Behind the Scene

I. Wake up Call

I've been a pretty simple person since I was a little girl. I just wanted  books and a glass of any kind of tea and I would be happy for weeks. Throw in a notebook and a burgundy coloured pen and I would be happy for months. 

Even when I got older and wanted to go to college I still considered myself pretty simple. My best friend Sawyer hated me for it. 

I would get hour long lectures from him about how I should go with him to New York and be partners in crime and win every big award we could. This idea was planted into his head when I submitted a video he had made of different shots of me from when I was seven to about sixteen. It was just a small town girl rambling about her days in school, her crushes and her dreams of being a princess in Ireland to just wanting to live in the same neighbourhood as her parents did teaching at the local school. When he won first place, the lectures got even longer. 

Sawyer left to a New York film school -very reluctantly- when I was seventeen and I attended the state school majoring in English and Creative Writing set on being a teacher at the same elementary school my father, mother, and I attended. 

But even after all that, February 27th 2013 I found myself being woken up by Sawyer in my New York apartment.

"Reed! Get up! Get up, get up, get up, get up."

Sawyer was shaking me from my peaceful slumber. I really need to get my key back from him. 

"What!? Leave me alone!" I tried hiding under my mountain of blankets and blocking him from getting underneath them. I saw his silhouette run around my bed and he hopped in from the opposite side. I covered my face when I saw the light. 

"What do you want from me Sawyer."  

He was looking at me with the biggest smile on his face. 

"I have great news." 

I shook my head in disbelief, grabbed his hand and checked the watch that had been resting there since I gave it to him for his birthday. 

"It is seven freakin' o'clock in the freakin' morning. What the hell could be so important?"

He didn't say anything for a minute. He just looked at me with one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen him smile. 

I hit him on the shoulder. 

"Sawyer," I raised my voice but then lowered it again, "what is it?" 

He leaned closer and closer until our noses were touching. 

"I just came from the meeting with Blake and Shelby." He whispered and I knew exactly what he meant. I shut my eyes and waited for him to continue.

"It was approved." I opened my eyes and he gave me a small kiss on the mouth. I lifted the cover from over us and smiled. All of his hard work would now hopefully pay off.  The movie Sawyer had been working on, Daniel & Anna, had been on hold for close to six months. After his second film didn't turn out so well financially the company put his -our- idea on the bottom of their priority list. It wasn't until the film gained more of a following that revenue started coming in and our idea started moving up in their list again. 

I say our idea because Sawyer got the idea for the script when he was reading one of the stories I had written on the set of 1953. He adapted it as well as lengthened it, to the script that he was calling our "golden child."

This is the one Reed, the one that will launch us even higher on peoples radar. He would eagerly tell me every time he had a new draft for the script. Even though I protested being a part of the movie I was suckered in, like usual. 

After some giddily laughter he settled into a sly grin.

"What is it?" I asked pulling the covers up semi afraid of what was going through his devious mind.

"I happen to have the perfect Anna in mind." He raised his eyebrow and I jumped out of the bed in protest. "Oh NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. NO!"

I stopped right in my tracks and looked at him. Before he got the chance to rebuttal I continued on my rant. "I told you I would agree to let you use my story, but that I was only going to help. I told you multiple, no, I told you a thousand times. I am not ready to be the lead." I was walking backward into my wall and noticed how I didn't have any pants on. Sawyer had sat up from where he was and started crawling toward me still on the bed. He made it toward the edge before he started again. 

"Reed. You are Anna. Anna is you. You cannot tell me that you didn't write her in the likeliness of you. Besides you are totally ready! You were amazing in 1953, and everyone noticed you. Imagine that, you gained so much praise for a role that gave you about forty-five minutes of screen time. Imagine what a whole length film would do for your reputation."

 He had made it to his feet and started coming closer to me. 

"That is if I even do a good job. I don't know. No. Well, maybe if -no, no. I will advise, and that is all."

Sawyer grabbed my hands and held them up to his move and breathed onto them, "look at me Reed. The only reason I wanted to do this movie, aside from your amazing writing, was that I envisioned you as Anna. Anna, the girl who keeps to herself and observes everything. The girl who never does anything irrational. The girl who takes her time to figure out her feelings, so she won't hurt anyone. The girl who is astoundingly more beautiful than she thinks she is. The girl next door. You. Are. Anna." 

He didn't say anything after that. He was probably giving himself an Oscar for his speech. I let out a long sigh. 

"I just wanted to advise..."

"But," he continued after i trailed off. 

"I will do it." A smile appeared on his face again and spread from ear to ear. He grabbed both of my cheeks and kissed me hard. "OhmygodthankyousomuchIhavenoideawhatIwouldhavedone." The words seemed to be spilling out of him. 

He stopped in his tracks and glared at me. "You have too pinkie swear." He said with his pinkie held out to me. 

"I am not going to pinkie swear. I am an adult."

"Reed, you have to pinkie swear you're not going to back out."

"No."

"Do it."

"I am not going to pinkie-"

"Pinkie swear Reed!" I uncrossed my arms and held out my pinkie in defeat. "Fine. I pinkie swear."

"I can't believe it. We're actually doing this." I whispered to him. 

"You bet we are!" He yelled with his hands raised high in the air. Sawyer started skipping toward the entry way and grabbed his bag that he had hung on the hook. I followed him pass the kitchen and the living room. 

 I leaned up against the pillar that was in front of the door. 

"So now you can tell me who is going to play Daniel?"

"What?" He asked with a smile on his face, acting like he didn't hear me. 

"No, Sawyer you promised me you would tell me who you have been talking to, to play Daniel." I tried to seem forceful and serious but he always thought it was cute. 

He walked outside of the door leaving one hand on the doorknob. "Just remember you pinkie swore." 

"Sawyer." 

He started closing the door slowly and left his head peeking in. "It's Mads Mikkelsen." He seemed to have giggled but I was in too much of a shock to notice. He slammed the door and I was left in the silence...and my underwear. 

"Mads Mikkelsen." I breathed out trying to get my heart beat to return to normal. 

"Mads fucking Mikkelsen."

I whispered inside my own head just to make sure no one would hear. Shit. I am going to have to kiss Mads Mikkelsen. 

*******

So here is chapter one for you. I hope you enjoyed it. 

Next part I will introduce my version of Mads Mikkelsen, so I hope you all stay tuned:)