‘About the whole thing. With Medea I can make sure my name’s off the press for it. You can talk to Emilia and Sharon and reassure them.’

‘The film wouldn’t exist without your support. It doesn’t seem fair.’

‘Fair?’ His tone is brusque, scathing almost. ‘Learn to recognize a favour when it’s being offered to you. And learn to take it when you need it. You need to protect yourself and your work. Don’t ever assume that justice will somehow prevail and make everything OK. Good men lose everything, all the time. Women, too.’

‘Yes.’ She nods. ‘What should I say if Sharon or Emilia ask me about it?’

‘Don’t make it a questionable statement. You get in early and say: This is what has happened and this is what we’re doing about it. Make them feel special that you even bothered to consider them.’

She notices that this is exactly what is happening now. He has not denied the allegations but then why would he need to? Never apologize. Never explain. Let everyone else do the talking, let everyone else tie themselves in knots.

‘All actors care about is how they are perceived,’ Matthew continues. ‘How their own careers are standing up. That’s all. You have to have the conversations. You pitch it with calm and confidence? It’ll be a conversation, forgotten in five minutes, absorbed into a busy schedule. Can you do that?’

‘Wouldn’t it be better coming from you?’

‘God no.’ He almost laughs as he says it. ‘You’re good, you’re smart, you can do it.’

‘It must be hard on you. All this.’

‘You’ll get it too, one day, Becky. There’s a lot of have and have-nots in this business. Not everyone can be talented. Human beings who are failing love nothing more than to tear someone off the top spot, back down to their level. You’re not up there unless someone’s trying to drag you down.’

‘So I’m telling them that this person, this actress, is someone you turned down for a role, who thought she’d been offered it, and who probably bitched about you to a friend of hers, and the friend then misspoke about it because he’s a drama queen who loves attention.’

‘Throw in a joke about vengeful women. Medea. There must be something in the water.’ He laughs, but he is not laughing. ‘But yes, your version works. Any more questions?’

‘No. I’ll start making those calls.’ Becky finds herself almost looking forward to making those calls, to convincing Emilia and Sharon of how they need to think about this. She finds herself looking forward to the moment she can call him and say, It’s fine, it’s done – to making him proud of her.

‘You do have another question. Be honest.’

‘I don’t …’