Movie Stars Shine Brightest in the Dark by Jillian Thomadsen

Author:Jillian Thomadsen [Thomadsen, Jillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Los Angeles, California

1999

Terry Mahoney’s movie set was conveniently located on a stretch of beach twenty miles south of LAX. They filmed under the severe beams of merciless sun – sweat pouring off of sculpted, tanned bodies. The film had endured several name changes in its year of development, but the latest one seemed to stick: Soldier of Payback.

Cecilia was one of the soldiers – a mercenary leading a team of lithe stone-faced enforcers. They were plotting to enact revenge against a villain who had persevered in one of the earlier film franchise installments.

When she’d first read the script, Cecilia had come up with plenty of questions and plot holes. How could the villain possibly still be alive after sustaining ten bullet holes and a dynamite explosion? How had this team of limber-legged gymnasts become her militia when she barely spoke with them? In fact, almost all of the words in the script were shouts and sound bites – good for the film’s trailer, bad for any semblance of plot continuity and character development.

Cecilia was to be given top billing and prominent movie poster placement in a studio-backed franchise film, so she kept her mouth shut about her character’s irrational dialogue – which probably amounted to less than a hundred words in the whole script. She voiced her lines with sexy intensity and declared her hackneyed instructions to the army with feigned intensity.

During filming breaks, Cecilia retreated to her trailer and ran lines while she cooled off, away from the harsh trenches of sand and sweaty extras and crew milling about. At one point – towards the end of filming – Terry Mahoney rapped on the metal-frame, aluminum door.

Cecilia swung the door open and was surprised to see the man. Although he had cast her in this movie, Terry’s big-brother influence over the film occurred in high-level office rooms and meetings where Cecilia wasn’t allowed to enter. All she saw was his downstream influence – his name invoked like a commandment from the Heavens. When Terry wanted things a certain way, they happened, even though the man himself seemed no more than a lurking shadow to the principal operation.

Now Terry Mahoney was standing on the steps to her transitory mobile home, fanning himself with a few pages from the script. He looked authoritative – white hair cropped neatly into place, t-shirt tucked neatly into slacks. “Cecilia,” he said, when he saw her, by way of a stony-faced greeting.

Cecilia invited him inside and tried to calm her heartbeat, which now seemed poised to gallop out of its chest cavity. Terry Mahoney made all things happen, and she wanted desperately for him to like her, to see her worth, her talent.

“Terry! So great to see you!” Cecilia said. “What can I do for you?”

Terry sighed, pulled up his slacks and took a seat on the plush red couch. “I want you to accompany me. This evening. I have a dinner with some investors. My assistant will give you the details.”

Cecilia felt a wave of anxiety rush out of her, felt the blood flow return to her organs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.