Chapter 226:

In the make-up room of a set, a young woman was controlling the make-up brush and drawing patterns on the young man’s face— who had his back leaned backwards to the make-up chair he wasf seated in.

It had been almost an hour since the make-up session began in preparation for what was about to come, yet ever since the beginning, the actor in the chair sat straight and unbelievably still.

This young man was none other than Marcus Brown, the actor who had played one of the protagonists in [The Blair Witch Project], but went into a drug addiction spiral which almost ruined his career, however out of pure stroke of luck, he got another chance with Will Evans and was able to land a huge role in an upcoming movie. And now was on his path of redemption and recovery.

“How are you feeling?” She asked while keeping an eye on the features of this young man.

Marcus had his eyes closed the entire time. Upon hearing the question that was asked, he raised his head.

“Never felt better.” Marcus said while shifting his gaze to take a look at his reflection. “Oh, you have done a great job with the face. The cheekbones were very well highlighted. Is that to suit the camera?” He asked while turning his head left and right.

The young woman chuckled at his response. “Thank you and yes, it fits the camera and lighting perfectly. Uhm- well, I really wanted to you to look your best for this interview.”

“Oh?” Marcus was pleasantly surprised, “Well, thank you. Is there a reason for that other than it being your job?”

“Well, indeed it’s my job. But how should I put this? Uhm, actually, you’re my inspiration, and now that I got a chance to help you on this interview, I had to take it.” She was talking while still adding some final touches.

The white bulbs around the mirror made Marcus’s eyes squint the next time he opened them. He was confused at her words.

“How can I be an aspiration for someone? If anything, I’ve only created trouble for the people around me. Heck, I almost threw away a career which many would kill for,” Marcus said while shaking his head.

He saw the make-up girl nod in agreement. “I once got myself entrapped into addiction. And the journey to get back on my feet has been arduous to say the least.” She took a short pause as if he was traveling back in his own memories.

With a sigh, she added, “Actually, I have myself been clean for more than a year. And when I read news about your gradual downfall to the road of recovery, I couldn’t help but find myself relating to your story. And that is why I wanted to make you look your best when you stand in front of the world again. Because in my view, recovery is not for people who need it. It’s for the people who want it.”

She said while her hands paused without any action. Marcus said nothing but nodded.

The emotions that the girl was trying to hide were on full-on display while she was talking. Marcus felt vulnerable at her story, but was distracted by the sudden noise.

With a low screech, the gate was pushed open and a crew member with a clipboard in his hand walked inside with an exciting smile.

“We’re about to start. Are you ready?” He asked and the make-up girl replied with a nod.

Soon after the crew member left the room, Marcus stood up and put forward his hands for a shake, “Thank you.”

“Good luck, Mr Marcus…” The young woman smiled.

Marcus walked out of the dressing room. His mood has increased in the positives, and with every step he took, he felt more confident.

Following the director who just came in, he walked towards the curtain where the staff hurriedly joined him to put on a mic and start the filming.

‘I didn’t get her name…’

***

Since the news broke out, the drama of Will Evans and Benjamin Scott was still going on. And there was rarely any media that was working in his favor at all.

The media had successfully created a mountain out of molehill.

The thing which made it worse was how even the people on social media platforms like Sparrow had also begun to question Will’s appearance.

They raised questions if Will Evans thinks that he is too perfect. More than that many were questioning Will’s decisions, completely making him off as the bad guy.

To top all of it, there was also a subtle trend ongoing with the hashtags like #boycottFriends which started to take a flight.

Hence, Dream Vision finally decided to respond to the controversy, though they didn’t show that they were worried about the ongoing backlash.

And the official post which they made in their official page muted many controversial trends on the topic.

Dream Vision. (v)

[Posted a few seconds ago]

[Update. ICM and Benjamin Scott have filed for contract nullification and have paid the compensation, in a bid to form a new contract, however, we have decided to let go of Benjamin Scott.

From the whole cast and team of [Friends], we wish him best for his future endeavors.]

As soon as the post goes, the reactions were mixed from person to person. Some still were blaming Will, and some others had totally opposite views on it.

In the office building of Dream Three, Will was seated in his chair while Amanda kept reading the comments and talking about them.

“Don’t respond to any of it. The more we focus on the reponses, the more they are going to talk about it,” Will said after hearing Amanda’s views on a harsh comment posted by one of the users.

Amanda nodded, agreeing with him.

Will was still thinking about what to do to overcome this challenge. The first and the best thing he knew was to find a better actor.

At this rate, he had his gut feeling that he wouldn’t be able to find Matt LeBlanc, but then again if nothing worked out, he promised to himself to launch the plan of manhunting the guy himself.

“Amanda, I think it’s the time to begin the auditions to find our next Joey,” Will muttered, still kind of busy in his own thought process.

“Yeah, I’ll work on it.”

Will thought of something else and said, “Don’t spend too much time on finding one. I need another favor. Check if there’s any actor named after Matthew Steven LeBlanc. Uh- I need all the profiles of actors names which have, Matthew, Matt or LeBlanc.” he muttered while a frown appeared on Amanda’s forehead.

Although she wanted to ask ‘why’, she knew better than that. So she went on and replied with, “Sure.”

‘Weird tactic, but not like there’s so many options left.’ Will thought as he knew he couldn’t drag this drama for longer considering how many bigger projects he had in mind to worry about.

“It would really be better if this task could be done the first thing tomorrow morning, I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it as I’m not one hundred percent sure if this would work,” Will said.

And then, Amanda couldn’t hold it in any longer. “What are you on about?” She asked.

“Hm… Trust me on it. It’s not something you would understand even if I explained.”

Amanda suddenly had the thought of immediate regret of not holding back her curiosity. The answer wasn’t new, and her mouth zipped shut knowing it wouldn’t get anymore older than it was.

Trusting Will one more time, she didn’t say anything but walked out of the office after listening to Will a bit more to begin the auditions and settle the things in them.

After making sure that Amanda’s focus would be on the work to confirm things with Joey’s role, which would obviously take some more time, Will started to plan his next batch of movies.

He spent a few good minutes thinking about his decisions thoroughly.

First, he started off to think about what sorts of movies would suit the timeline more.

Also, apart from the movies, he had the Netflix project in mind. And at times like these, forgetting even a single project would cost him losses which he wasn’t ready for, neither would face.

Focusing on the project Netflix; it was a given that Netflix had completely outdone themselves with the app. But the thing was, it still needed a lot of movies and shows to make the app an actual streaming platform.

For that, Will knew that it would take some more time to complete the entire process.

As it was a time taking procedure, he planned to formally announce [Spider Man 2] and [Iron Man] by the end of the year. With that, Will believed to get Marvel to become a separate entity right under Dream International.

‘Hmm… Better,’ His thoughts were clear and occupied while he kept doodling his plans in his private tablet.

The next thing he focused on was the batch of movies that he had in mind.

Normally, Will himself was known to be a director who would focus on two to three movies at a time, but with how things were flowing, he was ready to challenge himself by increasing the count to five, maybe six.

Among the movies he had in mind, [Harry Potter] franchise was on top of his priority to establish, considering how three books were already released. With that, the next decade and half years he was confident that the franchise would be stabilized in the industry.

The entire brainstorming future plans dragged into an hour and half after Amanda’s exit.

That was the moment he realized how much he missed his tea. Through the intercom, he requested what exactly he wanted and opened the laptop to start what he had in mind.

***

At around 10.45 pm.

The job he had taken to himself during the office was still ongoing, and Will was on his bed, with his laptop placed in his lap.

He was currently preparing the draft script, and his mind was fully engrossed in it.

With each word he typed, his focus seemed to get more clarity and his breath became even.

June, who walked in at this moment, stopped in her tracks in front of the bedroom door and placed the box in the corner of the bed.

“The book arrived,” She said in just above a whisper distracting him a little bit from his constant writing.

Inside the box, it was [The Hobbit].

Will said nothing but nodded. His eyes roamed in between the letters he was typing.

June was excited to bring the box of his new book, yet Will was fully involved in whatever-he-was-writing which gained her nosiness.

Walking around the bed, she peeked in to see what he was writing. She muttered the words that she read was on top of what he was writing,

“The Devil Wears Prada?” She almost questioned.

“A new script.” Will said while keeping the laptop in front of him, and focusing on June who looked interested in what she read.

With no more explanation, Will knew that she wanted to know more. “Well, it was an idea I got recently—” June hummed while sitting beside Will. “It’s about Andy, who would be the main character….”

Will went on explaining the movie plot briefly, which didn’t even cover the entire story. By the end of it, June had her eyebrows raised in amusement.

“It’s very interesting,” she said, for which Will agreed.

“Yes, I know. You can audition for one of the lead roles of the intern.” Will suggested.

“I will if I find it interesting. For now, I really found the boss character more interesting.”

“Haha…” Will chuckled hearing her thoughts and matching her energy. “I’m pretty sure you’d like it after reading the whole script.” He said.

Apart from the smile she was showing Will, she was not too conscious about acting in any of Will’s movies considering how in the last few months she had improved, matured and perfectly sculptured inside her brains to suit her name and occupation.

One of the main reasons to trigger it was, how she had talked about her problems with a professor in the film school. During then, an old lady had told her that she was thinking too much into it.

To make it fair for her, June was not getting the role due to being Will’s girlfriend, but she would be able to audition which potentially helped her prove herself with her performance.

And according to her, which June wholeheartedly agreed, if her acting is good, the audience would like it, and she would be chosen.

“Yeah, sure.” June replied to Will and kissed his forehead while letting him work.

***

It was nearly 2 in the morning, and Will stood up to take a break from the continuous script writing.

Noticing the book that lay in the corner of his bed, he stood up—which cracked more than half of his body — and walked towards it.

He uncovered it and saw, [The Hobbit] written on the front page.

‘Tomorrow is the day,’ Will thought to himself as he remembered the book would be released in less than ten hours.