It's Quiet Uptown

Chapter Twenty-Five: Mindhunter

A/N: Before this chapter, I just want to say a quick thanks to all of you. This fic has reached over 3,000 reads, which continues to astonish me. I love you all and will continue writing what y'all want!

Groff's POV

    My first day on set was a little overwhelming.

    Though my series wasn't nearly as big as Linguini's movie, Netflix clearly had a lot of ambition regarding this project. There were intricate sets everywhere, and from what I'd seen of the costumes, nothing looked cheap.

    I'd memorized the lines of the scenes as David Fincher, the director, had ordered. The two we were shooting today were drastically different, but thankfully one had been the scene I'd had to act during my audition, so I wasn't going in completely blind.

    Now I would never tell Lin this, but I felt a little overshadowed. I knew that this would probably be a staple going into this relationship, but for him to get a major movie for his first film acting left me the teensiest bit bitter.

    Armed with those feelings, I'd dusted off my acting skills and headed to the studio, determined to give the best performance of my life.

    My co-stars were amazing actors; Hannah, the actor who played Debbie, my character's girlfriend, was very kind. She assured me that she'd do the best she could to not make me uncomfortable while we shot, which instantly endeared her to me.

    The director seemed a little abrupt, but he deserved it. He'd directed music videos for some of music's biggest stars and had also had huge success in film, directing Fight Club, Se7en, and Panic Room.

    And then we started to film. Only after one hour of introductions, we were all ushered off to our dressing rooms and gotten ready. My costume people hustled me into a crisp suit and quickly applied some basic makeup. After they were done, I walked towards the set to wait for the director, quietly chatting to David Holmes. I saw an extra walking by with fake blood and dark mascara on, and cracked up out loud, remembering the Hamilcast's Demon Barber Sweeny Todd parody we'd done a few years ago.

    I missed Lin.

    Anyway, we got on with the filming and I shoved back any stray thoughts into the back of my mind. This first scene was a scene where I was interviewing one of the serial killers, trying to get into their mindset; I couldn't let my natural bubbly personality mess with the seriousness of my character.

    Aaaannnnd it was a disaster.

    Nothing went right. Now that I was thinking about the Sweeny Todd parody, I couldn't get Daveed's death face out of my mind. Or my hat. Jesus, I loved that hat. And because of it, I kept laughing at random intervals. PULL YOUR SHIT TOGETHER, GROFFSAUCE, I mentally scolded myself after the sixth instance.

    Fincher's face got darker and darker as I continued to mess up. Finally, he stormed over to me and hissed, "What is going on, Jonathan? You were excellent in your auditions! Was that acting a fluke?"

    I flushed scarlet down to my toes. "No sir," I mumbled. "Just a rough day."

   "Well, do better!" he rumbled angrily. "Take ten, people."

    I  wandered over to a nearby bench and plopped my head down, discouraged. My phone was digging into my hip, so I yanked it out. Its screen was glowing, a notification lighting up. My crestfallen frown instantly lifted into a half-smile. A tweet from Lin. The 8 hour time difference meant it was already nighttime there, so Lin was shooting off his usual G'night tweet. He'd started filming sooner than I did (Fincher had called not a week after I left Hamilton to start filming, telling me that he needed to push it back a month or two) I decided to FaceTime him, and our brief chatter plus some burbled comments from our son had me feeling much happier.

    When the break ended, I walked back on-stage and really delved deep into my character. It wasn't the best performance I'd given - Lea's last performance of Spring Awakening had that honor - but it was pretty good. My unusually high emotions lent themselves to me easily projecting bone-deep disturbance within the scene, giving a little more credence to my acting.

    Fincher wasn't happy for a little while yet, but eventually, he nodded in satisfaction and congratulated me on my performance. He didn't apologize for his earlier words, but I'll take what I've got.