WHO: Ras & Ayanda WHAT: First day of shooting House of Cards WHEN: June 29, 2020 WHERE: On set RATING: Light swearing
It was very early on set. Ras had just arrived, and he was exhausted. Baby Elise was not sleeping well lately, and that meant Ras was up half the night trying to put her back down to sleep. A PA was quick to put a cup of coffee in his hand which he greatly appreciated. He was going to have to go into makeup who would help him not look so tired.
While drinking his coffee though, he noticed a familiar face, and he was really happy about that. “Ayanda!” he said as he walked over to meet her after calling out to her. Ras had already spoken to production about Ayanda’s talent as a director, and evidently, they had taken his suggestion to call her in. “Will you be joining us on House of Cards?”
With a luridly green fruit juice smoothie in one hand and a thick folder in another, it wasn't until he was actually standing in front of her that she looked up and grinned broadly at Ras. Ayanda held up the folder; it was titled Shooting Script—Director's Guide. "Looks like it! I can't help but think you might have had a little something to do with this. And I'm grateful, really. Where's the bean today? Home in bed, like reasonable people, probably."
Ras was hopeful, but he was genuinely pleased to have his thoughts confirmed when Ayanda showed him the Director’s folder. “That’s fantastic! I’m more comfortable with this production already,” he grinned. At the mention of Elise, he laughed. “Yes, finally sleeping. She didn’t want to last night, but she’s with her Mom right now.”
"Ah, to be young and lack anything like the concept of the natural and completely relative passage of time. Awake at 3 AM for six hours, sleep for eight, up for two, and then nap another five. When do you suppose babies stop being cats and start being people?" She took a beat to look down at her cup before smiling sheepishly back up at him. "I swear there's nothing in this but apples, bananas, and spinach. And I limited myself to only one cup of coffee this morning, so that's not even a contributing factor. Can we start over? Good morning, Ras! How are you?"
Ras was not offended by the remark, but he probably laughed more than he should have. He’d blame it on the exhaustion. He reached up to wipe some tears from his eye. But he did give Ayanda the courtesy by allowing her to start the conversation over again. “Good morning, Ayanda. I’m fine, how are you?”
When he noticed some of the crew trying to maneuver around them, Ras gestured over to chairs to the side so they could talk there. “Are you excited about the project?”
It felt good to give him the giggles. Not in a weird way. Just in that satisfaction of bringing momentary joy to her fellow human kind of way. She affected a very silly accent, because apparently it was that kind of morning. "I am most well, my good sir, most well." Even her laugh was out of some kind of overwrought period piece. "What an enjoyable palaver!"
But Ayanda was never one to hold on to a bit for very long, so she gave a genuine laugh as they moved out of the way and found a place to sit. "Is my discernible vibrating not evidence enough? Yes, absolutely. I spent this past weekend doing homework between keeping my two entertained. They totally called me a nerd, but it felt like reading a really juicy political novel, between the script and the writers' notes for the season. Man, you are a real bastard, aren't you? ...uh, in the script I mean!"
"It is a good indication, but it is polite to ask," Ras commented on Ayanda's obvious excitement. He was interested to see what she was going to do and how she would handle taking the actual director role. He laughed at the mention of his character being awful. "Yes, well, I might be a bit typecast, but I also play to my strengths."
"Hey! That's my friend you're talking about, you jerk. I mean, I know he can be kind of terrible sometimes, but…" She trailed off and then shot him a wicked smirk that softened almost immediately. "I kid, I kid. It's not every man who pretends to be your equal half in socially awkward situations. But other than reveling in being bad, what are you looking forward to the most with all this? What kind of approach are you planning on taking? Asking as your friend and your director."
Ras raised a brow as Ayanda’s comment trailed off from how he was sometimes terrible, but he knew she was still teasing from being excited. “You don’t have other men pretending to be your husband all the time then?” he asked with a wink. The conversation seemed to then flow smoothly from a friendly discussion to a director one too. “Well, I’ve watched both of the original muggle series, but I’ve been thinking about my own spin on the role,” Ras offered. “I guess the main thing is that Frances doesn’t think of himself as being the bad guy. He’s just taken over by his own ambition.”
"So, a sociopath. Gotcha." She mused for a couple of moments on an idea: playing on the themes of light and dark, but flipping it on its ear. All the mundane day-to-day filmed flat and real, but the second he gave into his true nature she'd switch to a wider aspect ratio and punch up all the texture and color. She opened her script book and scribbled a couple of notes, including touching base with the D.P., the camera crew, and editing. It wouldn't even be a huge change. Just a couple of extra spells.
She'd actually opened her mouth to explain her new plan when her phone buzzed with an alert. Distantly, as she pulled it out of her pocket, she heard Ras's go off as well. It was an entertainment alert, charmed in case her name popped up in the news. (It was hard not to be even just a little bit of a narcissist in this business.) Her brows pulled into a V of confusion as she looked up at the star. "Ras, why does the internet think we're married?"
“Pretty much,” Ras chuckled as Ayanda summarized what he’d said in one word. He was amused and watched her as she quickly started to take some notes. He was curious to see what she had come up with from such a short conversation. Ras thought he’d like to try directing one day… maybe he’d talk to the producers about trying to direct an episode of Trial next season. He was sure Ayanda could help him.
Before Ayanda explained what she’d come up with, her phone buzzed. Ras realized that his phone had an alert too, so he had to check it. What if something was wrong with Elise? However, it was not what he expected. Ras was reading the news at the same time Ayanda put it into words.
“I… have no idea,” Ras said and then a thought occurred to him. “Do you remember that day in the cafe? When we acted like we were together to get rid of that woman. I told her you were my wife.” He also said it because that woman had made racist assumptions about Ayanda. “Do you think someone heard that, and made it into a story?”
Oh, Ayanda recalled that day very well indeed. Her head dropped into her hand, and she shook it. "Honestly, I guess I'm just surprised that it took this long to break. Must be a slow news day. Must be a really slow news day." She stuck her tongue out at her phone and then stowed it again after setting it to silent. "Let's make a pact to jinx anyone who hums the Wedding March at us today. No one would convict us. It would be perfectly justifiable. Right?"
But they worked with professionals, and it was likely that all of the teasing would happen afterhours. "Would it be more or less damning if we were to skip out of the after-filming wrap up today and just went drinking?"
Ras was also very surprised this news hadn’t broken sooner too. “What worries me the most that I’m not popular enough right now, that it has to be slow day news.” He was trying to be funny, honestly, to lighten up the situation.
He laughed at the suggestion. “Well you’re the director, and I’m lead actor and a producer. Would they dare to cross us?” Which was to say, he was behind her 100%. “I think we can stick around after-filming for 5 to 10 minutes, and then make an escape to go drinking. However, we might possibly be risking more rumours of us sneaking off together.”
"What is it the English say? In for a penny, in for a pound." Ayanda grinned at him, something impish in her look. "If they're going to talk anyway, why not just capitalize on it and drum up some free publicity. It's not like this is the kind of scandal that'll hurt anyone. I'm sure your girlfriend will get a kick out of it. Think we could talk her into being in on it?"
Ras smirked at Ayanda, and could see where astonishment had turned to amusement. “I am willing to do my part for free publicity,” he agreed. However, his smile did fall for a moment at the mention of his girlfriend. “Right. I should probably call her before she finds out.” Ras looked to his phone again. Since he had turned it on silent, he found that there were already a few unanswered calls from her. “Shit.”
Suddenly, it wasn't nearly as funny anymore. Ayanda watched him somberly for half a second and then grabbed her drink and her folder and waved a hand at his phone. "Give her a call. Just let her know it's all a joke. I'm going to go talk to the camera and lighting team. Rehearsal's in twenty." She kind of wanted to pat his arm, but she didn't have a free hand. It was probably for the best. Instead, she gave him a sympathetic smile. "It's gonna be okay, Ras."
Quickly, Ras started to call his girlfriend back. “I know it will,” he said and waved to Ayanda so she knew that she could go and do her job and he could do damage control.
There hadn’t been another opportunity to speak about personal things for the rest of the day. There was time to get into costumes and make up, rehearsal, adjusting lighting, filming and refilming. It was a long day, so the after shooting wrap up was something to look forward to while Ras was ignoring his pending bad news.
“So, how do you think your first day went?” Ras asked when he finally found himself next to Ayanda again.
She paused in a small sketch she'd been making in the margin of her script book and looked over with a slowly raised brow. Sure, it had been a good day, and the teasing had been a gentle and tolerable level, but something about the reintroduction of small talk made her frown a little. "Really? Is that what you're going with? We're not going to talk at all about what's going on with you? Do I owe your girlfriend an apology bouquet or something?"
“No wonder you’re good at this job because you’re very direct,” Ras said. Was that a punny stall tactic? Maybe. “You do not owe anyone an apology. You didn’t do anything,” he assured her more seriously. “If anything, I should say sorry to you for dragging you into gossip drama.”
Despite a tiny flare of annoyance at his continued attempts at evasion, Ayanda was a sucker for a good pun. Or a terrible pun. Or just puns in general. She snorted and rolled her eyes. "I'm in the 'wood. Gossip drama was probably inevitable." Without glancing around (because she didn't care who saw), she nudged his shoulder with her own. "But things are okay at home? You were great on set today, so I couldn't really tell."
“Thank you. I’m a great actor,” he said and it wasn’t about bragging, but explaining why Ayanda wouldn’t have noticed anything wrong. “Considering we have a child together, my girlfriend and I haven’t really been together that long. And I don’t think she really understood what it meant to be in a relationship with a Wizzywood star,” he shrugged. “We’re going to have to talk this through in person anyway.”
"Ouch." Her sympathetic wince was unaffected, but her steps back and away were entirely unconscious. "That sounds pretty terrible. Is it weird to say good luck? It's weird. I know it's not my fault, and I really don't have to necessarily apologize, but I'm really sorry. This kinda has to suck for you." Ayanda started to reach out, to touch his arm, but thought better of it. Her arm dropped back down awkwardly. "If I need to talk to your girlfriend, feel free to call me. We're friends, right? And that's what friends do."
That was part of the problem. His girlfriend didn’t want Ras to be ‘friends’ with Ayanda. However, Ras wasn’t going to be told what to do and who his friends should be either. “I’ll take good luck anyway. I need to go home and see Elise anyway. So raincheck on the after shoot drinks?”
"Absolutely." She smiled at him, sunny in spite of the dread that had settled into her stomach. There was nothing to feel guilty about, but she still did for some reason that her brain couldn't readily identify. "I'll see you back here tomorrow."