Chapter 6: Reaction and the script
It had been two agonisingly long weeks since Sakura had met with Eriol Hiiragizawa and not only was Sakura worried about her role in the movie, but her head was filled with dreamy thoughts about the handsome young director. He eventually called her agent after two weeks, and said that the groundwork had been completely laid and he requested another meeting to discuss character development and the film itself as well as co-stars and general ideas that could be added or taken away from the final script. Sakura was lying on her bed in her townhouse apartment, when she heard the phone ringing. Answering quickly, Marlon told her of the arrangements and she almost jumped for joy. She had another "date" with Eriol Hiiragizawa.
She dressed herself up as sophisticated as she possibly could, in a long black skirt and a fitted white dress shirt with a low-cut open collar and long sleeves. Her hair was left loose and straight and she wore a light touch of make-up to appear as natural as possible. She wore comfortable black boots that went and inch above her ankles and accessorised with silver jewellery to match the silver zippers on the boots.
Dressed to impress, she headed over to the place that Marlon wrote down on a card, a place called "Café Crème". Sakura was surprised to see such a cosy, old-fashioned looking café rather than a trendy modern building, but nonetheless she walked in as confidently and coolly as she could.
Mr Hiiragizawa stood up from his chair at the back of the café and waved her over, and blushing at the sight of him, she walked over.
"Good afternoon Mr Hiiragizawa." She said politely, bowing a little. He bowed back asking her how she was feeling, and motioned for her to sit down. As they both sat down, Sakura confided in him how nervous she really was.
"I haven't done a film of this style before and I'm still not sure that I am right for it."
Eriol shook his head.
"Nonsense Sakura. You are a talented actress and all you need is to tap into the character and you will be perfect. Your worries are natural given the situation, however I hope to alleviate your nerves by surrounding you with an experienced cast and crew who should support you throughout the film." Sakura blushed and thanked him for his helpful words.
"Now, to make you feel a bit better, I have a present for you."
Sakura's eyes widened in surprise and she found herself blushing again. He got her a gift? She was about to say that he shouldn't have bought her a gift, but he placed a thick booklet onto the table and moved it towards her.
"There you go. It is the preliminary script. It may be subject to change, especially once I have words with all the cast and some crew members and find things that work better for individuals, but it is to get the jist of the plot and learn a few lines, maybe work on improvising them and such." Sakura was a little disappointed at it not being a gift for her alone and was a little embarrassed for thinking he would single her out like that. She looked up at him and he was flashing his handsome smile again. She felt like melting.
"Now, Sakura, I had a look at your flexography and I noticed that, as you say, you've done nothing like this before, and your films have a lack of adult themes in which are present in this type of film. More specifically, I mean there are some... raunchy scenes in this film. The main protagonists do have a sexual encounter."
Sakura couldn't help but blush bright red and her eyes widened a lot, which made Eriol chuckle a little. She looked like a frightened red rabbit.
"I'd like to put your mind at ease. The scene is not as scary as it sounds. You don't have to be totally naked. You don't have to actually have sex and it will be the crew's job to make you as comfortable as possible during shooting. It should be about six or seven hours filming to get the entire scene shot, as it's not very long and you co-star is experienced in this kind of scene so he will be able to help you through with tips and so on." Sakura didn't feel that much better about it, but something about the way Eriol Hiiragizawa looked at her and the way he said it did make her feel a little more at ease, as though in time she would be alright with it. Then a thought occurred to her.
"Mr Hiiragizawa?"
"Please, Sakura, call me Eriol." He smiled friendlily. She blushed a little.
"Eriol... Who is my co-star, if you don't mind me asking?"
Eriol laughed.
"Of course I don't mind you asking. Your co-star is Syaoran Li, a good friend of mine, and I understand that you know each other, so I thought the casting you together would be perfect."
Sakura froze. Syaoran Li? Syaoran Li!
"He really isn't that bad a guy. He's very talented as well, and I think you two will get along famously." He beamed, knowing fine well how they'd get on and finding it all highly amusing.
Sakura lowered her head and closed her eyes, holding back frustration and anger. In a low voice she asked if she could be please quit the film, as she could not possibly work with Syaoran Li.
"I'm afraid that would not be possible, Sakura. You signed a contract and it can't be broken for that kind of reason, otherwise you'd owe me a lot of money for wasting my time, and I don't want us to become enemies over money. I'd quite like to remain friends with you."
"But Li was not a friend of mine at school. He was... More like a rival. We had this hate-hate relationship and I'm afraid I can't forgive him for what he has done to me in the past. I just cannot play the part of a character falling in love with his character when I dislike him so much. I'm not that good an actress!"
Eriol shook his head saying how he disagreed and believed she was fully capable of playing the character.
"We just need to find your character first. We can make her similar to yourself, with your own strengths. I'd say we could make her a sweet young woman whose inner strength and determination win men's hearts. I've heard you are strong when it comes to what you believe in, and that when you go for something you put your all into it until you get it."
"Who told you…"
"Ah, I do not give names to my sources, but they are a reliable source, and I fully believe it having met with you. You have something about you Sakura, and I know this film will be a success with you in." Sakura blushed and thanked him, almost smiling, then she looked into his dark blue eyes and the anger and fear melted away and she felt at ease.
"Now, back to the details of the film…"
So half an hour and two cups of coffee later, Sakura and Eriol had created the role of Samantha Vanet, the Drug Baron's daughter and fiancée to drug dealer Miguel Lopez.
She was a curious, intelligent young woman who often got carried away by her feelings. She was determined and strong, and willing to stick up for what she believed in, but subservient to the strong men in her life, her father and her fiancé, as a result of her mother's death at the hands of a man in a violent beating. Sakura felt she could connect to aspects of her character, especially the sense of loss, having too lost her mother, though thankfully under less violent circumstances. They discussed other characters and how her character would react to and interact with them, and Sakura began to feel more at ease with the film. She could actually see herself enjoying creating this new image of herself, and part of her could hardly wait to get started, thanks to the passionate descriptions Eriol gave of what he wanted doing with the film. He clearly enjoyed his work as director and knew a lot about film. It inspired confidence in Sakura to be working with such a passionate man. She departed from the café however, with the thought of working with Syaoran creeping back to worry her. Leaving Eriol's presence seemed to bring out the unease once more. She hoped that her next meeting with him would be soon; otherwise she might scare herself out of the film regardless of financial loss.
Eriol got out of his car at the foot of a great tower of flats. He knew it would be a long trip up to the top floor penthouse suite that Syaoran owned, but figured it would be worth it to see Syaoran's face when he gave him this surprise visit. It was a long ride in the elevator to the top floor, but he managed to whistle away the minutes and was soon outside the door to Syaoran's room. He knocked on and waited. After some rustling of keys the door opened and a messy looking Syaoran opened the door.
"You!" He growled, and almost closed the door on him, but Eriol put his foot in the door and pushed his way in.
"Nice of you to invite me in Syao-kun."
"What? No "Syao-chan" today? Just "Syao-kun"? Well it's an improvement at least. I'd rather you just call me Syaoran though, or if you have to add suffixes, make it "Syaoran-sama" or even "Syaoran-ou-sama""
Eriol laughed and vowed he would never ever call Syaoran "King Syaoran" in a million years, even if he was King, and Syaoran said he could well believe him.
"So what do you want? You woke me up from my nap." The messy haired actor complained.
"Sorry for interrupting your beauty sleep, as you clearly need it." Eriol said slyly, "but I have come with your script. Also I bring news of Sakura-chan and her reaction to finding you as her co-star."
Syaoran, who had sat down on his sofa, woke up, stopping rubbing his stubble-covered chin and paying full attention to Eriol who threw down the preliminary script into Syaoran's lap and sat down himself in a chair opposite.
"So, Eriol, how'd she take it? Did she burst out crying?" Syaoran laughed.
"She did look close to tears. But no. She was rather professional about it. She requested politely to quit the film but as the contract was signed I couldn't allow her, although she looked so distressed I did feel for her and would have let her go, if I didn't have this strong feeling you guys would work well together."
Syaoran raised his eyebrow sceptically.
"You have no idea how wrong you are. We, in no way work well together."
"Why is that then?" Eriol asked, intrigued.
"Because I can't help but tease her. I do anything I can to piss her off, and with me, it doesn't take much to get the job done. She can't stand me."
Eriol asked why.
"I don't know… probably because of when we first met. We were paired together in our first assignment at school and I took the credit and wouldn't stick up for her when the teacher yelled at her for not helping. He was a bit of a sexist teacher anyway, but she never forgave me for stealing her good ideas and letting her get wrong." Syaoran paused with a glazed look in his eyes as though remembering it clearly in his mind. "She was crying and everything you know." He laughed sadly. "I was mean, huh?"
Eriol nodded.
"Yeah. That was really cruel Syao-chan. Did you ever apologise?"
Syaoran ignored the "Syao-chan" and shook his head.
"She never let me. If I ever brought it up she'd break down in tears and run turn away, and eventually she just yelled at me, so I gave up. She hardly ever worked with me again. When she did, she made sure she got credit and it annoyed me how bossy she became when we worked together so I teased her even more."
Eriol was finally seeing why Sakura wasn't too happy with having to work with Syaoran.
"As we grew up I became really popular with the girls, especially in my teenage years, and being such a good actor I always got the lead male roles in our projects. She was really pretty but often kept to a close set of friends, she was also a really good actor, and would have easily won the lead female roles but she chose to apply for the lesser roles to avoid me."
"I'm not surprised…" Eriol muttered. Syaoran glared.
"So, as you can see, we don't work well together at all. I just hope she's grown up because otherwise she isn't going to work well on this movie and you'll have a disaster on your hands."
"You underestimate her acting abilities." Eriol stated. "I am quite positive, even after having heard why she hates you, that she has the skills to act as though she is in love with your character, even if she hates your guts. I am also relieved, since it means you can't scandalise the film by having an affair with her."
Syaoran's brow furrowed. Then he put up a front.
"Of course I will. It just means I have to work hard for my reward rather than getting it straight away as normal. That is unless you have an interest in her…"
Eriol shook his head.
"You see, I am the professional one out of the two of us. You are the brainless savage and I am the gentleman." Syaoran glared again at Eriol, his amber-brown eyes narrowing.
"Ok, Ok, I'll go now. Just look over the script ok? Oh, and thank you."
Syaoran looked puzzled.
"For what?"
Eriol opened the door.
"For recommending Sakura to me. I'd never have picked her so soon if you hadn't always talked about her when we were growing up. I recognised her name and was curious to meet her. So thanks…" Eriol grinned and left Syaoran half cursing for getting her as a co-star and half cheering. She was certainly going to be interesting to work with.
He shook her from his thoughts and flicked through his script.
Meanwhile, Eriol stood outside on his cell phone, calling his secretary and asking her to remind him later to schedule a meeting for all the main cast members to get to know each other a little better. It should be interesting to see Sakura and Syaoran react to each other…