I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 127

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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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Episode 127

“I’m an 80-point actor.”

Chae Seo-ryeong would often say this.

It wasn’t something she said to put herself down, nor was it an attempt to appear humble.

…Well, there was a time when she intended it as self-deprecation.

A moderately pretty, moderately charming 80-point actor.

Someone you could use if needed, but there were far too many replacements for her… just that kind of actor.

At first, this was incredibly stressful for her.

No matter how hard she tried, it seemed impossible to raise her score. Even when she developed anorexia and lost weight… the score she gave herself didn’t change much.

In the end, the only answer she could find was acting.

She had to do better. More provocative, more eye-catching, more distinctive acting. That’s what she thought.

But acting doesn’t improve just because you want it to.

Rather, such obsession tends to hold you back instead of pushing you forward.

No matter how much she practiced and worked hard, she was still an 80-point actor.

…The stress she felt back then.

Her anorexia became so severe that she had to rush to the bathroom after just one bite of food. Thanks to this, rumors began circulating in the entertainment industry at some point.

Chae Seo-ryeong is completely ruined.

It seems like she’s finished.

It was during this time when she was experiencing rock bottom in her life.

A mentor who cared for her came to see her. The mentor looked at the emaciated Chae Seo-ryeong and spoke, as if finding her pathetic, as if feeling sorry for her.

—What are you doing?

—…Teacher. I can’t take it anymore. I need to get better, I want to get better… but it’s hard to even stay in place. I feel like I keep getting pushed aside.

—Stop talking nonsense.

The mentor didn’t offer any clumsy words of comfort.

Just looked down at her sternly.

—Why are you trying to get better in the first place?

—…Isn’t it natural that I should improve?

—How foolish. What you need to become isn’t a better actor or anything like that.

The words the mentor said back then still haven’t left Chae Seo-ryeong’s ears.

—You. No one else but you, Chae Seo-ryeong.

She had to become herself.

When she heard those words, Chae Seo-ryeong felt like she’d been hit in the back of the head with a hammer. She had to become herself. It sounded like she’d been living without even knowing who she was.

It was true.

Chae Seo-ryeong had always tried to become someone other than herself.

Someone more talented, beautiful, and outstanding than her… someone else.

That day, Chae Seo-ryeong had a proper meal for the first time in a long while.

Nausea surged up, but she didn’t care. Even while vomiting, she forced herself to finish an entire bowl of rice. Then she stood up and asked her manager.

—Get me a script.

From that day on, Chae Seo-ryeong abandoned her obsession with ‘100 points’ from her mind.

Instead, she began to get to know Chae Seo-ryeong. What kind of person Chae Seo-ryeong was. What kind of charming actor she was, and why people should remember her – she kept digging deeper.

And she discovered.

Chae Seo-ryeong was a playful yet somehow fragile-looking, but surprisingly sharp and intellectual tomboy with knife-like qualities.

And,

“I told you. I think I’m going to change jobs. Please take care of me from now on.”

Right now, that character of Chae Seo-ryeong was being displayed without reservation.

A relaxed smile. A smile that seemed to hold affection yet felt somehow cold.

The score she gives herself still hasn’t changed.

She’s an 80-point actor.

But that’s okay. She doesn’t need to be 100 points.

Because she’s Chae Seo-ryeong.

Whether it’s 80 points or 50 points… there’s only one Chae Seo-ryeong in the world.

“I’m Han Sang-a, appointed as supervising professor of emergency medicine at Hanwool Hospital?”

“You…”

What tremendous stage presence.

Stage presence so strong that even Seong Do-won momentarily disappeared from view.

Han Jeong-hun, who was watching all of this through the camera, clenched his fist tightly.

‘The casting was really well done.’

Seong Do-won and Chae Seo-ryeong delivered a feeling that exceeded his imagination no matter what scene he requested.

As a PD, their performance was so consistently good that he wondered if he was taking it too easy – honestly, he couldn’t help but be happy.

Even when he tried not to smile, the corners of his mouth kept twitching.

Meanwhile…

‘I asked them to act cute, and they’re actually doing it.’

Looking at Min-hee and Seon-woo with their completely frozen expressions, Han Jeong-hun couldn’t help but smile in the end.

When he first gave them the direction to act ‘cute’, honestly Han Jeong-hun didn’t have high expectations.

It was because he knew well that cute acting was harder than it seemed.

It might be different if he told them to openly act cute. But to maintain an everyday tone without breaking character, while making that character appear cute… required an extremely high understanding of one’s role.

At the same time, one had to be able to view the work from the audience’s perspective.

It was an unreasonable request for newcomers.

‘But they showed it anyway.’

Han Jeong-hun’s eyes sparkled.

Should he say he was proud? He was grateful.

He could see how much those two must have worried and worked hard to pull off that performance.

It must have been difficult.

It must have been frustrating.

Even so, these youngest ones didn’t give up and eventually achieved results.

They came forward with the most appropriate performance that no one could criticize.

How could he not smile while watching that sight?

‘Somehow… I have a good feeling about this.’

Han Jeong-hun had such a belief.

Works filmed joyfully can only be joyful, and works filmed gloomily can only be gloomy.

That was also why he tried to keep the atmosphere on set positive by any means.

So much so that, watching the youngest ones with flushed faces and trembling lips… Han Jeong-hun could only smile with his eyes gently creased.

It seemed like quite a lovely work would come out.

Thinking that.

* * *

“Senior, you were amazing…”

“…I was really shocked.”

After finishing the scene, Seon-woo and Min-hee approached Chae Seo-ryeong as if they had been waiting and began praising her.

It wasn’t flattery at all. It was 100% pure sincerity.

Chae Seo-ryeong’s acting gave them perfect chills. Should he say he instantly understood why she was called the queen of romantic comedies?

‘It felt like the world was changing.’

Seon-woo gulped.

The moment Chae Seo-ryeong acted, it seemed like the world was looking only at her. The sight of all the colors painted in this world swirling around, conscious of her.

…How could one act like that?

He didn’t know. For Seon-woo now, it was difficult to even dare guess.

He could only realize anew.

That these people in front of him were truly amazing actors.

Stars. That grand title wasn’t attached for nothing.

Thanks to that, as Seon-woo was looking at Chae Seo-ryeong with sparkling eyes,

“H-hey. Why are you two being so embarrassing?”

Chae Seo-ryeong waved her hands as if flustered, then soon covered her mouth with her hand.

“…But was it really that good?”

“Yes.”

“Totally!”

“Heh, hehehehe…”

And through her fingers, he could see her lips stretched wide and trembling.

It couldn’t be helped. Praise and recognition were always thrilling. Especially when such youngest ones were making such expressions… this was unbearable!

Then, Chae Seo-ryeong noticed Seong Do-won looking this way with a sullen expression. And she made a victory smile along with a V sign.

“Hey, Seong Do-won. Are you jealous?”

“…What’s there to be jealous of?”

“Why are you being so dishonest again? You’re jealous. Kids, go praise Do-won too. He’s waiting.”

“I’m not waiting.”

Seong Do-won frowned and immediately drew a line.

“Ah, but… Senior’s acting really seems incredibly three-dimensional.”

And Seon-woo crossed that line as if he had been waiting.

He had wanted to talk about Seong Do-won’s acting at least once anyway. Not because he wanted to win Seong Do-won’s favor.

He just wanted to talk about Seong Do-won’s acting.

About the colors he displayed, the paintings he drew… about all of those things.

“Every time Senior gets angry… should I say I feel kindness instead? That was really surprising. Normally it would just feel like a doctor with a lot of anger, but the more you got angry, the more human you felt… I thought it was really an acting performance with many points to examine.”

“…”

Seong Do-won didn’t answer at all and looked at Seon-woo with a somewhat bewildered expression.

The sight of him getting more excited as he spoke, even his speech getting faster. Since Seon-woo was usually always calm, that change stood out even more.

That much showed how enjoyable talking about acting was for him.

‘What is this kid’s identity?’

Usually juniors were too scared of him to even talk to him properly.

In some cases, they would tremble just from him approaching.

Seong Do-won knew why they acted that way. Every time they entered scenes together, he would catch them like catching mice, so how could they not be scared?

But this kid didn’t seem to find him scary.

Of course, it was true that he showed surprisingly clean acting for a newcomer, so he wasn’t scolded often. But even so, whenever Seong Do-won saw Seon-woo showing any lacking aspects, he would immediately snap at him.

It was natural for newcomers to be lacking, but it was also natural to get scolded when lacking.

But this guy never got discouraged no matter how much he was scolded.

If he didn’t get discouraged, he should at least feel bad, but that wasn’t the case either. Rather, when scolded,

—Oh, is there anything else I should work on?

He would sparkle his eyes and ask to be scolded more.

…Well, precisely it wasn’t asking to be scolded but asking for advice. Still, it was the first time he’d seen someone so readily accept advice given almost like scolding.

‘As long as he can learn acting, nothing else matters?’

He did like that attitude.

For an actor, acting should always be the top priority. Seong Do-won stared at Seon-woo for a moment before slowly opening his mouth.

“Earlier when you were acting, you kept looking down at the floor… you were trying not to show that you were scared, right?”

“Yes. I thought it would make me look even more scared otherwise.”

“That detail wasn’t bad.”

Seon-woo’s eyes widened at the unexpected praise.

He never imagined such praise would come from Seong Do-won’s mouth.

It was also amazing that he had noticed Seon-woo’s acting in the midst of all that. Had he been grasping the entire flow of the set?

Questions rose to his throat in an instant.

He wanted to ask. What kind of mindset Seong Do-won had when acting. He wanted to talk about all the complex emotions hidden beyond Lee Hyeok’s rage, and he wanted to ask what kind of painting he was trying to create using those colors.

At the same time, he also wanted to know what he thought about Seon-woo’s acting.

But he couldn’t do that.

…It wasn’t because he was afraid of Seong Do-won.

‘I feel like I’m not qualified yet.’

Seon-woo still wasn’t acting Yoon-seo perfectly.

Of course, he knew that ‘perfect acting’ itself was impossible… but he could clearly feel that there was still room to think more deeply about Yoon-seo.

But trying to talk about Lee Hyeok when he didn’t even fully understand Yoon-seo… wouldn’t that be somewhat ridiculous?

He should properly handle his own role first.

However,

“But that doesn’t mean it was enough. Your acting is sometimes too passive.”

Had he understood Seon-woo’s feelings?

No, probably not. He was just purely pointing it out because he couldn’t help it.

Because he couldn’t stand the uncomfortable feeling if he didn’t address it.

But for Seon-woo, that uncomfortable feeling was actually welcome. Seon-woo’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.

“Being passive… does that mean I’m acting too much in accordance with you, senior?”

“No, matching me isn’t the problem. The problem is that you only react when I let emotions flow.”

It was an unexpected comment.

He thought it was natural for a supporting actor to match the lead. He thought he was doing well in at least this aspect…

But Seon-woo didn’t become dejected.

Rather, he was secretly excited. Should he say that he could feel his perspective widening little by little with each of Seong Do-won’s criticisms?

“I thought I should act that way more since my role is to support you, senior… It’s difficult.”

“Don’t use the expression ‘support.’ You’re just being dragged along. And do you think I have to lead the flow just because I’m the lead? Do you think I’ll lead the scene when working with other seniors just because I’m the lead?”

“…Ah, that definitely wouldn’t be the case.”

“Don’t think that I should naturally lead the scene just because you’re a junior and supporting actor. You should also have more sense of responsibility as the same actor. You’re not an amateur.”

“I’m sorry. I think I was still thinking too complacently.”

“Do it properly.”

It’s a strange scene.

One side constantly criticizes, the other constantly reflects. Just looking at what they’re saying, it’s quite a scary scene… but why do they both look secretly excited?

Chae Seo-ryeong and Min-hee looked at each other as if they had made a promise, then exchanged glances and burst into hollow laughter.

‘These two…’

Do they seem to get along pretty well?

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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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