Hester Darvey could recite nearly every reason she'd ever been given for losing a part. She was too sweet looking, too bitchy looking, there was a better fit, she wasn't blonde, too tall, too skinny, too naive, unbelievable as a strong female lead, couldn't sing high enough, couldn't sing low enough, politics, too well known, too unknown, and so on. She had a habit of writing them into her journal - the never ending story of No. They almost always contradicted one another, dependent entirely on the mood of the casting director on that particular day. She was obsessive, meticulate, driven crazy by the obstacles. Whatever they said she couldn't do only made her want to do it even more.
Someone once told her she had what "it" takes to make it in Hollywood, and she thought endlessly hours after hours on what "it" meant. For as long as she could remember, Hester chased thrill after thrill, often anything that led her to be the center of attention. By the time she was nine, she announced to her parents she wanted to be an actress and that she wouldn't be needing school any more. She was clearly ready for it, considering she'd won the coveted role of a dancing rat in her elementary school play. But Hester was always pleading the case for her latest obsession. She fell in love easily with new hobbies and out of love with them just as quickly. Her family assumed she would grow out of this phase the way she'd grown out of wanting to be a singer, a ballet dancer, a lion tamer, a lemonade stand entrepeneur.
A year later, Hester made her parents a presentation outlining the pros of pursuing a career in the least predictable, secure industry. She made a chart of how she could manage school work and auditions, how she would get from their Santa Barbara home to Los Angeles. She promised to maintain her good grades, get enough sleep, and she would even eat all of her vegetables without complaining. She would never ask for another anything again. This was, of course, at least the 56th time they'd heard this plea.
They were concerned. Both of their oldest daughters were on track for good colleges and a reliable future. Little Hester was easily frustrated when things were a little bit difficult. And Hollywood? They were familiar with the way it chewed up young girls like Hester Darvey and spat them out without regret. Hester would be heartbroken. Wouldn't she rather play with her dolls? Pick up a sport, maybe. When they found that she would not be swayed, they agreed to let her go to auditions and quietly agreed with one another that they would stop taking her by the time she started high school if she lasted that long. By then, she'd surely grow bored of acting and move onto something with equally low odds like curing cancer or running for president. They would still have time to steer her back toward higher education.
It was a year and a half of low end commercials, uncredited extra work, and hundreds of nos. For the first time in her young life, Hester never wavered. And then it happened. She was picked out of hundreds and hundreds of little girls to star in Disney's newest movie, a remake of The Parent Trap. She continued sputteringly down her career, booking a movie here and a TV show there. When her first TV show was cancelled, she spent hours crying in secret over it.
Despite her occasional success, Hester struggled to maintain momentum. Every time she thought she'd finally made it out of the crowds of vying young girls, she found herself taking a misstep, losing another audition, being told she was too "nice" to be anything other than her typecast. She was a young, naive girl and she played it well, so she should stick to it. She was miserable.
And then someone took a chance on her. Someone saw the willowy young actress and had a vision that they could turn her into a credible action star. Hester nearly said no; she wasn't tough by any means, but the offers were starting to dry up and she didn't have much of a choice. Even with another half-finished TV show under her belt, Hester would never see "Bionic Woman" as a true failure. It changed her life.
When the show was cancelled, she took a hard look at her career and her future. Did she really want to be known as America's sickly sweet girl-next-door? Was this all she was destined to be? She'd certainly never felt like a sickly sweet girl, but Hollywood had determined that was all that she was and it pressured her to be nothing else. She resolved to ditch her image, to force them to see her in a new light. "Bionic Woman" gave her a taste for science fiction and action that she'd never known she had an appetite for. The challenge was irresistible.
It was easier said than done, naturally. No one wanted to cast her. No one believed in her. She went out for roles and was turned away or worse - given the part of a weaker, less interesting character. She turned them down as often as she was turned down herself. Her agent voiced his concerns day in and day out, and she dropped him and switched to a rival agency. If he couldn't believe in her, she would never get to where she was going.
If Hester Darvey was anything, she was determined and committed. If no one would willingly see her as such, she would force them to. She changed the way she dressed, adopted a new way of walking and talking. She sought out friends and acquaintances in Hollywood that were less than wholesome. She dated a rockstar, found herself occasionally in the tabloids. It wasn't entirely genuine, but it was certainly closer to the truth than the wide-eyed bambi Hollywood told her she had to be.
Her gamble paid off. The projects came slowly - one bad movie after another, and then a call from Christopher Nolan. He remembered her work as a teenager, thought she had great potential. Her increased exposure in the industry meant she was top of mind. He wanted to have her come in and read for a part in his new film. When she wrapped that, she pursued an adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, fighting every inch of the way to prove to David Fincher that she could pull off a look and feel that seemed to contradict her reputation. With every success, Hester found a stumble. No matter what she did, she couldn't seem to get her career on track. Hollywood seemed to forget about her the moment her movies were out of the theater. It wasn't about the awards or the critical acclaim; it was about defining who she was on her own terms and loving what she did. Hester began to wonder what the hell she had to do next to achieve her goals.
