Chapter 362
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 362
Chapter Title: Auditions for a Superstar
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“Don't you think you should get your name out there by acting in a few different projects first? That way, you can land bigger roles in bigger movies.”
“I don't mind if it's a small role, as long as I like the script. And when you're playing a character you like, you work harder, don't you?”
The conversation between Min Heekyung, who mistook Seojun for an unknown child actor, and the candid superstar Lee Seojun, was slowly diverging.
“...What if you don't find a project you like?”
“Then I'll just wait until one comes along. I'll look through plays and dramas, too.”
It was a conversation between a superstar, who felt at ease knowing it wouldn't be that hard with scripts coming in from Hollywood, and Min Heekyung, who worried that his nonchalant attitude might prevent him from ever landing a leading role.
“Senior! Just a moment!”
“Oh. Sure!”
The third-year director called over a first-year. After hearing the director, the first-year called for Seojun. As Seojun walked over to the third-year director, Min Heekyung watched his back.
Seojun, giving brief acting demonstrations for the third-year director and the actor, was shining. The eyes of all the students were fixed on him. They watched without blinking, as if trying to learn from him.
*His acting skills must be recognized by his friends, too.*
*And yet, he's still unknown.*
‘I wish he could show off his talent to more people...’
An actor like that shouldn't be allowed to remain in obscurity. Min Heekyung felt she had to be the one to reveal this hidden gem. And she wanted to film with an actor who loved his craft and shone so brightly.
“What's your favorite movie?”
Min Heekyung asked Seojun, who had returned after giving some advice.
“My favorite movie?”
“Yeah. A movie that made you think, ‘I wish I could have played that role.’”
Seojun thought for a moment, blinked, and then answered.
From very old works to recent ones. He crossed genres from movies and dramas to plays, and the ages of the roles varied wildly. Min Heekyung listened intently, engraving each one in her mind.
“But why are you suddenly asking about movies?”
“I'm trying to write a script you'd want to act in.”
*Oh.*
At the director's words, Seojun's eyes lit up.
“Well, that would be great for me!”
“But I can't seem to find a common thread.”
“I like anything as long as it's interesting.”
“That ‘interesting’ is the problem. You're pickier than I thought. From classics to recent works... you've mentioned every masterpiece there is.”
“Ahahaha.”
Seojun burst out laughing at Min Heekyung's words. Min Heekyung couldn't help but laugh too.
*Ah. This is nice.*
When was the last time she'd had this much fun creating a story?
“I'll write a good script, so just wait for it.”
*Even if it's tough being unknown, don't let your love for acting change.*
Seojun tilted his head at Min Heekyung's worried gaze, then smiled brightly and replied.
“Okay. I will.”
Seojun was simply delighted, curious about what kind of script she would come up with.
A while later.
With the filming having gone smoothly thanks to Min Heekyung and Seojun's advice, the students began to pack up the equipment. Seojun also rolled up his sleeves and helped.
“Thank you for today.”
“I had a great time today, too. Everyone, get home safe.”
Min Heekyung smiled and waved at the students who were bowing to her.
The students disappeared, laughing and chattering boisterously. Min Heekyung, watching them with a pleased expression, took out a pen and paper from her bag to start writing down the story filling her head, when suddenly—
“Aaargh! I forgot to ask for his name and number...!”
She screamed at the belated realization.
* * *
The film production company, Danhong.
The production company that made the movie [Yeok (Reverse)], where Seojun played King Danjong, was looking through the scripts and synopses that had come into the office, just like any other day. It wasn't easy to find a potential hit among the piles of works stacked in one corner of the office.
“Seriously, all the endings these days are like this.”
“That's how trends are.”
Ever since [The Survivors - Director's Cut] was uploaded to Plus+, endings where all the characters die kept popping up.
“It's one thing to see it once, but after seeing it over and over, now I just assume everyone's going to die from the first page.”
Everyone nodded in agreement at the employee's comment.
It was tedious, but their job was to find a brilliant work hidden among the similar-looking scripts, so the employees' eyes and hands moved busily.
An employee picked up a new script. He skimmed past the title, which might change anyway, and looked at the name of the script's owner. Whether the owner was a director or a writer would change the production company's course of action.
“It's a director. Min Heekyung?”
The unfamiliar name suggested she wasn't on Danhong's blacklist, which identified directors who were difficult to work with due to overworking actors, ignoring schedules, or abusing their power over cast and staff.
But she also wasn't a well-known director like Woo Junghan of [Yeok (Reverse)], whose film they had decided to produce without even reading the script.
Since the script's owner was a director, it seemed they wouldn't need to find a director to match the script.
‘If Director Min Heekyung's skills aren't up to par, we'll have to buy the script and assign it to a new director.’
But the director and the directing were secondary.
The most important thing was the content of the script.
“Let's read the script first.”
The employee turned the first page. There were brief descriptions of the characters. The employee's gaze stopped at the protagonist's age.
*18 years old.*
The employee, staring at the number, stood up from his seat. His colleague sitting next to him watched him leave the office.
“Where are you going?”
“Ah, to the storage room.”
*Eighteen, eighteen.*
The colleague tilted his head at the employee muttering to himself as he headed to the storage room.
The employee who went to the storage room took a light breath as he looked at the boxes scattered around and opened a box containing scripts that the staff had reviewed yesterday. This storage room was where they kept works that didn't meet the standards for film production.
“Eighteen years old. Eighteen years old. When did I see that...”
The employee checked the scripts from two days ago, three days ago, and the day before that. He'd turn the first page, check the protagonist's age, and put it back in the box.
“Oh! Here it is.”
And in a box from a week ago, he found the script he was looking for.
“Director Min Heekyung. It was the same director, as I thought.”
The employee took the script, left the storage room, and returned to the office.
Sitting at his desk, the employee examined the two scripts. They were by the same director, but the titles were different. Reading the first page, he saw that the protagonist was the same, but new characters had been added. The descriptions were also slightly different.
The colleague, curious about the employee's actions with two scripts spread out, asked.
“What did you bring?”
“Ah. This new script seemed familiar, so I went to the storage room to find it.”
“You remember all that?”
The colleague asked in surprise at the employee's ability to remember from the endless stream of incoming scripts. The employee just laughed.
“No way. I didn't even remember the director's name... It's just that the protagonist's age stuck with me.”
“The age?”
“Eighteen years old.”
“Oh... that's...”
*Isn't that an age that seems to be targeting someone specific?*
The employee, noticing his colleague had immediately thought of Lee Seojun, nodded.
“That's why I remembered it too, but the script wasn't very good.”
“Really?”
If it were even moderately interesting, it would have gone into the [For Review] box. Then the other employees would have read it too, so the fact that he hadn't seen it meant it must have been pretty bad. The colleague's excited expression deflated a little.
“But it looks like she revised and sent it back in just a week.”
“A week...”
That was a short time to revise a lot of content.
“Are you going to read it? Isn't the content probably similar to the previous version?”
“The cast seems to have grown a bit, and the descriptions are quite intriguing.”
“I don't know. It's not like she got a new screenwriter; it's the same director. How much could she have changed...”
The colleague watched the employee start reading the script, shrugged, and went back to his own work.
Some time passed, and the colleague glanced at the desk next to him. The employee was still reading the script. He wondered if it was a different director's script, but it wasn't. If it were boring, he would have skimmed through it and tossed it in a box, but he was reading it carefully, sentence by sentence.
The colleague picked up the old script from the desk.
He turned the first page, read the character introductions, and started reading the first scene. Hmm. He tried to focus for a bit, but then the pages started turning loosely. It was a predictable and boring story. He could see why it hadn't made it to the review box.
‘The new one probably isn't much better...’
The revision time was only a week.
It was too short a time for a bad script to improve significantly, unless the god of cinema himself had intervened.
Just then, the employee looked up from the script. The colleague, as if waiting, quickly asked.
“How is it?”
“It's incredible.”
“In a bad way?”
“In a good way!”
At the employee's wide eyes and loud voice, the colleague straightened up from leaning back in his chair. Then, he took the script from the employee and began to read.
His eyes, which had been moving nonstop, and his hand, which had been turning the pages, came to a halt.
“...Did she really meet the god of cinema or something?”
Just one week.
Impressed by the work that had changed so drastically, as if it had undergone a complete transformation, the production company Danhong made its move.
* * *
Min Heekyung sat in the conference room with a nervous expression. She hadn't even touched the coffee placed in front of her.
Until she received the call, she had thought it was a voice phishing scam that had somehow gotten her information, but she had actually made it into the offices of the film production company, Danhong.
Her first commercial film's production company hadn't been as large as Danhong, so her hands trembled as if she were a rookie director making her debut. No, a rookie director, whose heart would be filled with excitement, might have it easier.
Having failed once, Min Heekyung, who knew the harsh reality all too well, to the point it was etched into her bones, fidgeted with her sweaty hands.
‘What if they ask to just buy the screenplay?’
A company like Danhong would have thoroughly researched her.
‘They must have seen my first film and my independent films, too.’
They might like the scenario, but not her directing.
Min Heekyung let out a small sigh.
‘Then I'll have to walk away.’
There were other production companies besides this one. Though she couldn't be sure if they would be any good.
‘Or maybe I could just make it as an independent film?’
Even for an independent film, a feature-length one would cost a lot of money, but Min Heekyung was determined to make it.
She had already decided on the protagonist.
The actor in the black hat, who loved acting.
Min Heekyung wanted to shoot this film with that actor.
So, from the day she returned home from the Han River, she began revising the story. She wracked her brain for ideas until it hurt, watched the works the boy said he liked, and put her hands on the keyboard. She didn't have the confidence to write a masterpiece on that level, so all she could do was work hard.
She desperately hoped the boy would like her scenario enough to act in it.
‘...Even though I don't even know how to contact him...’
Min Heekyung let out a hollow laugh, finding the situation too absurd.
Thinking about it again, she wanted to smack her stupid self for not asking for his name or contact information.
‘And those kids... why did they only call him ‘Senior, Senior’ and never use his name...’
In reality, it was because calling out Seojun's name in the crowded Han River Park would attract attention, so the third-year director had been careful enough to have a first-year call him instead, but Min Heekyung had no idea.
While Min Heekyung was struggling to recall even one more hint about Seojun, the conference room door opened. The planning team leader, who would be in charge of this production, and his staff entered the room with bright faces.
“Hello, Director Min Heekyung.”
“Ah, hello.”
After exchanging greetings, they began their discussion.
The meeting proceeded smoothly.
Contrary to Director Min Heekyung's worries, the production company Danhong seemed to have no intention of replacing the director. She was briefed on the contract terms and they discussed matters related to production.
Director Min Heekyung answered the planning team leader's questions about whether she had any locations in mind for shooting, or if she had a preferred director of photography or art team.
“Alright, we'll look into those department heads for you.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
With things proceeding so smoothly, Director Min Heekyung also replied with a much more relaxed heart.
For some reason, she felt excited, as if this movie was destined to do well.
“Ah, Director Min. By any chance, do you have an actor in mind for the lead role?”
At the planning team leader's words, Director Min Heekyung, who had been smiling brightly, froze. Before she could even open her mouth, the staff members spoke up with bright smiles.
“It's Seojun, of course, right?”
“That's right. The age, 18, is a perfect fit. And with a story like this, actor Lee Seojun will love it.”
“If we film with actor Lee Seojun, it's a guaranteed hit!”
“We won't have to worry about funding either!”
“Plus+ will definitely invest, right?”
“Of course. They'll be the first ones we go to.”
Even the planning team leader was smiling and nodding.
Contrary to their assumptions, Director Min Heekyung had someone else in mind for her protagonist.
The actor in the black hat she had thought of all week while revising the script.
That boy already occupied every image in the film Director Min Heekyung envisioned.
Director Min Heekyung grew frantic as she watched the staff already deciding to send the script to Cocoa Entertainment. If actor Lee Seojun decided to take the role, there would be no stopping it. She felt that she herself might be swayed if Lee Seojun were actually cast.
She had written it with the boy in mind, so she wanted the boy to play the part.
‘But I can't just say I want to cast some kid whose name and contact info I don't even know!’
Anxious, Director Min Heekyung shouted.
She prayed that the boy was savvy with information and hadn't forgotten about her, whom he had briefly met at the Han River.
“Can't we hold auditions?!”
Director Min Heekyung's shout echoed through the conference room.
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