‘Take a pew.’
Becky takes her seat on the sofa. Matthew takes the low Modernist leather armchair he favours in this set-up. He sits back, swings one leg over the other, grasping the wireless landline phone in one hand and his mobile in the other. Is this what a man accused of rape looks like?
She silently presses her fingers against each other like she is rubbing butter through flour, waiting for his cue.
‘There’s a story,’ he says. ‘An actress has made some false accusations about me.’
She realizes she had been expecting him to confess to some kind of crime. When he doesn’t, she is more relieved than she thought possible. Yes, she thinks. Of course it isn’t true.
‘Have you seen the clip?’
‘I had a look for company news once Siobhan called me. There’s lots of good stuff about Medea out there as well.’ She means for it to sound balanced, like the media situation might somehow tot up to being a neither-good neither-bad kind of day. She realizes immediately how ridiculous that sounds.
‘So, yes, it’s not quite Amber making the allegation but her mate, Hennessy. I’m not sure it makes a difference, really. Once it’s out there it’s out there. I have to decide whether to go after him for slander, or make a statement and let it fizzle out. It’s hard to know exactly what’s best. Do you know him, Hennessy?’
‘Not personally.’
‘He’s not a great actor. If I sue him, it’ll be catnip for him. He’ll be in the papers every day for weeks. Darren at IcePR agrees. We’re thinking it might be better just to weather it …’
‘Why would he even say that?’
‘What? That I raped her?’
Becky nods.
‘Perhaps she told him that.’
‘Why would she say that though?’
‘Bitter, perhaps? I turned her down for a big part she thought was hers. Maybe it’s a kind of revenge.’
‘So she planned for Ollie to blurt it out like that?’
‘Come on. You know how often photographers just “happen” to be there when an actor does or says something they’d like to have recorded. We’ve worked on those things ourselves.’
She can feel her heartbeat thrumming in her ears. Did he or didn’t he or did he or didn’t he. She has to hold it together. ‘I … I … What would you like from me, Matthew?’
‘Your advice and then your help with making this go away. You and I have work riding on this. IcePR are great but I need a sounding board. I’m not going to blame you if this doesn’t go my way, if that’s what you’re asking.’
‘No! God, no. Not at all. Of course, I’ll do anything I can.’
‘Great.’
He looks tired and lost and not at all like a criminal. She feels sorry for this man who has paid her wages, who bothers to send Maisie birthday cards and who asked after her that time she had pneumonia, wished her well during exams.
She knows he won’t have eaten – he never eats when he’s stressed – so she takes the bottle of water and the pretzels she’s been given on the plane out of her bag. Lays them on the table.
He ignores them both and lights a cigarette. ‘You’ll need to take care of yourself.’ He pauses. ‘I’ve spent the morning talking to financiers, casting directors, the whole shooting match for the rest of our slate. They’re all good, all calm. No one’s worried. But Medea is vulnerable. It’s got those strong themes and … I don’t want a stupid bit of gossip surrounding me to affect your film’s shot at getting made.’ Becky understands immediately that there is a deal being made here. ‘So what do you think I should do?’
‘About Medea?’
‘About the whole thing. With Medea I can make sure my name’s off the press for it. You can talk to Emilia and Sharon and reassure them.’
‘The film wouldn’t exist without your support. It doesn’t seem fair.’
‘Fair?’ His tone is brusque, scathing almost. ‘Learn to recognize a favour when it’s being offered to you. And learn to take it when you need it. You need to protect yourself and your work. Don’t ever assume that justice will somehow prevail and make everything OK. Good men lose everything, all the time. Women, too.’
‘Yes.’ She nods. ‘What should I say if Sharon or Emilia ask me about it?’
‘Don’t make it a questionable statement. You get in early and say: This is what has happened and this is what we’re doing about it. Make them feel special that you even bothered to consider them.’
She notices that this is exactly what is happening now. He has not denied the allegations but then why would he need to? Never apologize. Never explain. Let everyone else do the talking, let everyone else tie themselves in knots.
‘All actors care about is how they are perceived,’ Matthew continues. ‘How their own careers are standing up. That’s all. You have to have the conversations. You pitch it with calm and confidence? It’ll be a conversation, forgotten in five minutes, absorbed into a busy schedule. Can you do that?’
‘Wouldn’t it be better coming from you?’
‘God no.’ He almost laughs as he says it. ‘You’re good, you’re smart, you can do it.’
‘It must be hard on you. All this.’
‘You’ll get it too, one day, Becky. There’s a lot of have and have-nots in this business. Not everyone can be talented. Human beings who are failing love nothing more than to tear someone off the top spot, back down to their level. You’re not up there unless someone’s trying to drag you down.’
‘So I’m telling them that this person, this actress, is someone you turned down for a role, who thought she’d been offered it, and who probably bitched about you to a friend of hers, and the friend then misspoke about it because he’s a drama queen who loves attention.’
‘Throw in a joke about vengeful women. Medea. There must be something in the water.’ He laughs, but he is not laughing. ‘But
