Dreams of Stardom (Hollywood SI)

A few days later on the set, before we began shooting, I had to get some photos with Toni and an extra who was playing my father and it didn't take longer than an hour. Today was the first day of shooting for Toni. Different backgrounds were set for us to take different photographs with us laughing and smiling like a normal family.

"I am sorry." I apologized to Toni when we were done with the photos, "About what I said about your dance. It wasn't bad."

I was avoiding Toni all these days at home while I practiced on my lonesome. While I wasn't about to win any ballerina competitions, I think my progress was good. I could've totally behaved with her in the same manner in the future, but I didn't want our strained relations to get in between our on-screen chemistry.

Toni raised an amused eyebrow, "Oh really? What brought this on?"

"Honestly? I didn't want my bad behavior to come between our work," I decided to be blunt with her. "And I believe that I reacted poorly to your teasing, that was unbecoming of me."

"Are you trying to get out of our bet?" She asked with another grin, "'cause I won't let you off the hook that easily mister."

I shook my head, "No no it's not that. I will learn that move in two weeks so don't worry about that."

Secretly, I wanted to show her the perfected move to get in her face and shout about my brilliance. But I knew when to back off. Also, today we were doing a few of the great indoor scenes. One where I am getting ready for school and I 'needed' pop tarts. And another was the one where Lynn's bumblebee pendant goes missing.

Two very important scenes in the movie, that show the relationship between Cole and his mother, Lynn, beautifully. It would be unprofessional of me to let our differences affect our chemistry.

"Cole, Lynn!" Night shouted as he rushed towards our location, "It's good you guys are in character for your coming scene."

I was taken aback for a moment before realizing that it might have looked as if we were arguing from afar.

"First," Night continued, "we'll be doing the open cabinet scene. So the scene goes like this, Lynn is getting ready, she gets to the location of Cole in the kitchen area and shuts one cabinet that's already open. Cole comes and you remark to him about the spot on his tie, the camera will be following you as you put the tie in the wash basket and bring a new one for him. There you'll witness all the cabinets and drawers open and let out a shriek."

Night went on to explain all the details of the scene, our individual emotions, and everything in between.

"Cole, as soon as the camera is out of view, all the set assistants will come quickly and open the cabinets, you don't have to move from your location. You got it?" At my nod, he further said, "You both get touchups and we'll begin in ten, fifteen minutes tops after setting up the scene." Night gave us time to get in our characters as he went back to make scene preparations.

"Come Mama," I said to Toni, still in character, "Let's get ready for the scene."

She merely shook her head with a fond smile but didn't say anything as she made her way towards her trailer. I followed along.

(Break)

Toni POV

Toni Collette was having a blast shooting [The Sixth Sense]. Especially the presence of the now 10-year-old little man called Troy. Initially, she wanted to be more supportive of the little tyke. To be a role model for a promising actor, but that all changed that day when she was practicing ballet for her next Broadway performance.

A little teasing soon turned to a dancing challenge being issued by her, which was quite uncharacteristic of her, to be frank, but she was eager to see what the young man would make of the said challenge.

Being a (somewhat) veteran actor, who had worked in more than a dozen films, she found the whole experience of shooting [The Sixth Sense] to be very surreal. The director knew exactly what he wanted from his actors and he asked for perfection in each shot. Something she was fully ready to deliver.

"Cut!" Night's words reverberated throughout the set, "Lynn, your character needs to display more desperation for the scene. Your son's been shut inside a dark store room and all you can hear is his cries for help. More helplessness."

The director was insistent on calling everyone by their character names for the sake of the young 'Cole'. The older actors, including her, had agreed to that little thing as it helped even them to separate their reel life from real life.

"One more shot, okay?" The director asked and she only nodded while mentally fixing her mental state to begin the acting.

That shot was a difficult one taking more than 10 shots before the director was satisfied with what he had. The aggravating thing about the retakes was that they were rarely done because of a mistake on Troy's part.

Luckily there was just one more solo scene for the day, where she just roamed the house and found some things in the house without any dialogues, and finally, she could leave the set to go back to her temporary residence for some much-needed R&R.

She reached the place and sat down on the couch when she heard that some music was playing in the house. And not just any music, the same music she played while practicing her ballet. The same music that was conveniently left in the backyard for her practice time.

Getting curious, she got up and followed the sound to find the culprit. A young 10-year-old boy was spinning on the toes of his right foot gracefully. And not just one spin, he performed two spins one after another. Right when his second spin was about to finish, he faltered and went back down on his heel.

"Shoot! I was so close," Troy murmured in frustration, messing his hair up with one of his hands.

It was at right that moment that he found someone observing him and lifted his gaze to look into Toni's eyes. The immediate shift in his emotions was clear as day for anyone to see, which turned from mortified at getting caught to angry for a brief moment before setting back to bashfulness at the situation.

"Hehehe, sorry for taking your record without permission," He rubbed the back of his head with an embarrassed smile on his face, "I was just practicing for our bet and I lost track of time. Mum had gone to a local bookstore so I was just practicing on my own, y'know."

Toni almost cooed at his rambling but stopped herself in time.

"It's okay," She finally said, cutting him off, "After all you did win the bet."

A sudden look of realization dawned upon the boy, "Aww, I knew that. I just wanted to do better than what you were expecting. So I was going for a double spin. Preferably even triple. Now the surprise is all ruined."

Toni shook her head at the boy's obliviousness, "Do you know how much time it took for me to finish the pirouette to perfection?"

At the shake of his head, she continued, "A full month. A long and tiresome month and that was after I had already learnt Tap and basic ballet moves beforehand. You did it in less than half that time without any prior dance lesson and without any instructions."

At her words, Troy just rubbed the back of his head again but the shy smile turned into a proud one as he said, "I always learn new things fast. Be it my studies, music, or dance apparently."

Toni suddenly had a weird idea that she wanted to try, "Troy, would you be interested in learning ballet from me?"

Toni had always wanted a disciple of her own and seeing the raw talent of the kid in front of her, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

"I don't have the time to learn dance right now," Troy answered with an apologetic tone, "I already have my accelerated study sessions with my tutor and then there's my music lessons for the scene in the movie in addition to the acting on the set."

He paused for a moment before remembering another thing, "Oh yeah, I also have to practice martial arts in free time. I had to leave my classes behind in LA."

"Oh come on!" Toni almost pleaded, "Just an hour here or there, whenever both of us are free. You can practice when you're on your own. And learning ballet early has many advantages for your future. It will help you with a better balance and a stronger body, which is required for your martial arts as well."

Seeing the contemplative look on his face, Toni knew Troy was almost ready to agree, "Come on! I'll even talk to your mother for you and tell her it was all my idea!"

That seemed to do the trick as he relented, "Alright. But only on a trial basis for a week, and no more than three sessions a week. If I think it is too much for my schedule, I'll drop it. Okay?"

"You drive a hard bargain, your lordship." Toni grinned at the boy who groaned in annoyance at the quip. "I agree with your terms." Toni affirmed finally, "Now, to begin our first session…"

"Right now?" Troy asked in astonishment.

"Yes, no time like the present. I'll talk to your Mom when she's back. To begin with, let's do some warm-up!" Toni excitedly explained as she took an elegant pose on the toes of her right leg while lifting the left leg parallel to the ground. Her hands also moved accordingly.

"What are you waiting for? Copy me."

Troy sighed aloud before doing as he was being shown and took a similar stance on his toes.

(Break)

Troy POV

Finally, Mum and I were back in LA for the much-awaited Golden Globe ceremony for films and series released in 1998.

In the USA, there are a whole bunch of awards ranging from Saturn Awards to Teen Choice awards to all the way to the Oscars. Thankfully, both my parents had thought it wasteful to attend each and every small ceremony especially when I had to finish [The Sixth Sense].

Golden Globes are unique among other awards as they start off the awards season with their nominations being announced before the year is even over. Despite not having the same prestige as the Oscars, their audience viewership is still high because of one fact.

The presence of all the big celebs.

It wasn't until 2022 that the celebs gained a conscience and boycotted the Globes because of their lack of diversity among jury members. If I was a big shot, I would have avoided the Globes as well. One less ceremony to attend. Unfortunately, I am not. So I'm just grateful for the fact that I'm nominated and just go to the ceremony for some media coverage and possibly meet some stars.

"Troy! You look so handsome!" Mum gushed over as I stepped into our living room after donning the three-piece black suit we had bought back in Philly.

It wasn't Armani or a similar reputed brand, but it was tailor-made for me by a very experienced, well, tailor.

"Here, I'll do your tie," Mum offered as she quickly tied a knot with a black bow tie around my neck. Thankfully she was here to help me out. I could tie a normal long tie easily, but a bow tie eludes me with the result always coming out skewed towards one side or the other.

"Girls will be fighting over my son today," Mum cooed as she planted a kiss on my forehead.

"Mum!" I lightly pushed her away and took in her grinning visage. She was wearing a floor-length one-piece dark blue dress with a marvelous diamond necklace and earrings. Her hair was done in a slightly messy but still beautiful bun.

"Wow!" It was the only word I could utter seeing her in that attire.

"Thank you, love." She did a little curtsy as she said that.

"Oh, you're ready? That's great. The limo's downstairs." Dad came into the living room, dressed in his own black suit with a bow tie.

Although we got our suits from different tailors, Mum had coordinated the colors, designs, and cuts so that our suits would appear to be identical.

Dad had this contagious smile on his face ever since we came back from Philly. The reason was of course the Harry Potter project. Warner had given the best terms of the three studios he had contacted for the production rights.

They had purchased the rights of just the first book for $2 million with an additional 10% cut of the gross box office being given to Dad as the producer. In essence, Dad still owned the rights partly, and any future adaptation would have to involve him. Then there was also his salary for adapting the screenplay and a cut of the peripherals that would be shared by Dad and Rowling. I knew that the Potterverse was a goldmine for peripheral sales. How many people will buy different wands, Hogwarts robes, Deathly Hallows, or something similar? Millions if not more.

There was another thing. Dad had pitched the idea of me acting as Harry in the series and Warner was receptive of the idea. While they didn't outright confirm the same, they strongly hinted that it would depend upon my performance in [The Sixth Sense]. Let's just hope that I will be able to match up to the original performance in my previous life.

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