A Different Kind Of Monster

The child actress and the adult actress balanced on their high heels and shivered in response to the cool night air. Their costumes were intentionally slutty and correspondingly paper-thin. They both tried to take the weight off the balls of their feet by leaning against the dirty brick wall they stood next to. Just around the corner, the camera waited with its black, unblinking, giant squid eye while it's human handlers primed it for the shot. We were in a neglected industrial area on the outer edges of Chicago and though golden hour was long gone, the sky still held a spectacular, saturated imperial blue that made the distant lights twinkling at us from downtown look almost magical. The exterior shot we were waiting to get in the can was a continuation of a scene we'd filmed on a sound stage in LA and it had established the first 'big girl/bad girl' bond between the two characters the actresses played. The interior part of the scene had the girls successfully sneaking into a bar, initiating a fight and now about to 'make a run for it' into the gritty Chicago night. Within arms length of the adult actress stood her ever present real-life sycophants; a worn out, insincere old queen who fawningly reapplied her make-up in between every take with (as far as anyone could tell...) empty brushes and a snarly, leather-faced, chain-smoking, bad bottle blond who arranged her hair and loudly declared the importance of- and her unwavering allegiance to- the adult actress many, many times a day. Every utterance of the adult actress was echoed by them in some way (often simply repeated verbatim ) and every snarky, cutting comment made by her was reinforced with ugly laughter and knowing nods of agreement from the two- all of it of course executed in nausea-inducing unison. Even on days the trio was too tired or distracted to dominate the airspace within their usual 7 foot radius, their presence was toxic and most of the crew went out of their way to avoid their 'bubble'. On this night however, it was clear to everyone they were energized and ready to draw blood. In keeping with our well established unspoken protective alliance, we all stood away from them 8 feet and beyond.

The child actress was not so lucky. She waited mere inches away from the adult actress and her obsequious attendants in anticipation of filming the scene. She looked into the faces of the trio with innocence and a wide smile as she tried to find her way into their stream of shitty banter. The child actress interjected, '...is that so?' and lilted her pronunciation of  'so' ever so slightly up with a vaguely 'British' affectation. Upon hearing the verbal deviation, the adult actress's toothy smile froze upon her face into a kind of grimace. Without moving her body, she smoothly rotated the tip of her chin toward the source of the question and turned her full attention to the child. 'IS THAT SO? IS THAT SO? WHAT, ARE YOU FROM ENGLAND?!', she declared. The sycophants laughed with ugly approval. Those of us within earshot (but safely out of range...) exchanged flat, heavy-lidded, nearly imperceptible glances. The. Shit. Was. Going. Down. Again and it was a sure bet that not one of us was of the mind to divert those razor sharp words away from the child and draw a target between our own eyes. Over the walkie the 1st AD shouted, 'Okay, almost there... tighten up, people!'. The adult actress zeroed in, hooked the child by the proverbial nostrils and led her down the darkest mind-fuck she could manage in 37 seconds ('Do you have any idea what you sound like? You sound stupid! Say something else... see?! You think you're from England! Why would you speak that way? It sounds soooo fucking LAME! Hahahaha, you're stupid! Unbelievably stupid! Only an idiot would speak the way you're speaking!')- all of which was perfectly timed to reach a painful pinnacle in the same moment the 1st AD called 'ROLLING! ACTION!'.

On cue, the two actresses then took off running around the corner and down the sidewalk. The dolly carrying the camera glided flawlessly in front of them and slowed to an immaculate, weightless limo-stop just before the far corner of the block. The end of the scene found the child actress leaning breathless against the bricks of the building with a mixture of starry-eyed wonder and victory shining out of her characters eyes. Not even the tiniest thread of blood could be seen issuing from the humiliating verbal stabs she had just sustained in real life. The adult actress slid down the same wall a little further up, turned her face ever so slightly toward the lens and let the camera take in her vulnerable, complex and carefully cultivated portrayal of a person with the ability to care about the lives of others. With her big brown eyes, she beamed out earnest, unspoken questions about the wisdom and consequences her influence might have upon the young girl- take, after take, after take...