An hour later, Wade calls me out to help him iron out the critical seduction scene between Luke’s character and the young wife.
Overall, I don’t have a lot of say in the actual making of the film but with my experience, Wade trusts my judgment and often calls me out for a new perspective.
He tells everyone to take a break and we sit together over coffee and something covered in sugar.
“There’s something wrong with this scene,” Wade says, rubbing his chin and frowning at the script. “I don’t think it’s the lines…” He sighs and slaps the script on the table. “Maybe I’m just not feeling it.”
We watch the take together and right away, I can see what’s wrong.
It’s a pivotal scene where Grey seduces his friend’s young wife.
Set after a dinner party where the husband’s callousness is most prominent, leaving her vulnerable to the seductive, attentive stranger.
“You need to slow this scene down,” I say. “She’s emotionally tired and he’s a little drunk. Luke’s character is talking and behaving as though the party has just started not ended.”
Wade chews his lip thoughtfully. “If we make this scene longer, we’ll have to cut something else.”
“Then cut something, trim something. The whole film is going to hang off this scene. Everything so far has led to this moment and everything that comes after will be impacted by it. We get it right or we go home.”
He compresses his lips into a thin line. “You’re right.”
When the crew starts filing back in, I take a seat next to Wade as he gives the new directions to Luke and Nikki Bloom, who’s playing the young wife.
It strikes me as odd that I’ve never really met Nikki.
She’s one of those actresses who refuses to talk to anyone but the director and her fellow leads, nothing like Luke who’s made it his personal business to meet and charm everyone on set.
Luke grins when he spies me sitting on set. “Come to watch the magic happen?”
His flirtatious tone isn’t lost on me but I manage not to flush too badly, even though my mouth is suddenly so dry I have to take a sip of my water before I can respond.
“Just sitting in. Wade wanted a second set of eyes.”
Nikki comes up beside him sparing me a cursory look before taking his arm, a possessive gesture.
“Bobby, is my lipstick alright? It feels smudged already.”
He looks at her lips for a long moment before smiling and touching his nose to hers, a clearly affectionate move. “You’re lipstick is perfect - for now.”
I feel something nasty shifting in my stomach and have to force myself to unclench my fists.
I have no right to be jealous.
I have a boyfriend, who I love.
“Alright! Places! Luke, Nikki you’re up. Everyone else, shut it.”
He calls for action.
It never ceases to amaze me how fast a true actor can fall into character.
In a matter of seconds, Nikki switches from a snooty bitch into a wide-eyed young wife, lonely and hurt, right down to the slight shimmering of tears in her eyes.
Luke saunters through a side door and leans against the frame.
His tie is gone and the first few buttons of his shirt are undone. His chin and jaw is dark with freshly sprouting stubble and his eyes are droopy.
Tired and maybe a little drunk.
He’s carrying a shot full of something brown and bringing it to his full sensual lips he swallows it down in one jerk, his throat working.
He comes closer and sits on the edge of the table and they say their lines, but slower now, more deliberate. In this take, Luke is a predator, slowly closing in on Nikki, a scared but desperately controlled gazelle.
She watches him, fearful but curious and all the while, he closes in.
It’s like watching a dance.
He sits in the chair opposite and demands responses to questions she can’t answer. He leans closer and whispers secrets that make her want to run away and hear more all at the same time.
I look at Wade to see him nodding.
It’s working for him too.
Suddenly, she’s on her feet and he’s on his.
The table is no longer a table, it’s a wall between them.
As he moves around it she’s careful to do the same, keeping that boundary, and herself safe behind it.
He tells her what he wants. He tells her what she knows she wants. And this time when he moves, she stays where she is, watching as he draws closer.
As Luke and Nikki move through the scene, Wade hisses instructions to the camera crew through his headset.
Nikki pulls away from Luke and runs, but he’s faster, catching her before she can open the door and pinning her against it. He drags his thumb across her mouth, smearing her lipstick over her cheek before kissing her.
He picks her up roughly and carries her to the table.
He’s not gentle.
Shoving her thighs apart, Luke mimes opening his pants and ripping her panties.
From my angle, Nikki has her back to me and all I can see is Luke.
He mimes that first thrust and his deep groan matches her cry and against my will, I feel my core tightening and my nipples pressing hard against my bra.
His strong arms flex and bulge with every thrust as he takes his best friend’s young, vulnerable wife, hard and rough, grunting with every thrust, his face a mask of victory and pleasure.
Suddenly, Luke’s eyes open and focus on me.
He must see my flushed face, the way my chest rises and falls faster, the way my nipples poke through my thin blouse.
The look of victory and lust is so raw.
He never takes his gaze of me as he mimes the violent love scene.
“I think you got the scene,” I whisper to Wade, mainly to break the tension.