"Oh, right. You told me you had some news to share. I'm all ears," Owen said suddenly, sitting up a little, as if he had just remembered.
"Well, it turns out that... I landed the lead role in The Boogeyman!" Sophie blurted out.
Owen blinked once. He quickly sat up and looked at Sophie with a wide grin.
"Seriously!? The one from 20th Century? With the script based on Stephen King's short story?" he asked in surprise.
"Yeah, that one," Sophie replied, and although she tried to keep her composure, her excitement betrayed her in the form of a nervous giggle. "They gave me the part of Sadie Harper. I'm the lead."
"That's amazing, Sophie!" Owen exclaimed, taking her hands. "It's a major studio film, a King adaptation, and they chose you as the lead!"
Sophie looked at him, taken aback by his enthusiasm. She'd seen him celebrate before: Paranormal Activity being selected at Palm Springs, the sale of his script to A24, the packed screening at the festival, the first meeting to discuss distribution.
In all of those moments, his celebrations had been genuine but composed, controlled.
"You know, I think you're more excited about this than your own achievements," Sophie said, gently brushing her thumb over the back of his hand. "You're always so calm. Happy, sure, but… collected. And now look at you."
Owen chuckled softly, because she was right. "It's just… I didn't know you'd auditioned for The Boogeyman. You really caught me off guard," he explained.
"That was the point," Sophie said, raising her eyebrows with a small triumphant smile. "I wanted to surprise you. Like when you didn't tell me you'd written The Spectacular Now and uploaded it to The Black List without saying a word."
"Touché," Owen replied with a slight smile. "So, how did you get the audition?"
"My mom. She still has some contacts from the projects I did a few years back. Chicago P.D., and especially The Exorcist, helped more than I expected. Plus Paperman and the Paranormal Activity trailer, along with the good reviews from people who saw the film at the festival," Sophie explained.
"Was there much competition?" Owen asked, and Sophie nodded.
"Yeah, quite a bit. More than ten girls. Up-and-coming actresses, with résumés similar to mine," she began.
She told him she first had to send in a taped audition, then was called in for an in-person one, and finally got invited back for the callback.
A callback is the second stage in a casting process.
It means the actress passed the first test and is now competing among a smaller group of finalists.
At that point, the director, producer, or someone from the studio is usually present, since the decision is near.
It's also a way to see how the actress performs under pressure, in front of the actual team. After the callback, Sophie had to wait almost two weeks for news, at one point, she thought she hadn't made it.
But she did, and she signed a contract worth $125,000, the first major paycheck of her career.
"Whoa, now that's real money. You owe me dinner," Owen said with a grin.
"You're not doing too bad yourself, Mr. Sold a script for 65 grand and'two studios fighting over my film," Sophie said, laughing.
They both settled back on the couch, calmer now, sharing the light weight of good news.
It wasn't crazy that Sophie had landed the lead in The Boogeyman, a $35-million studio film. In productions like that, studios often look for leads who aren't huge stars yet but have proven talent and potential to grow.
The horror genre, in particular, has historically been a launchpad for emerging actresses.
Sophie wasn't an unknown, she'd worked years earlier in well-known TV shows.
And now, with her viral short Paperman and her standout performance in Paranormal Activity, a film that had surprised audiences at a major festival, she was a logical and appealing choice for producers.
She had a fresh face, emotional intensity, and enough acting range to carry the film. And thanks to her mother, Margaret, a firm and persistent agent, she got the right opportunity at the right moment.
"They told me shooting starts July 20," Sophie added. "They've already cast almost everyone. We'll have about two weeks of rehearsals before filming begins."
Owen nodded. He was genuinely happy for her, more than he'd expected to be.
Maybe because Sophie had missed out on two projects that could've catapulted her career: Prospect with Pedro Pascal, and Yellowjackets (2021). A film and a series that didn't exist in this world, meaning Sophie had never had the chance to audition for those roles, making her path that much harder.
Even so, she'd overcome that and now landed this part.
"And what about you?" Sophie asked, leaning slightly toward him. "If you close the distribution deal with A24 or Blumhouse, there'll be a few months before the movie actually comes out anywhere. Are you going to wait, or keep auditioning, or maybe make more shorts?"
She knew Owen had some money now, and if he closed a deal with A24 or Blumhouse, he could make much more. They might pay him a lump sum to acquire all rights to the film, and that could easily be over $100,000.
"I don't know… I don't think I'll keep looking for castings on Backstage," Owen replied with a thoughtful look.
Most of the roles he could get there were supporting parts.
And even though his résumé had improved significantly, the Backstage auditions were still a chaotic jungle: too much competition, low pay, and productions that, at best, ended up as forgettable movies dumped straight to streaming with no real impact.
He didn't think that with arrogance, just logic. He had a modest but solid budget.
He knew that with what he had in the bank, he could finance a new short film, or even a small feature, something better funded than Paranormal Activity.
Projects he could write himself, star in, and push through festivals, projects that would build his portfolio, his career.
It seemed more productive to invest his time creating rather than sitting in a waiting room with dozens of actors competing for a supporting, or at best, lead, role in a film destined to go unnoticed.
Besides, there was another possibility. The producer of The Spectacular Now project had told him they would call him in to audition for the lead role.
There would be competition, sure. But this was an audition for a lead role in a film produced by A24, a film Owen knew had done well in his past life, both on the festival circuit and modestly at the box office.
Sophie, however, pulled him out of his thoughts with something she'd been meaning to say for a while.
"You should take on an agent," she said softly but firmly. "It's time. Some have already approached you, haven't they?"
Owen nodded slightly.
"You have two viral shorts reviewed on Short of the Week. A critically acclaimed feature at Palm Springs. And if they're not idiots, if they did even a little digging, they already know you sold a script to A24. You could get a good rep if you looked carefully," Sophie said.
"Yeah, I know," Owen finally said, not enthusiastically, but not dismissively either.
He stood up and walked over to a small drawer in his desk. Sophie followed him with her eyes, curious.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
Owen rummaged through some papers until he found what he was looking for: a business card, folded in half.
"An agent gave it to me on the last day of the festival," Owen said, handing it to her. "Larry… I can't remember the last name. Middle-aged guy, a bit gray, dressed like he's always five minutes away from a meeting."
"Larry Andersen… Talent Agent," Sophie read from the card.
"That's the one."
Sophie looked at him, then back down at the card, frowning slightly.
"Did he catch your attention or something?" she asked, setting the card down.
"Yeah, more than the others. Larry seemed like he was trying to convince me as if his life depended on it. He saw me leaving after the third screening, said he'd watched the movie, that he'd seen Paperman and The Black Hole. He asked for a meeting with such intensity that… I only took the card so he'd leave me alone," Owen replied.
"That doesn't sound very professional, and it's not a good sign," Sophie said, frowning even more.
Owen nodded slowly. "I know. But he was the only one who didn't come up to me with that fake smile and the usual line: 'I can get you great roles.' Instead, Larry told me to call him and said he had a deal for me that wouldn't disappoint. Not an empty promise."
"Did that convince you?" Sophie asked.
"No, but it amused me, and that's why I kept the card. Now that you brought up the topic of getting an agent, I remembered it," Owen replied, shrugging.
"Mm, I see. Are you going to meet him?" Sophie asked.
"Maybe. Just to hear what that supposedly amazing deal is, the one that 'won't disappoint.' Maybe it's another empty promise. Maybe not. Who knows."
Sophie watched him silently for a few seconds, then said, "Be careful. If you want, I can come with you."
"It's fine, not necessary," Owen said with a faint smile. "I'm not going to sign anything."
Sophie stayed at Owen's apartment for a few more hours before heading back to her own. They didn't live together, so she didn't always spend the night, though the habit of sharing their days had become more and more natural between them.
When Sophie left, Owen sank into the couch.
From the coffee table, the folded business card Larry Andersen had handed him in Palm Springs stared back at him like an unfinished reminder.
He looked at it for a long while, unmoving. He could ignore it, throw it away, tuck it into a drawer and forget about it.
But something, maybe a mix of intuition and curiosity, told him he should at least hear what that insistent man had to offer.
He picked up his phone and dialed the number.
Larry answered on the second ring, as if he'd been waiting for the call for days.
"Owen? Thanks for calling! I had a feeling you would."
It didn't take five minutes for them to set up the meeting.
Tomorrow, at noon, in a café near Owen's apartment.
Owen didn't have high expectations, but he wanted to know what exactly Larry had to offer.
The next morning, he'd meet the man, then James would come by to discuss the meetings with Blumhouse and A24.
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