Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (40 page)

Damen was tired, doing this scene over and
over again, walking by the camera, just being an extra, he was
scared when the producer told him he was doing it all wrong. Being
surrounded by the crew, made up of some fifty-odd people and extras
that made up an average California day, Damen felt the stares
toward him and behind, feeling embarrassed that the producer was
yelling at only him. So, he stopped when he heard “cut,” and asked,
“Are you talking to me?”

“Yes, you’re walking too fast. You see that
actor over there?” the producer asked, pointing to the head
actor.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, once that actor runs past you, you
should be right in front of the camera, instead you’re already past
it. Just walk a little slower,” the producer explained.

The head actor gave Damen a dirty look,
seeing that Mr. Schultz was holding everyone up, he rolled his eyes
toward him, and made Damen feel smaller than life itself.

“Okay, everybody get in their places,
ambulances back to their marks, we’re gonna do this again,” the
director shouted. All of the extras went back to their spots on
Hollywood Blvd., standing still and waiting for the director’s
cue.

“Okay, background action,” the director
yelled before the extras began moving. “Okay, and action,” he added
after the head actor began running.

Damen started walking, but saw the stuck-up
head actor already starting to run, even before the Director could
give his cue. But, Damen kept on walking, knowing that he was going
to hear the producer’s voice again—which he did.

“Cut, cut, cut, you did it again,” the
producer said to Damen, getting his highly skinny figure off of a
fold-up chair by the director and running over to Mr. Schultz in a
panic.

“Sir, the actor started running before you
said action. It’s not my fault,” stated Damen; the head actor
overheard what he was saying.

The head actor, with his blond hair and blue
eyes, hollered toward Damen with arrogance to his language’s craft,
“My fault? No, it’s your fault. You extras just don’t know how to
act.”

Damen looked at him, tired as he could be,
with anxiety inside of him the size of the Grand Canyon; he gawked
at the Head actor, and prepared to tell him off. He knew he could
get fired if he started an argument with the star of the film, but
he didn’t care, so he shouted, “No, you don’t know how to act.”

The head actor rushed toward Damen’s angry
figure, got up into his face, and yelled, “What did you say?” He
then pushed Damen with force, showing him his anger and even
power.

“You heard me, I said you don’t know how to
act. You’ve been giving me a hard time since we began shooting at
5:00 this morning. Now it’s 12:30 p.m., and we’re still on the same
scene, all because of you,” his anger responded, pushing the star
back, but with more force.

A crowd of crew members and extras started to
form a circle, far away, but still a circle around this dispute,
smiling with glee; it was like they all wanted Damen to win this
fight.

The director took off his headset, pushed
away his chair from the camera, and walked over to them, shouting,
“Listen, cut it out, you guys. Mike, it is your fault.” The star
took his eyes off of Damen and looked at the director in shock,
shaking his head, he couldn’t believe the director was on an
extra’s side.

Mike pushed Damen again, and shouted, “What?
I’m the head actor, I should know about acting, and I do. It’s this
extra’s fault for walking too fast.”

Damen yelled, “Don’t ever call me an extra
again, my name is Damen.” All of the other extras sat down on the
curbs of Hollywood Blvd. and watched the fight: the fight between
an extra and a movie star.

Mike eyeballed Damen, showing his spiteful
blue eyes to him, but Mr. Schultz didn’t back down. He stood his
ground, knowing he was right, and stood there staring at Mike the
same way. The director stated, “Damen is right, Mike, you did start
running before I said action. We’ll just do this scene over again.
But, we’ll do it after lunch, I’m starving.” He then walked back to
his camera, grabbed a microphone that was hooked up to five
loudspeakers, and added, “Alright everyone, lunch break.”

Everyone walked in the hospital, headed down
to the cafeteria, and sat down for lunch. The extras sat in a
separate room from the director, producers, and actors. The extras
had a small room, a room that only had six tables for all of the
sixty extras to sit down and eat at. The other room that held the
cast and crew was a very large room, consisting of forty tables and
lobster for lunch, while the extras had tuna fish sandwiches; the
tuna was old.

Damen sat down and slowly ate his tuna. The
other extras watched every bite he took. Watching him in amazement,
for they were amazed at him standing up to a movie star and arguing
with him. Damen felt the stares, he felt the eyes upon him as he
took each bite of his tuna. That’s when it happened. The director
walked in the extra’s room and slowly walked over to Damen. He sat
down across from him and asked, “So, your name is Damen?”

Damen slowly looked up at him, he knew that
the voice he heard was the director’s tone. Seeing the director’s
young face, mustache that was made up of peach fuzz, and a small
vein on his forehead, that popped out every time he took a breath
in, Damen was shocked. Mr. Schultz gazed at him and responded in
puzzlement, “Yeah, that’s right.”

The man handed Damen a plate with lobster
tails on it, surrounded by vegetables and lettuce, with some form
of white cream that smelled like it was expensive to even eat. “So,
Damen, what’s your last name?” the director asked as he finished
handing the plate with lobster tails by Damen finally grabbing
it.

Damen started to pick up a lobster,
answering, “Schultz, Damen Schultz.”

The director smiled at him. Lighting up a
small cigar, he spoke, “Well, Damen Schultz, I have two things to
tell you.”

“What is it?” Thoughts circled in Damen’s
mind, chanting, My God, he discovered me, he wants me to be in a
movie...

The director saw the way Damen Schultz’s eyes
stared at him, realizing that he was in deep thought, thinking of
something that caused him to be happy, only because Damen developed
a small grin. Mr. Schultz knew that the director was going to tell
him something good, after all, he was smiling, and the director was
smiling as well.

“First, I would like to introduce myself, my
name is Dennis Schultz; we’ve got the same last name.”

“Oh, pleased to meet you.” Damen shook
Dennis’ hand, noticing even more eyes pressing against his
back.

“The first thing is, I want to thank you for
giving me the pleasure of seeing someone finally stand up to Mike.
No one has ever done what you did back there. I still can’t believe
that you stood up to Mike Montgomery,” Dennis laughed out. “That
was surely my Christmas present. I mean, even though this is a
low-budget film, Mike still believes that his star quality should
be flaunted like a tyrant’s mind.”

“Well, I’d like to thank you for standing up
for me. If it wasn’t for you, I would probably be fired,” said
Damen. All the extras looked at them laughing and talking. The
other extras minds were filled with jealousy as they watched Damen
eat his lobster tails, and themselves eating old tuna.

“You’re welcome, Damen. Here’s my card. I’m
directing another movie after this one. It’ll probably begin in
February of next year. I’m directing it with my older brother,
Henry Schultz; he’s co-producing a movie right now with Judith
Seaver and some other new coming star. The director’s name is David
Cannon, we call him Mr. Cannon,” he said while holding his business
card in the tips of his fingers. “Anyway, I want you to try out for
it, I’m sure you’ll get at least one of the roles,” he added,
handing Damen his business card. “I like you, Damen, you got
guts.”

“Cool, I’ll be sure to call you then.” He put
the card into his pocket, and started to munch at the lobster tail,
noticing that Dennis wasn’t leaving yet.

“Now, the second thing is,” said Dennis.
Damen thought for sure he was going to ask him to be in one of his
movies in the near future, so he smiled toward Dennis and got ready
to hear what he came to California to hear. “Well, I’m just going
to tell you straight out,” he added. Damen was hoping he would say
it fast, the excitement was building up in his stomach, he was
afraid he would explode with happiness.

“Sure, just tell me straight out.” Damen
listened closely to the director’s words, knowing that they were
words of greatness, he didn’t want to miss one bit of it.

“You’re fired,” Dennis announced. Damen’s
mouth dropped to the floor with confusion written all over his
face. He was shocked, not being prepared for these types of words,
he didn’t know what to do, or else what to say.

“What?”

“I’m sorry, but Mike said either he quits or
you quit. We need Mike, he’s our head actor, he’s the star of the
movie,” Dennis answered, noticing that Damen’s shocked and confused
mouth was turning into laughing; craziness was mixed in.

Damen’s laughter paused, ceased, and ended
its humorous sound; stopping for a moment, he said, “You guys amaze
me. I thought you came here to tell me you want me for a
movie.”

All the extras, sitting about and around the
room, listened in closely to Dennis’ words, seeing if Damen was
right about his prediction or not. Damen started laughing again,
but stopped when Dennis spoke, “Listen to me, Damen, I admit, you
have been working on this movie for a long time as an extra. But
that’s just it; you’re only an extra. If I wanted you fired, I
would have sent someone lower than me to tell you, but I
didn’t.”

Damen Schultz pushed, slid, and knocked the
plate of lobster tails with force, guiding them toward Dennis,
saying, “Why didn’t you?”

Suddenly, the room went silent, the extras,
looking around like there wasn’t a director present in their world,
stopped talking and listened closely to the conversation, waiting
to hear what Dennis’ reply was going to be. Dennis noticed the
silence in the room, so he whispered, “Because, I like you, Damen,
I like your style. I do want you for the movie, but like I said
before, the movie begins in February. That’s how it works.”

Damen didn’t know the importance of a
director, not knowing fully how the entertainment industry worked,
he stated, “You’re just a director, you’re not an agent. You
probably say this to all the actors you fire... Don’t ya?”

Dennis grew a grin on his face, hearing those
words that had a false nature to them, he said, “Listen, I’m like a
God in Hollywood. I don’t know where you get your information from,
but directors are higher than agents. Also, I don’t say this to
every actor I fire, I never fired any actor before, you’re my
first.” He then got up and stuck his hand out to shake Damen’s
hand. “Well, goodbye for now,” he added, grabbing onto Damen’s palm
and fingers, shaking it with force, but a sincere nature was also
felt.

He walked to the doorway that separated the
crew and actors from the extras. Before he exited the room, he
stopped right next to the doorway, looked at Damen, and said, “By
the way, Merry Christmas.”

Damen ran out of the extra’s room with
embarrassment on his face, seeing the extras staring at him with
humor in their eyes, he walked out of the hospital and waited for a
taxi, wanting to leave this place of embarrassment for good. That’s
when Mike Montgomery approached him, asking, “Why don’t you just go
back to wherever you came from?”

Damen didn’t look at him. A taxicab pulled
up, and that’s when he spoke while slowly turning around to face
Mike, “Why don’t you?”

“You’re just an actor-wannabe, get lost,”
Mike stated, seeing the cabdriver getting out of his cab and going
up to him.

The cabdriver’s stocky body stood in front of
Mike with a huge grin, holding a pen and paper in his hands, the
cabdriver questioned, “Excuse me, are you Mike Montgomery?”

Mike stared at Damen, showing his grin of a
nasty formation, he wanted to show him that he was the star, and
Damen was just an extra. Still staring at him, Mr. Montgomery
responded, “Why yes, yes I am.”

“Could I have your autograph?” The cabdriver
shoved the piece of paper, shoved his pen as well toward Mr.
Montgomery, that’s when Damen opened the cab door, and hopped
inside of it. The cab was hot; the leather seats stuck and admitted
its heat toward Mr. Schultz’s pants, creating sweat on his flesh.
So, Damen looked at the closed window, seeing Mike and the driver
standing right there, he paused from rolling it down, not wanting
to hear Mike’s voice anymore. But, it was too hot, too humid for
his pride to go against the window’s freedom, so he rolled it down
and waited for the cabdriver.

“Sure.” Mike responded, signing his name fast
on the piece of paper.

Damen Schultz started to feel impatient,
seeing that this driver was still on duty, and seeing that this
conceited star was causing him to delay, he said, “Excuse me, but
would you please get back in the cab, I have to go somewhere
fast.”

Mike Montgomery started laughing at Damen’s
words, still signing his name on the yellow piece of paper, he
giggled, “Yeah, he does have to go somewhere fast. He has to go to
the unemployment office.”

Damen just looked straight ahead, not even
staring at Mike for his words of not so great humor. As he stared
ahead, the cabdriver got into the driver’s seat, saying to Mike
through his opened door, “Thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome. Drive carefully now, you
have a future star in the back seat,” he laughed out in a sarcastic
fashion.

The cab drove off as the driver asked, “Where
to?”

“Just keep on driving,” Damen replied. His
anger-filled eyes looked out the window and stared at a billboard
in the distance, a billboard that had Darell’s face on it.