Dividing the Roles
Two days later, in the conference room of Director Go Taemin's studio.
Befitting a director known by the epithet the delicate master, the room stood a fair distance from anything ordinary — not least because a grand piano sat planted squarely in the middle of it.
Gathered there were the production team of Starting Tomorrow, Crescendo, Director Go Taemin, CEO Kim Iseo, and, last of all, Sua.
The atmosphere was, of course, awkward. For no particular reason, Sua fidgeted with the hands resting on her knees.
I told them no, and they still called me in? Ugh. This is uncomfortable.
It was as bad as sitting on a cushion of needles, and she couldn't make sense of the attitude Go Taemin was showing her. Kim Iseo had clearly passed along her refusal, yet the director was looking at her now with a deep, lingering gaze.
Is he hoping I'll change my mind? Even so, I'm not taking a Grade 7. I'll have to turn him down politely, of course.
Director Kim Jungi had sent Chief Seo Jae-woo, so refusing had been easy. A word to the chief that she wasn't doing it, and that was the end of it. Director Go Taemin was different. He had cleared his calendar to make room for a meeting with Mystic, and Sua judged she owed him a measure of courtesy in return.
Being good at acting isn't all there is to being an actor.
She was still minding her image. Lately she had come to feel, quite keenly, that an actor had to keep the relationships around her in good order. She meant to become the kind of actor anyone could like, and ending something mattered just as much as beginning it. Today's goal was to refuse in a way that left no trouble behind.
...To think I'd become someone who thinks even this far ahead.
Truly admirable. Peak Sua.
A thought anyone would have. Basic Sua.
The Special Privilege jumped in at once to nitpick, insisting she had only just gotten around to the basics. She ignored it. You be quiet. Don't talk to me.
Just then, Go Taemin offered a faint smile.
"I heard you meant to refuse, Sua. Just tell me, briefly, which part didn't sit well with you. That will be enough."
At that, Kim Iseo's antenna twitched.
He isn't pressing her. This sounds more like...
Didn't it sound as if he were offering to fix whatever felt wrong, on the spot? Antenna up for business, Kim Iseo spoke.
"Will anything change, depending on Sua's answer?"
"It will."
Go Taemin nodded.
"If she has a serious objection, then there's nothing to be done. That's how this industry works, isn't it? It isn't something you can force."
Kim Iseo nodded. So did Sua. Work that ran on muscle could be forced, but acting could not. You could never draw out a feeling you didn't have to begin with.
Kim Iseo went on.
"And if the objection she has is only a small one?"
"Then I'd consider a revision. I'll be direct. I want you, Sua. Newcomer or otherwise, it doesn't matter to me. I was hooked from the start, and that's why I set the appointment that day."
Kim Iseo went still, then immediately turned a pleading look on Sua.
Sua had no trouble reading it. They're meeting you this far, and you still won't do it? They'll even rewrite the script, and you're turning that down? It was the face of someone clinging to her.
Go Taemin's gaze, meanwhile, settled on Sua.
"First, shall we hear what the person in question thinks?"
Sua considered for a moment.
"Director. This role, Kim Sohee."
"Kim Sohee? The protagonist of my film."
"Has the role truly been fully formed?"
"Formed? Might I ask you to be a little more specific?"
By then Director Go Taemin, and every member of the production team with him, was watching Sua with keener interest than before. Feeling the weight of it, she spoke.
"It felt insufficient to me."
"Insufficient?"
"Yes. The way I see it, the role of Kim Sohee is missing a great many of its important elements entirely. Enough to ruin the film."
By the time she had let out every clue the Special Privilege had given her, the room was already a hushed uproar. The production team wore shocked faces, then fell to whispering furiously among themselves. Kim Iseo broke into a sweat, her eyes darting; all she could feel was the dread of this ending badly.
Then—
"I see. The protagonist of my film is lacking."
Director Go Taemin said it with such force that Sua clenched her knees tight. She was frightened. Was I too blunt? Should I have put it more gently? Worries of that sort surged up.
But—
"...Your eye is certainly something else, Sua."
Go Taemin said it with a wide, open smile.
"Honestly, I wondered whether such a thing could really be possible. Now that I've confirmed it with my own eyes, I don't think I can deny it."
"Pardon?"
"You're right. You put your finger on it exactly."
With that, he handed her a new script, far thicker than the one she had first received.
"Take a look at this now, Sua. This is the real one. And..."
His head turned toward the production team. Every face there wore nothing but deep shock.
"You all saw that clearly, didn't you? Now get out!"
Only three people remained in the conference room: the producer, Kim Iseo, and Go Taemin.
Kim Iseo was the first to tilt her head.
"What on earth just happened..."
"Exactly what I said earlier. Sua put her finger on it."
"Was there really a problem with the role of Kim Sohee?"
"Less a problem than a part that was completely empty."
Go Taemin went on.
"The reason Sohee is a piano genius is that she has savant syndrome. Which is to say, she lives with an autistic disorder."
"Ah...?"
"But the script we gave Mystic didn't contain that element. She was simply written as a perfect piano genius, and Sua pointed straight at the gap, as if to show us."
Go Taemin stroked his chin, still looking astonished.
"Astonishing. I was truly astonished."
He looked as though he had far more to say than he could hold.
"There's so much worth praising, but even her attitude, to begin with, was out of the ordinary."
"Her attitude?"
"She could hardly have ignored the weight of my name, and yet she ignored it completely. She made no effort to look good in front of me, and she never once watched my mood. She focused on the script and nothing else."
"She's simply like that by nature. I've seen it often enough."
"That attitude may be a gift from heaven as well. Or perhaps it comes of her time abroad? People who come from overseas do tend to read the room a little less."
Around then, Kim Iseo gathered what she meant to say.
"First, thank you for praising an actor of Mystic. But..."
Her expression grew distinctly serious.
"May I ask why you ran a test like that? You could have given her the finished script from the start."
"Well, you see."
Go Taemin smiled, soft and pleased.
"A great many people were curious."
"Curious?"
"Curious whether Sua had turned Director Kim Jungi away by nothing but luck. What just happened has settled it. As I thought, luck was not the only cause."
Had she driven Director Kim Jungi off by luck alone, or did she possess a discerning eye that came close to foresight? The question stung Kim Iseo a little as well. In truth, she had been curious about that very point herself. Thinking it over now, though, Director Go Taemin was right, and the matter was more certain than ever. Sua was not someone who simply trusted to luck. She saw, with precision, exactly what in a script would make it a hit.
Perhaps taking her silence for something else, Director Go Taemin added a few words.
"Don't misunderstand. I didn't do this because I doubted Sua. Quite the opposite — I was entirely on the side of believing in her, and in the end this was for her sake as well."
"You mean this test helped her?"
"Of course."
Director Go Taemin nodded.
"Just because I want to cast some newcomer doesn't mean it becomes reality on the spot. A film is a medium everyone makes together. The production team, for one, exists right there in plain sight."
"That's true."
"So even when I take an interest in Sua, it isn't all smooth sailing. Among the production staff who never visited the set of Special Task Force 808, and among the people involved, the opposition is fierce."
Kim Iseo nodded quietly.
Well, it can't be helped. Special Task Force 808 hasn't aired yet, and to some people Sua is still nothing but a newcomer. They'd think she isn't enough to place beside a master like Go Taemin.
"...If they haven't seen Sua, they have reason to object."
"Yes. I like using newcomers, but most people hate it. They think the results only come when you mix in a certain number of top actors. And it isn't a baseless view."
Go Taemin shrugged.
"On top of that, another top actor already had an eye on the role of Kim Sohee. From their point of view, why go out of your way to use a newcomer? Use a top actor, and the problem solves itself."
"A top actor? May I ask who?"
"Ham A-yoon."
"Ham A-yoon!"
Kim Iseo reacted sharply, and she had cause. Ham A-yoon was an actress reckoned at nearly the same level as Seo Yeon-ju.
"But."
Go Taemin went on, his voice mild and unhurried.
"Now that everyone has seen Sua's eye for themselves, my opinion carries a great deal more weight. The steps by which a newcomer like Sua can take part in my film have been laid, one upon another."
"Ah..."
Kim Iseo let out a quiet breath of admiration.
A master really is a master.
He had wanted Sua in this film no matter what, and so he had arranged this meeting. Only now did she understand. It was news she could not help but welcome. Had Go Taemin not made this opening, persuading everyone who looked askance at Sua would have fallen entirely to her. He had lifted an enormous weight off her shoulders, and done it lightly.
Go Taemin spoke again.
"So. From here, shall we divide the roles?"
"Divide the roles..."
"Yes. Divide the roles. I'll persuade the production team, and you, CEO Kim, will persuade Sua. That ought to suit us perfectly."
His sunken eyes gleamed.
"The role of Kim Sohee. I want Sua to play it. No matter what."