Read Online Film Star by Rowan Coleman - Free Book Online

us today. Delighted because as I am sure you have worked out by now it means that one of you two girls has got the part of Polly Harris. And I am proud but not surprised to hear that both of you were excellent, beating all the other candidates hands down. We thought it would be a good idea for Mr Dubrovnik and Ms Wells to talk to you together so that you can both hear from the horse’s mouth, as it were, exactly how proud you can be of what you have achieved.” Sylvia gestured to Art Dubrovnik that she was handing the conversation over to him. I glanced at Anne-Marie and wondered if she was thinking the same thing that I was which was mainly: JUST TELL US NOW!
    â€œRuby, Anne-Marie,” Art said. “I’ve got to tell youthat you were both wonderful today. You both brought different qualities to the reading, you each played the role differently but brilliantly, and in the end we weren’t deciding on who was the better actor but on whose interpretation of Polly Harris most fitted the film.” Art Dubrovnik paused—one of the long excruciating pauses that are scripted on TV talent shows to keep viewers hooked and contestants guessing, but which in real life, my life especially, are just plain cruel.
    â€œIn the end,” Mr Dubrovnik pulled down the corners of his mouth in a kind of upside-down smile, “I didn’t make the final decision. I let my leading lady make the final choice because I knew it was vital that she picked the girl she would most get on with and who fitted her vision of Flame and Ember’s relationship.
    â€œImogene Grant?” Anne-Marie said, quickly looking out of the window to where the Rolls Royce was still parked, empty except for the chauffeur. “But how did she choose? On the Internet or a webcam or something?”
    I stared at Anne-Marie. I didn’t care if Imogene Grant saw us through a trans-global crystal ball, I just wanted to know WHO HAD THE PART. But nobody else seemed to notice that.
    â€œNo,” Art Dubrovnik said, smiling. “Actually, she saw your audition in the flesh. Both times.” Mr Dubrovnik looked at Lisa Wells.
    â€œImogene—do you want to tell them yourself?” Lisa Wells nodded and Anne-Marie and I looked at each other, confused.
    Lisa Wells took off her thick black glasses and set them on Ms Lighthouse’s desk. And then slowly and incredibly she peeled off her long sharp pointy nose to reveal a much prettier and very familiar one underneath. She followed that by removing with some difficulty the thick orange eyebrows one by one, wincing as if she were removing a very sticky plaster. Then, cupping her hand under each eye, she pinched out the fishy blue contact lenses, and when she’d blinked a few times you could see they were now a soft amber-brown colour.
    Anne-Marie and I watched all of this open-mouthed until finally the wiry orange wig was removed and the woman underneath it shook out her long soft honey-brown curls and smiled at us. She smiled the million-dollar smile. She smiled Imogene Grant’s smile. And finally I realised that, with all the tension, I hadn’t started seeing things; finally I realised that Lisa Wells was Imogene Grant. She had been all along.
    â€œWow!” Anne-Marie spoke first. “That is amazing, you are such an amazing actress. I had no idea… Wow! ”
    â€œYou saw me throw up!” I said before my brain could stop my tongue from moving.
    Imogene Grant laughed and lit up the room. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Even more lovely in real life than when she was airbrushed to perfection on a magazine cover or lit in soft focus for a film. She was even more beautiful because she was real: really, really real.
    â€œBut, I mean,” Anne-Marie said, “I’ve seen all your films and I read every article about you I can find, and there you were all along and I didn’t notice you. You completely transformed