The Actress: A Novel Read Online Free

rolled over an indie-pop song, there was a long beat, and then the moviegoers began to applaud, a few at a time. The reviewers dashed out. Maddy tried to read their body language. Were they rushing to call long-lost childhood friends, or running late for their next screenings?
    The house lights came on and the Know Her team went to the stage for the Q and A. Each chair had a bottle of water on it, and Maddy drank gratefully, feeling dizzy and hoping not to faint from the mountain altitude. Sharoz had informed Maddy that you had to be clever and witty at the panel discussions if you wanted people to spread the word about the film.
    The moderator introduced the panel and Dan began fielding questions. A grandmotherly woman raised her hand. “Maddy, I was so impressed by your performance,” she said. Was she an agent? A financier? “What kind of training do you have?”
    “Um, I studied at the New School,” Maddy said, and noticed, next to the woman, a young man nodding vigorously. It was Zack Ostrow. He had come. At ten in the morning. He was a man of his word. Maddy squinted to see if he was with his mother, but on his other side was a blond guy in a bulky parka. “I mostly do theater,” she continued, “but of course, Dan and I watch a lot of movies at home, so I had a good film education. I always tell people I studied at the Dan Ellenberg School of Filmmaking.”
    “So you two are a couple?”
    “Oh. Yeah,” Maddy said. “The film was shot in my hometown in Vermont, and Dan and I came up with the story together.”
    Someone else asked if Dan considered it a women’s film. “Not at all,” he said. “I want my work to resonate with all kinds of people. I’m interested in human stories.”
    Kira spoke into her mike. “Dan gave us a gift. He writes women so well, it’s almost like he has a vagina.” Everyone laughed. “And in a sense, he does. Maddy’s vagina.” They laughed harder. Maddy stiffened. She knew Kira wasn’t trying to upstage her, but Kira was easygoing and goofy, and Maddy knew she’d seemed remote by comparison. Or maybe the oxygen deprivation was turning her paranoid.
    Kira had arrived late to her audition for I Used to Know Her , in a rented rehearsal room in midtown, just as Dan, Maddy, Sharoz, and their casting director were packing up to go. Kira said she had subway problems, and Maddy noticed that her makeup was smudged, either artfully or accidentally. Dan had already read sixty girls for Heather, the character based on Lacey, and was beginning to lose hope that he would be able to find the right actress.
    Maddy had been turned off by Kira’s lateness, which felt unprofessional. But then they played the scene in which Heather and Alice argue on the rock where they used to go as children, and she was so brilliant and compelling that Dan cast her on the spot.
    Another hand shot up, an overserious bony guy. “I’m wondering what the acting process was like for the two of you. Was there any improvisation?”
    Maddy started to answer, but Kira jumped in. “You know, the script was really tight, so Dan discouraged any improv. It was hard for me, because I have a more fluid way of working than Maddy does. She comes from the thee-ah-tuh, where the script is God. I’m more moment-to-moment.” The audience murmured appreciatively, and Maddy felt that Kira had scored yet another point.
    On the street after the screening, as Dan and Maddy headed up Mountain Way, a voice came from behind them. “Maddy, you were sensational.” Zack Ostrow.
    “Thanks for coming, man,” Dan said. “We needed every audience member we could get. Was your mom there, too?”
    “No, I’m sure she’ll come to another one,” Zack said, clearly accustomed to people using him to get to his mother. “Dan, I don’t represent directors,” he said, “but if you’ll let me, I’ll put you in touch with one of my colleagues. And Maddy, I would love to get a coffee with you and discuss career possibilities. BHA