Andrew watched Kim Seunghun’s new acting.
He admired it inwardly because it seemed much improved, but it was not at a stage he could be satisfied with yet.
A possibility that felt like it could show even more perfect acting.
Not wanting to miss that possibility, Andrew snapped at Kim Seunghun.
“What are you, a wooden plank? Do you think your movements look natural right now?”
“Um…”
“Let your body be carried by the emotion. When you cry, snot has to come out, and when you’re tense, your hands have to tremble. Are you acting like that because you don’t want to mess up that handsome face of yours?”
At Andrew’s words, Kim Seunghun frowned and said,
“It’s not like that.”
“Tsk. On a theater stage, you have to move your body a bit exaggeratedly. Start again, thinking you’re moving a bit exaggeratedly right now.”
“Yes…”
Taking Andrew’s words at face value, Kim Seunghun exaggerated even his trembling, and then, to see if it looked okay, he glanced sideways at the mirror in front of him.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“You just checked how you’d look to people, didn’t you?”
“…”
Andrew clicked his tongue and said,
“Stop living while watching other people’s reactions that much. When you act, are you worried your face will look weird? Even when you cry, do you want to do some ‘a man’s tears!’ thing where there’s no snot and only tears stream down?”
“…”
“That isn’t real emotion. Do it again. Focus on your body’s reactions. Don’t think about what’s outside. It’s not too late to consider what’s outside after you focus on your body. Again!”
At Andrew’s words, Kim Seunghun clenched his teeth and focused on acting.
A scene with no lines.
The only thing written in the script was: [Ryu Seongmin inhales as he jolts awake from a nightmare due to post war trauma.]
As Kim Seunghun practiced that single stage direction like a madman and even broke out in a sweat, Andrew stared at him and wrote something down.
When the acting ended, Kim Seunghun exhaled roughly and collapsed onto the floor.
He could not remember the last time he had practiced like this, and the moment he lay down, a small laugh slipped out.
“Just now, it was okay, right?”
Kim Seunghun asked.
But there was no answer, so Kim Seunghun looked toward the chair where Andrew had been sitting.
“Huh?”
Andrew was gone, and a paper note had been left on the chair.
“What is this.”
Kim Seunghun got up from where he had been lying and checked the note.
[I’ll be at MILM. When you’re done practicing, come pick me up.]
Under that line, there was quite a long passage.
“He could have just said it and left…”
[The foundation of a character belongs to the writer, but whether the character lives or dies is up to us actors. And we have to bear that responsibility too. But you are in a state where you can’t bring the character to life, and you also can’t kill it. It’s ambiguous. Exactly a rookie level.]
Rookie.
At that word, Kim Seunghun frowned again, but when he read what was written below, he understood why Andrew had left it as a note.
[But today, you looked like a rookie with some potential. Anyway, contact me before you come.]
Maybe he felt embarrassed to say praise out loud, because he praised him carefully through writing, and Kim Seunghun smiled at that.
“What a strange ajusshi…….”
After putting Andrew’s note into his pocket, Kim Seunghun replayed the recording of his own acting.
It was only a brief moment, but Andrew’s acting coaching was different.
‘There’s a huge difference between being able to do it but choosing not to and not being able to do it! You can’t do it!’
The countless words Andrew had thrown at him.
Kim Seunghun could confirm through his own acting what hints were inside them.
How long had it been since he had practiced while immersing himself in acting this much?
Thinking that he had found a good mentor, a smile spread at the corners of Kim Seunghun’s mouth.
The moment Andrew came out of GO Entertainment, he grabbed a taxi.
The destination was MILM.
Up until right before he got into the taxi, the roads had been wide open, but as if it were a lie, they suddenly filled up with cars.
“Damn it.”
He had come out with time to spare, but if things were like this again, it was obvious he would be late.
Andrew let out a deep sigh, then, resigned, stared out the window and recalled Kim Seunghun’s acting he had just seen.
Kim Seunghun was not bad at acting.
He was lacking in Andrew’s eyes, but he was not as terrible as Andrew had thought.
Because he had basic skill, he also absorbed things quickly.
It was his first time seeing someone correct things that quickly with just a few words.
“Ha…”
Meeting the wrong director in works other than Night.
The thought that it was actually closer to that made him feel pathetic.
He too had received all kinds of harsh looks through The Lord of the Rings.
An actor whose face was not even shown. And at the same time, an actor who could not act properly.
‘They said that Gollum expression was your expression? Your foam acting got exposed.’
‘Andrew who can’t act is just baggage. You’ll get kicked out of the troupe soon.’
‘A guy who couldn’t even hold his head up in Hollywood thinks he can properly work in the UK?’
As negative thoughts crawled up, Andrew let out a deep sigh.
Then, thinking he should empty his head, he closed his eyes for a moment.
But in that pitch black darkness, his daughter’s face surfaced.
When the face of the child who had suffered because of him came to mind, he thought it would be better to keep his eyes open, so he opened them.
“Damn it.”
Maybe because that chatterbox Kim Seunghun was not next to him.
The stray thoughts would not stop.
Andrew picked up his phone and called Kim Seunghun’s number.
— Hello? No, who just leaves like that all of a sudden?
“Well, I could leave because of my own appointment.”
— Would it kill you to at least say something before you go? Huh?
“Tsk. You’re loud.”
Kim Seunghun chuckled and said.
— Says the guy who knows he’s loud, calling first. Did you forget something or what?
“Yeah. I should’ve added one more line on that note.”
— What was it? Right, you really regretted how little praise there was. If you’re going to do it, do it generously…
“Work hard. I’m hanging up.”
Click.
Andrew hung up and chuckled to himself.
A childish prank he would not have even thought of in the past.
When that childish prank made him laugh even a little, the stray thoughts that had been rummaging through his head disappeared.
“We’ve arrived.”
At the driver’s words, Andrew handed over the money and got out of the car.
And when he entered the place on the sixth floor where MILM was, Taylor greeted Andrew with a bright smile.
“Mr. Pukey, you’re here!”
The VFX team around them greeted Andrew at his arrival.
There was no longer the same mocking look as before.
“Tsk. Stop saying that now.”
“Why? It’s cute. Pukey.”
When Taylor answered with a bright smile, Andrew frowned and replied.
“Cute, my ass. Tsk. Anyway. Why did you tell me to come today?”
“The CG for the test shoot last time is finished. We showed it to Director Gyeong first, and Director Gyeong said we absolutely had to show it to you too.”
Taylor dragged over a chair beside her and made a gesture for him to sit.
Andrew sat down, rested his chin in his hand, and let out a long yawn. At that, Taylor snorted and said,
“I’ll show you a visual that’ll make that yawn disappear.”
“Hm, sorry. I’ve been working out too hard lately.”
Taylor played a file on the computer.
And a test video with the CG design finished appeared.
“Oh…”
A visual that could not even be compared to The Lord of the Rings that he had participated in.
The difference was so extreme that it was hard to believe they had used the same level of technology as The Lord of the Rings, and Andrew stared at the monitor with his mouth hanging open.
“Citizens of the planet Selene. Hear my words!”
Nix Road’s natural movement.
Seeing Nix Road with Andrew’s acting perfectly melted into it, Andrew, flustered, kept replaying the short video in silence.
“Judging by your reaction, it’s good, right?”
“Th-this is…….”
As Andrew could not even speak properly, Taylor smiled.
“Hehe. It’s the result of everyone working like crazy while pulling all nighters. Designers, programmers, everyone is getting ground down.”
“Amazing… if it continues like this… like Director Gyeong said…”
‘Nix Road will become you, Andrew, and you will become Nix Road. When I go into filming, I will definitely make it that way.’
People might not even be able to distinguish between Nix Road and Andrew.
He might not have to be ashamed of being an actor hidden behind the mask called CG.
With that expectation, a smile spread at the corners of Andrew’s mouth.
“What is it, you’re someone who knows how to smile like that?”
Taylor, next to him, said.
“What?”
“I should’ve taken a picture. That smile just now looked really happy. What were you imagining?”
“I wasn’t imagining anything. It’s just funny, that’s all.”
As he said that, Andrew rewound the video again to watch it once more and watched it again from the beginning.
“You’re going to replay it a few more times, right? When you’re done, tell me. I’ve got some things to do.”
“Isn’t it time to get off work?”
“On time leaving is something I forgot after joining Space Vagabond, you know?”
“What?”
Taylor pointed at the office, still full of people, and said,
“These people. They’re all crazy about making Space Vagabond a success. Of course, Director Gyeong does make sure we get paid properly. But still, right now our goal is only the success of this movie.”
“….”
“I told you before, right? Everyone is serious. And what you’re looking at right now is the first step of that.”
Taylor shrugged, then returned to her seat.
“Amazing.”
After replaying the short video dozens of times, Andrew picked up his phone and waited for Kim Seunghun to contact him.
Was he still practicing?
Maybe he was not even the one working the hardest.
With that thought, he called Kim Seunghun.
— Ah, Andrew. I’m about to leave now.
“What? You were practicing until now?”
— Yes.
“You’re all crazy. Crazy.”
Andrew clicked his tongue.
Not only stamina but acting the same single scene for hours with no dialogue was a tremendous torture.
It was like the kind of bullying seniors would do to crush the spirit of acting school freshmen.
— I just need to go to MILM, right?
“No. Take a taxi.”
— What? You told me you’d pick me up.
“There’s more I need to do here. I think I’ll be late, so you sleep first.”
— Come on, let’s watch together. If it’s something you have to do at MILM, it’s related to Space Vagabond. Let me see too.
At Kim Seunghun’s words, Andrew fell silent, as if thinking what to say.
— Andrew? Hello?
“Uh, yeah. Fine.”
— You suddenly went quiet, so I thought the call dropped. You’re coming to MILM?
“Yeah. Wait out front.”
— Huh? You said you had something to do.
At Kim Seunghun’s question, Andrew sounded flustered.
“No. Uh, I just finished. Ha ha.”
— Huh……? Then I just need to go out front there, right?
“Y-yeah.”
Click.
After hanging up, Andrew stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment.
He must be tired from practicing acting until just now, but he was still going to come all the way to MILM to pick him up.
Was he kind or was he stupid?
At the unreadable way he was, Andrew frowned as if he could not understand.
“Hm… hoo.”
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