Chapter Text
Knock knock
“Villanelle! You’re on in five!”
She jumps awake, remembering where she is, her trailer, filmset, North London. Got it
“Oh jeez, yeah! Ok!”
She sighs heavy, checking the time, after fallen asleep on the couch in her trailer for a 20 minute nap. An hour and a half later has made her feel worse. She looks like shit but half of it is down to makeup, her pink top is ripped and bloody ready for the next scene. She tears the blanket off her, knocking pages of her script all over the floor
“Shit!”
As she gets on all fours to pick them up she sees todays newspaper tucked under the coffee table. She takes it out and looks at the headline
‘Villanelle Love Life Exposed’ With a huge picture of her on page six from the BAFTA award ceremony last week. Which she won two awards
“Oh for fuck sake!!”
She throws it down in anger as Carolyn comes into the trailer. It’s all lies! This is probably the worse part of the job
“Who brought this shitty rag in here?” She yells at her holding up the paper. “I said I don’t want to see any newspapers!”
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again, I’ll tell everyone again. No newspapers. I don’t know who brought that in here”
“I don’t want to see any paps out there either, they don’t keep their distance. As my agent Carolyn, what do you always say to them on my behalf anyway?”
“No comment!”
“Thank you. Just checking”
She gets up off the floor and sighs, Carolyn sits on her couch
“I need an extra pair of hands around here Carolyn….Kenny’s a great assistant but he’s swamped too. I have him running around everywhere! He should’ve woken me an hour ago. Where is he?!”
“Relax, ok. I have some interviews tomorrow for the job, I remember you told me last week you wanted more help and I’m getting it”
“Thank you, I trust you’ve pencilled me in to come along?”
She doesn’t know where she’s going day to day sometimes, Carolyn keeps track. She’s fantastic at her job. As far as agents go, she’s the best in the business
“Of course”
She hugs her
“See, I do listen to you, I’m just busy too. You are wanted here, there, everywhere. I can’t keep track half the time of your busy schedule”
“I’m sorry, I’m just tired…”
She flops down beside her, she wanted this life she must stop moaning. This time last year only a few people knew her name, she basically became an overnight success playing sexy assassin Oksana and now is a huge household name
“I know, you’re working 18 hour days. Don’t take on so much, I know you like the work but c’mon”
“I have a week off soon anyway”
She looks down at Carolyn’s work diary for her. It’s so fat the elastic is at full capacity
“I know you love the work but you’re 29, you need a life too other than ‘Villanelle the global superstar’”
“Yeah ok….maybe I could pull out of that bit part in America new year? I’d like to focus on finishing this film and then the second series of—“
“Villanelle, we’re late on set” a voice comes through the door
“C’mon you’ll need a touch of make up too” Carolyn pats her knee affectionately
“Fine”
They exit the trailer onto the film set. People surround her touching up her make up, playing with her hair and ushering her the right way. She loves it, She loves her job and her lifestyle, if she thinks about it, she’s just extremely tired and lonely. All these people around her, they don’t really know her. She could be standing in a room full of people and still be lonely. Everyone just seems too eager to please, like they’re scared of her. She just wants someone to play with.
Her shadow Konstantin closely following behind or hovering around her to make sure no one gets too close. He holds an umbrella over her head as they walk, the sun beating down hard on this hot summers day she can’t possibly burn her skin, she has a photoshoot tomorrow and a film starting next month. She can’t get a tan now
“Here’s your coffee Villanelle” Kenny says putting it near her chair
“Thank you Kenny” she replies, not opening her eyes as someone is dabbing fake blood around her cheek
“And the water? Bottled?”
“Yep. I’m getting it now I’m just—“ his attention is taken elsewhere “excuse me this is a closed set, can someone get him out of here please?”
“Here hold this” Konstantin says as he hands the umbrella to a runner, he goes off over the journalist
“Villanelle! Tell us who were you pictured with last night? Is he your boyfriend?” The man shouts, holding out a small microphone. He’s soon escorted off set rather quickly
“Jesus Christ” she mutters to herself
The man she was pictured with was her younger brother Pyotr, he’s going off travelling for a few months. She gave him a hug outside the restaurant last night and of course the paparazzi snapped them together, sold the picture and the rest is history for them but for Villanelle it’s just begun as people now assume her brother is romantically linked to her.
That newspaper was having a laugh! ‘Love life’ what love life?! She’s always at work. Nothing interferes with that, she’s in constant demand and that’s how she wants to keep it. It’s going to be near damn impossible to find someone that is willing to put up the constantly hounded, high flying, barely available Villanelle
“We all ready?” The director asks
“Yeah, yeah I’m here”
“Ok Villanelle, on your marker”
A clapperboard goes infront of the camera as she’s handed her prop knife
“Scene five take one. And. Action!”
———————————
“I hope you get this job Eve, we can’t keep surviving on my wages”
“Yeah I know!” Eve snaps, putting her shoes on “I have noticed Niko!”
“I mean a teachers salary is good but not this good to keep us here, in this house, in central london”
“So you keep saying”
Eve is a designer at heart, she draws, she paints and scribbles on any scrap piece of paper she can find and she is extremely good at what she does, especially designing clothes. She just can’t crack her way into the industry. She has a part time job working at the cafe on the corner but it really doesn’t pay well. Her friend Bill told her of this opportunity to be a personal assistant on a film set. Who for? She doesn’t know, that was classified,
The job itself was kept under wraps but Bill has contacts and put in a good word for her. Score! An interview!
She goes over to Niko in the kitchen
“If I can get just my foot in the door, be on these film sets, meet the people I need too I promise we’ll be ok”
“I know honey bunch, I’m sorry”
He wraps his arms around her waist, somehow Eve just isn’t feeling it. She’s just so….bored. Niko and his plain and simple life. School teacher with the wife, the house the two point four children plan. She’s looking forward to seeing some action! Alright it’s all fake but with real actors on film sets….if she gets the job.
“Who knows? You get this job, we move into a bigger place and maybe we could hear the pitter patter of tiny feet?”
“You want to get a dog?! Isn’t the chicken enough?” Eve sounds exasperated
As if on queue the chicken pecks the floor going past the door, Niko lets out a Small laugh
“No Eve, a baby? Like we discussed?”
“Oh yeah….sure, well let’s not jump ahead yeah? I’m already nervous about the interview”
She takes her hands from him and turns her head as he goes in for a kiss, he dismisses it as nerves
“Yes, yes of course you are, I’ll cook us your favourite tea tonight to celebrate? Shepherds pie and red wine?”
She’s been secretly taking the pill for the last year, not like they’re properly trying anyway but the thought of a baby with Niko just doesn’t seem to please her. It doesn’t seem right somehow. If they do end up moving to a bigger place Eve was hoping for a bigger room for her art supplies, fabrics, sewing machines and things. Not a crib.
“Celebrate? Yeah….yeah I’ll see you later”
She might not even get the job yet, he pressurises her too much. She had to leave before she says anything else. She grabs her keys and she’s out the door before Niko could even shout
“Good Lu—“
She’s just happy to be leaving the house right now, a baby?! She’s trying to start her career she so desperately wants, not night feeds and nappy changes. She looks down at her watch
“Shit! I’m going to be late”
She practically runs to the tube just hoping to God that she’s really running into a different direction of life
——————————————
“Carolyn! You can’t hire him, Jesus!”
“Yes ok. Hugo is a definite no”
She scribbles across her piece of paper
“He may make a good runner though? On set?” Konstantin pipes up from the corner. Villanelle turns to him
“No! He kept looking at my tits!”
Konstantin let’s out a bellowing laugh
They’re in a private conference room of the Ritz in London, Hugo was the eighth interviewee, Villanelle’s had a guts full now. She hasn’t liked anyone that came through the door. They were all either a dribbling mess, fame hungry or stalker obsessed. She’s bored, she’s irritable and has lines to learn, she hasn’t got time for this. She came from a photoshoot, dressed in her pinstripe suit, white top underneath and Doc Martens she looks breathtaking. Her hair pulled back into a braid. She just wants to go back to her hotel room and have a Gin and tonic in the bath
“Who’s next? Jesus I have shit to do!”
“Calm down ok? It’s the last one”
She checks down her list
“A…Eve Polastri”
“Eve Polastri…” Villanelle let’s her thoughts drift “nice name, she’s late though”
-Knock knock-
“That’ll be her, be nice Villanelle, your name alone is intimidating. Do you know who you are?”
Carolyn gets up to get the door
“I am nice!”
The argument can’t continue, she rests her right ankle onto her left knee and drapes an arm across the back of her chair as she turns to this Goddess of a women that’s just walked through the door. Her hair. Her hair!….what the hell is she wearing?
“Eve Polastri? Hi I’m Carolyn Martens, this is Konstantin Vasiliev”
She shakes her hand and gestures to Konstantin
“Please come in”
“Hi, sorry I’m a little late, the tube was a nightmare”
“And this is—“
“Oh holy shit!” Eve’s star struck, she stops in her tracks
“You’re Villanelle Astankova”
Villanelle doesn’t move her head, her eyes dart up as a mischievous grin spreads across her face as she lightly giggles. Oh she can have some fun with this one
“Hi Eve…it’s so nice to meet you”