There was zero pleasure in hearing that. She shook her head again. ‘Why?’
‘Because, believe it or not, that scene you just enacted is uncannily similar to one from the script. You weren’t acting, but they thought you were. And you’ve won them over—especially my director.’
‘Right.
And you?’
He cast her an inscrutable look before he shrugged. ‘What I think is no longer relevant. The only question now is, do you want the part or not?’
CHAPTER SEVEN
GOLDIE EYED HERSELF in the mirror as the make-up artist applied the final touches to her make-up. Her character, Elena Milton, was the same age as her, so there wasn’t much to be done in the way of make-up for the early scenes—especially since the scene they were about to shoot was one that required her to be makeup-less.
The director, Ethan Ryland, was waiting for the sun to begin setting on the plains of the KwaZulu-Natal game park, where the next scene of Soul’s Triumph was being shot.
In her hand she clutched the script, which she always kept close by even though she knew her part by heart and could recite every other part in the script too.
When the make-up artist pronounced her ready, Goldie jumped off the stool and headed outside. While most of the cast and crew chose to stay in the cool confines of their air-conditioned trailers and chalet when they weren’t shooting, she preferred to absorb the stunning beauty of South Africa’s south-eastern province every chance she got.
Probably because she still couldn’t believe she was there.
The experience so far had been surreal, and Goldie couldn’t believe they were already halfway to being done with the movie. She had certainly learned a lot in the last five weeks. And to think she’d never imagined she would be here at all...
After Gael had thrown his gauntlet at her feet that morning, just over a month ago, she’d spent a torn, frantic twenty-four hours weighing the pros and cons of accepting the less than wholesome opportunity he had dangled once again within reach.
At her mother’s urging to do as much research as possible, she’d succumbed and looked up the man she’d given her virginity to on the internet. She’d come away stunned, albeit with a half-hearted understanding of why Gael Aguilar reacted with suspicion to everyone around him. The trait wasn’t admirable by any stretch, and nor was it forgivable when it pertained to her. But it was clear that the sheer prestige and power he wielded along with his half-brother, Alejandro Aguilar, through their company, was enough to draw an army of sycophants and other unsavoury characters.
Even those who sacrificed their virginities in the hope of a pot of gold...
Whatever.
Had she believed in that sort of thing, Goldie would have toyed with the notion that destiny was hell-bent on giving her this role. Even after Ethan’s repeated assurances that he was going to stop auditioning because he believed he’d found his actress she hadn’t been convinced.
She didn’t doubt for a second that Gael’s involvement in the project was what had made her initially reticent about taking the part. Gael might have accepted that he’d got her motives wrong, but the hurt hadn’t quite gone away. Probably because neither had the cynicism she glimpsed in his eyes whenever he looked at her.
It had only been after her second meeting with Ethan and his team—minus Gael—two days later that Goldie had started to entertain the idea that the opportunity was one she could grasp and launch a career out of.
Before that, though, there’d been her mother to contend with.
Gloria Beckett had been beyond ecstatic that her daughter had landed the plum role in a big production movie. But even as they’d celebrated with a trip to her mother’s favourite restaurant, at Gloria’s insistence, she’d worried about being absent from home for the long weeks shooting the movie would take.
She’d eventually divulged her worry to Ethan, only to find out Gael had lined up a list of sober companions for her to interview for her mother. Her mother had resisted at first, but once Goldie had made it a condition of her acceptance or rejection of the role Gloria had relented and let her hire Patience, the middle-aged companion.
In the week before she’d flown to Vancouver, where the other half of the film had been shot, Goldie had been able to rest easy when she’d seen how well Patience and Gloria got along.
Now, as she watched a family of elephants foraging, from the porch of the timber chalet which housed their on-location skeleton crew, she allowed herself a peaceful sigh and a small smile.
Ethan and the crew were a dream to work with. And as for the story...
She glanced down at the script of Soul’s Triumph. The story of Elena Milton and Alfonso Veron was unbelievably powerful, at times disturbingly heartbreaking, but utterly sublime. A tale of triumph against adversity, it charted the lives of two unlikely souls each tied to a different destiny from the moment they met. But while common sense and inevitable heartache dictated they take different paths, they were continually drawn, for better or worse, back to each other, in an often shocking and volatile relationship that spanned decades and brought untold hardship to their families.
Today’s shoot was the first meeting between Elena and Alfonso. Goldie had already met her Spanish lead, an actor in his mid-twenties who spoke very little English. Although he delivered his lines perfectly, conversation off-camera was minimal—a fact for which Goldie was secretly glad.
Even now, weeks later, she was still grappling with the tumultuous twelve hours she’d spent with Gael and wasn’t in the mood to deal with much else, even friendly banter between co-actors. The crew for the most part also left her alone. Sure, they’d invited her along on their free day excursions, and she’d partaken of a few, and for dinner and drinks, of which she’d accepted none. She didn’t think she would be able to accept a social invitation from anyone for a while after the Heidi debacle.
‘Goldie, we’re heading out in five minutes. You ready?’
She nodded and smiled, gave a thumbs-up to Ethan as he joined her on the porch. He returned the gesture with the tip of the crutch he still had to use, then turned to supervise the crew loading equipment into a Jeep in the car park.