The Script-Eating Actor – Chapter 13

Ch 13

A teaser video acts as a kind of “appetizer,” whetting the viewers’ appetites before the main course in a full-course meal.

It’s a bit different from a trailer.

Unlike trailers that convey the plot, the purpose of a teaser is to stimulate viewers’ curiosity with a short video that is unrelated to the content.

In , the viewers’ curiosity was expressed with a “mystery” feel using the medium of the “abandoned railroad” and “train.”

The hazy fog is compared to youth, and the train passing through it is compared to us, adding a realistic yet fantastic feeling.

The lead actors walking through the fog with a fairytale-like melody.

A quiet, small train station appears in the background ━ and a desolate, rusty railroad track that doesn’t seem like a train could ever run on it is revealed. But surprisingly, the sound of a train horn is heard from behind, and when you turn your head, a train quickly passes by on the tracks.

Thump, thump, thump!

『You too, me too, all of us. 』

It ends with a short representative phrase that appears along with Soyoon’s narration.

This teaser video wasn’t a jackpot, but it did make it onto the real-time search rankings, giving a sense that the work would be a hit to some extent.

The Management Team 1 at the L&K office was buzzing for a long time over the fairly well-made teaser video.

“Currently, is #2 on real-time search! The reaction is good!”

“Wow, amazing! The video quality is good?”

“Isn’t the color palette amazing? It doesn’t feel gloomy at all compared to the background.”

“You can’t even tell the train is CG, right? It’s true that if you put some money into it, the drama’s quality comes out. I heard the CG team is from the movie team.”

“Look at Jae-hee. The immersion is considerable, right? He’s a total scene stealer!”

Jae-ik Hyung, who had been chattering for a while, smiled happily and put his hand on my shoulder.

“How is it? How does it feel to have your name on a portal site?”

Well.

Today, when the teaser video was released, my name appeared at the bottom of the real-time search rankings on portal sites.

18th place. Do Jae-hee.

Of course, considering that it’s lunchtime when the floating population quickly gathers and disappears, it will probably go down quickly like a bubble bursting.

Also, compared to Song Mun-gyo, Soyoon, and Kim Gyun-o, who occupied the top of the search rankings, the attention I received was almost non-existent.

However, the weight of the public’s attention didn’t matter to me, as it was the first time I had received it.

“It’s amazing. Seeing my face on the internet.”

The L&K public relations team requested the portal site to correct my profile information, and coinciding with the release of the teaser video, my photo was released on the portal site.

Now, if you type my name on the internet, my profile picture appears, and my name is being mentioned on Twitter.

━ Do Jae-hee? This person has good visuals?

━ All the male actors in are handsome ㅋㅋ!

━ Must watch the premiere ㅋㅋ I’m looking forward to it!

━ This person named Do Jae-hee… it’s my first time seeing him, but his acting is good.

Comments, attention, recognition.

Everything I had been waiting for so much.

It was like an irresistible temptation from the devil.

“The reaction is great right now! The competing dramas from the three broadcasting companies are relatively weak, so we can have high expectations.”

“Wow, at this rate, we’ll easily get 10% viewership ratings!”

Everyone was in a festive mood, but there was one person in the middle of the office with a particularly bad expression on their face.

It was Mun-gyo.

A manager approached Song Mun-gyo, who was constantly frowning and looking at his phone, and said.

“Mun-gyo, did you see the teaser that was released? You looked good in it?”

“….”

“Mun-gyo?”

Song Mun-gyo jumped up from his seat and shouted.

“Ah! I said I wouldn’t watch it! That kind of thing!”

“… Uh, uh?”

“Teaser my a*s. It’s just full of B-grade sensibilities.”

Song Mun-gyo threw a tantrum, then slammed the door shut and ran out of the office.

The dumbfounded manager muttered.

“… Why is he like that?”

Then Jae-ik Hyung frowned and said.

“Ah, just pretend you don’t know.”

“What is it? Did something happen during filming?”

“Ah, it’s nothing much, but anyway, it’s better not to bring up with Mun-gyo right now.”

“Tell me. What happened?”

Jae-ik Hyung reluctantly opened his mouth with a troubled expression.

“Ah, well, that is.”

*

It’s a simple matter.

The day of the teaser filming.

Song Mun-gyo, who was furious from the morning due to the director’s provocation, had fire in his eyes, and his expression was not good throughout the teaser filming.

Director Moon Byung-chul didn’t want to fight from the first day, so he didn’t nitpick about it.

“Cut! Let’s go again!”

It was only that he didn’t say anything ‘outwardly’.

If you look ‘closely’ inside, you can see that it was definitely intentional.

Because they were repeatedly filming the same scene only in Song Mun-gyo’s filming portion.

It wasn’t that Song Mun-gyo was particularly bad.

It looked like he was deliberately messing with him.

A foul air dominated the filming set, and naturally, the atmosphere became gloomy. With a dissatisfied face, Song Mun-gyo’s acting wasn’t coming out properly, so the filming was bound to be prolonged due to repeated NGs.

“Ah, why is the atmosphere like this? Shouldn’t we finish filming before lunch and do the poster shoot in the afternoon?”

“Ah, well, that is….”

“We need to film quickly. Did you forget this is a tourist spot? Soon a bunch of kids riding rail bikes will come.”

With a good background, it’s a simple shoot where you just need to take a few cuts of the characters walking.

So why is it constantly being delayed?

“It’s not bad right now, is it? But why is the director being like that?”

The cinematographer complained with an annoyed voice as NG’s kept coming out. But after the assistant director whispered a few words in his ear, he shook his head and muttered.

“Ugh, if the director and actor are at odds, we’re the only ones in the middle who get screwed. Okay, I understand.”

The teaser filming continued for more than an hour after lunch and ended after 2 PM.

“Cut! Again!”

“Cut! No, make your expression more intense!”

“Cut!”

“Cut! Cut! Cut! Ugh! Again!”

The number of NGs that Song Mun-gyo made was countless.

This was a kind of warning that the director was sending to the actors.

A warning that if they’re going to struggle this much even when filming a 1-minute teaser video, they shouldn’t act all high and mighty in front of him.

But Song Mun-gyo took this not as a simple “warning” but as a “provocation” and hardened his expression.

“S*it, it’s like a dog. Really.”

Song Mun-gyo, who had finished all the poster shooting and was getting into the car, was cursing under his breath. This was the same even after arriving at the company.

“That no-name director with shitty viewership ratings is deliberately messing with me now! In front of all the staff and actors!”

Myeong-gil Ssi, the road manager, was tormented all day.

“Ah, s*it! That’s why I said I didn’t want to do it! Why did Hyung force me and make me like this!”

Park Chan-ik Team Leader, who didn’t even come to the set, had to deal with all of Song Mun-gyo’s tantrums after filming ended.

Song Mun-gyo is Song Mun-gyo, but the director is definitely not someone with a normal temper.

“Kkondae,” “tough,” “troublemaker,” “complainer” ━ all the words describe Director Moon Byung-chul.

The people of Management Team 1, who heard all the details, nodded their heads at the same time.

“Director Moon’s temper is no joke.”

“No, this time it’s Mun-gyo’s fault. You have to time when you’re late. If you do that from the first shoot, what happens to the director’s face?”

“That’s right. Mun-gyo was wrong this time. He always had that fighting c*ck temperament.”

“Ah, the set must be tiring. What’s going to happen to Chan-ik Hyung in the future? Mun-gyo is going to throw a lot of tantrums. No matter how short-staffed we are, I can’t go to . You guys figure it out.”

While everyone was giving their opinions, there was one person who had a different opinion.

“Wait a minute. But Mun-gyo isn’t a friend who can’t distinguish right from wrong, right? Is it just because of that? Just because he got some flak from the director?”

Song Mun-gyo is proud, but he’s not the type to ruin his career just to show off his pride.

It’s true that the reason is weak.

To these questions from the managers, Jae-ik Hyung said in a small voice.

“Actually, there’s one more problem.”

“… What is it?”

Jae-ik Hyung points his head towards me. Flick, flick.

It looked like he was trying to do it secretly, but I could see everything out of the corner of my eye.

“It’s because of Jae-hee.”

Hyung, I can hear everything.

I can hear even the whispering. But I pretended not to know and stayed quiet.

“Jae-hee? Why Jae-hee?”

*

“Cut! Okay!”

“Okay!”

Is this really okay? Every take is a one-roll, one-take.

“Wow, Jae-hee Ssi! Your expression was good just now. It was like you were wistfully looking at the past, was that right?”

The director was always beaming whenever my filming portion ended.

His expression was 180 degrees different from the one he had just a moment ago, when he was yelling “Cut! Again!” at Song Mun-gyo with an annoyed voice, so I nodded my head in a daze.

“Yes.”

“In the script, Jae-hee Ssi’s role is the key role that connects the male and female leads. In that look just now, you properly showed the gap between the brilliant past and the broken friendship of the present.”

It was a series of compliments.

In fact, it’s a natural result that the director is satisfied with my acting.

Because the current “Kim Do-hoon” character is not a character that the writer created but rather, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the director designed it directly after seeing my audition.

“Jae-hee Ssi is saving our drama! Saving it!”

These situations where the attention was focused on me made it unbearable for Song Mun-gyo and made his position as the “lead actor” on set smaller.

Song Mun-gyo, whose heart was twisted, bared his teeth at me.

“S*it. It must be nice to be a good match with other B-grades?”

He provoked me in passing, but I tried my best not to show my emotions and hid them.

Rather, I was indifferent.

“Well, you can’t even satisfy B-grades.”

“…..”

“Don’t act childish and get your own act together.”

Well, it’s also childish of me to enjoy seeing Song Mun-gyo’s face twist by playing along, but.

I had one more very childish provocation prepared for the end.

“Don’t cause more NGs and cause trouble for others. What did the staff do wrong?”

Song Mun-gyo seemed to have completely lost it and shouted.

“You, you son of a b*tch!”

Of course, the director and the staff all heard it.

*

“…. He cursed? Ah! What’s going to happen to the set atmosphere now?”

“Mun-gyo… Ah! Mun-gyo…! Why is he like that? Really.”

“This is going to be quite a blow to his image… There weren’t any cameras, right?”

“Does the president know?”

The atmosphere suddenly became quite serious.

Well, it seemed that Park Chan-ik Team Leader would handle this matter well, but in the long run, that day’s events were a minus for Song Mun-gyo’s career.

I didn’t do anything.

I didn’t use any tricks, and I didn’t induce anything. The picture I wanted was to thoroughly chip away at the dignity of the lead role through acting alone, and I was confident that would be enough to infuriate Song Mun-gyo.

But whether it was intentional or not, anyway.

Right now, the sailboat that is Song Mun-gyo seems to be on the verge of being wrecked.

The navigator and the boatswain have all turned their backs, and the captain is in a situation where he has to carry out this fight alone.

I smiled bitterly.

At this point, it’s almost self-destruction.