I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 86

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

Episode 86

Ever since his eye for acting had grown this time, there was one person Seon-woo had come to think was truly amazing.

That person was Hye-seong.

From before, whenever he acted with Hye-seong, the colors had been painted unusually well.

Back then, he had just vaguely thought that he had good chemistry with Hye-seong.

But now Seon-woo could finally understand the reason.

‘He’s creating space for emotions to flow.’

Hye-seong didn’t stop at just expressing his own emotions.

By deliberately stimulating and guiding his partner’s emotions appropriately… he made it possible for emotions to flow in the most ideal form.

He was creating space for his partner to paint with their brush.

For the current Seon-woo, it was a level that was difficult to even attempt.

What was possible for Seon-woo now… was just responding more actively to his partner’s emotions and drawing a good painting.

Meaning it would be too much to guide his partner’s emotions.

“You’re amazing, hyung.”

In the end, Seon-woo couldn’t hold back and threw out that praise.

He thought that acting was truly deep the more you knew about it. He had thought he had narrowed the gap with Hye-seong considerably, but now he felt even more distant.

“Suddenly?”

“…I’m just starting to see it now. How much you’re observing and considering when you act.”

“Hey, stop it. It’s embarrassing.”

Hye-seong shyly covered his mouth and waved his hand dismissively.

Then he soon looked at Seon-woo with a calm smile.

“But you can already feel that? With your current experience, you shouldn’t be able to sense such things yet.”

“…It just happened to turn out that way.”

“Hmm.”

Hye-seong nodded.

Then he spoke with a serious voice.

“Let me tell you something out of concern – you don’t necessarily have to act like me.”

“…Are you telling me not to rush?”

“No, even if you could act like me… there’s no need to do so. I decided to become an actor who values the flow of the work over myself, but not all actors are like that. Just think about Do-young.”

Seon-woo let out a thoughtful sound.

That was certainly true.

When acting with Do-young, he didn’t feel the comfortable sensation he had when working with Hye-seong.

Rather, just maintaining immersion was overwhelming enough.

But despite that, Do-young was a more outstanding actor than anyone Seon-woo had seen.

“It’s about style.”

“Style…”

“Right. So just because you can see the flow of a work doesn’t mean you need to become an actor who prioritizes that unconditionally. Rather… focusing on showing your own color first, regardless of the work, could also be a path.”

“Then why did you choose that method, sunbae?”

“There’s no particularly cool reason.”

Hye-seong scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.

“I wanted to get into the directors’ good graces. Unless you’re a lead actor, directors don’t like it when you’re too assertive. They prefer someone who adapts to the work’s flow on their own.”

“…Ah.”

Seon-woo nodded.

Having experienced going from audition to audition before 【I Am an Actor】, he could understand what mindset Hye-seong had when he acquired this acting method.

While Seon-woo had only struggled like that for about a month or two… Hye-seong had spent nearly 20 years that way.

How difficult must that time have been.

Seon-woo didn’t even dare to try to fathom it.

“…That time is over now.”

“I suppose so? That would be nice.”

“Of course. Directors would have to be blind to ignore people who act as well as you, hyung.”

“Haha, thanks for saying that.”

Hye-seong laughed and patted Seon-woo’s shoulder.

“Anyway, I hope you don’t decide too early that ‘I must act this way!’ There’s no right answer in acting. That’s what the seniors always say.”

“…Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Seon-woo took Hye-seong’s advice to heart.

If he focused too much only on the flow of the work… he might not be able to concentrate on himself as much. It was definitely an issue that needed proper consideration.

‘Can’t I have both at the same time?’

It wouldn’t be easy.

In cooking terms, it would be like trying to create a clean yet stimulating taste simultaneously.

It wasn’t a problem that needed an immediate answer.

He wasn’t feeling any major problems from this right now.

It was thanks to Kim Seon-woo’s character.

Since the character Kim Seon-woo was originally someone who observed others and was greatly influenced by their actions… responding to their colors while acting didn’t lead to failing to show Kim Seon-woo’s own color.

Rather, that seemingly in-between feeling was very much like Kim Seon-woo.

Of course, if there was one regret,

‘I want to see him properly explode.’

While all sorts of colors were constantly exploding and scattering within the work, Kim Seon-woo’s color rarely had a chance to be properly painted.

But still, in episode 3, there was the first opportunity for Seon-woo to burst out with something resembling real emotion, and that was Yoo Ji-eun’s death scene.

Kim Seon-woo, who ran to her room after hearing the broadcast that Yoo Ji-eun had died.

When he opened the door, what he faced was… Yoo Ji-eun’s corpse, who had tried desperately to escape by crawling but ultimately stopped breathing.

And what Kim Seon-woo feels at that moment… is a level of loss and sadness that’s difficult to express in words.

Faced with those pouring emotions… Kim Seon-woo once again realizes he’s alive, but disgusted with himself, he collapses.

Kim Seon-woo: …Why are you doing this. Get up. You wanted to take the college entrance exam, go to university… and even date. Then you should get up.

Naturally, Yoo Ji-eun doesn’t respond.

Looking at Ji-eun like that, Kim Seon-woo finally realizes how ignorant he had been. Realizing how beautiful life is, how foolish he had been to try to give it up…

He breaks down.

‘This is the key point.’

Seon-woo’s eyes blazed with intensity.

Until now, the character Kim Seon-woo had been divisive among people in many ways.

First, there was the part about trying to abandon life, and also the fact that he was learning and experiencing life through this game called [One Room], making him just a strange character that made people think ‘What kind of guy is this?’

However, Ji-eun’s death finally awakens Kim Seon-woo completely.

He wants to live.

That ordinary feeling that normal people all have… finally settles firmly in Kim Seon-woo’s heart.

And to show that, Kim Seon-woo had to completely collapse in this scene.

To the extent that whatever changes followed afterward wouldn’t feel strange.

Perhaps this was why Hye-seong had given that advice.

At least for that scene, Kim Seon-woo had to focus completely on himself.

‘You don’t need to worry about that.’

From the moment he first encountered the character Kim Seon-woo, Seon-woo had been waiting for this moment.

This would finally make the character Kim Seon-woo come completely alive.

And now, the filming of that scene was about to begin.

Seon-woo turned to look at Ji-eun.

“Ji-eun.”

“Yes?”

“Die well for me. Please.”

A request that might seem a bit absurd.

But Ji-eun smiled boldly.

“Yes. I’ll be dead as horribly as possible, so you better cry properly too, oppa.”

“Leave it to me.”

…So, was the filming successful?

You’ll know when you watch the actual broadcast.

* * *

He checks his appearance.

The shirt collar is properly ironed and crisp. — A

Despite applying tone-up cream, his face still looks somewhat dull. This must be the lingering effect of last night’s drinking session. — B

His hair is just over ten days since his last haircut, sitting on the border between messy and neat. — A-… no, B+.

Total score, A- to B+.

‘This isn’t bad.’

The Man adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses with a satisfied expression and then tightened his necktie.

Where is he going after getting fully dressed up like this?

That would be…

The ‘Movie Room’ in his house.

26 surround speakers and a 100-inch TV.

A recliner chair he chose after visiting every furniture store in Jongro without exception.

And… soundproofing panels filling the walls and floor.

Thanks to this, The Man could set the volume to movie theater levels without ever receiving a single complaint from neighboring residents.

The ultimate sanctuary that any film person would covet.

This was the headquarters of the YouTube channel ‘Neogulnaegul’, famous for reviewing all kinds of movies and dramas.

And the work that The Man, ‘Neogulnaegul’, wanted to watch today was One Room, currently the hottest topic on the Internet.

—Neogulnaegul-nim, aren’t you going to review One Room?

—One Room was interesting, please review this!!!

He’d been constantly receiving requests from subscribers to review One Room lately.

If he had wanted to, he could have uploaded a review video long ago.

Considering One Room’s popularity, it might have been better to do so earlier.

But he couldn’t.

Episode 1 of [One Room] was essentially a ‘Here are the characters!’ introduction, and episode 2 was more like ‘Now it’s starting!’

‘Episode 3 should be different now.’

Neogulnaegul’s expression became serious.

From watching One Room so far, his impression was this:

A genius’s prank.

Yes. [One Room] was truly like a prank of a work. The structure of eliminating characters based on variety show competition results, and the development flowing randomly in the form of an ensemble drama without a protagonist.

And the most impressive thing among them was the existence of ‘Kim Seon-woo’.

Putting someone who doesn’t want to live into a survival game.

The moment he saw that setup, Neogulnaegul realized who Ryu wanted to push as the protagonist in this work.

Kim Seon-woo was essentially the core message of this work.

What kind of change would someone who viewed life and death as worthless show? That change itself would become [One Room]’s most important message.

‘…What if he dies early or something?’

That was a concern.

This was a work where the writer couldn’t arbitrarily decide the order of character departures. In such a work, was it okay to give one character this much weight?

Of course, it didn’t seem like Seon-woo would be eliminated immediately.

‘Do well.’

Kim Seon-woo.

Aside from the importance of his role, he was the actor Neogulnaegul was watching most closely right now.

It was because people were paying so much attention to him.

‘Being a hot topic means having star quality.’

He understood why people liked him.

Appearance, Acting Ability, even education – there was nothing lacking. Even the genius narrative of showing this level of performance when he had just started acting… Looking into it, the setup seemed almost too unrealistic.

If nothing special happened, Kim Seon-woo would probably become a face often seen in various works.

‘Of course, he’s still lacking.’

Talent, he understood that.

Having the charm to captivate people’s attention, he understood that too.

But that alone wasn’t enough. Despite having all those conditions, there were countless flash-in-the-pan stars who failed to rise and were forgotten – too many to count on both hands.

To prove he could be different from others… to show he had the qualities to become a real proper star, he needed ‘one big moment’.

Could Seon-woo show that one big moment?

At least so far, such signs weren’t visible. Seon-woo’s acting was consistently good and deep, but… it didn’t quite give the feeling that it would captivate the heart somehow.

Of course, this was partly due to the role.

Separate from narrative importance, Kim Seon-woo hadn’t had any scenes that would catch viewers’ eyes yet. Though considering that, he was actually showing quite strong Stage Presence.

‘…That should be shown somewhat in episode 3.’

In the end, this was the key point.

For both Kim Seon-woo and [One Room], episode 3 was a turning point where something had to be shown.

So could they show something?

Honestly, he didn’t have high expectations. No matter how good Ryu was, there seemed to be limits to the artistic value and entertainment that could be extracted from such an experimental work…

‘Even if he brought a proper Script, could Kim Seon-woo handle it?’

He was skeptical about that part too.

He acknowledged that Seon-woo had shown good acting so far.

But there were many actors who could do such acting. For episode 3 to explode everything built up so far… ‘Kim Seon-woo’ at the center had to support it with acting of that caliber.

But did Kim Seon-woo have such capability?

He couldn’t answer that yet.

At least Seon-woo had never failed to handle a given Script so far.

But if something tremendous enough to elevate this work to the ranks of ‘masterpieces’ was prepared, could he really handle it?

If there wasn’t such a great scene, that would be disappointing in its own way.

Regardless of Kim Seon-woo’s acting, [One Room] would fail to soar when it should have taken flight.

Well, he’d have to wait and see.

Neogulnaegul looked at the Screen for now.

And an hour later,

“…Huh.”

Neogulnaegul was staring blankly at the Screen with an incredulous expression.

The corners of his mouth began to curl up slightly.

…Look at this guy?

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