"You want to know about me? I'm sorry, I'm not really—"
"I'm straight. I just want to know about how you started as an actor in Hollywood. How your journey went and your aspirations."
Aiden explained before Harley could get any weird thoughts about him.
Both of them were currently sitting in a cafe close to where the shooting of [Searching for the One] had ended. The other crew and cast members, alongside Brandon and Amelia, had gone to a bar to celebrate the wrap.
They had invited Aiden, but he politely refused, lying that he had another schedule.
Amelia insisted a lot for him to come, but he had no choice.
As he was going to take the flight to Toronto tomorrow, he wanted to talk to Harley as soon as possible. He didn't know when he would get another chance if he missed this one.
"Why do you want to know about all that? Are you planning to become a journalist too?"
Harley raised an eyebrow, finding the situation very weird and funny, but it was interesting enough for him to give it a bit of his time. Not like he had anything else to do.
If Aiden hadn't invited him to talk, he would have gone to the bar with others and left after a few drinks. Something he had done a lot throughout his career.
"Not a journalist but a writer. Actually, I am writing a book. More like a short novel about a struggling actor."
"Oh." Harley widened his eyes. Aiden didn't seem like a writer to him, but he knew that he shouldn't judge on looks. "That's an interesting topic, but why me? You yourself struggled in Hollywood, right?"
"I did, but I got my break after two years. It's a short time when I compare it to other actors. You can say I was a bit lucky."
In his mind, Aiden added, ‘And I got a system too'.
"So, you are asking other people about their journey to gain more insight into the struggles of an extra?"
"You can say so."
As he said that, a waiter came with two cups of coffee at that moment. Aiden thanked him and sipped on the hot coffee while looking at Harley, who seemed to be in some sort of thought.
‘It's not a big deal, and no one ever asked me about my story till now.'
Harley thought in his mind after careful deliberation.
"Okay, I can answer any questions you have. I will take it as an interview." He nodded his head, and an instant smile blossomed on Aiden's face.
He would have been in trouble if Harley had rejected. Without wasting any time, he took out a small notepad in which he had written down some questions he wanted to ask him.
In those, he decided to ask the most important question first.
"How did you exactly get into movies and acting?"
"It was love at first sight." Harley chuckled. "The first movie I watched was [World of Cinema]. You must know about it. It instantly attracted me to movies and acting."
"That's a good movie."
Aiden said, and Harley nodded, nostalgia clearly visible in his eyes.
[World of Cinema] was a movie released in 1992. It was about a young guy's friendship with an old director and how he got introduced to movies and decided to become an actor in the end.
It was a very inspirational movie and one of the best coming of age stories, so much so that it managed to win the Best Picture award at the Oscars and other award shows that year.
"Anyway, the movie instantly attracted me towards acting. I became crazy about movies. I actually begged for a job at a DVD rental shop to watch free movies on break. That was my salary, actually."
Harley said excitedly, and Aiden just listened, asking questions from time to time.
"I got into theatre after that. It wasn't any good role. I just needed to stand in the back, but there was a lot to learn. I would listen closely to the talks of lead actors, trying to get clues to become a better actor. That went on till high school before I got too impatient and ran to LA."
"You ran away from home?"
"I left a letter. My old man wasn't happy as he wanted me to be a policeman like him, but I was busy chasing my dreams."
Harley let out a sigh at the end of the sentence as from then on, the story became a bit depressing as he finally experienced Hollywood for himself.
"In one word, it was rough. Extremely. For the first few months, I was homeless before a good man gave me a job in his store. I was at least able to eat after that. I still made rounds of studios and saved money to register myself in the Actor's guild, but it wasn't much help. Every open audition, I was rejected."
"You never got a good role?"
Aiden asked. He felt like Harley's passion must have moved at least one person.
"I did. More than once. But they were mostly taken away for more popular actors or even actors who were related to some of the producers or the directors. They said that it's Hollywood. Don't believe you are in a movie until you see yourself on the big screen. My life moved like that, and I eventually settled for being an extra."
Aiden recalled what had happened with Tyler Reed and him when Harley said that. He felt like he was very lucky that he had managed to hold onto the role of Kai.
"You never thought of giving it up? Maybe doing something else? It must have been very hard on you."
"I thought. I still think about it every day, but it's not an option. I have given too much to it, and I want proof that I have succeeded. I'm still trying. I have not gone home for the last few years during Christmas because I have nothing to show for myself. I don't even know if I will be able to go back home or not because my career is stuck…"
After that, Harley and Aiden talked for more than two hours. In the middle, Aiden also talked about his struggles and how he would sleep in his taxi early on.
But most of the talk revolved around Harley.
He extensively told Aiden about everything he had done to get a better role. He had tried to get into a talent agency and also a free market agent, but more often than not, they had turned out to be frauds.
There were even times when he had signed a contract for a supporting role in a movie, but a more popular actor had torn it and kicked him out of the movie because both of them had an argument on the set.
As he was without any connections, he didn't have any power to do anything despite being right.
He talked about another incident with a girl he used to know a long time ago. She was like him, a struggling actress, but after getting rejected for years, she had broken down in front of him and had cried her heart out.
The next day, she left LA, giving up all hope of ever making it as an actress.
At the end of the talk, Harley looked at Aiden and gave a weak smile.
"You know, I'm very jealous of you. You are in the spot I have always dreamed of. I know it's a lot to do with talent and luck, but you achieved what I always wanted to—getting my own identity in Hollywood. But it's not only jealousy. I admire you, too."
Aiden lowered his head when he heard that and took a deep breath. His thoughts were a bit jumbled after hearing Harley's life story.
‘One of the major reasons why I'm here is because of my system and the chances I got. Without it, I might be worse than you.'
Aiden thought in his mind and decided one thing.
‘I will write a great story about Harley, so at least people will read about his struggles. That's the least I could do.'
Something inside him was really coming out at the moment. It was like the writing skill was telling him to write the best book he could about Harley. To tell him that his struggles weren't for nothing.
At that moment, some system prompts suddenly appeared in front of him.
[You have taken a step towards being a writer.]
[A small amount of experience has been given.]
[You have listened to the life story of a person you are taking inspiration from to write your story. A unique skill has been unlocked thanks to your actions.]
[The skill ‘Synchronisation' has been unlocked.]
[Now, you can get into the same mentality as the character you are writing about if you know about him enough.]
[Congratulations on unlocking one of the rare skills of the system. Your writing talent will get a huge boost thanks to ‘Synchronisation' if the right conditions are met.]
Looking at the system prompts in front of him, Aiden couldn't help but blink his eyes in surprise.
He had never expected to get a skill like this right out of nowhere just because he had listened to the life story of Harley.
In his heart, he got the feeling that this skill was similar to ‘Immersion' and ‘Silver light'. Both of those skills came due to ‘Empathy'.
But this one was different.
Still, he felt like it would help him as much as the other skills.
…
