However, Marianne did not open the salad box and start eating right away. That would have been neither polite nor elegant. She pulled out a set of documents and placed them before Henry. "You heard my voicemail, right?"
"Yes. The crew only had half a day of shooting today. I went out to exercise for a while that afternoon, then heard your message when I got back."
Since he needed an excuse for not answering the call directly, Henry casually made one up.
At least exercising suited an actor's image better. Saying he had gone to the library would have been too strange. Just look at all those big stars with reading disabilities, and it was obvious how many poor students there were among Hollywood actors.
Marianne stood and pointed at the documents as she explained, "If you go now, you should still make it. This is a rare big-budget production. Demon Fighter (Under Siege) has a production budget of thirty-five million dollars.
"They're looking for some background actors to play soldiers. Besides auditioning for the casting director, they also need the producer's approval. They gathered people from several agencies, but they were worried there wouldn't be enough, so they asked the Actors Guild to recruit openly as well.
"I had already compiled some actor profiles and submitted them to the casting director. They suddenly asked for people to come to the audition site, if they could be contacted and make it in time.
"Although they scheduled a second audition, if you go now, you should still catch the first one before it ends. If they get enough people, there might not be a second audition at all. So the earlier you go, the better your chances."
Henry took the documents and looked them over. "A production worth tens of