Unintended -- Anna Kendrick Fanfiction

43. Improv

"Babe. Look at this." Anna shows me a photo Justin took yesterday of the meeting. "Cute." I glance at it. "There is barely even a full face in the photo," Anna argues. I look at it again. "Cute," I say again and go back to my makeup tutorial I was watching. Anna just sighs and goes back to whatever she was doing. It was only 9 am and Anna and I didn't get much sleep anyways because the neighbors were setting off fireworks. "Oh right. Lisa is coming around at 12. She has a script, but you have way more time to prepare this time for March 5th." Anna doesn't lose eye contact with her phone. "That was fast," I say. "Well yeah, when you had just zoned out yesterday in our meeting we talked about one, a new thriller/drama that you have practically been offered the role for." She puts her phone down. "I don't get it. How do people or can they offer me a role and they haven't even seen me act?" I get confused. "Well, maybe Lisa sent them your practice tape and your name and other sources... I don't know but you still have to audition." Anna explains. "Ok yep." I resume the video.

Lisa arrived at 12.08 with a box full of stuff. And I didn't even care that I was in sweats. "We have a lot to do so let's get onto it. Anna, you are needed." Lisa comes in and sits on her usual side of the couch and I sit in my spot with Anna next to me. "Props." She puts the box down on the coffee table. Inside there was a lot of random different things, a jewelry box, hairbrush, coffee mug, castanets, a huge dictionary and oval glasses. "What do I do?" I put on the sunglasses and Anna laughs at me. "So, using the props one by one, give me a minute scene using these. But it can't be a typical scenario." Lisa tells me. "Can I ask what the point is?" I pull the sunglasses down to my nose to look at her. "Improv, creativeness, confidence. For fun. Make me laugh." She lists. "And you should involve Anna in some of them, test her at improv." Lisa adds. "Ok ready? And then we will look at the audition role." She sits back on the couch. I chose the jewelry box first. Lisa makes me stand in the middle of the room and she calls 'action'. I make it, involving Anna that I am passing it down the family line to my daughter. Lisa gives me feedback saying that I could have made it more interesting. Next, I use the oval sunglasses, the dictionary, the hairbrush, the coffee mug and I save the castanets for last. I knew what to do exactly when I saw them. I pick them up and laugh at myself before I start and turn to Anna. "Ariel, listen to me!" I say in my Sebastian voice. Anna tries so hard not to laugh as she turns away as Ariel. "The human world, it's a mess." I snap that castanets and walk sideways over to Anna to sit on her lap. "Life under the seas is better than anything they got up there." I lean back on her shoulder. I then sing Under the Sea the entire way through, even when Anna couldn't stop laughing and had broken character. Lisa was wiping away tears when I finished. "Ver, very good." Lisa is still laughing. "Oh my God that is awesome." She hugs her side from laughing so much. "She did this on our way to Disney and I had to pull over it was too funny." Anna says through her laugh. "If this was a musical, that would be great. But it's a drama." Lisa is still laughing. "You have to do it again sometime, but not right now." Lisa's laugh dies down and she passes me a few pages of scripts. Anna gets us all water and Lisa read us the character description. "Chole Chamberlain, 26 years old, has own company that makes very stereotypical products, lives in Helena, Montana, older sister to Candice. That would, hopefully, be you." Lisa reads. "Candice Chamberlain, nicknamed Candi, 16 years old, high school student, interested in swimming and debate, lives in Billings Montana, younger sister." Lisa reads. "Do I have to swim?" I perk up. "I don't know yet. Focus on this." Lisa tells me. She explains what is happening in the scenes she gave me but they will most likely change. She had to go and left me with the three scenes to read over and make notes but not learn yet. "Babe Hailee wants to know if you want to go to the studio with her?" Anna was on the phone. "Yeah, I'll go." I pour a glass of water. "Yep, she'll come. I'll drop her. Can I come in?" Anna asks. There was a pause. "Ok, great thanks. See you soon." Anna hangs up. "Are you coming?" I hand her a glass too. "Yep. Hailee wants you to try your ear at something." Anna raises her eyebrow. "Oooh." I dramatically pop my knee behind me. "I'm ready whenever you are." Anna sips. "Yep. Ooh, can I drive?" I look hopeful. "No! God no. Maybe you can later. I think we might die if you did." Anna instantly objects. "Worth a shot." I sigh and follow Anna to the car. "You can go around the block a few times later." Anna starts the engine. "Do you even know how to drive?" Anna second guesses. "Yes! I do know thank you very much." I put my nose in the air. "Ok. Navigate me to the studio." Anna backs out. "Watch out for that new sign." I point out as she reverses. "Ok smart ass." Anna rolls her eyes. Until we get to the studio, I tell Anna when to indicate, turn, break, accelerate and stuff like that and when I said to, she did. Except I did once almost make us crash into a palm tree, then Anna took control. "Hey guys!" Hailee comes to open the door for us. "Hey Hun." Anna hugs her. "So I thought Ev could try hear ear at the sound dashboard." Hailee tells me when we get into the room. "How do you know I know how to use it? Or how do I know I can?" I ask myself. "I see you watching me and other people. I think you got it. And besides a lot is labled." Hailee makes me feels better. Anna finds a seat off to the side and Hailee gets into the booth. I put on the headphones and Hailee tells me to play 'version 1' of her new song. I click around on the computer and finally get it to play through the system. It was just the first structure of the song with a simple chord progression. "Just play around. Try things out." Hailee instructs before she starts singing the lyrics. I play around with some bass lines and riffs and then harmonize with Hailee. "That was pretty good Ev. Impressive." Hailee does look impressed. "Now get your ass in here. My turn." Hailee take the headphones off. I get in and put the headphones back on. "Just sing some riffs or whatever feels right." Hailee tells me. She plays a steady original beat and I go for it. I go on for a few minutes singing along in time and harmony with 'ahhs' and 'oohs' and 'heys' and when the beat gets louder and intense I do a massive riff then go back to 'oohs'. When I finish, I wait for Hailee to say something but she doesn't and the lighting changed so now I can't see out of the booth. "Are you there?" I say into the mic. "Yeah." Hailee's voice fills the room. "That was just insanely good." The lights turn back on. "Was it? I was just singing." I blush. "Can I play it for my producer later?" Hailee holds up a USB stick. "Yeah sure. It wasn't that good though." I shuffle around. "Babe you have pipes and a good ear. I have never seen, or heard something like what you just did before." Hailee looks pleased. "Thanks. Anna you should sing something." I smile at her. "Oh come on." Anna rolls her eyes. "I'll do it with you." I offer, which makes her stand up. I text the song to play to Hailee. Anna put on her set of headphones and Hailee starts playing I Can Do Better Than That from The Last Five years. It was the song I had been singing all week and couldn't get it out of my head. "Are you fucking serious?" Anna nudges me. "Just do it. I know you know it all." I roll my eyes and watch Anna get into it.