Guillaume, Her French Husband

“And now I have to go take care of my other baby before I get to the hotel,” she said to no one in particular as she backed out of the parking lot. It was a little much for her to handle but the truth was that Ashley and Myka were her only family and right now, she had to take care of her family.

Chapter 4

When Lara first walked into the casting office, she could not help but feel like she had made one of the biggest mistakes of her life. As soon as she walked in, she could feel everyone’s eyes on her. And she immediately knew why. She was the only African American in the room. There must have been maybe forty or fifty ladies there and they were all blue eyed blondes, redheads or dark long legged models. She felt more than a little out of place and she had half a mind to just get out of there. There was no way she could get away not even if she wanted to. She could not let them see her weakness. Her lack of confidence. If she did, she would have failed tremendously to say the least.

“And I just had to come for this damn audition,” she thought to herself. “And for the lead too. What in the hell was I thinking?”

Her heart was racing as she took a seat. And when she looked around, she was beginning to rethink her outfit. Everyone was in an outfit that showed a little too much skin especially when she compared their clothes to the knee length pencil skirt and matching crop top that showed only a strip of her caramel skin. It seemed like forever before her name was finally called out and her heart began beating harder and faster as she took a long deep breath before she stood up: as if she was not scared enough.

She squared her shoulders and walked into the casting room, her heart racing. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw just how many people were in the room. She was expecting six to eight people judging from her previous audition but this only had five people including the person she was going to be running lines with. And one of the only two other ladies in the room was seated behind them sorting out what looked like head shots.

“Alright. This is award winning director Guillaume Laurent, his assistant Tammy, that’s Flora Gerard, our casting director Ian Hertz and I am Damon Williams. I will be reading with you,” the man who had led her into the room said.

Lara forced a smile.

“Nice to meet you all,” she said in a soft voice.

“Look into the camera and state your name and the part you will be reading for,” the man who had been introduced as Ian said without looking up.

“Lara King and I will be reading for Celine,” she said in a soft voice just as the French director raised his head and looked at her, their eyes meeting for the first time. It was at that moment that she realized that the whole idea of European men being hot and sexy was not just a stereotype. That director, Guillaume Laurent, was most definitely fifty shades of hot. And for the next few minutes, it almost felt like she was imagining things because by the end of the shortest audition ever, she had a job.

And she was not going to be playing a maid.

Or a janitor.

Or the sassy character ‘of color’ when put politically correctly.

She was the lead.

Guillaume

After sitting through thirty two auditions, Guillaume was still not convinced that he had found his star. And every time another actress walked in, he felt like he was reliving the last audition over and over. He did not understand why Tammy had not followed his orders. Or maybe she had and other actresses had not taken as keen an interest as he expected to have get. After the thirty second audition, he was totally and completely done. He just wanted to get back to Europe or make his way to Africa. He was willing to do anything and everything just to get the right lead actress. He was not known for making the best romantic films just by settling. And he was not going to start on that day.

“Next up, Lara King,” his assistant Tammy said as she handed him Lara’s head shot. He shook his head.

“Honestly, guys, I think I am just about done with all this,” he said.

“Will you at least look?” Ian asked and he shook his head.

“What for? Just to see another pretty blue eyed airhead?” he asked. “I think I’ll just get in touch with my contacts in Johannesburg and London. Maybe I will have better luck there.” He shook his head. “And I thought we specified that we would like unretouched make-up free photos…meaning that the actresses shouldn’t have any make-up or photo shopped pictures. What part of that did they not understand?”

“Well,” Tammy started. “People are different.”

“Models and actresses are stupid, that’s what,” Flora pointed out.

“You need to look at the head shot,” Ian said again. “Because for starters, she is not a blue eyed blonde.”

Guillaume reached for the head shot and looked at it. And for the first time that day, Ian was right. She was different. He was not so sure what it was about her piercing brown eyes and caramel skin or the fact that he was looking at the first actress without any make-up on and yet she was still as stunning as ever. As he sat there looking at the picture, he was already convinced that this was the woman he wanted to play the lead role in his next film. Mostly because she was different from everyone else. He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the woman as she walked in. And as if he had not already been impressed enough by her picture, seeing her in real life was even better than he thought. She was so much more decent than every other woman who had walked into the room and maybe it was her curves and choice of outfit. He didn’t know what it was but he could already see her in the DVD release covers and the tabloids. And at that moment, he could not help but think that she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Even the way she read her lines was different. She had so much feeling. So much emotion. So much life…her audition was literally alive.

She was still reading her lines when he suddenly stood up.

“Wait,” he said in a soft voice and she turned her attention to him.

There was a deafening silence in the room as all eyes turned to look at him.

“Everybody out,” he said after a long awkward silence.

“Guillaume…” Ian started.

“Mr. Laurent?” This was Tammy’s voice.

“I said everybody out!” Guillaume said again, louder this time. “Except for you, Lara King.”

There was a brief exchange of glances as the rest of the casting crew tried to figure out what was happening before they slowly walked out one by one leaving the two of them standing in the room, looking at each other.

“Did…did I say something wrong?” Lara asked, “because I only read what was on the script.”

A smile played on his lips and he nodded.

“I know. And everything was perfect…the way you read, your intonation and facial expression…you did everything perfectly.”

She shook her head and shrugged.

“I don’t understand,” she said in a soft voice. “Then why did you send everyone away? Do you want to let me down in private or something?” she asked and he shook his head as he slowly walked towards her.

“No, not at all,” he said as he looked at her. “The auditions are over.”

“Over?” she asked in a shocked voice. “But I didn’t even get to finish my audition.”