Role of a Lifetime

        “This is a hard one,” Robert said as he peered closely at the polaroid. “Those tits are perfect, but her pout is so lifelike.”

              His boss Kendra, the casting director, sat back and watched him closely, amused but betraying no hints.

              “She’s real. I mean look at that pose. What doll could…” but Robert trailed off, suddenly doubting himself. He squinted at the photo more closely. That crop top, those curves, the perfectly dirty glisten of sweat on her upper lip. “Real,” he said definitively, tossing the photo down to punctuate the finality of his answer.

              Kendra sat back in triumph. She shook her head, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

              Robert looked at her expression in disbelief. “No,” he said, floored.

              “Yes,” said Kendra.

              Robert picked the photo up again. “You mean to tell me that is a sex doll?”

Kendra nodded her head in bemusement. “Why do you think they pay so much money for them?”

Robert studied the photo even more closely, not ready to give this one up. “Are you sure?”

“You don’t believe me?” Kendra rifled through the papers on her desk. She pulled out the application from “Tiffany’s” owner. “’Submitted by: Jerry Young, age 45, lives on 4213 S Willow Springs…” Kendra stopped when Robert sort of waved his hand at her, disgusted.

“I don’t want to know about these guys.”

“You and me both. But see, the trick is to look at their eyes. You can always tell the real women because their eyes look lifelike. The dolls are glassy. The color is just off.”

“Okay, okay,” Robert settled in his chair again, ready for the next round. “Hit me.”

Kendra pulled another polaroid. This one was of a gorgeous redhead with a smattering of freckles. Human being or not, the tits had to be fake.

Robert tried to look at her eyes. They were an unnatural, too-bright green. This one seemed easier.

“Fake,” Robert said confidently.

Kendra tossed him her application.

“Real. This is Charity Woods, and we auditioned her for Hot Girl at the Bar #2, about two months ago.”

“No!” Robert was laughing now.

Kendra swept the smattering of photos of real women into the trash can next to her desk. She gathered up the photos of the dolls that Robert had gotten incorrect, trying not to think about the fact that this was what her career had come to. Earlier today, Kendra had thought that this was her last day working as Casting Director on Just Like Love, the low-budget indie feature debut from critically acclaimed but still up-and-coming hot young director, Ruby Monday.

Though Kendra had been working in casting for years, this had been her first opportunity to work on a feature film. After years of reality TV, commercials, and some painfully artist-driven microbudget short films, her shot at doing something feature length was finally here. And if Kendra had anything to say about it, this was just the beginning. Kendra’s dream was to one day cast a big studio movie. A theatrical one. Something that came out in the summer that everyone anticipated buzzily, sharing their excitement with one another, making opening night plans, discussing who they thought should be in each role. But she, Kendra Bartels, CSA, would ultimately be the one who got to decide. Ideally a franchise. Something with multiple sequels, a spinoff, a Greater Cinematic Universe.

If her job working for Ruby went well, especially if the film went on to be the indie rom-com hit that everyone was anticipating it to be, Kendra’s star would rise with her and she would get more jobs working for Ruby, more recommendations for other feature work, and a glowing reference on her list of previously painfully superficial credits. And she was so close to being done.

At least, she had thought she was. Earlier this morning Ruby came into Kendra’s office—more of a small production trailer on the lot where shooting would start tomorrow. The film was a love story. Kendra’s proud accomplishment was the fact that she managed to cast up-and-comer Andrew Barth Feldman as the lead and sexpot powerhouse Sydney Sweeney as the love interest. There was a scene in the first half of the second act where, nervous about his upcoming date, Andrew’s character buys and practices romance and seduction on a sex doll. Though Ruby wanted it played for laughs, she didn’t want to dehumanize the main character by showing him fucking just any old blowup doll. She wanted him to make love to a high end, realistic Real Girl; something that could be shot in such a way that though the audience would laugh at first, the scene would ultimately end in pathos as the shtick melted away and we forgot for a moment that she was fake as we understood for the first time in the film really truly, deeply, the kind of love that he was capable of.

Kendra had listened patiently to all of this this morning, not sure what any of it had to do with her.

“But when I went online to buy the kind of doll that I wanted,” Ruby finished. “They cost like $12,000. It’s literally just for one scene, so we can’t justify it from the production budget. We need to cast a sex doll that someone owns in real life.”

Kendra frowned. It wasn’t her job to source objects for the movie. That was up to the props department, and she told Ruby as such. Plus, she had said, she had no desire to talk to whatever kind of pervs out there own sex dolls. She wasn’t an errand girl; she was a casting director. And her title and position meant that she was worthy of a certain amount of respect. The whole reason she had switched from being an aspiring actress years ago in the first place was so that she would no longer be in a position that required her to cater to the desires of creepy men.

But Ruby wouldn’t budge. “This is my first feature film as a serious director,” Ruby had told her. “And this is my vision. It will not be compromised by your unwillingness to have a few uncomfortable conversations.” Ruby went on to explain that this was absolutely necessary for the film she wanted to make.

“I don’t want to use the kind of cheap doll that the film can afford because that would dehumanize the main character,” Ruby went on. “An audience will only love Chadwick if he practices on a realistic doll that he can bring tenderness to. I want to shoot this scene in such a way that the audience forgets that the doll they’re watching Chadwick make love to is an object and not a person.”

Kendra thought this was the stupidest thing she had ever heard in her entire life, but she said nothing. Ruby was, after all, still the boss. But she tried to appeal to her sense of professionalism.

“If you really want the best version of your artistic vision,” Kendra tried. “Wouldn’t this be a better job for props? I’m great at working with people, but it isn’t my job to work with objects.”

Ruby shook her head insistently. “This task is all about working with people,” Ruby said. “Your experience working with Dance Moms makes you the perfect person to persuade the protective parents that are the owners of these sex dolls.”

Kendra visibly cringed at the thought of that.

Ruby started to leave the office, indicating that this conversation was over. “And if you can’t do the job, I’ll find a casting director who can.”

Kendra didn’t like being put in her place like that, and she could tell from Ruby’s look that she felt bad being the hard boss.

“Look,” Ruby said. “I don’t want to have to fire you. You’ve been a fantastic casting director this whole feature. But I have a job that needs to be done. Complete this for me, and you’ll have been a real hero to the production.”

Kendra tried to look more enthusiastic than she felt. “You got it boss.”

“Great.” Ruby smiled. “And make sure she’s as high-end as possible. I really want something that we would mistake for a real woman.”

So now Kendra found herself going through polaroids, trying to find a sex doll she could cast in a movie. She had felt ridiculous typing up a “casting breakdown.” She wouldn’t be allowed to post it on actual casting websites (not to mention, she doubted the kinds of men she was looking for would be reading those), so she circulated it on Craigslist, reddit threads, and some forums dedicated to discussions about sex dolls that she wished she had not read.

Kendra had been shocked at the amount of submissions she had received so quickly.

In her effort to try and find dolls that were as realistic as humanly possible, she had gathered the photos submitted to her and combined them in a stack with the most doll-like human women she could pull from her binders. Then she recruited her assistant Robert to quiz him and see if he could tell the difference between silicone dolls and women. Though they were laughing and having fun with this idea that she was having a hard time, it made Kendra a little queasy. Still, she pushed that feeling down inside her. There was a reason she had chosen years ago to be on this side of the chair.

Kendra made a stack of the dolls that Robert had mistaken for human beings. These would be the owners that she would reach out to.