― APOLLINE DE VERE as A PISSED-OFF SISTER in REVENGE, LA STYLE
it had to be one of the stupidest things juno had ever agreed to do. okay, maybe not as stupid as diy-welding a stage set for king lear, but it came close. barely a week into his first project, his co-star, apolline, asked him to help her ruin someone’s life. oh, and be an accessory to first-degree murder.
the story came out over a bottle of vodka in a props warehouse: apolline had an elder brother, julien. much like juno, he grew up on the stage -- the ballet stage in paris; they both did, though he’d always been the shining star. siegfried, albrecht, the beast, while she was never more than a cygnet, content to simply bask in his light. after each performance he’d put on little sketches of his own, comedy pieces for his little sister’s eyes only. it felt like the perfect world.
when julien’s cystic fibrosis ended his dancing career prematurely, he went into acting. first in niche, french indie films, but then he packed up and moved to la -- of course, apolline came with him. she always would, even if meant sacrificing her own life on the stage and becoming a choreographer. all she needed was for him to stay with her -- and he did, even as he reached dizzying new heights. until he didn’t.
it was a stupid accident. not cancellation, not cystic fibrosis, but a fucking bar fight that got out of hand. before she knew it, her brother stepped in to break it up -- and before she knew it, he had a knife in his left lung. before she knew it, he was dying in her arms, suffocating in his own blood before the ambulance even reached the hospital.
as soon as his ashes had been scattered, she signed a contract. she started plotting to get back at the man who had killed julien, to make him feel the same pain. all she wanted juno to do was seduce the man’s wife, and lead her up to the roof of that very same bar.
he said yes. when the wife’s broken body was found on the pavement, he tried not to think about what he’d helped her to do -- the husband’s distraught face on the news was proof enough that her plan had worked. life ruined; they never really managed a friendly relationship after that, but she was grateful enough to not push it. they went their separate ways, and before long juno found his own life spiralling out of control. but what about apolline? she kept working, kept fighting to rise up the leaderboard, kept visiting her brother’s star every day. the only thing that keeps her going now is the knowledge that he never got to live out his dreams. he never got to put the ring he carried in his pocket for weeks on his fiance’s finger -- so she did. he never got to kiss his husband under the hollywood sign, so she took her wife there. he never got to see the system dismantled.
so she will.