Free The Actress: A Novel by Amy Sohn

their way to the topor to be one of the guys. I chose the former. A lot of my friends chose the latter.”
    “What was it like, being one of the only women back then? Were you getting harassed all the time?”
    “The things said to me, you don’t want to know. All the men who mistook me for the secretary. I was always being asked to fetch coffee. I had to sit under the desk to cry, this little embroidery pillow over my face so no one would hear me. They still haven’t figured out a good system for women crying at work. I’ve always felt there should be a special room. The newer girls, the ones rising up now, they have no idea what it was like. Maybe that’s good. It’s changed so much. The men in your generation aren’t threatened by female success.”
    “Some are,” Maddy said, thinking of Dan in the Prius.
    “But the fearful ones won’t get far with strong, self-assured women. When I was dating in the ’80s, it was very difficult. I would go out with high-powered guys and tell them about deals I’d closed or stars I had signed, and their faces would just cloud over. They wanted wives. Los Angeles is a very sexist city, much more so than New York. I tried dating down, like with Zack’s father, but that poses its own challenges.”
    “Who is Zack’s father, if you don’t mind my asking?”
    “His name is Grant Mulaskey,” Bridget answered, lining Maddy’s eyes. “He was an actor, a client of OTA, though not my own. From Kentucky. Oh, so handsome. A goyishe. I was burned out on these movers and shakers. When I got pregnant, we tried to convince ourselves we had a future. But he was unhappy in L.A. and didn’t want to be tied down. He’s a general contractor in Arizona now. You know, Zack’s here. He’ll be coming with us tonight.”
    “He’s here?” Maddy asked, surprised. She hoped it wouldn’t be uncomfortable to see him. Before she left for Berlin, she had gone in to meet with Zack and his boss, George Zeger. The George guy, though complimentary about the film, didn’t seem that passionate about Maddy. On top of that, she couldn’t shake Bridget’s warning about Zack—that he wasn’t going to be agenting in a couple more years. Maddy emailed Zack to tell him she had signed with Ostrow Productions, and he wrote back a bland two-liner wishing her well.
    “He has some clients in the festival,” Bridget said, squinting at Maddy’s face to regard her handiwork.
    “How come he wasn’t on Steven’s plane?”
    “Bentley Howard paid for this trip because he has meetings. He was staying with me at Mile’s End because they wouldn’t pay, but he’s very practical. Only schnors when he has to.”
    She passed Maddy a hand mirror. Her eyes were smoky, sexy. “Wow,” Maddy said. “You’re really good at this.”
    “Now stand up and look in the mirror.”
    Maddy rose in her heels and moved toward the mirror on the wall. The makeup and the dress were perfect together. She felt like a princess, elegant, even regal. She had never been all that interested in clothing, beyond the way the right outfit could help her book a role, but now she was curious about the fabric, the cut, the way a dress could change the way you felt.
    When Maddy arrived in the lobby at seven, she found Zack waiting on a couch. “Nice dress,” he said. She had the cape on her arm, not sure whether to put it on at the hotel or at the theater.
    “Thanks. Your mother got it for me.”
    Zack rolled his eyes, and she wondered if he was feeling competitive with his mother for having signed Maddy. “She has impeccable taste. So I hear you have an audition coming up.”
    “Yes, Walter Juhasz will be here on Monday.” He nodded. “I don’t even think I have a serious chance at a Juhasz film, but they say I do, so . . .”
    “How’s Dan? He didn’t want to come to get publicity?”
    “That’s what I’m here for. He’s busy working out the contracts and stuff.” It was hard to read Zack’s tone. Was he implying