Stardom

Okay, it wasn’t easy, but I did it. I did something that so many in my class wish they could have done. To be there, on stage, dancing for the world to see and to hear them cheer me on...it was a momentous occasion, but my fifteen minutes of fame soon ran out. A week later the fans died down to only my mother and the world moved on to something more amazing, like a new type of cat.

​“You really danced on stage with Grim Unrest?” the old age home nurse asked me.

“I did,” I nodded. “Pulled up on stage by Duke Righteous himself.”

“You must have been thrilled!”

“I was for that day, in fact, I think that high lasted all of the next day as well. As he pulled me on stage he joked that I better not mess it up, the crowd laughed. Pressure...well...it was heavy on my shoulders in that moment.”

My dance was one of my best, popular even in class despite me not being the best student. I was more interested in other activities to really give it my all...maybe if I I did and gave it some years I could have made something from it. However, one of my distractions was Grim Unrest and my boyfriend.

“Boyfriend, huh?” the nurse asked, pushing the wheelchair up the hall.

“Yeah, handsome man, bright eyes and bright hair. A little strange, but that is really why we split up.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be. I believe I got lucky in that respect. He was never a fan of Grim Unrest.”

A little after my fame had died down I began to focus more on dancing. The teacher was glad of course, thinking that my experience had given me a passion for dancing. The reality was that the class would come to an end in the coming year. I didn’t have a job or even any skills that could help me in a workplace.

The year flew by, my dancing improved a lot and I started to audition for musicals as a background dancer. Of course, my two minute video online could not compare to the teacher endorsing the better students so I ended up falling behind. It wasn’t a bad thing really.

While I was applying for auditions I took a note from one of the actors that was auditioning for a role in the musical. He was good looking too, but double my age. A thespian or whatever, just an actor with no hollywood ambition really. I talked with him a bit before one audition and he really got me excited about acting.

I didn’t have any experience in acting or education, but I had a unique skill-set of dancing and literature. The arts are the only thing you can really depend on, especially as a fallback.

I never saw the actor again, but I saw many after him. I began auditioning for every role that fit me as well as I did it.

“And that is how you started as an actor?” the nurse asked.

“Not really, I had no training so nobody hired me at every audition,” I laughed. “However, a few months later while waitressing, I know, cliche, but it is good money; I ended up meeting a director. He stopped in the middle of his meal, looked at me and asked if I wanted to be an actor in his movie.”

He told me I looked perfect for the job, but asked if I could act. I was honest with him and said I want to try, dearly, but I had no experience. Still, that didn’t stop me getting a role as a shirt-lifting party goer in Night of the Cruel, Demonic and Slightly Hungry Koala’s 2.

“You’re joking?” the nurse asked.

“Not at all,” I told her with a proud smile. “It was the worst way any actress could start in the business, but I was a little too old to play a kid in some old classic. I moved on from that film to another, then suddenly a recurring character in a sit-com. That was really my big break.”

The sit-com went on for seven years and those were happy years for me. I lived in a simple apartment, but a lot better than the hole that I used to live in before that. I was able to watch my performance on TV. It was my happiest years, because only appearing in twelve episodes of so gave me the experience I needed to apply for bigger jobs and get the part.

Trust me, those twelve episodes and waitressing got me two years in what was to me, luxury. After that it was back to auditions, movies and series. That is when I made the biggest mistake of my life. I got the part for a movie I knew nothing about. I was too excited to check the information on the film, what the premise was or anything. Only later did I learn it was Black Heart, the most depraved, violent and controversial horror movie to ever be made.

“Jesus, even I heard about that film,” the nurse told me as she placed my food in front of me. “I heard that several actors killed themselves from fear after filming that movie.”

“It was actually during, they were replaced by doubles,” I explained.

True, it was a horrific movie, but like most movies that drew such attention it became a cult classic in a way. The role I played in it was significant. I played the dancing prisoner in the basement scene. The fear on my face during that scene was real and with all the lights and people cut from my vision it felt like I was in a true nightmare.

After the movie had been made I considered running away, but the fan-base on the film grew. Critics, who recoiled in disgust at the first viewing, began to love it. The director was a genius, creating something that struck straight to the heart of fear. My being a part of that is what led to my fortune and comfortable future.

“But of course, that film had its drawbacks on my mind,” I told her. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be in the asylum ward of the old age home!”

I laughed, rocking in my straight jacket as the nurse began to feed me.