Chapter 011: Everyone Bristled
Chapter 011: Everyone Bristled
“Cut. Very good, Eric. Take a break and prepare for the next scene.” Penny Marshall clapped her hands and had the staff prepare for the next scene as quickly as possible. At this moment, Eric was wearing an oversized suit and performing the scene in the school corridor where he asked about the old janitor’s whereabouts.
This was the afternoon of the first day of filming. The location was a private high school in Beverly Hills. After the high school’s board of directors learned the content of the screenplay, they readily agreed to provide the filming location to the crew for free. The condition was that Hayden High School in the screenplay had to be changed to the name of this high school. This was a win-win situation. The crew obtained a location for free and saved a portion of the budget, while the high school also received publicity through the film. After a simple discussion, the crew agreed to the school board’s request.
In the morning, they test-shot some simple scenes, and the results were good. So in the afternoon, they began filming the scene where Mike went to school to look for the old janitor after transforming.
“Eric, that outfit of yours is so pathetic. You look like one of those filthy homeless people downtown.” Drew Barrymore sat on a chair with her legs crossed, completely without image, mocking him like a female hooligan.
Eric naturally would not care about the words of a thirteen-year-old girl and casually replied, “Hey, Maggie, that’s not something a daughter should say.”
Drew curled her lips. “Hmph. For an eighteen-year-old virgin, you sure talk big.”
Aniston happened to walk over with a towel at this moment. Hearing Drew mock the boy she liked, she immediately counterattacked, “Still a hundred times better than those bad women who take drugs, drink, and *.”
Drew did not mind at all. She carefully looked Aniston up and down from head to toe, then tilted her big eyes and revealed a mocking smile. She deliberately twisted her slender waist alluringly in the chair.
It had to be said that this move was extremely damaging. Aniston felt somewhat inferior about her full figure, especially in front of the boy she liked. She instantly became like a cat with its fur standing on end, throwing away the towel in her hand and about to pounce at Drew. Do not be fooled by Aniston’s sweet face. A girl making her way alone in Los Angeles could not protect herself properly without a somewhat fierce personality.
Seeing that a fierce catfight was about to break out, Eric quickly stopped Aniston, pulled her small hand, and had her sit beside him. He intimately bit her ear and softly whispered something. Aniston adorably shrank her neck, feeling Eric’s breath. After a while, she giggled and lightly punched Eric on the shoulder, acting spoiled. “Eric, you’re so bad. How could you say that?”
Drew secretly perked up her ears, but she still could not hear clearly what Eric had just said. She could only wrinkle her little nose, pretend not to care, snort, and turn her head aside.
“Eric, prepare for the next scene.”
“Alright, Penny.” Eric patted Aniston’s small hand, stood up, and walked toward the filming area.
As for why Drew targeted Eric, the matter had to start from that morning. Because these were school scenes, Drew and Aniston joined the crew from the beginning. Although Eric and Aniston had not yet made their relationship clear, everyone could see Aniston’s attachment to Eric. Some teased them, some envied them, and of course, some found it unpleasant, such as Drew.
For some reason, whenever she saw the two of them leaning together, even without any intimate behavior, Drew would feel an inexplicable discomfort, especially when Aniston occasionally showed the happy look of a little woman. Because of this, Drew always found it hard to restrain herself from mocking Eric. In just one morning, everyone in the crew knew that Eric and Drew were at odds. However, when the two appeared on camera together, both showed great professional ethics, and the scenes rarely had NG takes. Since it did not affect filming, Marshall merely hinted for Eric to be a little more tolerant of Drew. After knowing him for more than half a month, Marshall had already discovered Eric’s maturity and steadiness far beyond others his age.
“Hey, fat girl, what did that guy say to you just now?” In the end, Drew still could not hold back and asked casually while pretending not to care.
“Poor thing, I’m warning you. If you call me fat girl again, I’ll crush your tits!” After Eric’s guidance, Aniston no longer reacted as intensely as before, but with the boy she liked no longer beside her, her words also became fierce and bold.
“Poor thing? Me?” Drew’s heart trembled slightly, but on the surface, she revealed an incredulous expression as she looked at Aniston.
“Mm-hm.” Aniston raised her cute chin slightly and proudly squeezed out a syllable.
“Ahaha, how ridiculous. I’m one of the female leads in this film. You’re just a small role with barely two minutes of screen time. What right do you have to call me a poor thing?”
Aniston said, “So what? Even if you’re a female lead, you’re only a tool your mother uses to make money. I’m different. Although I’m only a small role now, I have freedom, dreams, and a talented, gentle, considerate boyfriend. He just turned eighteen, yet he already wrote a screenplay and stars as the male lead, and he’s about to publish a novel too. What about you? Your father acts like you don’t exist, and your mother treats you as a money-making tool. You’re unwilling to accept it, but there’s nothing you can do, so you can only give up on yourself and indulge in yourself. Drinking, taking drugs, even *, and you stupidly treat all of that as rebellion against reality. When you see Eric and me being close, you, who lack love and care, become jealous. So you’re nothing but a poor thing with no one to cherish you, no one to love you, and no freedom!”
Boom.
It was as if an atomic bomb exploded inside Drew’s mind. Drew felt as if she had suddenly been stripped naked and thrown into a busy street, with no * left at all.
No matter how physically mature she appeared, Drew was only a thirteen-year-old girl. Most girls at this age had only just entered middle school, ignorant and curious as they examined the fresh world around them, looking forward to their approaching first love. Aniston’s direct analysis of her heart bloodily tore open the wound Drew had carefully buried beneath her fragile disguise.
Seeing Drew suddenly become silent, Aniston, believing she had won, showed a satisfied smile. If Eric had been here, he definitely would have stopped Aniston from saying words that a thirteen-year-old girl could hardly endure.
After smoothly finishing several shots, Eric returned to the rest area again. He was somewhat surprised to see Drew curling her legs in front of her, her small head buried in her arms, silent and unmoving. Curious, he asked Aniston, “Annie, what happened? Why are you two so quiet?”
Aniston said proudly, “See, I argued her speechless.”
“Oh, Annie, you’re really impressive. Drew’s sharp little mouth isn’t that easy to deal with. Alright, let’s go. It’s your turn to appear. Perform well and try to leave the director with a good impression.”
“I will.”
The two walked intimately toward the filming area. This small disturbance seemed to pass silently just like that, but was it really so?
During the following filming, Drew did not show anything unusual. She only spoke much less and no longer picked on Eric. Eric, whose mind was fully focused on the film shoot and Aniston, also did not notice the abnormal difference in Drew’s behavior before and after.
“Unbelievable. Filming is going so smoothly.” After finishing the last shot of the day, Penny Marshall held the shooting schedule and marked it with a pen as she said to Eric, “Originally, we planned to finish filming the school scenes within ten days, but at this pace, we may not even need a week. Although I already said it several times during the audition, I have to say again, Eric, your performance is far beyond everyone’s expectations. Do you really have no acting experience at all?”
Eric smiled. “Of course not, Penny. Actually, I lied. In my previous life, I acted in many films. Although I wasn’t the lead, I still accumulated a lot of experience. Fortunately, I still haven’t forgotten it in this life.”
“Wow, a previous life. That’s an Eastern Buddhist theory, right?” Penny Marshall naturally treated Eric’s absolute truth as a joke. “Alright, your little girlfriend is getting impatient. Go on. Remember not to be late tomorrow.”
“Then see you tomorrow, Penny.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Eric started the car and left the set together with Aniston.
No one noticed Drew Barrymore, standing somewhat alone outside the crowd, staring at the departing car and muttering with resentment, “Just you wait, Jennifer Aniston, you little bitch. You hurt me like this. I’ll make you pay. I’ll make you regret every single word you said today.”