Friday, September 1, 2023
Inde Navarrete had spent a good part of that morning walking dogs and, around two in the afternoon, ended up at Alfred Coffee. A popular coffee shop chain founded in Los Angeles, very popular on social media and known for its famous slogan: 'But First, Coffee."
She was sitting around a small table with three friends.
All three were people she had met during her time on Superman & Lois. They had shared enough hours on set, waits between takes, and entire days shut inside trailers for the friendship to survive even after they had stopped working together.
Sitting across from her was twenty-one-year-old Jordan Elsass.
He had light brown hair, light-colored eyes, and such a youthful face that he could still easily pass for a high school student. If someone claimed he was seventeen, probably no one would have bothered questioning it.
On the show, he had played Jonathan Kent, one of Superman's sons. Jonathan was athletic, kindhearted and, unlike his brother, had started the story without any kind of superpower.
Beside him was nineteen-year-old Alexander Garfin, only a few days away from turning twenty.
His appearance contrasted quite a bit with Jordan's. He had dark hair, green eyes, and somewhat chubby features.
Alexander was still playing Jordan Kent, Superman's other son, a much more introverted teenager with social anxiety issues who, to make his life even more complicated, had inherited a considerable portion of his father's powers.
And finally, sitting beside Inde, was Tayler Buck, also nineteen.
She played Natalie Irons, John Henry Irons's daughter. A girl from an alternate Earth who appears at the end of the first season and begins having a regular role starting in the second.
Even though work had changed quite a bit for all of them since then, the four had remained friends.
At some point, they had made a sort of informal agreement: try to meet at least once a month to grab something to eat or have coffee and catch up.
Try was the important word.
There were months when they managed it without any problems, and others when, between trips, auditions, and other commitments, five or six weeks would pass before they managed to meet again.
Besides, Superman & Lois still wasn't over.
The fourth and final season had already been confirmed and was scheduled to begin filming in early 2024.
However, things would be quite different for that final batch of episodes.
Especially for Inde and Tayler.
During the previous seasons, both of them had been part of the regular or recurring cast, with contracts tied to the show's episodes. When an actor had that kind of agreement, their salary was calculated mainly on a per-episode basis, not according to the exact number of minutes they appeared on screen.
You could appear for twenty minutes in one episode and five in the next.
Your paycheck didn't shrink proportionally just because you had fewer lines.
For the fourth season, however, much of the supporting cast had been reduced to guest appearances.
That meant they were no longer guaranteed to appear throughout a large portion of the season. The production could call them in only for certain episodes or shooting days and negotiate their compensation based on those appearances.
Which meant Inde and Tayler would earn much less money compared to previous seasons, when they were paid for every episode.
The reason was budget cuts.
The CW and Warner Bros. Television had considerably reduced the budget allocated to the final season.
Alexander had been luckier.
He had managed to remain a series regular for the final season, so he would continue being paid per episode under a season contract, although his salary and the overall terms had also been adjusted because of the reduced budget.
There wasn't much doubt about the show's future either.
There would be no fifth season.
DC's new cinematic universe was already moving forward with a new version of Superman under James Gunn, so that fourth season would, definitively, serve as the show's farewell.
Jordan, on the other hand, found himself in a completely different situation.
Despite originally playing one of Superman's sons in a leading role, he had left the series in August 2022 for personal reasons.
He needed to step away for a while, clear his head, and prioritize his mental well-being before continuing to work.
He had spent practically a year away from Hollywood's usual pace.
Now he was coming back. Little by little, he had started working again.
That get-together had, in part, a fairly simple purpose: to give Inde, Tayler, and Alexander a chance to see how Jordan was doing now that, after nearly a year away, he had decided to return to work.
But that wasn't the only reason.
Because Jordan, Tayler, and Alexander had recently learned something fairly interesting.
Inde had reached the final stage of casting for a new short film from Second Take Films. This wasn't exactly just any production company.
It was Owen Ashford's company, someone who, technically, belonged to the same generation as them.
He was practically their age.
That was where the similarities ended.
In less than three years, Owen had gone from being a young actor kicked out of college to making his way through Hollywood and succeeding as an actor, screenwriter, and producer with a level of influence that was becoming pretty hard to ignore.
Oscar, Cannes, box-office hits, backend deals, the story everyone already knew.
He wasn't just a famous actor.
By this point, he was already starting to become someone with genuine power within the industry.
Jordan rested both forearms on the table and looked directly at Inde, "So..." he began, deliberately drawing out the word, "You made it to the final stage of casting for Owen Ashford's next short film?"
The other two immediately turned their attention toward her.
Inde calmly picked up her cup and took a small sip before nodding, "Yeah... although technically it would be Second Take Films' next short film," she corrected, "If you call it Owen Ashford's short film, it sounds like he's directing it, and the director is Curry Barker."
Besides, Owen wasn't acting in this one.
Alexander tilted his head slightly, "Yeah, but Owen probably wrote it and is putting up the money."
Inde opened her mouth. Then stopped, "True."
"That doesn't matter! Those are technicalities," Tayler said, leaning a little closer to her with a smile, "You're one step away from getting the role!"
"I know," Inde replied, "But I don't want to get my hopes up too much either. It's still a short film, and even if I get it, it's not like I'm going to make a ton of money."
Jordan raised an eyebrow, "You do remember it's going to be uploaded to Ashford's channel, right?"
The money was probably the least important part of the opportunity.
They could pay her two thousand, three thousand, or four thousand dollars. It barely mattered.
What really mattered was that it would be uploaded to Owen's channel.
Owen was practically the same age as them, but the professional distance between their two worlds was already enormous.
Inde, Tayler, Alexander, and Jordan were still operating mainly as young actors.
They waited for auditions and waited for calls from their agents.
Owen, on the other hand, was already sitting on the other side of the table.
He could write a story, decide to produce it, look for financing or simply put up the money himself, hire a director, and start choosing the actors he wanted in front of the camera.
He could even, if he felt like it, write a role for himself.
He hadn't done it in absolutely every one of his projects, but he had done it in several of the most important ones.
He was, quite literally, the Hollywood version of that phrase that constantly appeared all over the internet:
Be your own boss.
Inde wouldn't just be adding another credit to her résumé. She would also have the chance to make a connection with Owen and Curry Barker, a director who, from what she had researched herself, had only one professional short film under his belt at that point.
That last part made everything even more interesting.
Because if Owen had decided to trust someone with so little experience with a new Second Take Films project, it was obviously because he saw potential in him.
If Curve turned out well, Curry probably wouldn't be making short films forever.
Maybe in one or two years, Curry would be directing a feature film and looking for actors he already knew and had enjoyed working with.
Hollywood worked that way a lot of the time.
Of course, there were no guarantees either.
She could get the role, do an excellent job, and Owen might never call her again.
Same with Curry.
But even in that scenario, there was another advantage.
A much more immediate one. Millions of people were going to see her.
The short films released by Second Take Films weren't simply small projects meant to spend a few months making the festival rounds before disappearing.
They had proven to have enormous viral potential.
On top of that, they came with the channel's strong reputation: good reviews, awards, and festivals.
Because of that, depending on how well Curve performed, there was a very real possibility that more people would discover Inde through a short film barely ten minutes long than through the several seasons she had spent playing an important supporting character on a television series with a much larger budget.
That could change things in her own career as well.
Her agency already represented her. If they saw that she had landed the role and starred in a short film watched by several million people under the banner of one of Hollywood's most talked-about young producers, it could make certain casting opportunities come her way more easily.
"I know..." Inde finally said.
She lowered her gaze toward her coffee and slowly began stirring the straw around inside the cup, "I'm just trying not to think about it too much until they call me."
"Anxiety, huh? Nothing new," Tayler commented.
Alexander and Jordan nodded almost at the same time.
That, at least, was something all of them could understand perfectly.
Waiting for an answer was probably one of the worst parts of being an actor.
You sent in an audition and waited to find out whether you'd made it to the next round.
You made it through and waited again.
You reached the final auditions and then the waiting became even worse, because there weren't twenty people competing for the same role anymore.
Somewhere, someone was deciding whether it was you or the other person.
There wasn't much you could do about it.
You just kept living your life and tried not to check your phone every five minutes.
Inde nodded. That was exactly why she was trying not to make too much of it.
Naturally, her friends had no intention of leaving the subject there.
For the next few minutes, Tayler, Alexander, and Jordan began asking her more about the casting process.
How many rounds she'd gone through, when she'd started going to the Second Take Films offices in person, or whether she had met Owen personally.
Inde told them enough to partially satisfy their curiosity.
Eventually, the conversation shifted direction.
This time, Jordan became the focus. They wanted to know how he was really doing after spending that year away.
The conversation continued like that for quite a while, and at some point, their coffees stopped being hot.
Then Inde's phone vibrated on the table. None of the others paid any attention to the sound except its owner.
Inde looked down, and her heart gave a small jump. Her agent was calling.
For a second, she simply stared at the name on the screen.
They could be calling about a new audition, a commercial, or something like that.
But the most likely possibility was that it had something to do with Curve.
Inde picked up the phone and brought it to her ear, "Hello?"
The others kept talking.
Inde listened. Her expression changed almost immediately.
First, her eyes widened slightly.
Then she went completely still, and a few seconds later she blurted out, "Are you serious!?"
She had spoken much louder than she intended. The conversation around the table died instantly.
Tayler and the other two turned their heads to look at her.
Inde didn't even seem to notice. She kept listening to her agent as a smile slowly began to form on her face.
She nodded several times, "Yeah. Yeah, that's great."
She listened to a few more details before finally saying goodbye, "We'll talk later. Thank you."
She hung up.
For a moment, she kept the phone between her hands, staring at the screen and replaying the conversation in her head.
"What was it?" Tayler asked.
"I got the role," Inde replied, trying to keep her voice calm, although it didn't entirely work.
Alexander frowned slightly, "Which one?"
The question was fairly unnecessary.
Unless, of course, Inde had spent the last few weeks auditioning for another important role without telling them anything at all.
Inde couldn't stop her smile from growing a little wider, "Curve."
There was approximately half a second of silence.
"What?!" Tayler practically jumped in her seat.
"That's great!" Jordan blurted out.
Alexander let out a laugh, "Congratulations."
Tayler had already leaned toward her to hug her from the side, "I knew you were going to get it!"
"Thanks," Inde replied with a laugh, returning the hug.
She didn't stay much longer after that. She had to go back home and review all the paperwork her agent had just sent her.
The negotiation wasn't particularly complicated either.
The next day, after her representative finished handling the final details remotely with Second Take Films, Inde officially signed the contract.
Five thousand dollars.
For a short film with only two days of shooting, that wasn't bad at all.
In fact, it was considerably more than she had earned during the previous month walking dogs and streaming.
It wasn't five thousand completely clean.
Her agent took the standard ten percent, and the actual work didn't begin and end only during those two days in front of the camera.
She had already spent hours preparing for the different rounds of casting.
Now she had to study the complete material and, before filming, she had a full day set aside to rehearse with Curry.
On Monday, September 4, Inde returned to the Second Take Films offices for that rehearsal.
The script had no dialogue. But that didn't mean the work was easier.
Curve would run for around ten minutes.
For that entire time, she would be the only person on screen and wouldn't say a single word.
There were no monologues to memorize, and there were no conversations with another actor for her to rely on.
Everything had to come from her body, her breathing, her eyes, the fear contained in an expression, and things like that.
That made every gesture part of the performance.
Even something as small as looking toward a certain place could happen too early, too late, or with too much intensity.
That was exactly what Curry worked on during the rehearsal. She had to act with just enough. One of the risks of acting without dialogue was trying to compensate by exaggerating everything.
For Inde, it ended up being much more technical than she had imagined when she had only read the scenes they sent her during the different stages of casting.
The following day, Tuesday, Inde woke up early and headed to the location where filming would take place over the next two days.
'They're going to be two intense days,' she thought as she arrived at the soundstage.
Luckily, it was relatively close to her apartment. Barely fifteen minutes by car.
But the moment she walked through the entrance, she understood that this looked very different from what many people might picture when they thought of a short film.
It wasn't a student production.
It wasn't a YouTube video with a couple of lights and a rented camera.
There were crew members moving back and forth, lighting equipment, cameras, monitors, cables, rigs, security personnel, and several people busy with different tasks at the same time.
Everything was organized with a surprisingly professional level of precision, and at the center of it all was the main set.
Inde slowed her pace slightly. There it was: the ramp.
A massive inclined surface built over a steel and wooden framework, then covered with a material designed to look like smooth concrete.
At first glance, it looked like an enormous wall that had fallen sideways.
It had an incline of roughly thirty-five degrees.
Inde stared at it for a few seconds.
From where she stood, she could already tell that remaining upright on it wouldn't be possible.
Her gaze slowly traveled up the structure until it reached the top.
Then she noticed a series of pipes and nozzles positioned above the set.
'Is that what makes the rain?' she thought.
Probably.
After spending several minutes struggling to stay on that surface and trying not to fall into the void, the protagonist finally seemed to find a relatively safe position.
For a few seconds, it looked like she had made it. Then it started raining. As if the universe had personally decided to mock her.
The water made the surface even more slippery. Eventually, she ended up falling into the darkness.
Inde lowered her gaze toward the bottom of the structure.
Naturally, there was no actual void there.
There was a large safety area prepared with crash mats, protective padding, and personnel assigned to supervise the falls.
The endless darkness would come later with CGI.
"Hey."
Inde heard a voice behind her.
She had been standing still for several seconds, observing the structure from a distance. Farther ahead, she could see Curry talking to a few crew members while they checked something near the set.
She turned around and immediately recognized the person standing in front of her: Owen.
Inde felt a small knot form in her stomach.
She hadn't expected to get nervous.
Throughout the entire casting process, she had barely interacted with him.
Owen had been involved in some of the decisions and was obviously following the project, but he hadn't been sitting in on every audition or personally directing the tests.
Most of Inde's contact during those weeks had been with Curry and the small team handling casting.
She hadn't seen him during the rehearsal the day before either.
That had even made her wonder whether he would actually be present during filming.
Now she knew the answer.
"H-hi," Inde greeted him.
Perfect.
Not even ten seconds had passed and she had already stuttered.
Owen smiled slightly, "You're early," he commented, briefly glancing at his watch.
"Yeah. I preferred to get here with time to spare," Inde replied in a somewhat quiet voice.
Owen gave a small nod and started walking toward the center of the soundstage.
Inde followed him.
"Incredible, isn't it?" he said, looking toward the main set.
He had obviously noticed that she had spent several seconds standing still and taking everything in.
Inde looked back at the enormous ramp, "Yeah. It can't have been easy to build this."
Owen let out a short laugh without much humor, "It wasn't. That damn ramp was a lot more complicated than I imagined when I wrote the script."
Inde smiled.
That, she could believe.
On paper, it probably sounded simple.
A woman trapped on an inclined surface. Rain and a fall, only ten minutes.
Simple, right?
Then came the small detail of having to physically build the whole thing without killing the actress in the process.
It hadn't been cheap either.
Curve's budget would end up being around sixty-five thousand dollars.
For an independent production barely ten minutes long, it was a considerable amount of money.
Most professional short films trying to make the festival circuit worked with much more modest budgets. Five thousand. Ten thousand. Maybe twenty thousand dollars if the project had some backing.
Curve was well above that. But all you had to do was look around to understand where the money had gone.
Inde looked back at Owen.
There was something she had wanted to ask him ever since she first read the script.
How did you come up with this?
It wasn't exactly the kind of story that just came to you out of nowhere.
But before she could decide whether to ask, they had already reached Curry.
He was standing beside Cooper and two members of the technical crew, reviewing something on a tablet.
Curry was the first to notice them.
His expression changed immediately, "Inde! Owen!"
Owen slightly raised the coffee cup he was holding in one hand in greeting and took the last sip, "If you want, go over what you did yesterday, whatever you need before we start. I'm going to make sure everything here is ready."
Curry nodded, "Yes, perfect, thanks."
Owen greeted people as he passed them. He stopped for a little longer with Eric and Tyler, his two friends he had been working with since Paranormal Activity.
"Looks like you were up late," Eric said, noticing the bags under Owen's eyes.
"Yeah. Matt had me talking about Chronicle over Zoom for hours," Owen sighed, making Eric and Tyler laugh.
As Inde walked away to get ready with Curry, she gave Owen one last glance.
The image was strange. One of Hollywood's most recognizable young stars, someone who could probably already be called a multimillionaire without too much exaggeration.
He had the kind of profile that could make you imagine someone arriving on set five minutes before shooting started, surrounded by assistants and letting other people handle all the boring details.
But that wasn't how he was.
After the initial preparations, it was finally time for the first take.
Inde went through makeup and wardrobe before the safety crew fitted her with the harness.
Then she climbed onto the structure, and that was when everything felt very different from seeing it from below.
The ramp was uncomfortable enough on its own, but the edge was elevated almost three meters above the floor.
Inde looked down.
They had set up a huge area of safety mats underneath, and she was also wearing a harness connected to a system capable of stopping her immediately if she lost her balance.
She knew that. They had explained it to her several times.
Even so, 'That's pretty high,' she thought.
It wasn't fear, exactly. More like a slight sense of vertigo that appeared when the brain saw a fall even though, rationally, you knew you were safe.
The height was necessary for the shot.
The camera needed to be positioned in a way that, when framing Inde from certain angles, the edge of the structure had a real drop beneath it. That helped preserve perspective, depth, and a physical sense of emptiness that would later be much easier to extend digitally.
A safety coordinator controlled the cable through a restraint and counterweight system.
During takes, it wasn't completely loose.
It maintained just the right amount of tension.
Enough to protect her, but not so much that it artificially supported her on the slope.
Inde still had to support her own weight. Every small slip was real.
And if at any point she truly lost control, the system would stop the fall before she reached the ground.
Later, during post-production, the visual effects team would digitally remove the cable and any visible part of the harness frame by frame.
The first day went better than expected.
Curry looked for small variations in the performance, while Owen watched a large portion of the takes from the monitors without interfering.
They filmed for almost eleven hours. Inde was exhausted by the time they finished, but she was satisfied with her work, and it had also been fun.
There was still one final day left.
The one considered difficult because of the rain.
Wednesday arrived.
The surface, which had already been difficult when dry, became something completely different once the nozzles began pouring water over it.
Inde's hair stuck to her face. Her clothes started to grow heavy.
Her hands slipped.
The ragged breathing stopped requiring much acting, and precisely because of that, some of the best takes came from that day.
Hours later, they finally got the last shot they needed.
"Cut!" Curry said, looking at the monitor, "We got it!"
Almost everyone on the crew applauded. As always, Tyler and Eric were the loudest.
Inde let out the breath she had been holding and allowed herself to relax for the first time in several minutes.
They were done.
Owen had to admit that Inde had surprised him. She never seemed like she was trying to prove that she was acting.
She simply reacted.
Curry had chosen a very good actress.
After the final slate, Owen remained there for a few moments with his hands resting on his hips, staring at the enormous structure occupying a large portion of the soundstage.
Cooper approached him from the side, "Thinking about where you're going to store that monster?"
Owen let out a small laugh, "Yeah. I can't just throw it away. That damn thing cost too much money."
"Of course you can't throw it away," Cooper replied, "In ten years it'll be a collector's item. «The original Curve ramp. Do not touch»."
Owen looked at him, "Good point," he conceded.
He remembered the house/museum he had visited with Guillermo.
The problem was that this was a considerably large ramp. If Owen brought it home, Jenna would kill him.
Maybe he was exaggerating her reaction.
Owen pulled his phone out of his pocket. Around him, the crew had already begun the teardown process.
The different pieces of technical equipment had to be loaded up and removed from the location.
Owen didn't have much to do there. That was what he had hired a crew for. There was no point in carrying heavy structures around just to prove he was a good boss.
"What's your Instagram?" Owen suddenly asked.
Cooper turned his head toward him, "Mine?"
"Yeah," Owen replied without looking away from his phone.
Cooper blinked, clearly not expecting the question.
Then he gave him his username.
Owen started typing it in. At that moment, Curry walked over to them.
Inde was beside him.
Her hair was still damp from the final takes under the rain, and she had a large white towel wrapped around her shoulders as she tried to dry herself off.
Curry looked pretty satisfied, "Well," he said when he reached them, "We're officially done. That was great."
"It really was, man!" Cooper replied, enthusiastically patting him on the shoulder.
The two of them had been making sketches and small videos together for the internet for a while. Their first short film, The Chair, had been made with practically nothing, less than a thousand dollars, friends helping out, and a minimal crew.
Curve was still a short film.
But it was in a completely different category.
For Curry, this was probably the closest he had come so far to directing a real production.
Owen looked at him and Inde, "What are your Instagram handles?"
Inde and Curry stared at him for a couple of seconds.
"My Instagram?" Curry asked.
"Yeah."
They both eventually gave him their usernames.
Owen quickly typed something into his phone.
"Why?" Curry asked afterward, when he saw that Owen wasn't offering any explanation.
Owen kept moving his fingers across the screen, "I'm going to post something and tag you guys."
That made Cooper raise his eyebrows slightly.
Inde went still as well.
Owen finished doing something, then turned the phone toward the three of them, "First, tell me if you have any problem with any of the pictures."
Curry took the phone.
Owen had selected five.
They all remembered seeing him take a few photos during the two days of filming, but none of them had thought much about it.
The first showed Owen, Curry, and Inde together near the ramp.
In another, Curry and Cooper were reviewing one of the monitors while Owen took a selfie with them in the background.
They were good pictures.
Cooper looked at the screen and swallowed.
Inde, standing beside him, noticed. Although she wasn't in a very different position herself.
"They're fine by me," Curry said after looking through them.
Cooper nodded.
Inde looked again at one of the photos she appeared in, "Yeah. They're great. I don't mind if you post them."
Owen took the phone back, "Perfect. Now that I have everyone's legal and emotional consent..."
Cooper laughed, "How considerate."
"I'm a professional, and besides, we need some early marketing," Owen said, typing on his phone.
A few seconds later, he posted it.
📸 Filming wrapped 💀
Next short film coming soon...
1/10 🎃
That was it. Owen put his phone away as if he had just done something completely ordinary.
Inde and Cooper didn't see it that way. They wanted to pull out their phones and check Instagram, but they didn't, or they would have looked far too desperate.
Both of them followed Owen's account. Inde remembered seeing his last major post, a carousel of behind-the-scenes photos from the filming of Black Mirror.
It had ended up surpassing six million likes.
She was clearly visible in two of the photos, and Owen had tagged her.
Anyone who tapped on the photo could go directly to her profile.
The amount of exposure that could come from that was enormous, and the short film hadn't even been released yet.
Owen ended up leaving not long afterward.
It was already around seven in the evening and, although part of the crew was still working, it was obvious they weren't going to tear everything down that same night.
The ramp, especially, was another problem. Owen still had to find somewhere to store it.
Before leaving, he said goodbye to Curry, Cooper, Inde, Eric, and a few members of the crew who were still there.
Inde ended up leaving shortly afterward as well.
Curry and Cooper were among the last to leave.
By the time they both reached the parking lot, the sky was already completely dark.
Curry unlocked his car and dropped into the driver's seat.
Cooper got in on the other side and closed the door behind him.
For a few seconds, neither of them said anything. Two full days of running back and forth.
Cooper put on his seat belt, "Now comes post-production, huh?"
"Yeah," Curry replied as he turned the key and started the engine, "We've got plenty of time."
That was an advantage.
The release was set for October first. They didn't need to rush. They could work calmly.
If everything moved forward the way they expected, they would probably have an almost finished version sometime between September twentieth and twenty-second.
That would still leave them more than a week of breathing room before release.
Much better than exporting the final version the night before.
Cooper rested his head against the seat, "So when are you going to show Obsession to Owen?"
Curry kept his eyes on the road ahead. There was the other matter. His first feature-length script: Obsession.
A horror film and, at least according to Cooper, a very good script.
"Not yet," Curry replied, shaking his head slightly, "I want Owen to see the finished short first. I want him to see exactly what we did with the money, with the crew, and with everything he gave us."
Pitching him another project now could seem rushed.
Almost as if they hadn't even finished the current job and Curry was already trying to sell him the next one.
He preferred to close one thing before opening another.
He wasn't planning to wait until the public release.
That wasn't necessary either.
Owen would see the finished short before anyone else and, if his reaction was good, that would be the moment.
"Do you see Inde as Nikki?" Cooper asked with a curious expression.
He had read all of Obsession and, to him, there wasn't much doubt about which role was the hardest in the script.
Nikki.
She was the female lead.
Bear was a lead too, of course, but emotionally the movie depended much more on her.
She was the character who required the most acting range.
Curry stayed silent for a few seconds, "Yeah... I can picture her," he finally said, "She's very good."
He had watched her throughout the entire process.
First during the auditions.
Then during rehearsal, and finally over two full days of filming under fairly demanding physical conditions.
Inde was a good actress. At some point, almost without realizing it, Curry had started imagining her in Obsession. As Nikki.
She had the range. The age worked, and she had also proven something that, to him, was almost just as important: she was professional.
She showed up prepared, gave everything during rehearsals, and listened to direction and corrections.
Off camera, she was relaxed, polite, and pretty funny. Working with her had been easy.
That mattered.
Especially when you were thinking about spending several weeks shooting a feature film with someone.
Cooper nodded slowly. Then something seemed to occur to him, "And do you see Owen as Bear?"
Curry let out a dry laugh, "Yeah, sure. Why not."
Cooper smiled, "What? Did I say something wrong?"
"The guy is the second-youngest actor ever to win Best Actor at Cannes, he'll probably end up getting nominated for an Oscar, and he's going to want to star in my first movie while I tell him how to act," Curry said, shaking his head.
Cooper started laughing, "When you put it like that..."
Imagining Owen being interested in Obsession as a producer was one thing.
That, Curry could see. It wasn't a certainty. Not even close. But it was plausible.
Owen had money. Exactly how much was another question.
Between the IP sale, acting salaries, brand deals, and especially the box-office percentages he had retained on several of his projects, no one outside his financial circle really knew how much he had accumulated.
But it was clear that he had the ability to finance an independent movie if he wanted to, and Obsession didn't need a monstrous budget either.
Depending on how they wanted to approach it, it could be made for a million dollars or less.
Even five million would still be, for someone in Owen's position, a relatively small bet compared to the movies he had already made.
Besides, Owen himself had reached out to him and hired him to direct Curve. It wasn't strange to think he might bet on him again.
But starring in it was different.
Curry lightly drummed his fingers against the steering wheel.
Having Owen as Bear would be almost ridiculous from a commercial standpoint.
An actor of his level leading a low-budget horror movie would mean immediate attention.
A trailer that wouldn't have to struggle to find an audience, and if the movie cost very little, it wouldn't even need a massive box office to become a success.
But that was precisely why Curry thought it would be difficult. Owen surely already had his own projects and outside projects lined up.
Why would he want to spend several weeks of his schedule starring in the first movie of a director who had just made his second short film?
There was another issue Curry couldn't ignore.
Directing him.
Until now, Owen had been his producer.
In a sense, his boss.
Having to direct him, give him notes, or correct him... he had no idea what Owen would be like taking direction from someone with less experience than him.
"Yeah..." Cooper finally admitted, "The Owen part is definitely pretty hard."
He remained thoughtful for a few seconds.
Then he smiled.
A smile Curry immediately recognized.
It was the smile of someone about to say something stupid.
"What?"
"Jenna Ortega as Nikki," Cooper said.
"Owen as Bear. Jenna as Nikki," Cooper finished the thought, "Two hundred million dollars at the box office. We beat Paranormal Activity."
Curry couldn't hold back his laughter, "You're becoming a very good dreamer, Max."
Cooper laughed, understanding the reference.
It was a line from The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
The car slowly disappeared among the nighttime lights of Los Angeles.
Filming on Curve was over.
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