After my failed attempt at getting Spielberg to ge the climax of the film, days went on normally. Or as normally as they could go on a film set. Steven had taken it upon himself to praise me to heaven and back whenever I would do a good se. Ohing I noticed was that all that praise was solely focused on me alone. He never went out of his way to praise the adults as much as me, even if they had given master performances, which led me to believe that I received praise only because of my age.

  It was frustrating to e to that clusio I did nothing to stop Stevee not knowing how much of that praise was warranted, I liked hearing positive things. Who doesn’t? That led to today when I was finally doing the uer se in the pool.

  The inal pn was for the team to shoot this se first, but because of my exams, I couldn’t take diving lessons, which had to be arranged between shooting days whenever my schedule was free.

  “Do you all uand the se, kids?” Steven asked around the pool area where I and six other boys in and around my age range were standing. Seeing everyone’s resolute nods, Steven grinned, “Good, take your positions then.”

  Five of the boys jumped into the pool and started pying with a beach ball. The sixth boy, Jake, who pyed my ‘brother’ Martin, sat on the edge of the pool.

  “A!”

  Hearing Steven’s and, I walked oo Martin with a big box in my hand. I had quite gotteo the way David walked and talked, the only differeoday was that I was wearing just a pair of swim shorts.

  “Happy Birthday, Martin,” I smiled while croug down with the box still in my grasp. “I made this for you.”

  Then one of the older boys swam to the poolside and asked Martin, “Is this him? Is this your little brother?”

  “Teically, no,” Martin replied in an irritated tone.

  The other boy climbed out of the pool and stood in front of me, “He’s Mecha.”

  “What’s Mecha?” I asked ily.

  “We’re anic,” he began expining as sloossible. “You’re mecha-anical.” He circled me as other kids started climbing out of the water as well. He poio himself, “a.” Then he poi me, “Mecha. a. Mecha. a. Mecha.” He kept pointiween us.

  “Todd, stop!” Martin pushed Todd’s hand away.

  “I didn’t even know they made little kids,” Todd ented offhandedly. “ you pee?”

  “I ot,” I replied happily, not perceiving the borderline hostile tohe kid was using.

  Aaller boy came closer to me, “The’s see what you ’t pee with.” He bent over my froion, making everyone else ugh.

  “Guys, e on,” Martin chided them.

  “Touch it,” another boy touched my shoulder in curiosity. “It feels so real.” Suddenly all the kids were toug my chest, back, or arms in amazement.

  “That’s creepy.” “It feels so real.” “That is so real.” “Mecha-real.”

  Todd came in front of me again, “Does he have DAS?” When others were clueless about it, he expined further, “Damage Avoidance System. DAS. It’s a pai system. Our serving man has it. Watch this.” He led me by hand to a poolside table where he picked up a big knife, which he turowards me, “Now I’m not gonna cut you. This won’t hurt. I’m not gonna cut your skin. Just tell me when you feel it.”

  That’s when I knew something wasn’t right as I nearly jumped up in surprise and rushed behind my supposed brother, “Keep me safe, Martin. Keep me safe.” I held him tightly for dear life.

  “Let me go!” Martin protested loudly.

  “Keep me safe, Martin.” I kept repeating the same phrase while bag away from the people who had threatened me.

  “Let me go! MOM!” Martin yelled for his mother in utter panic.

  Ung of Martin’s yells, I backed away a few more steps and uedly fell into the pool, with Martin still in my grasp.

  I kept my eyes open and my grip tight as three men jumped into the water, trying to get Martin free, which they were successful in doing after a few seds. I was left lying otom of the pool as the worried parents were tending to their son.

  I didn’t hear the and to cut the se, but I khat I was running out of air, so I quickly s to the surface. I panted a bit as I took in fresh air after what robably a full minute, maybe more. Safety guys were quickly upon me, pulli of the pool.

  “Are you okay?” asked one of the guys.

  “Yeah,” I nodded iween deep breaths. “Uer shooting is intense.”

  “It is,” the safety guy firmed.

  “Troy,” Steven came towards me. “Are you feeling fine?”

  “Yes,” I gave him a reassuring nod. “Do we need a retake?”

  Steven’s guilty look told me everything, yet he said, “Unfortunately. Don’t worry too much though, we’ll try to hurry it along. Dialogues came out perfectly. You just have to fall in the pool. But since you’re wet already, let’s do the uer ses first.”

  “Okay,” I nodded as the actor pying Martin s to me, retaking his position in front of me as I held and hid behind him.

  That day I found that doing uer ses is one of the worst things to do when you are forced to do a single se a dozen times, but uer. If I ever get a choice again, I would not do another film with uer ses. And then I remembered that [Harry Potter] films have quite a few uer ses for me, starting from the fourth film iriwizard Tour and going all the to the st film where Harry, Ron, and Hermione jump into a ke after riding a dragon.

  sigh

  I thought it would be a retively easier profession, but now I know how difficult ag be. Especially in one of these big-budget extravaganzas, even if it is not about magic. The only good part about finishing the uer ses was that that was the st se of the whole film, meaning I was finally done shooting [AI].

  Unlike what I had wanted, Steven didn’t shoot an alternate ending for the film. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t do anything about it either. You ’t win all your battles all the time. And this wasn’t even a battle to begin with.

  As much as that bothered me, I didn’t have the time to worry about it needlessly. I wao rex for a few days, ying in bed all day, not doing anything at all, but my greedy ass, who took up more films than ractical made sure that I didn’t have any time left in my schedule for R&R. Not to mention, I still had to study for my A-Levels, which were the final exams in the UK for finishing my education formally.

  As soon as filming of [AI] ed up, I icked up in a private pne and paraded all around the States to do interviews for the first [Harry Potter] film. Emma Watson and Jamie Bell were flown from the UK along with a few more cast members like Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, and An Ri. Thankfully, I aired with Emma and Jamie mostly to do the interviews. It’s so much easier to be the star of the interview when you are among kids.

  (Break)

  “Today, we have a very talented young guest with us here. Already an Oscar winner and a superstar at the mere age of 11 and the face of one of the biggest movies of the year, [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone]. Please wele, Troy Armitage!”

  I walked on stage fidently while waving at the croent crazy as soon as they saw me. People literally stood up and were waving in my dire vigorously. Despite finding it a little creepy, I just smiled and walked over to the host for the night, David Letterman.

  “Wele, Troy,” David smiled at me while me a seat.

  “Thanks for having me here,” I shot back with an equally pleased grin after taking the offered seat.

  “It’s o have you here. So, how has your experience been in New York City so far?” David asked versationally.

  “It’s amazing,” I said holy. “Don’t tell this to anyone, but I prefer New York over Los Angeles.”

  Letterman looked amused, “You know that now everyone will knht?”

  I shrugged, “It’s true.”

  “Anyway,” Letterman ged the subject. “I attended an early sing of your uping film, [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone], and I have to say, this is the best children’s film I have ever seen. You acted beautifully, as usual.”

  “Thank you,” I said graciously. “I would give that credit to my dad, Steve Kloves, and our director, Chris bus. They made the whole process very smooth. Not for a moment did I feel unfortable being on that set.”

  “So did w for your father make the filming easier than, say, [The Sixth Sense]?”

  “Hmm,” I thought about the question for a few moments. “Not necessarily. It’s like paring apples with es. The only big help that Dad provides me that he won’t for other kids is that when we are at home, he would go with me over the entire script and we’d practice my ses. It’s our bonding time. Some people like to py football or cricket outside, we act. And not just lines from my films. Even before I started ag, I used to do ses from different films of different actors.”

  “That’s quite an unusual hobby,” Letterman ented. “Any iing se you would like to share?”

  “Oh!” Suddenly I remembered one particur i. “This oime, I was browsing through els on TV and this film ying called [Pulp Fi]. Samuel L. Ja was doing the se where he shoots the guy after eating a burger, and I memorized all his lines because that se is so good. Dad let me practice it, provided I ged some of the words starting with ‘F’ with something else. Mum was not happy when she found out that I watched and learned such a se.”

  Letterman and the audience were howling with ughter after hearing the story.

  “Kids,” David Letterman turo the camera after trolling his ughter. “If you’re seeing this, don’t watch [Pulp Fi] until you’re older. Don’t follow this young man’s example.” Theuro me again, “So, about your film, do you think older people would get bored after seeing it?”

  “That depends,” I replied immediately. “Do older people want to relive the innoce of their childhood in a magical fantasy world? If yes, then this film will be the best thing you experience. I would request everyoo e watch this with their whole family. Everything from the music to the produ design to special effects is top-notch. And I’m not saying this because I’m in this film, but because when I watched it for the first time, I wao see it again.”

  “Well, folks, I couldn’t have said it better myself,” David Letterman said. “[Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone], releasing in emas near you this weekend.”

  “And cut!” the director of the TV show announced as he cut us off for a break.

  “That was a great interview you did back there, son,” David Letterman pointed out.

  “Thank you, David,” I smiled at the older man.

  “Where are you off to after the interviews?” he asked casually.

  “London,” I replied. “We’ll have our premiere the day after, and then the film release weekend, as you know.”

  Although we were shooting this interview before the premiere, it would be telecast on the week of the film release. Letterman hadn’t actually watched the film, so he was lying about that part ierview.

  “It’s a hectic life,” Letterman gave me a sympathetic look. “What about your other film for which you won at es? When is that getting released?”

  “It ostpohe inal release date was set for September, but I didn’t have time for promotions. They also thought it would be a lot of good free publicity if we released the film a few months after [Harry Potter]. So they pn to give a limited release in December and a wide release in January.”

  “I ’t fault their logic there,” Letterman remarked.

  “Troy!” Our chat was interrupted when a set assistant walked over to us. “We have a few fans here who have been waiting for hours for your autograph. Would you be willing to do that, or should I make up some excuse?”

  “Hours?” I asked, perplexed. “Don’t these people have a job?”

  “Probably not,” Letterman ented idly. “Some people are dedicated fans. They make their living out of selling autographs and signed photos of celebs.”

  “I have some time,” I ceded to the assistant. “Lead the way, but make sure only a few people e at a time and that no one surrounds me from all sides.”

  “Obviously,” the assistant nodded in firmation before leadio my ‘fans’.

  I still find the whole cept of hero worship of actors stupid. What’s the relevance of the autograph of a celebrity? None. Zilada. We are as much humans as everyone else. Photographs I uand as people brag about it to their friends and family ter on. The problem was this was not the era of smartphones where everyone had a camera in their pocket.

  Despite this belief of mine, I didn’t have the heart to dee someone’s request for an autograph. Most people who e to me for this purpose are very nice, and if ten seds of my time make someone else’s day, what’s the harm in it, right?

  Then again, some people took unfair advantage of some celebrities’ generosity, which forces us celebrities to do exactly what we had hoped to avoid. Like the man in front of me.

  “Troy,” the sleazy man smiled benignly. “ you please sign autographs for my friends and family? I have so many friends who are big fans of your work, but only I could get a seat here today.”

  He offered me a stay photographs from the set of [The Sixth Sehere had to be at least 20 photographs in there. I decided to shut down the request immediately.

  “No,” I said firmly before turning to the assistant. “Get the person in line.”

  “Hey!” the man protested. “They really are for my friends and family,” he argued weakly.

  “Yeah, and I’m Jesus Christ,” I shot back before he was escorted out of the room. , a woman and a young girl came forth with a big poster of me dressed as Harry Potter. I gri the girl and opened my arms to offer her a hug, an offer she didn’t refuse, and she tched onto me while screaming in my ear. A little uling, I know, but I had gotteo it by now.

  (Break)

  “I’m so sorry for that hoarder back there,” the assistant from earlier had followed me back to the green room after I was done signing all the autographs and taking a few photographs with the people who had e to meet me.

  “A hoarder?” I asked skeptically.

  “Yeah, they pose as fans a celebs to sign tons of autographs, only to sell them ter. Some go even as far as preserving said autographs until the celeb is much bigger in name and fame, so as to fetch a higher price.”

  “That’s messed up.” I rubbed my forehead in thought before realizing that the assistant was still standing. “What’s your name?” I asked the young man in his early twenties from my seat. Now that I was sitting again, I felt a little better physically.

  “Toby,” he said hesitantly while standing ramrod straight as if I was about to fire him.

  “Take a seat, Toby,” I motioo the only other free seat in the room. When he didn’t do so after a few moments, I said, “I insist.”

  When he relutly did so, I asked, “Are you new here?”

  “Yes,” he nodded slowly.

  “Thought so,” I said. “You’re so stiff about things. Shit happens sometimes. Be free and learn to rex. I have dealt with worse fans, and I never bme anyone for things they pull off. And the [Harry Potter] movie is yet to be released. I shudder to think what the fuck would happen afterward.”

  Toby was looking at me as if I had grown a sed head. “Are you allowed to say words like that?”

  I ughed out loud, “Teically no. But I hope you keep a secret?”

  He cracked a smile. “Yeah, sure.”

  “You seem like a good enough fel,” I ented. “If this job doesn’t suit you or you need a ge of sery, you always join me.” Saying that I fished out a card from my pocket which had just my email written on it. I don’t hand out my phone o anyone for obvious reasons. “Email me anytime.”

  Toby looked a little dazed as he took my card. To this day, I don’t know why I offered him that card. I just got a feeling that he was a good bloke and would make an excelleary. While my mother was good enough at handling my affairs, I needed an outsider to hahings when I was o or on a press tour. While Warner was kind enough to send people with me while oour, I needed my own staff. Every big actor has a dedicated team of staff attending to their needs, or ae if you will.

  While I may have handed my card to Toby, it was highly uhat he would accept this job given how I spent most of my time in London while he lived iates, but that thought hit me only after I had already given him the card.

  “I’ll keep this offer in mind,” Toby said politely, and I knew he wouldn’t accept it anytime soon. But strangely, I was fih it.

  ______________________________

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