I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 169

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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 169

For The Traitor, the audition schedule was more generous than expected.

A full month and two weeks.

“That’s Director Seo Tae-rok’s usual style. He’s famous for being a perfectionist.”

That was Park Du-ho’s explanation.

“I heard he writes the script after casting the actors first.”

“After casting?”

“Each actor has different areas they can express. He wants to construct scenes optimized for that actor.”

Scenes optimized for the actor.

For Seon-woo, it couldn’t help but be an appealing proposition.

‘Yi Bang-won optimized for me…’

Honestly, there wasn’t any obvious connection that came to mind between Kim Seon-woo and Yi Bang-won right now.

Taejong. What commonalities could Seon-woo possibly have with the monarch who established absolute monarchy while staining his hands with the blood of countless people?

“Filming starts this winter. If it’s delayed, it might not start until next year, so January next year.”

“That’s quite late. Is it to capture the seasonal atmosphere?”

“That’s part of it… He usually takes time with preparations. This is actually fast for him. I think he once held auditions and then filmed two years later?”

It wasn’t surprising.

Seon-woo already knew well that Seo Tae-rok was a perfectionist. After all, he was one of South Korea’s representative masters.

When he took a film class as an elective before, he remembered the professor saying this:

Seo Tae-rok was the person who created the grammar of South Korean cinema.

That made it all the more exciting.

When acting under the direction of a master like Seo Tae-rok, what kind of picture would he be able to paint?

What color would his world be dyed?

“For now, focus on My Jade. The audition schedule is tighter there.”

“When is it?”

“In two weeks.”

“…That’s definitely tight.”

“Right. But it’ll be fine.”

“But is it really okay for me to audition for the lead role? Won’t they be offended?”

“Huh? What do you mean? Why would they be offended?”

“A newcomer just casually coming to audition for the lead role…”

“Ha, Seon-woo.”

Park Du-ho let out a hollow laugh.

Come to think of it, he had forgotten that Seon-woo was still a newcomer. How could he not know how this industry works?

“Did you think just anyone could audition for lead roles?”

“…Well, probably not?”

“Then why do you think I recommended this script to you?”

That was explanation enough.

The production team must have requested to send Seon-woo for the audition.

Seon-woo opened his mouth in surprise, and Park Du-ho nodded.

“That’s right. They called for you.”

“Me…?”

“Why. Is it surprising?”

“Well… Yes. This isn’t even a debut work. But they still had me in mind, which is kind of amazing. What’s the reason?”

“That’s simple.”

Park Du-ho answered briefly.

There was no need to think long about it.

“It’s because you’re that good of an actor, isn’t it?”

* * *

The day after deciding to prepare for auditions for The Traitor and My Jade, Park Du-ho immediately arranged a historical drama acting instructor for Seon-woo.

It was the help Seon-woo needed most. Historical dramas had an aspect that was difficult to grasp on one’s own.

“In historical dramas, you need to speak syllables more firmly. Even when calling ‘Your Majesty,’ it should be ‘Your—Maj—es—ty.’ You need to put strength into each syllable and pronounce them with the same height and force. Understand?”

“Yes. Your—Maj—es—ty.”

Not only how to speak like this,

“Right. Keep your back straight, don’t lift your chin. In historical dramas, your status should be visible before you even deliver your lines. The moment your posture collapses, your status collapses too.”

He had to learn everything anew, down to the smallest details of posture.

It was different from before when he could just focus on the character’s emotional line. He had to learn behavior and mannerisms that suited the historical background.

And even that emotional line was definitely unfamiliar to Seon-woo right now.

Wanting to possess a nation, and not hesitating to stain one’s hands with blood for that purpose…

‘It’s a difficult emotional line.’

It definitely felt different from when he watched as a viewer.

Back then, he had just thought ‘naturally, people of that era wouldn’t think much of getting blood on their hands,’ but when he thought of it as himself, it was quite difficult to immerse himself.

So the immersion he was talking about here meant numbing his own moral compass to the point where he felt no problem with killing people.

‘To truly become Yi Bang-won, I’d have to become a monster.’

But Seon-woo decided to put aside these concerns for now.

The audition for My Jade was right around the corner. Since he had nearly a month to prepare for The Traitor after that, he should focus most on this first.

That didn’t mean the historical drama acting lessons were getting in the way.

While My Jade wasn’t a historical drama, there would be quite a few occasions when filming I-mu-gi’s flashback scenes against backgrounds like Joseon or Goryeo.

‘And I need to maintain this to some extent in modern times too.’

Of course, this was after I-mu-gi had perfectly adapted to modern society.

However, it would also be strange if there were no traces at all of the past from living for thousands of years.

I-mu-gi had to be portrayed as a character with a very aristocratic personality. In other words, he needed to be aristocratic not like a modern conglomerate, but with the feeling of an old nobleman.

For that, historical drama acting was essential.

Fortunately, Seon-woo had quite a few people who could help him. Starting with this acting instructor right here, the Cheongsong people, and….

“I-mu-gi? That sounds interesting.”

There was this person right in front of him, Yu Si-hun.

Of course, this person hadn’t suddenly offered to help Seon-woo with his audition out of nowhere.

Rather, what he wanted was the opposite. Having heard that Seon-woo was preparing for an audition for [The Traitor], he came looking for him and said this.

—You’re doing [The Traitor]? Let’s practice together!

From what he heard, Si-hun was also planning to audition for [The Traitor]. What role was he applying for?

“But our King Woo is more interesting.”

It was King Woo.

Yu Si-hun swallowed and chuckled. As if just imagining acting as King Woo made him want to dance, he had actually been subtly bouncing while reading the script.

Seon-woo looked at Yu Si-hun and thought to himself. If he had chosen King Woo, he would have had to compete with this person… could he really have beaten Yu Si-hun?

‘…Well, even without this senior, there will probably be many formidable people coming.’

Yi Bang-won is one of the most popular characters in historical dramas.

People even more formidable than Yu Si-hun would surely appear as Seon-woo’s competitors.

What kind of acting would he need to show to win Yi Bang-won against them? What kind of Yi Bang-won would he need to…? Seon-woo shook his head before finishing that thought.

Even when he tried not to, he kept thinking about [The Traitor].

But now wasn’t the time for that.

“But senior, last time you were practicing acting as a security guard… or something like that. Don’t you have some other project you’re working on?”

“Yeah. I do. But this won’t be filmed until next year anyway. I have plenty of time, so it’s no problem.”

“Don’t you need to maintain character immersion?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not some method actor.”

“…You weren’t?”

Seon-woo looked at Yu Si-hun with a bewildered expression.

This was Yu Si-hun who would even sleep on the streets for his acting. If that wasn’t method acting, then what was? But Yu Si-hun firmly shook his head.

“No. All those things are just to build up input. It’s not to maintain immersion. Actually, if you keep immersing yourself like that, you won’t be able to immerse properly when you really need to.”

“Really? I thought it would get deeper.”

“What happens if you keep stretching a rubber band?”

“It stretches out.”

“That’s it.”

It was a seemingly flimsy but clear explanation.

Yu Si-hun soon looked at Seon-woo and raised the corners of his mouth.

“But I never expected you to come to our company. Nice, right? Let’s have drinks sometime… no, never mind. If I drink with you, I won’t be able to handle the aftermath.”

Yu Si-hun, recalling Seon-woo’s drinking capacity, shook his head with a disgusted expression.

He had suffered for days after getting wasted that time.

“But so how are you going to act I-mu-gi? Have you ever done a lead role?”

“I have in theater… but that probably doesn’t count, right?”

“Well, it’s similar but it doesn’t count. A lead role is a completely different story. You have to continuously emit stage presence throughout the entire work. And that presence has to be charming. Only then can the work be charming too.”

It meant that just doing well wasn’t enough.

You had to do well and be charming.

‘I think it might be possible if I paint I-mu-gi’s color more beautifully.’

Seon-woo looked at I-mu-gi’s color orb floating above his palm.

It had the hue and texture of looking at a pitch-black glass marble. Inside the marble, something like the sun seemed to sparkle, but when he tried to look closer, it would disappear.

In many ways, it was a color that reminded him of the Yeo-ui-ju that I-mu-gi was searching for.

It was certainly a more dreary image compared to Yoon-seo’s.

When bursting the color orb, all he felt was the emptiness accumulated over long years and the obsession with the Yeo-ui-ju.

How could he make that charming?

“Think simply. You just need an adjective.”

“An adjective?”

“The most something I-mu-gi. The brightest, the funniest, the coolest… it doesn’t matter what. When you come out of the audition, if there was something most outstanding about your I-mu-gi, that’s it.”

“But what if that’s not the direction the production team wants?”

“Then it wasn’t meant to be.”

It was a simple but clean summary.

Act as the most OO I-mu-gi.

Seon-woo had an intuition at this moment.

Probably depending on what adjective he came up with here, the audition results would change.

From that day on, Seon-woo frequently burst I-mu-gi’s color orbs and looked into his inner state.

While pondering where he should focus to paint the most beautiful picture as I-mu-gi.

He couldn’t even count how many adjectives he had thought of.

The most forlorn I-mu-gi.

The most dry I-mu-gi.

The most fierce I-mu-gi.

The most desperate I-mu-gi….

Only after acting countless types of I-mu-gi could Seon-woo finally know what kind of acting he needed to show at the audition.

That was already the day before the audition.

He had continued pondering almost until the very end.

Still, should he be grateful that he gained certainty before the audition started?

‘I can breathe a sigh of relief.’

Seon-woo sat on the practice room sofa and looked at himself in the mirror.

Was it because he had been too immersed in acting lately? His complexion looked a bit haggard. Even when filming on set, he hadn’t looked this gaunt.

Perhaps it was because on set, there was a structure that prevented him from overexerting himself even if he wanted to.

In the practice room, if Seon-woo wanted, he could skip meals as much as he liked and devote himself endlessly to practice alone.

Still, looking at himself in the mirror made him feel strangely anxious. At this rate, his health would deteriorate and he wouldn’t live long.

‘I should eat something.’

Where was there a soup restaurant nearby?

Seon-woo pulled out his phone from his pocket.

And then he froze completely.

‘…Huh?’

Notifications.

There were countless notifications popping up.

From SNS to messengers, all kinds of notification messages were flooding in.

What could have happened so suddenly?

He could find the answer as soon as he saw the first message.

Hye-seong: Seon-woo, was the music video you filmed Layla’s???

Ye-chan: Wow, Seon-woo hyung, amazing…

Jae-won: Ooh

Min-hee: What, when did you film something like this again

Come to think of it, it was time for [I Can’t Hear You]’s music video to be released.

He had been so focused on practice that he had forgotten even this.

Seon-woo was scrolling through the notifications when he discovered missed calls from Layla. Two of them, no less.

Surprised by this, he immediately called back,

—Seon-woo! Did you see the music video that went up!?

Layla answered the phone with an extremely excited voice.

She seemed so happy that it would be embarrassing to say he hadn’t seen it yet. It was a bit awkward to say he hadn’t seen it yet to this voice… but he couldn’t lie either.

“Ah, sorry. I had something to do so I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll watch it right now.”

—What, it’s been half a day since the music video went up! Watch it quickly! People’s reactions are going completely crazy!

But Layla’s reaction seemed somewhat unusual.

—It’s amazing!!

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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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