In This Life, I Want an Oscar, Not a Husband - Chapter 53

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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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This life, I choose The Oscars over a husband.
Chapter 53

“We have a visitor.”
Her voice was lukewarm, detached.
In this scene, the world had become overrun with zombies, and Soo-hyun, who was visually impaired, was greeting a stranger who had come to the apartment.
But she delivered the line with such indifference?
“Uh, um… well…”
Just then, Soo-hwan looked at Soo-hyun with an expression of discomfort.
“Tell them to come in. And wouldn’t it be better if you got dressed?”
Despite playing a visually impaired character, she spoke as if she could see everything.
But—
‘Her eyes are fixed on empty space.’
Ha Eun-rae’s portrayal of Soo-hyun was already unfolding.
Soo-hyun turned her face toward Do Eun-hee.
That feline face suddenly shimmered with an enigmatic light.
“You should put that frying pan down. There’s quite a strong smell of oil. Let me teach you how to wash dishes properly.”
Her matter-of-fact voice was almost unnervingly realistic.
I had expected this tense scene to showcase the tragic reality of a visually impaired person’s plight, but it was entirely different.
‘She’s interpreting it in the opposite way instead.’
The chemistry between her and Go Heung-jae, who played Soo-hwan, was extraordinary.
All the actors, even Do Eun-hee, seemed to hold their breath, drawn into their performance.
Even the Director and the writer did the same.
Because of this, everyone didn’t notice that the two of them had altered the script until much later.
The natural comedic acting that followed between Ha Eun-rae and Go Heung-jae drew quiet chuckles from those around them.
It was surprising that the two characters’ relationship had changed from siblings to older and younger brother, but it was even more surprising that they had actively transformed the script into comedy.
Honestly, Ha Eun-rae had taken on so many intense roles that I wasn’t sure how her comedic acting would be, but this was—
‘Just like a real sibling pair.’
Park Chang-sung and Kim Ran exchanged meaningful glances.
‘Better than the original script.’
They had become so fixated on the idea that Soo-hyun was visually impaired that they had played the scenes with Soo-hyun too seriously.
But thinking about it, Soo-hyun and Soo-hwan are siblings.
The two had lived together for a long time, and throughout that time, Soo-hwan wouldn’t have viewed Soo-hyun merely as someone to care for.
Rather, they would have argued more often, made up, gotten annoyed, and quarreled.
“Soo-hyun. Soo-hyun!”
“What!”
“Turn off the light.”
“Hey, wait—you’re asking your blind sister to turn off the light?”
Everyone on set—actors and staff alike—burst into laughter at Soo-hyun’s indignant performance.
Park Chang-sung and Kim Ran couldn’t help but laugh as well.
Park Chang-sung cleared his throat and spoke to Eun-rae and Go Heung-jae.
“Did you two plan this together?”
At the question, Go Heung-jae glanced at Eun-rae.
“Just now, before we started. What do you think?”
Go Heung-jae watched Park Chang-sung with a tense expression.
Park Chang-sung was a film director with considerable pride in his craft.
If he didn’t approve, it could backfire rather than help—a precarious situation.
Eun-rae and Go Heung-jae exchanged slightly nervous glances.
But Park Chang-sung’s reaction was—
“Hahahaha! I love it! Wait, do you two actually have siblings? How did you make it so natural…?”
Park Chang-sung chuckled before catching himself and pressing his lips together as he looked at Eun-rae.
Because Eun-rae had a real older brother.
Park Chang-sung quickly shifted the mood and spoke.
“I’ll revise this part with writer Kim Ran, but please keep going exactly like this. It’s wonderful.”
At those words, Eun-rae allowed herself a subtle smile.
‘It worked!’
From the moment Go Heung-jae first suggested changing this scene to a comedic ‘real siblings’ dynamic, she’d felt it had potential.
‘This is going to work.’
Go Heung-jae had spent considerable time in the Drama Industry, frequently taking on comedic supporting roles.
Though his acting career wasn’t particularly long, he had a gift for making any scene feel natural and delightful.
And he was an actor who clearly understood his own strengths—that comedy suited him better than serious drama.
So in this film, rather than forcing himself to do what he couldn’t, showing what he did best was his survival strategy.
‘Go Heung-jae’s clever,’ I thought.
And his clever move benefited me as well.
Every project I’d shown so far—the MillionX music video, To Dear Kim Ji-hyun, Purgatory—had all been heavy in tone.
And now I was even tackling a ‘visually impaired’ character in a zombie film.
I’d worried I’d be drifting further from the lighter atmosphere of terrestrial broadcasting dramas for a while, but introducing this twist here actually helped my filmography.
Though there was a slight problem.
“Then let’s move on to the Room 1207 ‘Hee-jung’ scene.”
Kang Ye-ji, who played Hee-jung.
A naive and cute high school girl role who clung to the protagonist ‘Sun-young’ in tears after encountering her trying to escape the Apartment.
The thing was, her character overlapped a bit with ‘us’.
I observed Kang Ye-ji with that thought in mind.
With her hair tied in pigtails, Kang Ye-ji flipped through her script confidently, but anxiety was plainly visible on her face.
The reading of ‘Hee-jung’ and ‘Sun-young’ began amid the tension.
“Listen to me.”
“Ahhhhhhh! What?! Is that a person?!”
“Be quiet. Will you be quiet?”
“Get out of here, you zombie bastard! Get—!”
The two actors were in the middle of their scene.
“Hold on a moment.”
Park Chang-sung smiled faintly and stopped their performance.
“I think Hee-jung’s character is coming across brighter than we intended. Could you tone it down a bit?”
Park Chang-sung was right.
Kang Ye-ji’s voice was too high-pitched right now.
That was a mistake beginners made.
By focusing too much on the character’s external appearance, she’d produced an overly artificial tone.
In other words, it had that so-called amateurish quality—
‘She’s not usually this bad though.’
Ha Eun-rae furrowed her brow.
Kang Ye-ji was an actress who’d been picked by Park Seo-woo after all.
She was an actress whose acting ability had been recognized.
“I’m sorry… I’ll adjust my tone.”
Kang Ye-ji nodded with a tense expression.
“Yes. Then let’s go again. Action.”
Park Chang-sung thought it was just a beginner’s mistake and called for another take.
That’s when it happened.
“Listen here.”
Do Eun-hee delivered her line with more weight this time.
She understood it well.
How nerve-wracking a script reading could be for a rookie actress.
So she’d tried to be considerate—
“Ahhhhh! You zombie bastard! Zombie—!”
This time, she even flubbed the dialogue.
Kim Ran, unable to hold back, raised her hand and spoke up.
“I think the line was different.”
Kang Ye-ji’s face flushed with embarrassment.
Watching her, Ha Eun-rae caught on to what was happening.
‘She was trying to improvise.’
Because Go Heung-jae and Ha Eun-rae had received praise for their ad-libs earlier, she felt compelled to show something of her own—driven by the pressure to prove herself.
Convinced that as the supporting character in this film, she needed to steal the scene and expand her screen time by any means necessary.
But ad-libbing was inherently a poisoned chalice.
When done well, it became a delicious seasoning to the narrative, but when an actor got greedy trying to stand out alone, they’d be treated as a rough stone that disrupted teamwork.
“I-I’m sorry. Let me try again…”
“No, it’s fine. Since today’s reading is meant to be simple, let’s stop here with Hee-jung’s character.”
Park Chang-sung cut off Kang Ye-ji’s excuse without hesitation.
Kang Ye-ji shifted restlessly, glancing toward Kim Byung-ho, but he simply gave her a look that said to stay put.
‘Kim Byung-ho is just as ruthless as anyone else.’
That’s what I thought in that moment.
“Well then, shall we wrap up the script reading and play the game the Production Team has prepared?”
That time had arrived.
Recreation time.
“What we’ve prepared is ‘Cops and Robbers.’ It’s a trending game these days, so you all know it, right? You split into a police team and a thief team—the police team catches the thieves, and the thief team escapes. By the way, the prize is one million won per person.”
One million won.
My eyes gleamed.

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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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