Duke and Jenkins were anxious to meet Macklin. They needed someone to be a bad actor—commit business malpractice in order to make them money. Could Macklin be the guy to pull it off, or would they all end up in jail?
Macklin’s name was mentioned when they asked friends and colleagues whether they knew a bad actor. A friend said Macklin was the perfect guy—the best bad actor.
The three sat down in a busy downtown food court, where the noise helped keep their conversation private. Duke led things off. “We’ve heard you’re very successful in this endeavor.”
Macklin thought about Duke’s statement for a moment. Macklin recently was fired from a pizza commercial because he could not make himself pretend to like the pizza. His performance in Death of a Salesman was reviewed by one critic as simply, “Die Faster.” Macklin even failed to act surprised enough by his sister’s divorce announcement.
“It depends on how you define success,” Macklin said.
Jenkins liked this answer. “That’s a very powerful insight. Sometimes the biggest failure turns out to be our biggest success.”
The truth was that Macklin was an actor of the stage, not a mastermind business criminal. Jenkins and Duke never caught onto this fact.
“What do you find is the hardest job in deceiving people?” Duke asked.
Macklin quoted an acting teacher. “It’s not that we’re trying to deceive. We’re conveying confidence that we are who we say we are.”
Both men nodded in agreement. If they were cartoon characters, dollar signs would have appeared in their eyes.
“What’s the biggest job you’ve ever pulled off?” Jenkins asked.
“Oh I got rave reviews as a tree,” Macklin said confidently. The review may have been so glowing because the rest of the production was truly terrible.
“How did that work?” Jenkins asked.
“Oh I literally was inside a tree—mimicking every action as if the wind blew through me. I was the bark. I was the leaves.”
“Wow,” Duke said. He imagined what business scenario Macklin must have found himself in to be a tree. “You really do commit to any job. I think you’re our guy.”
Macklin threw his fists in the air in triumph. “Can I ask who recommended me?”
Duke told Macklin it was Macklin’s brother-in-law. Macklin thought this was curious because his brother-in-law hated Macklin’s acting career and often told him e what a bad actor he was. As in, he was a really terrible actor. But now Macklin understood what the assignment would be.
“This must be a corporate gig, right? So it pays well.”
Jenkins smiled. “It will pay well for all of us.”