….
"Regal." Darren approached quietly. "He is here. Just pulled up."
"How many people saw him arrive?"
"Three. All signed NDAs. His car went straight to the private lot."
"Keep it that way."
Henry came out of the trailer, wiping stray makeup powder from his jaw.
Even though he wasn't filming this scene, the nerves were obvious, shoulders tight, breath a little shallow.
Seeing Stephen Hawking Sr. perform would rattle anyone.
…..
An hour later, he stepped out of the vanity van, fully wearing the costume of the character - and if noticed there was also a lot of makeup to make him look younger.
And he really did match the look of a young father.
The effect of his presence was immediate, even with so few people present.
Conversations stopped mid-sentence, and someone dropped a light meter.
Leo Martinez straightened unconsciously, like a soldier snapping to attention when a general entered the room.
Stephen Sr. wore Jonathan Kent's costume - work boots, canvas jacket, clothes that had seen decades of farm labor.
But somehow, he made them look dignified.
His eyes swept across the set, taking in everything with the practiced assessment of someone who had worked on hundreds of productions. Then his gaze landed on Henry.
For a moment, Stephen just looked at him.
It wasn't judging, nor sizing up - observing. Henry stood a little straighter under that gaze, and something passed between them. Recognition, maybe. One actor acknowledging another.
Then Stephen's eyes moved on, and he was shining.
Not literally, of course. But there was something about the way the morning light caught him, the way his presence seemed to expand to fill the space around him.
This was what presence meant, not demanding attention, but deserving it.
"Mr. Hawking." Regal approached carefully. "Thank you for being here."
Stephen turned, and his eyes were sharp despite his age. "You gave me pages worth showing up for." he said. "That's not something I say lightly."
"I just hope the execution lives up to what you imagined."
"So do I." Stephen smiled slightly. "Now, tell me about this scene. What are you looking for?"
They walked through the blocking together, Regal explaining the emotional beats while Stephen listened with complete focus.
"It's a memory." Regal began. "Young Clark asking his father whether he should have let those kids die to keep his secret."
"Jonathan's answer is the hinge." Regal continued. "He panics, says maybe. Then sees his son's face and immediately realizes how awful that sounds. He tries to fix it, but he doesn't actually know the right answer. And that scares him."
Stephen nodded slowly. "A father's fear that he is failing his son."
"That's the heart of it."
Stephen breathed in, as if settling into the character. "Then I know where to stand."
They ran through blocking twice more.
The young actor playing teenage Clark, a local Kansas kid named Thomas, was visibly starstruck but holding it together.
"You are doing fine." Stephen told him quietly between setups. "Just listen to what I am saying and react honestly. Don't try to act. Just be."
Thomas nodded mutely.
Regal watched this small moment of mentorship and felt something settle in his chest.
This was going to work. He didn't know how he knew, but he did.
"First team, final positions!" the first AD called.
Stephen and Thomas took their marks on the porch.
The barn door was open behind them, golden morning light streaming through. Leo had positioned the camera for a slow push-in that would end on Stephen's face during the crucial line.
Regal moved behind the monitor, settling into his chair. Around him, the skeleton crew waited in tense silence.
"Roll camera."
"Rolling."
"Action."
Thomas delivered his line, the question about whether he should have let his classmates die. His voice cracked with teenage confusion and fear.
Stephen turned to face him, and Regal saw the transformation happen in real-time. This wasn't Stephen Hawking Sr. anymore. This was Jonathan Kent, a man who had spent eighteen years preparing for this question and still had no good answer.
"Maybe." Stephen said, and the word carried the weight of every parental failure ever committed.
Thomas's face showed pure horror, not acted horror, but genuine shock at what his father had just suggested.
And that's when it happened.
Regal felt it before he understood it, that particular shift in consciousness he had experienced maybe two or three times in his entire life.
His [Direction] skill, the world-class rank ability that usually activated randomly, beyond his control.
But this time, this one time, he had triggered it deliberately.
The moment he did, he felt the world expand.
Every other time this skill had activated, actors would startle.
They would feel the sudden intensity of emotion flooding through them and try to pull back, instinctively resisting the invasion of something external shaping their performance.
But not Stephen.
His eyes snapped to Regal for a fraction of a second, recognition flaring there, and then he dove in.
He didn't resist… the feeling instead he embraced it.
And the performance that followed–
It was magnetic.
The scene playing out before them suddenly became more real.
The emotions weren't being performed; they were being lived.
Stephen's face cycled through regret, fear, desperate love for his son, and the terrible knowledge that he'd just wounded the boy he had spent his life protecting.
"No - no, that's not what I meant–" Stephen's voice cracked, Jonathan trying to claw back the words he had just released. "Clark… listen to me. You did the right thing. Of course you did."
He reached for Thomas's shoulder, fingers trembling, not from performance, but from the weight of a father realizing he has no perfect answer.
"I just…" Stephen swallowed, the improvisation settling naturally into the character. "I worry. Every day. About what happens when people learn what you can do. About the choices you will have to make. About whether I am giving you the guidance you deserve."
Thomas - young, inexperienced Thomas, responded with tears streaming down his face, not because he was trying to cry but because Stephen's performance was pulling it out of him.
"You are not failing me." Thomas whispered. "You're the best dad I could have asked for."
Stephen pulled him into a hug, and the embrace was so genuine, so filled with the desperate love of a father who knew his time with his son was finite, that even the hardened grips were blinking rapidly.
Regal sat behind the monitor, completely immersed. He could feel the skill working, could sense the emotional architecture he was building in real-time, shaping the scene into something beyond what he had written on the page.
The dialogue ended, but the moment held, Stephen still embracing Thomas, both of them caught in the reality of the scene.
Half a second passed before Regal snapped back to himself.
"Cut." His voice came out rougher than intended.
Silence.
The set was absolutely silent.
There were only maybe fifteen people present, but the quiet had nothing to do with numbers. It was the silence of people who had just witnessed something they didn't have words for.
Leo stared at the monitor, rewatching the last few seconds.
One of the ADs had tears on her cheeks. The lighting supervisor had stopped taking notes halfway through preparing for the next shot.
Henry, still shaken, didn't come over.
Actors recognize truth when they see it, and this had struck him differently, like someone had peeled open the craft and shown him something purer inside.
People started glancing at each other, trying to act normal, each one thinking it must be just me feeling this. But every face showed the same expression, stunned recognition that they had just watched something extraordinary.
Regal stood slowly and walked toward Stephen, who was releasing Thomas from the embrace.
The young kid looked dazed, like he had just surfaced from deep water.
Regal didn't know what to say.
How do you compliment a performance that has transcended performance? How do you acknowledge that you had just witnessed the kind of acting that only happens once or twice in a generation?
So he kept it simple. "That was superb. Actually more than that."
Stephen looked at him, and something passed between them, an understanding.
He had felt what Regal had done, but he didn't how it was done, and instead of resisting, had used it as a diving board into something deeper.
"I think we got what we needed for today." Regal added, his voice still not quite steady.
Stephen nodded. "Kid." He turned to Thomas. "You did well. Very well."
Then he was walking away, done with his work for the day, his part in this particular scene complete.
Leo Martinez leaned in close to Regal's side, touching his forehead. "Hey, Regal… I am sweating, I just saw something amazing today."
"Yeah." Regal managed… his heart was still betting rapidly.
Henry approached, his expression still shell-shocked.
How do you follow that? How do you share the screen with someone who could reach that deep?
"Is he..." Henry started, then stopped. "Is that what it looks like when someone's at the absolute top of the craft?"
"That's what it looks like." Regal confirmed quietly.
….
Stephen Hawking Sr. walked toward the car that would take him back to his hotel, his expression unreadable.
But his eyes were slightly wet.
It wasn't from the scene, he was too professional to carry emotional residue from the performance. No, these were different tears.
After years of retirement, wondering if that hunger was gone forever, asking himself if he would ever feel it again–
He had just found what he had been searching for.
Another step forward.
After forty years at the top, Stephen Hawking Sr. had just discovered he could still climb higher.
And that realization was worth more than every award he had ever won. Behind him, the crew slowly began moving again, resetting for the next shot.
But the energy had changed. Everyone moved a little more carefully, a little more reverently.
They had just witnessed greatness.
And they knew it.
Just then, Regal caught up to him.
"Mr. Hawking, I am really thankful for today." he said softly.
Stephen turned.
"You are going to make me cry when I watch this finished film, aren't you?"
Regal allowed the smallest smile. "That's the plan… but as things are now, I might be the first one to tear up and many more in fact."
Stephen nodded. "Tears are fine, so long as they are earned."
And then he left the set, quiet, steady, carrying the weight of a scene that everyone knew had just become legendary.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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