Chapter 7 - Audition

Eric followed James Brooks and the others to a small temporary studio. Looking around the film set, Eric’s heart began to thump faster. Silently eyeing the various gears and props, he vowed to himself, 'The day will come when I’ll become a someone that everyone will look up to. When people mention Eric Williams, they will think: He is Hollywood.'

* * *

Since Eric was the author of the screenplay and had full understanding of the characters, they decided to skip the pointers.

Penny Marshall chose a few scenes for him to perform. He had practiced for the past few days and had a perfectly clear image of the original film in his head, so he performed the scenes with ease.

James Brooks and Penny Marshall were slightly surprised. Eric's performance was nothing like that of an inexperienced novice. With his acting skills, he didn't need any training at all. In fact, they could start filming right away!

"Next, Eric, try out this scene," Penny Marshall smiled and handed the script to Eric. He noticed that her face wasn't showing any disappointment and breathed a sigh of relief since he was worried that there might have been something wrong with his performance.

The new scene that he had to perform took place on the school's bleachers where Mike comforted his daughter who had just broken up with her boyfriend. It was one of his favorite scenes since some of the lines went on to become classics.

"Miss Penny, I'll need the help of an actress for this one."

"Of course," Penny Marshall turned towards the girl next to her and said, "Teresa, you go help Eric rehearse."

The scene was only two minutes long, so Eric and Teresa managed to memorize their lines quickly. Teresa only needed to speak her lines since she was just there to help him get in the mood. Eric was the one who had to seriously feel and experience a variety of emotions such as feeling concern when he saw his daughter crying, feeling enraged when he realized that she might have slept with Stan, comforting her during her sadness, and feeling helpless as she tried to throw herself at him.

Once Eric and Teresa were ready, a staff member shouted, "Action!", and the scene began.

Maggie sat on a box of props, pretending to cry.

Mike stepped forward, his face full of concern.

"Hey, Maggie, what's wrong?"

"Go away," Maggie shrank her hands back into her sleeves and attempted to shoo away Mike as she continued to cry.

"Hey, seriously what happened?" Mike asked as sat down next to her.

"What do you want? Knock on my head and say 'I told you so'?" she asked aggrieved.

"No, no, no, I won't do that," Mike shook his head and hurriedly replied, "I just want to know what happened."

"Stan dumped me."

"Stan dumped you?!" Mike's eyebrows jumped as the surprise on his face was replaced with anger and disbelief.

As a father, finding out that his daughter broke up with a scum bag, of course he was happy. But that reaction didn't last long as he quickly realized something, 'That bastard actually dumped her?! F**k, she's the one that should dump garbage like him!'

Watching Eric's performance, both James Brooks and Penny Marshall were left stunned. If his previous performance were to be evaluated as 6/10, then his use of facial expressions was definitely a 9/10. The more he watched his performance, the more James Brooks became fond of Eric, and he conveniently decided to forget about his previous evaluation of Eric.

Eric's performance continued.

Hearing that his daughter might have slept with Stan, Mike almost went mad for a moment before quickly realizing that nothing had actually happened between them. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he clumsily attempted to find the words to comfort her.

"When you're young, everything feels like the end of the world. But it's not; it's just the beginning. Sure, you might have to meet a few more jerks, but one day you're gonna meet a boy who treats you the way you deserve to be treated as if the sun rises and sets with you."

"Really?" Maggie asked slowly.

"Of course," Mike quickly stated.

"You're so sweet," Maggie threw herself at Mike who hurriedly backed away. He bounced up, grabbed his school bag and invited her to his party while continuing to resist her attempts to throw herself at him.

Clap – Clap – Clap –

After the two had finished, James Brooks and Penny Marshall couldn't help but applaud. From a professional point of view, Eric's performance was simply outstanding.

After the other crew members noticed the reaction of the producer and director, they quickly joined in.

Michael Klaus grinned as he also clapped his hands. While he wasn't a professional filmmaker, he could also tell that Eric's performance was very good. From James Brooks and Penny Marshall's reaction, it was obvious that Eric had passed the audition. This also meant that the 17 Again script would definitely sell for a high amount and he would make thousands of dollars in commission. Although his small publishing house was doing well with a valuation of a million dollars, most of the assets weren't liquid. To him, thousands of dollars was still a huge amount of money.

After passing the critical audition, the remaining matters were easily settled.

Eric received $250,000 and $500,000 for the screenplay and actor contract, respectively. The additional $50,000 for the script was thanks to Michael Klaus' efforts. He had bargained hard since he knew that half of it would go to him. Although Eric's performance was very good, he was still a newcomer, so he wouldn't receive anything more than $500,000.

In an instant, his net worth had been raised by $750,000. Of course, he would have to wait until the filming was finished before he received his acting pay.

Eric began having wild thoughts of using the money to direct his own film. He still remembered how he and his peers had struggled during his previous life; those who could truly make it as a director were very few.

* * *

After signing the two contracts, Eric left the 20th Century Fox's studio. What remained was only preparatory work for the film, and as much as he wished to help and gain some experience, he didn't want to repay the producer and director's goodwill by being meddlesome.

His acting classes had been canceled since Penny Marshall stated that Eric's performance had been perfect. As a result, there was no need for him to waste time on acting classes that only taught the basics; minor flaws could just be corrected during the shoot.

After leaving the studio, Eric went to the bank with Michael Klaus, cashed in the cheque he received for his screenplay, and handed over $125,000 over to the latter. Without Michael Klaus' recommendation, the script wouldn't have been sold so quickly. In fact, if he had to rely on himself, as a newbie without any personal connections, who knew how many years it would have taken him to sell the script? Not to mention, his condition to star as the male lead.

Next, just like Jeff had expected, Eric resigned. He invited his colleagues to party at his house while Jeff and several older colleagues, who minded their age, tactfully declined.

The night had been festive and Eric and his now ex-coworkers had gotten dead drunk before they fell asleep.