The Face Genius Actor

Episode 028

My appearance in “I Will Cast Love” was confirmed quite unexpectedly.

I never thought the conversation would flow in this direction.

‘Above all, to think that what Kim Hee-soo wanted to tell me was about handling line of sight…’

It was a moment that showed how amazing Seo Myung-hee was as an acting teacher.

Kim Hee-soo seemed to think the same, as she started showing interest in Seo Myung-hee.

She asked if Seo Myung-hee had confirmed her next project, then proposed a role to her.

Seo Myung-hee thought for a moment, then asked if she could answer later.

The reason was that it was difficult to give a hasty answer due to the suddenly growing acting academy issues.

“The academy certainly seems lively. Then, please consider it positively.”

Kim Hee-soo responded this way, not taking offense at Seo Myung-hee’s words.

But perhaps because she had been put off once, Kim Hee-soo seemed to find Seo Myung-hee more valuable.

Even while saying goodbye, she left a message asking Seo Myung-hee to contact her without fail.

“Yes, I understand. Writer-nim. Even if I can’t appear, I’ll contact you.”

“Please do!”

With that, Kim Hee-soo left the academy, and Seo Myung-hee and I also wrapped things up.

Since we had already finished the class outdoors, there was no reason to stay longer.

* * *

After that day, I worked hard to improve my acting skills following Seo Myung-hee’s advice.

Meanwhile, I received a message from Director Kang Han-sung saying that the casting was confirmed and wishing me well going forward.

It seemed he had received the news from writer Kim Hee-soo.

[Director Kang Han-sung][19:03] Kim Won-young is a tricky role, but I’m sure Lee Si-joon-ssi can handle it well

[Si-joon][19:04] Thank you, Director-nim! I’ll work hard to meet your expectations

[Director Kang Han-sung][19:04] Ah, come to think of it, the assistant director probably didn’t send you the script for part 2

[Director Kang Han-sung][19:05] File: I Will Cast Love Part 2_17th revision.hwp

[Si-joon][19:05] (Bowing cat emoticon) Thank you for your consideration! Have a great day!

Having received the script for part 2 of “I Will Cast Love,” I had no trouble practicing.

I continued classes with Seo Myung-hee and diligently learned how to handle my line of sight.

Seo Myung-hee installed cameras in the practice room so I could efficiently improve my problem areas.

At first, it wasn’t easy to ignore the camera, but gradually I felt more at ease.

I approached acting with the mindset that it was okay to make mistakes and that I would fully show what I had practiced, and things gradually improved.

In the end, to summarize Seo Myung-hee’s complex explanation in one sentence: what I needed was confidence.

If I had confidence from the beginning, I would have acted without being conscious of the camera.

‘It’s difficult… A mistake happens in an instant, but correcting it requires complex explanations and countless efforts…’

Anyway, the important thing was that my acting was gradually improving.

Moreover, good news kept coming during this process.

Kim Bo-mi from the business planning team informed me that the Sensus advertisement I filmed was performing well.

Of course, the sales weren’t as high as the products sold by Redipa.

But considering my modeling fee, it was clearly producing high efficiency at a low cost.

Thanks to this, I was able to receive additional offers for local advertisements and print ads.

In a meeting held after a long time, Kim Bo-mi showed me the advertising proposals and asked,

“What do you think?”

“Um… I’m sorry to say this given my position, but…”

“Yes, please speak freely, actor-nim.”

“Since my next project is confirmed, I’d like to focus on acting. Would that be okay?”

Fortunately, Kim Bo-mi gave a positive response.

“Of course. The project is the most important thing. Also, it might be better not to cling to small advertisements for the sake of your image.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t give a positive answer to your kind offer.”

“It’s okay. But there’s one thing I’d like to ask… Could you please agree to the interview request from News Economy?”

News Economy was a media company that owned a cable TV network.

It was quite a large organization, so it would certainly be meaningful in making my name known.

‘Unless it’s an advertisement that doesn’t pay much, I can’t miss an opportunity like this for my own sake.’

Thinking this, I asked Kim Bo-mi,

“May I ask how the interview will be conducted?”

“It will probably just be taking some photos and asking a few questions. They said they’ll send the questions in advance, so there shouldn’t be much pressure.”

There was no guarantee that the interview would strictly follow the questionnaire, but this was not bad.

At least it felt like they were being considerate of our side.

So I accepted the interview, and a few days later, News Economy sent the questionnaire.

Scanning through the questions, there didn’t seem to be any particularly difficult parts to answer.

However, as I continued reading, there was one part that made me a bit worried.

My interview style before the regression was to give honest answers while maintaining some boundaries.

In the early days of my acting career, this kind of interview style was fine.

But when the controversy about my acting skills arose, past interviews were cut and pasted in various unfavorable ways.

So I wasn’t sure if it was okay to conduct the interview honestly even now.

While I was pondering this,

I remembered that my brother had done several interviews recently.

I immediately searched for my brother’s name and sent him a message.

[Si-joon][23:11] Hyung

[Short Answer Man][23:11] Yeah

[Si-joon][23:11] What are you doing?

[Short Answer Man][23:12] Eating

[Si-joon][23:12] Just a few pieces of fruit and some greens again?

[Short Answer Man][23:13] …Can actors eat meat?

[Si-joon][23:13] More often than you, I think? Depending on the role, it’s possible to eat even more

[Si-joon][23:13] Anyway, how’s Paris?

[Short Answer Man][23:14] Pretty much the same as Jongno

[Si-joon][23:14] Paris? What’s the same?

[Short Answer Man][23:14] Crowded and old

[Si-joon][23:14] Well, I can’t deny that….

[Si-joon][23:14] By the way, I have a question

[Short Answer Man][23:14] Yeah what?

[Si-joon][23:14] I received an interview questionnaire and I’m wondering how to answer

[Short Answer Man][23:15] Interview questionnaire?

[Si-joon][23:15] Don’t you know what it is?

[Short Answer Man][23:16] …Ah

[Si-joon][23:16] You know?

[Short Answer Man][23:16] Yeah I know but I don’t

[Si-joon][23:16] What do you mean, do you know or not?

[Short Answer Man][23:17] I know but I didn’t read it so I don’t know

[Si-joon][23:17] Why didn’t you read it?

[Short Answer Man][23:17] Why bother reading questions in advance

[Si-joon][23:17] You mean just answer them?

[Short Answer Man][23:17] Yeah but what about it?

[Si-joon][23:18] Never mind, forget it

[Short Answer Man][23:18] Okay then

I quickly wrapped up the conversation and sighed.

It was my mistake to expect something from my brother.

Come to think of it, there had been similar incidents before.

In the end, things did work out as my brother said, but his advice wasn’t actually helpful.

It was just luck that the situation worked out well.

‘Just answer, he says…’

I wondered how carefree his life must be.

As I shook my head, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘Certainly…’

As my brother said, it might be better to be honest rather than trying too hard to hide myself.

Most people who read my interview in News Economy would probably do so by chance, but…

‘What if there are fans among them? What if there are people who search for my interview online because they’re my fans?’

Wouldn’t they want an interview that contains some honest feelings?

I checked the interview questionnaire again, and only then did I start to get a sense of how to answer.

So I prepared my answers by going through each question one by one.

After preparing answers for a while, I looked up and found that the questionnaire had turned completely black.

There was almost no blank space left.

* * *

“Actor-nim! We’ve arrived! Please come down!”

I left through the front door after receiving Yeo Kyung-chan’s call.

An unfamiliar car was parked in front of the house.

The driver’s window of the unfamiliar car rolled down, and Yeo Kyung-chan shouted from inside.

“Actor-nim!”

“What’s this?”

“Your exclusive vehicle has finally arrived!”

“Ah.”

It seems Kim Jun-man’s words about providing exclusive vehicles even to rookie actors were true.

The vehicle had changed from the temporarily assigned sedan to a multi-passenger SUV.

It was an Express van, common for celebrity vehicles.

It wasn’t the most luxurious vehicle, but I was grateful even for this.

Once again, I realized how well Festa Entertainment treats its celebrities.

As I got into the car, Yeo Kyung-chan spoke while heading towards the shop in Cheongdam-dong.

“Actor-nim.”

“Yes?”

“There should be a piece of paper next to you.”

“What’s this?”

“Remember the questionnaire I sent you earlier? The business planning team has prepared model answers for it.”

“Hmm…”

“Ah, don’t feel too pressured. It’s not like you have to answer exactly like this. Since it’s your first interview, the company prepared this as a formality. Just in case it might help.”

“I see.”

I nodded and read through the interview answers prepared by the business planning team.

And once again, I realized how well Festa Entertainment does its job.

All the prepared interview answers were quite polished.

“I prepared my own answers too, but if it’s like this, I probably didn’t need to bother.”

“You prepared interview answers?”

“I wanted to answer honestly while not crossing the line. But it seemed difficult to do that spontaneously. So I prepared.”

As we were talking, the car got caught at a long traffic light at a five-way intersection.

Seizing the opportunity, Yeo Kyung-chan turned to me and asked.

“Can I see your answers?”

“Yes, of course. Here they are.”

Yeo Kyung-chan quickly checked the answers and let out an “Ah” in admiration.

“You prepared even for this question…”

Just as Yeo Kyung-chan muttered in surprise,

Honk!

The car behind us honked its horn.

Yeo Kyung-chan quickly came to his senses and grabbed the steering wheel again.

* * *

A little while later.

The full-fledged interview with News Economy began.

It was in a format where the reporter asked questions and I answered.

“…Wasn’t there quite a lot of pressure taking on the role of high school student Shin Han-jae, given the unfortunate circumstances? How did you overcome it?”

“It would be a lie to say there was no pressure. As an unknown rookie actor, it was a bit more difficult in terms of experience.

But my mentor, teacher Seo Myung-hee, gave me a lot of encouragement, and thanks to that, I was able to gather my strength. After that, I devoted myself solely to practice in order to live up to expectations.”

The interview seemed to be going smoothly according to the questionnaire.

But soon I realized that wasn’t the case.

“Was it the result of practice? Indeed, your role as high school student Shin Han-jae received great acclaim.

Especially, with the coincidental appearance of leaked footage of the previous actor’s performance around the same time, there was a lot of talk about how fortunate it was that Lee Si-joon joined . What do you think about this?”

Coincidental, they say.

As the expression suggests, it was a question that felt quite intentional.

And this was not written in the questionnaire.