A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Director Who Dominates OTT

Episode 12

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D.P is a company celebrating its 11th anniversary this year, and I’ve spent 7 long years together with them.

Naturally, I couldn’t help but know well about the actors and employees belonging to D.P.

I also have a deep connection, or rather a deep grudge, with Director Jang Ki-un.

Director Jang was the new manager assigned to me after Seong Tae hyung’s resignation.

He wasn’t a newcomer, but an experienced hire scouted from another company.

To add some TMI, he was a personnel choice that President Yun ambitiously prepared to make me a star.

But in reality, I constantly clashed with Director Jang.

The reason was simple.

I hated the way he worked.

I also knew that this industry was show business, and that there was little you could do with pure acting skills alone.

But even so, I believed that acting was the most important element for an actor.

Commercial appeal that channels and production companies want is also important, but I thought that acting was at the essence of it all.

However, Director Jang was someone who saw acting skills as an illusion.

He was someone who thought that as long as you had minimal technique, it was a matter of who packaged you and how.

Up to this point, I could respect it as a difference in values, but Director Jang’s ‘how’ usually involved making someone uncomfortable.

If there was a role he wanted, he was someone who would create scandals about the predetermined candidate to seize it.

If he could manage it, he was someone who would find weaknesses in directors, writers, and even channels.

I didn’t want to work that way, and eventually Director Jang and I parted ways.

Our ending was raw criticism directed at each other.

After that, whenever he saw me, he would needle me asking if I was satisfied with my life as a good unknown actor…

“Taking charge of a project right after joining the company. I guess CE suits you?”

His look in his eyes now isn’t much different.

He was looking down on me completely.

“Director Jang Ki-un. If you came here to work, then let’s work.”

“Sure, whatever. If you want to preserve your pride that way.”

Director Jang, who chuckled, held out several clipped documents.

When I looked to see what it was, it was data that converted the intangible value that actor Kim Ra-un possessed into concrete numbers.

“Let’s talk frankly. You know this deal is clearly a loss for us, right?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I came knowing the situation. We’ll absorb the loss on the fee. 150 million per episode. But since it’ll be probed from various places if the reduced rate gets revealed, it’s strictly confidential, and payment in full upon contract signing, not installments.”

If Kim Ra-un is 150 million, then they’re definitely taking a loss.

These days on OTT, decent A-list actors receive 300-400 million per episode, and Kim Ra-un is above that level.

I don’t know for sure, but casting discussions would probably start at 400 million.

“In return, half of the domestic marketing budget will be used exclusively for the lead actor, and we’ll take the reins.”

Director Jang continued to present various other conditions after that.

Listening to him, he’s definitely competent.

His attitude was arrogant, but he didn’t make any particularly unreasonable demands.

Listening to each one, it was to the degree where you’d think ‘that much is reasonable for casting Kim Ra-un,’ bit by bit.

But the direction of the discussion was wrong.

“Director Jang Ki-un.”

“What is it?”

“You’re speaking as if actor Kim Ra-un’s casting has been confirmed.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to pretend to consider it? Don’t you know what it means for Kim Ra-un to join a project of this level? It’ll instantly become a highly anticipated work for the first half of next year.”

I know. I know it well.

“The protagonist has already been decided.”

“That nobody who does agent stuff or whatever?”

“That doesn’t seem like appropriate language to refer to someone who’s not present.”

“Is it appropriate to compare such a person with actor Kim Ra-un?”

“I’ve never made a comparison. I’m stating facts to you.”

“Have you signed the role contract? Did Tivic give the okay?”

“Not yet. But it will be soon.”

Jang Ki-un, who had been staring at me quietly, changed his tone.

“Dohyeon-u. Being stubborn again?”

“…”

“Did you already forget what happens when you’re stubborn?”

Well, what. I haven’t forgotten.

It’s about the last role that Director Jang brought me.

It was a good opportunity.

The role was good, the work was good, and the production was good too.

But that was an opportunity that Director Jang had stolen by exposing the predetermined candidate’s scandal.

As soon as I learned that fact, I declined the appearance, but a few days later I got a call from the director.

He said I had shown enough moral conscience, so I should pretend to be unable to resist and appear.

I don’t know the detailed circumstances, but it seems the director was also involved in the scandal.

Judging by how he contacted me to handle it as quietly as possible.

So my decision was to refuse.

But this made the director extremely uncomfortable, and for a while my name was mentioned as blacklisted among directors.

“Didn’t you learn back then? That being stubborn leads to regret?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You’ll get fired if this fails, right? And not just fired, but tied up in hiring irregularities and making noise. Do you think you’ll be able to go to other OTTs then?”

Interesting.

How did he find out about that too.

“You must really covet our project. You even do thorough background checks.”

But there’s something that Jang Ki-un, who acts like he knows everything, doesn’t know.

“I have never once regretted what I did that day.”

Mother is watching from heaven.

If I couldn’t make it, then I couldn’t make it, but I couldn’t do shameful things.

Rather, if I had given in to temptation, I would have regretted it for a long time.

“I know Director Jang as well as you know about me.”

“…”

“You’re not originally someone who works this way, are you? Right?”

If you’re going to find weaknesses, do it properly.

If there are no weaknesses, whether it’s money, alcohol, drugs, whatever, properly scratch where it itches.

That’s Jang Ki-un’s method.

Coming out ambiguously like now meant he didn’t have anything to grab and shake me with.

The same goes for Eum Seong-hyeon’s side.

Sure enough, Director Jang’s face, which had been full of emotion, instantly became expressionless.

“Too shallow? Well yeah, you’ve probably become at least a frog by now.”

“You act well. At that level, shouldn’t you be an actor instead of a manager?”

“Whatever, so you’re really going to put that friend called Eum Seong-hyeon as the lead?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Why on earth?”

Director Jang seemed genuinely puzzled.

“If he’s attached as the lead? You’ll have to fill all the supporting roles with newcomers too, right? Any actor with self-respect wouldn’t even glance at casting where some nobody they’ve never heard of is first.”

“…”

“What angle will the channel use for promotion? Cinderella? Don’t make me laugh. Korea doesn’t welcome Cinderellas without foundation.”

“…”

“An actor who only pursued acting even when about to starve to death succeeding is completely different from an unknown idol succeeding in acting. It might be different if it were an ordinary person.”

Those were Seong Tae’s words, and they’re undeniable.

People are likely to view Eum Seong-hyeon through the frame of just being an idol.

“Then what merit does Eum Seong-hyeon even have?”

“His acting suits the work.”

“So what? How many works have failed despite good scripts and good acting? Do you want to make a work that gets discovered by YouTubers years later as a ‘hidden masterpiece’? By the time it makes a comeback, you won’t even be at Tivic anymore.”

Director Jang tapped the documents on the table with his index finger.

“One is Ra-un, two or three would be actors a level below him. If you like Eum Seong-hyeon that much, suggest him for role four or five. That’s the best option, and we’ll accept it.”

“…”

“If you reject even this proposal, you’re just projecting your unknown days onto Eum Seong-hyeon’s face.”

I smiled bitterly at Director Jang’s words.

Originally, I was going to hold back my words considering my relationship with Kim Ra-un, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to work.

Now I’m not an actor under D.P, but a general director responsible for a single work.

Whatever conversation we have here will leak out somehow, so I can’t show a wishy-washy attitude.

“There’s some misunderstanding here. I didn’t cast Eum Seong-hyeon as the lead for his sake. I cast Eum Seong-hyeon for the sake of the work.”

It’s true that I felt sympathy for Eum Seong-hyeon.

But there’s no sympathy in my casting decision.

If Eum Seong-hyeon’s acting hadn’t helped the work, I would have helped Eum Seong-hyeon in a different way.

At that moment, Kim Ra-un, who had been keeping his mouth shut the whole time, interjected.

“Are you saying that person is a better actor than me?”

“Of course not. You can’t compare the two in terms of acting.”

Maybe in five years, but right now it’s ridiculous.

“Hyeon-wu hyung.”

I hesitated at the personal address that suddenly popped out, then opened my mouth.

“Yeah.”

“You were always like that, hyung. You’d tell Jae-yeon and Jae-hyeok hyung everything on your mind, but you always kept a line with me.”

We’ve grown distant now, but we were quite close during our unknown days.

The four of us together saw dozens of plays and hundreds of movies, including Seo Jae-yeon, who’s called the pillar of D.P, and Jae-hyeok hyung.

All four of us were newcomers who joined the company around the same time.

We became distant when Kim Ra-un took the role that Director Jang offered me, which I had rejected.

Kim Ra-un became a rising star overnight with that role, but it seemed to weigh on his mind.

But I never once criticized Kim Ra-un’s choice.

I don’t mean I just didn’t say it out loud – I didn’t criticize him in my heart either.

I actually thought it was fortunate that Kim Ra-un took it.

Director Jang had exposed the scandal of his original choice purely because of me.

The moment I declined, wouldn’t the result of that evil act have disappeared?

There was no reason to feel bad about a close junior taking an opportunity that was floating around.

But Kim Ra-un started avoiding me from then on, and as he became a star, we naturally had less time to talk.

That’s how we ended up with our current relationship.

“Didn’t I tell you before? That it was your misunderstanding.”

It’s not like we never tried to resolve the awkwardness that had suddenly developed between us over drinks.

“Then tell me honestly. I want to do this work, but tell me the reason you’re choosing a different actor instead of me.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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