Method

A man sleeps in a dark bedroom, alone. Wind blows through the open window, pushing the blinds back and forth. The man is restless in his sleep. His phone lights up: 4:33am, Monday the 4th of September 2017.

~~~

“Luka Deren?” a young woman, likely an assistant of some sort, requests while leaning through the door between the audition room and the hallway where the numerous actors applying for the role sit nervously. Luka stands up.
“That’s me.”
“You’re up” the assistant says warmly. Luka walks towards the door slowly; preparing himself mentally, re-reading the script.
He enters the room and walks to an X marked on the floor with black tape. The room is surprisingly large; there is echo from his footsteps bouncing around his eardrums. It has bright walls and is well lit, with cameras and various film gear strewn about the place. In front of him is a long white table, with 5 people seated. From right to left; the assistant who called him in, an old fat man in an Armani suit, a man of about 50 years in fashionable prescription glasses, a younger man writing furiously on a clipboard without looking, and an uninterested woman in a black dress smoking a cigarette. They all stare at him. There are two cameras aimed at the person on the black X.
“You are Luka Deren?” the man in the middle asks.
“Yes”
“I’m Wesley Alto, the director.”
“Pleasure to meet you Wesley.” Luka nods his head slightly.
“Yes, well. Before we get into the audition itself, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?”
Luka, surprised, takes a moment to answer.
“Uh, ok. Well, as you know, my name is Luka Deren, I’m 28 years old and I’m trying to become an actor. I come from Melbourne, Australia,” he pauses, looking to see if he has said enough. The director keeps the same neutral expression.
“…I live with my girlfriend in an apartment just outside of the city. I have a great passion for acting and film, and have seen over 500 films, so I decided to give acting a try”
The director nods, but purses his lips slightly. It’s nothing particularly different to what he’s heard all the other candidates say.
“Luka, what made you audition for this role?” the assistant asks.
“I’m looking for any role really. I feel that the more auditions I go to, the more I learn, despite the rejections,” he says with a slight resentment.
“Ok,” she writes something down then asks another question;
“and why do you think this role would suit you personally?”
Luka realises he hadn’t really thought about it that much as it was just another role that he would probably be rejected from. There was silence for a few moments. The director leaned in and whispered something to the younger man sitting next to him.
“Well, I guess, the role is a very interesting one… The character has some deep emotional troubles, which I believe exist in all of us. He wants… to improve himself, which is something I think we all want”. Luka wonders where the gibberish he just spurted out came from.
The assistant gives him a confused look. The director crosses his legs.
Breaking the silence, the assistant says “Ok, on to the audition”. Luka lifts up the script and deeply breathes in.

~~~

“How’d it go?” a familiar voice from the patio called.
“I’m not sure,” responded Luka, walking towards the voice. He leaned on the door, looking at the woman; his girlfriend Sofia. She was reading a book in the sunlight in a white floral summer dress. He leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips.
“I feel like they were very… neutral about it. Didn’t give anything away.” he said while walking to the kitchen to fill up a glass of water.
“Well, they have to consider all the… candidates, right? How many were there?” Sofia asked.
Sofia always seemed warm. Even in the cold of winter, Luka would stand near her and not feel so cold.
“There were about 15 guys there, a few I recognised. Remember that guy I told you about from the audition 3 weeks ago?”
“The doppelganger?” Sofia laughed.
Luka laughed as well “yeah, he was there. He still didn’t see the resemblance!”
Luka flicked through the mail, mostly bills and advertisement, one from his mother. His mother was the only person he knew who still used physical mail as her main form of communication. He opened it up.
“Dearest Luka” she had the most wonderful handwriting.
“The days here are cold, we are in the middle of a long winter. Every day is grey and often rainy. I almost pray for snow as to see something different for a change. Your father is feeling better. We’re getting on now, but we’re surviving. Hope everything is well with you. The whole family says hello and wishes you good luck for your endeavours. Christophe wants to know what it’s like to live there. Young Adeline asks when she’ll see you again. Don’t forget your family.
Much love, mother. February 14th, 2017.”
Luka smiled. He could easily imagine his mother writing the letter in the old house with the fireplace crackling, while his father watched the television.
Sofia walked in from the patio. “A man came by before, looking for you.”
“Really? What did he look like?”
“Well, he was a younger man, maybe about 25. Average height, brown hair. Seemed to have a lot of nervous energy”
“Doesn’t ring a bell. What did he want?”
“He didn’t say. He simply left after I told him you weren’t here.”
Luka couldn’t think of who it could be, but it didn’t bother him much. He checked his phone, scrolling through facebook and whatnot.
“There’s a letter from your mother on the table” said Sofia from the bedroom.
“Yep, I got it. Thanks”
“I wish my mother would write me a letter!” Sofia said, “It’s such a classical thing to do, almost elegant.”
“My mother is from a different age.” Luka responded, dividing his attention between his phone and the conversation.
“Yeah well, I’ll have to meet her one day. My mother on the other hand…” trailed off Sofia jokingly.
Sofia walked in a towel to the bathroom.
“What’s the plan for tonight? Are we going to David’s housewarming thing?” she asked.
“What housewarming thing?” asked Luka, looking up from his phone confused.
“David invited us to a housewarming thing a few weeks ago. He just moved into a new apartment on Rochester Street”
Luka was still confused “first I’ve heard of it”.
Sofia walked in and pushed his head back in a playful manner. “That memory of yours! He came here to invite us and everything. You were definitely there.”
“If you say so.” said Luka. Sofia grabbed her hairbrush from the kitchen counter and went back to the bathroom.
“So what time does it start?” asked Luka
“7 o’clock”
Luka looked at his phone; 16:48, February 19th.
“I guess we should go then.” He said.
“It’ll be good.” Sofia said.
“I notice how you don’t say ‘it’ll be fun’, but ‘it’ll be good’” said Luka with a smile.
“Well, some people could be there who could help you with your career! David’s Jewish. He’s bound to have those connections” said Sofia.
“That’s a stereotype and a half, Sofia. Not all Jews are connected to the film industry”
“All stereotypes exist for a reason!” she said, closing the door and turning on the shower.
Luka looked at his phone. A new message from David Rojalski: “hey, are you and sofia coming to the housewarming tonight?”
Luka responded, “yeah, we’ll be there. 7:00 right?” and put his phone back in his pocket.
He picked up the film script from the audition off the counter.
“Method.
A screenplay written by Johnson Trigulet”

~~~

They walked up the stairs to the apartment and knocked on the door. David answered with an affable greeting; a hug for Luka and a kiss on both cheeks for Sofia. He was just as homosexual as Little Richard, and just as little.
“Glad to see you guys!” he said.
“You too!” said Sofia. Luka smiled.
“Come in, come in!”
“So this is it!” he said, presenting the apartment to them.
Luka looked around. It was spacious with wooden walls, well furnished already. A good suburb. Probably worth twice as much as their own place. There were about a dozen people there already.
“Everybody, this is Luka and Sofia. I met Luka back a few months ago when I was going through that whole actor phase, and Sofia is his beautiful girlfriend. Soon to be fiancé?” suggested David teasingly with a wink.
Luka blushed hard, stumbling on his words, and the people laughed. Sofia gave David a playful slap on the chest. Everybody went back to their conversations.
Luka went to hang his coat by the door, and looked back at the room. David and Sofia were having an animated conversation with lots of laughter and compliments no doubt. He didn’t recognise anyone else. He made eye contact with a dark-haired woman briefly, before walking back over to Sofia and David. David was offering finger foods on a platter to Sofia.
“So Luka, how about children huh?” teased David again.
“What about them?” Luka replied, grabbing a spring roll off the platter.
David just smiled. “I’ll leave you guys to it” he said, prancing away, like a giggling leprechaun in the forest. A predictable awkward silence followed him.
“A gay Jew. Can’t be many of them around, right?” Luka asked Sofia.
Sofia looked around. “Do you recognise anyone?”
“Nope”
“Well, we’ll have to meet and greet then, won’t we?” said Sofia, knowing Luka didn’t enjoy what he saw as “rudimentary and repetitive conversations with random friends-of-friends at parties”.
“Who first?” she asked.
Luka browsed the options, all caught up in their own conversations. Two very gay-looking men as well as two very single-looking women had a loud conversation with lots of laughter and compliments. A straight couple perused the bookshelf. David himself was putting on a verbal show, with 5 people stood around him all giving him their full attention as he told one of his ridiculous stories of a totally uninteresting incident that he would somehow turn into the most amazing story. He delivered what must’ve been the punchline as they all erupted in laughter. The doorbell rang, and David immediately shouted “I’ll get it!” jogging to the door. Outside on the balcony stood the woman Luka made the eye contact with before; she was smoking a cigarette, facing away from the party. The apartment had a great view of the city.
“Oooh, do you want to go speak with her?” said Sofia, noticing Luka had looked at her the longest out of the guests.
“What? No… I was looking at the view of the city,” said Luka. “Let’s go talk with the couple over there.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to speak with the mystery woman on the balcony?” said Sofia jokingly, with a hint of snark. She was easily made jealous, as Latino women are.
“Just come on.” said Luka as he grabbed her hand and walked towards the couple at the bookshelf. The man was flipping through a copy of Homer’s The Iliad.