When Dreams Come True

Can Yaman

Can! Can! Look here! Can, we love you! Please can we take a selfie? Can you sign my shirt? Please Can. Over here!!

Everywhere that Can looked, there was a sea of people screaming his name. He was used to it by now and he loved his fans so much and was so grateful for them, but today had been a long day of shooting. He was tired, he was hungry and he was irritated.

The director couldn't give him clear direction on what he wanted from a particular scene, so he and his co-stars had to shoot it over and over again.

Smiling and blowing kisses, he took as many selfies as he could before Tahir finally stepped in, saving his friend.

Sorry, folks, that's all for tonight, Tahir said with one hand in the air and his other behind Can's back steering him to the hotel they were staying at the next few days. Some location shoots meant being away from his home and today of all days was one of them.

The crowd was not pleased but eventually they pushed back enough for Tahir to get Can safely into the hotel lobby.

Can said, Thanks, brother. I needed that save. I've got nothing left in me tonight.

You give too much, Can. You need to take better care of yourself. You know it will still take you hours to unwind after a long day. You should've been back here hours ago, he said, concerned.

I know, I know. I just hate to disappoint them. They stand here for hours waiting for me. It's overwhelming at times but if it wasn't for them, I'd still be in my Dad's law office behind a desk right now, Can said, rubbing his hand over his face and sighing.

He loved his Dad and was so proud of what he had accomplished but even the thought of being back there brought on such a heaviness.

Can had graduated in the top five in his class at the University then went on to graduate from Istanbul Law School with full honors. He wanted to follow in his Dad's footsteps and he knew that it was, in a lot of ways, expected of him.

Unfortunately for his Dad's expectations, Can only lasted 6 months. He sat at his desk for 10 hours a day and slowly started to feel like his life was being pulled from him. His soul was dead inside him. It was such a visceral reaction to the life that he had worked so hard to create that he begged his Dad for a much needed vacation just 6 months into his new role in the firm. He needed time to figure out what he wanted to do now that everything just felt so wrong for his career.

Using the excuse that he hadn't been on vacation since he graduated from high school, having plowed through University and then Law School without a break, it wasn't hard to convince his Dad. 

Hoping that the light would come back into his son's eyes, Aziz gave in to the request.

Get some rest and come back ready to take on the world, he had told Can. But deep down he knew that his energetic son would never fully accept this as a long term career. And he would have to deal with those consequences somehow. Desiring to retire and leave the business to his son's capable hands, his plans were now on hold until he could convince Can not to give up on it yet.

He was torn between disappointment and shock when Can came back after his 3 week vacation, announcing that he had met a friend of a friend in Antalya that turned out to be a scout for new actors and he wanted to pursue this further to see what could happen. Aziz was speechless and tried hard to be happy for his son but couldn't understand how he could throw away such a lucrative career to do what...act? 

Can thought back about the day of his very first audition. He was terrified and started to think he had just made the biggest mistake of his life. Law was a steady, lucrative career. Acting was incredibly hard to break into, especially in Istanbul but it would seem that fate was on his side. He was cast immediately for a small part in a new movie and that began his career. It had been a difficult experience but he knew that it would be an important one for his career.