Become a Star
chapter-13

Woo-Jin was trying his best to get to know each and every crew member, since he was not working alone. However, it was hard for him to approach the main leads since rushing to become closely acquainted or trying to be too friendly with celebrities could lead to misunderstandings. For a rookie like Woo-Jin, he was in a position where he could not approach these celebrities unless they approached him first. However, now that it was plain and obvious that Kwon Sung-Min did not like him, he could not even talk to the latter easily.

“It’s hard,” Woo-Jin said to himself. As he could not mess up his hair that had just been styled, he wriggled his fingers instead in a bid to straighten out his messy thoughts as bad memories of the past suddenly flooded his mind, making him feel helpless.

When he was a trainee, he had lived in a dorm with the rest of his group members as they were preparing for their debut. They were obviously good friends, and so there were no issues at first. However, from a certain point onward, the leader of the group instigated a bully campaign against Woo-Jin. Later on, it became much more than just sarcastic remarks. They had even beaten him up as a group, targeting areas on his body that were not visible, so naturally, his face was spared from all the beatings.

Even though they had recorded an album together, Woo-Jin was excluded from the group. When the group finally made their debut without him, the discord among them was so intense that he felt relief instead of bitterness. Even up until today, he did not have any lingering attachment to the group or the agency. He had no regrets.

Perhaps because of that experience, in spite of the current uncomfortable ambience, he was used to it and it did not hurt his feelings. He had been hurt and betrayed by his close friends, and so, even though it might have been uncomfortable, the hostility from other people he was not well-acquainted with did not affect him.

Woo-Jin returned to his normal self shortly after, leaning back against the chair and closing his eyes. Perhaps having such boundaries was not a bad thing. In the case of one-sided, unrequited love, it would be even more strange if two men who were fighting over the same woman had positive feelings toward each other. He still lacked the skill and experience to completely disconnect real-life emotions when he was acting, so it might be a good thing. As he thought about it that way, he started to feel more at ease.

Having pulled Kwon Sung-Min aside for a chat, <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon lit up a cigarette as soon as he sat down without asking the former if he was okay with it. He tried offering Kwon Sung-Min a cigarette, knowing that Kwon Sung-Min was a heavy smoker. But Kwon Sung-Min turned him down and took out his own cigarette pack instead.

Being the straightforward person that he was, <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon asked Kwon Sung-Min directly, “Park Ji-Hyuk is evidently not a character who is jealous of Cha Hyun-Seung, so why are you acting like this?”

Today’s shoot had begun with Na Mi-Yeon feeling sick, causing her to miss her classes for a couple of days. Cha Hyun-Seung could not hold himself back and decided to visit the studio apartment she resided in. Park Ji-Hyuk then found out about Cha Hyun-Seung’s feelings for Na Mi-Yeon when he got there. However, the immature and ignorant Park Ji-Hyuk did not know what jealousy was. He felt he did not need to be mindful of an insignificant teaching assistant who could not even be compared to himself.

“Did you fall for Mi-Yeon? Well, it’s not surprising, because she’s a lovely girl.”

That line should have conveyed the pride Park Ji-Hyuk had for the woman he loved, as well as sympathy for Cha Hyun-Seung, along with the unfathomable question of ‘Why do you love a girl whom you cannot covet anyway?’. But today, Kwon Sung-Min had chosen to vent his jealousy, annoyance, and contempt on Cha Hyun-Seung via that line instead.

“What kind of man is crazy enough to leave the guy who likes his girl alone?” asked Kwon Sung-Min.

“Park Ji-Hyuk is that kind of crazy man. Ordinary flowers are just weeds compared to the finest flowers in a garden. Don’t you think it’s weird that those beautiful flowers would be jealous of weeds?” asked <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon.

“In this case, we’re not talking about flowers but men, so it makes sense,” said Kwon Sung-Min, expressing his discontent with Director Choi Yi-Geon for making him repeat the same scene continuously. His voice seemed to carry an aggrieved tone.

“You clearly told us previously that we could portray our characters according to our own interpretation of them. But why can’t I do it when it’s okay for Chae Woo-Jin to portray Cha Hyun-Seung in his own way? Cha Hyun-Seung has deviated from the script and is a completely different character now. He’s now the one setting the mood. Why can’t I do that? Why are you only criticizing my acting?!” complained Kwon Sung-Min.

“In order to do that, you should have portrayed the character like that from the get go!” snapped <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon, who was filled with a rage that appeared out of the blue. “Do you know what you’re doing right now? Your character’s personality is becoming inconsistent! Who’s going to be able to understand why Park Ji-Hyuk snapped at Cha Hyun-Seung all of a sudden? I made it clear to all of you to study your own character in depth before acting them out. Besides, don’t you know that today’s scene is the best opportunity for you to show the audience what kind of person Park Ji-Hyuk is like?”

Park Ji-Hyuk was someone who was not considerate or understanding towards other people. He hurt Cha Hyun-Seung with his thoughtless and immature behavior, but he himself was unaware of the hurt he was inflicting on others. That was why he was such a cruel person, even though he was always high-spirited and endearing.

“I know! But if I stick to the original plan and portray him like this, I’ll end up becoming a villain. Should I not do anything about it?”

This was what Kwon Sung-Min was concerned about. When the main lead turned into a villain from a certain point onward, the separation between ideals and reality was unbearable. If things had gone according to the script today, Cha Hyun-Seung should have been in a foul mood as he loitered around in front of Na Mi-Yeon’s house on a rainy day, where he would bump into Park Ji-Hyuk wearing a uniquely innocent smile on his face. Feeling inferior to Park Ji-Hyuk, Cha Hyun-Seung should have had to portray a much darker and more withdrawn image.

However, since Cha Hyun-Seung’s disposition had changed, Park Ji-Hyuk’s child-like cruelty became more and more prominent, while Cha Hyun-Seung became more sad and heartbroken.

“That’s because you’re bad at acting,” replied <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon.

“I’m sorry?” Kwon Sung-Min burst out laughing at <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon's blunt words, which sounded absurd to him. Even though he was not a great actor, he had never heard anybody say that he could not act.

“You’ve been acting this way ever since you took a look at the scene we shot on the monitor yesterday. What do you think of it? Your character, Park Ji-Hyuk, was so spiteful and immature that you wanted to punch him, right?” asked <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon.

What the director <meta charset="utf-8">said was true, so Kwon Sung-Min kept his mouth shut and simply glared. Although Park Ji-Hyuk was an immature person, he was not a spiteful person. However, Kwon Sung-Min had been portraying him in that light for some time.

<meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon continued, “That’s why I made you repeat the scene a couple of times and pointed out your mistakes, but you didn’t listen at all. So, I decided to let it be, thinking that was the version of Park Ji-Hyuk you wanted. Now that you’ve personally seen it yourself, you see where you’ve gone wrong, right? But what can you do? It’s already too late. Do you want us to abandon all the scenes we’ve already shot and redo everything because of you? The bottom line is that I don’t want to do so.”

<meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon had already pointed out Kwon Sung-Min’s mistakes. He had made him repeat the scenes and shown him the videos. He had clearly asked Kwon Sung-Min a few days ago if he thought that the character was being a little spiteful. However, Kwon Sung-Min had refused to acknowledge it. He had insisted that he was portraying the character correctly, and that Park Ji-Hyuk was not spiteful, just immature. He had ignored everything <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon said.

And then yesterday, when he was in the same frame as Cha Hyun-Seung, the realization hit him. Cha Hyun-Seung ended up being a pure-hearted and sad character, while Park Ji-Hyuk was gradually degenerating into an unlikable, immature rich boy.

“Regardless of his sorrow, Park Ji-Hyuk is a pure-hearted and reckless person. He would never look like a villain if you expressed that well. Besides, Cha Hyun-Seung is a bystander who has a one-sided crush on the female lead. His affection has no effect on the love between the two main leads. All you have to do is to portray the love between the two main characters; the type of pure, immature, and beautiful love one has in one’s twenties. However, you’re trying to insert Cha Hyun-Seung into the love between the two characters! That’s just not it,” <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon explained.

In truth, Kwon Sung-Min was not good at acting, and also had a tendency to get caught up in Cha Hyun-Seung’s feelings. Cha Hyun-Seung was a person that Park Ji-Hyuk did not care about, but Kwon Sung-Min was constantly conscious of Cha Hyun-Seung.

That posed a problem. It should have ended with Cha Hyun-Seung being a person who observed them from the perspective of a bystander. In other words, it meant that regardless of how much Cha Hyun-Seung loved Na Mi-Yeon, his emotions should not have affected the main leads’ emotions. However, Kwon Sung-Min was trying to put him in center stage.

“He may be spiteful or immature, but Park Ji-Hyuk isn’t someone who would be jealous or hostile toward Cha Hyun-Seung. That’s because he doesn’t feel the need to. He’s very confident of himself and Na Mi-Yeon’s love for him. In a sense, he’s a steadfast person who doesn’t waver. That’s the gist of this movie! You said you didn’t want to be a villain, but should Park Ji-Hyuk become a loser instead? Well, I think you’ve already taken a step forward in that direction.”

<meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon sighed and asked if Kwon Sung-Min wanted to portray the loser now that Cha Hyun-Seung was no longer one. Since the genre of the movie was not as exciting as action movies or horror thrillers, the buildup of the characters’ emotions was the most important aspect of the movie. Even if there was only one slip-up, it would be highly risky in the sense that the content could go in an entirely different direction, achieving an undesired outcome.

“Stay focused. If the main lead doesn’t exude any charm, ultimately, doesn’t that mean that you’re bad at acting? But if your character’s behavior becomes inconsistent, it’ll be over for you. I noticed that the actors who fall into a slump after acting in a G&C romance film are the ones who displayed bad acting. No matter how much you hate the role or don’t want to be in the movie, as an actor, acting well is your main job and priority. If an actor does a good job and the movie becomes a flop, the director and writers will be criticized. If an actor is bad at acting, I don’t have to tell you what will happen, right?”

<meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon stood up from his seat after putting out the cigarette, saying, “Take some time to cool off a little before coming out.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll go with you,” said Kwon Sung-Min.

As Kwon Sung-Min stood up at the same time, <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon noticed that the look in the actor’s eyes had become much calmer. <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon nodded without saying anything more. Even after they arrived on set, he did not start shooting immediately. He gave Kwon Sung-Min a little more time, using the excuse that the latter should fix his wet hair and smudged makeup.

He had kept telling Kwon Sung-Min off for his poor acting, but compared to other actors in his age group, the latter had good sense and was rather smart. It was not easy to be that successful at such a young age. If he understood where he went wrong and was also given the opportunity to rectify it, he would do a good job that would not fall short of expectations.

As <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon gave the cinematographer and the sound supervisor instructions, he glanced over at Chae Woo-Jin, who had already gotten into character. The latter was now Cha Hyun-Seung. Looking poised with a sullen look on his face, and not forgetting his half-closed eyes, he looked as though he had something on his mind. Woo-Jin’s version of Cha Hyun-Seung was as clean-cut and beautiful as always.

Although Woo-Jin’s appearance was very unique, the overall vibe he gave off was different from the other actors in general. When he started acting, he became a much more charismatic and beautiful person compared to the original character. <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon had not made a judgment on whether that was good or bad for Woo-Jin as an actor.

Woo-Jin had both skills and looks, so if he were to make full use of a good opportunity, he would have a bright future. However, it was important for him to know how to navigate sudden success at such a young age. The kind of actor Woo-Jin would end up becoming was solely dependent on himself.

Before he realized it, <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon had already approached Woo-Jin and stood in front of the latter, looking at him. Sensing his presence, Woo-Jin slowly lifted his head and looked at <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon. It was almost as if Woo-Jin had been possessed by Cha Hyun-Seung. Not wanting him to break character, <meta charset="utf-8">Choi Yi-Geon nodded instead of telling him that they were about to start shooting.