[Talia] Last Song, First Interview Together

[Ethan John Fox]

Ethan ran off the field as quickly as he could, yelling over his shoulder. “ Great practice, guys!” before he started in a full sprint towards the locker rooms. ‘ Where are you going?!’ one of his teammates called after him, but Ethan was already halfway to the locker rooms and was trying to make a mental checklist of everything he needed to get done. He had a half hour to get to the Ellen show, be presentable, get miked, get on stage. Doable…right? He ran through the locker room, stripping his clothes as he hit the showers, staying in long enough to basically just get his hair wet and throw some body wash on. After he got out he pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, pretty sure that whatever he would’ve worn would’ve been a disaster anyways so whatever stylist that was there would have to make him look presentable. Not an easy task in his opinion. He ran his hand over his hair quickly as he darted out of the locker room and towards his car, anything he could do to try and make it dry before he got to the studio. He cursed to himself as he reached the traffic, tapping his thumb anxiously against the steering wheel while he checked the time on several occasions. Thankfully by the time he pulled into the parking lot he still had about fifteen minutes left, which was pretty record time if you were going by New York roads.

Ethan ran past security, yelling out his name to try and identify himself as he made his way inside the building. “ Anyone seen Natalia?” he asked, recognizing a few people from their camp as he made his way down the hall. “ Did you just take a shower?” one of the stylists asked and Ethan grinned at her quickly as he took his shirt off and headed inside the dressing room, closing the door gently with is foot. After he changed into a pair of black dress pants and a navy blue button up shirt he rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. They offered him a rack of belts to choose from, but honestly he didn’t give a shit and just reached out for the nearest one, putting it on as a girl much shorter than him jumped up and down to try and blowdry the rest of his hair dry. He left the dressing room, keeping his eyes peeled for Natalia. Though she was much more professional than he was, she wouldn’t be running down to the last minute. He ran his hand over his newly dyed hair, hearing the sigh of annoyance of the hair stylist as he messed up whatever concoction she had come up with. He leaned forward, letting them adjust the microphone into the back of his shirt as he carried on down the hallway, brushing a girl away from him as she attempted to put makeup on his face. ‘They’re about to call you on’ one of them said, but Ethan was more distracted by how tightly she was clinging to the clipboard in her hands. ” You need to get laid, mate.. we’re just here for work” he said, clapping his hand against her back before he made his way over to Natalia just in time to hear Ellen introduce the pair of them. Ethan wrapped his arm around Natalia’s shoulders naturally the way he had for years, not getting a chance to give her his own greeting as he made his way out onto the set.

[Natalia Anne Richmond]

Natalia took one last look at the clock and sighed, no one had seen Ethan. The thought had slipped her m ind that he wasn't going to show up or just be extremely late, although she knew Ethan wouldn't do that. She walked out into the main room of her dressing room and looked at herself in the mirror. Just then a song she liked came on and she started dancing a bit. She looked up to a sign that said "Smile, your on Ellen's webcam." along with a webcam there. She smiled and tried to play it off like she knew it was there all along. How embarrassing. She fixed her hair and then walked out into the hallway where people were waiting for her to get her microphone on and do last minute hair and make up checks, "Any sign of him?" "Ethan? Uh he actually just got in." she felt relief and smiled. They fixed her hair again and put a bit more concealer on, "Jeez, don't you think that's enough?" she smiled to the woman. She didn't want to be caked in make up. Only enough to keep the light from glaring on her face. Natalia made her way over to the entrance and waited.

Ethan came over just as Ellen was announcing them and Natalia smiled, just on time. Natalia waved to the crowd and smiled when she heard someone say they loved her. Natalia gave Ellen a hug, fixed her skirt and then sat down as Ethan and Ellen greeted. "How are ya?" Natalia asked as Ellen sat back down. "I'm good, how are you?" Natalia smiled, she had to explain what had just happened, "Good, uh, I had a bit of an embarrassing moment. I didn't realize you had like a web cam up, and I was dancing in the mirror,"she said as she motioned little dance moves, "and I looked up and it said Smile it's Ellen's webcam and I was like uuuuh oopsies." crowd laughed, "Well kind of embarrassing, does that go right away on..." "It'll be on a website, yeah." Ellen nodded. "Good, good. Cause I did one of these," Natalia made a surprised face with her mouth open, "and then I tried to pretend I knew all along and I was like dang it, I know this is on the air right now." "We weren't watching it out here, but we will watch it soon. " "Good, good." "We'll try to bring it up for the end of the interview." "Great, can't wait." Natalia said sarcastically. "I can't wait either...Now, onto the reason we're here. The Last Song, such a big book, how did you feel when you found out you'd be doing it?" "I was so excited. Like I am a huge Nicholas Sparks fan and when I found out they were making a movie for it, I like almost died. It was, well is my favorite novel by Sparks and to be able to be involved with such a great novel, was an absolute pleasure. The thing that surprised me though was when Nicholas came on set either the third of fourth day, I think it was the fourth day, anyways, he sat down with me and we talked and he told me that he had actually written Ronnie for me." "Oh, wow. You must have been stoked." " Yeah, I was, I didn't know how to respond, other than thanking him a million times." Natalia laughed a bit. "I bet. Now Ethan, what made you want to do this movie? Yo had no previous acting experience or anything. Did you just want to try it out?"

outfit

[Ethan John Fox]

Ethan dropped his arm from around Natalia’s shoulders once they got up to Ellen and the couch, offering a wave to the audience as they cheered for Natalia. He scratched underneath the edge of his jaw lazily with his thumb as he grinned down at Natalia. He waited until Natalia and Ellen hugged each other, clearly having done an interview together before already before he stepped in and grinned to Ellen, offering her a handshake and a pat on the back as a form of a loose hug. After he stepped back he placed his hand on the small of Natalia’s back, making sure she sat down alright before he sat down beside her and brought his arm around to the back of the couch behind Natalia so that it rested behind her. Ethan leaned back, sitting so that his left ankle rested on top of his right knee and he gripped his hand over his ankle while his other arm rested behind Natalia. Ethan adjusted the collar of his shirt quickly before he looked back over at Ellen and Natalia, already discussing the movie and what a great success it would be because of the book. He licked his lips absentmindedly as he listened to her talk and looked down at his shoes, shaking his foot out of habit. He smirked as Natalia mimicked her dance moves and looked back behind the couch, wondering if they were already going to show a clip on the screen behind Ellen. He sat quietly, listening as Natalia recapped the story about how Nicholas Sparks had written the part for Natalia, and why wouldn’t he. She was the youngest star that needed a transition at the time, so there wasn’t really anyone better for it. He lifted his eyebrows as he realized that Ellen was directing a question towards him now and he coughed, clearing his throat and taming his Australian accent into an American one the same way he had during filming. “ I mean there wasn’t really any motive as to why I decided to do the movie,” he said, tilting his head to the side slightly. “ I mean, I know they were looking for someone that Natalia had good chemistry with, and we’ve.. well we’ve been friends for years and my younger sister sent in some home video footage of us together, some pictures.. and uh.. the rest is pretty much history,” he said, giving a small nod.

It was strange to him to think of how much he hated this; interviews, publicity, spotlight, people prying into your personal business. He never in a million years thought he would be promoting one movie, let alone two. People were already asking him about Hunger Games. Hell he had already started working out for the first time in his life for the purpose of losing weight. Subconciously he dropped his hand over his waist and held onto his hip, which had shrunken in recently. It was called the Hunger Games. Not the Eating Games. Gale was supposed to be lean, but not as muscular as Ethan was , so it was important that he exuded what a poor, starving hunter would look like. ‘ And not many people get their first movies to be such blockbusters, with such well known co-stars” she said, to which Ethan nodded. “ Yeah quite honestly I had no idea who Nicholas Sparks was, I had a girlfriend..” he said, slowing down as he realized he was talking in an American accent and licked his lips and stopped himself. “ Sorry,” he said, letting his Australian accent resurface and decided to just stick with it for the rest of the interview. “ I had a girlfriend when the uh.. The Notebook came out and I think was forced like a lot of other men to sort endure it.. but I certainly didn’t have an appreciation for those types of stories before, and this one .. I hate to say it, sorry Sparks, but it’s got a lot more substance to it… I mean as far as character development for all of the characters goes. Will’s not this perfect prince charming riding in on a white horse to rescue the day for Ronnie, and she’s really rescuing him just as much as he’s rescuing her. And yeah for a first film what better chance than to get to do it with one of your best friends in the entire world. And one of the most talented. I don’t think it would have quite worked out the same if I had done it with a few of our other mates,” he said, turning a grin in Natalia’s direction as he thought about Stefan and Anthony.

‘ So basically filming was drama free and a whole bunch of fun and one big party.. uh huh.. Yeah. Yeah, we all buy that. So let’s get honest here. What was the worst part of filming? Or the most difficult?”. Ethan chuckled quietly as he licked the inside corner of his lips and shook his head. “No there were a lot of difficult things about working on set um…” he looked down at the ground again before looking over at Natalia and then bringing his attention back to Ellen. “ Honestly more credit should be given to my acting skills, I had these ridiculously romantic scenes and… had to really convey that I was interested in this girl, and quite honestly.. they couldn’t…” he said, leaning forward slightly as though he was mockingly telling Ellen a secret he didn’t want Natalia to hear, “ They couldn’t have picked a more unattractive person for the female lead, I mean I really had to rehearse for hours.. just to try and sell that I found her appealing. I don’t think anyone could,” he said sarcastically looking out to the audience. “ I mean she’s heinous, right?” he said lifting his eyebrow slightly but then he looked back at Ellen and shrugged lethargically. “ No there wasn’t anything bad about filming.” he said again, giving a small nod.