The Making of…

Chapter 29

Leaving the Bubble

With the premiere fast approaching, the cast were given the week before off, to prepare ourselves, or whatever we were supposed to do. To Liv, this meant one thing. Shopping. The first day that we both had off, she grabbed me and dragged me to Wellington. Well actually, she made me drive her, as she didn’t have a car. It kind of made me feel like I was being hijacked…

“So erm… What exactly are we shopping for?” I asked as we stopped at lights.

“Dresses, duh!” She grinned, messing with her electric window, “And you are getting a haircut!”

“What?” I cried, the hand that I didn’t have on the steering wheel creeping towards my unruly mop of hair self-consciously.

“Ki, look at it.” Liv stared at me seriously as I cast a quick glance in the rear-view mirror.

“Lou says it’s good that it’s longer… It means I don’t have to wear as many extensions…” I mumbled.

“Your fringe has migrated to the back of your head.”

“Lou says that’s good because she doesn’t have to keep pinning it out of the way…” I huffed. I knew I’d been neglecting my hair recently, I’d been so caught up with filming I’d just… Forgotten about it. Not that I was about to admit to it.

“Lou says, Lou says, blah, blah, blah!” Liv mimicked me in a high-pitched tone as I scowled at the road. “C’mon Ki! This is your first movie premiere! And trust me; you need your hair cut.”

“Pfft… Fine.” I sighed, pulling into one of the rare parking spaces near the centre of Wellington. “But I doubt we’ll be able to get a session anywhere without an appointment.”

“Oh trust me, we will.” She smiled, climbing out of the car, “We just need to bat our eyelashes a little.”

“Whatever you say…” I shrugged, folding the roof up and locking the doors.

“Hair first, then dresses.” She smirked, dragging me down the street.

Not long after that, I was pushed down into a leather chair in a rather chic and expensive looking hair salon. Liv stood over me, flanked by a rather effeminate gentleman with a hairstyle nicer than most women’s. I nervously glanced at her.

“Nothing too drastic, ok?” I begged, “Lou is so going to kill me for this…”

“Oh shush.” Liv muttered as she began to instruct the stylist. I decided to shut my eyes and wait until the ordeal was over.

“You can open your eyes now.”

“Oh my god…” I breathed, unable to take my eyes off my reflection.

“You like it right?” Liv fretted behind me.

“Yeah… I love it.” I grinned, playing with my shoulder-length fluffy layers and side fringe.

“You look awesome!” She squealed as I was released from the chair.

“Thanks Liv.” I smiled, hugging her enthusiastically. “Screw what Lou thinks, my hair, my rules.”

“There’s that inner rebel!” Liv teased as we paid. Whilst I’d been getting my hair done, she’d been having a trim as well. And then she started pulling me towards a massive, scary-looking department store.

“Liv! Kira!” A man jumped out at us from nowhere brandishing a camera and a voice recorder. “The premiere for The Fellowship of the Ring is less than a week away, are you feeling the pressure?”

“Jeez, you people are like ninjas!” I exhaled, stepping back a little from the photographer in shock, before regaining my composure. “Erm, I’m not that worried, I know the film’s amazing. We’ve got some fantastic people working on it.” I smiled.

“Yeah, I have a feeling it’s going to be a massive hit.” Liv replied in a cheery tone.

“And Kira, what about rumours we’ve been hearing that you and your co-star Viggo Mortensen are dating?” The reporter asked quickly before we could walk away.

“Rumours?” I frowned, “I haven’t heard any rumours...” I smiled quickly and replied properly, “No, I can assure you that Viggo and I are just friends. Wherever you heard that rumour from is an unreliable source.” I smiled cheerfully as he snapped a picture of Liv and I and we walked on.

“We should have ignored him.” Liv whispered to me once we were a reasonable distance away.

“Why? I don’t want rumours being spread about me – or Viggo for that matter – I’d rather give people the facts than leave them to speculate.”

“I suppose…” Liv shrugged, leading me into the massive building.

Whilst Liv was wandering around talking about ‘spring trends’ or something equally important, I’d located a magazine booth. This rumours thing was niggling at the back of my mind as I bought a few glossy celebrity magazines and flicked through the pages before finding what I was looking for. Titles like ‘Co-Star Romance Blossoming?’ jumped out at me and I frowned at the hazy pictures of Viggo and myself. There was one of us sitting outside a café laughing, a few of us hanging around the set and a screenshot of us hugging that had been taken from the movie trailer that had been released a few weeks ago. How had I not noticed these rumours flying around? Was I really that out of touch with reality? The realisation hit me that for the past few months, I’d been living in my own little Lord of the Rings bubble, and that bubble had just been popped.

“Did you know anything about this Liv?” I asked, trailing after her as she looked at dresses in windows.

“Huh? No I didn’t hear anything until that reporter asked you. The rumours probably just appeared this week to give people something to talk about before the premiere. Don’t worry; it’ll have blown over in a few days.”

“I guess.” I sighed as we walked into a shop.

For some time we looked for dresses until I found one that I liked. I left my measurements at the shop and they said it would be ready to be picked up in a few days. I found Liv looking rather pleased with herself, but when I asked what she’d bought she just said ‘You’ll see’. We spent the rest of the day hanging around several shops, before heading back to the studio.

Over the next week we would be flying all over the world. The first official premiere was in London, then we would fly to Los Angeles, and then the final one would be in Wellington. We were to stay in London for a day or two before the premiere so we could get over our jetlag, so we didn’t have long before we set off. I didn’t pack much, a few changes of clothes and of course my dress.

On our last day before we left, I went up to the stables to say bye to Indy. Viggo and Karl came along too – because they were both too lazy to drive themselves… Typical men! We spent some time riding around the arena before we decided to hack out over the nearby fields. Karl assured us that he’d done it before and we were allowed to, most of the fields made up the cross-country course owned by the yard, and I couldn’t wait to try it out!

“So where’s Orlando?” Karl asked as we trotted over a grassy hill. “Isn’t he supposed to have a horse in the movie too?”

“I don’t think Orli likes horsies.” I smirked.

“I heard he was getting lessons before he came and tried out a horse.” Viggo grinned, “Apparently he’s never ridden before.” I heard Karl laugh as I urged Indy forward into a canter and heard the guys speed up as well. I spotted a log jump up ahead and decided to try it as I reined in Indy’s canter, collecting his long strides and preparing him for the jump as I estimated the distance. It occurred to me that I’d never thought to ask if Indy was a jumper or not… Oh well, it was too late now. I smirked as his front legs left the ground and I folded down into a jumping position, giving him a little more rein as he soared through the air and landed neatly on the other side. I grinned and patted his neck.

“Good boy.” I smiled as we slowed to a trot and went back to join Team Cowboy (apparently Karl was just as fond of the hats as Viggo was). They stared at me and I realised that they mustn’t have expected me to jump. “What?” I asked, tilting my head a little.

“Nothing.” Vig muttered as I raised an eyebrow and eyed up the other jumps in the field, mapping out a course in my mind.

“Anyone else fancy a jump?” I asked before turning away.

“Erm, no,” Viggo replied, “You don’t do that much jumping in Western riding.”

“Psh, you’re no fun.” I smirked, “What if you’re down on the ranch and y’ gotta jump over a fallen tree to save your cattle?” I said in a rather fake-sounding American drawl.

“Well then you jump it.” He shrugged.

“Then you do jump.”

“Not for sporting purposes.” He smirked.

“Cowboys…” I muttered, “Suit yourselves.” Shrugging, I turned Indy and cantered towards a low jump set into the hedge between our field and the next.

“Be careful!” Vig called after me as I grinned and Indy took off, landing in the next field and carrying me out of sight of the others. I jumped a few logs in the other field before spotting a fence that would take us back into our original field.

“C’mon Indy.” I smiled, urging him to speed up so we would clear the fence. He soared over it, but landed a little unsteadily on the other side, throwing off our combined balance. I fell forward clumsily in the saddle before he righted himself and I gave him a pat. “That probably didn’t look very graceful.” I sighed, pointing him at the next jump as Viggo and Karl cantered past.

“Nice landing!” Karl commented with a smirk.

“Yeah? Well I’d like to see you do better!” I challenged, causing him to shut up pretty quickly. I shook my head and smiled. “Wimps.” I muttered under my breath.

Soon after that, the horses got tired and we made our way back to the yard. I took Indy’s tack off and gave him a good brush in his stable.

“Good work today boy.” I murmured, wrapping my arms around his neck and hugging him, “We really showed them, huh?” He nickered softly as if he was replying and I smiled.

“Ready to go, Ki?” I heard Viggo ask quietly. I turned to see him leaning casually on the stable door behind me and I nodded.

“Yeah, just a moment.” I replied, turning back to Indy. “Now don’t get into any trouble whilst I’m away. I’ll be back soon.” I promised him, kissing the little white star on his forehead before letting myself out of the stable and heading back to the car with Viggo and Karl.

The next morning, everyone who was attending the premiere left the studios and we boarded our first plane. I was seated beside Orlando for this flight, behind Dom and Billy, so there wasn’t much chance of me getting any sleep. I sat and read – or rather, tried to read. It was difficult to concentrate when I was already sleep deprived, and I had my noisy friends for company as they debated how to open a bag of peanuts without them exploding everywhere. Once we landed, I yawned my way through the airport in L.A. as we prepared to board our next flight. I was thankful that Peter had arranged it so we didn’t have to wait long between our flights, which was something I always seemed to be doing. I grabbed a seat beside Viggo for this flight. He looked annoyingly well rested, but had promised not to keep me awake (probably out of fear that I would turn into the cranky beast that I become in the mornings)! He even let me rest my pillow on his shoulder as I tried to block out the bright lights and noise surrounding me.

“Night Vig…” I mumbled, yawning.

“It’s 10 am.” He pointed out with a slight smirk as I nestled into my pillow and leant against him.

“Shut up…” I yawned again as I closed my eyes and – by some miracle – dozed off.

‘Ladies and Gentlemen could you please fasten your seatbelts as we will be shortly arriving in London.’

The intercom pinged cheerfully before repeating the message as Viggo gently shook me awake.

“Hey Sleeping Beauty.” He murmured softly as I blinked at him. “We’re almost there.” He smiled as I rubbed my eyes.

“Oh…” I sighed, puzzled by the fact that I’d just gotten a decent sleep on an airplane. That never happens. I looked around a little and then back at Viggo, before my head flopped back down onto the pillow.

He laughed at my sleepy daze and playfully ruffled my hair as the plane touched down on British soil.