Free Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi Page B

European Jew. You’d look like a twenty-five-year-old Californian Aryan with hair dyed brown. Look at yourself, Michelle. You’re blonde. Naturally. You have Newman Blue eyes. And you have a body shape that wasn’t even invented until the late nineties.”
    â€œI can plump out,” she said.
    â€œYou throw up in panic when you have dessert,” I said.
    â€œI stopped doing that a long time ago, and you know that,” Michelle said. “That was a cheap shot.”
    â€œYou’re right,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
    Michelle relaxed. “I’ll even have dessert today,” she said. “I think they have nonfat yogurt here.”
    â€œIt’s not just how you look, Michelle,” I said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re just not ready for that part. It’s a part that’s meant for someone much older.”
    Michelle pointed her fork at me. “ Summertime Blues was meant for someone older, remember? When we first got the script, it called for a thirty-year-old woman to seduce those two teenage brothers. When I got the part, it got kicked back to a twenty-two-year-old. That’s what re-writes are for, you said.”
    â€œ Summertime Blues was a comedy about two kids losing their cherry,” I said. “ Hard Memories is about anti-Semitism and six million people dying. I think you could agree there’s a slight difference in tone there.”

    â€œWell, of course,” Michelle said. “But I don’t see what that has to do with the main character.”
    I sighed. “Let me try a different tack,” I said. “Why do you want this role so badly?”
    Michelle looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”
    â€œI mean, what is it about the role that makes you so passionate about it? What is it about this role that’s getting you so worked up?”
    â€œIt’s a great role, Tom,” she said. “It’s so dramatic and filled with feeling. I want to do something like that. You know, something with emotional baggage. I think it’s time Hollywood started taking me seriously.”
    â€œOkay,” I said. “Now, how much do you know about the Holocaust?”
    â€œI know a lot,” Michelle said. “How can you not know about the Holocaust? It was terrible, everyone knows that. I saw Schindler’s List . I cried.”
    â€œAll right, crying at Schindler’s List is a good start,” I said. “Anything else?”
    â€œI’ve been thinking of going to that museum here about hatred,” she said. “I forget what it’s called at the moment. Simon something. The Norton Simon?”
    â€œSimon Wiesenthal,” I said. “The Norton Simon is an art museum.”
    â€œI knew it was one of the two,” she said.
    â€œDid you ever read that book of poems I gave you?”
    â€œThe ones by that Christmas guy?”
    â€œKrzysztof,” I said.
    â€œI started them, but I had to stop,” Michelle said. “I had to put my dog to sleep around that time, and reading those poems
just made me depressed. I just kept thinking about my dog and crying.”
    â€œRight,” I said. “Look, Michelle, I think it’s great that you want to do dramatic roles. I think you’ll be great in them. I just don’t think that this is the right one. Hard Memories isn’t just going to take technique, it’s going to take knowledge. I know you think you know about the Holocaust and about this woman’s life, but I don’t think you do. If you were to take this role without knowing anything about it, it’s going to come back to haunt you. Melanie Griffith once did a movie called Shining Through and on the press junket she said ‘There were six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. That’s a lot of people!’ It didn’t help her film any.”
    â€œSix million is a lot of people,” Michelle said.