‘I loved her early shorts,’ says Emilia. ‘There was one called Low Treason that was really funny and weird. She must have made it for about ten pounds.’ The words ‘ten pounds’ sound strange coming from Emilia. She could so easily have said ‘ten bucks’. She likes to be precise, thinks Becky. That matters to this woman. ‘I can’t remember its name, but she also did a short about two sisters trying to build a submarine.’

‘Blue,’ says Becky.

‘That’s the one! Both of them wanting to be in charge.’

‘Two periscopes!’

‘And they end up just staring at each other through them from opposite ends of the submarine, shouting at each other while it sinks. It was smart as well. It was like, Russia and America not remembering that it’s all one planet. It was the whole Cold War with two sisters and a bunch of scrap metal.’

‘It had that Dr Strangelove feel. Absurd and serious.’ Becky smiles, remembering it fondly.

‘Yeah. That stayed with me. I’m kinda jealous you met her, now.’

‘It’s free entry to the ladies’ loos. You just have to wait to pounce on her. Join me next time.’

‘I might do that!’ Emilia gives her a big, chalk-white, shiny, straight-toothed grin.

‘She wants to do Medea as her next film.’ Becky addresses this last remark to Matthew, like she’s sharing an interesting bit of news. A little update that he might like to know. No big deal.

‘Great fit,’ says Matthew, picking up the baton smoothly.

‘So is that a go thing for you guys?’ says Sam.

‘A bit of work to do, but it’s well on its way,’ Matthew replies. He turns to Emilia. ‘Look, if it’s something you’re interested in, we haven’t gone to anyone yet and you’d be top of our list for Medea.’

‘I’ve been so busy I’m behind on my reading …’ Emilia glances at Sam.

‘I need to cut more space into your schedule. I’ll get onto that. But it’s a great piece of work.’ Sam nods at his client and turns to Becky. ‘And if you put Sharon on it, well, that’s a movie.’

‘Can I read it and let you know?’ says Emilia.

‘Of course,’ says Matthew. ‘We’d be thrilled to talk to you about it.’

‘I actually talked to the screenwriter about one of your performances before he went to draft,’ says Becky. ‘That moment in Your Daughter when you stand at the edge of the sea and then walk in. There was something about the endurance and sacrifice of that character. It really got me. And even though this role isn’t anything like that, apart from those things, it was one of the only performance steers I gave him. I thought your work in that scene was incredible.’

Emilia is listening to her now. Really listening.