Stella was reminded of Weston again.
The thought made her palms a little sweaty. She needed to get some fresh air, but she couldn’t
possibly leave Ruby here alone.
About half an hour later, it was finally Ruby’s turn. The assistant hurried over to get Ruby and brought
her to the stage.
Stella stood under the stage, watching Ruby nervously stepping under the spotlight. There were quite a
number of people around her. It must have really been a large set. No one was paying any attention to
them since they arrived. This only changed when Ruby got up on stage.
Stella had presumed that with Mr. Smith’s wealth, Ruby would be treated like a princess in this place.
But apparently she was mistaken. Though he might be rich, Mr. Smith was nearly a nobody in the
entertainment industry, since there were many more who were a thousand times richer and more
powerful than him here.
Perhaps only people with Weston Ford’s stature could enjoy special treatment wherever he went.
Ruby was a young girl, so naturally her role was a certain character’s daughter. She didn’t have many
lines, but apart from the lines needing to showcase the liveliness of the character, it was also a period
drama, so the lines were quite difficult to learn. For such a young girl, Ruby would have to memorize
her lines really well for her to be able to perform naturally.
When they were backstage earlier, Ruby had gone through her lines with Stella once. Yet although all
was going well at first, she probably got stage fright and fumbled her lines the longer she went on. She
even forgot huge chunks of her lines, which gravely affected her whole performance. “Stop! Stop!
Stop!” yelled the director, frowning with frustration. “Where did this child come from? She doesn’t suit
the character of a noble girl at all! A noble girl should be flamboyant and haughty! Not a shy stuttering
girl like that!” Ruby stood there like a doll after getting yelled at by the director. At a loss, she turned to
Stella. The director was still fuming with anger. He took off his earphones and tossed them violently on
his desk. “This whole thing is pointless!” he shouted.
Everyone else looked at each other nervously now that the director had lost his temper. Stella was
stunned too. She’d never been in such a situation before. But more importantly, she was worried about
Ruby.
Tears were welling up in Ruby’s eyes.
“Don’t worry,” the assistant whispered in Stella’s ear. “Ruby’s performance wasn’t that bad. With some
improvements, she’ll do just fine. The director is mad at someone else…”
Sure enough, Stella would soon hear something which proved that the assistant was not lying.
“How many demands exactly does Guinevere Cohen have, anyway?” she heard the director complain
when he returned after taking a short break. “At this point I’m not sure who’s the
director – is it her or me?!” “Forget it,” the assistant director persuaded him in a whisper, “The investors
insisted on having her, so there’s nothing we can do!” Besides, Guinevere Cohen was a bona fide
superstar, so she had a certain power to make demands.
But what really got on the director’s nerves was that not only did Guinevere make demands about her
own role, she even demanded him to replace an actress that he’d already chosen!
Guinevere was the movie’s main lead, naturally the role was tailor-made for her. But there were other
female characters in supporting roles too, but Guinevere decided that she didn’t like one of the
actresses, so she demanded that he get someone else instead. The director had no choice but to do as
she bid. He definitely wasn’t pleased about it, though.
Stella said nothing as she listened to the assistant’s explanation. But then her phone suddenly rang.
She glanced over at Ruby who was still standing on stage, then quietly slipped out of the set and found
a quiet corner to take the call.
“Hello?”
“When will you be back?” asked the man on the other end of the line in a calm, deep voice.” I’m already
home.”
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