Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood-Novel

[Sherlock of the Shadows|13 July-2017|Act 2|Scene 1|Take 3]

“I need help.”

A blonde-haired guy who looked to be a teenager said. He had a burly body and looked like the typical person who would be part of the football team in high school. 

“Why me? I thought you didn’t like me and even wanted to kill me.”

“It was just a small fight.”

“I endured several punches from you while your friends watched and cheered. I had two broken teeth and several bruises, and it took two weeks for me to heal.”

“It took me four weeks.” The blonde-haired guy frowned. “And you slept with my girlfriend. I am pretty sure I left you off easily.”

Finn didn’t say anything to that and just shrugged his shoulders. He just had a small habit of playing around, and from time to time, he would get into situations like this. 

The guy in front of him was Billy Williams, the captain of the football team and someone who had been Finn’s enemy throughout high school right after the incident that Billy just described. 

“Look, I wasn’t the one in a relationship. Your girlfriend was. Don’t you think you should question her instead of fighting with me? I say I did a great job sleeping with her. At least you know she’s someone who doesn’t think twice before sleeping with someone. She was quite eas—”

“What?”

“Anyway, get to the point. What help do you need from me?”

Billy frowned hearing that, and his expression cooled down. This wasn’t the time to argue over someone who had cheated on him before. The matter was much more serious, and he didn’t know anyone who could help him other than the person in front of him. 

No matter how much he hated Finn, he was the only one who could help him at the moment. 

“My sister… she’s dead.”

“I’m sorry for you.” Finn immediately said, the air around him changing a bit as he got serious. “What help do you need in that?”

“The police called it a suicide and are trying to close off the case as there’s no evidence against murder or something else. Her body was found below her office building. She jumped off apparently, and there’s no clues.”

“Any security cameras?”

“There’s one on the outside, but it just showed my sister going inside early in the morning at 4.”

Finn made an interesting expression upon hearing that. He had solved a few cases till now and had helped the police in a few too, but those were small ones. Kidnapping, burglars and those kinds of crimes. 

But a murder case was different. 

It was something new. 

“Why do you think your sister is murdered? She could have committed suicide. There are several reasons that depress women in their 30s and 40s.” He squinted his eyes. 

“It can’t be suicide. My sister was very happy. We are close to each other and we meet often, and she was very happy in her married life. Just last week, she looked so cheerful while saying that she would give me a big surprise in a few weeks.”

“A surprise?” Finn tilted his head.

“I don’t know what it is, but she was very happy. My brother-in-law is also devastated and has no clue why she would jump off the rooftop.”

Billy explained the whole story about what had happened and what conclusion the police had made. Hearing all that, Finn put a finger on his chin and wondered why someone who was so happy would suddenly jump off. 

The only reason it was called a suicide was that there was no evidence whatsoever of it being something other than suicide. 

‘This would be an interesting case for sure.’

Finn thought and looked up at Billy. 

“I will look into it.”

“Cut! I think that’s a good take.”

Phineas’s voice came out as the scene ended. This was one of the scenes in the first episode where Finn would try to solve the murder mystery and at the end of it, he would realise his powers. 

The second and third episodes were about him trying to juggle between cases while handling his powers. 

In a way, it was an origin story of a detective, and Aiden was just getting started.

***

The shooting continued with a lot of vigour as Aiden tried his best on every take. As the shooting progressed, he became more and more like Finn Wheeler, and it was a good way for him to gain more affinity with the character. 

Playing a teen detective with a lot of traumas and superpowers wasn’t easy as Aiden needed to keep a balance between showing his inner struggle and cool nature. 

One had to say that Finn was a vulnerable character who knew when to show it.

That was one of the things that made him dangerous. 

A lot of his scenes were with other actors, but there were almost no relationships with Finn that could be considered close. He was written as a loner, especially because he always felt that other people would come in danger due to his habit of getting into mysteries and trying to solve them. 

One of the other reasons was also the hunch of his that he was a bit more special than others due to the dreams he kept having. 

Though, there was one character in [Sherlock of the Shadows] that was extremely vital, and that was the character played by Jeremy. 

He was playing the role of Mike Rodriguez, another supernatural user who would warn Finn about his powers while he tried to solve a peculiar case of a lot of kids suddenly missing. 

“Can we go over the scene together?”

Aiden asked as he opened the door of the vanity van of Jeremy. The old man was scrolling through his phone when Aiden came in. 

For a second, his eyes wavered before he nodded. 

“Sure.”

Aiden came in and sat down in front of him before putting the scene down. Jeremy gave him a dry smile and looked at the script before asking. 

“What’s your analysis of the scene?”

“It’s a reckless scene from the perspective of Finn. His lack of experience and an avid curiosity towards his newly found power made him trust Mike and this scene is an eye opener for him.”

“Yeah, on the surface,” Jeremy said. “As the scene progresses, Mike scoffs at Finn and lets him see the true horror of ghosts and other supernatural powers to tell him that it isn’t fun and games. He wanted to see how Finn would react but at the same, he’s testing him to know the extent of his powers and mental fortitude.”

“Yeah, and it’s going to come in a full circle at the end.”

Both of them discussed the whole scene and the intricacy of their respective characters. 

As it was a scene consisting of VFX, they were shooting it in the studio with miniatures of ghosts that they would later sharpen up to look like real ghosts. 

A lot of imagination goes into scenes like this. 

As they discussed, Jimmy, who was trying hard to find anything to nitpick over in Aiden’s analysis of the scene and characters, couldn’t help but think inwardly. 

‘This guy… he is actually serious about his craft.’

Jeremy was an actor who could do anything for a project that he was working on. That’s why he would only choose projects that he liked. 

Even when he was a struggler, he rejected projects because he felt like they weren’t good enough. His conviction towards his work was known to everyone. 

But he had noticed that a lot of actors wouldn’t do the same. 

He knew that everyone had a different method of approaching their acting, but he couldn’t stand people being lazy. That’s why he had a few fights during the 90s but after that, his stature increased in Hollywood. 

So, he was easily able to get away with anything he said to the actors. 

Obviously, he would leave them if he saw that they were doing a good job and were very engrossed in the project. The only reason he was going toward Aiden was that he was late in the script reading session, and at the same time, Jeremy felt that there were better actors for a complex role like Finn Wheeler. 

But the production team had ignored his views of getting a better actor. 

That had made him observe Aiden way more but until now, he had given everything to the role. Jeremy hadn’t even seen Aiden trying to laze off in between the other scenes. 

‘No, it’s too soon.’

Jeremy thought and looked up at Aiden. 

“Have you done these types of scenes before? They are very hard for new actors.”

“No, I have not till now, but I feel like I could do it.”

Aiden simply said, but Jeremy wasn’t convinced. 

“It won’t be easy. Anyway, we will know only after you perform the scene.”

In the end, he left it there. 

There was no point in telling Aiden that he won’t be able to do the scene currently. Jeremy decided that he was going to let Aiden fail first before saying anything.

Unfortunately, it was never going to go the way Jeremy was thinking in his head. 

…

//DreamNote//

I had an emergency so couldn’t write any chapter yesterday and because my next few days are going to be hectic, yesterday will be considered an off day. Apologies.

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