“Unless you’ve been living on the dark side of the moon, you know our first guest tonight had his breakout role playing time-traveling hit man Charles Conroy in the hit movie Seaside. He’s here tonight to tell us about his latest film, Reparation, which opens in theaters nationwide this Friday.
Here he is on the cover of Entertainment Week. Please help me welcome Ryan Christensen!”
Music blared out of the studio sound system as I watched Ryan come out from around the corner. The entire audience sprang from their chairs. Women all around us went absolutely crazy, jumping up and down and shrieking for him. Their screams were ear-piercing.
Ryan waved and smiled, scratching his forehead before being greeted by Jimmy Collins. He looked nervous and totally overwhelmed by their reception.
Ryan leaned forward when he sat down, almost resting his head between his knees from the shock of the audience’s continued excitement. I could tell by the expression on his face that he was once again blown away by their devotion. I was glad to see he was still so humbled by it. Janelle leaned closer, excitedly nudging me with her elbow as she clapped for her brother-in-law.
“Your fans come out in masses! Thanks for stopping by here tonight. How have you been?” Jimmy asked Ryan, trying to proceed with the interview. The studio audience finally simmered down just barely enough for us to hear them speak to each other.
“Good! Real good, thanks!” Ryan replied.
“Thanks for having me.”
“You know, you’re not the only one who can make women scream like that,” Jimmy teased. “Now if I could just get the women to stop screaming obscenities at me, I’d have this thing set!”
The crowd laughed at his joke.
Ryan snickered uncomfortably and took a sip from the cup they had setting there for him. “Sometimes they scream obscenities at me, too,” he admitted.
“I heard you had quite a reception by one of the fans when you arrived here,” Jimmy prompted.
“Yeah, I had just gotten out of the car and I was signing a few pictures and whatnot and I looked up and this girl lifted her shirt and flashed her . . . at me.” Ryan motioned, appearing both excited and appalled at the same time.
I gasped slightly at hearing the news that some girl showed her breasts to my fiancé.
“Did she want you to sign them?” Jimmy repeated Ryan’s motion.
“I honestly don’t know if she said anything at all. She was jumping up and down and screaming.” He laughed. “It was hard to hold a conversation with things, um, bouncing like that.”
Jimmy laughed and continued on. “That’s funny! So how are things? I think the last time you were here was about six months ago and we were talking about Seaside. ” The women in the audience went berserk from hearing that word.
Ryan looked out at the audience, shaking his head in amazement at their devotion.
“And I can see that the fan reaction has tripled since then. Wow!” Jimmy rubbed his ear. “It’s like pressing a hot button. Anytime I want to get my wife in the mood, I just burst into the bedroom and yell ‘
Seaside’ and she instantly starts tearing her clothes off.” Ryan laughed uncomfortably. “Glad to hear it works for you.”
“Of course it helps when I’m wearing my
‘Charles’ mask. I mean you and I are built so much alike that she can hardly tell the difference,” Jimmy joked, noticeably rolling his eyes to get a laugh out of the crowd.
“So how’s life been treating you?” Jimmy asked.
“Things are great. Really great! I just came from Miami, where I’ve been shooting a movie called Thousand Miles. It’s a bit of a thriller.”
That’s it, honey, pitch your movies. Keep the tempo going.
“And in like another two weeks I’ll be back on set in Vancouver for my next project,” Ry-an said, nervously scratching his neck.
“And what’s that?” Jimmy asked.
“It’s a film called Slipknot. Jonathan Follweiler is directing it. This will be my first time working on a project with him, which is very exciting. And I get to do a little rock climbing, which I’m really looking forward to trying. It’s something that I’ve never done before. A little danger.”
“I hear you’ve been practicing for it, though. Climbing on tables and stuff?” Jimmy goaded Ryan with his comment, raising his eyebrows and tapping the note cards he held in his hand on the desk to get a rise out of the audience.
Laughter exploded all around us. I watched to see if Ryan’s expression would change, and sure enough, he flushed with embarrassment.