"So what did you think?" Nathaniel asks Maggie, coming down from the stage and taking place beside her.
"Better than what I expected. How much did you practice the trick?" Ask Maggie.
"That particular trick only took two/three hours but I discovered that magic is fun so for the last two days I practiced a fair bit of everything."
"It shows. Alas…" She starts saying when Nathaniel interrupts her.
"It would not be enough?" He finished for her.
"Yes, your acting skills are almost nonexistent. No surprise there as you never had even one acting class in your life but nonetheless you seem good at this. You show promise." She said to make him feel better.
"Don't worry Maggie, I know that this was a long shot and my chance to nail the role was close to none. Still it was fun. What do we have for the rest of the day?" He asked not really bother to have failed.
"If you want to pursue an acting career, I could recommend you a personal teacher. It will help you in the long run. It will cost you but you can easily afford it. After that we can visit Hollywood, I can have a pass to visit virtually every movie being made here if that is an interest for you." Maggie suggested.
"For a movie career we will see, it was fun but I don't know if I would have the time to pursue this further. Taking acting lessons is a sound advice however, I will look into it. For the rest, yes, I would like that."
"Okay, let's go then. I want to take you to a restaurant after that. They make the best burger in the city, it is so good!." Said Maggie almost drooling, making Nathaniel laugh.
"Sound good, my treat." He said smiling.
They didn't have the chance to move before a group of five people appeared in front of them. Nathaniel recognized easily who they were as they were known worldwide. Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher and Jesse Eisenberg. Maggie froze for a second seeing them in front of her but her expression of surprise quickly vanished and she put a professional expression on her face.
"Well hi guys. Long time no see Morgan, Mark." She said, hugging them both quickly.
"This is a pleasant surprise Maggie, It's been what? Three, four years?" Morgan said.
"Sound about right." She answered, smiling.
"Still as beautiful as you were ten years ago." Mark add.
"Coming from you I will take it as a compliment" Maggie said still with her professional smile in place.
"Why are you here? I thought that you were tired of the film industry and you were working now with singers?" Ask Mark.
They knew each other very well as they worked quite often with the other over the years. Mark even tried to poach Maggie a few years prior as she was one of the best agents in the country. Maggie refused but they kept a good relationship.
"I am. Guys, I present you Nathaniel Lyndon, my client. Young singer but I think he has what it takes to become a super star."
"Hi." Nathaniel said with a smile.
"Wait, you are a singer?" Jesse butt in the conversation.
"Yes, I have my own Youtube channel to prove it if you want to check it out." Nathaniel said with humor. Jesse didn't seem to get it because he pulled out his phone and fired up the youtube app on it.
"You are not a magician?" Ask Mark in disbelief.
"A magician? Of course not. Why? Are you messing with me guys?" Nathaniel asks with narrowed eyes, looking at Maggie.
"He checks out, he really is a singer." Jesse provides.
"Are you sure you are not a magician?" Woody insisted.
"What the hell is going on here people?" Maggie intervened.
"Okay easy guys. we didn't want to make fun of you, I promise. We just saw what you did with the two spoon in your hand while talking with the director and we were curious." Morgan clarified.
"Oh that? It was nothing, I have been doing it all the time since I started learning magic for the role six days ago." Nathaniel explained.
"Six days? Are you kidding me?" Jesse says with anger in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm a fast learner and it was really not big of a deal, it's just about hand control and movement." Nathaniel explained in a calm voice. He did not appear bothered to be yelled at.
"Hand control?" Ask Isla for the first time, cutting Jesse off.
"Yeah, look. Can I borrow your pen Maggie plase?"
Maggie did not have a problem with that and happily gave him that after finding it in her purse. Nathaniel then starts making the pen twirl between his fingers, making it disappear at times like he did with the two spoons earlier. Looking at him, even Maggie could not help but to marvel at his dexterity and her eyes showed signs of awe. The five actors around him were in the same state. Previously they were looking at him from afar so they did not see it with much clarity. But now they were seeing it much better and even if he was making only one object move this time they were even more surprised than the first time.
"How can you do that?" Marvel Isla.
"I have played piano since I'm young so that help me a lot with this trick. I was doing hand exercises when I was little to help me get better like this one." Nathaniel said.
Giving back the pen to Maggie, he opens his hand and shows them his palm with each finger open wide. Then he starts making each finger turn in the exact opposite of the one beside it. Looking at the exercise, Jesse, Isla, Mark and Woody got curious and started trying it themselves but failing miserably. Maggie and Morgan did not even bother to try.
"Are you even human?" Woody exclaimed as he didn't even manage to make three of his fingers turn on the same direction.
"Don't beat yourself up, I have done it since I'm three years old so it's understandable if you can't do it." Nathaniel comforts them kindly.
"Why did a singer like you come to an audition like this?" Mark inquired, putting the conversation back into context.
"Jillian Brown convinced me to come, she thought that I have the charisma to pull it off based on what she saw on the video I turned for my single. I thought it would be fun so I accepted. I knew with six day to memorize the script and zero class in acting whatsoever I would never get it but it would be a nice experience so I came. And here I am, talking with you five so I turn out to be right." He finished smiling brightly.
Hearing that, the five actors around him could not help but smile, even Jesse who did not have a very good impression of Nathaniel did so. They keep talking for ten minutes or so after that until Nathaniel reminds himself that they had things to do.
"Okay guys, it was fun meeting you but we have plans so we need to get going. Best of luck for the movie. bye!" Nathaniel said. He exchanged handshakes with the mens and was surprisingly hugged by Isla.
Leaving the studio with Maggie, he noticed that she was surprisingly quiet but was moving with much energy.
"Okay, what's going on Maggie?" He asks her.
"You know, I insist that you go to that audition to give a good impression of yourself. I was hoping that you could gather the attention of one or two people. I wasn't expecting all five of them to show up. I saw you talk with the director too, this is very good." Maggie say happily
"It was not that hard, they were nice, I wasn't expecting them to be this nice to be honest when taking into account their fame. For the director, he is french and I'm fluent in french so it's about luck really." Nathaniel explained.
"What? Why did you never tell me that you are fluent in french?" Maggie said, feeling wrong.
"Like you are the one to talk, you never tell me anything about you so don't be surprised. Truthfully, it is not that important so i never thought to mention it." Nathaniel says to pacify her.
"Okay, for the question of being nice, trust me, they are not usually this friendly but you were so open and kind that none of them could find it in themselves to hate you. This is really good." Maggie says, stirring the conversation away from her. Things that did not go unnoticed by Nathaniel.
"But not good enough to give me the role, right?" He said with a bitter smile.
"Yeah, we always knew that this was extremely unlikely for you to get it so don't beat yourself up. Trust me, once you have acting class, we will come back here and take everything." Maggie said with conviction.
"Thanks for that Maggie. Let's have fun." He said, stirring her away.