Acting the Part by Z.R. Ellor

Author:Z.R. Ellor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Next morning, Galaxy Spark is shooting on the beach outside town. I wake at five to make it to the makeup trailer, ducking my face behind a big stack of coffee and walnut muffins. My brain and body all scream at me that I’m an idiot, that it’s really bedtime, and why am I awake and working?

I focus on my lines, running them over and over in my head, wondering if it’s even worth the effort when Peter could hand us his rewrite any minute. It’s a distraction I need.

My newfound dysphoria is pushing on me hard today. Lurking in the mirror like the alien alligator who nearly killed Morgantha on that swamp planet. An itch, a spectral wrongness. Like if I rub my hands over my skin backward, it’ll crack off like a snakeskin into something else. How my face and hands don’t feel like mine.

“Chin up.” Natalie, the head makeup artist, pushes my head up into the light. I squeeze shut my eyes, trying to avoid the strange, small face in the mirror. A girl’s face. A face printed on T-shirts and merchandise all around the world. A face that could never belong to anyone other than Lily Ashton. It’s like I’ve fallen into the second movie of a spy franchise, where the hero’s cover is blown and his face broadcast to his enemies all over the world. The whole planet is a maze, and I can’t escape anyone knowing I’m part of this stupid show.

“Lily. Lily?” Natalie pats my shoulder. “Relax a bit, sweetie. Do you have a headache?”

“I think she has a hangover,” Callie says from the chair next to mine, Queen Aylah’s massive dark wig glued atop her head. “Lily, there’s some herbal pills in my bag that’ll fix you right up. Don’t ask me where I got them. Be sure to drink them with a lot of water.”

“It’s the water that fixes it,” I say. “The herbs don’t actually do anything. And I don’t have a hangover.”

Natalie shakes her head. “You know, Lily, my midwife tells me that herblore is the oldest form of women’s magic. It embodied the power of sisterhood.”

I wince. Do people care more about my well-being because they look at me and project girl? A technician walks by. I tap her arm. “Do you have any aspirin?”

“I’ll get some,” she says, and runs off.

Callie shrugs. “Your loss.”

We’re shooting a scene from the first episode today, where Aylah and Morgantha meet face-to-face to discuss potentially exchanging Bryken for information on the mysterious Galaxy Spark, the power source at the galaxy’s core. As a child, Morgantha looked up to Aylah before discovering the evil queen sent her clone warriors to destroy her home village. It has the potential to be the most iconic confrontation on the show.

But we lack direction.

“More intensity, Lily,” Wes says, yawning behind the camera. He stayed up late again last night, video-chatting with his family. I think his father’s cancer is back, but he’s not talking about it. Despite his limited time, he insisted on directing almost a third of the episodes himself.

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