Find a quiet spot, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🌙 ✦ “Good.
That’s it.” After comparing the image in the mirror with the effect in front of him, the director nodded to the makeup artist in satisfaction.
He was a middle-aged man in his forties, with a full beard and an unremarkable face, but he had directed the episodes of the newest Friends season that had already aired in September.
Then he looked at Adrian.
“Ready?” “Yes, sir.” Adrian sat steadily in the chair and answered with certainty.
“Good.
I’m looking forward to it.” The director laughed, patted him on the shoulder, and left the makeup trailer.
Adrian exhaled and let himself relax.
The makeup artist, finishing the last touches on his face, smiled.
“Don’t be nervous.
I know it’s your first real role, but if you keep your head, you’ll do fine.” “Thanks, Chase.
I will.” The atmosphere here was better than the one he had just left.
No producers were at each other’s throats.
No strange hostility hung in the air.
Adrian blended in easily.
That part had always been simple for him.
He was good with people.
In high school, when the basketball coach had brought him in as a temporary guard, the bigger players had been unfriendly at first.
After a few practices, their attitude changed.
Some of that had been because Adrian was already fairly well known around school, but it still took social skill to turn suspicion into friendship that quickly.
The previous two productions had been messy, but most people had still come away with a decent impression of him.
Even here, though, whispers were inevitable.
Curiosity, envy, speculation.
That was normal.
Adrian did not need to care about all of it.
He only needed to build good relationships with the people who mattered: makeup, lighting, directors, leads, and the crew members who could make a day easy or miserable.
Sitting in his assigned chair and waiting for the shoot to begin, he continued reading the script while wondering what the main cast was really like.
Frederick had given him a quick warning about the six leads, but mostly to remind him not to confuse actors with characters.
That did not tell Adrian much about who they were in person.
He was officially an actor now.
He had a chair with his name on it and shared a small greenroom with another guest actor.
But he was nowhere near the level of having his own trailer.
That belonged to the stars.
Naturally, he had no reason to go knocking on their doors, and each of the six Friends leads had a trailer of their own, a rare treatment for television actors.
The producers probably did not love paying for that.
But the show was too popular for them to pretend the cast had no leverage.
Friends was one of the few American sitcoms Adrian could remember clearly in this life.
The premise was simple: six friends, Ross, Chandler, Joey, Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe, living in New York.
The stories were about ordinary life, exaggerated for comedy, but close enough to daily experience that viewers recognized themselves in it.
That was why, in both lives, the show had become so popular.
It had drawn attention from the beginning and climbed to the top of the ratings more than once.
Even now, after more than four years on air and some natural decline, it remained one of the most-watched shows in the country.
The six leads had become famous along with it.
It was a sitcom, but it still had emotional threads: friendship, family, romance.
Especially Ross and Rachel.
Their on-again, off-again relationship had kept audiences hooked for years.
The pilot had made the direction obvious.
Ross, just divorced after discovering his wife was a lesbian, sat in Central Perk while his friends tried to comfort him.
“I just want to be married again,” he said after they teased him.
Then Rachel, still in a wedding dress, ran into the coffeehouse after fleeing her own ceremony.
“And I just want a million dollars,” Chandler said immediately.
Unfortunately for him, no bank clerk rushed in carrying a suitcase full of cash.
From the start, the show had told the audience that Ross and Rachel would be complicated.
The story had followed through.
They had gotten together, broken apart, circled each other, wounded each other, and kept viewers caring.
At the end of the fourth season, Ross had married his British girlfriend Emily.
But the writers had left a hook: at the wedding, both Ross and Rachel seemed to realize they still felt something for each other.
After the finale aired, plenty of viewers told entertainment reporters they still wanted Ross and Rachel together.
In the new season, Emily, Ross’s second wife, accidentally saw Ross and Rachel hugging too closely at the airport when she and Ross were about to leave for their honeymoon.
Emily said nothing at first, but the honeymoon filled with small fights.
Ross, being Ross, swallowed it and tried to appease her.
Back in New York, Emily forced him to display affection for her in front of Rachel.
Rachel was furious, of course, and went out looking for a man of her own.
While shopping with Phoebe, she met a young Italian-American salesman.
That was Adrian’s role.
Marco Moretti.
He had been lucky.
David Crane had designed the character himself, and the part needed someone young, convincing, and fluent enough in Italian to sell the joke.
The conditions combined in an irritating way: actors who fit cost too much or were unavailable, while cheaper actors were not right.
Crane had assumed it would be easy to solve while filming began around it.
Half the episode had already been shot before the actor was settled.
He had nearly given up and started calling writers to rewrite the story when Eric Reese heard about it at a party and strongly recommended Adrian.
Even so, Crane would not have chosen him without some ability.
Green, but promising.
Those were Crane’s words.
And if Adrian had not stood firmly with Reese during the earlier storm, Reese might never have recommended him.
Sometimes gain and loss were hard to untangle.
‘I wonder if they’ll give him a kissing scene next episode.’ The thought appeared as Adrian reviewed his scenes again.
He laughed silently at himself.
Fine.
Anyone who liked the show would wonder the same thing.
After all, he was playing Rachel’s young boyfriend.
Of the six leads, the most popular was Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel Green.
Fine features, brown-blonde hair, pale blue eyes, a hint of baby softness in her face, and a smile that made her America’s sweetheart long before anyone officially stamped the label on her.
Men adored her.
Women copied her hair and watched what she wore.
Fashion magazines loved her.
So Adrian’s mind wandering there was understandable.
“Hi.
How are you?” A voice sounded beside him.
Adrian turned and froze in the chair.
“Hello?” After several seconds with no response, the woman waved a hand in front of his face.
Adrian snapped back to himself and stood so quickly he nearly bumped the chair.
“Sorry.
Very sorry, Ms.
Aniston.” The woman in front of him was about five-five, with brown-blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a sweet, sexy face that looked even more vivid in person.
Jennifer Aniston.
The woman he had just been hoping to kiss on camera.
Very few things were more embarrassing than fantasizing about someone and having her appear in front of you a second later.
He overcorrected into formality.
She did not look entirely satisfied.
“Ms.
Aniston?” she repeated.
“That makes me sound like I should be calling you into the principal’s office.” “Sorry – Jennifer.” He corrected himself so quickly that Jennifer blinked.
“Relax.
You’re Adrian, right?” She smiled, bright and easy, very much like the Rachel people loved.
“Yes.
Adrian Vale.
I’m playing Marco Moretti.” He straightened unconsciously.
“Can I help you with something?” “Wow.
That formal?” Jennifer’s mouth curved, clearly amused.
“Sorry.” Adrian spread his hands and coughed once.
“I don’t really know how to behave.
Yesterday, I never imagined I’d be acting on my favorite show with my favorite actress.” “You like the show?” Jennifer looked surprised.
“I saw your information.
You’re only eighteen, aren’t you?” At eighteen, Adrian sat just below the show’s core eighteen-to-forty-nine demographic, so Jennifer’s surprise made sense.
A lot of viewers his age chased faster entertainment and watched sitcoms only when family or routine pulled them in.
“I have an older sister,” Adrian said smoothly.
“She loved the show, so I ended up watching with her.
After a while, I loved it too.” “Really?
Then…” Jennifer accepted the answer, then looked at him with an expectant brightness.
Adrian had no idea what she wanted.
The compliment ready on his tongue vanished.
They stood there, staring at each other.
The strange silence lasted several seconds.
Jennifer began to look impatient.
She moved both hands slightly, as if urging him to do something.
Then another voice rang out from the side.
“Time’s up.
You lost.” ✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS TheBacklot Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter drew you further into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.