The Face Genius Actor

Episode 134

My brother had already finished setting up for the drinking session.

Thanks to the housekeeper, my brother’s house was much neater than before.

The place he used to live in felt excessively messy everywhere, like his stretched-out T-shirt.

“What’s the snack for today’s drink?”

“Lamb.”

“Ooh. Lamb is good. Goes well with soju and beer. Sounds delicious.”

My brother was quite good at cooking, perhaps inheriting our father’s culinary skills.

The French rack he prepared today seemed well-cooked, tender without any gamey smell.

I also liked that he didn’t forget to prepare cumin and ziran.

By the way, I don’t know what went wrong, but I wasn’t good at cooking.

Our mother wasn’t talented in cooking, and it seemed I took after her in that aspect.

Still, I was confident in eating well.

“Let’s start quickly. Mix the soju and beer for me.”

My brother nodded and skillfully mixed the soju and beer.

Indeed, he looked more manly when mixing drinks than walking on the runway.

“Cheers!”

“Cheers.”

“Ah! Great!”

“Good…”

We drank the soju-beer mix and tasted the French rack.

As expected, I could feel the tender texture and the unique savory taste of lamb.

It wasn’t greasy because the ziran and cumin balanced it well.

Recently, we two had been drinking like this at my brother’s house.

We originally preferred drinking at home.

But since our father had to refrain from drinking as much as possible for health reasons, we had no choice.

Of course, meeting at a suitable place between Mangwon and Yongin to drink was an option.

But maybe because we were used to drinking at home, restaurants felt uncomfortable.

This was even more so when I had to drink with my brother.

Drinking at my brother’s house was more familiar and comfortable.

After a few glasses of soju and beer, my brother asked a question.

“Are you going to keep living with Dad?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I was thinking the house might be a bit small. It’s old too.”

“But it feels wrong to move out and live alone. I’m used to living with Dad.”

“Then how about moving with Dad?”

“And rent out that house? That’s not bad either. But knowing Dad’s personality, he won’t want to move to a different neighborhood.”

“That’s true, even because of the store. Dad’s friends are all in Mangwon too.”

“Exactly. Is there a suitable place in Mangwon for Dad and me to live together?”

“Or how about moving to Hapjeong?”

“Ah. That’s a good idea. Hapjeong isn’t far. I should look into it.”

Certainly, the current house felt too old and cramped.

It had the merit of being right above the store Dad was running, but that was it.

The fact that the house was old and small didn’t change.

So I had thought about moving once in a while too.

It wasn’t about moving out to live alone like before my regression.

I was thinking about finding a house to live with Dad.

It was a thought I could have because I had earned considerable money from the success of “I Am Not a Villain”.

In that sense, moving to Hapjeong was an option worth considering.

Hapjeong had a very famous residential-commercial complex building called Mecenatpolis.

‘This place would be close enough to Dad’s living area.’

So I seriously considered moving to Hapjeong, and meanwhile, we had a few more rounds of drinks.

In fact, my mind was full of something else, not the moving issue.

It was the casting problem for Yi-hyun’s role.

I turned my head towards my brother, who was quietly eating the French rack.

No matter how I thought about it, there was no better actor than my brother to play Yi-hyun’s role.

‘Considering Yi-hyun’s character in the drama, it’s even more so.’

Yi-hyun was a fictional character modeled after Gwanghaegun, who handled the aftermath of the Japanese invasion in place of his ancestors.

Even after saving the country from the crisis of the Japanese invasion, he couldn’t forget the hard life of the people and often went on secret outings.

In the process, he learns about the existence of evil spirits and tracks them down.

He was a character who would meet Yeon by chance while tracking evil spirits in different directions, and they would form a connection.

The ultimate goal of this character was to realize true politics as a king while overcoming adversities with Yeon.

‘It’s important to give a weak yet kind impression. There are quite a few lines, but with my brother’s acting skills, he can cover it sufficiently.’

My brother had built up his skills by appearing in “Love in 18” and then “The Formula of Evil”.

So if the image matched, he would surely be able to handle any role smoothly.

And in this regard, Yi-hyun’s role perfectly suited my brother.

After overlapping Yi-hyun and my brother, no other actor even came to mind.

That’s how well it fit.

‘But the problem is whether it’s right to propose Yi-hyun’s role to my brother.’

My brother had grown to be a main lead-level actor after two drama works.

It was natural since he perfectly handled the role of lawyer ‘Han Seok-hyun’ in “The Formula of Evil”, his first main lead role.

Moreover, “The Formula of Evil” ended with a 10.33% viewership rating.

Considering it was on public broadcast, it wasn’t a bad performance, and thanks to that, my brother was still receiving many casting offers.

Naturally, all the offers were for main lead roles.

‘Is it right to propose a secondary lead role knowing this?’

It could be something that might upset my brother.

Even if my brother readily accepted Yi-hyun’s role, it wasn’t a situation I could be entirely happy about.

If I’m not careful, I could be blocking my brother’s future path.

‘It would be better for my brother to take one more stable main lead role.’

That’s how he could fully establish himself.

For this reason, I felt burdened to ask my brother if he would take Yi-hyun’s role.

I had been contemplating whether it was right to bring it up since we started drinking.

As I continued to ponder, my brother finished off a French rack neatly and spoke.

“By the way, how’s your drama going?”

“What?”

“Is the casting going well?”

“I’ve cast for Seo-hee, Ma-yeok-ryeong, and Wi-rang roles, but Yi-hyun is the problem. I keep getting rejected.”

“Who did you propose to?”

I told him in detail about who I had made casting offers to and how they were rejected.

I tried to finish the story briefly, but it wasn’t easy.

That’s how bad Yi-hyun’s casting situation was.

“Must be a headache.”

“Tell me about it. I even thought about doing a dual role myself.”

“How can you do a dual role while being the main lead, writer, and director?”

“Yeah. That’s why I gave up. Is there no good actor out there…”

I let out a sigh.

Then my brother looked at me quietly and said in a low voice.

“Then… should I do Yi-hyun’s role?”

I was surprised by those words and asked back.

“You?”

“Yeah. Reading the script, it seemed the image was similar to mine. So I thought I’d give it a try. Also, you helped me before with ‘Love in 18’.”

I looked at my brother’s expression, wondering if he was serious.

And I could tell.

That he was serious.

Certainly, my brother wasn’t the type to bring up such things as a joke.

As I was examining his expression, my brother shrugged and spoke.

“If you don’t like it…”

I quickly interrupted my brother and answered.

“No. I like it.”

“Huh?”

“I’d like you to play Yi-hyun’s role.”

My brother closed his mouth for a moment, then smiled.

“Alright. Then I’ll give Yi-hyun’s role a try.”

I had once thought it would be nice to work together with my brother in the same project officially someday.

This was the moment it was happening.

* * *

With my brother joining, the casting gained momentum.

With all roles cast, the first day of filming finally arrived.

The first filming of “Toema Hwan Ya Dam” was scheduled to take place at an open set in Mungyeong Saejae.

When I arrived at the scene, Director Kang Han-sung was busily moving around with the staff, checking the set.

Being the first day, there seemed to be more to look over than usual.

I approached Director Kang Han-sung and greeted him.

“Hello, Director.”

“Ah. You’re here, Actor?”

Director Kang Han-sung still used the term ‘Actor’.

I asked if he wanted to use a different term, but I was satisfied with the current one.

I thought being an actor should be the top priority above anything else.

After arriving at the scene, I moved around with Director Kang Han-sung to check the set.

There were many details to pay attention to.

Above all, we had to carefully check if the extra actors were properly dressed in Joseon-era costumes.

“Should we retie the jeogori knot?”

“Wait a moment. Why is the armor color like this?”

“Hm? The wings of the samo are pointed?”

After checking the costumes for a while, it was suddenly time for the first shooting.

The first shooting of “Toema Hwan Ya Dam” wasn’t Part 1 Scene 1.

Part 1 Scene 1 was about evil spirits emerging from among corpses scattered on the ground after the Japanese invasion.

Therefore, this scene needed CGI treatment.

“Actor Im Seung-hee! We’re ready to standby! Please prepare!”

So, the first shooting today was with Im Seung-hee, who played the role of Seo-hee.

The content of today’s first shooting was Seo-hee receiving an unusual request from a merchant.

“Standby! Cue!”

With Director Kang Han-sung’s signal, Seo-hee and the merchant began their dialogue in earnest.

“Majae Village?”

“Yes. Do you know it?”

“Isn’t that the mountain village on the middle of Gunyeong Mountain over there?”

“That’s right. But they say people are disappearing every night as if there are ghosts or something.”

“Ah. If it’s a tiger attack, I won’t take the job. How can I catch a tiger by myself?”

“No, well, they say it’s not done by a tiger. Just go to the village and find out what’s going on. I’ll count that as a successful request.”

“Really? If it’s a tiger, I’m just running away, okay?”

“Yeah. That’s fine.”

Im Seung-hee showed better acting than during the reading.

At this level, it seemed okay to give a tentative okay sign.

Director Kang Han-sung seemed to have similar thoughts and looked in my direction.

I thought for a moment and answered.

“How about one more take?”

“You think she can do better?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Cut! Let’s do it one more time!”

Director Kang Han-sung gave the NG sign and called Im Seung-hee over.

“Would you like to explain, Actor?”

At Director Kang Han-sung’s suggestion, I nodded and pointed out the problem with the scene just now.

I said the dialogue rhythm with the other actor was slightly off.

“It would be good to do it like this. ‘Ah. If it’s a tiger attack, I won’t take the job. How can I catch a tiger by myself?'”

I demonstrated directly, and Im Seung-hee nodded as if she understood.

“I see what you mean. I should make the rhythm a bit faster.”

“Since Seo-hee has a tomboy-like feeling, that would be better.”

“I’ll try it again.”

Fortunately, Im Seung-hee performed properly as I requested.

Director Kang Han-sung also smiled, seeming to like Im Seung-hee’s acting.

“Your acting direction is definitely better than mine.”

I scratched my cheek at Director Kang Han-sung’s compliment.

The praise was a bit embarrassing, but I was glad the result seemed good.