The Face Genius Actor

Episode 156

Although I had decided not to write the script and direct myself, my criteria for choosing a work remained the same.

I didn’t want to appear in works that guaranteed success.

If I appeared in such works, it was clear that an actor who should have enjoyed glory in the original timeline would lose their opportunity.

So recently, I’ve been working with people who haven’t fully realized their dreams yet or those who are about to give up on their dreams.

Directors Choi Seo-young and Kang Han-sung were representative examples of each.

But it wasn’t always possible to meet such people.

Especially for rookie directors, it wasn’t easy to show me a script and ask me to take on the lead role.

Sending a script to someone with the title of 5-time Emmy winner was like a moth flying into fire.

Of course, I welcomed working with rookie directors, but there was no one who would believe this at face value.

It’s not like people like Director Kang Han-sung were common either.

There were quite a few people who fell into mannerism at the top, but it wasn’t common for someone to leave the entertainment industry as extremely as Director Kang Han-sung did.

Anyone who has ever considered changing jobs would know that changing one’s field requires considerable courage.

This was especially true if one was being recognized in their current industry.

Moreover, it was unrealistic for someone who was so stuck in their ways that they were considering changing jobs to suddenly become enthusiastic about working with someone they’ve never met before.

So it wasn’t easy to find someone like Director Kang Han-sung for my next work.

It was wise to close off that possibility entirely.

In the end, to decide on my next work, I had to find a new method.

In this process, what I thought of was the sophomore jinx.

The sophomore jinx refers to producing results that are not as good as the first time on the second chance.

Previously, I had thought of it as limited to the number 2, but now its meaning had expanded.

Even if it wasn’t exactly the second time, this term could be used if the performance was worse than the first.

In the end, in the film and drama industry, this word was being used to refer to sequels that were worse than the original, and I couldn’t help but focus on this.

If it was a sequel worse than the original, it perfectly matched my criteria.

‘No one wants to appear in a work that fails miserably at the box office. So it shouldn’t matter if I take the role in such a work.’

I didn’t want to appear in a work that fails miserably at the box office either.

Especially works that fail from the first installment, let alone becoming a franchise, were burdensome.

As I’ve mentioned several times, box office success wasn’t something that could be guaranteed by fixing a few shortcomings.

What I wanted was not to take away legitimate opportunities, not to fail myself in the process.

But if it was a sequel to an excellent original, it was possible to change the gloomy future to some extent while keeping to my standards.

The fact that the original was excellent would mean that the sequel had also inherited some degree of quality.

And in such cases, finding and fixing a few problems could make a difference in box office success.

‘Of course, just because it’s a sequel doesn’t mean it always inherits the quality.’

There were many works that didn’t.

I sat at the desk and looked over the list I had compiled so far.

“Gambler 3”, “Fortune Teller 3”, “School Ghost Story 5”, “Fractal 4”, “Future Machine 7” – all were lists of works that failed to overcome the sophomore jinx.

And more than half of these had failed to inherit the quality of the original.

‘Especially in the case of “Future Machine 7″…. It’s the worst.’

“Future Machine” was a Hollywood blockbuster depicting the struggle between machines trying to exterminate humanity after a nuclear war and humans trying to stop them.

The story of sending a humanoid machine to the past to erase the birth of ‘Kyle Bin’, the commander of the anti-machine alliance, caused a sensational response at the time.

Moreover, “Future Machine” was famous for breaking the formula that there’s no sequel better than the original, as its second installment outperformed the first at the box office.

However, it raised concerns among fans by mass-producing unreasonable settings in the third installment, then completely messed up the 4th, 5th, and 6th installments, making those concerns a reality.

The 7th installment was also an extension of this box office failure, and in this case, it was certain that the result wouldn’t change no matter who took the lead role.

This was because it needed a brilliant idea that could solve thousands of setting errors at once.

So I had quietly pushed aside the script for “Future Machine 7”.

If I had to choose, a work that failed from the first installment would be better than “Future Machine 7”.

‘The situation is similar for “Fractal 4”, famous for its red pill, blue pill.’

Rather than having many setting errors, “Fractal 4” had problems with scenes that were very divisive in terms of like or dislike.

But it was the same in that nothing would change even if I was cast.

This was because the concept of “Fractal 4” itself was too simple compared to the previous works.

‘Is it possible to make something simple complicated? Of course not.’

So I had no choice but to put off appearing in “Fractal 4” as well.

I also positively reviewed domestic works, but there was nothing I liked.

“Gambler 3” had too big a drawback in that the stories were too similar in each series, only differing in the types of games.

“Fortune Teller 3” had little chance of success because its sloppy story structure, which didn’t live up to the first installment, was too fatal.

“School Ghost Story 5” seemed hard to overcome the fact that it dealt with common incidents at the level of horror stories.

‘The OTT market has grown so much that domestic works were worth considering, but it seems difficult.’

I considered looking at something other than movies, but I wasn’t attracted to appearing in dramas.

The enormous success of “Toema Hwan Ya Dam” could potentially set the expectations too high for the next drama project.

While I wasn’t particularly concerned about this pressure, a director casting me might think differently.

The fact that I was exhausted from filming “Toema Hwan Ya Dam” was also a decisive reason for not wanting to choose a drama.

So I continued to look at works mainly focused on movies, and a few more new works caught my eye.

“Secret Man 4” had an impressive structure of confronting enemies in suits, but the film’s unique B-grade spy movie color had faded too much.

“Autobot 6” had too many problems with story, character, direction, and CGI to appear in the work solely for the romance of transforming robots.

Then I discovered the script for “The Black Man 2” and immediately lit up.

The Black Man, famous for his bat mask, was every boy’s dream.

‘If we just tweak the villain a bit, “The Black Man 2” could be a box office hit.’

Above all, if I could become the Black Man, I could become a pillar of the globally renowned Super Comics universe.

Although Super Comics’ works hadn’t achieved great box office success compared to their rival Time Comics, it was different with the Black Man.

At least the Black Man series was living up to its name.

Moreover, becoming the Black Man was quite significant for an actor.

‘If I’m lucky… I could even claim the title of the first Asian Black Man.’

So I looked over the script for “The Black Man 2” with inner expectation, but soon became disappointed.

Unfortunately, the role proposed by Matthew Dano, the director of “The Black Man 2”, was the villain ‘Red’.

Red, a villain with a clown background, was a character loved worldwide as much as the Black Man, so it wouldn’t have been bad to decide to appear as him.

However, this character was loved because the movie “Red”, which starred Red as the solo lead, was hugely popular.

The acting of Sheer Camp, who played the lead in “Red”, was so incredible that it was followed by criticism of being socially harmful.

It was not only realistic, but it made people wonder if anyone could portray Red as well as Sheer Camp again.

For this reason, taking on the role of Red was inevitably burdensome.

If it was another solo lead movie, it might have been different, but in this case, it was Red appearing as a villain in “The Black Man 2”.

Considering the Black Man’s weight as the protagonist, Red’s role here was difficult to deliver as impactful a performance as in the solo lead movie.

‘In fact, Matthew Dano failed to properly portray the character of Red.’

As if feeling the pressure, Red in “The Black Man 2” was depicted as a character lacking in many ways.

It made me think that if it was going to be like this, wouldn’t it have been better to bring another villain character to the forefront instead of Red.

‘If I were to appear in “The Black Man 2”, I was going to suggest reworking the script with a different villain… but it seems that won’t work.’

With this, I shook off any lingering attachment to “The Black Man 2” and moved on to the next script.

I was already too tired from looking over scripts late into the night for over a month, but perhaps due to the regret over “The Black Man 2”, I didn’t want to just go to sleep.

Fortunately, the work after “The Black Man 2” was also a sequel that met my criteria.

‘”Sacred 2″… This could be interesting.’

So I started to seriously look into the work called “Sacred 2”.

At 2:39 AM, having finally read through the entire script, I stretched with satisfaction.

The script for “Sacred 2” was even better than I had thought.

“Sacred” was about the protagonist ‘Yerom’ sending evil to hell to avoid his fate of going to hell in a world where mixed-blood demons and angels coexist.

The first movie drew praise as Rolling Stuckman, who boasted such incredible beauty that rumors circulated about him being a vampire, perfectly portrayed the role of Yerom.

There were fans who had been expecting a sequel to “Sacred” for nearly 20 years.

However, “Sacred 2”, which finally opened, inevitably recorded quite poor results.

This was because the new Yerom in “Sacred 2” showed beauty and acting skills that fell short of Rolling Stuckman.

It was later revealed that the problem arose when the contract with the actor who was originally supposed to play Yerom fell through as the production of “Sacred 2” was overturned several times, but it was already too late.

In conclusion, the fact that the actor who played Yerom lacked capacity remained unchanged.

‘But to think that the script for “Sacred 2” would come to me….’

For me, who hadn’t found a work I liked for over a month, it was an unexpected stroke of luck.

However, there were still a few issues that needed to be resolved before I could confirm my appearance in “Sacred 2”.

Upon carefully reading the script, I realized that the problem with “Sacred 2” wasn’t simply the actor’s lack of capacity.

‘There are a few issues with the script itself… I need to be able to fix these.’

This could be a problem with the director of “Sacred 2”, or it could be a problem with the production company.

Therefore, I wasn’t sure which side I should negotiate with.

‘Is there no other way but to just dive in and see?’

That morning.

I called Kim Bo-mi and expressed my desire to appear in “Sacred 2”.

And a few days later, I boarded a plane and flew to the United States.