"The next one is Aiden Silvereye."
An employee said in a hushed tone as he looked at the resume of Aiden. The otters whispered among each other hearing his name.
After a certain amount of fame, a celebrity was well known enough that he didn't need an introduction. Aiden was such a phase and everyone in the room knew about him and his accomplishments.
"What do you think of him?"
Baz McCarthy, the director as he stroked his long, white beard like he was some sage from a cultivation novel. He was looking at Joseph who was present in the auditions.
"He's auditioning for the main role. Probably the hardest role in the movie."
"That's obvious. The whole movie is on Agnas."
"Yeah but I'm interested in him. His music is pretty good and I think some of his songs are good for this age."
Baz felt a bit surprised hearing that. Joseph wasn't the one to compliment any composer until they are pretty good. Or according to him, make music with their souls.
"It seems like he's going to be in our final pick, going by how you like him."
"Acting is different. I won't do that until he's very good and if that's the case, then you yourself would select him."
Baz nodded as Theodore, the producer gestured to them to stay silent.
"He's entering."
In the next second, Aiden entered the room. Several eyes fell on him, some scanning him and some of them trying to glance between his face and the photo of Agnas.
His face suiting the one of Agnas was important for people to see him as him. Making a biopic was difficult due to all these things.
"Aiden, what made you interested in the biopic of Agnas?"
Baz McCarthy was quick to ask a question and although it seemed like a generic question that he had asked everyone in the interview, Aiden answered it a bit differently.
"At first, it was greed."
"Greed?" Theodore raised one of his eyebrows.
"Yeah, when my agent first told me about the role, I thought this won't fail at the box office no matter what. There's an experienced director and a story that is synonymous with Hollywood's golden age. A story that won't fail."
It seemed like Aiden was just trying to butter up the director but he wasn't finished yet.
"But after looking through Agnas's past, my perspective about it changed."
"How?" Joseph asked, curious.
"Well, first of all, I feel like his life didn't seem what many people thought it to be. I saw one of his photos in my research to know more about him and he was smiling in them but there was an internal sadness in his eyes that seemed like he didn't actually want to be here. Then I read one of his interviews and there's one thing he said that really struck me hard."
"What's that?"
Aiden took a look around at the curious faces in front of him before replying.
"He said, 'I'm the servant of the myth that is Agnas'. That line displayed what he was feeling through most of his career very well. People who would reach the top of their fields would also think that. They are not being their real selves but people who the audience wanted them to be and although they would attain an unreachable amount of fame, a lot of things would be lost in the process."
The room silenced hearing that.
What Aiden had said was a very deep thing and actually, one of the central storylines in the script was also that.
Becoming a star was as rare as trying to find a needle in the haystack. Sacrifices needed to be made and for someone like Agnas who was bound to be a star, sacrifices were abundant.
One of them was that he lost himself as a musician due to trying to play the part of a superstar.
Aiden had picked that part up quite easily. It was something of a warning for him who wanted to be a star.
Was he also going to lose himself for his persona of a star? Or would he be able to stay the same?
It was an interesting topic to think about.
"You have picked up some interesting things about Agnas." Joseph said. "Other actors talked more about his charisma and his relationship with most people. You didn't focus on that?"
"I did. I just felt like his inner thoughts were more interesting compared to anything else. After all, only someone who has reached the pinnacle of stardom could feel such things."
Aiden talked a bit more about his analysis of Agnas's character. Both Baz and Joseph looked intrigued by his words and were listening closely.
Only Theodore looked like he would come to a conclusion after seeing Aiden's acting.
"Okay, you can start your audition now."
Baz said and the audition started like that.
***
'I was able to give my best.'
Aiden thought, coming out of the audition room. The scene that he was asked to perform was a monologue of Agnas which he used to do before each of his stage shows.
He had practiced it a lot and although by the expressions of people it was hard to say how it had gone, Aiden was still confident that he hadn't done bad.
He had given a good performance and now, everything was in the hands of the director.
As he walked, his steps suddenly stopped as he saw who was walking towards him.
The man also stopped and gave him a glare. The motion of him squinting his eyes was something he wasn't even trying to hide.
"Liam, what's your problem? Why are you glaring at me for no reason?"
Aiden asked. Even in the waiting room, Liam has glared at him from time to time. For some reason, he wasn't even trying to hide it.
"Are you really asking that? You nearly ruined my career. My respect is already gone! You don't know how it feels when every random person on the street knows how you look naked. They make fun of me behind my back! I even lost most of my teenage fans!"
Liam shouted, his arms shaking with anger but he looked too thin to pose a threat to Aiden.
Aiden suddenly remembered a few photos of Liam and Florence that Tom had shown him. In those photos, both of them were wearing masks to hide their faces like a pandemic was going on.
"You do realise that it wasn't my fault. I didn't ask the media company to spy on you and I think it was common sense to know that one needs to have accountability for their actions."
"No, if you had not gotten those photos, my agency would have made a deal, so it would have never come out."
"Well, it did and you are very naive if you think that it's my fault. Next time, think of your image before doing anything."
Liam froze hearing that.
He was clearly not used to taking accountability for his actions. That would happen when one experiences fame very early on in life and was always filled with people who agreed with him.
Aiden moved after saying that, not wanting to have a verbal argument with him. It was simply a waste of time in his eyes.
As he passed Liam, his voice came out.
"I will get the role of Agnas."
"Good luck."
Aiden said and left.
***
As Aiden was busy in auditions for his next role, his fan group was pretty silent with no activity. From time to time, people would come online to talk about what was going on in Hollywood but aside from that, nothing much was happening.
Aiden had almost gone underground after the Wilde scandal and every rumour of him being in [Stars on the Ground] has dissolved into the ground like it never existed.
So, people were waiting.
The anticipation was worse this time because Aiden had not announced any project or anything for months now. [Sherlock of the Shadows] seemed like a thing of the past.
[Skyneves: Why is everything so boring these days? My boss in my job is making me work day and night and I feel like I'm living in a simulation where everything is repeating daily.]
[Chad Putin: Ah, unlike you, I'm very busy these days. Me and some of my old friends are going to have a go at a fps game and I'm just waiting for them to make the first move.]
[Under the table of a President: I felt a chill run down my spine. I feel like I should shift to Asia from Europe.]
[Harry Styles's spit: I'm busy reading through <Morpheus>. The novel is becoming better and better. Though, I'm scared the main character is going to become a dark lord.]
[London and I both lost a queen: What is Aiden doing these days? His social media doesn't have any posts other than the occasional endorsements.]
[Moaning Frodo: I heard from my sources that he signed a movie.]
[Hollywood Insider: Your source is me. And yes, I found out. Don't ask how but I did. He signed an action movie with Green movies. I think there will be an announcement about it sooner or later.]
[Areos: Really? What movie is that? Give me more information, Insider?]
[Hollywood Insider: Call me esteemed Insider. My ego is way bigger than anything you have, so treat me with respect.]
[JK Fowling's tweets: A post was just made on his account. The new movie's name is [Action Hero] and it's starting to shoot in a couple of days.]
...
