Golden Days

Chapter 03: Trouble in Paradise

Several flashes of scenes between Jonathan Harker and Dracula appear quickly on the screen. It's not possible to hear the audio of these scenes, but still it's easy to notice the constant tension hanging in the air and the maximum commitment of the two actors in each second of recording.

These scenes are basically a summary of Arthur's last weeks. For Arthur Kirkland, sharing a scene with Alfred now means battling with him for it.

Arthur is a much more experienced actor and he easily has the advantage over the scenes that require subtlety. He doesn't like to improvise, but when necessary, he doesn't allow himself to lose to Alfred on that. He says sarcastic lines that aren't on the script as if they are part of his character's breath.

Still, Arthur inevitably loses some battles.

Alfred has a natural talent for making flashy things seem in-character, is very good at improvising and he's, after all, the bloody protagonist. Despite Arthur's efforts, some scenes are completely stolen by the younger actor. Alfred, of course, becomes unbearably smug when that happens. The smile he gives to Arthur when he knows he won ... Urgh. It gets on Arthur's nerves.

Arthur, usually, isn't a competitive person. As a beta, he has become accustomed to settling for second place, before a fight for the first one begins. Alphas can be a handful when it comes to competitions and Arthur doesn't have the patience for these dramas.

He usually does his best simply because he wants to do his best, not because he wants to outdo other actors. He is a perfectionist. In his current roles, being like this usually means lessening the subtle intensity of his acting and doing a more 'on-the-nose' job. The films in which he works in the present are just simple things for simple audiences and, for the sake of the film itself, it's best for him to contain his skills so his performance won't contrast with the work of other actors.

It had been a long time since Arthur had given his all in front of the cameras, but he's having to do it again now.

To show us this, the screen we see divides into two segments and parallels of an Arthur from ten years ago and Arthur from the present appears in each one of them. In one of the segments of the screen, he looks like a confident young man and in the other, you can see wrinkles under his weary eyes but his determination shines through him. In both scenarios, he appears writing notes in his script, practicing scenes in front of the mirror and muttering his lines to himself in different tones of voice, as if testing them.

He's doing a ridiculous amount of effort for the kind of movie he's on. Of course, a movie called 'Jonathan Harker versus Dracula', directed by someone who couldn't even bother giving Arthur more than one figurine, won't run for an Oscar or be a movie classic. Arthur is aware that everything he is doing will have no other reward than the satisfaction of defeating Alfred F. Jones, which is the most ridiculous of motives. Still, he can't give up first in their silent war. This is something that has everything to do with Alfred and has nothing to do with Alfred at the same time. It's complicated to put it into words.

The best way to explain it would be to say that Arthur faces his battle with Alfred as a battle against a bunch of other things in his career that he is unable to directly confront. Therefore, the easy satisfaction of defeating Alfred is enough of a reward. That's why he still battles.

Some time seems to have passed as we change sceneries again. The current scenario is a recording setting that mimics a dungeon. There are all the typical objects of a villain's hideout in this place. An iron lady against the wall, made of cardboard and carefully positioned so the light makes it look more real. Chandeliers and fake spider webs on the walls. A coffin with an ill-made figure covered in a dark paint, which is supposed to represent Dracula after being killed by Jonathan Harker.