I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 231

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 231
Park Du-ho: Hoon. How is Seon-woo doing?
Park Hoon: Well…… something’s off.
Park Du-ho: Seon-woo’s always off anyway. Is there something else?
Park Hoon: No, it’s just…… this time it’s genuinely strange. Really strange.
Park Du-ho: What do you mean? What’s going on?
Park Hoon: It’s…… hard to explain in words.
Park Hoon: He’s just suddenly been repeating this one thing over and over—’I have to live charismatically.’ That’s all.
Park Hoon: When your film wraps, could you maybe convince him to take a break?
* * *
Live a life full of charm.
Become a charismatic person.
After watching Lee Mu-beom perform, Seon-woo’s mind was consumed by nothing but that thought.
Lee Mu-beom’s portrayal of Choi Young had struck him so deeply—and partly because Lee Mu-beom had lived a clean life all these years without a single scandal, that surely played a role too.
When the image of Choi Young overlapped with Seon-woo’s impression of Lee Mu-beom, the character’s integrity became all the more striking.
If the same acting had come from someone else…… actually, it didn’t even need to go that far. If Lee Mu-beom had ever been caught up in controversy—power abuse, drunk driving—could that same performance have felt the same?
‘……An actor’s image really is crucial.’
The life one leads speaks for who they are.
Seon-woo thought. What kind of life had he lived?
There was nothing particularly worth telling.
Except for attending a good university, his life had been utterly ordinary and boring—no different from anyone else’s. No great trials, no glory…… and then he’d gotten lucky, become an actor, and was doing well. That was his life.
Kim Seon-woo as a person had no distinct image.
Of course, others didn’t agree with that assessment.
When he brought this up in conversation, asking “What kind of person am I? What kind of actor should I become?”—the answers came back like this:
Min-hee: You? Hmm, hard to say. A bit unusual, I’d say?
Hye-seong: Can’t say about that. What should we get for dinner?
Ye-chan: Ha…… why are you asking me this, hyung?
Yeon-woo: You’re an ordinary psychopath, Seon-woo.
Yun Bin: I’ll be honest with you. From an idol perspective, you need to lean hard into the eccentric genius character.
Such utterly unconvincing answers came back.
Unusual, psychopath, eccentric. ……No matter how he thought about it, none of that seemed to fit him.
‘Am I failing to see myself objectively?’
Who knows.
Seon-woo suggested braised beef to Hye-seong. Hye-seong texted back “ok getting tonkatsu.”
……Anyway, Seon-woo’s immediate goal was singular.
To deliver a performance satisfying enough for Seo Tae-rok without relying on Color Orbs, without letting himself be stained by a character’s color—to show acting that was genuinely good.
And to do that, he needed to gain a clearer sense of what made Kim Seon-woo’s acting distinctive.
‘……What makes me special?’
Seon-woo reflected on what made Lee Mu-beom special.
And he concluded that Lee Mu-beom’s very existence was special. Not quite at the highest tier of age, but over fifty years standing before the public, maintaining a good image the whole time without a single scandal—that’s how Lee Mu-beom’s unique, irreplaceable image was built.
And the very fact that he’d gone through all those years without creating scandal was enough to clearly confirm that he was a man of integrity, like a scholar-official.
That integrity always came through in Lee Mu-beom’s acting.
Whatever character he played, the person always came across as principled.
So what about Kim Seon-woo?
‘……I’m young.’
That was the only answer Seon-woo could arrive at now.
Because he was young, he didn’t even understand himself yet.
And this actually connected well with Yi Bang-won. The Yi Bang-won he was playing now was equally young, after all.
If he brought out that boyish quality in his own way…….
‘But how do I do that?’
Seon-woo realized anew that he still had a long way to go.
What did it matter if others called him a genius? He didn’t even know what kind of actor he was.
‘I need to stay humble.’
Without Color Orbs, he wouldn’t have achieved the reputation he had now.
So he had to be grateful always, building his skills humbly. So that one day he could truly become the good actor that people thought he was.
And as Seon-woo was examining himself in this way, the filming of the Battle of Gaegyeong rushed toward its end.
Lee Seong-gye’s forces occupied Gaegyeong, and Choi Young was captured.
Choi Young, bound in ropes, is forced to kneel before Lee Seong-gye. And Lee Seong-gye, with a somber face, speaks thus:
“I did not wish to treat a general this way. Yet I could not stand by watching the common people shed blood for a hollow dream. ……Go well, General.”
“A hollow dream…….”
And Choi Young chuckled softly.
In the face he turned toward Lee Seong-gye, there was less anger than sorrow—the sorrow of a parent watching an errant child.
“That you do not know, even to the end, whose dream is hollow.”
A conviction that, though defeated, he himself had not erred.
Watching that certainty, Seon-woo—no, everyone present—could not help but thrill again.
Because everyone learns in the course of living: to be certain of something is truly difficult.
But Lee Mu-beom’s acting was full of faith in himself.
It wasn’t merely acting. Lee Mu-beom himself must have lived believing in himself this way. Walking this path while relying only on himself, on no one else.
A giant among men.
And that’s what makes such acting possible.
For Seon-woo now, it was acting he couldn’t even imagine.
He’d never once held such certainty in himself. He could mimic it through acting, but he couldn’t express the emotional line itself—the feeling of ‘completely trusting yourself’—at its core.
So,
“……Thank you for your hard work!”
When filming ended…… Seon-woo discovered he was grieving more deeply than expected.
This was Lee Mu-beom’s final performance. A person who could act like a painting was retiring.
He couldn’t help but feel the loss.
Unable to hide that feeling, he stood before Lee Mu-beom,
“It feels like not me but you…… *cough*, retiring.”
“……I’m sorry, Teacher. It’s just…… such a shame.”
“You.”
Lee Mu-beom let out a chuckle and patted Seon-woo’s shoulder.
“I feel the loss too. That I won’t get to watch your acting from beside you anymore.”
“My acting is still so lacking, though.”
“Haha, yes. So you were thinking that. But you need to understand, Seon-woo. Not everything that’s full is good. An empty vessel, in fact, has more uses than one that’s brimming.”
An empty vessel has more uses.
He understood the saying, but he wasn’t sure it applied to acting.
But since it came from Lee Mu-beom, Seon-woo simply nodded.
There must be some meaning to it.
After the Battle of Gaegyeong filming ended, Seon-woo had a two-week break.
The next scene to film was Yi Bang-won observing the three-year mourning period. His mother, Queen Shin, had died, and he watched over her tomb.
‘Can I prepare something more before then?’
It was three years after the Wihwado Retreat.
He hoped Yi Bang-won could show some change by then. Losing one’s mother was an event momentous enough to alter a person’s entire life. When Yi Bang-won appeared observing this mourning period, Seon-woo wanted to deliver acting that let viewers naturally feel, ‘Time really has passed,’ without it feeling forced.
And while he was thinking about this,
—[My Jade] Ends Successfully After 7 Weeks at Number One!
[My Jade] had finally concluded.
Not quite a mega-hit—it fell 2% short of that mark—but still substantial enough to be counted as the representative drama of the quarter.
Since filming wrapped, he hadn’t paid it much attention, but people were going wild over I-mu-gi in [My Jade].
Or more accurately, over Kim Seon-woo.
There was one particular scene that had especially captivated them:
—I didn’t want to become human. I was saying—I’m not human. I’m a monster. It was those gazes that I hated.
—……You were human.
It was the relationship between Gumiho and I-mu-gi.
White Rat: aaaaaahhhhh I’m dying
Over-invested Patient: Please someone rewrite the story so I-mu-gi and Gumiho end up together
eyesonyou: Not even asking for I-mu-gi and Gumiho to couple, but Kim Seon-woo and Lee Yeon-woo really need to push their pairing faster. Their faces work so well together.
Face Enthusiast: Yeah I mean it’s like…… the vibe is similar? Their images seem alike
lja97: Honestly Gumiho seems to suit I-mu-gi better than the Jade. They understand each other better anyway.
basedonfact: I know people will come after me for this but…… Go Yu-na’s acting was kinda disappointing tbh ㅎ;
People were rooting for I-mu-gi and Gumiho over I-mu-gi and the Jade.
They seemed to love that dangerous current between them. Go Yu-na’s portrayal of the Jade lacked a bit of impact too.
‘……I’ve been too busy to read the comments properly.’
Seon-woo took the opportunity to read through them diligently.
If there was another scene that became as much of a talking point as the Gumiho pairing, it was this one.
—Because you were so dazzling. Because I was so drab. I couldn’t bear it.
—So now, I am content.
—I don’t need to become a dragon.
The scene where I-mu-gi confesses to the dragon.
—And yet, you have already become a dragon.
And, simultaneously, the scene where I-mu-gi awakens as a dragon.
People named this scene the most iconic moment of [My Jade].
And rightly so. PD Jeong Yu-jun had poured his entire soul into the direction of this scene.
The moment when I-mu-gi realizes the dragon coiled at Chungju Lake was actually himself, the way he stands there stunned, looking at his own reflection…… it was as beautiful as a painting.
So much so that,
takeme: Send Kim Seon-woo to the Oscars!
Based Token: Send Kim Seon-woo to Cannes!
SerumTonerLotion: Send Kim Seon-woo to Congress!
Brush Teeth Within 3 Minutes After Eating: No, let’s spare him Congress.
Chungju Special City: Send Kim Seon-woo to Chungju!!!!!!
└meteor: Why would you send him to Chungju ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
People were expressing their praise for Seon-woo left and right.
And rightly so. From Seon-woo’s own perspective, his portrayal of I-mu-gi as a dragon was quite painterly.
But,
‘What if it had been Teacher Lee Mu-beom?’
Seon-woo imagined it.
If Lee Mu-beom or Kwon Seong-min had been in that role, how would they have acted it? ……But he couldn’t quite picture it.
It was inevitable.
That character wouldn’t have suited Lee Mu-beom or Kwon Seong-min.
Separate from acting ability, there are certain roles suited to certain ages and characters.
‘There’s acting that’s only possible at my age now.’
Yi Bang-won that only Kim Seon-woo could bring to life.
As Lee Mu-beom had said, sometimes a properly empty vessel has more uses after all.
But wondering how to act that out,……
Park Du-ho came to find Seon-woo.
“Hey, Seon-woo. I know you’re preparing for a role, but do you have a moment?”
“Ah, yes. CEO. What is it?”
“Nothing urgent…… but.”
Park Du-ho glanced at Seon-woo’s expression and opened his mouth.
“Our contract period is ending in just a few months, right? So I was curious about your intentions.”
“……Ah, that’s right. I haven’t even thought about it.”
“Sorry. But with new projects coming in and advertisement deals too, I need to coordinate things well…… I need to know your plans now so I can do my work.”
“No, please don’t apologize. I’m the one who should be sorry for making you work.”
“It’d look too amateur if I just asked without ceremony whether you want to renew. Let me be direct. Honestly, since we first signed you, you’ve grown significantly.”
Seon-woo didn’t deny it.
When he’d first contracted with Park Du-ho, he’d been supporting-role level, but now he’d clearly risen to leading-role status.
And once [The Traitor] airs…… he’ll likely get even more love calls from the film industry.
From Park Du-ho’s position, deciding how to structure the contract terms must be giving him a headache.
‘I don’t really have big ambitions, though.’
Seon-woo was satisfied as long as Park Du-ho handled settlements fairly and supported him well from the side.
Of course, if they adjusted the settlement ratio in his favor, that would be nice…… but he wasn’t obsessed with such things.
But Park Du-ho wasn’t in that position.
If he proposed weak terms and the contract fell through, or if he somehow planted seeds of discontent in Seon-woo…… that alone would be a significant loss for him.
Seon-woo had become nearly the backbone of Wilde now.
That’s why.
“I’ve thought about it a lot—what’s the best way forward for both you and Wilde.”
“Yes.”
“Five-year contract term. In return, I’ll give you equity in Wilde. And…… this is something I won’t push if you say no, but.”
Park Du-ho’s eyes sparkled.
“How about taking on a position as director?”
A bold move.

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