| Cheap Shot |
[05 Oct 2007|12:47am] |
“You wanted to see me, Miss Blackman?”
Sandra nodded with a polite smile. “Yeah,” she said, closing the script she’d been reading and pulling her blonde hair into a ponytail. “Wanted to talk to you about my character.”
Theodore Leverett was a young writer, one of those enthusiastic sorts clamoring for his big break in the biz. After a studio picked up his screenplay about a young boy who grew up with the desire to be the world’s fastest track star – only to wind up in a wheelchair due to a degenerative disease, he got a chance to pen a script for Birthright: the Series.
The episode in question, season 3’s “Doing Favors,” earned Ted a staff job and he responded by creating a large plot for Sandra’s character, one he said would elicit personal growth and change within Samantha Blanchard.
But whenever Sandra read a script revolving around her plot, she saw her personal demons staring her in the face. At first, she didn’t think much of it; the only reason she saw the similarity was because she’d done a little time before getting back into acting and here was a story in which her character would wind up in jail.
But the deeper Ted took this, the less and less coincidental this became. And the less Sandra liked it.
Ted’s brow furrowed. “Everything okay?”
Sandra sighed, trying to be as civil and reserved about this as possible. “No,” she said. “I’m thinking you’re writing a little too much me into Samantha.”
Opening the script in her lap, Sandra turned to a page before pointing to a selection of highlighted text, showing it to the young writer. “Since when did marijuana possession become a part of this? Samantha’s in jail because Grace framed her for the murder of that Pennsylvania guy who raised her son. Not only does the pot make no sense in terms of the story, it hits a little close to home.”
Four years ago, when Sandra was still doing soap operas, she was pulled over one night by Los Angeles police. She’d been swerving on the road and her speed was erratic; at first, the officer thought she’d been drinking. But once Sandra rolled the window down and the officer smelled the smoke and saw the bloodshot look in her eyes, he knew she was high on the weed.
Once she was at the station, being booked for driving under the influence, officers radioed in a car crash in Santa Monica with one fatality. What weed Sandra didn’t smoke before leaving the bar that night had been given to a young man, probably about 19, who then sold it to a woman named Suzanne.
Suzanne was killed in the crash, police saying they thought she’d been driving while high.
So though she didn’t kill Suzanne – and a judge later determined the man who sold her the weed was liable instead of Sandra – the actress felt guilty. She served three months in jail for her DUI and marijuana possession, and even now that she’d resurrected her career with her portrayal of detective-vampire slayer Samantha Blanchard on Birthright: the Series, Sandra still felt guilty every day.
And she didn’t appreciate seeing reminders in her scripts.
Ted again furrowed his brow, pushing his thick glasses higher on his nose. “That’s impossible,” he said in a nervous, defensive tone. “I’m … just writing.”
Sandra sighed. “Are you? Cause it looks like you logged on to TMZ.com, jotted down everything I ever did and worked it all into this story. I’m fine with Samantha having a kid, I’m fine with Samantha being framed for Gerald’s murder, I’m fine with Grace being the one framing her.
“But the pot? Story-wise, it’s unnecessary and it’s a cheap shot at me. I know you know what happened to me. Everyone knows. For three months it was like I was Paris Hilton – minus the sex tape and the whole being famous for no reason thing. Everyone knew who I was and what I’d done. Some said I’d never work again.”
Ted’s eyes were wide, as if Sandra was holding him at gun-point. She may have indirectly caused someone’s death that night four years earlier, but Sandra would never actually kill someone – though the look on the writer’s face said different. “I … see, it … I just thought, you know, ratings and … show the younger viewers that drugs are … you know, bad …”
Sandra nodded once, sucking in her bottom lip. She scratched her chin, shaking her head. “First of all,” she said, “the ratings since I joined this show have doubled. Ratings aren’t a problem – so I’m told. And telling kids drugs are bad? Haven’t you seen the PSAs I’ve been doing the past three years? They’re all over NBC – debuted in the third season of Heroes.
“Trust me, Mr. Leverett, I’m aware of what drugs are, and I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen that for the past four years. Keep the plot going, but I want the marijuana gone.
“Jesus fucking Christ, you’re better than that.”
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