Free Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini, Rebecca Paley Page A

with you more.”
    Natalie next set up a meeting with a casting director named John Levey. He would go on to cast a number of popular shows like
China Beach
and
ER.
But most importantly for me, at the time he was casting
Head of the Class,
the ABC sitcom about a class of kids in an honors program at a public high school in Manhattan. My plan was this: Get on the show, meet Brian Robbins, who played the character Eric, have him fall in love with me. He was from Marine Park, Brooklyn, which was just a couple of miles along Kings Highway from Bensonhurst. So it was destiny; we’d get married and be a power celebrity couple who never forgot our roots.
    During this time I had been working at Survival Insurance, a Scientologist-owned company, where I assisted insurance brokers. Iheaded out at lunch and spent money that was supposed to be for my car payment on a cute mini and a white tee at the five-dollar store and a brand-new pair of skippies from the Payless next door. I figured that once I got the part on
Head of the Class,
I would make all the payments that I had missed on my new car. So it would all work out. I drove over to the Warner Bros. lot to meet John Levey. Not knowing how it worked, I assumed that once he approved me, I would be sent to the set to marry Brian—I mean, to work on the show.
    This was my second audition and my agent had not given me any sides. Instead I planned to charm John with my whole tough-girl shtick, turning into a full-on
cuginette
as soon as I got in front of him. With my Brooklyn accent thicker than usual, my hands waving all around, and a lot of “fucks” sprinkled in, I started talking about how “this one’s a jerk-off and that one’s a jerk-off in Hollywood.”
    I had this big casting director laughing at my act, and in my mind the deal was done. Get the director’s chair ready with my name written on the back. I was in!
    “You’re adorable,” John said. “Go outside for a minute to look at the sides, and then come back in to read.”
    “Oh, there’s more to this?”
    “Yeah, honey. You’ve got to audition.”
    I was confused. I thought that I
had
been auditioning. But I didn’t say anything. I walked out into the lobby only to return to the room a few minutes later.
    As I started reading the sides with John, I became a different girl. My smile wobbled, my hands shook so badly that the script made a rustling noise, and my voice cracked. I went from sassy to loser in two seconds flat. It was like having an out-of-body experience. I could see it happening to me, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.
    The audition did not last long.
    “You are so damned cute. You’re just a little new at auditioning, so I am not having you come back tomorrow for producers becauseyou are very green. Don’t worry, though. I know you now, and I’m going to keep you in my pocket. I’m going to call you. I promise.”
    But I did worry. I walked out of the studio defeated. I had blown it. My big chance to be an actress, marry Brian/Eric, and be a big star in my family’s eyes and to the church, to get out of poverty and live happily ever after was squashed. As well as be on TV. Oh. And make that car payment. Or payments.
    —
    B UT BY THE TIME I got to my car, parked across the street in the Taco Bell parking lot, I was back to being a fighter.
    Fuck that.
    I called Information from the Taco Bell pay phone and asked for the Warner Bros. casting department. “Hi,” I said when I got the secretary for John Levey’s office on the line. “I was just there. I’ve got to tell John something. Can I just talk to him real fast?” Miraculously, she put me through.
    “What’s up?” he asked, and I began crying.
    “I’m sorry I was so nervous. I didn’t know. Like, I thought I already had the job. I can do better. Please, give me another chance, I was nervous, not prepared…”
    I don’t know if it was because I was crying so hard and he felt sorry for me or what, but John said,