Hollywood Domination

Chapter 10 Diss Battle 1

After the makeup try-out, the formal shooting began. Jenny received the shooting notice a week in advance for the first episode of the second season, with an expected shooting time of about nine days. Although her role was a short one, as the shooting schedule does not revolve around Jenny, she applied for night shifts the previous week to ensure there were no conflicting schedule.

In general, TV dramas try to shoot in studios as much as possible to save on the cost of shooting on location. Additionally, the labor cost for shooting night scenes on location is higher due to the established labor laws. Thus, this enabled Jenny to be able to balance between shooting and her restaurant job. Of course, this meant that she couldn’t hide the fact that she got a role from Johnny anymore, although the old man had a somewhat worried look on his face, he still agreed for Jenny’s convenience. On the other hand, Jessica’s expression did not look as good, but Jenny had no intention of intentionally aggravating her. In the worst case, she can just go out of her way to avoid her.

“Maybe you’ll skyrocket from here.” Kevin, her co-worker, was quite excited about it. “Please, you have to tip me well when you come back for meals. If possible, hire me as your assistant, I’ll work hard.”

His voice was a bit loud, and Jessica was walking into the kitchen with a plate, she snorted hearing it, her beautiful face slightly distorted, revealing a domineering queen’s attitude – this was the patented right of pretty girls. “In your dreams.”

Kevin was too timid to reproach her, and just stuck out his tongue in silent reply, while Jenny ignored her as she quietly ate her lunch. Dealing with people like Jessica was just a waste of energy.

It was now the mealtime for restaurant staff, and Jenny was still eating her salad, while Jessica, although she pretended to be angry with her, for once did not have her favorite meat pie. Instead, she imitated Jenny and ate a salad without oil, vinegar, and salad dressing — basically a pile of slightly salty grass, plus boiled meat. Jenny saw it and couldn’t help but chuckle to herself: Jessica was actually quite clever, but she was just a bit careless, leading to her miss with the biggest opportunity by a hair’s breadth.

As she was thinking this, the wind chimes at the entrance of the restaurant rang. Jenny looked up and immediately put down her lunch with excitement as she ran out of the staff break room. “Dave, what brought you here?”

Dave was touched by her enthusiasm and shyly scratched the back of his head. “You know that Buffy is about to start shooting, and I was supposed to come over again next week.”

So he came a week early for her shoot? Jenny didn’t know what to say. “Oh, Dave, you’re so kind!”

Without hesitation, she took his order and brought him a devil cake, along with a generous amount of whipped cream. “It’s on me.”

Dave blushed and pointed to the seat opposite him. “Is now a good time?”

He was the only customer in the restaurant now, and Jenny shrugged. “No problem.”

They had regularly contacted each other with phone calls and exchanged text messages, so Dave knew her schedule for next week and was concerned. “Will it be too tough for you to come to the restaurant after shooting?”

“It’s never easy to earn two sources of income.” Jenny smiled. “Don’t worry, Dave. It’s merely a week, for the sake of $5000, I can handle it.”

She was genuinely sorry, “It’s a pity I won’t be able to have meals with you this week. I hope you won’t be too busy once you start working.”

“No, no, I won’t be.” Dave started blushing and sweating. He cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact with Jenny. “Actually, I have some news I haven’t told you…”

“What news?” Jenny maintained her smile on the surface, but internally she was praying, Don’t propose, please don’t let it be a proposal!

“I’ve decided to move to California.” Dave said, “Since I’m now in charge of casting for Buffy, I’ll be spending more than half of the year in Hollywood. It doesn’t make sense to maintain a home in New York anymore. I used to live in New York because—”

He waved his hand, skipping mention of his ex-wife’s name, and to Jenny’s surprise, he looked straight into her eyes boldly. “Now I have no reason to live in New York anymore.”

“That’s really good news!” Jenny breathed a sigh of relief and smiled brightly.

“I came early for another reason,” Dave was like a child, taking steps up the stairs of encouragement and smiles that Jenny had built. He continued with his reveal of good news. “The Buffy production team has decided to add a regular role in the new season, but they haven’t finalized the casting yet. I recommended you to them a few days ago.”

He leaned forward slightly, as if he wanted to hold Jenny’s hand, but hesitated for a moment and didn’t dare to. “Jenny, quit your job at the restaurant. The time has come for you to fully take a step into the entertainment industry.”

Jenny was at a loss for words. — She felt really lucky that things were going smoothly for her on this path.

“I don’t know if my acting skills—” It was a Chinese habit to be modest, and she started with a humble statement.

Unexpectedly, Dave nodded. “This is why I hadn’t brought it up to you earlier. After all, it’s a regular role, not just a few minutes of a guest appearance. But your audition at CBS left a deep impression on my friend, and he thinks you have the potential to give it a go.”

Spotting Jenny’s hesitance, he continued, “I will also be at the set tomorrow to watch your performance. Don’t worry, you can wait for the audition results from Buffy before deciding whether or not to…”

Jenny gave him a look, and Dave stopped talking. Instead, he turned his head and glanced at the counter, smiled, and gradually became more composed. “Go back to work, your boss is staring daggers at me.”

“Oh, dear, thank you so much, I really don’t know what to say.” Jenny waved a ‘call me’ hand sign by her ear. “Call me, let’s have dinner together tonight.”

She stood up and went back to her assigned area to clean up. She occasionally exchanged smiles with Dave, but when it was time for Dave to pay, Jessica hurried over and served him first. It was her area after all, and Jenny had no intention of saying anything.

After Jessica handed Dave the bill, her face turned sour. Dave didn’t say a word to her throughout the process. She threw the tip at Jenny. “Here, for a Sugar Daddy, he’s really stingy with his tips.”

Jenny glanced at it and knew that although Dave paid for the entire bill and didn’t let her treat, he only gave the basic 3% tip, which was the usual amount given to the kitchen staff. She smiled and said, “We’re just friends.”

“Hah, friends” Jessica rolled her eyes and bluntly stated, “You stole him from me. He was supposed to be mine.”

She must have overheard some words like “set”, “Buffy”, etc., and became suspicious because now she appeared really emotional.

Jenny knew she couldn’t show weakness at this moment, else who knows what else Jessica would say when Dave visits her at the restaurant the next time. She calmly replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jessica. If you’re talking about Dave’s job, then I can only say, you had your chance, and it wasn’t my intention to find an opportunity with him — fate works in mysterious ways, huh, Jessica?”

Although it was all nonsense, Jenny spoke confidently without any guilt.

Jessica’s face twisted for a moment, then she abruptly waved her hand and stepped forward, “You bitch!”

If Jenny hadn’t reacted quickly, and the two of them were separated by a table, Jessica would have slapped her face. Terrified, Jenny ran straight for the counter, and Johnny hastily stepped out from behind the counter in a bid to control Jessica’s rage. “What are you doing! Are you crazy?”

Kevin and another male waiter also came out quickly to defuse the situation. Although Jessica was held back by them, she was still unrelenting, cursing Jenny with foul language, accusing her of being a cunning and scheming person who deliberately stole her opportunity. Amidst Jessica’s barrage of curses, Jenny couldn’t help but feel as if she(Jenny) was a green tea bitch*.

“Enough.” Surprisingly, it was Johnny who lost his temper in the end. “Jessica, you were the one who ignored him from the beginning, we all remember that very clearly. Even if there was something between you two, it was you who gave up first. Jenny doesn’t owe you anything. Now, if you don’t want to get fired, go outside and calm down. If you want to continue this crazy shinanigan, I will have to call the police.”

Jessica paused mid-movement, and then she calmed down, shrugged off the restraints, walked straight through the kitchen, and disappeared from everyone’s sight. The whole group watched her as she walked off until they heard a loud slamming of the door.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Kevin and his colleagues realigned the tables, and Jenny came forward to help. When everything was cleaned up, she walked to Johnny’s side and apologized, “John, I’m sorry.”

Johnny looked visibly conflicted, but alas, he waved his hand and joked, “If you’re really guilty, then stay and help for a while longer.”

“I will. I’ll stay for an extra two hours today,” Jenny said. “I’ll leave after dinner is done.”

She now had a good opportunity, and it was likely that she would leave Hollywood Star in the short term. With Jessica the only top waitress left, Jenny was truly grateful that Johnny would tell Jessica off on her behalf.

Johnny quickly revealed the fact that he had been eavesdropping all along. “But weren’t you supposed to have dinner with Dave tonight?”

“Having dinner here is still having dinner,” Jenny joked. “I’m serious, John. Jessica might not come back today, so let me cover for her. There will be plenty of opportunities with Dave in the future.”

A touched expression flashed across Johnny’s face, he didn’t refuse. “I owe you one, Jenny.”

Jenny sincerely said, “It’s me who owes you one.”

As expected, Jessica did not return. Jenny called Dave and explained the situation to him over the phone, assuring him that she was not hurt. However, it did not stop him from coming to visit her. He was, very obviously, completely infatuated with her and had fallen head over heels in love.

Jenny, on the other hand, did not want to go out for dinner with him tonight because of Dave’s obvious advances. What happened before could still be considered within the boundaries of friendship, but now Dave’s behavior was so obvious that it was becoming difficult to maintain a balance.

Dave had dinner at the restaurant and then drove Jenny home after she finished work. However, this time he didn’t offer to go upstairs, but instead proactively urged Jenny to go back and rest, saying, “Shooting can be exhausting, you need a good night’s rest to have enough strength.”

In the entertainment industry, he was really a rare honest person, and Jenny was actually quite touched. However, she wasn’t going to let Dave upstairs just because of that. She simply expressed her gratitude again and went back to rest.

The next day, Dave drove to pick her up and take her to universal studios. In fact, for a TV drama, being able to afford to rent universal studios was already a display of wealth.

From the outside, universal studios didn’t look impressive. It was just a series of large warehouses scattered around, each with a decent-sized parking area next to it, filled with trailers, prop cars, and many electric cars for transportation within the studio, shuttling under the scorching California sun. Access passes were strictly checked in each area, and there was no phenomenon of taking a pass from Area H and driving to Area A. Of course, it was inevitable to wander around in the areas. When Dave got off the car and was about to enter the studio, he encountered a little trouble because Jenny, as a guest star, did not have the authority to bring anyone into the studio. Fortunately, Dave was well prepared and made a call to his friend Lynch, so they were able to enter the studio smoothly after signing in.

After signing in, Jenny was taken away to read the script. Before the start of the official shoot, there would be a script reading session where the key scenes of the episode would be read by the main cast together. Since Jenny was the central character of this episode, she had the privilege to participate in the script reading. During the session, she also got to know the main cast, but most of the female stars were cold towards her, while the male stars were more friendly. Gary, the African-American actor who played the main role of Warrick, was particularly flirtatious with her.

Jenny has no intentions of standing around on a busy set whilst wearing the costume, neither will the wardrobe assistant allow this. Of the set she currently had on, the jewelry may be fake, but there was nothing cheap about the gown. She sat down waiting in the trailer for a while, during which Dave came over to keep her company and they chatted enthusiastically for over two hours. Then someone called her from the other side, and Jenny finally entered the set to prepare for the start of shooting.

Before the official start of filming, key scenes often require rehearsals. As they proceeded with the rehearsal, Nick, who had scenes with Jenny, read his line from the script in his hand. Jenny, of course, didn’t take it too seriously as well and recited her lines accordingly with the script. After the director made several adjustments to the positions, the camera shot sequence was finally decided. Then the makeup artist came up to touch up their makeup. With a shout of “Clear the set,” everyone in the camera area retreated behind the camera like the tide, and a sea of heads looked at the actors on set.

As the script supervisor called out the time and slate number and clapped her hands, the camera started rolling. Jenny closed her eyes slightly and in that instant, she immersed herself deeply into the life of Marilyn Monroe. Then she opened her eyes, confident and ready to embrace the first scene of her acting career.

*Green tea is a direct translation from Chinese as I’ve seen a lot of translators translate it this way, the more accurate translation would be angelic bitch. Urban dictionary definition: a woman who presents herself as innocent, sweet, and kind in order to approach guys who she finds useful, potentially in the sense of money, power, or purely fulfilling. (This is the green tea part). Yet this woman is actually calculating and all her good qualities are fake merely in order to appeal to the guy. This woman uses many methods to achieve her goal, which usually involves lying and being immoral. (the bitch part)