"Get busy living or get busy dying." -Andy Dufresne, "The Shawshank Redemption"
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"Oh my God, it's Daphne Brando!" came the squeal as Daphne walked out of the restroom in the airport terminal. If she wasn't awake before that point, she certainly was now.
Daphne blinked rapidly behind her sunglasses as another squeal met her ears when the small group of young women recognized Naveen and Dom as they waited for her to come out of the restroom.
"Can we have your autograph?" one girl asked.
She smiled at the girl and signed the photo being held out to her.
"Can I get a photo?" several girls asked.
Daphne smiled again and called Dom and Naveen over. "Let's do one big group photo and then you all can figure out how to send that to each other. We've got to run pretty soon, so it's got to be fast."
The group crowded in behind the three actors, some holding their phones out to try to get a more close up picture. Daphne handed Kelly a cell phone and stood back with Dom and Naveen on either side of her. Several of the girls pressed themselves against Dom and Naveen, trying to squeeze into the photo closer.
While they waited for everyone to get into the picture, Daphne spoke. "Are any of you coming to the panel tonight?"
A few of the girls nodded, but most of them gave sad faces. "No, we can't," one replied. "Tickets were sold out in five minutes!"
Daphne gave them a sad face. "I'm sorry! Maybe we will do another of these again soon," she said. Kelly gave her a signal to wrap it up and Daphne nodded. "Well, we have to go, but it was so nice to meet all of you!"
With that, the small group walked away, leaving the star struck girls in their wake.
"You're becoming an expert at handling those things," Dom said.
She laughed as they walked into the baggage claim area where they were met by several photographers. She gave the photographers a few quick poses.
"Hey, guys," she said.
"Daphne, how do you feel about Jared seeing Valery Kaufman?" one asked.
Daphne paused, taken aback by the question. She had no idea who Valery Kaufman was, but clearly she should have. "Why would I care?" she asked.
"Because it looks like Jared is dating her!" one called out.
Daphne plastered on a smile. "Well, it's not my business who he dates because he and I aren't seeing each other," she said. After another quick photo, she gave them a wave and climbed into the van next to Dom. She turned to Kelly. "Who the fuck is Valery Kaufman?" she asked in a bit of a growl.
Dom gave her an amused smile when he saw her face. "I thought you didn't care?"
Daphne glared at him and took the phone from Kelly as soon as she had the information loaded on her phone. There were several photos of Jared, green hair and all, out and about in New York City-he had mentioned something about going there for a bit of a break since the next few scenes that needed to be shot were purely for Ophelia's back story-with a pretty (very) young brunette. Daphne felt her eyes widen slightly, but kept her face a stone while she kept looking. She was well-aware of Jared's proclivity for younger girls but she had been getting some pretty strong vibes from him. Not that she really cared. He could see whomever he wanted and it didn't bother her one bit.
Except that it did bother her. Just a tiny bit. She had started to feel a little bit of an attraction to him growing as they spent more and more time together. Oh, she knew he was a flirt. He flirted shamelessly with her AND other girls they encountered. But she was actually starting to ENJOY him flirting with her. She was starting to ENJOY having his hands on her whenever they were around each other. And Daphne knew that he didn't insist upon holding her hand or wrist whenever they were out and away from set just because it helped them both stay focused on the relationship their characters had. She knew it was because he enjoyed having her with him and having that small amount of control over her.
Daphne shook her head at his antics and handed Kelly back her phone.
"Should we put out a statement or something? They've been asking about this like crazy," she asked.
Daphne shook her head. "No. Why would we?"
"Because now they're saying he's cheating on you," she replied.
Daphne rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out of her pocket, dialing Jared's number as everyone stared at her. She gave them a pointed look and they looked away, trying to distract themselves.
"Hello?" Jared's voice came across the line. Daphne rolled her eyes when she heard a female giggle in the background. "Daphne?" There was a bit of shushing on his end and she could hear him shuffling around as he spoke. "What's going on?"
"Leto, either come out and say this chick is your girlfriend or stop parading her around in front of photographers. I'm tired of being asked what I think about her and how it feels to be cheated on," Daphne said in an authoritative tone.
Dom and Naveen laughed as they watched the beautiful vistas of Hawaii drift past.
"Hello to you too Daphne," he said in a slightly sexy purr.
"Jared, I mean it. I'm tired of it," she repeated.
"I didn't think you cared who I fuck?" he said in a teasing tone.
"I DON'T!" she replied in frustration. "But I also don't like people asking me how it feels to be cheated on. Because of course there's a right answer to that question!" she added sarcastically.
"Daphne, Daphne, Daphne, relax," he said quietly.
"Are you HIGH?" she asked, looking at her phone as if it was the reason for Jared's oddly calm behavior.
"You really should get laid more often, Daph. It's a phenomenal feeling," he said.
Daphne had a very brief image float through her head of Jared pressing her up against a wall as he ran rough kisses across her neck, but it was interrupted by David calling 'cut!' It had become harder for her to keep her thoughts of Jared relatively professional as they started filming more and more sexual scenes.
"Anyways, say hi to Shannon while you're in Hawaii. Have fun," Jared said before hanging up.
Kelly was looking at Daphne with a mixture of fear and amusement, as if she was unsure of what to say and afraid to say the wrong thing.
"He's handling it," Daphne said with a sigh. 'He damn well better,' she thought to herself. "Do I have anything for tonight?" Daphne asked, turning to Kelly.
Kelly checked her phone and shook her head. "The only thing I have you down for today is the panel and then you're free. Your flight is tomorrow morning. Oh, and Josh called. He said you're welcome to stay with he and Yessica at their place instead of a hotel. Do you want me to cancel the room?"
Daphne nodded. "Yeah. It'll be nice to stay somewhere that's NOT a hotel room for a change."
They drove on a highway that had marvelous vistas of the ocean and Daphne felt a large amount of her stress slip from her shoulders. That had always been one of the defining things about working on 'Lost' that she had loved. Hawaii seemed like another world to Daphne. It reminded her of the time when she'd go with her grandfather to his island in Tahiti and they'd spend weeks there, away from Hollywood.
After a short drive, they were at a large television studio lot. They pulled into the back lot area and were dropped off. A production assistant met them at the door and led them into the studio, through a series of hallways, and left them in a series of dressing rooms.
"Ms. Brando, you're down there at the end. You'll be sharing with Ms. Lilly, Ms. Grace, and Ms. De Ravin. I'm sorry we didn't have enough rooms for you all to have your own," the assistant said, clearly a little intimidated by the issue.
Daphne gave her a reassuring smile. "It's alright. I don't take up much space," she said.
The assistant turned toward the two men who were with her. "Mr. Andrews and Mr. Monaghan you two are in this room," she said, opening the door directly behind her.
Dom gave Daphne's hand a squeeze before she walked off to get changed in her own room. There was an air of excitement in the entire building. It had been a bit of time since she had seen some of her co-stars and Daphne always liked to spend as much time with them as she could. It was also exciting because people were excited to see her. Kimmel's people had tried to keep the reunion a secret but word got out pretty quickly. So then, they tried to keep Daphne's appearance a secret because they wanted to surprise people. But it had leaked a few days ago that she was going to appear. She didn't really care. Most of the time when she surprised people it resulted in about ten minutes of screaming in excitement and three minutes of an interview.
"Oh my God, Daphne!" Evie's voice met her ears before she had even gotten to the door frame. Immediately, Daphne was crushed by Evangeline Lilly. Although, 'crushed' wasn't really a good word to describe being tightly hugged by a thin, 110-pound woman who couldn't do much damage to anyone even if she wanted to.
"Hey," Daphne replied, giving her a warm squeeze back. Of all the members of the cast, she had worked with Evie the most, having done five seasons with her on 'Lost', 'The Hurt Locker' and 'The Hobbit' trilogy. But since she lived in Hawaii, they hardly spent time together. "How are you?"
Evie nodded. "I'm alright. I didn't know if you'd be able to come since you were filming."
"I have to leave tomorrow morning. EARLY. Night shoots tomorrow night," Daphne responded.
Everyone winced. It was well-known among actors how difficult night shoots were. Most of the time actors worked normal daylight hours and when you had to transition to night shoots, for whatever reason, it messes with the body and leaves you groggy and grumpy and exhausted.
"How is that going?" Maggie Grace asked. She was taller than Daphne by several inches, even in bare feet.
"It's going well," Daphne replied, looking up at her. "It's hard to get to know the rest of the cast though because we have only filmed one scene together so far."
Daphne left out the part where Jared had purposefully kept her away from the other cast members by keeping a tight grip on her hand at all times. At the time, she didn't know if it was protectiveness or his desire to remain distant from the other cast members due to his 'method' acting style. It was well known that Daphne did her best to get to know her co-stars as well as the crew on each project she worked on. In fact, it was one of the hallmarks of working with her. Anytime anyone was asked about working with her, the first thing out of their mouth was usually about how wonderful and kind she was.
"It's been weird, yeah," she said in reply. "We've had a really strange shooting schedule and it's mostly been just Jared and I so far."
"He's hot," Maggie said, sitting down on the sofa and crossing her long legs.
Daphne laughed. "I guess," she replied. "Though, you're his type, Maggie. So maybe you've got a chance."
Maggie smiled and stuck her tongue out at Daphne. As two of the younger members of the cast they had always gotten along fairly well, but had sort of lost touch when Maggie left the show in the second season.
"But I swear to God if one more person asks me if I'm dating him, heads will roll," Daphne added. "I am so sick of all these rumors."
"Daphne, we've got about thirty minutes before you go on, so I need to get you dressed and in hair and makeup," Kelly said.
Daphne nodded and went behind a screen to change her outfit. Kelly handed her a short red dress and a pair of pumps and Daphne sighed. "Really? Why the fuck can't I just wear jeans?"
"Because Tom Ford sent this over yesterday and asked if you'd wear it," Kelly replied.
Kelly was used to Daphne's grumblings about her outfits. If left to her own devices, Daphne would literally wear whatever she managed to find in her closet that was clean. She had absolutely no concept of fashion or trends. And it was probably one of the more endearing qualities about her, in Kelly's eyes. Designers fell over themselves to have her wear their clothing, though, so very rarely did Daphne ever go out in her 'own' clothes and she spent so much time doing press, filming, and attending official events that she hardly ever had to worry about dressing herself.
The other actresses were already ready to go, but because Daphne had come in late, she was rushed through hair and makeup by the waiting crew. Within minutes, she was stage-ready. Daphne was used to being rushed around. She once got ready for the Oscars in less than twenty minutes because of a flight delay. She was still on time.
Daphne glanced at herself in the mirror and sighed. She always had a hard time finding herself in her own reflection, especially when she was all made up and in designer clothes. It was hard enough to figure out who you were on your own, and even harder to figure it out when you were surrounded by people who were so concerned with making you into the person THEY wanted you to be.
"Alright ladies, time to go," an assistant said, leading the group out.
Daphne paused behind Evie. "So you and Dom, you're alright with seeing him and everything?" she asked cautiously. Dom rarely spoke about his relationship with Evie or how things ended. Daphne was good friends with both of them and she always felt kind of odd around both of them at the same time after their break up.
Evie nodded. "We're fine, no problems," she laughed.
Daphne gave an internal sigh of relief as they walked up the hallway. Soon enough, they were joined by the rest of the cast and it was very loud in the small space.
"Daph! I didn't think you'd be able to make it!" Josh Holloway said, embracing her in one of his signature bear hugs. "Yessica called and told me you were staying over tonight?"
Daphne nodded. "I'm so sick of hotels," she laughed.
"It must be so hard to have to work ALL THE TIME and be SUCCESSFUL ACTRESS," Jorge Garcia said in a joking manner before enveloping Daphne's small frame in his larger one.
She smiled at him. "I know. It's so ROUGH," she laughed.
They crowded in at the side of the stage and listened as Jimmy Kimmel gave an introduction. There was an electricity in the air as the audience applauded at different things and got very excited as he got closer and closer to bringing the cast on stage.
"Daphne, we're doing you last, so wait until he calls you," an assistant told her. Daphne nodded.
"Without further ado, I'd like to welcome the cast from 'Lost', your favorite survivors: Naveen Andrews, Daniel Dae Kim, Emilie De Ravin, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Josh Holloway, Malcom David Kelley, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O'Quinn, Harold Perrineau, and Ian Somerhalder!"
There was deafening screaming as everyone went out. Dom gave Daphne's hand a little squeeze before going out on stage and she was left back stage alone, watching. She tried to stay as hidden as possible. People knew she was there, but they were still going for a surprise more than anything.
"I think we have an extra chair," Jimmy said. He looked around and saw Daphne standing on the side of the stage. She gave him a little smile and a wave. "Never mind, I found the occupant right here. Academy Award winner Daphne Brando ladies and gentlemen!"
Daphne took a deep breath before walking on stage, waving and smiling for everyone. The noise was so loud, she almost felt her ear drums pop. Dom stood up and gave her a kiss on the cheek before pulling her chair out for her and sliding into the one next to her.
"Hi," she said quietly, once the noise had died down, which only served to get it started again.
Everyone was laughing so hard because it had been at least five solid minutes of cheering and clapping and screaming. Daphne glanced around at everyone in front of her and tried to focus as she was blinded by flashes from photos.
"It's ridiculous," Jimmy said, sitting down in his chair. "They're crazy about you," he laughed, looking at her.
"I know, this was supposed to be a secret, but look what happened!" she laughed.
"Alright, let's not waste any more time and let's get down to business," Jimmy said, shifting in his chair. "Let's start with you guys and tell us all what you've been up to."
He went down the line, stopping at each actor. It was always hard to do these panels with larger groups because there were so many questions that were asked to multiple people and so many different answers. It often took ten minutes to answer just one question fully. When the question came to Daphne she sighed.
"Well, as you all have probably seen I've been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest," she quipped.
The entire room broke into laughter and Dom nearly fell out of his seat. Daphne had a history of playing very serious roles but she was also incredibly funny. People were always so surprised when she gave interviews because she was nothing like the characters she played. The question continued down the line of people, ending with Ian, who revealed he recently got married and everyone was cheering for him.
"Let's open it up to fan questions," Jimmy said. "If you all could just line up down here at the microphone, we will get started. Please direct your questions to the individual or individuals you would like to answer."
"My question is for Daphne," the first person said. "Why did you leave the show? You were my favorite character and they killed you off."
Daphne nodded. Her character Anna Carmichael had been her character for five seasons, but she had requested out of her contract after the fourth season because of her desire to work on other projects. She had been a hard character to play because she was chronically depressed and suicidal. Jack had to keep an extra eye on her and many people wrote her off as a liability in many situations.
"Well, it was mostly because I was splitting my time between this show and filming 'Harry Potter'. I wanted to have more time to explore other characters and work on different things," she replied. "When you work on a television show, there's many good things and good aspects to doing it. Usually you've got job security if the show is done well and you have the luxury of working with many of the same people for an extended period of time. But the down side is that you are very limited in terms of the other projects you can take on."
"That's true. There seemed to be a bigger demand for you once you won the Oscar for 'Risk'," Jimmy added in. "Next question."
"Again, for Daphne," the young man asked. "I heard you were originally supposed to be killed off in the third season but they kept you on once you won the Oscar. Is that true?"
Daphne laughed. "Yeah, it is. J.J. clearly doesn't like working with children because he got rid of Malcolm pretty fast, didn't he?"
Daphne glanced down the line at Malcolm David Kelley, who was the youngest member of the original cast. They had been fairly close during filming, but had drifted apart when he had left the show. Everyone laughed.
"But seriously, that's a question for J.J. or Carlton, not me. I'm certainly glad they didn't kill me off," she continued.
"Now, that has to be the saddest moment in the entire series, when Sawyer kills Anna," Jimmy added. "Josh, what was that like, for you? Just because Jack made a point of befriending Anna and they had an interesting relationship."
Josh glanced at Daphne and smiled. "Well, it was hard for me to sort of put myself in that head space just because their relationship had been such a close one. And then her death was so brutal that it was so unlike Sawyer to do anything like that."
Daphne bit her lip, remembering the day they had shot that scene. Sawyer was forced to kill Anna in a dramatic turn of events to protect everyone else. He reluctantly shoots her in the head at point blank range and she slides down the side of the building, leaving a trail of blood as she goes. It was one of the more shocking moments in the series for most people as well.
"Because up to that point he had only ever killed in self-defense," she added. "Aside from the man in Australia and Locke's father, everyone else was self-defense. Anna was definitely not on his list of people to kill. Plus he would never hurt a woman."
Josh nodded. "Exactly. So when I saw that script I thought, 'Damn, how the hell am I going to pull that one off?', mostly because I didn't want to be the one to off her."
Daphne smiled. "It's alright, I asked for it," she laughed.
As the questions continued, Daphne felt herself ease in to mood of the group. It went on for two more hours and there were questions about her role in 'Suicide Squad', which she was not allowed to answer. And of course a few questions about her possible relationship with Jared, but again, she brushed them off.
"Daphne, my favorite scene of yours was the one in season one where Anna is with Charlie and she catches him getting ready to snort the drugs," an older woman said. "Was it true that that was your first onscreen kiss?"
Everyone laughed and glanced at Dom and Daphne. "It was, and it wasn't really a big deal for me."
"I was nervous about it, though," Dom said. "It was supposed to be a comedy moment, sort of like the rock star kissing the groupie or whatever. It was just funnier because it was her first kiss."
"Is Dom a good kisser?" Jimmy asked Daphne.
"For a first on screen kiss, I was glad it was him and not a complete stranger," Daphne replied, sidestepping the question like a pro.
There was a general rule in Hollywood: never dish on your co-stars' ability to kiss OR your relationships with another person, famous or otherwise. It ALWAYS comes back to bite you in the ass and makes you look desperate. No one wants to work with someone who tells secrets and can't be discreet. Dom smiled at Daphne and rested his hand on her knee under the table. She rested hers on top of his and smiled, listening to the questions continue.