Will paced back and forth in his dressing room as he recited the lines over and over to himself. Tomorrow was the first day of shooting; the first day he had to make a whole audience of people believe he was gay. It's not that he had anything against gays, or that he felt like he was above them, but he had a sort of disconnect, and wondered if this role was beyond his talents. He sat down at his table, in front of the mirror, and stared at his very blond hair. It was quite a different look for him, and he wasn't entirely sure it suited him.
"Would you relax?" Sam said, staring at Will's reflection from the couch behind him where he'd been going over lines. Will had forgotten completely that Sam was even in the room with him. Sam had that soothing, relaxing presence that often made you feel better, but also made him blend in to his surroundings.
"I can't," Will confessed, letting out a breath. "I'm nervous. There is no way I'm going to sleep tonight."
"What are you nervous about?" Sam asked. There was a teasing lilt to his voice, playful instead of mocking. "You did great in read-throughs. This is just like any other set you've ever been on."
Will watched Sam's reflection in the mirror. Sam was a little bulkier, and definitely darker in complexion than himself, but handsome, none-the-less. While Will had shifted between relationships with women, Sam had been married to his wife for years, and happily so if photographs of the two together were anything to be believed. They had children, and the love they showed in those pictures was almost palpable.
"Have you ever played a homosexual before?" Will asked suddenly, turning to face his friend.
Instead of answering, Sam lifted a brow, and his thick, pouty lips quirked in a little smirk. "Is that what has you worried?" he asked.
"No," Will said suddenly, feeling foolish. "...well, yes. Maybe. It's not that playing a homosexual makes me uncomfortable, I just... I don't want it to come off as a straight man playing a homosexual."
"First," Sam began, still wearing the amused expression on his face. "Stop saying the word 'homosexual.'" He laughed quietly and stood, taking the few steps that closed the distance between them. He placed his hand on Will's shoulder and met his gaze. "Second, I know something that might help. Mind if I come to your hotel room later? Trust me; this'll work, if you're up for it."
* * *
"Wine is your 'something that might help'?" Will asked as he opened his hotel room door for Sam, who was holding two bottles of some expensive looking red, and stepped aside to let him in.
"No," Sam said, with a grin. It made him look like a little boy who had been caught sneaking candy before dinner, and wasn't sorry in the slightest. "But it'll help, too."
"So, what did you bring?" Will asked, moving to close the door once his friend was inside. But as he pushed the door toward the latch, he felt something keeping the door from closing all the way. Wrenching the door open again, he saw one of their other co-stars standing there, hand on the door, also grinning, but his grin was more charming than guilty.
"Alexis?" Will spluttered, confused and a little taken aback. Alexis wasn't even in any of the on-location scenes, and shouldn't have been here already. "What are you doing here?"
Will opened the door for Alexis, and the tall, lanky actor stepped in. His gait was confident, but not over bearing. He had a softness to him that was different than any other cocky actor he'd ever met. And though Alexis was indeed confident, he was far from cocky. "I came here with Sam," he said. "We decided to stick close together through the entire shoot, so that we could bond and all. We wanted to make our relationship seem believable."
Sam had helped himself to three glasses from Will's kitchenette, and was pouring each glass full of wine. "Alexis is my secret weapon," Sam said, giving the other brunette a wink.
"Uh... what?" Will asked, closing the door sluggishly as his brain tried to process what Sam was implying.
Alexis let out a little sigh, and slid his arms around Will's shoulders, giving him a friendly squeeze. "Sam and I have been experimenting," he explained in a cool, reassuring way. "Sam wanted to know how his character felt, since he was so uncomfortable having sex with another man. The character is very repressed."
"Experimenting?" Will asked. He understood what that meant, of course, but how? He had so many questions. "But your wife..."
"...understands the creative process," Sam said. As Alexis guided Will to sit on the couch beside Sam, then flanked his other side, Sam held out a glass of wine to him. Once Will took the glass, he handed another to Alexis, who took a sip. "We have an understanding. We're not very public about it, but we have a little bit of an open marriage. And I've already discussed this with her."
"He means he got permission," Alexis added slyly.