They run through the scene again and again. Each time Ruby’s performance gets better, her look more doe-eyed and vulnerable as, after the burglars leave, she lowers the gun and resolve drains from her face.
Finally Lancaster shouts, “Last looks.” The actors leave the set to get their hair and makeup touched up. Angela and the other standins take over for the final blocking. It will be a tricky scene to light because it has to be dark in the drawing room and yet light enough to see Irene’s gown, her gun, and most of all her emotional transformation. The manservant behind her has to be visible, too, not in her shadow, as well as the disarray of the room and the burglars’ knives.
As Angela walks onto the set, a production assistant hands her the prop pistol that looks like an antique flintlock but feels like a toy. She and the actor standing in for the manservant take their places behind the drawing room’s closed door.
“Action.” She hears Lancaster start the run-through. The two burglar standins scuffle. Angela throws open the door and steps into the drawing room. Lancaster motions her further in. Mentally she marks the spot.
The burglars hold out their knives. Technicians adjust the lights. Angela holds the smooth wooden grip of the pistol in two hands and aims above their heads. More lighting tweaks.
“Fire,” Lancaster says, standing behind the cameraman and watching a video monitor.
Angela thumbs back the hammer and pulls the trigger. Even though the gun is loaded with blanks, the sound is huge. The pistol bucks in her hand and the grip turns warm as smoke wafts from it.
The lights brighten and one of the cameras lifts. “Fire again,” Lancaster says.
After a few more pistol shots and lighting adjustments, they run through the entire scene with dialogue. By the time they’re done, Angela’s ears are ringing. She barely hears the shout, “In five.”
Angela explains to Ruby the blocking changes and shows her the new mark where she’s supposed to stand and fire the gun and how high to raise it. Briana straightens Ruby’s wig, arranges a few stray curls around her pale face, and squeezes her into the plunging neckline of her red gown.
Ruby goes to wait behind the closed door and Angela takes a seat to watch the first take. The lights go down throughout the soundstage. Lights dim on the set, too. A fluorescent light, shaped like the moon, glows through the curtains.
“Quiet!” Lancaster shouts and his own moon face rises behind the camera boom in the darkened soundstage. “Action!”
Everyone and everything is in place. A production assistant holds a clapperboard in front of a camera, the time stamp a digital readout. Angela can’t help it. A chill runs down her back. Let the magic begin.
The burglars scuffle. Angela is astonished by how tall Ruby seems when she makes her entrance as Irene Adler, all heaving bosom and steely calm. With those enormous dark eyes, the girl is one big emoji. But she’s got a presence that makes it hard to take your eyes off her.
Ruby has the gun raised, pointing it at the burglars. It wobbles in Ruby’s grip, and Angela can feel the heft, even though she knows it’s not heavy at all. Light glints off the shaft as Ruby motions with it.
That’s when Angela realizes that the gun is larger than the prop they used in rehearsal. It looks like it’s got a metal grip, and it’s not just the lighting. It’s a different gun.
She glances toward the camera as the question flashes through her brain: After all that work getting the lighting and camera focus just right, why would they switch guns? The answer: they wouldn’t.
At that same moment, she realizes that Glenn Lancaster is not in position beside the camera. She doesn’t see him at all, not until she spots him in the shadows, half-hidden behind the cameraman.
Angela looks back at the set. It feels as if time slows down as the burglars brandish knives. As Ruby raises the nose of the gun. In a moment she’ll fire the pistol that’s not the prop they used for rehearsal.
Before Angela even registers the thought, she’s on her feet, bolting onto the set. She knocks the gun from Ruby’s hand. It hits the ground and goes off, filling the air with smoke and an acrid smell. There’s a long pause as the gunshot echoes in the soundstage.
Belatedly, Lancaster screams, “Cut!”
He comes out from behind the camera. “What the hell?” Gazes at Ruby sitting on the floor, looking completely bewildered. At the pistol, or what’s left of it, lying smoking on the floor nearby. He lunges for the gun but Angela gets there first. It’s hot. She uses the hem of her skirt to protect her hand as she picks it up.
Lancaster looks around, assessing his audience. Then glares at Angela. “What are you up to now? Give me that.”
“You want this?” She holds out the gun for everyone to see that the barrel is ripped open. “I think Ruby might like to have a look at it first. Someone booby-trapped it.”