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Camp Hemiaimos
Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot”
Act One, Scene One
The camera pans down from a cloudless blue sky onto a grassy hill. In the background, cabins are blurry, but visible, and a three story mansion is just in frame on the right. In the foreground stands a circle of about two dozen children.
A college-aged young man with sandy blond hair, blue eyes, and a long scar down his face stands in the center of the circle, holding a ball. He is wearing a dark orange staff shirt with a pegasus on it.
“Hey, everyone, I’m Sam, and I’m going to be one of your counselors this summer. We’re gonna start this off with a fun little game. When you catch the ball, I want you to say your name, what grade you’re going to start in the fall, where you’re from, and a fun fact about yourself. I’ll demonstrate. My name is Sam, and I’m going to start my second year of college in the fall. I grew up in Boston, but now I’m going to college in New York. And, my fun fact is that I got this scar,” he gestures to his face. The camera pans to some of the children exchanging curious and nervous glances with each other, “while I was playing basketball. I slipped and completely cut up my face on the asphalt. Let that be your lesson to be careful while playing sports.” Startled laughter bubbles up from some of the kids. A smirk spreads onto Sam’s face and he bounces the ball between his hands. “All right, let’s keep this moving.” He tosses the ball across the circle to a boy.
This boy is a little taller than all of the other kids. He has curly brown hair, lots of acne on his face, and a cast on his leg. His gasp when he catches the ball comes out almost like a bleat. “I’m Jordan, I’m gonna be a seventh grader in the fall. I’m from Tacoma, Washington. I, uh–, what if I don’t have a fun fact?” Another smattering of laughter sounds from the group. Sam hushes them patiently.
“Do you have a pet?” he prompts, “or have you ever traveled somewhere really cool?”
Jordan’s face lights up, “My family keeps goats,” he announces. “We’ve got three nannies right now, but my parents are looking for a billy to bring in so we can have kids in the spring.” Whispers start up in the circle, but Jordan throws the ball before anyone can ask any questions.
The girl who catches it has curly blond hair and striking gray eyes. She is the only one in the circle who does not look happy to be there. “I’m Libby,” she says, with as much emotion as one would have reading the safety instructions for a bottle of glue. “After this summer, I will be a seventh grader. I’m from Virginia. I have eight grandparents.” While the other children try to do the math on that (even Sam the counselor looks a little confused), she lobs the ball to her right.
It is caught by a short boy with messy black hair and sea-green glasses. “Hi,” he says excitedly, “I’m also going into seventh grade, and I’m a New Yorker. My favorite activity is swimming, and I’ve been doing it since I was three.” He throws the ball, but Sam jumps up to catch it.
“That’s super interesting, but what’s your name, kid?”
A mottled red blush settles instantaneously over the boy’s face. In the circle, the laughter starts up again. Caught off guard by it, the boy nearly shouts, “Pickle!” This is the final straw for the gathered children, as they collapse into giggles and guffaws. While Sam tries to bring order back, Jordan and Libby lock eyes with Pickle, the only ones who aren’t laughing. An understanding seems to pass between them.
The camera pans away from the children to an old sign covered with faded orange paint. It reads, in blocky black letters, ‘Welcome to Camp Hemiaimos’.
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August 18th, 2019
Percy instinctively ducks his hat down as he leaves his apartment. Fifteen years, and he still can’t always tell who’s a paparazzo and who’s just a New Yorker going about their business. Normally, he wouldn’t even leave through the front. His apartment building used to be a hotel, so there’s a nifty service entrance in the back that the vultures haven’t quite caught onto yet. But he’s already twenty minutes later than he said he’d be, so speed is the name of the game.
Halfway down the block, when the black sedan is literally within spitting distance, he starts to think that he maybe got lucky today. Naturally, as he raises his head, he sees a flash out of the corner of his eye. He rolls his eyes and throws his middle finger up in the general direction. “Take your partner on a date,” he shouts, “or hang out with your kids. I mean, you’ve got to have better things to do with your day than stalk a washed up child star.” To be fair to the paparazzi, ‘washed up child star’ isn’t really a descriptor anyone is using for Percy right now.
Since Camp Hemiaimos ended seven years ago, he’s made what some people (he’s not naming names, but some talk show hosts get quite a kick out of reminding him how short he used to be) would call a ‘seamless transition’ to more mature projects. In 2013, less than a year after his show ended, he nabbed a recurring role on Season 8 of Grey’s Anatomy, which led the way to his first movie since his early 2000s DCOM era that no one except nostalgia-bait YouTubers are interested in remembering. Since then, he’s balanced the big and small screens, but his upcoming role is the one he’s most excited for since he was cast, at eleven years old, to play Dylan “Pickle” McGraw on Chiron Brunner’s coming of age sitcom about kids at a summer camp on Long Island Sound.
It’s also a role that needs to remain secret for a little while longer, so he ducks into the car without more fanfare.
“Well, that was dramatic,” Annabeth says, glancing up from her phone. She’s wearing a short brown wig and brown contacts today, more than enough to trick anyone lucky enough to catch a photo of the two of them. Percy wonders which actress she’s going to be misidentified as next.
He doesn’t vocalize any of his musings, instead leaning back against the headrest with a sigh. “I really thought I was going to make it,” he groans, cognizant of the small whine that sneaks through.
“You’re an A-list celebrity who lives consistently in the same place.” Her voice is dry, but there’s a hint of sympathy in it. There’s no one who gets it better than her, after all. “I don’t know why you thought that.”
The driver pulls away while they talk. Percy’s mom has long since moved out of the crappy two-bedroom they shared with his first stepfather when Percy was cast in Camp Hemiaimos , but she stayed on the Upper East Side, a hassle and a half to get to from Percy’s apartment in Tribeca. Now, depending on his schedule, he only sees her two or three times a month.
Annabeth puts her phone away as they move. She’s got her seatbelt on (safety first), but her hand finds Percy’s on the seat. “Happy Birthday,” she says softly. Percy loses himself in her eyes, thinking back to their first table read.
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January 22nd, 2005
“…we move to outside of Cabin Three, where Pickle and Libby are lying down on the grass, looking up at the stars,” Chiron says.
Percy blinks at his script, willing the words to unscramble, even though he doesn’t need it. He was so nervous for today that he memorized everyone’s lines since he got the script. “The stars are so clear out here,” he says, injecting extra New Yawk into the words. The stawrs awre soe clea-uhr out hee-uhr.
“Yes,” Annabeth murmurs, somehow combining awe with disaffection. Percy wants to throw himself at his feet and beg her to teach him her ways. But he won’t, obviously, because they’re twelve, and twelve year olds Don’t Do That. She’d probably never speak to him again off set.
He continues, “I’ve never seen them like this before.” Nevuh. Befawhe. The lights are really bright, and there are so many people in the room. More than he thought there would be.
“I see them like this all the time. But they’re different in Virginia than they are here.” She pauses for a minute.
Chiron says, “She turns to him.”
“Why are you here?” she asks.
“Because I want to be,” he says defensively.
“She frowns,” Chiron says.
“Here?”
“What’s so wrong with here? We may not be in the Hamptons, but–”
“I lied earlier,” Annabeth interrupts, “in the circle.”
“Pickle sits up,” Chiron says.
“You lied?” Percy’s getting over his anxiety as they get further into the scene. It had been preceded by a long conversation between Jordan and Sam (Grover, who Percy already knows is going to be one of his best friends, and Luke, who he doesn’t know very well yet, but seems friendly) in the Cabin Eleven bathroom, and Percy had fallen out of Pickle’s head a little bit. But now he’s back in it, and Annabeth seems to have her character down pat, and it’s fun . They’ve got a rhythm going.
“Libby tugs Pickle back down.”
“Shh!” Annabeth covers her mouth with her finger. “Do you want us to get caught?”
“But you lied ,” Percy emphasizes. Pickle is scandalized by the thought that someone might do that in a game based on getting to know other people. “So you don’t have eight grandparents?”
“Libby rolls her eyes and kicks him lightly.”
“Not about that!” Annabeth’s Libby-voice is frustrated now, but Percy’s heard her Annabeth-voice be frustrated, and he’s amazed at how different the two are. “If you’re going to be this slow, you might as well forget I said anything.”
“No, tell me,” Percy-as-Pickle says quickly.
“Libby looks around to make sure that they’re alone. Then, she leans in close and whispers in his ear.”
“My name isn’t Libby.” Annabeth whispers it into her microphone, and goosebumps pop up on Percy’s skin.
The rest of the table read wraps up pretty quickly after that. Percy pokes Annabeth’s shoulder as they’re standing up. “Can we talk?” Embarrassingly, it comes out with the extra pizzazz he was giving Pickle’s voice, so it sounds like he turned ‘talk’ into a two-syllable word. He’s not expecting her to agree, but she does, and in short order, they’re sitting down in a corner away from all of the people milling about. Percy figures he’s got about five minutes before his mom comes looking for him, so he wants to make the most of it.
“What did you want to talk about?” Annabeth asks.
Percy bites his lip. “When’s your birthday?”
“July 12th,” Annabeth responds, seemingly automatically. Percy makes a note of that in his head, figuring he’s got enough time to forget and remember again.
“Mine’s August 18th. What’s your favorite color?”
“Gray.”
“Mine’s blue. Favorite movie?”
Annabeth appears to be as quick a learner here as she is with memorizing lines. “ Roman Holiday . What’s yours?”
“ The Little Mermaid ,” Percy says, with a tinge of embarrassment. He just manages to meet her eyes, and is surprised by how intense they are. He wants to look at them longer, try to figure out all of the micro-colors in the gray, but Annabeth’s voice distracts him. He blushes when he realizes she asked him a question he completely missed. “Sorry, could you repeat that?”
“What do you want to be when you’re grown up?” she asks.
Percy, for the first time, is flummoxed. “This,” he says pointedly, “Acting.”
“Forever?”
He shrugs. “If they’ll let me. Do you… not want that?”
Annabeth shrugs and looks away. “Acting is fun,” she says, “but I don’t want to do it forever.”
“What do you want to do then?” Percy is realizing that Annabeth isn’t like him. She’s only going to open up at her own pace. She’s kind of like her character, in that sense.
When she meets his gaze again, it’s even stronger. There’s a passion, a need, lurking in the depths of her eyes that he only realizes now he’s never seen before. “I’m going to be like Chiron and Mr. D. I’m going to be a director.”
It sounds like a promise. Percy wants it to be a promise. He’s only known Annabeth for a couple of weeks. They haven’t started shooting yet, and they might not get picked up for even one season. But suddenly, even more than he wants the show to work out for himself, he wants it to work out for Annabeth, so she can have her dream someday.
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Camp Hemiaimos is an American comedy television series that aired on HBC from September 31, 2005 to May 19, 2012. The series, created by Chiron Brunner, ran for seven seasons and follows the lives and antics of teenagers at a Greek-themed summer camp on Long Island.
Genre: Sitcom
Created by: Chiron Brunner
Starring: Percy Jackson
Annabeth Chase
Grover Underwood
Luke Castellan
Bianca di Angelo
Thalia Grace
Charles Beckendorf
Silena Beauregard
Nico di Angelo
Theme song: “Stay Young” by Artemis and the Hunters
Composers: Phoebus Apollo
Orpheus Thracian (season 5 only)
Country of origin: United States
Original language: English
No. of seasons: 7
No. of episodes: 151 (+1 special)
Executive producers: Chiron Brunner
Dionysus Bacchus
Hermes Mercury
Athena Minerva
Zeus Jupiter
Production locations: Hellenes Broadcasting Company Studios
Camp Maple Leaf
Long Island
Camera setup: Single camera
Running time: 20-24 minutes
Original network: HBC
Original release: September 31, 2005-May 19, 2012
- from the Wikipedia article for Camp Hemiaimos
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Camp Hemiaimos
Season 1, Episode 2, “Olivia”
Act One, Scene Two
The camera pans down on the dining pavilion. Sam, the scarred, sandy-haired counselor, sits at one end of a table. Jordan, Pickle, and not-Libby are huddled at the other end. About forty other people, counselors and campers, are spread out amongst the other tables.
The camera focuses on Jordan, Pickle, and not-Libby. Their plates and cups hold the remains of their breakfasts, scraps from toast, eggs, and a few stray pieces of fruit.
Not-Libby’s eyes cut between Jordan and Pickle. “I thought it was obvious that you weren’t supposed to tell anyone else,” she says reproachfully.
“He’s my bunkmate,” Pickle says defensively.
“So you slept a vertical distance from each other for one night.”
“He’s not gonna tell, okay? Right, Jordan?”
Jordan nods emphatically. Not-Libby rolls her eyes. “Well, you already know this much,” she says grudgingly.” Jordan and Pickle whoop, and the camera quickly pans to the other side of the table, where Sam is looking over at them curiously.
“All right over there, guys?”
Pickle nods emphatically. “We’re great, man!” Not-Libby rolls her eyes.
The camera pans back to Sam, who looks relieved. “Finish up your breakfast,” he says, “we’re going to break into morning activities in a few minutes.”
The kids shoot him thumbs ups in unison. The camera switches to an extreme close up of the three of them. All of the following dialogue is spoken in whispers.
“So, if your name isn’t Libby, what is it?”
“How do you know your name isn’t Libby?”
“Because I’m not an idiot that’s why.”
“Do your parents know that you aren’t Libby?”
“Is there even a real Libby?”
“Are you just going to be Libby all summer?”
“I really think we should tell a counselor about this.”
“Oh, stop being such a goody-two-shoes, Goat Boy.”
“Hey! Just ’cause my family owns goats does not make me a goat.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“C’mon Libby, that was too far.”
“I’m not Libby! I’m Via!”
There is silence for a moment. The camera angle switches. All three children are still in extreme focus, but Libby/Via is now standing, face only inches away from Pickle and Jordan’s. Sam is no longer in view.
Libby/Via heaves a few breaths. “I am from Virginia. I do have eight grandparents. I will be starting seventh grade in the fall. But my name is Via–well, technically it’s Olivia. Olivia Horton.”
The camera pans to Jordan, whose eyebrows knit together in confusion. “So,” he says tentatively, “who’s Libby?”
Olivia rolls her eyes. The camera pans to Sam. “Move it, you three. Morning activities. Get to arts and crafts, please.”
The scene ends.
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April 8, 2014
“So, Percy,” Jimmy Fallon says, “this is quite a new role for you. Quite a different role, I mean.”
“Oh come on,” Percy jokes, pretending to be offended as he sits up on the couch. He accidentally elbows Chris Rodriguez, one of his costars, in the process and mutters an apology. “Just because I dyed my hair…” He gets a scripted laugh from the studio audience in return and sits back again, pretending to look satisfied that his joke landed.
Jimmy Fallon is not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. Annabeth is in California. Percy is Aquaman.
Well, technically, he’s the Olympus Comics version of Aquaman. So his name is Eugenios, not Arthur (huge loss), he doesn’t have an evil brother (huge gain), and he’s supposed to be integrated into the ongoing Olympus Cinematic Universe. Nothing except his solo, intro film has been announced yet, but Percy’s currently in negotiations for four more OCU films after Aegean .
Which.
Yeah, he’s pumped.
Not just because Aegean has been his favorite superhero since he was a little kid, but also because Frank is the OCU’s Captain Rome. Percy freaking loves Frank. They’ve never officially worked on the same project, but Frank was a Disney Channel darling during Percy’s (oh, the horrors) DCOM era. Their paths crossed. Kind of a lot, actually.
But before Percy can get to the good stuff of working with Frank on the next Theoi film, he has to make it through the press for his solo movie. Which means cracking cheap jokes on late night talk shows, spending weeks apart from his girlfriend, and putting his all into promoting this movie.
He throws a camera smile onto his face. “But it’s been good, y’know? Like, it’s been so much fun getting to know these guys, bonding and stuff. Like traveling somewhere new for the first time. It was just amazing.” He tosses an arm around Chris and Lacy in the middle of that and the audience loves it.
Jimmy Fallon laughs. “I was hoping you’d say that,” he says, pulling some paddles from behind his desk, “because we’re going to play a little game…” He pauses for dramatic effect. A musical sting plays from the band. “Called ‘Know-star Your Co-star’!” Another pause. The audience goes wild again.
Chris, who’s closest to Jimmy, passes the paddles down to Percy and Lacy. The rules are simple: Jimmy will read out a fact about one of them, and the other two will have to decide if it’s true or not. Percy feels a pang of nostalgia. Yes, he’s gotten to know Chris and Lacy well in their four months of filming, but with Annabeth and Grover, he could have played this game blindfolded, locked alone in a room, and in his sleep.
“Okay, okay, let’s start,” Jimmy says, pulling out his cue cards. “When Chris was a child, he went camping with his mom and sister, and got lost looking for the bathroom.”
Percy and Lacy have probably heard this story a half dozen times each. It’s one of Chris’ favorites. “True,” they say in unison, flipping their paddles to the green side. A ‘ding!’ resonates through the studio. Jimmy laughs again.
“True!” he says, delighted. “Okay, next fact. When Percy was a child, he rescued a dolphin at the beach and named it Bessie.”
Chris and Lacy guess true, but one of the production assistants presses a button and a fart sound blasts for a couple seconds. This delights Jimmy even more, and Percy swears that he starts dancing in his seat. “No!” he shouts. “Oh, no, you were doing so well!”
Thanks to the game’s bylaws (no, that’s literally the word Jimmy uses, Percy really doesn’t want to be here much longer), Percy now has to tell the full story. “It wasn’t a dolphin,” he hedges.
Lacy sighs. “Don’t tell me. You rescued a clump of seaweed and named it.”
Percy feels his ears turning red. “Worse,” he says.
Chris puts his face in his hands and groans. “A crab?” he guesses.
“Worse.”
Jimmy only lets the silence ring for a moment before he starts pounding on his desk. “C’mon man, you have to tell us. It’s in the bylaws!”
Percy summons every ounce of his drama training and comedic timing. Letting an embarrassed smirk peel crack onto his face, he admits, “It was a jellyfish.”
“No!” Jimmy shouts, amazed. “No, you-you didn’t!”
“I did. And I’d do it again,” he claims, lying through his teeth. Bessie put him in the hospital overnight, draining his mom’s savings. They weren’t able to go back to Montauk for months after that.
Jimmy starts honest-to-goodness cackling. Chris and Lacy look at him like they’ve never seen him before, which is unfair considering the stories Grover told them when he visited set. They know he’s an idiot, this is hardly the most dangerous thing he’s done.
Lacy shakes her head. “I guess you’ve just been Aegean all along,” she jokes. The audience laughs, and the interview gets back on track.
His mom calls him that night, after seeing the episode. “You know what’s funny, sweetheart?” she says thoughtfully, “I’d actually forgotten about that particular episode. At the time, it scared me to pieces, but now…” she trails off and Percy can practically hear her shrug through the phone.
“Well, I don’t touch real jellyfish anymore,” he says.
She hums. “I love you, sweetheart,” she says.
“Love you too, Mom.”
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Camp Hemiaimos
Season 5, Episode 22, “Pickle and Via”
Act Four, Scenes Three and Four
The camera has just panned up to the moon as it transitions into a sunrise. It follows Pickle as he steps outside of a cabin and up behind a head of familiar blond curls.. “Hey,” he says quietly. She jumps. “You ran off last night. Skipped our traditional last-night-cuddle-puddle-until-dawn. It’s a lot more awkward when it’s just me and Jordy.”
“You and Jordy love cuddle puddles. If anything, it’s more awkward when I am there.” Via says flatly.
Pickle shrugs. “Yeah, but we miss you. And honestly, it’s kind of selfish of you.”
“Selfish?” Via sounds outraged.
“Yeah, we need you. Jordy and I are a great duo, but we’re all at our best as a group of three. It’s selfish of you to take away the part of us that makes us all better.” Pickle says this in a lighthearted, joking tone, but Via just turns away from him. “Hey, what’s going on?”
Via sighs. “I didn’t join the last-night-cuddle-puddle-until-dawn because I didn’t want to be reminded that–look, we’re leaving today, Pick.”
“I know, but we’ll have next summer! And Virginia’s not too far from New York, we’ll see each other.”
“No, we won’t!” Via snaps, turning to look him in the eye. Pickle seems surprised, but doesn’t break eye contact. “We won’t have other summers because next year, we’ll be CITs, not regular campers. It’ll never be the same again. And we won’t meet up during the year because–” she chokes up. Pickle has been shocked into silence. “–because my mom sued my dad for full custody after the Horseradish Incident, so I’m moving. To Greece.”
The camera cuts to a close up of Pickle’s face as he digests the news. Seconds pass in show-time and in real-time as his eyes widen from shock, then squint closed; his mouth hangs open; his expression crumples. Tears start leaking down his face and he makes a few audible hiccup sounds. “But–you can’t ! I– we need you! Greece is so–far away. What am–what are we supposed to do?”
The camera cuts away to a wider angle. Via scoots closer to Pickle and they wrap their arms around each other. There are tear tracks just barely visible on her face. The camera cuts close to them again. “It’s not fair,” she agrees. They sit without talking for a minute. The music picks up.
The camera cuts further away again. What follows is not edited in slow motion, but it feels that way. Pickle leans his forehead against Via’s. At a snail’s pace, giving her time to move away, he brushes their lips together. A second later he pulls away, and he and Via cling to each other. The final shot is of their arms around each others’ necks and their heads pressed to the other’s shoulder. More tears are visible dripping down their clothes.
The camera cuts abruptly to Hemiaimos Hill. The sun is higher in the sky, and the bottom of the hill is filled with cars. It’s pickup time. Jordy is sitting under a pine tree with minor characters from this season Paige (Katie Gardner), Bradley (Jake Mason), and Lizzie (Nyssa Barrera). All characters wear orange camper shirts with a pegasus flying over the camp name. These shirts have become synonymous with the show since their first appearance in the season one finale. The camera follows Jordy’s gaze as he looks up to see Via and Pickle walking from the direction of the cabins. “Where have you two been?” he calls.
We jump forward to a close up on Via and Pickle’s faces. The tear tracks are gone, but their eyes are still a little red. “Just avoiding going home,” Pickle says.
A counselor, in the same dark orange staff shirt that Sam wore in the pilot, runs up to them. “Olivia Horton? Your mom’s here to pick you up, time to say your goodbyes. We look forward to seeing you next summer!” She moves on quickly, not waiting for a response.
The camera cuts to Olivia’s face, which is starting to well up with tears again. Pickle enters the shot roughly, giving her a long, tight hug. Jordy wraps his arms around both of them. “Next summer?” he asks, voice cracking as he reaches the second word.
“Next summer,” Pickle promises, eyes trained on Via in an obvious question.
She nods. “Next summer,” she says, “no matter what.”
The camera cuts to her walking down the hill and a final close up on her shoes reveals that she and Pickle have exchanged shoelaces, a payoff from earlier episodes this season.
Slowly, the shot fades out and the credits start to roll.
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October 31, 2012
It has been six months since Camp Hemiaimos ended, and the vultures still haven’t caught on to the fact that Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are all living together.
To be fair, Grover’s gone all day doing rehearsals for his Broadway homecoming and bonding with his new costars (Percy’s only a little bit jealous), and Annabeth, technically, as a freshman at NYU, is living on campus (Percy is not at all jealous). To be even more fair, Percy will be moving to California at the end of the year and he has been spending all of his spare time wandering around the city to soak up all of its New York-ness. None of them spend enough time with each other or at home to be counted as “living together”. But Percy is still extremely satisfied at their combined stealth.
Take right now for example. Annabeth came back from the campus library fifteen minutes ago. Percy waited a whole five minutes to give her time to drop her stuff, double check that all of their curtains are closed and no vultures are outside, and grab the cheese plate he spent all morning arranging and rearranging, before dragging her onto his bed for an aggressive cuddle.
“Stealthy, patient, and cares about my wellbeing,” Annabeth says from his neck.
Percy tries to shrug, finds he can’t in this position, and gets a dissatisfied grunt from his girlfriend for his trouble. “What can I say,” he boasts, “you’ve just got the best boyfriend in the world.” He almost chokes over the word, for all that it’s been three years. But he’s paranoid that the secret’s gonna get out. So is Annabeth, but she’s always been a better actor than him.
She makes a muffled scoff. “I think you’ll find that you have the best girlfriend in the world, good sir.”
“No reason it can’t go both ways.”
Annabeth hums in agreement, then starts sucking kisses into his neck.
“Maybe I’m dating the best vampire in the world,” Percy says, slightly nonsensically. Then, before she can respond, “Hey, do you wanna watch the old new Twilight ?”
He feels Annabeth’s brow furrow against his collarbone. “The what now?”
“ Breaking Dawn 1. It used to be the new Twilight , but 2 is coming out next month. So it’s the old new Twilight .”
“What it is is a bad movie.”
“You love making fun of bad movies. And you can tell me all the ways you would have directed it differently.” Percy knows he’s right. He doesn’t know if Annabeth will admit it, though.
“You’re going to turn a two hour movie into an all afternoon event.”
“The only thing on my schedule today is chilling with you.”
“Grover’s going to kill us for watching a Twilight movie without him again.”
“Then we can haunt him for the rest of his life, turn every project into Camp . Win-win.”
“We’re going to run out of cheese.”
“You’re right,” Percy says, deepening his voice to sound more solemn. “I guess we can’t do it then. Gods forbid we ever run out of cheese.” Annabeth snickers. “You in?” he asks, dropping the accent.
Annabeth turns around so they’re back-to-front and she can see the TV. Percy gets a mouthful of her hair because he’s kind of an idiot, but it smells like lemon, so he’s not complaining. “Hell yeah.”
They don’t even make it past the title card. Percy’s okay with that, and tries not to think about how soon afternoons like these are going to be gone.
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“He’s Infuriating!”: What Camp Hemiaimos Stars REALLY Think About Each Other
By Michael Kahale, December 11, 2011
For the past six years, no TV show has captured our hearts like Camp Hemiaimos. The coming-of-age sitcom capitalized on the Greek trend brought on by Wolfgang Peterson’s Troy in 2005, but has created a fanbase all its own. Set at a Greek-themed summer camp on Long Island, viewers have, for the past six seasons, followed Percy Jackson’s Dylan “Pickle” McGraw, Annabeth Chase’s Olivia “Via” Horton, and Broadway golden boy Grover Underwood’s Jordan “Jordy” Matthews as they tackle first crushes, bullying, and whose bust looks the most like camp director Sean Pullman (Dionysus Bacchus). The series has catapulted child actors Jackson, Chase, and Underwood into international stardom and acclaim.
But how do these young stars feel about their fame?
I had the opportunity to sit down with the trio back in November, as they were filming the midseason finale of Camp’s seventh, and unfortunately final season. Here’s what they had to say:
MK: Wow, seven seasons. That’s quite an accomplishment.
AC: Thank you.
PJ: Yeah, it’s amazing.
MK: Does it feel like it’s been seven years? Obviously, you were all quite young when you started, but do you feel like that much time has passed?
AC: For sure. I mean, with our show, time passes in terms of summers. Every season premiere means that, in show time, another nine months have passed. Even though it hasn’t been that long between filming. So we have to look a little older than we actually are at the beginning of the season, which evens out by the end. It definitely helps us feel less stuck in time, from season to season.
GU: I think, too, we’ve literally got the proof on camera. Even if it doesn’t feel like two or three years have passed in real life, it does feel like that amount of time is passing on the show. And we’re the show, you know? *Laughs*
MK: How about you, Percy? Does it feel like seven years have passed?
PJ: Let me put it this way: When we started, I was the short one.
MK, AC, GU: *Laughs*
MK: Well, speaking of time, what are your favorite moments from the show? It’s coming to an end in the spring, sadly, but we’ll always have the good times.
PJ: I just loved shooting the second episode. It was a long time ago, but the back and forth at the breakfast table was so much fun. Dionysus was directing that episode, and he’s always pushing us to be faster and more intense, and really bring out the silly side. So that was just incredible to be directed like that, basically from the beginning.
AC: For the whole third season, the bit is that Via’s twin sister Libby (whom she’s pretending to be in the pilot and for all of season one) is also at camp this summer. But we never see her. She’s just always somewhere off-screen, and the audience is told about all of her hijinks, but we never see any of them. And that, honestly, was so fun. They brought on Thalia that season to play the new counselor, determined to catch Libby in the act, but all she sees is Via hanging out with her friends. It was completely ridiculous, and such a blast.
GU: Wow, mine is much less deep. *Laughs*
PJ, AC: *Laughs*
GU: Okay, we were midway through season four, filming maybe episode eleven or twelve. And I was waiting for my cue. And then, the props master hands me a kazoo and says, “Here you go.” And I’m like, “What?” And he was like, “Director said you’d know how to handle this.” And I did, but it was so strange to just be handed a kazoo. But I decided that this was going to be my bit for the rest of the season. So, with the props master's permission of course, I kept the kazoo. And at every opportunity, in the middle of a scene, I’d pull it out and start playing it. I think most of those performances were cut, which is probably a good thing, but I was determined to commit to the bit.
MK: Do you still have the kazoo?
GU: *With a wide grin* Well… *Pulls electric-lime-colored kazoo out of his pocket*
PJ, AC: *Laughs*
PJ: This is still his bit, by the way. We’ll be at, like, a fancy restaurant, or on the red carpet, and he’s got the kazoo in his pocket.
AC: He brought it out last night for dinner with Percy’s mom. Five straight minutes of “You Belong With Me” on the kazoo.
PJ: Yeah, that’s not what Taylor Swift intended with that song, man!
GU: Art is taking what other people made before you, and making it better.
AC: There’s no way to be better than Taylor Swift when your instrument is a kazoo.
PJ: I’m with Annabeth. Sorry, G-man.
GU: *Sticks his tongue out at his costars and spends the next few minutes serenading this reporter with various tunes not intended for the kazoo. When he starts playing “Defying Gravity”, everyone loses it. It takes several minutes for us to get back to the interview*
MK: *Still laughing* Okay, okay. Well, I know you guys have a lot of work to do, so I just have one more question. How has this show changed you? And are you going to miss it?
AC: Of course we’re going to miss the show! I mean, it’s been our whole lives for the past seven years.
GU: There’s never going to be another project like it, man.
PJ: C’mon guys, you’re gonna make me cry. *Sniffles dramatically* No, but for real, it’s–we’ve grown up here, you know. I grew my first piece of facial hair on set.
AC: Are you sure about that?
PJ: *Shoves AC*
AC: *Falls over, laughing*
PJ: *Making full eye contact with GU as he speaks* Why do we put up with her again?
GU: She’s a killer scene partner.
AC: Why do you put up with me? You guys are infuriating, you should be asking why I put up with you? Especially you, Seaweed Brain. *Shoves PJ*
PJ: *Leans back to avoid the shove, loses his balance, and falls anyway*
AC, GU: *Laughs*
PJ: *Gets up, gesturing rudely* Anyway, as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted–
AC: You were saying something?
PJ: *Gestures even more rudely. If this was a video, we’d have to edit out his entire arm* As I was saying. We’ve grown up here. We had the amazing opportunity to go through all of our “firsts” twice: first as our characters, and then later, for real. I mean, Grover and Annabeth both got to be my first kiss.
GU: *Laughs so hard he also falls over* C’mon, Perce, Michael asked for the truth. *Facing me* We’ve never kissed. Unless you count Pickle and Jordy cheek kissing in season three. *Turns to PJ and AC* Remember that?
PJ: *Sarcastically* Do I remember the week we were all inexplicably French and in the French Revolution? Hmmm, let me think.
AC: Oh come on, it was a pretty good metaphor for Thalia's character’s reign of terror.
GU: *Laughs* Chiron had to call in Aphrodite because our French accents were so bad.
PJ, AC: *Laughs*
PJ: I guess, what’s changed the most about me since this show started is that now I have two ride-or-die best friends.
AC: Me too.
GU: Me three.
PJ, AC, GU: *Laughs*
PJ: Honestly, I just feel so lucky. But it’s not over yet! We’ve still got a bunch of episodes to film, and we can’t wait for the viewers at home to see them!
MK: Very true! I, personally, cannot wait! Is there anything you can tell me about what’s going to happen before we part ways?
AC: Sorry, Michael.
PJ: Sorry, dude.
MK: Well, I’ll be on the edge of my seat to find out. It’s been so great to chat with you three, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season!
PJ: Yeah, thanks!
AC: This was great.
GU: Well, back to the grind, I guess. *Groans comedically getting out of his chair* Not as young as I used to be.
PJ, AC: *Laughs*
Well, it’s clear that these young stars have big futures in front of them. We here at PEOPLE Magazine can’t wait to see what they do next. Just, maybe without the kazoo.
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Grey’s Anatomy
Season 8, Episode 11 “This Magic Moment”
Act One, Scene Four
After a transition from the Pit, the show’s nickname for the ER, the scene opens in a patient room. For a moment, the camera settles on the bed, where a boy of about sixteen or seventeen lays, wearing a hospital gown. He has dark hair and sea-green eyes. A middle aged woman stands next to the bed. A name tag is pinned to her red blouse, identifying her as “Mandy”, the general manager of Target.
The camera pans up and to the right as Dr. Alex Karev enters the room. Alex smiles at the boy and woman, body language tense. “How are you doing this morning, Carson?” Carson shrugs. “Any issues overnight?” He directs this question at an entering Nurse Tyler Christian, who shakes his head.
“Dr. Karev,” Mandy says, “the surgery is still today, right? We’ve, I mean, Carson’s been waiting for weeks.”
Carson rolls his eyes, but continues to say nothing.
Alex flashes a smile at Mandy. The audience can tell that it’s fake, but it’s enough to reassure her. “Today is still the plan. The sooner we get it done, the better Carson’s chances are to be able to take Keira to prom, right buddy?” Carson turns his head away from Mandy and Alex.
Nurse Tyler checks Carson’s IV, then grins at him. “You’re all good to go.” He exits the room.
Mandy nods, then pats Carson on the shoulder. He doesn’t acknowledge her, but she doesn’t seem fazed. “I’m going to get something from the gift shop, honey. Then I’m gonna call your dad, he’ll be here before you go into surgery, and we’ll both be here when you get out, okay?” She pauses. The camera catches Carson’s next eye roll, then pans to Alex’s face. He seems unsurprised by this exchange. Mandy waits another moment for a response, then sighs audibly and leaves.
Alex raises his eyebrows in Carson’s direction. “You ready, bud?”
“ I’ve been ready for weeks. She’s the one who’s losing her mind over it.”
“She’s your mom, kid, that’s kind of what they do,” Alex points out.
“Stepmom,” Carson corrects, “and it hasn’t even been a year since the wedding.”
“She’s making an effort.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want her here. I want my mom.”
Alex sighs and takes a seat next to Carson’s bed. “I know. And I bet it’s hurting that she’s the one who’s here all the time, and not your dad, huh?”
Carson huffs. “‘He’ll be here before you go into surgery’,” he mimics, “‘And we’ll both be here when you get out.’ I know that. Me and Dad have done this before. I know the shtick.”
“This time is a little different, though. Dr. Swender and I think that this’ll be your last surgery. And you’ve got great odds, chances are you’ll be more than recovered before prom tickets even go on sale.”
“I don’t care about that,” Carson snaps. “I don’t care about prom! And it’s not like I’m going to be fine. Dr. Swender keeps reminding me that metastatic melanoma is almost never cured.”
“First of all,” Alex says, “you’re right about what Dr. Swender said. But even though it’s rare for your melanoma to be cured fully, we can stop its growth and take out the tumor. That’s what we’re doing today, taking out the physical tumor. Second of all, what about Keira?” Alex asks, “You’ve been talking about her the whole time I’ve known you. Hell, Nurse Tyler told me she visited you after your last surgery.”
“That was my cousin, Sarah . Not Keira. There is no Keira, Dr. Alex. And even if I make it through the surgery, there’s no way I’m going to prom.”
“Why not?” The camera, which has been cutting between Alex and Carson’s faces as they speak, settles on Carson. He flops onto his back, emitting a groan of pain. Alex stands up immediately, but Carson glares at him.
“Because I’m the weird cancer kid. I’ve been in and out of school for the past two years, all of my friends have moved on.”
“That’s harsh.”
“That’s high school. They’ve got APs and college apps. They’ve got the rest of their lives to worry about. I…” Carson sighs, never finishing his sentence.
Alex stays quiet for a moment, face showing his contemplation. As he opens his mouth, Carson interrupts. “Look,” he says, “I see my mom. Can you go tell her everything you already told Mandy? I want to nap before the surgery starts.” He turns away from Alex.
The camera follows Alex’s gaze through the window of the hotel room. There’s no one there. The background music picks up, heightening the tension.
The music cuts out abruptly and the scene fades away as the title card begins to play.
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[img.jpg]
Check these out! @annabethchs @groverfun
image description: from Percy Jackson (@percyjacks)’s Instagram. four photos of percy, annabeth, and grover from shooting the first season of Camp Hemiaimos . in all photos, percy is wearing a blue Aegean T-shirt and ultra low-rise black shorts, annabeth is wearing a gray half sweater, a green shirt with gold hearts, and low-rise jeans, and grover is wearing a baby blue plaid sweater vest over a yellow, long sleeved shirt, and khakis. in the first photo, percy and annabeth stand on either side of grover, each with their back to him and their arms crossed against their chests, faux-scowling. in the second, grover carries percy piggy-back while annabeth holds up peace signs. the third is a sweet photo of all of them with their arms around each other. the fourth is an extreme close-up of their faces.
@annabethchs: Forgot how short you used to be! LOL!!!
512 likes
@percyjacks: forgot how many layers they used to stick you in! Lol!
685 likes
@groverfun: Forgot how much hair I used to have!
394 likes
@percyjacks: c’mon G-man, you’ve got enough to count!
501 likes
@clarisselarue: yeah, you won’t even need both hands!
311 likes
13,213 likes
January 22, 2015
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Campers, assemble! #CampHemiaimos #Reunion #SDCC
image description: from Annabeth Chase (@annabethchs)’s Instagram. two photos of the main and recurring child cast from all seasons of Camp Hemiaimos , now grown up. from left to right, all wearing the iconic orange camper shirts: Katie Gardner, Travis Stoll, Connor Stoll, Jake Mason , Clarisse La Rue, Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace, Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood , Malcolm Pace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Miranda Gardiner, Austin Lake, Nyssa Barrera, and Kayla Knowles
@percyjacks: one row! one row! one row!
607 likes
@travisssss: one row! one row! one row!
@leovaldez: one row! one row! one row!
@thalia: here’s to the people who were there, and the ones who couldn’t be
899 likes
@annabethchs: tagged or not, photographed or not, still working or not, we couldn’t have made this show without you
1,037 likes
15,283 likes
July 22, 2016
[img.jpg]
true GOATs
image description: from Grover Underwood (@groverfun)’s Instagram. one selfie of grover, in costume as Christopher Columbus in Father Syphilis, A New Musical , annabeth, and percy (clothes not visible). the background of the picture is the interior of the Zeus’ Fist Theater on Broadway
@percyjacks: the joke is that g-man’s character on camp owned goats
432 likes
liked by author
@annabethchs: the joke is that grover actually has a pet goat because of his character on camp
402 likes
liked by author
@groverfun: hey, no badmouthing about ferdinand
11,727 likes
December 1, 2018
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August 31, 2005
“So,” Percy says, “you’ve worked with Luke before?” Filming wrapped early today, so it’s only 9. The two of them are lying on the blue Aegean rug in Percy’s trailer, something that’s become a pattern over the last several weeks.
Annabeth nods. “Twice, actually. The second project is a movie that isn't out yet, so I can’t say anything. But two years ago, we were on Gilmore Girls together. I was playing young Rory, and he was one of Lane’s bandmates.”
“You had scenes together?” Percy doesn’t know a lot about Gilmore Girls , but he’s pretty sure Rory and Lane are the same age. Annabeth and Luke aren’t.
Annabeth laughs. “Not even close. But,” she shrugs, “we were on set some of the same days, and happened to talk a bit. He was nice to me. Told me stories from other projects and gave me acting advice. When I told him I wanted to be a director, he didn’t laugh.”
“Did you know you were going to be here together?”
Annabeth rolls her eyes, blushing a bit. “We’re not, like, friends . He’s nineteen, for one. My stepmom would never let that happen.”
“But you were glad to see him?” Percy’s not quite sure of the emotions bubbling up from the depths of his stomach. Luke seems super nice, and maybe it’s just that they’re so much younger than him, but there’s something… off. He seems a little like he’s still acting, even off camera.
“Totally. Familiar faces, you know?”
Percy doesn’t know, actually. The only familiar face on set for him is his mom. He does know that he feels like such a newbie compared to Annabeth, who’s been in a dozen shows and movies already. Percy’s played side characters in two DCOMs and got a callback that went nowhere for Malcolm in the Middle . Next to Annabeth, he feels… inadequate doesn’t even begin to cover it.
He nods, trying to seem cool. Annabeth probably sees right through him, but she’s nice enough to pretend that she doesn’t.
“Have you read The Theoi ?” she asks. Percy sits up so fast the blood rushes to his head.
“Are you kidding me?” he yelps, putting his hand up to his throbbing forehead and wincing as his vision yellows out for a moment. “I love The Theoi.”
Annabeth’s face lights up and he tugs her up so they can sit face to face. He’s never seen her this excited, not even when his mom brought her famous blue chocolate chip cookies to set for the first day of filming. “Okay,” she looks serious, but Percy can see the twinkle remaining in her eyes, “who’s the best Captain Rome?”
“Julian Aurelius, no competition,” Percy says promptly, not even thinking about it. “I mean, come on. He’s got the best costume, the best arc, and he’s the only one who’s consistently remembered that being Captain Rome isn’t just about your morals or playing politics, it’s about helping people in need.” As he rants, he sees Annabeth nodding, gray eyes intense and unblinking.
“ Exactly ,” she says fervently, as soon as the last word has left his mouth, “Marc Antonius had every opportunity in the world, the most experienced writers, the biggest wave of support, perfect timing for popularity’s sake, and he was wasted . August Caesar was just riding Julian’s coattails the entire time, benefitting from the hard work Julian put in. And don’t even get me started about Hadrian Aelius. I mean, the British Campaign? More like the British Cam- pain . Oh my gods, every one of his issues was a slog .”
“Julian was the only Captain Rome done right ,” Percy insists. “I couldn’t believe it when Polymetis killed him.”
Annabeth rolls her eyes. “ Hellas vs. Rome was horrible. They spent twelve issues building up this rivalry between the Hellenes and the Romans, promising that so much is going to go down, and the only thing that happens is Polymetis tricks Julian into jumping off of a cliff and Medeia telling Iason that she’s pregnant. Like, did they not have a more clever way to tell us that the Hellenes and Romans aren’t equal and never will be?”
“They kind of redeemed themselves with Rise of the Cunning Ones , though,” Percy points out, “I mean, yeah, August sucked. But watching him go toe to toe with Polymetis while the rest of the team is battling Horus the Avenger and the Odinites was genius. ”
“Only because the two of them can’t get their heads out of their butts when the team needs them to pull it together,” Annabeth says.
Percy rolls his eyes. “Yeah, but this is the Theoi. Their heads are always in their butts when it comes to getting along.” Somehow, this comment triggers Annabeth’s laugh. It comes out quickly, with no warning, and lasts nearly fifteen seconds. It’s full and genuine, nothing like the stuttering, huffy laughs that Annabeth gives Via. Percy thinks it suits her perfectly.
He tries to continue their conversation, but it feels weak to his ears. “What about the reveal of Menotiades? They’ve been referring to him since Pelides was introduced, it was a big moment when he was revealed.”
Annabeth rolls her eyes. “Such a disappointment. It was so clear that they took their inspiration from Troy , not from the actual story. And then they thought they could disguise what they were doing by having Menotiades explicitly reference his wife and Pelides kiss the Amazonian Queen? Lazy, lazy writing.”
“How would you write it?” Percy asks.
Annabeth’s eyes gleam. “Well, Pelides and Menotiades are based off of Achilles and Patroclus from the Iliad . So, if I was telling their story, I’d forget the superhero angle, and just write them .”
“Like Troy ?”
“ So much better than Troy . For starters, let them be together, like they clearly are in the text. And Briseis would get to be so much more than just Patroclus’ wife. I’d have her plotting Agamemnon’s murder the whole time, probably. Because the Greek army in the story doesn’t work together any better than the Theoi do. They all hate each other. And at the end, I wouldn’t kill them. ‘Bury your gays’ is such a stupid ending. No, Achilles, Patroclus, and Briseis would go off and have their own adventures, away from Greece and Troy and the gods.”
“Who would play them?” Percy asks, because he’s not sure what else to say. Like always, Annabeth’s got so many more ideas than she’s saying. Honestly, he can’t wait until she starts directing.
This question seems to stop Annabeth. “Right now?” she asks. He nods. “I… don’t know.” Her face screws up while she mutters it, as though the words hurt her to say.
“What about in ten years?” Percy asks. He doesn’t like seeing Annabeth so upset at her own uncertainty.
Again, Annabeth has to take a moment to think. “Honestly,” she says, sounding nervous and reluctant, “I think you could be a pretty good Patroclus. You’ve got the right…” She pauses again, “you’re, like, well, Patroclus has this, like–stop looking at me like that!”
Percy hadn’t been aware that he was looking at Annabeth in any particular way at all. “Stop looking at you like what?”
“Like–, like–, oh, just stop!”
Percy doesn't know how to stop something he doesn’t know he’s doing, so he just looks away. He says, “So you’d change the ending? But aren’t you mad at Troy for changing the story?”
He’s not looking at her, but he just knows that she’s rolling her eyes. “This is different.”
“If you say so. How do you know so much about the Iliad , anyway?”
Annabeth sighs. “My stepmom is a Classics professor. Homer was her choice of bedtime stories after my half-brothers were born.”
Her tone has turned melancholic (a word Percy learned for their current script), so Percy pulls back and retreats to safer topics. “What did you think of the reveal that Romulus killed his brother?”
Annabeth snorts. “I mean, it was predictable, but well played, I think. But I totally called it the second he was introduced.”
“There was just no way that he was that perfect,” Percy agrees. For the rest of the afternoon, Percy and Annabeth stay like that, sitting up on Percy’s rug and geeking out about comic books.
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Swift Footed (2021)
Act One, Scene Two
The camera pans from green grass to two young men, one dark and the other golden. Each carries a bronze sword and they are in constant movement, ducking, slashing, and leaping. As the camera comes closer, the exhilarated glee on the golden man’s face becomes apparent, as do the other man’s knitted eyebrows.
A Mycenaean-style palace is visible in the distance, behind the men. Both are wearing woolen tunics, with belts at the waist. Although they are sparring with swords, neither is wearing protective equipment. The camera focuses on the dark man’s arm as the golden man’s sword slashes into it, drawing blood.
The golden man lets out a gleeful yelp and drops his sword, tackling the dark man to the ground. The camera falls with the men, until it’s eye-level and focused on their upper bodies. They lie there for a moment, until the dark man groans. “Achilles, you weigh as much as an ox. Off, off!”
The golden man, Achilles, laughs, and does as he’s told. “Do you need me to wrap your wound?”
The dark one snorts and leans up. The camera follows him. “Yes, because you’re our physician.”
“Chiron taught me the same as he taught you.”
“He did not. He taught you enough to keep yourself alive. He taught me enough to keep us both alive.” The dark man says dryly.
The camera pans back to Achilles, who leans up and presses his forehead against the dark man. He rips a sash from the bottom of his tunic, and moves the other man’s hand where it’s pressing against the open wound. Eyes locked on each other, green to brown, Achilles wraps the scrap of fabric from his tunic around where the blood pools out. “You aren’t doing such a good job of it,” he says quietly.
The dark man rolls his eyes. “You scratched me and we both know it. If you were really trying to hurt me–”
“Never say such a thing,” Achilles says, eyes refusing to blink. The camera cuts to behind the dark man, focusing on the intensity of Achilles’ face. “I would never try to hurt you, Patroclus. Never. But even my scratches might go deeper–”
The camera cuts to the other side, focusing on Patroclus’ green eyes. “You are not that careless with me. You never have been.”
“I have never meant to be. That does not mean–”
“I am the healer,” Patroclus reminds him. “And I have been sparring with you since our tenth spring. I know you, and you know me. Your bloodlust is unrestrained, but not with me. Now come,” he falls back down, pulling Achilles with him, “as the healer, I say that I need one of your fine kisses to close my cut.”
Achilles laughs and the camera falls back into the same position as before. Now that Patroclus’ injury has been wrapped, neither one seems concerned by Achilles’ weight on Patroclus. “You want me to kiss you better?” he teases.
Patroclus raises an eyebrow. “Yes, that’s what I just said. Do you listen to me ever, or–” he is cut off by the press of Achilles’ lips against his own.
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Annabeth Chase’s Latest Project Has Us All Seeing Stars
By Bea Wise, February 16, 2020
On Friday morning, at exactly 8 AM ET, Oscar-winning director Annabeth Chase announced her upcoming movie, Swift Footed . Your first reaction might be, “why is this newsworthy?” In the six years since her feature-length directorial debut, Burnt Cookies , Ms. Chase has released four films. Swift Footed is right on schedule, announced just six months after her last movie left theaters. You would be right. The announcement on its own isn’t any more newsworthy than any other director announcing their next project.
But it isn’t about the existence of the announcement. It’s about the content.
[img.jpg]
So excited to announce my newest project, @SwiftFootedMovie in partnership with @HellenesStudios and @ChironBrunner. Swift Footed will be out June 12th!
image description: from Annabeth Chase (@annabethchs)’s Instagram. one video, three images. the first: a video. the trailer for Swift Footed . the second: its movie poster. two men, achilles (played by jason grace) and patroclus (played by percy jackson), stand in front of a Mycenaean-style palace. a woman, briseis (played by hazel levesque) stands off to the side, on a beach. the third: annabeth from the back, seated in a director’s chair, blond hair up in a ponytail. the fourth: annabeth, wearing a black top, jeans, and headphones around her neck, posing with percy jackson (@percyjacks), hazel levesque (@hazelmarielevesque) and jason grace (@thejasongrace), all in costume. all four of them are smiling
Ms. Chase started working as a child actor more than twenty years ago, working in commercials for Target, the Gap, and PBS. Her first major role was as a young, flashback-only Rory Gilmore in season three of Gilmore Girls . Two years later, she achieved international attention and acclaim for her portrayal of Olivia “Via” Horton from 2005 to 2012 on the HBC coming of age sitcom Camp Hemiaimos . But since Camp ended, Ms. Chase has chosen instead to pursue directing, spending three semesters at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She rarely discusses her time as an actor, saying in 2018, “My childhood has undeniably shaped me. The choices that were made for me have made me who I am. But I would not make those choices for myself, nor for any young person on my set.” (The Guardian, “Stepping Up and Stepping Down”, 2018) Although she was quoted that same year as maintaining the love of Greek mythology that originally drew her to Camp , she has not explored the genre creatively in the past eight years.
In the interview with Good Morning America that accompanied the movie announcement, Ms. Chase said of her vision for this movie, “I knew going in that this had to be better than Troy . Even when I was eleven years old, watching Troy for the first time, I was thinking about all of the things I would have done differently. It was arrogant, of course. But when I think back, even now, to my eleven year old self, I can’t call her wrong. […] The Iliad is such a great story, and I’m so lucky to have been exposed to it so early on. When I revisited it a couple of years ago, I was thrown by how much of the story had been missed the first time around. At its core, it’s a character-driven story about a prince who knows what he wants and deserves, a king who can’t let go of what he wants and thinks he deserves, and all of the people caught in their crossfire. And you can’t tell that character-driven story without the romantic love between Achilles and Patroclus, and how much they both love Briseis. It just doesn’t work, and that’s why Troy doesn’t work. I knew, as I was going into this film, that the world was ready for it, in a way that we weren’t sixteen years ago.”
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image description: screenshot of annabeth, wearing a sea-green blouse and black slacks, sitting on a plush stool on the Good Morning America set
Now that the scene has been appropriately set, let me explain the true purpose of this article: to gush about the casting. Jason Grace, the man who brought the period piece back into style as Louis XIV in Zeus Jupiter’s Sun King (2015), and cemented his legacy as the man in tights in Hades Pluto’s Verona , as Achilles? And Percy Jackson, who, in a ten episode run on Grey’s Anatomy , successfully convinced us all that his character was going to live to come out to his parents and go to prom with his boyfriend, as Patroclus? These two? As both halves of one of the most famous and tragic couples in history and in the history of storytelling? I wanted to scream when I saw the news. My younger self, who grew up watching Camp Hemiaimos, is screaming right now. (Don’t even get me started on Hazel Levesque as Briseis. That’s a whole ’nother article)
And I’m not the only one. In the two days since the film and main cast were announced, thousands have taken to social media to proclaim their excitement for the movie. Amongst the expected thirsting over hot young actors, there is a serious discussion taking place about what Ms. Chase and Mr. Jackson’s return to working together means for the future. As someone shaped in part by the on-screen relationship between Pickle McGraw and Via Horton, I must insert myself into the excitement. Does the existence of Swift Footed mean a Camp Hemiaimos reunion is imminent? Does Grover Underwood ( Camp Hemiaimos , Father Syphilis ) have a secret cameo? Are we as a society ever going to get an answer about what Thalia Grace (best known as lead guitar and backup dancer for Artemis and the Hunters) meant when she said on the red carpet at last year’s VMAs that Mr. Jackson and Ms. Chase “as close as ever”? Only time will tell.
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July 12, 2009
“…Happy Birthday, dear Annabeth. Haaaaappy Biiiirthdaaaaay tooooo youuuuuuu,” Percy warbles extra long on the last line because he knows Annabeth hates it. Sure enough, she rolls her eyes exactly on beat before blowing out the candles on her birthday cake.
It’s 12:01 AM. They’ve stolen a secret moment for themselves in New York’s July heat (still disgustingly muggy for all that it’s the middle of the night), where they can pretend for a few hours that they’re normal teenagers celebrating Annabeth’s sixteenth birthday in Percy’s mom’s apartment. Hours earlier, when Annabeth was shooting a scene for the season six premiere with some of their new cast members, Percy snuck off into a local bakery in Long Island. He’d ordered the cake almost a week ago, having painstakingly written the design description, and even pulled in his mom to make sure all of the words were spelled correctly. It’s decorated with a blue and yellow beach scene and a gray fondant owl. The words ‘Happy 16th Birthday Wise Girl’ are piped across in sparkly sea-green frosting, Annabeth’s favorite color. Truthfully, there’s enough cake to feed twenty people, so they’ll probably bring the leftovers to set tomorrow. But tonight is just for the two of them.
Annabeth leans her head on his shoulder. It’s a move born of their three week ‘relationship’ in the middle of filming season four, when Percy bought her flowers exactly once and Annabeth kissed his cheek a whole three times. The relationship had died out quickly, neither of them ready for anything like that, but they both continue to cling to the intimacy. “Thank you for this,” she says softly. It’s unusually Via-like for Annabeth, who usually sheds any trace of her character whenever they aren’t filming.
Percy wraps an arm around her shoulder and squeezes it. “Of course,” he says. He doesn’t ask if her mom has called. He doesn’t ask if she has other plans. He definitely doesn’t ask if she’s heard from Luke. Some things are better left pretending that they don’t exist. Tonight, unlike the outside world, is just for the two of them.
“Percy,” Annabeth says, “I don’t want things to change.”
Percy pulls away in surprise. Annabeth won’t meet his eyes. “Me neither,” he admits.
Here are the things they’re both leaving unsaid: the vultures have been making not-so-veiled references for months to Annabeth’s 16th birthday, the day the law lets anyone officially comment on her body without repercussions. (They had watched with bated breath what happened to Miley Cyrus and Emma Watson; they know it’s coming.) Percy’s mom is pregnant. Luke was arrested two weeks ago. The latest issue of Aegean killed off Eugenios’ wife and two of their kids.
Thinking too hard about any of these things will destroy the quiet night they’ve worked so hard to create for themselves. They don’t have to film anything. Percy’s mom and stepdad are at Paul’s parents’ house in New Jersey. Grover’s asleep. Thalia is on tour with Artemis and the Hunters. It’s the first time in almost a month that Percy and Annabeth have been on their own.
Maybe the mood is getting to Percy. Maybe he’s going directly against what Annabeth just said, that she doesn’t want things to change. Maybe this is going to ruin what they’ve got.
But maybe…
He stares at her, long enough that anyone else would have looked away. Annabeth meets his gaze without any sign of discomfort or fear in her eyes. He keeps them open as he leans closer. Right before their lips brush, he stops.
He’ll never be able to explain that. When he and Annabeth actually have their first kiss on his birthday a month later, she will ask him why he pulled away. He’ll stammer out something half-true and she’ll change the subject. Thalia will crack a joke about him being a Kelp Head. Grover will pat him on the back and assure him that no one thinks less of him for not kissing Annabeth on the night he organized just for the two of them. His mom will smile at him and tell him that she’s proud of him. And in the end, he and Annabeth will both say nothing, keeping Annabeth’s sixteenth birthday just for the two of them.
It doesn’t matter, after all. The story ends the same way. A boy, a girl, a birthday cake, and a fleeting, cherished moment of privacy. A kiss. The rest of their lives.