Chapter 2
Milo doesn't recognize the name, and it's a little unusual for novice producers or bargain-busters to try to get Milo to feature in their films.
"Who is that?"
"Remember
The Quiet Grove
from last year?"
Of course Milo remembers it.
There's probably not a soul in Asteria that hasn't watched
The Quiet Grove
at least twice.
It had taken the media world by storm, a melancholy half-horror-half-romantic piece about a depressed woman and her dead lover, and had been nominated for nearly every award there was.
It quite possibly had been, Milo has to admit, a masterpiece.
"Nathaniel Nielsen directed it," Donovan says again, narrowing his eyes as he scans through the script.
Milo's immediately intrigued.
"What, so he sent me a screenplay?
Me personally?" Milo hates to say it, but he's honestly excited.
Nathaniel Nielsen's movie had been outside the realm of traditional blockbusters, and Milo had secretly envied the lead actor in it because he had gotten to do something different than boring romance-action-thriller plots assigned the rest of them.
Donovan nods, and then Milo leans over and grabs the script out of his hands.
He skims over the first page and introduction, and then wrinkles his nose.
"It's called
The Sides
?
Side dishes?" Milo mutters, running the pad of his finger over the embossed letters on the front of the packet.
'Side dishes' doesn't sound particularly inspiring, but Milo has no reason to doubt Nathaniel Nielsen yet.
He reads over the beginning lines of the script—boring as all movies are, really—and then flips straight to the end.
Certain words jump out at him, 'death' and 'love' and suddenly 'boyfriend,' and that's when Milo realizes that this movie is not a typical girl-meets-boy type of story.
"It's about two men?" Milo raises his eyes to meet Donovan's own doubtful ones, and then he looks back down at the script to make sure he's not misunderstanding anything.
"From what I've heard through the grapevine," Donovan begins, fidgeting a little in his seat, "
The Sides
is about two ordinary men discovering extraordinary love.
Or something like that.
I don't know, I've just heard some whispers here and there."
Milo doesn't move his gaze from the script, and Donovan gnaws on the nail of his thumb.
"A lot of actors refuse to do something like this," Donovan continues, watching Milo's face for any sign of a reaction.
"It's still really a very touchy subject these days, you know?
It probably will get more bad attention than good, honestly, so I'll completely support you and it's totally fine if you decide not to—"
"I want it," Milo breathes, stopping Donovan in his tracks.
Milo clutches the script tightly in his hands and looks up at Donovan with a growing sense of excitement.
It's something he hasn't felt in a long time, and it scares him a little, how badly he wants to feel more of it.
"Are you sure?" Donovan looks uncertain and sounds even more so.
"Really, it's going to be difficult.
You're going to have to act closely with another man.
You should think about this some more.
Also, you're throwing Penelope Shaw away for some indie film."
"I don't care," Milo says adamantly, holding the script a little closer to him.
"Don't you see?
This is
perfect.
"
\-
There's nothing Wilder Thorne hates more than the feeling of being in a rut.
His life is just one big rut, really, and he hates it so much he wants to die.
So when he finds an unexpected chance to escape that rut, he takes it.
\-
Milo gets the role.
It's no surprise, really, since Milo Turner is a household name, and every director worth their salt knows that signing Milo onto a movie is practically a guarantee for good rating.
Nathaniel Nielsen is probably a little more desperate than most to have a good name associated with his rather risky movie, and so Milo glosses by the audition process with little more than a glance at the script.
The only thing that remains is to find his co-star.
Nathaniel is a nice enough guy, and he's younger than Milo so he doesn't try to talk down at him like some other directors do.
(Or maybe that's because Nathaniel's still a relative newbie in the field despite his success in the past, and Milo's so famous he has his face on every carton of banana milk.)
Nathaniel's willing enough to give into some of Milo's demands—like no washing out the color in his scenes because his skin's light enough and he doesn't want to look like a ghost, dammit—but he's adamant about having the other male lead be an unknown actor rather than someone as famous as Milo, because he doesn't want his movie to be supported only by the fame of its stars.
"It needs to be heard for its story, you know?" Nathaniel says, gesturing wildly.
"And I think you're the key to drawing people in, Milo-ssi.
But can you imagine this movie with two Milo Turners?
I think people would then start to lose focus on the actual story."
Milo is more than okay with that stipulation, but he's not sure if it's because he genuinely agrees with Nathaniel or if it's because he's selfish and doesn't want to share the spotlight with another popular face.
It's probably both.
Before Nathaniel selects a second male lead for the movie, he introduces Milo to Sebastian Russo, who apparently is the writer of the screenplay.
Sebastian Russo is tall, well-proportioned, and handsome enough to be an actor himself, but Milo can tell that he prefers to be behind the camera and not in front of it from his shy demeanor and soft voice.
It's not Sebastian's first screenplay, Milo soon discovers.
He's more than just a little shocked to find out that Sebastian was also the creative mind behind
The Quiet Grove
as well, because never would he have imagined that such a happy face was capable of thinking up such a serious script.
But then again, this is the movie industry, and Milo knows better than others that nothing is as it seems.
Through Sebastian, Milo finds himself understanding the story of
The Sides
It's a rather simple story, really, and nothing unrealistically dramatic happens to the two main characters at all.
"It's the story of how a man named Wilder tries to find his own story to tell," Sebastian explains, eyes flashing, "and along the way, he happens to find Adrian.
Really, it's a very simple story about love and work and family—things that all people experience.
I don't want this to be some adventurous and silly commentary about the lives of men who love other men, you know?
It's more to show that all people are only human.
I think a lot of us have yet to understand that."
When it's put that way, Milo has to agree.
Sebastian is unusually prominent in all of the discussions regarding
The Sides
, considering that most writers of at least all the films Milo's been in have been content to sit back and let others deal with the process of animating their words.
Sebastian treats the script like it's his child, regarding it with a fierce sort of pride and love, and Milo can appreciate that because anybody who loves something to that extent has to be invested in it.
Milo's always invested in all of his roles, and he's glad to meet someone that treats their job with the same kind of fervor.
So whereas Milo is expecting Sebastian to attend the second wave of auditions, he's not expecting it when Nathaniel asks Milo to come as well.
"It's the person who's going to be acting by your side for the next two months, right?" Nathaniel says, his wide smile dimpling his face.
Milo has certainly worked with less friendly directors before.
"You should have a say in this too."
And that is a new thing even for someone as experienced as Milo, so he nods yes and agrees to sit at the end of the judging table during auditions for the part of Wilder's lover.
The first wave of auditions is thoroughly unimpressive.
Each new actor walks in, stares a little nervously at Milo and Nathaniel, and then reads off a few scenes from the script.
They're all jittery, too focused on getting all the words completely correct that they forget to focus on the meanings behind them.
They're uninspired and
boring
, Milo thinks bitterly, and he mentally prepares himself to work with one of these dimwits.
Nathaniel, though, is apparently not ready to settle, and kindly dismisses all the actors before shutting the door to the audition room.
"We can't use any of them," Nathaniel laments, sinking down to the ground.
Sebastian, still in his seat, shrugs his shoulders.
"Aren't there more waiting to be auditioned?"