NOVEL NEXT Chapter 39
What is awkward acting?
Why does acting become awkward?
There are several reasons behind this.
Either the emotional expression is excessive or lacking,
the delivery of lines, gestures, expressions, and breath feel awkward,
the interpretation of the character is wrong, leading to actions that don’t match the situation,
or the actor is too conscious of the camera, and so on.
A mix of these factors leads to the label of ‘awkward acting’ for the actor.
So, how can one act well?
You just need to keep one thing in mind.
‘Perfect character interpretation.’
If you become the character you’re portraying, everything will be resolved.
Since you’re not just acting like a person but actually becoming that person, you won’t be conscious of the camera,
everything feels natural, and nothing crosses a line.
The level of perfection.
Everyone on set felt a sense of strangeness while looking at Kim Donghu.
Even though they should all be acting in the same shooting location.
He was alone, truly becoming a Student Soldier and eating the camera alive,
leaving nothing but compliments on everyone’s lips.
“Meeting actor Kim Donghu is my fortunate destiny.”
Director Kang genuinely thought so, and it wasn’t just him.
“How can you act like that?”
Han Tae-geon sincerely asked, still gazing at the teary-eyed Kim Donghu.
“To be honest, I knew actor Kim Donghu was amazing from his first performance, but this is truly…”
Has Kim Donghu’s youth made it easier to speak casually? That thought vanished from Han Tae-geon’s vocabulary.
Honestly, he wanted to call him teacher or master.
Right before his eyes, he saw the pinnacle of acting.
Especially that one tear at the end.
It contained the emptiness of dying without achieving anything,
the longing for a sister, and the misery of dying young in war,
all squeezed into one single drop.
It was breathtaking.
“…I can’t find the words, I’ll talk more after the shoot is finished.”
With that, Han Tae-geon got up first to wipe off his makeup.
‘I can grow even more.’
Han Tae-geon was feeling jaded about being called a top star actor.
To be honest, while he acknowledged that he was decent, and his looks were good,
he questioned if he really deserved the title of ‘top’ in any sense.
Looks are relative, while acting skill is absolute.
How to deal with these two?
He had been in a constant state of agony and research about this.
And now that question was thoroughly resolved.
‘I just had to learn by seeing actors who are better looking and act better than me.’
Casually.
Han Tae-geon paused in his walk to glance back at Kim Donghu.
Seeing him finally rise leisurely,
‘I will definitely learn.’
He ignited his fiery passion,
‘…why is he looking at me like that?’
Kim Donghu felt burdened by that intense gaze.
+++++
After all the shooting completed and the set wrapped up,
the climax of the Student Soldier was shot, receiving enthusiastic cheers and applause,
thanks to the privilege of being 15, I was able to hop into the van right away.
‘…I still can’t believe it.’
“I can’t believe this.”
I sat quietly, fiddling with my phone contacts.
Han Tae-geon, Ko Chang-sik, Seo Myung-woo, Director Kang Sang-hun…
All the personal numbers of famous people were saved in my phone!
No matter how much I looked at it, the reality was a bit hard to digest.
“Dong-ho, you worked really hard today.”
Seriously, no matter how many times I see it, this is just ridiculous.
When I awkwardly smiled and thanked Seok-ho for his usual compliments, he handed me a file as if he had been waiting for this moment.
“Dong-ho, you’re actually getting a ton of advertising offers.”
“Huh?”
But so far, the only thing that has been publicly revealed is that Haydream thing.
And they’re already throwing ads my way for that?
“Right? You probably already know that. I mean, someone like you wouldn’t be clueless.”
I was shocked, and Seok-ho misunderstood my reaction.
“Huh? Hyung, what do you mean…?”
“But there are a lot of crappy offers coming in, honestly, we can’t complain about our current value, can we?”
“Dong-ho, you can totally rise way higher than this. You don’t need to mingle with those lowballers.”
Brrrrrrm.
Seok-ho drove the van smoothly and continued talking.
“So, I filtered most of them out, and then I got an inquiry for a school uniform ad, asking if you want to be their exclusive model.”
I checked the file name, and it said, “Brilliant.”
“It’s currently the weakest school uniform brand, though.”
Premier, I Love Club, School Kingdom, and then Brilliant.
Seok-ho added that this was the order of school uniform brand rankings.
“But looking at the conditions, it’s pretty amazing. Just signing an exclusive model contract…”
“…?!”
As I listened to Seok-ho’s explanation and checked the contract amount, I almost gasped.
Is this money going straight into my bank account?
And that wasn’t even the end!
“They give you a nice chunk for sales incentives, and there’s no strict enforcement on activity fees. Plus, bonuses for additional ad shoots are really generous.”
“So, by the looks of it, the conditions are excellent?”
I tried to stay calm as I spoke, and Seok-ho continued explaining why he picked this ad.
“I think school uniform ads could be a scale of popularity among teens, so it should help with boosting your recognition.”
Sure, you can do other ads, but you can’t do school uniform ads unless you’re in that age group, right?
“Plus, because of the nature of school uniform ads, the contract duration is about a year, which is great. Even if your value changes, they’ll adjust it right away.”
“If you’re okay with it, I think it wouldn’t be bad to set up a meeting for this. What do you think?”
Without a second thought, I nodded right away.
“Sounds great!”
So if the contract goes well, would my face be plastered in school uniform stores?
Just thinking about it was both embarrassing and exciting.
‘How surprised would Mom and Dad be if I told them?’
I was happy.
“Oh, by the way, they scheduled additional shooting dates for Haydream. It seems like there are quite a few things to revise, and they set it up in a hurry.”
“When is it?”
“Next Wednesday. Is that okay?”
“Yes.”
But I wondered why it was scheduled so quickly.
‘What if only the latter part of the content is changing?’
“Isn’t it just ridiculous?”
I had a moment of doubt, but I pushed it aside.
I had a vague thought that my screen time might increase.
“Come on, how much could it possibly increase?”
So the minor character’s screen time suddenly got a boost out of nowhere?
That made no sense at all.
++++++
Recently, if you asked teens, who love watching dramas, which day of the week they were looking forward to the most, it was obviously Monday and Tuesday.
Why, even though it was the day after the weekend, and they had to go to school?
“Because Haidream is on!”
As long as Haidream was there, Monday school didn’t scare me at all.
School ended, then off to the academy,
Then home after the academy,
And at home, I had that one Haidream episode that melted all my stress away.
Could anything be more fun?
Plus, with the previous week’s content being so good, anticipation was through the roof.
Lee Jae-yi’s rendition of the Moonlight Sonata!
How would the Haidream members overcome this?
And how many more handsome looks would Lee Jae-yi show off?
Those were the real points of interest.
In that sense, ready for another fun episode was 17-year-old Ji Eun-bi, who sat nervously in front of the TV.
And thus, the seventh episode began.
The plot itself wasn’t anything special.
The Haidream members came out, cheered each other on, practiced, and filmed a romantic comedy.
It was all predictable, yet the familiar taste was thrillingly enjoyable.
But.
“…Why isn’t Donghu oppa here?”
There was no main dish.
This question lingered until the end of episode seven, and Ji Eun-bi felt her insides boiling for a moment, but she calmed down.
“Right, he must show up tomorrow? There’s no way he could be absent for an entire week; that’s just impossible!”
But who had said that?
There’s no such thing as impossible in this world.
Wanting to prove that, Lee Jae-yi didn’t show up in episode eight either.
He wasn’t even mentioned, not a strand of hair appeared, and there was no sign he’d show up in the future.
“What the heck!”
Ji Eun-bi was in the living room with the TV blasting.
Forgetting that her parents were eating fruit at the dining table, she yelled out her frustrations.
“After looking so handsome in episode six! How could they not show our Donghu oppa?!”
Is this a joke? Are they insane?
Are they trying to deceive the viewers?
Ji Eun-bi couldn’t take it anymore.
This was deception at its finest.
She immediately headed to her computer and furiously tapped on the keyboard.
What her fingers were creating was none other than:
“How can it be that Lee Jae-yi isn’t showing up? @#$%% you guys!”
“Haha, do you think we’re watching Haidream to talk about the band? Are you out of your mind?”
“I came to see a handsome guy play the piano, but instead, I’m watching some brats’ lame show, lol.”
“Ugh, I just want to punch the guy right in the gut.”
“You guys are hopeless; let’s see the ratings drop.”
“I’ll teach you how to succeed~ 1. Bring in the handsome Kim Donghu. 2. Film a ton.”
“How can you not handle this simple thing? Are you all goldfish?”
“Looking for a party to inflate Lee Jae-yi’s screen time (1/100)”
“(2/100)”
“(3/100)”
It was the KBC viewer forum.
++++++
At the same time.
In the KBC president’s office.
The president was currently unleashing a storm of rage.
“Kim Cheoldo! With all this praise lately, has he completely lost his touch?!”
“Cheoldo! You’ve been hearing how great you are lately, and now you’ve lost your touch, haven’t you?!”
“No, you see, Kim Donghu is just a supporting actor…”
And the target of all this drama? Director Kim Cheoldo.
He was munching on a sweet cherry pie when a sudden storm knocked him for a loop.
“With the viewer board going crazy like that, who cares if you’re a supporting actor!”
“So I quickly scheduled the next filming date. It’s tomorrow…”
“Shouldn’t you have done that earlier, though? Why do you have to wait until the last minute to get yelled at?!”
Because no one knew…
That Kim Donghu was this handsome, a great actor, a fantastic pianist, and a total heartthrob!
“If we’d known, wouldn’t Kim Donghu have been the lead role?!”
Of course, Cheoldo would never actually say that.
“Hey, my wife was saying, if it were her, she’d have called Lee Jae-yi right away.”
But, come on, Kim Donghu has his own schedule. Does the script just magically write itself? Go ask Writer Lee Minha, who can only smile at you if you confront her!
Naturally, he didn’t bring that up either.
“The articles were just tearing into us right after Jae-yi’s episode aired, saying the ratings didn’t go up, like we’re at the same level as other dramas!”
“That’s just…”
“Hey, do you not analyze the Hyderim viewer statistics? Past 20, don’t you realize that since Jae-yi showed up, even the 30-40 age group is tuning in? We could’ve really skyrocketed the ratings this week!”
I’ll match your pay or budget or whatever, just increase Jae-yi’s screen time right now.
“And!”
Thud.
The boss subtly dropped a corporate card on the table.
“I won’t care what you eat or do all night, just edit the extra filming quickly, okay? Whether it’s real-time editing or whatever!!!”
We need to boost those ratings!
I trust you, Cheoldo, for real!
Let’s do our best!
“Honestly, why don’t you drink some liquor while working? Huh?! If the results are good, who cares what I say?! Got it?! If you got it, don’t respond and just get out!”
“…”
Cheoldo was thankful the stormy moment had passed and dashed straight into the drama office.
“…I’m sorry.”
And waiting there was PD Kim Youngmo, who was astonished at the ridiculous situation of getting scolded even though the ratings were doing well.
But hey, getting scolded is getting scolded, so he apologized.
‘…?’
Glancing over, PD Kim Youngmo scrutinized Cheoldo’s expression when he got no response.
But what was with that look, though?
‘It’s… bright?’
Is this guy truly someone who just got scolded?
Just as that thought crossed his mind…
“Zhah hahahahaha!!!”
Director Cheoldo’s signature laugh echoed widely.
“I got a promise for a budget increase! Get ready for the meeting ASAP.”
We’re rewriting our Hyderim story.
“Jae-yi? We’re making him the lead!”