Become a Star

Park Yeon-Ah had the best acting skills compared to any of the other female actors Woo-Jin had worked with. Despite the awkward habits she had acquired as a stage actress, there were moments where she had completely immersed herself in her character. It could be seen when she made eye contact with Woo-Jin during the shoot.

Woo-Jin looked at Park Yeon-Ah, who was sitting across from him, and pulled himself together. Yeon-Ah’s character, Lee Yoo-Ra, was someone who grew up in a loving environment; someone who was bright and full of positive energy. After seeing her clear eyes start to gradually cloud over as time went by, Louie felt pain. But he never found out the reason why.

Today, they would be shooting the part where the two people were strangely drawn to each other even though they could not be happy together. They had to work well together so that they could properly portray the buildup of emotions. Acting is not only a solo act, teamwork is important as well.

Park Yeon-Ah, who had been sitting across from him, had been replaced by Lee Yoo-Ra. Eventually, they heard the sound of the clapboard, and Woo-Jin had forgotten about acting.

“The world is such a strange place. Even though there are people like me, I don’t understand what they’re saying.”

His motherland, which he had left at a young age, had become a foreign place to Louie even though its people spoke the same language as him. Louie had never given up hope that he might meet his biological parents one day. And when that time finally came, he wanted to tell them all about his life and the things which he did. As such, Louie had never forgotten the Korean language. He would study and practice Korean in his free time so that he could speak it fluently, but it had long since lost its purpose.

Lee Yoo-Ra replied offhandedly to Louie, “I’m good at Korean. If there’s something you don’t understand, you can always ask me to translate it for you, it’s not a big deal.” Regardless of how difficult a problem was, it would become a piece of cake after Lee Yoo-Ra took a look at it.

“So, what do you not understand? Ask away.”

“I’m not your patient.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not a shrink, so I won’t be charging you. Also, I said that I’d translate for you, not treat you.” Lee Yoo-Ra smiled delightfully and shrugged, as though she was proud of herself for saying something funny. Her confident and cheerful personality was foriegn to Louie as he had never experienced such emotions before.

“I think that you’re the weirdest out of everything I’ve seen so far.”

“Me?”

“I’ve never seen such a weird creature like you before. I don’t understand what you’re saying and everything you do is weird.”

“...”

“That said, I don’t dislike you…which makes me even weirder. Can you translate that?” The way Louie stared at Lee Yoo-Ra looked so innocent, like a student waiting for an answer. He truly did not know anything, and the curiosity and anticipation in his eyes were genuine. He was not trying to tease her, and neither was he trying to get the obvious answer by beating around the bush.

Lee Yoo-Ra froze for a moment as she did not know what to tell Louie, who had truly asked out of curiosity. She had a vague idea of what the answer was, but it was embarrassing and awkward to say it out loud. Louie looked at the blushing Lee Yoo-Ra’s face and tilted his head.

“Are you not feeling well?”

“Nah.”

“Don’t be sick.”

“I’m not.”

“Adults are good at telling lies without batting an eye, so I don’t believe you.”

“You’re an adult too! You think you’re a teenager huh?” Lee Yoo-Ra, who had been agonizing over how to answer him, quickly jumped at the opportunity given to her when the topic had changed, and said something else instead of answering him. However, when he had accused her of lying, she felt a little guilty, so she quibbled about what he had said and grilled him back.

“I know. That’s why I hate it.”

“Still, don’t put yourself down. That's a bad habit.”

“Okay. So, when are you going to translate it?”

“...”

Louie, who had never missed his target, had never forgotten the things he started. Lee Yoo-Ra, who had to agonize over answering him once again, rolled her eyes and racked her brain, thinking about how to get herself out of this mess.

Louie looked straight at her. Shortly after, he nodded as though he had understood something. This time, Lee Yoo-Ra wanted to ask him. What do you get? Why are you nodding?

“So you’re a quack.”

“Hey~! This is a different domain.”

“Alright, alright, I get it.”

He told her to calm down and kept making a face that seemed to say that he had understood, but Lee Yoo-Ra felt unsettled, and she started to shake her legs. She could not possibly say anything along the lines of ‘You like me,’ so it started to drive her insane. She tried to drink some coffee to soothe her stomach that was churning with anxiety, but it was too hot. Drinking it would upset her stomach further, so she looked at Louie in a cavalier manner and placed another order.

“One more iced americano!”

After receiving her order, Louie stood up. Lee Yoo-Ra was the only customer in the cafe, and the tranquility had created a warm and relaxing atmosphere. A smile slowly crept across Louie’s face as he stood up and turned around. That was the first time he had smiled since the drama started, but Lee Yoo-Ra did not see it.

When the sound of the clapboard was heard, Park Yeon-Ah was dumbfounded for a moment before blinking her eyes because it was the first time they had finished shooting a scene without any bad takes.

“Wow~!” exclaimed Park Yeon-Ah, who seemed to be in disbelief. She ran to Woo-Jin and grabbed him by the neck as she cried out, “Woo-Jin, we did it! This is the first time we’ve finished a scene without any bad takes!”

“I know.”

Park Yeon-Ah looked at Woo-Jin who had replied in a lackadaisical manner as he nodded. She realized that she had made a mistake and slowly loosened her grip. She had made the mistake of doing something that would break an actor out of character. Likewise, Park Yeon-Ah had also been assuming Lee Yoo-Ra’s personality up until now – she was more cheerful than usual, and her movements were more excessive as well, so she was well-aware of what this was all about.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I also feel very good right now.” Woo-Jin, who had returned to his original self at a certain point, had a slight smile on his face as he turned around and looked at Production Director Park.

Even though he had heard the sound of the clapboard and the production director had not rejected the scene, he was still uncertain. Woo-Jin and Park Yeon-Ah craned their necks and waited for the production director to say something, like baby birds asking for food.

“It was good. Just keep acting like that. Do you think I do it because I like tormenting actors? I can be a good person too if they act well on their own.” Woo-Jin and Park Yeon-Ah awkwardly contorted their faces as they tried hard to not laugh at the ridiculous statement.

If one wanted to know what would happen if actors had to work with a picky and extremely perfectionistic production director, they could just take a look at Park Jong-Hyuk. It did not matter if he was nice or not. Regardless of the production director's actual nature, it was a fact that the actors could not get out of this distressing situation.

Additionally, Production Park Jong-Hyuk was someone who would tell his actors to do two more things right after telling them to do something. It doesn’t make sense for someone like that to call themselves nice. Park Yeon-Ah, whose expression had been really weird earlier, had managed to calm herself down. She tapped Woo-Jin on the shoulder, looking slightly more confident than before.

“We’ve really done a good job this time, right?” Woo-Jin nodded his head without hesitation after hearing the self-praise that was filled with joy. If it was said that Woo-Jin understood how to act, then it can be argued that Park Yeon-Ah understood the restraints that came with acting.

In a live broadcast or a play, the audience would only look at what they wanted to see. On the other hand, in dramas and movies, the viewers could only see what the actors had intentionally shown. In a play where everything was captured in one frame, the actors had to make bigger moves in order to highlight their movements. Hence, even though she knew other methods of expressing herself physically in videos, which only required minute movements, she could not fully understand it.

“I knew I needed to keep my emotions and movements concise, but I didn’t know how to express that. Now, I know.”

Park Yeon-Ah did not know how she had managed to finish shooting the scene without any outtakes. It was just speculation, but acting seemed like a job where interaction between people made a huge impact. Since Woo-Jin had perfectly acted out his character, Louie, she wondered if she herself had also done the same thing by being fully immersed in her character, Lee Yoo-Ra. She had forgotten about acting and had become Lee Yoo-Ra, thus, her exaggerated acting habits did not appear. Forgetting about acting during shoots was not an issue that had plagued Chae Woo-Jin alone.

Both of them had been agonizing over the same issue, just that their expression and means of self-awareness were different. Fortunately, they were not stupid; with a little hint, both of them were able to fix their problems. Park Yeon-Ah had managed to figure out why Production Director Park had been rejecting her scenes through practical experience. She gave Kang Min-Ho, who had been watching them shoot their scene from the side, a V-sign, showing off her newfound confidence, while challenging him at the same time, as if to say she would not lose to him.

“We’re finally going to make some progress. I had a hard time because of you inferior actors, and yet you’re still so conceited!” Kang Min-Ho scoffed at her and shrugged contemptuously. Woo-Jin and Park Yeon-Ah, who had made huge mistakes, could not retort. They quietly read the script and prepared for the next scene.

Just because Woo-Jin had regarded Louie as one of his past identities and acted like him did not mean that the shoot would be smooth-sailing from now on. Since it was an incomplete ‘life’ that was different from his past lives, he had to ensure that there were no inconsistencies with the portrayal of his character.

Woo-Jin had constantly thought and researched about acting during his free time. Woo-Jin monitored his acting and looked for areas in which he could improve in, and thought about Louie as he did his best to interpret his character. As he did that, he had naturally pictured and created Louie’s life. The process was so fun and he experienced the joy of creating things.

“There was a time where I had died without writing down the ideas in my head.”

Everybody recognized his name now, but in his past life, he was a very poor writer. He had done ghostwriting for a living, but his life had ended without him being able to pen down his last piece of work which he spent a lot of effort in.

“Am I going to see it to the end this time?”

Writing was different from acting. He wasn’t trying to take on the personality of that past identity – it was just an extension of the dream which he could not achieve in that past life. He already had all the ideas and storyline in his head, but since the times were different, it seemed like tweaking it would make things easier.

In his past life, he had so written so many exquisite and lyrical literary works that he was known as ‘the mother of writing’. On top of that, he had lived several other lives as a writer. He felt that it would not be a bad thing to create new writings by gathering all these life experiences. It felt as though he would be fulfilling the unrealized dream of his previous lives as writers. In any case, they were Woo-Jin’s past lives. Their dreams are his dreams.

Woo-Jin took out a notebook after feeling motivated. However, as soon as he looked at the pile of books next to it, as well as the list of reports he had to write, he quietly closed the notebook. He had a big dream, but now was not the time. The dream of his present life took precedence over the dreams of his past lives.

***

“You know that we’ll be shooting Louie’s action scenes over the next three days, right?”

“Yes…” The floor director asked Woo-Jin for confirmation as soon as today’s shooting had ended. He did not have classes on Friday, so they had decided to shoot the action scenes that had been postponed over the next three days from Friday till Sunday. However, judging from Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk’s personality, he was worried that they might not be able to shoot the scenes they wanted to during that time frame.

“It’s going to be your first time being attached to a wire right?” asked Kang Min-Ho out of concern. He had probably seen Woo-Jin’s face darken after answering the floor director’s question. Kang Min-Ho had shot several action films, so he knows how tough it was doing stunts with wires during shoots. He was well-aware of what Woo-Jin was worried about.

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