Having sohow crossed the Pacific to get here, Matthew’s greatest assets were a handso face and an athletic body—the two essential ingredients for his future. Now Steven was aiming for his face. Wasn't that a blatant attempt to ruin him?
And anyone who tried to ruin his future was an enemy.
Steven stood over Matthew, facing his vanquished opponent without a hint of rcy. The prop sword in his hand sliced through the air, aid directly at Matthew's face.
To the crew watching from the sidelines, it seed as if Steven’s acting had reached an unprecedented peak, as if he were genuinely possessed by a murderous rage toward Matthew.
Matthew didn’t dare take the risk. At the exact mont Steven's prop sword was about to connect with his face, he shot his right leg up, aiming for the man's groin.
Both actors were clad in leather armor that included groin guards, so the kick looked like a rehearsed move, landing just above the protective leather flap.
Only Matthew and Steven knew the blow had truly landed.
Though furious, Matthew wasn't trying to permanently damage the bastard, so he pulled the kick just enough to make his point.
Even so, a wave of sickening pain washed over Steven.
"Aaargh!" he shrieked, his face contorting and his eyes bulging in agony.
While the director's and producer's duties had been handed over to Tim, the film's director, Chuck, was simply sitting off to the side, observing. He couldn't help but look surprised.
He muttered, "That kid Steven can really act. Absolutely first-rate performance."
Then he shook his head. "Too bad his talent showed up so late. This is his last scene. If he'd brought this kind of performance earlier, I think he would have given Matthew a run for his money."
On the set, Matthew gave Steven no ti to recover. He sprang from the ground, his hands clamping onto Steven's wrists like iron vices. He squeezed so hard that Steven cried out again, the prop sword clattering to the floor.
The pain in Steven's lower body had just begun to subside when he felt his arms caught in an unbreakable grip.
Sweat poured down his forehead as his face, already twisted in pain, contorted even further. He felt as if the hands grasping his wrists were forged from so unyielding alloy, and he could almost feel his bones grinding together, sending a chilling agony up his arms.
Even in that mont, Matthew didn't forget he was performing. He wrenched Steven’s arms, spun him around, and sent him flying.
He stood at the edge of the platform and used all his strength to throw Steven off.
As he fell, a single, dood thought cut through the pain: sotis, the Hollywood hype was actually true.
The platform was only a little over three feet from the ground, and a thick stunt mat lay below. Steven wasn't injured, but he was unable to get up for so ti.
Above, Matthew stood as the victor, gazing down from the edge of the stage. Kelly, having dispatched a soldier on the other side of the set, ca to stand beside him.
The sight of the handso hero and beautiful heroine, finally reunited, was magnificent.
"Get it!" Tim urgently commanded the caraman in front of him. "Get a close-up of them!"
After such a tense and thrillingly realistic battle, ending with a shot like this was perfect.
Steven lay on the mat, craning his neck to look up at Matthew and Kelly with a bitter expression.
"Excellent!" Tim was practically shouting. "Superb! This is going to be a classic action scene! I guarantee it!"
He had completely forgotten that none of this was in the script.
But that didn't matter. The script could be tweaked. What mattered were the incredible action sequences they had captured today.
"You did great," Kelly said, her eyes narrowing slightly at Matthew.
Matthew smiled and glanced down at the floor below. "It was all thanks to Steven."
...
With the help of a crew mber, Steven managed to get to his feet just below where Matthew stood. He had enough sense to quickly retreat from the set.
The pain between his legs ca and went in waves, but his wrists throbbed relentlessly. He undid the tight sleeves of his costu and saw that his wrists were red and already starting to swell, as if they'd been struck with a hamr.
His face grim, he shook his wrists to ease the ache, knowing that his plan had failed completely.
...
Matthew sat down to drink the tea Mira had brought him, preparing for the next scene. His part with Steven was done, but he still had quite a few scenes left to film.
"Matthew," Duff said, approaching him with a fawning expression. "That was an incredible action scene."
Matthew nodded. "I may not have a lot of advantages as an actor, but I always try to do my job well and maintain my reputation for being dedicated."
He said it without a hint of embarrassnt.
In the world of showbiz, lies were told so often they had beco the norm.
Duff raised an eyebrow. It seed his investnt in Matthew's future was already paying off handsoly.
Matthew added, "Don't forget our agreent."
Duff pointed to his head. "Never."
...
The next scene began soon after. Matthew ignored Duff and moved to another part of the set to film a scene with Kelly.
Compared to the intense fight scene, this seemingly simple dialogue exchange took three takes. Matthew realized that his weaknesses as an actor were actually quite noticeable.
Thanks to this period of filming as the undisputed lead, he was starting to get a better sense of himself as an actor—his strengths were more pronounced, but so were his weaknesses.
To put it bluntly, his acting was his biggest flaw.
Fortunately, neither he nor Helen had any intention of steering his career toward independent, "arthouse" films, so this weakness wouldn't be endlessly scrutinized.
In comrcial entertainnt, acting ability wasn't the most important factor.
At the end of the day, Matthew drove Duff to the Angel Acting Agency to et with Helen, where he gave her a brief rundown of the day's events. In response, Helen stated flatly that she would terminate Steven's contract after the film wrapped and would inform other talent agencies in the industry of the reasons for his dismissal.
That would make it significantly harder for Steven to ever make a na for himself in Hollywood.
After sending Duff on his way, Helen looked at Matthew and asked, "Are you happy now?"
Matthew gave a slight shrug. "What would you have done if I'd been injured?"
"I'd be doing exactly what I'm doing now," Helen replied, taking off her black-frad glasses. "You do trust , don't you?"
"I can't figure it out," Matthew said, deflecting the question and gesturing to her glasses. "Why do you wear such old-fashioned fras?"
Helen remained perfectly composed and offered a plausible reason. "I have an astigmatism."
Matthew didn't believe a word of it. He stood up and said, "You look better without them. You should at least wear contacts."
He headed for the office door, tossing over his shoulder, "I trust you."
As he stepped out, he muttered sarcastically under his breath, "And only a fool would believe you."
But with that, the matter with Steven was closed. Matthew had no intention of dwelling on it. Steven was so far behind him now that any further retaliation would only slow his own progress.
Filming continued until early November. Most of his remaining scenes were dialogue-heavy, requiring more emotional range, so the shoot didn't go as smoothly as before, often requiring multiple takes for a single scene.
As production gradually wound down, actors began to leave the set one by one. Following Hollywood tradition, any actor with a reasonably significant role received a gift from the production team upon completing their work.
They weren't exactly gifts, but rather props their characters had used. Kelly, for instance, received the necklace her character Cassandra wore.
By mid-November, Matthew had also finished all his scenes. As he said his goodbyes to the cast and crew, he was presented with the sword he had used throughout the filming.
With that, his work on "The Scorpion King" was officially over, and he took a short vacation.
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