The Script-Eating Actor – Chapter 6

Ch 6

Wouldn’t all new recruits make this resolution the moment they join?

‘When I get some seniority, I’ll never become like Sergeant Park, that bastard.’

But as a result, once they gain power, they change.

Even the docile Private Kim, once he becomes Corporal Kim, finds himself perpetuating the same things he suffered under Sergeant Park.

Just like a mirror.

See, power changes people like this.

It’s a kind of conditioned reflex.

And here.

How should I react, having gained legitimate power for the first time?

Im Ju-won’s defeated gaze, Jo Seul-hye’s bewildered look that always looked down on me. And, Song Mun-gyo’s uncomfortable gaze, glaring at me indifferently from a corner of the office.

All these gazes full of hostility are warning me as one.

‘What have you done?’

The unspoken gears within L&K have derailed.

A single, rusty screw that couldn’t fulfill its role at the bottom of the gears has overturned the entire landscape.

As such, my selection this time was an unusual event for the company.

Although I debuted, I’m an unknown whose name doesn’t even appear on portal sites. My entire career consists of a few workshop productions from the Theater and Film Department and one or two commercial plays.

The role I, a rookie but also a used good, got in is the third male supporting role in a mini-series.

“Oh my god, they’re revising the script while changing the character? It seems like the director is really hooked on Jae-hee.”

Furthermore, it has become impossible to even know how much bigger my role will become.

Because my audition has caused a stir, even receiving notice that the script will be newly revised.

The script is changing.

Then naturally, the roles will change along with it.

Therefore, the female recurring minor role of ‘Gold Spoon Classmate 1’, which Jo Seul-hye was expected to get, cannot be guaranteed to survive in the newly revised script.

“Ah, this is fucked up.”

Jo Seul-hye voiced her dissatisfaction in one corner.

“If my character disappears, I swear! Ah!”

And she glares at me with a very cold look. But still not seeming to have released her anger, she abruptly gets up from her seat and approaches me with angry steps.

“Oppa, let’s talk.”

“Hey. Jo Seul-hye.”

Team Leader Park Chan-ik tried to dissuade Jo Seul-hye from the side, but I nodded to Park Chan-ik as if to say it was okay.

“Okay.”

Jo Seul-hye and I went out into the hallway.

“Speak.”

Jo Seul-hye seemed to have some complaints towards me, but as soon as we got to the hallway, she changed her expression 180 degrees and said to me.

“Oppa. You know that this is the first audition I’ve passed in a long time, right?”

I know, since you’re a hopeless case too.

Her eyes look very earnest.

“I really want to do this, okay? But if my character disappears in the revised script, what am I supposed to do? Can’t you ask the director to say something nice for me?”

“What? What power do I have?”

How could a newbie actor infringe on the authority of the director and writer? Of course, it’s common enough that there isn’t an actor in the lead roles who doesn’t do it, but I have no position, power, or even the thought to do so.

“They say the director is completely hooked on you.”

But Jo Seul-hye makes a difficult request without batting an eye. However.

Strangely, I don’t feel so bad hearing this request.

“No, it’s not like that.”

“There are even rumors that they’re re-auditioning because of you…”

“Who said that?”

“Everyone. Even the managers were saying it? That things went very wrong because you did well in the audition at the end. That the script will change, and the roles will change too.”

“….”

Yes. The game has changed.

Director Moon Byung-chul has put a hold on notifying the actors who were expected to pass, starting with my final audition. If the script changes, it’s natural for the roles to change as well.

In that process, the disappearance of a few minor roles is a very trivial matter in this industry.

Jo Seul-hye, for whom this trivial matter was as precious as her pride, spoke with a very earnest face.

“I heard that before the revised script is released, you’re meeting with the confirmed actors and the director. When you meet the director then, can’t you just say, ‘Isn’t the role of ‘Gold Spoon Classmate 1′ necessary?’ That’s all you need to say. Please, I’m begging you.”

“….”

“Please.”

But somehow, this scene doesn’t feel unfamiliar to me.

Have I ever made a similar request to someone before, like Jo Seul-hye?

… S*it.

A past I wanted to forget has surfaced.

It was a similar situation. A movie that Song Mun-gyo was starring in needed a minor role urgently. And I asked Song Mun-gyo. Please, let me do that.

At that time, Song Mun-gyo said this to me.

“Why would I?”

“… Huh?”

Jo Seul-hye’s eyes widen.

“Why should I? Don’t you know the script is under the authority of the writer and director? Really, what’s the reason you’re asking me this?”

“…. Oppa.”

“Are you saying that you might have to re-audition because of me, and now you want me to take responsibility?”

Jo Seul-hye looked at me with eyes that seemed to have lost everything. But that look passed very quickly. It’s gradually turning venomous.

Her true colors are showing.

“… It’s because of you.”

“What?”

“It’s all because of you. Why did you memorize the lines by yourself? Did you want to stand out that much!”

Jo Seul-hye believed that even if they had only seen the free acting, the result of me passing and Im Ju-won failing would not have happened.

She thought that the audition site had been thoroughly biased in favor of ‘the incompetent oppa who memorized the entire script by himself’, and if Im Ju-won had passed, there wouldn’t have been a risk of her role being cut due to the script revision.

And she’s venting all this anger at me. At the same time, my expression is also turning cold.

“… This is completely hopeless.”

But, she’s wrong.

Whether the audition was free acting or designated acting, whether it was done with a head start or a last-minute effort, the result would have been the same no matter how it was done.

Because I put the scripts of five movies I hadn’t seen into my head for the free acting monologue.

“Wh, what did you say? Hop, hopeless?”

“Hey, Jo Seul-hye.”

“….”

“If your role disappears during the script revision, it means your level is only that much. It means you only showed a level where you could be cut off at any time. So who are you blaming right now?”

“… Huh? Ha…!”

Jo Seul-hye’s face twisted grotesquely at my harsh words.

It’s as if she didn’t expect to hear these words from my mouth.

I was about to turn my body away, but I stopped and said.

“I thought you at least knew your place.”

Jo Seul-hye’s face swells up as if it’s about to burst.

*

“What did Seul-hye say?”

In response to Team Leader Park Chan-ik’s question, I shook my head instead of answering.

There’s no need to go around spreading the empty words that a hopeless case is spouting.

Jo Seul-hye. She definitely has a sense for rhetoric, so if she reduced her time looking in the mirror and read the script more, she might pass someday, but it’s likely that time won’t come anytime soon.

But Team Leader Park Chan-ik spoke with a face that seemed to know everything.

“… I can roughly tell by your expression. She’s a bit greedy, you know. She’s just being jealous, so you should understand.”

I looked at Team Leader Park Chan-ik.

This person didn’t even have any expectations of me, but at least he gave me a fair chance. I have no ill feelings.

“Let’s see, where were we?”

“About the director.”

“Ah, right. Director Moon Byung-chul.”

Director Moon Byung-chul.

From what I heard, he was a more difficult style to deal with than I thought.

As a PD at SBC’s drama department, his last two dramas haven’t done well, so his position within the SBC drama department has become very narrow.

This mini-series might be his last chance to direct, and if this project fails, he might be pushed to weekend dramas or be moved to the planning side.

“Right now, the director’s feelings are probably like the heart of the last batter with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning. At times like this, he needs to hit a home run, bang!”

“What’s the reason his position has narrowed? Simply because his ratings weren’t good?”

“No, it’s not like a PD is a contract worker.”

Right. A terrestrial PD isn’t a corner store employee, and they’re not going to be demoted because of immediate viewership ratings.

Moreover, looking at the director’s previous works, it wasn’t like the ratings were a disaster.

It’s just that the ratings were lower compared to the dramas on other broadcasting companies at the same time slot, but they all had a certain level of fame that you would have heard of.

“The decisive reason isn’t because of the ratings. It’s because of the director’s style. Complaints from the lead actors who worked with Director Moon Byung-chul have been coming out for several projects now.”

“Complaints?”

“Yeah. The director’s style is a bit, unique. Look at this. Suddenly being hooked on you and saying he’s going to change the script and actors, doesn’t that give you a rough idea?”

The director is said to have a style that is thoroughly centered on the filming location.

If the image he had in mind doesn’t match the actual atmosphere of the set, he completely overturns the set or completely revises the storyboard and creates a new one.

In other words, a creating type.

Naturally, filming is bound to be delayed, and from the production company’s perspective, they go crazy because of the additional money going out. Since the script is constantly changing, from the actors’ perspective, they can’t help but be dissatisfied when the lines they’ve prepared are changed.

“From now on, script revisions will happen frequently. It’s also going to be common for revised side scripts to come the day before.”

It’s a good thing that the direction has self-confidence.

But if it’s excessive, it definitely makes things difficult for the people around them.

Incompetence and clarity are different by a hair’s breadth.

“He’s a director with skill. But he’s a troublemaker who has created trouble with the lead actors in every project. You have to handle it well in the middle.”

Using art as an excuse to wield power, there were actors whose roles were actually reduced, while others had their roles increased.

Of course, since the number of episodes is fixed, they can’t be completely removed, so they drastically reduce their importance.

“… I see.”

I roughly understand the director’s style.

And I’m calculating in my head how I should act to make a good impression.

In the end, he likes a ‘well-behaved, affable guy’ who listens well.

At that moment, one question arose.

“But, was Song Mun-gyo handpicked by the director?”

I didn’t think that the director would have directly mentioned Song Mun-gyo, who is a ‘disrespectful guy who doesn’t listen’.

And as expected, it was not.

“… The production company had some influence, but why?”

“It’s nothing.”

Somehow, it turned out that it was the same company that produced the movie that Song Mun-gyo ruined.

It seemed they were planning to make up for the losses from the movie with the drama.

“Just pretend you don’t know.”

“Ah, okay.”

In this case, isn’t Song Mun-gyo more of a concern than me?

Judging by Song Mun-gyo’s style, which has a strong sense of pride as an actor, how well will he be able to endure under a condescending director who changes his mind all the time?

“Pfft.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Probably, they won’t mix like water and oil and will disrupt the filming atmosphere.

But it’s not something I need to worry about.

He’ll figure it out himself.

What’s certain is that the odds are being made to be in my favor.