James DeMonaco had been having quite a tumultuous few weeks, his script had been approved at Blumhouse and they had even given him a budget of 6 million dollars for him to direct it himself, but then all of a sudden, an executive that had been on vacation, saw the project and deeming it too controversial, convinced the studio to slash the budget in half, thankfully he had still been able to make it work and Ethan Hawke had also accepted the main lead in the movie, then Blumhouse decided to cast a wider net for the role of the boy, he had planned for him to be a 11 year old boy, but now they wanted him to change it to whatever actor fit in the most.
He knew that this technically made sense but it still hurt him to have to go and change his script he had been writing and preparing for so long.
"At least they're letting me cast whoever I want," he thought.
Due to this, he had been watching auditions for the past two weeks, all the pre-production had already been done and filming would start at the beginning of August lasting until the 20th if everything went as planned.
Today they had watched the auditions for the role of Charlie, they were now going to rewatch every audition they had liked and decide who was going to be cast.
"Alright so we have 3 guys we decided to keep, first off is Max Burkholder, he's been in quite a few small movies, has a lot of experience and could pull it off." she said, "However he's also the least good actor among the three, he's basically just good enough."
"Yeah that's true, I personally like Timothee more, though he's 17 he also looks quite young, and could pull off a 14-15 years old convincingly, he's also been in a few tv shows, most notably Law & Order as well as Homeland this year." introduced John.
"Lastly there's also Xavier Wilson, pretty much a total newbie, though he has done a lot of extra work his biggest roles to date are being the tribute from District six in the first Hunger Games movie and a secondary victim in an episode of Law & Order: SVU five years ago." finished Lisa. "So who do you guys think we should pick?"
"I think we should go with Xavier, he was the best among the three in terms of pure performance." said Lisa.
"He's a total rookie though" countered John. "What if he freaks out on set ?"
"He won't, you saw his profile, it said he just came back from a bigger role in London."
"Still that doesn't mean anything." replied John. "Timothee is the best choice, I stand by that."
"His Agent is Brian Swardstrom though and you know how that vulture is, he'll fucking bleed us dry for more money, that's how he's represented so many big stars in the past.." interjected James DeMonaco, having readjusted his budget, he knew the cast expenses had to be under 80k for it to work, for this role in particular, he couldn't offer more than 8k it was the absolute maximum. Even Ethan Hawke had only taken an upfront salary of 10k.
"Also both Max and Timothee come from families with connections to the industry, they won't be baited for less than what they know they can get." continued Lisa, holding firm on her favorite being Xavier.
James, however, hesitated, in truth, his favorite was Max, he still wanted to do his script with an 11 year old, but it was also true that Xavier had given the best performance, adding flinches, biting anxiously his fingers, but more importantly the look in his eyes had been absolutely captivating, the anxiousness mixed with hesitation but also a flicker of determination had all been seen in his green eyes that made you want to look at him just a little longer. He had given the perfect performance of a scared boy, and even though he was quite tall, it was nothing camera angles couldn't fix, with his face alone you would argue that he was 14 or 15, it worked perfectly in truth.
"Alright let's reach out to Xavier's Agent," said James, sensing John wanting to argue, he put his hand up and said, " We are starting in only a few days, the table read itself is on the 28th, three days from now, we will reach out to him first offer him 5k and make it known that that's the only offer they're getting, if they refuse we pass on to the next, alright?" Yes James was planning on saving three thousand dollars if he could, it could be used to make the blood more realistic or something along those lines.
"Okay! No problem." replied Lisa, happy her choice got picked.
"Fine," said John.
(Break)
I woke up the day after the audition and went on a run before doing some stretches in our living room. If I wanted to stay in shape I had to keep moving so I tried to go running as much as I could and would usually go to the gym at least three times a week. As I was making myself breakfast, though considering the fact that it was 11 AM it would likely be brunch, my phone rang, it was James, his agent.
"Hey James…soooo do you have any news." I asked.
"Hi Xavier, also not even a hello?" teased James.
"James…come on, are we going to do this every goddamn time I audition for something." I groaned.
"Alright, alright, don't worry you got the part." chuckled James.
"Holy shit, really ?" I replied, standing up in excitement.
"Yes really, I promise," said James patiently.
"Alright, okay great, yes, when can we meet ?" I asked , silently cheering.
"Can you and your father come to my office now? We can meet at the usual cafe." replied James.
"We can arrive at 3, he's busy until then." I replied, remembering he had a contract to fill today.
"Alright, I'll see you then." stated James and then hung up.
I quickly sent a text to my dad to meet at the UTA office. He had told me yesterday that he had decided to restart working a little earlier since he was already back, so he had accepted a contract in this building in Century City where an elevator was having problems.
For the rest of the day until then, I went to the gym, then went for a swim to relax at our local public pool before finally taking the bus to meet James. While coming out of the bus I saw my dad waiting at the entrance where I joined him.
"Hey dad," I said, giving him a hug.
"Hey kid! Congratulations on getting the part." he replied, ruffling my hair.
I texted James we were there and he soon came out of the building, we walked to the cafe near the building and got a table a bit further from everyone else's before he started talking.
"So you got the part, it's luckily going to be filmed in LA and it's going to be a very short but intense shoot. They don't have the money to keep it going for more than 19 days so the shooting time could extend to 8 hours or more." said James.
"The filming itself will take place inside only one house in Indian Falls, your scenes are from the 1st to the 10th." he continued.
"Okay that's great ! I can just go back home at the end of the day." I stated, then I hesitated a bit before continuing with. "Also, again, If the offer is good enough just take it, the most important thing is to get the role."
James sighed,"You don't have to worry about that, just tell me how much you want."
"I would honestly be fine with like 1000 dollars if that's what they offered." I said, James frowned at that but before he could interrupt I continued and said, "Try to get a bonus for me based on the box office instead. It'll be easier to get and we could probably get more money like that anyway, even if it doesn't come anytime soon.."
He looked at me, hesitating and said, "You know the film could flop right? Nothing guarantees it'll be successful."
"But I also know it won't affect me too much either since I'm a nobody, and you wouldn't have let me audition if you thought the movie wouldn't have been able to succeed, anyway I bet everyone will have that kind of clause so what's the problem ?" I replied, looking straight at him. "Listen, you understand the bottom line of these people better than me, but since I got this role, I am absolutely playing it. Right now the only thing I want to do with this role is to build myself a resume people can look at whenever I audition for something. We can make more money together when I've become famous, alright ?"
James sighed, "You make it difficult to believe you're only fifteen whenever you speak like this…but fine I'll do it your way."
I smiled at that, wanting to ease the atmosphere a bit I said, "Thanks James, I promise I won't switch agents when I become rich and famous."
He laughed at that, as did my father. We continued speaking a little before me and dad went back home together.
Once at home, I took the time to read the full script I had just received. The premise was pretty interesting and a lot of scenes seemed genuinely freaky not because of how crazy it was but because of how real it seemed. Other than that my character had been adjusted from being an 11 year old to being the twin brother of whoever was playing the daughter.
While reading however, I realised something, James had said that the only roles left to fill were those of the older boyfriend and of the Purgers.
"Ethan and Alex are pretty tall, they could probably get one of those roles easily." I thought.
I sent a text to Ethan first, [Hey bro, just got the role I told you about ! You should ask James if he can get you a role in the movie. There's a few roles left I think you could get. Text him ASAP tho.]
I then texted Alex more or less the same thing with a bit more info to help him of course, since he wasn't in the same agency . They both answered immediately that they would look into it.
A few minutes later, without prompting, I suddenly received a text from James, [My sweet client, do you think I'm a rookie ? I had already planned on making Ethan audition for one of the Purgers roles.]
I chuckled at that, of course he did, still I decided to be a bit pushy for my friend and replied, [You should make him audition for the role of the older boyfriend as well, he could get it. You know it.]
He simply replied, [You make me exhausted, kid. Also you do know I'm the one supposed to fight for roles for him right?]
I replied [Ik, but I also know I should help my boy as much as I can lol.]
[Alright, wtv, I'll see what I can do.] he finished.
"Nice !" I thought, truthfully, the fact of the matter was that the two of them lived in LA so they were ideal picks for the production, plus the fact that my two best friends could be on set with me would be pretty cool.
(Break)
The days passed quickly, I reread and practiced my lines as much as I could. I did not want to freeze again once I was on set after all. I met James again, where he told me I was going to be paid 5k upfront for the movie but I would receive a 50k bonus if the movie made more than 30 million at the Box Office and 50k more for every 10 million it passes.
I was surprised that they accepted such a deal until James pointed out that at 30 million dollars in Box Office they would have already remade 10 times their budget, which was fair I guess.
The day before the table read, Ethan texted me and Alex wanting to hang out. Normally I would've said no since I was preparing for a role but these two hadn't told me anything about the auditions they passed and whether or not they got a role, so I decided to go.
Ethan came to pick me up with his ugly car again before we went to the food court of the Burbank Town Center. We ordered some food and went to sit in a more secluded area before I finally said, "So are you two fuckers going to tell me if you got roles for the Purge ? Or auditioned at all ?"
Ethan and Alex looked at each other before they burst out laughing.
"Alright, damn we'll tell you." said Alex, smiling teasingly at me. "I got cast."
I turned to Ethan, wanting to hear his answer as well, he simply smiled at me and replied, "I got cast too."
I got up, shocked, "Are you guys serious?"
"Completely" replied Ethan, also smiling.
"Bro that's crazy, what role did you guys get?" I asked.
"I got the role of the older boyfriend" said Ethan, smiling proudly.
"And I got cast in the role of the Head Purger." conitnued Alex.
I gaped at him, surprised, "The Head Purger ? Didn't they want an adult for that role ?"
Alex laughed at that, "He wanted him to look like privileged, wealthy and sadistic young adults to contrast with Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey's characters, not necessarily adults though."
"Nice ! This is great! We can spend the rest of summer on set together now." I said smiling.
Yup though you'll be spending the most time out of the three of us on set, I'll only be there for five days and Ethan is only there for three." said Alex, teasing me.
"Oh well, still I'm only there for ten days so it's not that much more than you guys." I reassured him.
"Anyways you guys want to go watch the new Step Up movie ? It just came out and it seems to be pretty good from what I've heard." said Ethan, changing the subject.
"Yeah I'm up for it" said Alex
"I'm down." I replied, the Step Up movies were pure fun, I liked watching them.
We got up and moved towards the AMC theater that was in the mall.
"Do you guys think doing dance classes would help us get more roles or nah ?" asked Alex.
"Do you have the money or time for that because I don't." said Ethan sarcastically. "I'm already squeezing out time to go to the MMA and acting classes because of my job. I don't need to add another thing to that."
"Well I do have the money for that now so maybe I'll take some, who knows ?" I replied smugly, to which the two of them replied by putting me in a headlock and swearing at me like drunken sailors, and making me pay for their tickets.