I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 185

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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 185

When the lineup for [My Jade] was announced, people’s reactions were generally divided into two camps.

Half were happy that they could finally see Seon-woo take on a leading role,

And half thought it was still too early for him to be a lead actor, no matter what.

And when the teaser was released, those evenly split opinions suddenly began converging toward one side.

Macaroon One Bite: It’s already interesting, what should I do

The purpose of a teaser is ultimately to promote the drama.

What Seon-woo needed to do wasn’t actually prove his acting ability through it, but rather generate interest in the drama.

And Seon-woo performed this mission perfectly.

sj7_91z: When is this being released?

└BlackCashew: I heard it’s in 5 months

└sj7_91z: That’s almost at the end of this year!!! But why did they upload the teaser so early!!!

SSUL: Give us the main broadcast nowwww

People were already starting to have expectations for [My Jade].

This was despite the teaser featuring only Seon-woo alone, and even then it was just monologue acting.

It was thanks to Imugi’s presence being instantly etched into their minds – with various backgrounds of rivers, lakes, seas, and mountains behind him, glaring at the camera with eyes that seemed ready to pounce at any moment.

They were already curious about Imugi’s journey to find his jade.

And at that moment, it became a perfectly successful teaser.

“Heh, hehehehe…”

Thanks to this, a sinister smile never left Jeong Yu-jun’s lips.

Seo Ji-hye, who was watching, looked genuinely disgusted.

“Are you that happy?”

“Of course I’m happy! Don’t you remember how everyone was worried when Seon-woo was first announced as the lead? Even the PDs around me were asking why we suddenly gave the lead role to such a newcomer.”

“Has that changed now?”

“Completely!”

Jeong Yu-jun nodded enthusiastically.

At the same time, he showed her text messages from his acquaintances. They were generally texts praising and envying him for finding such a capable actor.

Seo Ji-hye smiled slightly and nodded.

“The teaser did turn out well.”

“It’s thanks to Seon-woo’s good acting.”

Jeong Yu-jun nodded with a satisfied expression.

“He created a better scene than I had imagined when I read the script.”

“Well, same here.”

Seo Ji-hye confessed honestly.

“While watching, I thought to myself: this person must have thought about Imugi more deeply than I have.”

It was actually natural.

No matter how much affection a writer pours into each character, writers have several times more characters to handle than actors do. It’s difficult to delve that deeply into one character.

But that said, actors who show such understanding aren’t common either.

“In many ways, he’s an actor worth working with.”

“Exactly.”

“I just wish Yu-na would be a bit more serious…”

“But doesn’t it seem like Yu-na is getting better these days too?”

At Jeong Yu-jun’s words, Seo Ji-hye’s expression became strange.

Better? There seemed to be quite a gap between her idea of “better” and Jeong Yu-jun’s.

Just a few days ago, Go Yu-na had shown up to the film set reeking of alcohol again. Well, she explained that it was because she drank too much the night before…

“I don’t like it.”

Seo Ji-hye shook her head.

Honestly, when Jeong Yu-jun first suggested bringing Go Yu-na, Seo Ji-hye’s reaction wasn’t very good. Knowing the rumors about Go Yu-na, she was worried that her Yeo-ui-ju might go to the wrong person.

Well, contrary to her concerns, there weren’t any major flaws in Go Yu-na’s acting itself. It was actually impressively good compared to what she had expected.

Even so,

“I can feel it. Yu-na has no affection for Yeo-ui-ju.”

“…You can feel that?”

“Yes, she’s my child. Of course I can tell. What’s strange is that for someone with no affection, she acts too well…”

Seo Ji-hye’s expression became subtle.

“Honestly, it’s not beyond what I expected. If Seon-woo shows me more than I imagined, Go Yu-na is… hmm, she feels like she’s neither better nor worse than what I thought?”

“That’s true.”

Jeong Yu-jun nodded.

He privately thought it was unavoidable. Rather, it was because Go Yu-na was that kind of actor that they could bring her at such a cheap price compared to her reputation.

But he naturally understood Seo Ji-hye’s disappointment too.

Any writer would want their work to shine even a little brighter.

“Still, she has changed a little.”

“Yu-na has?”

“Yes. She was reading the script.”

“…?”

Seo Ji-hye’s expression became blank.

Reading the script? Isn’t that something an actor should naturally do?

Seeing that expression, Jeong Yu-jun hastily added,

“Ah, so… lately I’ve been seeing her reading scripts a lot more. She seems really deep in thought… and she’s stopped clinging to Seon-woo like she used to. She doesn’t even sneak alcohol onto the film set anymore!”

“Hmm…”

Even after hearing that, Seo Ji-hye still looked skeptical.

After all, wasn’t that just basic human decency that should be maintained anyway?

Jeong Yu-jun didn’t bother trying to convince Seo Ji-hye. That was Go Yu-na’s responsibility. Though he wasn’t sure if she had the will to do so…

‘…I hope things go smoothly.’

It might be a somewhat irresponsible attitude for a PD.

But this was Jeong Yu-jun’s limit. He didn’t have the charisma or spirit to control the actors. All he could do was gather ingredients that seemed to work well together, boil them vigorously, and plate them as beautifully as possible.

‘Is this why I can’t hit it big?’

Jeong Yu-jun’s position as a PD was roughly that of a second batter. He could hit singles decently well, but rarely managed home runs.

Of course, he usually didn’t have much greed for home runs, but after seeing this teaser, he couldn’t help but feel ambitious.

Just from the teaser alone, it looked like a drama that could easily hit a home run.

‘…Isn’t there some way?’

Jeong Yu-jun rolled up the script like a baseball bat.

And while looking at the actors on the film set, he subtly took a batting stance.

If he could just… just swing it right, it might really produce a spectacular grand slam.

He could almost hear the cheers already.

“…What are you doing?”

“Ahem, ahem. Oh, nothing!”

Only after meeting Seo Ji-hye’s bewildered gaze did Jeong Yu-jun clear his throat and put down the script.

But once the ambition had taken root, it wasn’t easy to shake off.

He wanted to hit a home run.

* * *

“Seon-woo, you did great with the teaser.”

“Ah, thank you, senior.”

Seon-woo’s teaser naturally became a big topic among the actors of [My Jade] as well.

The work’s first signal flare had very successfully captured the public’s attention. How could they not be pleased?

The man right in front of Seon-woo, Han Ju-hyeok, was no exception.

The senior who played the role of the dokkaebi, ‘Bi-dam’.

In the story, Bi-dam appears as a character who covets everything of value.

Like a crow that collects shiny things in its nest. As such, Bi-dam would also covet the jade and clash with I-mu-gi at every turn.

Simply put, he was I-mu-gi’s rival in love.

‘I expected this, but…’

And Seon-woo had just worked with Han Ju-hyeok for the first time today.

After learning that Yeo-ui-ju was indeed the ‘jade’ he had been searching for, he discovered that the CEO of her agency was Bi-dam, a dokkaebi.

And I-mu-gi immediately went to the dokkaebi to threaten him.

He couldn’t be certain yet, but if she was the jade, she should belong to him.

And seeing such an I-mu-gi, the dokkaebi smiled smoothly and countered.

How could a person belong to someone?

Making such anachronistic statements was why he still hadn’t become a dragon and was groveling like that.

‘It’s acting I could never do.’

When Han Ju-hyeok’s smiling face was layered with cunning, it created a sly character that Seon-woo couldn’t even dare to imitate.

It was a moment when Seon-woo realized anew that he too had developed his own style.

Having never displayed such cunning in his life, just thinking about performing such sly acting already felt awkward to Seon-woo.

It was like looking at clothes that didn’t suit him.

But that didn’t mean Han Ju-hyeok was just a constantly grinning character.

A feeling that despite smiling, he couldn’t be easily underestimated. That sense of unease, as if hundreds of snakes were crawling around inside him…

Hmm. No matter how much he thought about it, Seon-woo felt he couldn’t perform such acting.

But it seemed he wasn’t the only one thinking that way.

“You know, it’s really fascinating watching the kids I act with.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Every time you say ‘Yeo-ui-ju,’ your eyes dart around so much I thought they really brought an I-mu-gi and got startled. It was scary.”

“Haha… Thank you.”

Seon-woo laughed awkwardly at Han Ju-hyeok’s words.

On the script reading day when he scolded Go Yu-na, he thought he would be a very scary senior, but the man he met on the film set wasn’t that character at all.

Rather, it felt like he kept finding Seon-woo endearing. Even though he and Seon-woo hadn’t really talked much yet, he already seemed to have quite a lot of goodwill toward him.

Thanks to that, as they continued talking about this and that, Seon-woo naturally ended up sharing his new acting method with him.

“You study by reading academic papers?”

“Yes. This is surprisingly very helpful. Would you like to take a look, senior? There are several folktales related to dokkaebi mentioned here…”

Han Ju-hyeok, who was subtly pitched the papers by Seon-woo, looked at them with a dubious expression, but soon his eyes became strange.

At first he wondered what kind of nonsense this was… but there were surprisingly many interesting parts.

It felt like the gaps in his understanding of the supernatural being called dokkaebi were gradually being filled in his mind.

“…This is actually pretty good.”

“Right? Ah, if you want, I can give you more. I haven’t organized them separately, but I roughly remember which papers had dokkaebi-related content… I’ll send you the files tonight.”

“Ah, no. You don’t need to go that far…”

Han Ju-hyeok couldn’t help but be flustered by Seon-woo’s unexpectedly very proactive attitude.

It was helpful, but that didn’t mean he wanted to continue studying by staring at these boring papers…

But seeing Seon-woo’s sparkling eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to tell him to stop. It seemed like no one had ever reacted so positively to his paper discussions before.

“…Yeah, thanks.”

In the end, Han Ju-hyeok had no choice but to nod.

However, since he didn’t want to continue talking about papers, he hurriedly changed the subject.

“So, has that dimwit been doing anything strange lately?”

“You mean Yu-na senior?”

“Yeah.”

This guy immediately understood when I said ‘dimwit’.

Han Ju-hyeok barely held back a chuckle. Seon-woo seemed to think for a moment before nodding.

“She does.”

“…I see.”

“But it’s kind of ambiguous. Just when I think it’s okay, she does something… um, yes. There are times when it’s quite confusing.”

“I know. I’ve worked on projects with that girl since she was young. Sigh, she used to be a much cuter kid. She hit puberty strangely as she got older.”

Puberty.

It was certainly an expression that suited Go Yu-na.

“If she could just get her mind straight, she’d produce much better acting…”

Seon-woo agreed.

In many ways, it was regrettable from the perspective of filming a project. If Go Yu-na did her job properly, the work would come alive that much more.

What should he do?

Seon-woo had tried various methods to guide Go Yu-na in his own way.

They had studied together reading papers and scripts, and when filming began, he painted the set with beautiful colors that couldn’t help but move an actor’s heart.

It seemed to have some influence on Go Yu-na, but her acting still didn’t feel like she was putting her heart into it.

“How can we make Yu-na senior awaken?”

“Awaken? Well. Go Yu-na awakening…”

Han Ju-hyeok seemed unable to imagine it and was lost in thought for a long time, then his eyes slowly sparkled as if something had occurred to him.

“I don’t know about awakening, but I think we could make her go crazy.”

“Yes… what?”

“After all, she’s someone with uselessly strong pride. If you completely crushed her with your acting to the point where it’s pitiful, wouldn’t she at least squirm?”

Han Ju-hyeok shrugged his shoulders.

And looking at Seon-woo’s dumbfounded expression, he asked in a leisurely tone.

“How about just completely destroying her once?”

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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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