NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 314
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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 314. Special Skill Acquisition(?)
When acting in front of a camera, numerous elements work together in complex ways.
First and foremost, the acting must take place within the frame intended by the director, and actors must faithfully understand the script lines and deliver performances that match them.
Sometimes the expressions and atmosphere captured by the camera change slightly depending on the angle of light illuminating the actors’ faces, and the emotions felt by viewers can also differ slightly based on the pitch and speed of their voices.
However, the essence never changes.
‘It’s immersion. I need to immerse myself to make others immerse themselves.’
Those others were both the viewers and Seo Ju-gyeong standing before him.
Yeon-woo heard Director Kim Han-su’s sign and fell into his inner world.
In a way, it was similar to how Ryu Yeon-woo, the character in the drama “Parabola,” felt the world slowly and immersed himself in his own world.
‘If I hadn’t been sick…’
The mother and son who lived simply without indulgence didn’t need much money.
Even without any particular talents, if the mother and son worked diligently and steadily, saving little by little, they might have eventually secured a small single room where they could live without worrying about others’ opinions and stretch their legs.
‘No, being sick is just an excuse. What exactly is wrong with me? In the end, everything depends on me…’
If only I had gotten up a little sooner, if only I had the passion to work hard and burn myself for something.
If I had done something just one day earlier, Mother would have suffered one day less.
She might have had slightly fewer wrinkles, and the calluses on her fingertips might have been a little less hardened.
A person’s heart is ultimately like a large wrapping cloth.
To protect her child from the world where sharp, cold winds blow, as much as I shrink and become smaller, Mother stretches and stretches her wrapping cloth to cover me.
The holes in the wrapping cloth, created by cutting here and there with knives and scissors and patching together, tear and split in different directions along with the stretched cloth.
Yeon-woo slowly opened his closed eyes and looked at his mother in front of him.
***
Seo Ju-gyeong, standing on the opposite side, looked puzzledly at Yeon-woo, who remained still with his eyes closed despite the “action” call that signaled the start of acting.
The performance by Ryu Yeon-woo that she had seen during the first take just now was flawless.
‘What part was he dissatisfied with that made him want to reshoot…?’
She knew very well that Ryu Yeon-woo before her was the actor with the most successful career among the currently active next-generation actors.
‘Is he a perfectionist? Well, I guess that’s how he became successful.’
Seo Ju-gyeong cleared her thoughts and looked ahead again while memorizing her lines internally.
Then Ryu Yeon-woo opened his eyes.
His eyes were filled with apologetic emotions.
No, it wasn’t simply apology, but a mixture of shame about guilt, resentment and self-blame about past time, and regret and longing.
Seo Ju-gyeong’s gaze naturally moved away from Yeon-woo’s face and downward.
She couldn’t help but see it.
‘His hands…’
Since it was a bust shot showing only the upper body, his drooping hands wouldn’t be visible, but Ryu Yeon-woo in front of her was trembling with his hands.
Just like someone who had been in ice water.
Then suddenly, she didn’t know why she had such a thought.
‘…!’
Seo Ju-gyeong had married late and had a late child, and at home she had an elementary school daughter who was entering fourth grade.
Although she was a mother herself, she didn’t have a grown son like Ryu Yeon-woo in front of her, so she simply immersed herself in the role through intuition.
Not all actors who play parent roles are married with children.
Nevertheless, there’s not much difficulty in expressing paternal or maternal love.
After all, actors who play murderers haven’t actually committed murder.
But the moment she saw Ryu Yeon-woo in front of her, the moment she faced his emotions as he trembled and blamed himself with a guilty heart, Seo Ju-gyeong suddenly thought of her own daughter at home.
It was ridiculous.
What reason would her young daughter at home have to blame herself and feel regret and longing?
It made no sense to think of her tiny daughter while looking at such a tall young male actor.
But strangely, she felt so sad.
A moment passed.
And Seo Ju-gyeong suddenly felt emotions welling up and burst into tears without realizing it.
Director Kim Han-su, who was watching Seo Ju-gyeong’s bust shot through the field monitor, widened his eyes.
The crying scene was certainly in the script, but not now.
It should burst in the next scene when capturing both people together from a different angle.
However, Director Kim Han-su’s eyes widened not because Seo Ju-gyeong suddenly shed tears.
The image of Seo Ju-gyeong on the monitor showed her own startled expression.
Her face clearly revealed that she didn’t understand why she was shedding tears.
That made it even more immersive.
Originally, there was supposed to be dialogue where she calls out to Yeon-woo and mutters to herself in bewilderment, wondering whether her son who unrealistically appeared on the other side of the earth was real or not.
However, Seo Ju-gyeong couldn’t deliver any lines and was just shedding tears with a startled face.
The Assistant Director beside her glanced at Kim Han-su.
He was trying to judge whether to call NG and cut due to this sudden unexpected situation.
But Director Kim Han-su kept his mouth firmly shut and only stared at the screen.
Then suddenly Yeon-woo walked into the monitor frame.
And without a word, he set down the paper bag containing vegetables that Seo Ju-gyeong was holding onto the ground and wrapped her hands with both of his.
It was a complete mess.
They had deviated from the frame the director intended, and the actors had completely ignored the stage directions and even omitted their dialogue.
But Director Kim Han-su opened his mouth while watching that scene.
“Okay.”
***
After finishing some additional shooting from different angles, Director Kim Han-su officially called the wrap for “Parabola.”
“That’s a wrap!”
At Director Kim Han-su’s declaration, the staff each cheered.
Yeon-woo also smiled as he looked at the staff.
Whenever he entered a project, the day to finish filming would always come, but he could never get used to it.
Going deep into one world and then coming back out wasn’t easy.
And beside such Yeon-woo, Seo Ju-gyeong stood silently.
Seo Ju-gyeong, who had gone deep into the story and come back out in such a short time, was still bewildered.
Seo Ju-gyeong shook her head, came to her senses, and looked at the young actor beside her.
“Yeon-woo.”
“Ah, yes. Senior. You worked hard.”
When Yeon-woo looked at Seo Ju-gyeong and smiled while bowing his head, Seo Ju-gyeong also bowed her head in return.
“…I learned a lot today. Honestly, I’m still bewildered about what exactly I learned, so I think I’ll need to go home and reflect on it alone for a long time.”
At Seo Ju-gyeong’s words, Yeon-woo silently bowed his head once more.
Then he quietly opened his mouth.
“I also learned a lot thanks to you.”
The staff around them might think they were just exchanging warm greetings and kind words as senior and junior actors, but Yeon-woo’s answer was just as sincere as Seo Ju-gyeong’s.
‘If it’s a part where the breathing with your partner strongly affects the most important moment of the work, it would be okay to completely immerse yourself like this, forgetting about filming.’
After all, it’s the director who decides whether to use that acting or not.
He thought that if there was another opportunity like this in his next project, he could freely release his emotions without being bound by filming techniques and the script.
If he immersed himself completely like this, there might be opportunities to bring out another charm of the work even if it deviated somewhat from the script.
‘It’s not even a game… but it feels like I’ve learned some kind of special skill.’
***
The “Parabola” team, having finished filming, hurriedly packed their things and boarded a plane bound for Korea.
Even if the other staff didn’t, the directing team absolutely had to return quickly and do high-quality editing.
Time was tight since there wasn’t much time left until the broadcast date.
And Yeon-woo also boarded a plane departing from New York’s JFK Airport.
However, it wasn’t the plane bound for Incheon Airport that the staff took, but a plane heading to Los Angeles International Airport.
Since it was such a vast country, even though it was a domestic flight, they had to take a long-distance flight of over 6 hours.
The plane carrying Yeon-woo, Manager Kim Min-su, Security Team Leader Park Jung-hyeon, and two security team staff landed at Los Angeles International Airport.
As the five men passed through the gate, a familiar face in the distance was waving and approaching with other staff in tow.
“Hahaha. My friend.”
“Bernard. How have you been? We talked on the phone, but it really feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”
“I thought my eyes would fall out from waiting.”
Yeon-woo grabbed the hand of Bernard Fenton, who had come to meet them, and shook hands while swinging their hands up and down greatly.
From the outside, the age difference between the two seemed quite large, enough to look like grandfather and grandson.
However, the two didn’t just exchange the word ‘friend’ but genuinely greeted each other warmly as if meeting real friends.
Since they communicated well with each other, their interests aligned perfectly, and they were mutually beneficial to one another, it was only natural that they would become good friends regardless of age.
Although Yeon-woo had covered most of his face with a hat and mask, since LA had a particularly large Korean population, staying at the airport any longer might result in someone recognizing him and drawing crowds, so they kept their greetings brief and quickly moved to the vehicle Bernard Fenton had prepared.
As Yeon-woo got into the car, Bernard Fenton sat in the seat next to him and spoke in a friendly manner.
“I heard the news that you became the muse for ‘Armand’ and ‘Capela’ this time.”
“Has the story already spread all the way to LA?”
“Haha. You call that spreading? Armand and Capela are probably more famous in America than in Korea. You know how extravagant Hollywood people are.”
At that, Yeon-woo smiled awkwardly.
It seemed Bernard Fenton didn’t really know how much Korea worshipped luxury goods under the name of ‘luxury goods.’
‘Korea would be more excessive than Hollywood, not less, since it’s not just the rich who love luxury goods here.’
Come to think of it, the clothes Bernard Fenton was wearing and the watch he had on looked familiar.
“Bernard, you’re also a Hollywood person.”
“Hm?”
He wondered what that meant since he was obviously a Hollywood person, then looked at the Armand suit he was wearing and the Capela watch and burst into laughter.
“Hahaha. Well, what choice do I have? What I lack is youth and what I have plenty of is money… Come to think of it, you helped sell the brands you’re modeling for?”
“Since they’re brands Bernard likes, I gladly took on the modeling job as his friend.”
“I really can’t match you with words.”
Meanwhile, at the very moment Yeon-woo and Bernard Fenton were talking about ambassador activities, coincidentally, the Armand photo shoot that Yeon-woo had done as his last schedule before departing was simultaneously released worldwide.
Eyes that seemed languidly half-closed.
A decadent and dreamlike atmosphere that appeared indifferent but contained chaotic violence within.
It was a red flavor completely 180 degrees different from Yeon-woo’s usual image.
And although it seemed like there wasn’t much left to burn since things had been so heated recently, as expected, with new firewood supplied, the internet blazed up once again.
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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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