Chapter 178: Whale
Chapter 178: Whale
Building recognition in America first.
That was the first step to surviving in Hollywood.
Hadn’t I proposed it myself when I sat down with Michael?
That before the film opened, I would make sure the name Ryu Sunho became known to the American public to some degree.
Of course, Vacuum State was currently ranking high at the North American box office and was doing quite well.
But when you actually looked at social platforms like Twitter or Instagram, people mostly mentioned “Gu” and “Gu Sunwoo,” the character’s in-film name.
The actor’s own name, on the other hand, was not really being recognized.
Which meant the moment the film left theaters, there was a high chance it would remain only as a short-term impact and then be forgotten.
How many attractive and memorable characters were there in Hollywood?
Within a single year, thousands, tens of thousands of characters poured out and disappeared.
In any case, CEO Hwang Cheoljun looked briefly taken aback by my proposal.
But then he slowly smiled.
“All right. Let’s give it a try.”
He added one more thing.
“Instead, let’s make one month a grace period for both sides. We’ll secure the program within that time, and Mr. Sunho will hold off on signing with a Hollywood agency and wait.”
I considered it for a moment.
Then I nodded and smiled in satisfaction.
“Sounds good.”
Once the catfish was dropped in, the currents inside the tank began to churn violently.
After Ryu Sunho left, in the CEO’s office of Flash Entertainment, CEO Hwang Cheoljun stood before the full-height window overlooking Seoul, his eyes blazing for the first time in a long while.
Yes. Thinking back on it, I’ve grown far too complacent myself.
At some point, he had begun losing his original mindset.
Had it started when their rival, Big Blue Entertainment, collapsed on its own, and a giant star named Ryu Sunho began carrying the company on his back?
He had been drunk on the sweet poison of stability.
But his meeting with Ryu Sunho had splashed cold water over him.
Ryu Sunho had already become a whale capable of stirring up giant waves and was preparing to go out into the open sea, while the so-called owner had been clinging to the embankment of a reservoir, feeling satisfied.
Then the whale will leave. Toward a sea that is wider and deeper.
If Ryu Sunho were to leave, the company would obviously be shaken badly.
The stock price would crash, and other signed actors might also start leaving.
This was an important turning point upon which the fate of the company rested.
Would they fall behind as they were, or would they enlarge the vessel in order to hold a giant like Ryu Sunho?
Thunk!
CEO Hwang Cheoljun roughly loosened his tie.
The complacency vanished from his eyes, and the vicious sharpness he had once possessed returned.
“All right. Let’s get off our asses and move.”
After that, Flash Entertainment went into emergency mode, and a task force team was assembled immediately.
Led by Team Leader Jo Sehun of Management Team 2 and Team Leader Lee Seokjun of the Promotion & Marketing Team, with the overseas business division and even the content planning team joining in, the company’s core personnel gathered in the large conference room and racked their brains.
“All right, all right, let’s go back to the beginning.”
They started writing down a list of programs on the whiteboard and quickly narrowing down the candidates.
“The Conan Show is probably impossible, right?”
“Why? Mr. Sunho speaks English well.”
“Mr. Sunho isn’t the problem, obviously. The problem is those broadcasting bastards.”
Understanding what he meant, Team Leader Lee Seokjun nodded.
“The entry barrier is way too high. Even regular Hollywood stars have a hard time getting on.”
“That’s right. Let’s exclude the things that are realistically impossible.”
“Rather than something safe, it needs to be a program with a clearer concept if we’re going to have a shot.”
The staff put their heads together and thought.
“Then what about Crazy Hot? It’s blowing up on Wiplex right now. If you look at Reddit, the response is insanely hot too.”
“...Are you crazy? Putting him on a dating show is basically saying we should destroy his actor image.”
“Oh, no way. That one’s fully adults-only.”
“Then what about this? A cooking show with Gordon Ramsay. That’s had crazy buzz for twenty years.”
“Gordon Ramsay?”
For a moment, everyone lifted their eyes and thought it over.
“...I feel like he’d get cursed out by Gordon Ramsay.”
“...I just imagined what kind of insults he’d get. That’s horrifying.”
“...I think it would seriously damage his aura as an actor. In Korea it wouldn’t matter because his image is already so solid, but if his first impression in America becomes that bizarre palate thing, no one’s going to be able to focus on his acting.”
“Yeah... that’s true...”
The meeting hit a wall.
If the buzz was high, the image would get consumed.
If they protected the image, the impact became weak.
“All right, all right, I think we’re getting too overheated. Let’s calm down and think this through. Simply appearing somewhere isn’t the goal. It has to be a program that can dramatically raise his public recognition while protecting his image at the same time.”
Once Team Leader Jo Sehun organized things like that, everyone calmed down and started thinking again.
Then, after a short while, an assistant manager from the content planning team, who had been tapping away at a laptop in the corner, cautiously opened her mouth.
“Um... then how about changing the perspective a little?”
“How?”
“I think it shouldn’t just be about appearing on a famous program. It should be a place that can maximize Mr. Sunho’s unexpected charm.”
People started listening more closely.
“Right now, the Americans who know Mr. Sunho know him as the ‘silent actor’ from Vacuum State. Silence, mystery, darkness. That’s his current image.”
“That’s true.”
“But what if Mr. Sunho opened his mouth there and turned out to sing incredibly well? And did it while wearing a mask and hiding his identity?”
The assistant manager from the content planning team put her laptop screen up on the monitor.
A contestant in a flashy costume was singing, and the audience was going wild.
It was a program that had imported a Korean format and become a huge hit in America.
“Ah?”
“It’s that one!”
“The American version of Mystery Singer!”
The atmosphere in the meeting room changed in an instant.
“That’s right! I vaguely remember hearing an American channel bought the rights.”
“But is it doing well right now?”
“Insanely well. It was such a huge hit that it even got nominated for an Emmy.”
“The social buzz is no joke either. Every time it airs, it lands in the Top 10 buzz index.”
“Wow, that much?”
Color returned even to the faces of the staff who had looked hopeless moments earlier.
“This isn’t bad.”
High buzz, good story, no image damage.
It fit the conditions they had been searching for perfectly.
The only concern was—
“How do we wedge Mr. Sunho into that?”
“Even if they put masks on them, the name value of the participants is no joke. It’s packed.”
“This season was such a huge success, so won’t next season’s casting be even tougher?”
A heavy silence settled once more.
Everyone knew how high and mighty those American broadcasting people were.
The ground looked far too hard to go smashing your head against it blindly.
“It won’t be easy...”
“It was never going to be easy in the first place. Still, let’s think positively. This isn’t completely impossible.”
They encouraged each other like that and kept the meeting going for a long time, but no sharp solution came to mind.
There was no progress, only growing frustration.
Then, just as the unease was deepening, CEO Hwang Cheoljun, after hearing the interim report, smiled and said, “Well done. That’s a very solid idea. You’ve set the direction well.”
Then he patted Team Leader Jo Sehun on the shoulder.
“That’s enough for the working-level staff. You’ve already done your part by bringing the idea. From here on out, this is a matter of politics.”
There was even a grave determination in his voice.
“If we can’t shake the board while holding a card like Ryu Sunho, then we should shut down the entertainment business altogether. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Meanwhile, in the Check Mate production office in Hollywood, the staff clicked their tongues as they passed around the freshly finalized casting list.
“Wow... this lineup is insane. Is a combination like this even possible?”
Everyone’s eyes landed on one profile photo.
It was a picture of Evan Harris, one of Hollywood’s recognized sex symbols.
“To think Evan Harris really signed.”
“Seriously. He’s enough of a giant to serve as a juror at Cannes, but he still let go of his lead-actor greed and chose this project. How good must the script be?”
“The real deal recognizes the real deal.”
The staff kept expressing their admiration.
Then someone looked at the photo of another man posted just below and said, “So Townsend’s finally confirmed too, right?”
“Yeah. We barely got the signature at dawn yesterday.”
“He kept dragging it out over the guarantee, so I guess things worked out in the end.”
“In the end, he was the one who gave in and came in. Said it would be a shame if his name were missing from a Quentin film.”
“Well, that’s good. If Townsend is there, the atmosphere on set won’t ever sink.”
“Well, probably, right? He’s famous for his gift of gab. Whenever Director Quentin gets sensitive, he’ll definitely do a good job as a mood-maker.”
The staff chatted positively, already imagining the atmosphere on set.
At that same time, while they were looking forward to Townsend’s role as the mood-maker on set—
At a luxury fashion brand event in Beverly Hills, LA, while models in glamorous dresses and celebrities in tuxedos walked around holding champagne glasses, Townsend looked around like a hyena searching for prey.
Then he spotted someone on the terrace and his eyes lit up.
“Oh, well, if it isn’t you.”
Townsend strode over with a champagne glass in hand.
“Hey, buddy!”
Evan Harris turned his head at the sudden greeting.
He slightly furrowed his brow as he searched his memory.
Were they close enough to be calling each other buddy?
They had never worked together, and as far as he remembered, they had not really interacted privately either.
But Townsend came on as if they were close friends, slinging an arm over Evan’s shoulder.
“It’s been ages!”
“Uh, hello. Good to see you.”
Faced with such an enthusiastic greeting, Evan responded with a faint smile, assuming perhaps he had simply forgotten something.
“I heard the news. Evan, you’re going into Director Quentin’s project too, right?”
“That’s right. It’s a chance to work with someone I’ve been watching with interest.”
“Haha! So you joined because of Quentin too? Right. Veterans like us need to hold the center, don’t you think?”
Townsend took a sip of champagne with an exaggerated gesture, then glanced around and lowered his voice.
It was the furtive tone of someone about to share juicy gossip.
“But say... isn’t it a little ridiculous?”
“What is?”
“That gay-looking Asian bastard getting the lead over you. It makes no sense.”
Townsend kept babbling with a snickering laugh.
“What, did he give Quentin some kind of ‘special service’ or something? Quentin’s famous for having weird tastes, isn’t he?”
Confident that his joke would land, he kept spitting out crude and vulgar remarks.
We’re both white. We’re both mainstream.
He wanted to build camaraderie by tearing into that outsider who had rolled in out of nowhere.
But—
Smack!
Evan shook Townsend’s arm off his shoulder as if brushing off a bug and glared at him coldly.
“Jesus.”
Then he grimaced as if his mouth had turned bitter.
“I thought maybe my memory was bad and I’d forgotten that we were close.”
“...?”
“But I was wrong. There’s no way I’d ever have been close to some piece of shit who says garbage like this.”
Townsend’s laughter died instantly.
At the same time, Evan’s blue eyes turned icily cold.
“Get the hell out of my sight before I smash that filthy mouth of yours.”
Leaving behind only a look of disgust, Evan turned and walked away without even glancing back.
Townsend could only stand there blankly, his face red.
After arriving at the LA airport, I called Michael and updated him on the situation.
I told him there was a temporary issue regarding my agency contract.
Then Michael made a sound of interest and said, “If your agency can’t make up its mind quickly, does that mean we can change the lead actor?”
I paused at the words coming through the receiver.
Then Michael burst into hearty laughter.
“I’m joking. You already signed the deal memo.”
He added in a cheerful tone, “If I changed the lead actor on my own at this point, even I wouldn’t be able to handle Quentin. And we’ve already spent quite a bit of money poaching the cinematographer Quentin wanted, so there’s no backing out now.”
The playfulness disappeared from Michael’s voice.
“So act well. Make sure I don’t regret what I invested.”
...Well, I was going to act well whether he told me to or not.
He really did have an art to the way he snuck pressure about the final result into his words.
Of course, that did not make me shrink back from the burden.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get your money’s worth.”
Proving yourself with every project was an actor’s life.
After that, I hung up and hurried off to take care of the day’s schedule.
First, pick up my luggage...
Just as I was waiting for my suitcase, my phone vibrated strongly again.
Bzzzz—
A name that had not appeared in a long time lit up on the screen.
Team Leader Jo Sehun.
I slowly picked up the phone and pressed the call button.
“Hello?”
Team Leader Jo Sehun shouted, breathing hard, “Sunho! WAX Channel wants a meeting! About having you appear on Mystery Singer, the one they produce!”
...Oh?
The answer came faster than I had expected.