“How do you move on from something like that? I have a brother. He’s, apparently, only my half-brother, but she got pregnant with him on her own two years after I was born, and we’ve been a happy family this whole time. Finding this out, that I’m not really my dad’s blood, has devastated my whole family, and he should pay for that.”
“Okay. Great. Thanks, Kennedy,” the casting director said.
“Oh. That’s all you need?” she asked.
“That’s all for now. We’ll call Zane and let him know what we want to do from here.”
“Okay. I can do anything on video, too, if you need it,” she said, feeling like she was begging for a job, which she had never done in her career.
“I’ll walk you out,” Francine replied as she stood.
Kennedy was a little in shock here. She’d been trying to tell herself that it was possible that she wouldn’t get it. That would have been one thing, but being treated likethis, when she had been a bankable star her entire career, was something else entirely.
“Francine, what’s going on? You know I could play this part in my sleep,” she said when they were in the hallway.
“I know that. But the studio doesn’t want you.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for starters, the character is supposed to be about thirty. You’re… not that.”
“I’m only thirty-six.”
“And thirty-six-year-olds play forty and above; you know that. But Zane asked me to let you read, and I owe him one, so I did. I tried to get this done privately, but we’re behind, as usual, so we had to get you in today. I’m sorry, Kennedy.”
“So, I’m too old?”
“The lead is already decided on, and she’s younger than you, but she’s supposed to be older than what would’ve been your character, so it just wouldn’t work.”
“And that’s all it is?” she asked.
“No, it’s the other thing, too.”
“The fight?”
“You were seen screaming at your girlfriend at a party, Kennedy. Your hand was raised, from what I heard.”
“My hand was not raised.” She covered her mouth and then dropped her hand. “Is that what people are saying? That I raised my hand to my girlfriend?”
“That’s what I heard. I wasn’t there. The studio doesn’t want to deal with any of that, though.”
“I have never raised my hand to another person, let alone my girlfriend. Cameron didn’t throw a glass at a wall, either. She accidentally knocked one over, and I might have pointed at her or the woman who’d been flirting with her while I was standing a few feet away, but I’ve never raised a hand to anyone.”
“You know how this stuff happens. You just have to bide your time, do the interviews, and let it get out that you’re in therapy or something.”
“I’m not in therapy. I don’t need therapy. God, we had a stupid argument. It just happened to be in front of people. Now what, I’m supposed to just be back at square one?”
“Take some time off; you and Cameron both. I’m sure you could use it. Oh, go to the Bahamas. I just got back from there. Amazing.”
“We’ve been. We went there for one of our anniversaries. Thanks. And we’ve already talked about it: we don’t want to take time off. We just want to do our jobs.”
“Do you have to?”
“What?”
“Do you have to act? Maybe try your hand at writing or producing. Want to direct? I might be able to find you an episode of TV or something.”
“You’re tossing me a bone?”
