite that, her charm could not be seen yet, but her agitated look back at the restaurant left an impression.
Adrian, who was doing some preparations, glanced at Sarah who was utilizing her free time to practice her lines with her mom. From what Laverne told him, Rosellen who was also her agent was quite hesitant when she saw the script because the film was purely a cut film, but Sarah convinced her. Adrian could guess how she convinced her mom, because he more or less knew about her family matters during his past life.
‘Maybe I can help her,’ Adrian thought to himself. ‘She might still be a cute little girl for now, but she’ll grow up, right? Besides, in my plan…’
‘Forget it, I’ll leave things as they are now, my current popularity and reputation are far from how I want them to be.’ Adrian decided. In actual fact, it did not matter too much, because at least they met.
“Act 178, scene 231,” The log keeper announced before clapping the slate, then the shooting continued.
Even though Sarah’s scenes were added last minute, and they would be removed during post-production, it did not mean that they could be treated lightly. Adrian knew very well that his job was not just to replicate the film, so while he could be more lenient, he must not do things carelessly. Besides, he did not want Sarah to figure anything out.
“Cut!” Another stoppage later, Adrian made a hand gesture. “Sarah, you may rest now.”
“Mr. Director, did I do badly?” Sarah quickly asked as she felt nervous and uneasy.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. Although it wasn’t outstanding, you did well,” Adrian assured her but was chuckling to himself. ‘How many times has this happened? I can tell that she cares about this job very much. Yes, that’s right, acting is just a job to her.’
“Listen to me, Sarah. You’re not completely familiar with this role yet, so you don’t need to care too much. Sometimes, the more you want to act better, the easier it is to act worse, do you understand?” Adrian comforted her, then gave her a pat on the head. “You’re already doing very well, so go home and think about the scenes, then continue tomorrow. You’ve played a few roles before, so you should know to listen to the director on set.”
She leaned slightly backward when Adrian reached his hand out but stopped moving when he really placed his hand on her head.
“I understand, Mr. Director.” Sarah nodded, then went over to her mom.
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, Sarah can rest, but not you guys. We’ll continue in 15 minutes.” Right after that, sighs could be heard everywhere. Of course, the crew knew that nothing could change Adrian’s mind, thus they rested while they could.
As a matter of fact, Adrian could very well finish half of Sarah’s parts on the first day, and the rest of them could be done on the second day. He gave her the role of Kate’s younger sister, who was a rather autistic little girl. This was because the only scenes that were left to be shot were the ones in the room and small parts that involved Dennis.
Nevertheless, it was an advantage. Since some shots were already done before Thanksgiving, Adrian had more room for thought when he added in the new parts. Moreover, the new parts would not be used during post-production, hence the original story would not be affected.
The only problem was that Adrian was only given a short time to come up with a script, thus he could not produce the storyboard needed. As such, he allowed Sarah to rest after a few shots on the first day, so that he could have more time to complete the added sections.
Time passed in the blink of an eye, and three days went by. The shootings for the additional parts were done. Owing to everyone’s cooperation, not only did everything go smoothly, but they also utilized break times to finish a number of shots for the original plot.
“Pleased to have worked with you, Sarah. You’re a good actress.” Adrian shook hands with the young girl, then reached his hand out to Rosellen. “You have an amazing daughter, Madam.”
“Thank you, Mr. Director, I’m proud of her,” With another hand on her daughter’s shoulders, Rosellen replied happily.
For the past three days, Sarah’s performance was extremely outstanding. It did not mean that she had great acting skills, but she had a great attitude. She never complained about having to repeat her shots, and she was meticulous every time. Once, Sarah even sprained her ankle slightly when she was going down the stairs, but she only expressed her pain after the shot was done—luckily, it was not a serious sprain.
In the end, everyone was astonished by her, and Kate even praised that she was a tough girl. As for Adrian himself, he naturally took good care of her.
“Haggis and the others happen to be returning to Los Angeles, I’ll ask them to send you back.” Adrian sent Sarah and her mom to the building entrance then called for his assistant, Haggis, who was getting the car ready.
All of a sudden when Adrian was about to leave, Sarah who kept turning back to look at him let go of her mom’s hand, then ran toward him like the wind.
“Did you forget anything?” Adrian was surprised.
“No… I just…” Sarah caught her breath, then bowed at him after a few seconds. “I’m sorry, Mr. Adrian.”
“Oh?” Adrian smiled. “If you’re apologizing for that day, I forgive you. It wasn’t anything, I could understand how you must have felt. Do you remember what I told you? Things will get better.”
Sarah opened her mouth as she wanted to say something, but she decided to just thank him after a moment of hesitation, “Thank you, you’re a good person.”
‘Oh, Jesus. Can’t you use another term?’ Adrian thought to himself. Later, he felt a pair of arms around his waist. Sarah actually hugged him, and was even burying her head into his lower tummy!
They remained like that for about 10 seconds before Sarah let go, then she ran back to her mom. Adrian was startled for a while, and he was immediately shocked. ‘She… She found out?!’
‘How is that possible? She’s only a 13-year-old girl, and everyone was hiding it very well… Okay, maybe not that well, but she shouldn’t be able to… Okay, perhaps she’s just guessing, and she’s not sure. Whatever it is, I underestimated her. After all, she’s quite matured for her age.’ Adrian shrugged, then forgot about it. He could not be bothered for the time being, because he still had work to do.
1
Everything went back on the original track after Sarah left. Due to the past three days, a day was used to shoot Dennis and Kate’s scene in the room, whereas a day and a half were used to finish the remaining small parts. With that, the shooting part for Adrian’s second film was successfully completed.
Following that, the crew dispersed so that they had enough rest for the upcoming post-production work. Though everyone had just spent Thanksgiving Day, the three pointless days for Adrian to compensate the young girl were extremely tiring for them.
Furthermore, it was also time for Kate to return to London as she had been in Los Angeles for half a month. While she would not have a problem graduating from high school, it did not mean that she could simply skip her classes. If she did, it would make things hard for her if she really applied to the California Institute of the Arts in the future.
Needless to say, Adrian and Kate had a wild time back at the villa before they had to be separated again, to which she was becoming more attractive due to the nourishment of his love. Especially after they made a small breakthrough when they previously bathed together, they were having much more fun. If it was not because of the cold weather outside, they would have tried doing it in the garden.
At the end of the day, they were separated no matter how reluctant they were. Adrian rested for a few days before he began the post-production work.
Initially, he had two months to do the work, but a few days were wasted because of Sarah, and holidays like Christmas and New Year were coming up. Additionally, he needed to apply to the Berlin Film Festival, so he only had at most a month and a half to complete the post-production work.
Perhaps people would say that Adrian had enough time since he had half a month more than he did for ‘Lost, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’, but more work was actually needed for ‘Memento’ during post-production, thus the time was not enough. What made him more frustrated was that he needed to type drafts for two to three more hours at home after work, but he willingly wanted to do it.
‘I’m really f*cking crazy.’ Adrian had repeated the sentence in his head more than once, but he would still carry on with the work.
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