Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood-Novel

“Can’t you hit with more strength? Are you a sissy? If you are not, prove it by hitting me.”

A tough looking guy said as he provoked Aiden. His body was on guard as he was prepared to dodge everything coming his way.

From time to time, he was provoking Aiden by calling him ‘sissy’, ‘weakling’ and ‘slowpoke’ but Aiden’s face was still calmed, devoid of any emotion as he looked to find a weak spot in the tough guy’s stance. 

‘Don’t get provoked by whatever Ezra is saying. Remember that you just need to hit one punch and the training session will be over.’

Aiden thought in his mind as he looked at the guy named Ezra. He was a boxing trainer in his late 30s who had worked with celebrities before too in giving them some boxing training for the role. 

He has been training with him for a month now and although they were just keeping it as light and basic training, Aiden felt like he had improved a lot. 

“What? You are not going to attack now?”

Ezra said, grinning as he stared at Aiden like he was looking down on him but Aiden still didn’t move and just stayed still in his stance. 

His trainer had told him that he wasn’t going to attack him no matter what, so he didn’t have to worry about anything and could just take his time. 

Although he was a newbie, Aiden had a ton of patience to spend. 

‘Why is this guy not doing anything? Is he playing a trick?’

Ezra thought in his mind, becoming a bit irritated but Aiden didn’t move. It looked like he was waiting for Ezra to make a mistake but how could he do that when he had no intention to attack him.

Finally, he lost his patience and again opened his mouth. 

“Hey, why are you—”

It was at that moment Aiden moved. Putting his foot forward, he aimed for Ezra’s shoulder but he quickly tried to defend the attack. 

But he forgot that the area around his ribs was unguarded. Aiden attacked it with his left hand and he managed to land a strike. 

Though, the punch was very weak, so Ezra didn’t feel a lot of pain but Aiden still won the practice session. 

“I guess it’s over now.”

Aiden said, taking a sigh of relief. It was only the second time in two months that he had managed to land a punch on Ezra. 

The first time was more of a lucky day for him. 

“Yeah, it is.” Ezra said, then muttered to himself. “Fuck! I lost to a rookie again.”

“It’s not even a real match.”

Aiden said but Ezra shook his head. 

“It doesn’t matter.” He took off his gloves. “You are a new student and I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I should have defended that but you have too much patience for someone in this sport.”

“I’m just following your rule — Patience is the first key to boxing.”

He took off his gloves too and revealed boxing wraps on his hand. Ezra glanced at them for a second and replied. 

“Yeah but not like everyone, especially rookies follow it. Other celebs just want to prove that they are great in front of me and embarrass themselves.”

Saying that, he changed the topic and asked. 

“Are you really planning on wearing boxing wraps on your hands till the end of the shooting?”

This was something that Aiden had told him. 

“Ah, yeah. The character I’m playing has the habit of always wrapping his hands with boxing wraps as an indication of his father. It developed into a habit and I’m doing it to feel a bit closer to them.”

“Yeah, you actors do go to insane levels for the job. I know someone who actually became a druggist to portray a drug dealer. I really hope no one starts molesting people because he’s playing the role of a sex offender.”

Aiden just smiled hearing that joke and opened up the system notifications in front of him. 

[Your affinity with the character ‘Finn Wheeler’ has grown.]

[You have gotten experience.]

[You are close to breaking into Intermediate Grade 5 in acting.]

His eyes hung over the last message for a while. 

He was hoping that during the shooting of [Sherlock of the Shadows], he would be able to get past the grade and improve his acting ability. It was getting extremely difficult to level up as he was reaching a high level. 

Most good to great actors in this world are at Intermediate Grade 7 to 10 and only the legendary actors are in the Advance grade which Aiden didn’t even know if he would be able to reach in the coming future. 

‘I should not think of it so soon. Anyway, the shooting for [Sherlock of the Shadows] will start tomorrow.’

He thought, anticipating the day his first big role in a series would begin. 

***

The shooting for [Sherlock of the Shadows] was happening in the town of Georgia, Atlanta. 

Phineas had decided to shoot a lot of the scenes here while the scenes involving heavy VFX were going to be shot in a studio. 

The reason they have decided on this town as the filming location was because Phineas had decided that it suited the essence of the town he had in mind. Actually, the original story was going to take place in a fictional town called ‘Riftain’. 

Although the series was following Finn Wheeler entirely, there were other things in the town also and some secrets that would slowly come out during the course of the series. 

But the narrative would just focus on Finn, his powers and solving mysteries. 

Originally, Phineas had made a cast of a few friends who are famous for solving mysteries and catching ghosts but he had felt like the premise was too dull and overused, so he had instead decided to focus more on getting superpowers suddenly and having to deal with them. 

At the same time, the inner struggle of the main character was one of the most vocal points of the series. Finn was a character with a complicated past and it was something that had affected him a lot growing up.

It would take a very convincing performance to pull it off and Aiden was enjoying the challenge of it. 

“I like the scent of the city. Feels like my hometown.”

Wade said, attracting Aiden’s attention away from the script. Both of them were currently sitting at the spot and the shooting was going on in front of them. 

The set looked very busy but both of them looked too used to the atmosphere of a set. 

“Just take a vacation and go there.” Aiden said but Wade shook his head. 

“I am being nostalgic about my town doesn’t mean I want to go there. You don’t know it but it’s horrible when you go back to the place where you spent your childhood and meet your ex girlfriend and friends. It’s only fine if you are super successful. Here I’m just an overworked, divorced agent.”

“We both are overworked.”

Aiden laughed and Wade wasn’t able to refute that. Suddenly, he felt a gaze on himself and looked to his left. 

Some distance away, Jeremy Hill was sitting with a few actors and was talking about something with a grin. A few actors were laughing with him. 

Jeremy was clearly looking at them like he was joking about Aiden but they weren’t able to hear what he was talking about. 

“I don’t like that guy.” 

“Others seem to like him.” 

Aiden glanced at the actors laughing with him. 

“He’s a pain in the ass but he’s a veteran and a lot of them would side with him, so he doesn’t go after them. I’m telling you right now. He’s surely going to do something and term it as educating the younger generations or something.”

“He won’t.”

“You don’t know that. He’s surely plotting something.”

Wade frowned and rubbed his forehead. He felt like they were finding trouble everywhere these days. 

“I know he’s plotting something but I will make sure he can’t do anything.”

Aiden explained and Wade made a perplexed expression. 

“How?”

“He’s an actor. Not a star but an actor. He has a bad personality but he’s not Seth Douglas who just wants a bigger role for attention to himself. Think of him as that old neighbour who always complains about things.”

“So?”

“So, it’s simple. The best way to make an actor like you is to show him that you are a great actor yourself. There might be jealousy but Jeremy Hill isn’t a kid. He’s a veteran, so I expect him to not be jealous.”

Actually, during the script reading session, Aiden had checked up the stats of his co actors and out of all of them, Jeremy Hill was Intermediate Grade 10. Someone who was on the verge of breaking into another entire grade. 

At the same time, his special skill was called ‘Perfectionist’. 

With that, Aiden had guessed that the only reason he gives hard time to actors is because he was someone who wants everything to be perfect in the show and thinks that some actors won’t be able to do that. 

Earlier, Jeremy had scolded another actor too when he had messed up a lot of times and even after that, the scene hadn’t been captured well. 

So, it wasn’t just Aiden he was targeting. 

‘I need my acting to speak for myself here.’

He thought in his mind as he glanced at Jeremy. 

…

//DreamNote//

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