Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

Alberto walked through the door with an aura that producers would often display. Not too approachable but he didn’t look too overbearing either. 

Still, there was a foul smile on his face like he wasn’t happy with something. It was more like he had not slept for two days. 

Seeing him walking in, all of the cast and crew went ahead to greet him and introduce themselves. But Alberto just nodded towards them and looked around. 

His eyes stopped looking when he found Aiden. The foul smile on his face got worse instantly before disappearing and his eyes sharpened. 

Ignoring everyone else, he walked towards him. 

‘He certainly doesn’t look happy seeing me.’

Aiden thought in his mind. He didn’t really enjoy meeting Alberto either but this time, he had the upper hand for now. 

Unlike him, Emma who was standing beside him was beaming with joy suddenly. It was as if she wasn’t acting like an ice princess just a second ago. 

A few of the cast members were also surprised to see her like this. 

“What happened to her suddenly?”

“She looked like she was ready to go to war just a minute ago. Now, she’s acting like a newly wed wife.”

“Apparently, she’s close to Alberto and is in the movie because of him. She probably thinks of him as her way to gain more control over the project.”

Aiden heard the whisper too due to his good hearing but it seemed to have no impact on Alberto and Emma. 

When he got close, Emma walked to give him a hug, trying to display that she was very close to the producer. 

“Alberto, I have not seen you in a long time. I heard you were in London these past few days.”

To that, Alberto just nodded and returned the hug in a cold manner. 

“Yeah, I was.”

He didn’t say anything further and got away from her and walked a few steps ahead to stand in front of Aiden. 

Suddenly, Emma’s shoulders sunked and her expression broke into a mess. 

The producer she acted close with didn’t even look at her properly and went straight to the lead actor? The whole exchange was taken like that by everyone in the room. 

‘Why is he like this suddenly? Is it because my recent movie flopped at the box office?’

Emma thought in her mind but she didn’t realise that Alberto hadn’t ignored her because he thought of Aiden as better. 

He just wanted to have another exchange of words with Aiden. 

“It seems like I underestimated your luck greatly. You are extremely lucky to get away from something like this.”

“It seems like you are hurt because I wasn’t blacklisted? I’m pretty sure you were already in talks with another actor to take over my role but it fizzled out because the press association wasn’t able to do anything to me.”

“Ah, you were just lucky.”

“Is that the excuse you are giving yourself everytime you lose to me?”

Both Alberto and Aiden whispered under their breaths as they shook hands. They were talking in a volume so low that not even Emma who was standing pretty close was able to hear it. 

As their expressions were also blank, no one had any idea that there was animosity between the two of them. 

Alberto was too egoistic to accept his defeat and although he wanted to make trouble during the shooting, his hands were bound. 

After all, it was his project and if it failed due to these things, then he won’t have anyone else to blame. So, he could just stay silent for a few months. 

As Aiden and Alberto were having their bitter exchange of words, Emma was just standing there, not knowing what to do. 

She looked towards her agent and whispered to him. 

“You didn’t tell me that Alberto was close with Aiden too?”

“No, I’m pretty sure they have bad blood between them. Even now, it’s not like they are acting like old friends.”

“At least he wasn’t ignored.”

Emma snorted and the agent quickly tried to think of something to ease her anger. As always, she was hard to handle. 

“Anyway, it’s not smart to cozy up to Alberto. After all, Olio Fermen is known to have most of the power during shooting. You need to talk to him to get your scenes increased too. It’s better to butter him up knowing his reputation.”

The agent said and Emma blinked, thinking about it. She found the suggestion acceptable and nodded. As she had not worked with Olio before, there was no familiarity between them. 

Olio was a very strict filmmaker, even avoiding a lot of social gatherings and for the past few years, he wasn’t even working on a movie.

‘This is a good plan.’

She thought in her mind. 

“I have another meeting to be at, so I won’t be present during the script reading. Like I said before, don’t fuck up the movie or I will fuck you up.”

Alberto said in a gangster like tone but Aiden just shrugged his shoulders. He left after that and for some reason, Olio walked in five minutes after that with a few of his assistants. 

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room tensed.

Aiden noticed it and raised an eyebrow. 

“Are the other actors scared of Olio?” He asked Wade who nodded. 

“Kind of. He has a reputation of a pretty strict director. Once, he even threw out a big actor for coming in late for the shoot. That incident happened at the peak of his directing career and no one was able to utter a word. Directors like him are way bigger than actors after all.”

Aiden nodded his head hearing that. 

One more reason was probably that Olio was the type to make a distinction between professional and personal life and wasn’t too close with any actor. 

The reason why he was fine with Aiden was because they had strictly talked about [Hex] and their interpretations of the novel. 

Although the other actors greeted him reservedly, Emma walked towards him with a wide smile on her face. 

“Mr. Fermen, we only met a few times before. I doubt we were able to have a nice talk.”

She said, shaking hands with him. Opposite to her warm attitude, Olio just stared blankly at her. 

“We talked enough, I think. I like your interpretation of the character and going by your past movies, you are good enough for the role. Until you need any assistance on the scenes, I doubt we need to get closer.”

Emma was already so happy with the praise in the first half of the sentence that she didn’t seem to focus on the second half of the sentence. 

“Actually, I wanted to talk about the scenes.” She said and Olio raised an eyebrow. 

“What about them?”

“I got to know that some of my scenes were cut off from the core of the story. I feel like it’s better if they get restored as they do a good job on telling the backstory of my character.”

“I cut them off for a reason.”

Olio simply said but it didn’t look like Emma was done. 

“I just felt like it was better—”

“I never asked you what was better for the movie. Did I?”

He asked in a raised voice. It was such that everyone heard it in the room and eyes quickly gathered towards them. 

Emma was shocked and didn’t know what to say. 

“You are just an actor and it’s not your story. It’s mine. I know how to make it better and I don’t need to ask you for that. Are you trying to have more control on the project?”

“Ah no.”

“Then, just do what is given to you.”

Saying that, Olio walked away and Emma was left dumbstruck. She wanted to lash out right at the moment but her agent quickly controlled her. 

[Hex] was a big movie for her despite her status as in the last few years, her popularity had gone down. 

That’s why her agent could only try to cool her down. 

After straightening out Emma, Olio walked towards Aiden.

Although he wasn’t really scared of him, he had also watched what had happened with Emma and didn’t want the thing to repeat itself. 

That’s why, he decided to just be respectful and not have any demands while working on the project. One needed to act depending on who he was working with in the industry after all. 

Aiden pushed his hand forward towards Olio. 

“Olio, it’s nice to see you. It’s been a—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Olio suddenly hugged him. The atmosphere froze and everyone rubbed their eyes, wondering what was happening. 

Were they that close? How is Olio even close to someone? Those were suddenly the thoughts in everyone’s mind. 

Even Wade and Tom were watching with widened eyes. 

‘What’s happening? Is Olio okay?’

Aiden also wasn’t sure why the Hitler like director was suddenly acting like this. 

“I need to thank you. The press association was one of the main reasons why I didn’t get any investments for my project for a few years.”

When he said that, Aiden finally understood what was happening. 

The middle aged actor who had worked with Olio before also got it and explained to the actors who were still confused. 

“Olio and Philips Fraser hated each other and that man was partly responsible for him not getting investments.”