“Harry! Over here, come on.” The director waves me over with his hand. I give the makeup artist a quick apologetic smile—she was just finishing getting me ready for the shoot—and I stride over to him, noticing he’s in the middle of a tense chat with one of the producers. Not the best vibes.

We’ve been shooting for two days now for my new music video, one I’ve been working hard on. Today we’re filming a scene on the streets of London with the actress playing my love interest. It’s meant to be a super sweet, romantic vibe. The only problem? She hasn’t shown up. And it’s freezing out here this early in the morning.

“We’ve got… a little problem,” the director starts, and the look on his face tells me it’s more than just “little.” “The lead actress is really sick and can’t make it. And we really can’t push the shoot back anymore…” He gives me a helpless shrug, and I run a hand through my hair with a deep sigh. Yeah… things aren’t looking great.

“Unless…” he suddenly perks up, a huge grin spreading across his face.

“Unless what?” I ask, raising a brow. At this point, I’m ready for anything if it means saving all the work we’ve put into this project.

He doesn’t say anything. Just starts looking around, scanning the area we’ve blocked off for filming. Then suddenly—

“You!” he shouts, lighting up and pointing at a girl walking down the street with headphones on. She looks over, confused, and points to herself. “Yes, yes, you!” he insists. She hesitates for a second, then slowly walks toward us, clearly unsure about what’s going on.

“You’re perfect to replace our lead actress. What do you say?” I watch her eyes flick between him and me, her mouth slightly open, clearly caught off guard. You can tell from miles away this was not how she expected her day to go.

Jesus… whose bright idea was it to hire this guy?