A white man with blonde hair, a bit of beard and a square face walked in. He looked a bit burly with his body shape but he was smiling in confidence.
Besides him, a rather small guy was there.
The other actors present there started muttering among themselves seeing the guy. It looked like they were wary of him.
"Hey, isn't he Dustin Redford? That actor from [Sunlight]."
"Isn't he a movie actor? What's he doing here?"
"He started his career from TV, so maybe he's interested in the role. Sigh, I thought it would be a bit easy to get it."
"He has a lot of popularity and is a veteran. I'm pretty sure the role would go to him."
Hearing the actors whisper about him, Dustin smiled proudly, thoroughly enjoying it.
"We should get a table. There's still an hour until the audition." The short man beside him said. He was Dustin's agent.
"Yeah, okay—"
As he was speaking, Dustin's eyes suddenly landed on Aiden who was sitting in a far right corner, immersed in his conversation with Wade.
His eyes sparked a bit and without wasting any time, he quickly made his way up to Aiden's table.
"Hello, aren't you Aiden Silvereye?"
"Uh, yeah."
"I really like your performance as Kai. Makes me want to play such characters myself and your songs are really great. You are very talented."
Dustin blabbered on and for a second, Aiden thought that he was just another fan. They have increased after 'Lost in the Sky' became so famous.
But suddenly, Dustin's expression changed as he saw that unlike him, Aiden wasn't recognising him.
"Do you not recognise me?" Dustin asked and Aiden made a confused expression.
Seeing that, Dustin wasn't able to stop himself from frowning. He was very sure that Aiden knew him. After all, the other actors who were here had shown good reactions seeing him.
"I'm sorry but who are you?" Aiden finally asked.
"Dustin. Dustin Redford. You must have at least heard of me."
Aiden tried very hard to remember if he knew of the guy or had at least heard of him. On the side, Dustin's agent was already sighing with a hand on his face.
It looked like he was used to seeing these things. Wade on the other hand was laughing, like he was amused.
'I do feel like his face is familiar.'
Aiden looked closely at his face and at that moment, Dustin's expression finally broke.
"I appeared in [Sunlight]. The movie was nominated for Oscars and even in the TV series [Metal kings]. You must know them."
"Ah, yes, I remember you."
After getting the clues, Aiden finally realised who the guy was. Though, at this point, Dustin was already struggling to smile. He had thought that at least other actors would know of him.
"It seems like you have a bad memory. Anyway, what are you doing here? Are you here to audition for [Searching for the One]?"
Dustin asked, changing the subject quickly to not feel embarrassed.
"Yeah, are you auditioning too?"
"Yes, I was actually in talks with Zero International for a hundred million dollar project but my agent here recommended taking this audition as it was going to be a short role. It seems like a good opportunity to get my face out there. It's been a while since my last project. Anyway, I'm very sorry."
"Sorry?"
"Yeah, now that I'm here, the role is obviously going to me. So, you might go home disappointed."
***
After talking about Dustin for a bit, Aiden understood one thing.
That the man in front of him was an absolute blabbermouth who didn't know what to say and what to not. At the same time, his personality was best described as narcissistic.
Dustin loved to talk about himself in a higher position than others but by his tone of words, Aiden knew that he didn't mean bad.
As soon as they got down to talking, Dustin started talking about how he had started in the industry and how for the first few years, everyone had failed to see his excellent acting and had ignored him.
It was only after his first breakthrough role that he started getting more and more attention.
Somehow, his story was pretty good but it was very repetitive as Dustin would say the same time again and again and soon, Aiden was already bored of his talk.
He even gave advice to Aiden about how to go with his career. It seemed like Dustin was seeing himself as a senior who was trying to give advice to his junior who was new in the company called Hollywood.
Other than that, Dustin was also very confident in getting the role in [Searching for the One]. It was because he had earlier starred as a lead in a very popular TV series and felt that the producers won't look anywhere else after his audition is finished.
Aiden didn't really reply to that whereas Wade was just trying to stop himself from chuckling..
On the other hand, Dustin's agent was the only one with a pale face and he was continuously sighing. It seemed like he was very used to Dustin's narcissist personality.
From time to time, his agent would even look at Aiden and mutter a soft 'Sorry' in a whisper.
"Please don't take his words to heart. He's, uh, just peculiar. He's always been like that and I know it doesn't give off a good image but he's not a bad guy."
"It's fine. I understand."
"Thank you. Good luck with your audition."
"You all too."
After whispering that, Dustin's agent quickly followed him outside the cafe. It seemed like Dustin's audition was scheduled earlier than Aiden.
Every actor was given a certain time. It was faster that way as not a lot of actors were actually called for the audition today.
"He's surely a very weird guy."
Wade muttered after Dustin and his agent left.
"Yeah, his words sound very narcissistic and rude sometimes but he has this goofy atmosphere about him that makes people not take him a lot seriously, so they get along."
"That's true. I heard he's actually way better in reality TV shows than acting. He once got very good reception after appearing on a talk show but he's more inclined towards acting."
Wade explained, telling Aiden the history behind Dustin and he did agree that someone like Dustin suited a goofy, entertaining guy hosting reality TV shows.
That type of concept did seem to work with him.
'He's rude but he doesn't really give off a vibe like Tyler – Someone shady and spoiled. Rather than that, he seems like someone people could get along with if they could get used to him.'
Thinking that, Aiden suddenly felt that Dustin was very interesting as a character. Once, Uncle Sam had told him that the best thing one can do to better his acting is to listen.
Listen to stories of people and just observe their personality. As every person contained a story with them, it was a very effective way to know different characters.
Once you get to play a character, you could integrate their quirks into that, making the character more interesting.
He felt like Dustin was one such character.
***
"I don't think any of these suit the guy in my mind. Do we need to do another set of auditions? We don't really have a lot of time."
Mason Stone, one of the main writers and creators of [Searching for the One] said. Next to him, Amelia Fryman, the director sighed.
"Let's hope not. We need to start shooting soon as we are in the middle of the season. This is the first time I'm even experiencing this type of situation and wasn't Dustin Redford good? His acting skills are already proven by his filmography."
"He's fine but he doesn't give me the feeling that he's the guy we are looking for. You do know this character is very peculiar. I want someone who could think out of the box."
"You say that but even you don't know if this character will be liked by people or not as you and the others wrote it in a hurry. You don't even seem to mind if an actor portrays it completely differently than what we discussed."
Mason just smiled awkwardly hearing that.
Amelia wasn't wrong. Unlike the other characters in the show, this one was written in a hurry with the sole purpose of getting the show on the track.
After that, the character was going to be disregarded so everyone would be happy enough if they could just get a good actor on board to do this.
They weren't expecting it to become a character that would be talked about a lot and become a fan favourite. They were happy with the bare minimum.
"If you two aren't satisfied by the actors who we have auditioned till now, maybe the next one would change your mind. See his resume. He's pretty famous."
Suddenly, Bradley Carell, the executive producer of the show, sat down next to them and slid a resume towards Amelia.
She looked at him and even Mason turned his head to glance.
"Aiden Silvereye. Isn't he a singer? My daughter is a big fan of his. Is he trying to act so early in his career?"
"No, he actually played roles before. Didn't you watched [Black Saints]? He played the role of Kai."
Amelia and Mason's eyes widened hearing that.
"I didn't know that. I never really saw his face and just heard his songs."
"Same for me."
"Well, you will know when he comes in. He's next. Let's hope he does well in this audition."
As Brandon said that, Aiden walked in the audition and every pair of eyes that was in the room looked at him. He stood in the centre and the audition started after he introduced himself.
With that done, Amelia started off with a question.
"How will you envision a playboy character?"
....
