Good Company (9780062876027) by Sweeney Cynthia D'Aprix

Author:Sweeney, Cynthia D'Aprix
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

If Margot had known what Donna was about to tell her, she never would have taken the call. To begin with, she was sitting in the enormous trailer that housed hair and makeup—the vanities, as they were called on certain sets, usually by the old-timers. Every actor’s relationship with the vanities was complex. A vulnerability that wasn’t chosen but imposed. Margot didn’t think David was as familiar with the contours and peculiarities of her face as the makeup team at Cedar. They knew if a person had been crying or not sleeping or drinking too much or drinking at work or forgetting sunscreen. In one notable instance of set lore, Gwyneth, the head of the makeup department, told one of the actors to get a tiny spot on the back of his neck checked out by a doctor and it turned out to be a melanoma caught at an early stage, no doubt saving the man’s life. And because the vanities were practiced at being quiet to the point of almost being invisible, they overheard things others didn’t. Hair and makeup could pretty much piece together the social dynamics of the show at any given time: who was arguing, who was happy, who was threatening to leave, who was sabotaging their coworkers, who was sleeping with whom. The world of Cedar behind the scenes was nearly as melodramatic as the show. Someone was always wanting more money. Someone was always wanting more screen time. The producers were watching the bottom line and keeping the story “digestible.” Actors were never satisfied.

“What’s the opposite of prestige TV?” Kelsey, who played Dr. Cat’s sister, had said to Margot a few weeks ago, which made her bristle. Kelsey was a season-seven addition to the cast, and when she showed up for her first day of work, Margot couldn’t believe her eyes. She understood the logic of finding someone who resembled her to play her sister, but did she have to look so much like Margot? And be so much younger? The resemblance was unnerving, and Kelsey didn’t help things by toting around a ten-year-old picture of Margot from People magazine and holding it next to her face and saying, “Isn’t this insane?”

So Margot found herself jumping to defend Cedar whenever Kelsey complained, which was a lot. Margot didn’t think Cedar was that bad. They weren’t the opposite of prestige television, they were just working in a different register. True, characters were good or bad, smart choices trumped selfish ones, and love almost always prevailed, but they’d had some interesting story lines and had tackled difficult subjects: date-rape and surrogacy and AIDS and euthanasia and depression and addiction.

Margot had asked her friends on other shows if the vanities were the fulcrum of gossip, an ill-meaning coven, and although the answer varied by degrees everyone agreed on one thing: they couldn’t be messed with; they were responsible for how you looked. Gwyneth (“not named after Paltrow,” she’d take pains to say to anyone who would listen.

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