[RECAP: It's time for Leonie's screen test, will they like her performance...?]
Leonie put everything she had into the screen test. It felt like a second chance, after losing out on the opportunity to try for the RADA scholarship. Her parents' lack of support only motivated her to try even harder.
She read the script and loved the role. The character Gemma was immediately real to her. One moment Leonie was imagining her, looking upon her from a distance. The next she was inside Gemma's skin, looking at the world through her eyes.
Not having many clothes in England helped, as she didn't have to agonise over what to wear. All she had were jeans and a few tops to choose between. She kept her makeup simple - if they used proper lights it would drown it out anyway - and just brushed her hair and tied it loosely back. It was probably how Gemma would have worn hers, backpacking and staying at cheap hostels.
As nervous as Leonie was when arriving at the studio, it became easy once she stepped in front of the cameras. She didn't have to be herself any longer. There were three people observing her, a woman and two men, though Jack Edwards wasn't among them. Leonie guessed he would review the tapes later. If they were considered good enough to be worth his while, anyway.
There were lights and they were switched on, and she felt illuminated from the inside. As though she were drawing energy from them. As with theatre, their dazzle created a kind of veil between Leonie and those observing her, which helped her inhabit her own world.
The scene she was asked to do was when Gemma, separated from her friend, was being interrogated by police in an Eastern European country. One of the men fed her the police officer's lines in a flat voice.
Leonie played it bravely, with Gemma showing resilience and even defiance. "I can't tell you anything because I don't know anything."
When she had finished, the people thanked her. "Could you try it again, but make her more vulnerable?" the woman asked. "I like what you did with it, but we had imagined the character as more scared, more out of her depth."
Leonie wasn't sure she agreed with this characterisation, but did it anyway. Gemma became wide eyed and scared. Her voice wobbled and faltered as she gave her responses to the police officer.
Afterwards the three of them exchanged words, the woman frowning. Then she turned back to Leonie. "It's funny, that's how we'd always envisaged the role, but it seemed to work better the way you did it the first time. Could you please try one more time from the top, the way you did it originally?"
Leonie did so, but with a change. Bravery became bravado, with defiance a mask for fear. She was both scared and brave. As she spoke Gemma's lines, the character finally clicked for her.
When she finished she hardly dared look at the three people behind the table. There was no way they would give her a fourth attempt. If they hadn't liked it, then that was that.
But there was surprise on the woman's face as she shook Leonie's hand and thanked her for coming. "That was quite something. It's certainly given us some new ideas about how it could look." She gave nothing further away about whether they were impressed or not.
Leonie thanked her and the two men. Feeling in a complete blur, she hurried out.
Gabriel was waiting for her and she was so glad he was there. Having been on a kind of high while she was reading the lines, all the energy had ebbed out of her. She felt flat and the world seemed monochrome. She also felt fiercely protective of Gemma in the same way she had done about Abigail.
If she didn't get the part that would be one thing, but it would be hard to ever watch someone else playing it a different way.
Most people would have asked how it went, how did it go. But Gabriel merely said: "I bet you blew them away" and kissed her. And colour started to seep back into the world as his lips were on hers. Whatever happened, she had him.
Even though she had to fly home the next day and not see him for nearly three weeks. It was going to be the longest three weeks of her life. She would also be waiting anxiously to hear about the role. If she didn't get it, she would also feel that she had let Figgy's Uncle Hugh down. Somehow that was worst of all, given the faith he had shown in her.
All in all, Christmas was going to be torment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No Father Gabriel, and a long wait to hear back from the movie producers...