TW: miscarriage
Note: this story is based on one woman’s experience and was written with her permission. All experiences are valid.
The movie was set to be Dan’s best work yet. A rom-com, funnily enough. He had never thought that would be his big break, but with the specific cast who had signed up, it just had to be. If you went wrong with top star power, you probably deserved to go down into directing purgatory. But this would be his box office hit. At night he would dream of outperforming The Titanic and then laugh to himself. Certainly, anything was possible.
They were filming a street scene when he got the news. Annoyed pedestrians were ushered aside for the duration of the shot before they were allowed to cross the sectioned-off street. The sounds of the city still blasting in the background, the cars and conversations. A street fight threatened to erupt somewhere in the distance.
“Sir… it’s your wife,” the second videography assistant said. “She’s called twice and is saying it’s an emergency. I don’t think she’s, like…okay…”
“Well, tell her I’m shooting.” The assistant shuffled around. Dan could not recall his name. Steve? Sander? Something with an S for sure.
“I did, uh… you should talk to her, she’s…”
“Just hand me the fucking phone,” he said. And then, holding it up to his ear and talking in a sickly sweet tone of voice, “honey. What is it?” The voice at the other end of the phone wailed embarrassingly loudly, and he had to turn down the volume on the Phone so that the assistant would not hear.
“I… had a…”
“Annie, what is it? You know I’m busy, my love, I –”
“I had a fucking miscarriage, okay?!” Dan felt as though the assistant could hear somehow, even on the loud New York Street, even with the volume turned all the way down. The scream felt resounding despite every element that tried to mute it. The actress waved to him from her doorway, confused as to why they had not started the next take. He held up his hand, motioning for five minutes. They were already behind schedule. The actress was set for her meet-cute today with the lead. He had already decided, in his mind, that the background music would be Alec Benjamin’s Water Fountain, that the shot would close in on her as he approached, capturing her expression of New-Yorker-in-a-rush annoyance as he asked her about the subway. Simply put, he did not have time for the stages of grief if he was to get his leading lady an Oscar and win a prize for himself.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to New York City Hours to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.