Ch-154

January 2006, Los Angeles, CA, USA

It had been so long since I had won a major award that I had almost forgotten the feeling of winning anything substantial. My last award worth talking about was a Tony, and that was nearly four years ago. I can't really describe the feeling in words, but I felt like I was on top of the world. While the Golden Globes don't guarantee an Oscar win, they certainly mean that I've become a serious contender for the award now.

"Troy to Earth!" Mum called out to me. "Come on, son, pay attention. The ad break is over. We are nearly at the end here."

"Sorry," I smiled cheekily at her before looking back at the stage, where Hilary Swank had just taken the stage in a beautiful black dress.

"Here are the nominees for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama," she announced before reading the list of names aloud.

"Philip Seymour Hoffman – [Capote] as Truman Capote

Russell Crowe – [Cinderella Man] as James J. Braddock

Terrence Howard – [Hustle & Flow] as DJay

Heath Ledger – [Brokeback Mountain] as Ennis Del Mar

Troy Armitage – [The Perks of Being a Wallflower] as Charlie Kelmeckis."

I didn't have any idea who would win here. I must not have seen who won in the original timeline. Maybe I remembered [Brokeback Mountain]'s Oscar loss because it created a controversy, but other than that, I had no idea who would take the award here. I truly believed it should be Heath Ledger. He was entirely too good. I wouldn't mind Philip Seymour Hoffman as a secondary choice either.

As long as it's not that asshole Russell Crowe, I'm fine with anyone on the list.

"And the Golden Globe goes to," Hilary Swank looked down at the envelope to build suspense before looking up and reading, "Philip Seymour Hoffman for [Capote]."

I stood up with the rest of the crowd as one of the great actors of his generation won an award. That's the biggest problem with being a younger actor who has already won recognition for his work. Unless your performance is a class apart, they rarely give you an award over someone older who may not have received much recognition earlier in their career.

Now only two awards remained – Best Picture Drama and Best Picture Musical/Comedy.

Renée Zellweger walked up to the stage and said, "You all saw the nominees for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy throughout the night. Once again, here are the nominees:

[Walk the Line]

[Mrs. Henderson Presents]

[Pride & Prejudice]

[Echoes of You]

[The Squid and the Whale]."

The environment was tense around the table. This was the moment. This was the last award we had any hope of winning. There was no way in hell we were winning the other award when [Brokeback Mountain] was in contention. I crossed my fingers under the table, hoping for a miracle of some sort. I knew that [Walk the Line] was a stronger film, with both of its lead actors bagging a Globe, whereas neither Emily nor I had won. That alone made their prospects stronger.

Renée Zellweger opened the envelope. "And the Golden Globe goes to… [Echoes of You]."

"Yes!" Our entire table shouted in unison as Dad, Mum, Evan, and I stood up and hugged as a family. Soon enough, Emily and Stephen Daldry also came over, and I hugged them individually before disengaging and walking to the stage with Dad. Unlike the Oscars, the entire team of the winning picture doesn't go on stage at the Globes—only the producers. And since Dad and I were the only producers of the film, we were the ones to step up.

Because I had already spoken twice, I let Dad speak first.

"Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press for this great honor for our film, which both of my boys made together with their utmost devotion. So if anyone deserves this award, it's Troy and Evan."

That's my father. Always downplaying his role. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been able to make this film at all—at least not this year. I was utterly spent after producing [Brick] and [The Perks of Being a Wallflower].

"My wife Kathy," Dad continued, "I love you more than anything. Thank you for being the amazing woman you are and the foundation that keeps our family strong. To our entire cast and crew—Stephen Daldry, Emily, Rihanna, Robert, Paul—I'm forgetting a lot of names, but I'll definitely thank everyone personally soon enough. Over to you, Troy."

Dad stepped back and handed me the mic. I didn't hesitate even once before speaking.

"For some reason, I didn't expect to win anything tonight, so thank you for this great honor."

And then I stepped back. I had already spoken enough tonight. I needed to get off the stage. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be because soon we were in front of reporters again.

This time, the Globes organizers had learned from their mistakes and had us wait until the last award was given before interviewing. I was nominated in that category as well. This time, my prediction came true—sure enough, [Brokeback Mountain] won that award.

The whole mechanism is honestly a little tiring, but it felt good nonetheless. I used to think that awards like the Golden Globes were worthless, which I still do to some degree. But now I realize that it doesn't matter. If they help improve the business of our film, it's definitely worth it. After all, [Echoes of You] is still in theaters, and the three Globes we won for it will easily recoup our investment in promoting the film for the awards circuit.

Now it was time to party.

(Break)

(Time Skip - One month)

February 2006, Berlin, Germany

I walked confidently on the red carpet as the numerous flashes went by nearby. Last month had been some of the busiest times of my life. Only two days after the Golden Globes, I had flown back to London to start shooting [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]. All the while, I was still doing interviews with reporters over the phone and even in London about my potential Oscar win. Thankfully, Rian Johnson had adjusted the shoot so that only the scenes of mine that didn't require too much preparation were filmed first, like Quidditch or the Pensieve scenes with Michael Gambon taking Harry to Tom Riddle's past. Those were shot in front of a greenscreen and barely required any acting talent or too many lines.

And now, here I was in Berlin, for another one of my movies—[Little Miss Sunshine]. The producers and directors had planned well in advance to screen the film at the Sundance Film Festival, but for some reason, it wasn't able to secure admission to the competition. Jonathan and Valerie were fine with just premiering it there, but I didn't agree with that. I set Dad on the job, and here we were in Berlin a month later, competing in the film festival.

Europe had three major film festivals—Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. Cannes is held in May, Venice in September, and Berlin in February. So obviously, I chose the one that was closest.

"I still don't understand why we are here," Dad muttered tiredly after the red carpet walk was over. "I thought we'd work on the sixth [Harry Potter] film and you'd sell this film directly to Paramount as per your agreement and be done with it."

There's a reason I chose to come to Berlin rather than premiering it at Sundance or opting for a direct release of the film. That's because [Little Miss Sunshine] is an award-friendly movie that was so good, it could have even won Best Picture. In the original timeline, it didn't win Best Picture at the Oscars, for three big reasons—first, it was released early in the year. Award voters prefer movies that are released later in the year. Second, it didn't win any major film festival awards. If it had, it would have made it a lot easier to pitch to the award voters. Third, there was a controversy just a year ago about [Crash] winning Best Picture, another film about real-life issues with dysfunctional ensemble characters. Since [Crash] didn't win anything this time, it made sense for the Academy voters not to be so biased.

My current plan was to release the film first in a major film festival like Berlin and then later in the year, probably in December. If not, it could impact the earning potential of the movie, because then we'd have to save some marketing funds for award-season promotions. If the movie is released late in the year, the two campaigns can run simultaneously, thus saving a lot of costs.

That's something I learned the hard way while promoting [Echoes of You] and [The Perks of Being a Wallflower].

Before I could say anything to Dad, a female reporter caught up to me and placed a mic in front of me.

"Troy, how do you feel about your Oscar nominations this year? Do you plan to dominate the Oscars as well, like you did with the Golden Globes?"

Oh yes, my films had garnered a ton of Oscar nominations as well.

(Break)

AN: Sorry for the short chapter. For some reason, I ran out of ideas to continue the chapter, so I decided to end it there. The next one is longer. As a bonus I added a crack scene at the end. Don't take it seriously. I wrote it as a joke.

Bonus Scene (Just for fun, not part of the canon.)

"And the Golden Globe goes to," Hilary Swank looked down at the envelope to build suspense before looking up and reading, "Troy Armitage for [The Perks of Being a Wallflower]."

I got up cockily and accepted the award from Hilary Swank. "Thank you to a bunch of old geezers for giving me this award. I don't think I was better than Terrence Howard, Philip Seymour Hoffman, or Heath Ledger. Especially Heath Ledger. I was better than Russell Crowe, but then again, even Hugh Hefner may be a better actor than Russell Crowe for all we know."

The crowd gasped in surprise as they heard that.

Russell Crowe got up from his seat, glaring daggers in my direction. Then he took a step forward, then another, and soon he was sprinting at me, his fist raised to punch me. Before he could, I swept his feet from under him and judo-flipped him down the stage.

"Go and watch that South Park episode, you madman. I'm the boy-who-judo'd. Hi-ya!" I struck a cool martial arts pose to drive my point home.

The audience erupted in applause when they saw that.

"Thank you! Thank you! As I was saying, Conan is the best talk show host! Go watch his show!"

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