I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 61

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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 61

 

‘At this level of experience… is this kind of acting even possible?’

 

This was his first drama shoot.

 

Even so, Seon-woo showed stable acting from beginning to end.

 

The lined-up cameras, as well as the dozens of pairs of eyes behind them… seemed unable to disturb his immersion.

 

Natural talent.

 

It was a temperament that could only be explained with those words.

 

From his abilities to his disposition, everything seemed optimized for being an actor.

 

Thanks to this, Seon-woo’s office scene shoot could be wrapped up faster than expected.

 

And the next scene was no different.

 

Home.

 

Wiping the floor and cleaning up trash.

 

Setting the table, eating, and doing the dishes.

 

Seon-woo’s appearance as he carried out his final daily routine before death like a mission… was perfectly ‘Kim Seon-woo.’

 

‘This isn’t an easy scene.’

 

Some might tilt their heads in confusion.

 

What could be difficult about a scene without a single line of dialogue?

 

But Park Myeong-jin personally thought this was the highest difficulty scene among all the cast in episode 1.

 

Whether eating or cleaning, Seon-woo had to convince the audience.

 

Kim Seon-woo is essentially almost dead.

 

That he had been living a life no different from being dead all this time.

 

From an actor’s perspective, this would be an extremely tricky request.

 

To express a dead heart through daily life activities?

 

But Seon-woo accomplished it all too easily.

 

His eating, his dishwashing – everything was so mechanical.

 

An expressionless face showing no trace of irritation, annoyance, or even satisfaction.

 

It was strange.

 

Watching that ordinary scene, such thoughts naturally arose without any special explanation.

 

This person is thinking of dying soon…

 

‘…He’s completely become Kim Seon-woo himself.’

 

It was an immersion ability that could only be admired.

 

And that immersion ability shone brightest on Mapo Bridge, in the scene where Kim Seon-woo finally attempts suicide.

 

“Hello. Um, I’m sorry. I’m… about to jump off Mapo Bridge right now, and I thought it might cause trouble for the paramedics. So I’m calling to apologize in advance.”

 

…Park Myeong-jin had this thought for a moment.

 

How fortunate it was that they were filming on a set rather than on an actual bridge.

 

Because right now, Seon-woo was surrounded by an atmosphere that made people’s hearts race just by looking at him.

 

How should he put it. Like he might actually jump.

 

‘He’s completely lost it.’

 

His unconsciously clenched fists were already soaked with sweat.

 

He could already tell.

 

What kind of reaction would come when this was shown to viewers through his hands.

 

‘If only we can properly convey this feeling…’

 

The public’s current evaluation of Seon-woo was as follows:

 

While they acknowledged he was a quick learner, his acting ability itself wasn’t quite at the level to be called ‘genius.’

 

Park Myeong-jin suddenly became curious.

 

When this drama—[One Room]—aired,

 

would people still be able to say the same thing?

 

* * *

 

There was no need to wait for [One Room]’s broadcast date.

 

The moment episode 4 of 【I Am an Actor】 aired, people’s reactions to Seon-woo clearly began to change.

 

Episode 4 covered the [Collaboration] mission.

 

The very mission where Seon-woo had covered the mute role.

 

The episode of 【I Am an Actor】 where the historic score of ’10 points’ appeared for the only time.

 

Seon-woo’s performance captured there was enough to change people’s perceptions.

 

eyesonyou: I don’t know anything about acting but… um, wouldn’t that level be worthy of being called genius?

 

└Anonymous: Agreed

 

└sj97: I did get goosebumps when he stared at the screen at the end

 

Kim Quokka: Passing acting academy teacher here. Will continue passing by.

 

└Freshwater Snail: Ah what why! Don’t pass by, give us some evaluation!!

 

└Kim Quokka: No;; It’s too absurd a case to evaluate.

 

└Freshwater Snail: What’s so absurd about it?

 

└Kim Quokka: Actually, back when Kim Seon-woo was being called a genius, I thought the broadcasting station people were just exaggerating again… but this time it’s not at a level that can be dismissed as exaggeration. Setting aside acting ability, the level of character analysis and expression itself is absolutely not something a person with less than a year of experience could show?

 

└Kim Quokka: This isn’t just genius level, it’s straight up monstrous lol Honestly, even I was getting frustrated watching and having an existential crisis, but among kids learning acting, there are probably quite a few who got their spirits crushed after seeing Kim Seonwoo…

 

“This person speaks well.”

 

Min-hee, who had been reading through the comments, chuckled.

 

And thrust that comment toward Seon-woo.

 

“Are you going to keep breaking people’s hearts like this?”

 

“No, what hearts did I break….”

 

“No, Min-hee noona is right. To be honest, I also thought when I saw Seon-woo hyung, should someone like this be doing acting?”

 

At Seon-woo’s words, Justin jumped into the attack as if he had been waiting.

 

It wasn’t just Justin. Beside him, the short-haired girl, Ji-eun, also briefly added a comment while keeping her eyes on her phone.

 

“I agree.”

 

“….”

 

Seon-woo was momentarily at a loss for words.

 

When they said their hearts were broken, he couldn’t exactly say they weren’t.

 

And that’s when it happened. Ji-eun lifted her phone and showed them the screen.

 

“I agree with this too.”

 

“….”

 

Seon-woo looked at Ji-eun drowsily and then peered at the screen.

 

And his eyes narrowed.

 

Tropica: Wow lololol Kwon Sori is such a freaking villain. I want to say harsh things but I’m skipping it in case I get sued

 

└w_w: For real lol how can you act like that towards an elementary school kid

 

└Anonymous7: Be careful or you’ll get sued

 

└Tropica: Fuck it, go ahead and sue me. It’ll be a sight to see when you go to the police station to file a complaint. “I was bullying an elementary school student and this person said something about it~” Is that what you’re gonna say? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 

ㅇㅇ: Seo Jin-wook is also pretty tactless so I wasn’t really a fan of him originally, but when he was getting cursed out by Kwon So-ri, I honestly felt so satisfied watching it ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 

└영광굴비: Looking at how the production team aired that as-is, they must have really disliked Kwon Sori quite a bit lol

 

└Yugyo Department: Poor Sion ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

 

└Confucianism class: Yechan was caught in the middle and suffered so much. That team just has way too many villains, did they all forget there were cameras there? lololol

 

└ㅇㅇ: That’s what I’m saying lol for real, it’s ridiculous when you see kids going on those shows and exposing their true colors. Do they not realize they’re on TV??

 

It was about the Kwon So-ri incident as expected.

 

Actually, he had thought this would happen ever since he saw that situation. With such unreasonable behavior, it would be stranger if there wasn’t controversy.

 

‘Even Kwon So-ri would be hurt by this much.’

 

But why was it.

 

Somehow he wasn’t particularly worried.

 

Even though he didn’t view Kwon So-ri favorably, he had developed some affection for her… How should he put it. He just didn’t feel like caring about such things.

 

There was a reason he could guess.

 

‘…Is it because of this.’

 

Seon-woo looked down at his body.

 

His body dyed in ash gray.

 

Seon-woo’s eyes darkened.

 

‘I can’t feel emotions well.’

 

This was a problem.

 

Seon-woo wasn’t acting right now.

 

It wasn’t like he had deliberately burst Kim Seon-woo’s color orb to get used to him either.

 

Yet despite that, he was now completely dyed in Kim Seon-woo’s color.

 

‘Is this the aftereffect of method acting.’

 

It wasn’t that he hadn’t prepared for this situation.

 

But he didn’t know the symptoms would appear this quickly. Even if symptoms appeared, he thought he could control them to some extent…

 

Freshwater Snail: Wow… I got real goosebumps watching the mute acting

 

└ㅇㅇ: I watched it with my girlfriend too, and during the mute ending scene, she gripped my hand so tight it actually hurt. The presence is seriously no joke lol

 

Even seeing such positive comments, he didn’t feel any particular emotion.

 

Before, each of those comments gave him strength and motivation to act… How should he put it, now he felt numb to all of it.

 

‘…Now I understand why method acting is said to be dangerous.’

 

Nothing destroys a person more easily than an uncontrolled mind.

 

For now it was just that he had become more indifferent to everything, but as immersion deepened, he didn’t know what other side effects might follow.

 

‘If I’m going to stop, now is the time.’

 

If he stopped bursting color orbs except when acting from now on, the side effects of method acting would also be alleviated.

 

He had to choose.

 

Whether to stop for his mental health. Or… to go further and make this color completely his own.

 

Seon-woo floated a color orb above his palm.

 

And looking at it, he smiled bitterly.

 

There was no room for hesitation. Actually, this was a question with a predetermined answer.

 

The experience from the last filming was still vivid in his memory.

 

That magical experience where everything he saw and heard was perceived completely differently than before….

 

‘I’ll think about the side effects later.’

 

If he was going to worry about such things anyway, he shouldn’t have started bursting color orbs so casually in the first place.

 

He had already made his choice.

 

Rather than pulling out at an ambiguous point, wouldn’t it be better to see it through to the end at least once.

 

Being dyed in Kim Seon-woo’s color wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience, but it was okay.

 

There was once a time when he naturally lived immersed in this sentiment.

 

‘Just a few weeks… I just need to endure a few weeks.’

 

Seon-woo clenched his fist.

 

The color orb burst forth, and once again the world was dyed in ash gray.

 

* * *

 

The individual narrative part concluded with Seon-woo’s filming.

 

Now all that remained was the part where everyone gathered and the game began.

 

Finally, they would enter the ‘One Room’ where the game takes place.

 

Inside the large bus moving to the one-room studio. While watching the winter street scenery flowing past the window, Min-hee pressed her forehead against the glass.

 

“…What do you think it’ll look like?”

 

“I think it’ll have like a spaceship atmosphere. Like everything’s black and white, and kind of retro vibe? You know, you get it, right?”

 

“No. I don’t get it, so stop mixing in English.”

 

Min-hee glared at Justin intently. Ji-eun, who was stuck to Min-hee’s side like a piece of gum, nodded her head.

 

“Right. Every time you use English, it kills my appetite.”

 

“…Kills appetite? Rice? Why are you suddenly talking about rice? You hungry?”

 

It seemed Justin needed to study Korean more urgently than acting.

 

Hye-seong chuckled while watching them, then turned his head. And suddenly flinched.

 

‘…Seon-woo seems to have gotten worse.’

 

Seon-woo was currently surrounded by a gloomy atmosphere that anyone could see.

 

To the point where one wondered what kind of acting he was planning to do with such deep immersion.

 

‘From what the staff members said, Seon-woo really flew around…’

 

Hye-seong had long since built friendships with all the staff members through his characteristic charm.

 

And what he could hear through them was… that Seon-woo had shown an insane performance where he really seemed to become ‘Kim Seon-woo’ himself.

 

He was already getting a bit curious.

 

He had never seen Seon-woo act using Method Acting techniques like this… just how terrifying would his performance be?

 

Well, there was no need to be anxious.

 

He would be able to confirm that soon enough.

 

“We’ve arrived! Everyone please move to the studio following the staff’s guidance!”

 

Hye-seong got off the bus and moved to the studio.

 

And the moment he entered the massive container building that seemed like it might have originally been used as a factory or warehouse, he couldn’t help but let out an exclamation.

 

“Wow, this is, more than I thought…”

 

Incredible.

 

The first thought that came to mind was that Justin’s guess had been right.

 

A spaceship.

 

A massive studio with a texture reminiscent of a spaceship was spread out before them.

 

Long, narrow tunnel-like hallways and ten rooms occupying both sides of those hallways.

 

How should he put it. It was exactly like… a massive capsule that had been renovated for human habitation.

 

‘They must have spent a fortune on this.’

 

Hye-seong felt his mouth go completely dry.

 

This… the scale is too big, isn’t it?

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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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