The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

37

In every contract I had to sign for any projects, they required me to take out the Sun in my name so it would just be Maeve Lively. At first it didn't seem like a big deal, considering I didn't really understand why they were making me do that. But as 2026 passed and rolled by with each of my hours and time wasted on small and ridiculous roles, as 2027 approached, and as I watched dumbly each of the films I was being given by supposed big studio producers, when the credit rolled and I saw my name with only Maeve Lively, it finally hit me then.

Hollywood was goddamn racist.

Sure, my family name isn't really mine, since it's from two people that is totally unrelated to me. But I carried that name, and if Sun Lively is my family name, it'll go together, not separately.

So one day, I went to one of the producers on the small ridiculous project they had me on, and threw the contract on his desk.

"Woah woah woah, what is with the fire, Maeve?" He was a chubby guy, old, half bald, and I heard later on he had a fetish for underage girls.

"My name is Maeve Sun Lively, and it's going to say that on the credits, and online when people search for me."

He slid the contract I had thrown at him aside, set his hands together on the desk, leaned forward, and raised his eyebrow at me like I was some small little girl asking for something she doesn't even know what it is she's asking for. "That's very unlikely of happening."

"Why not?"

"Because," he leaned back on his roller seat and set his feet on the desk. Then he gestured at the seat across from his desk, right in front of his toes. "Here, sit."

So I sat, and looked him flatly in the eye. "Put my name back on."

"Your name is already on."

"No, put the Sun back on. Put Maeve Sun Lively, because that is my full name."

"Not all actresses get what they want, honey."

There had been other actresses around the lot, and you didn't even need to look hard enough to realize that they were mostly white. You'd think that it's 2027 and that things are better, but really, things weren't so different still.

"I'm white, but I'm also Chinese. You can't accept one part of me and then deny the other part. That's not becoming."

He pushed the contract with his foot off his desk and it landed on my lap. He then smiled. "What people don't know won't kill them, and Hollywood is doing you a favor. The fact that you're not taking it gratefully like how you should is unbecoming."

I never wanted so badly to hurt someone.

"People are going to be uncomfortable if they see the Sun in your name, and they'll be confused. They won't want to hire you. Think of all of this as a..." he looked up at the poster behind us which was of a blonde woman swinging with a man on a vine, a little like Tarzan. While the man was fully dressed, the woman had her breasts revealed. "A fixing."

I stood up in a whoosh of movement and the chair fell back with a thud!. "Bullshit."

He laughed. "You'd want to be nicer to us producers if you want any more projects."

"These are what you call projects? I have basically three scenes in this whole movie!"

"Everyone has to start somewhere, darling."

I wanted to spit in his face. "I've been acting for five years, and I am paid more back in China than what tiny bits of stuff you're giving me right now."

He finally took those disgusting feet off his desk and leaned forward at me. "Hey, if baby China is so good then go back."

I gritted my teeth together, and I knew better than anyone leaving would only mean defeat. No one won over me unless I let them.

In the next few moments, I can't exactly say I liked what I did. And I was surprised to both my pride and my body that I had made such a decision. But I don't know how things would've turned out if I waited longer and did nothing about it. Maybe if I did wait a little while, a good role might've came along. But what I did next was also in a strange and unintended way of how I got Klarise back, so I guess I'm saying, however specific or not, I don't regret what I did. And anyways, what I did then didn't hurt anyone but myself; plus, self love had never exactly been my priority.

I walked around his desk, went behind his chair and placed my hands on his shoulders. "Sir, if I can't change my name, what else can you give me?" My voice was set higher than I would usually use, I leaned down near his side and I knew my cleavage must've been showing because his eyes went immediately there.

"Well," he pulled my waist closer to him, his breath stinkingly hot against my ear. "I can sure give you a female lead in my next movie..." His grin couldn't have been broader. "Honey, have you ever rode an airplane before? Oh, what am I saying, of course you did! How else would you have escaped from that hell of a country?" He started unclipping my blouse, and then he hissed into my ear, "I'ma ride you like an airplane baby."

I made out with him in his office, right there on his desk, and then a few weeks after that afternoon, I had a playing lead role in a new project of his. And it was going to be a piece of film history indented into Hollywood for a long long while. That was just how big it was going to be.