My Shot
Stiffling a heavy yawn, Carrie dragged her body up the stairs to her boyfriend's apartment, having had all the energy drained from her after performing for several hours in multiple takes of her songs and choreography for the second and third act of the film. She would have just headed home and collapsed like a log on her bed, but last night Bruce had called and requested her presence at his place for some exciting news. While Bruce would probably be more than understanding if she called back and asked for a raincheck, he had been very estatic the prior night to say the least and Carrie didn't want to torture him by postponing, especially if the news was focused on more...personal matters for their relationship.
By now Some Nights was nearing close to the completion of filming, and with the crew already going over all the scenes by now thanks to fast directing and good performances, they were being drilled into repetition, especially for the musical sequences so that post-production could have a lighter burden with tons of potential takes that would make editing easier, not to mention potentially including some experimental takes that could hopefully make the film standout. While the film was still relatively enjoyable for Carrie, to see all of her work and passion be brought to life, the passion had been dulled a bit with the movie turning from a creative endeavor to a Liberal Arts 9 to 5. While she would still have a score of marketing events and interviews to perform leading up to the release, Carrie resolved that once filming was done she would take a nice weeklong staycation to recover from the burnout.
Then what came after...well who could say? Sure Carrie had the attention of every studio in Hollywood and from overhearing telephone conversations from her mom, Debbie was fighting back a flood of agents who wanted to snatch her for their film of the year, but whenever Carrie looked at the list of ongoing productions, she found herself with an uninspired mess of copycats. Everyone was doing their best to outdo each other in one of three fields; sophisticated and deep urban dramas, Gangster thrillers, and supernatural horrors. In other words, the Hollywood factory was doing its best to make the most prestigious knockoffs of Midnight Cowboy, Godfather and Exorcist; and that wasn't even mentioning the dozens of scripts of racing films flying around to become the next American Graffiti. Sure Carrie was in a way following the crowd with Some Nights being Urban, but that plot had been written from her heart and was meant to be an expose into the celebrity culture that America worshipped while ignoring its horrors. She not only wanted to make art, she wanted to share messages that would leave a deep impact. How could she possibly do so if she signed six figure contracts for generic B-movies that at best would create cult audiences and be taught in film lectures about genre copycats?
Television was definitely a possible answer, where MASH and Lucille Ball's leadership at CBS was inspiring a revolution in storytelling and network strategy where instead of the latest series being sitcom retreats with different colors and numbers, they were bold and unique. However, while she definitely wouldn't mind doing guest appearances, Bruce and John's separate traumas and hardships with the industry in regards to the long and short term left her scared to commit. Broadway would always welcome her return and New York was a city she wouldn't mind falling in love with, but Carrie knew deep in her heart that unlike her mother who could perform on the stage for the rest of her days, her destiny solely laid on the big screen and that live performances while fun, were very limiting.
As she approached Bruce's place, Carrie resolved to push such a downward spiral of thoughts behind here and for know stay in the here and now, unaware that her answers may in fact be coming to her.
It only to a couple of light knocks for Bruce to respond, his presence announced by a flurry of loud footsteps rushing to the door. Before Carrie could prepare herself, Bruce quickly opened up the door and Carried her into the apartment, greeting his girlfriend with an ambush of kisses to her lips and cheeks.
Normally Carrie would be more than happy to reciprocate such affection, but as she was running on fumes, she didn't have much energy to return or escalate, while her primary emotion was anxiety over what news related to her could cause such euphoria. "Bruce, what's gotten into you?" She asked, as Bruce stopped spinning around, staring into her eyes with one of the goofiest grins on his face that she ever saw.
"Something wonderful is about to happen Carrie, I got a part for you!" Bruce happily declared.
At the news Carrie's energy returned and she happily bounced up and down in excited glee, "Really, what is it? Tell me!" Since Bruce said specifically that he got a part for her, then that could only mean one thing, that they were going to make a movie together! Her dream which had been snuffed out by Bruce's lack of musical talent and her mom's caution was coming true.
At her inquiry, Bruce's emotions were leveled as he remembered something, "Okay well technically I can't give it to you directly and you have to audi-Carrie!" Bruce exclaimed, after Carrie lightly slapped his arm in annoyance.
"Bruce O'Brian, you better not be playing some sort of joke on me!" Carrie said, with arms crossed in annoyance. If he had something she had to audition for, then he just could have told her over the phone, not act like she was locked in and then had to compete with other actresses.
Bruce raised his hands in apology, "Okay, my bad, I should have said phrased it differently, but I'm just really excited Care and I really think that this role's going to be a natural fit and something you're perfect for, heck, it might even make you more famous than Cathy!" Bruce said, every word laced with anticipation as his body was shaking in excitement.
With a huff Carrie sat down on his couch, hoping that Bruce would stop being vague and just get into it, "Alright, what's this big role?"
Bruce plopped down next to her his right hand squeezing her left comfortably as he started to explain, "Okay, you know how earlier I told you that we were entering pre-production for Lucasfilms' first movie?"
"Yeah, some sort of space movie right?" Carrie asked, receiving a nod from Bruce. With Lucasfilm's entering near half a year of existence and having little to show besides an admittedly high quality SFX division and a distribution team that had so far only imported an old Irish drama to modest success, many in the Hollywood establishment who hadn't formed some sort of bizarre grudge like Universal were starting to write off the studio as some sort of lost cause of a vanity project, a belief hardened by rumors that Lucasfilms' was making a space film, the mother of all box office bombs and popcorn nonsense. Carrie herself still hope thanks to her conversations with Bruce, who revealed that the absence was less a lack of ideas, and more a long operation of planning, one which seemed to be bearing fruit.
"Well right now I'm an Executive Producer and George gave me responsibility over casting for the main cast. For the past month I've been making some edits to the script, correcting dialogue, developing worldbuilding, and fleshing out characters. I'm going to release casting calls for the lead actor and actress next week, and I think that you'll be perfect for the main female lead, and to be honest everytime I get to work on her, I can't help but think, this is Carrie, this is her in space!"
By now Carrie's attention was fully captured. "Alright so what's the film about? I'm not going to fighting aliens in skimpy bikini spacesuits am I?"As fun as 50's science fiction could be, women outside of The Twilight Zone had no other role than sex appeal.
Bruce laughed at the description, "No, from the concept art I've seen you'd mostly be wearing a casual dress, nothing too formal or restrictive I promise. So the film's called Star Wars."
"What, like a Star Trek spinoff?" She asked.
Bruce shook his head, "No, although I swear if I had a nickel for everytime someone asked that I could probably buy a car. Anyways, Star Wars isn't like 2001 or any of the more recent films, it doesn't even take place in the solar system. It's sort of a pulpish adventure fantasy film, but set in space and futuristic instead of something magical like Tolkein or Lewis. Well, there is magic but it's not very flowery magic, but anyways, it's set a long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far away. Said galaxy is currently being ruled by a Galactic Empire, an authoritarian state who are sort of like the Nazis, Soviets, Rome, and Napoleonic France all combined into one and set in space."
"Galactic Empire, like Foundation or Dune?" Carrie asked hesitation. She read both series before and while they were fine literary works, Foundation became too overcomplicated and bloated in philosophical nothing as the books went on and the Dune sequels felt like too much of a tonal whiplash after Paul became a genocidal tyrant.
"More like Foundation, although we've got a lot of parallel elements to Dune, but for the most part the story is very original. So anyways, you have the Empire, they are the bad guys who are controlling the galaxy and it's a dark time for everyone living in it. The Empire rose after they took over from the Galactic Republic, sort of like a space America who governed the galaxy peacefully for thousands of years until a civil war killed it and the Emperor rose and took control in the ashes. The Empire's been ruling strong for a generation, but you have the heroes, the Rebel Alliance, rising to fight for freedom and liberate the galaxy. The Empire's winning the war so far, but the Rebels are starting to gain major victories and each day they grow stronger as they gain the people's support.
So to stop the Rebellion, the Empire makes this ultimate weapon, the Death Star. It's a giant space station which can explode planets with a single shot. Unfortunately for them, the Rebels stole the Death Star plans under the leadership of Princess Leia, the character who you'd be playing. However, just before Leia can return home, she's captured by the Empire but she's able to smuggle the plans away, where they wind up in the ownership of a simple farmboy named Luke, the main character, who goes on an adventure with a Gandalf-like figure and other plans to deliver the plans and save the princess."
Bruce had easily captured Carrie's intensity with his description of a valiant revolution in space where you had the heroes stand up against an evil Empire with the fate of the galaxy, but as he continued on she found some doubts creeping in. "So you said it's like a fantasy film set in space?"
Bruce nodded, "George came up with the concept because he wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie but he couldn't get the rights. So instead he decided to recreate the atmosphere of an old adventure serial set in a futuristic space setting. It's a Space Opera where we follow the hero's journey and explore all these strange new worlds while fighting an evil Empire to save the day, but with all of these new concepts and environments that couldn't be told if it was just set in a magic mediaeval Kingdom."
"Okay, but if it's a classic fantasy in space and I'm the princess, won't I just be lounging in a tower, crying and dreaming for some handsome prince to rescue me?" Carrie asked in annoyance. It was not as if she believed that every female role had to be someone who was highly dynamic and full of action, but she'd rather not play a helpless character whose existence was just used as a trophy for the hero instead of a unique individual.
"Well you see that's the cool thing about Star Wars, we play to a lot of the old fantasy and adventure tropes, but we subvert them and present the story in new ways that the audience can relate and engage to. Take Leia for example, when you first meet her you think she's just a pretty face who needs rescuing, but when you look past the surface you see someone who is not a damsel in distress, but more a damsel in command. The whole plot only happens because Leia took a stand against the Empire and is risking her life to deliver the plans to the Rebellion so they can stop the Empire's greatest weapon. When she gets captured, she doesn't cower in fear, she spits at them in defiance and holds strong and firm as they try to break her down, and when she's rescued by the heroes, instead of screaming and running, she takes a gun and stars shooting back and does just as much damage as the others. Leia's a leader and a fighter, and that's a part that you would be a total natural in! Honestly I would love to have you for the action scenes alone, there's so much cool choreography I'd love to direct you for."
At Bruce's passionate explanation, Carrie's attention had been captured once more. With each passing word, she could easily picture herself more and more into the role, a confident and powerful hero who fought for the good of the galaxy and took charge of her own rescue, that was something that Carrie could easily fit in.
"Alright, keep going."
Thus Bruce went on to give a synopsis of the plot and more than once, went into a rambling about the various intricate details of the setting and characters, forcing Carrie to corral him back into attention to continue forward. Bruce spoke of mystical and enlightened Jedi who defended the galaxy with a mysterious and all powerful force, of the Dark Lords of the Sith who ruled through fear and hate through the power of the Dark Side as the sworn enemies of the Jedi, of smugglers and bounty hunters that made up a hive of scum and villainy, of Star Destroyers and other spacecraft that joined the stars in painting the darkness of space, of a beautiful desert jewel called Tatooine and a titan of a moon called the Death Star, of curious and friendly robots called droids, and many more fascinating components that made up the painting of Star Wars.
Bruce spoke with heavy passion and love in the storytelling with such fondness and excitement that it was on the same level as The Kung Fu Kid, his memorial to his late friend and mentor Bruce Lee, and this was despite Bruce playing little part in creating the plot and concept besides exploring the characters. If he had such strong confidence and dedication to a film which was still in the infancy of pre-production, then Carrie had a gut feeling that it had to be a great film, with Bruce even giving grandiose promises that it would eclipse the highs of American Graffiti. As his loving girlfriend, Carrie would have happily auditioned with just a simple request from Bruce, but his enthusiasm was proving to be heavily contagious and she was starting to fall in love with the project too.
"So are you going to play anyone in the film, perhaps someone with a romantic interest in Leia?" Carrie asked with eager curiosity. In truth, she would be happy to work together with Bruce on a film even if he was just in a production role or their two characters hated and loathed each other on screen as just the experience of bringing a film to life with Bruce was more than enough for her, with Carrie at times having even been tempted to use her name to secure a guest spot on MASH. However, having acted across from John in many a romantic scenes on Some Nights, scenes that should have shared with Bruce, she had been hungry for some sort of romantic duet.
"Right now I'm really gunning strong for Han." Bruce asked.
"Really? You don't want to be the hero who saves the galaxy?" Carrie asked in mild surprise.
Bruce shook his head, "Luke's a great character, but honestly I think I'd have a lot more fun and a better performance as Han, playing the smooth talking scoundrel with a heart of gold just seems more exciting, it's kind of the same feeling when I first read about John Milner." Bruce said, with Carrie nodding with the logic.
"As for Han and Leia, they do share a good number of scenes in the Death Star rescue and have some good chemistry, but Leia and Luke also have some romantic undertones going on."
"So whose she going to end up with?"
Bruce raised his shoulder, "Your guess is as good as mine. George showed me the drafts for the entire trilogy-" A statement which raised Carrie's eyebrows in surprise, a trilogy! So they were going to make three films instead of just a standalone? Even The Godfather had only been ambitious enough for a duology. And three movies with Bruce~
"But there's a lot of important plot elements that he's kept vague or really held tight to his chest. I think he's going to see how things roll with filming and make a choice then and there, but for the first one, romance really isn't going to be a key feature, we're mostly focused on presenting the adventure so I think it'll probably be done in the next film." Bruce said.
Carrie was a bit disappointed, but she didn't let it bother her too much. Simply playing the role sounded rewarding enough, and if George Lucas was going to decide the pairing based off of what he saw in the production, then who better to pair off than two actors who were a loving and devoted couple!
Before Carrie's fantasies could take over her imagination, she remembered a key detail that kept her grounded, "Wait, if you think I would be perfect for the role, then why do I have to audition if you're the Executive Producer?"
At the question, Bruce's own mood seemed to deflate a bit with him releasing an exhaustive sigh, "And here's where the shoe drops. I may be the Executive Producer, but it's not nearly as influential as Graffiti since I split financing with George and Gary. Not to mention that at the end of the day this is George's passion project, he wrote it and he's going to be the Director, and that's not even mentioning Gary whose his oldest friend. So the final call isn't just with me, and George was pretty adamant that Luke and Leia were going to get fair auditions."
At the information, Carrie's mood deflated and apprehension started to creep in, "He's...he won't reject me just because I'm your girlfriend will he?" She asked fearfully. Despite George being a very close friend of Bruce and partially responsible for his rise to stardom, him and Carrie had never shared the same room together once. George had been at his hometown during the red carpet premiere and everytime some sort of event came up for the two to meet, something always managed to get in the way for either party. As such, George Lucas was as much of an unknown to Carrie as Richard Nixon, and Carrie was scared that if she met him and gave a horrible first impression then it would greatly damage her relationship with Bruce, and a rejection after a terrible audition could prove just that.
Sensing her fear, Bruce moved in for a comforting hug and and gave her a peck on the cheek, keeping her nerves in check. "While I can't promise Care that you'll get the role no matter what, I talked with George about it and he'd give you a fair judgement, although George isn't going to be there for the casting call, it's just going to be me and Harrison whose going to help with the script reads." At that Carrie's stress returned, as her final judgement would be made from someone she couldn't even look at the eye and give an honest performance for, someone she still hadn't met.
"I won't lie Carrie, there's probably going to be some tough competition as George has been doing his best to make sure all of the stars high and low will be present, but even if I was completely uninvolved in the process, I know you can get the role easily. You're Carrie Fisher, the most talented actress that Hollywood has ever seen, the woman who wrote one of the best screenplays in cinematic history and later this year is going to blow everyone away at the box office, the starlet with a voice of an angel who packed theaters on Broadway. This role is perfect for you Carrie and I know you'll be the best Princess that cinema has ever seen."
Just as he had countless times before, Bruce confidence and complete faith in her radiated brilliantly and erased the shadows of doubt and fear. While perhaps things could have been picture perfect if she got the role outright, the more Carrie thought about it, the more she was eager to rise to the challenge and prove she had what it takes and was the best and most natural choice for the role. The other alternative was safer and guaranteed, but was that really what she wanted her career to boil down to, a spoiled princess who landed all of her roles off of her parent's name and image as a commodity for ticket sales? Even if she gave the best performances on every film and acted in total perfection, her entire life's work would amount to handouts, all starting with a debut film her mother secured as the Queen. Was she going to be Princess Carrie the pampered, or Princess Leia the fighter?
The choice was obvious. "Okay Bruce, I'll give it my all."
Bruce smiled proudly, "That's my girl." The two then shared a sweet kiss.
"Bruce, if I do get rejected though-" Carrie asked, wanting to go forward with zero regrets or fears.
"Then you'll still be the amazing Carrie Fisher, kicking ass and taking home Oscars, we'll just have to wait a little while to work together is all."
Carrie gave a laugh at the joke, and from there fully accepted whatever fate awaited her. She had already been more than blessed to have met Bruce and take back control of her life, to have her family healed after years of drifting apart. Anything from this point on was just a nice bonus.
"You know I have the script on my nightstand, I could lend it to you until the audition, give you a lot of context for what you need to go for." Bruce offered.
Carrie thought about it for a moment, nearly considering before shaking her head, "No thanks. I already got my boyfriend as the Executive Producer, and if I read the script I think I'll just become whatever you or George want instead of making the role my own. I'll do my best with what everyone else has got."
Bruce nodded in respect, "Well alright then, we here at Lucasfilms look forward to your attendance at next week's auditions, Miss Fisher." He said in a exaggerated formal tone, though perhaps not the correct one.
Carrie stared at him blankly, "Bruce, were you trying to do a posh accent, cause that was just Irish?"
"Damnit!
