An Actor Who Has Lived For 10,000 Years [EN]: Chapter 152

152. The 10,000-Year Curse (3)

“I’m a real fan of Hee-sung!”

Kim Hana said, staring at me with sparkling eyes.

I was taken aback by her words and stared blankly.

Kim Hana twisted her hands together and grinned.

“Actually… I initially said I was a fan out of courtesy.”

“Pardon?”

I tilted my head and asked, and Kim Hana widened her eyes and replied.

“When I first met you last time, I said I was a fan, right? Of course, I knew about Hee-sung then. A rising star, or rather, I knew you were already in many productions.”

She continued, her face excited.

“I’ve been so busy finding my own way that I haven’t had time to monitor other actors’ work. Of course, I hadn’t looked up Hee-sung’s work either.”

I smiled and nodded at her words.

“Right. You have a lot to do, and you don’t have enough time to study while monitoring your own work.”

“Exactly. But Hee-sung is also next door. And I think I’ll see you often in the building now. Anyway, I recently watched your latest work, you know?”

“Did you watch Blackman?”

She shook her head and replied.

“No. I watched ‘Temptation of the Other Woman’ first, and… I ended up staying up all night watching it in one sitting.”

I was so surprised by Kim Hana’s words that my mouth dropped open.

“Wow, you watched it all in one day?”

“Yes, the story is one thing, but Hee-sung’s acting was amazing in every episode. At first, I thought it was such an infuriating character. But the sadness, the sorrow in your eyes… I was really amazed.”

I scratched my head awkwardly at her continued praise.

“Haha, thank you.”

“So I watched the next work, ‘Blackman,’ right away, and then I ended up looking up all your old works.”

“Really?”

It was the first time I had seen that look in her eyes since meeting Kim Hana.

Had her eyes ever sparkled like that?

Kim Hana poured out words to me without a second’s rest, her face as excited as a child.

I smiled and listened to her, reacting to her words.

“…So anyway, the conclusion is that I’ve become a true fan of Hee-sung. I’m really a fan.”

She suddenly gave a shy smile and shouted as if confessing to being my fan.

I bowed my head and replied to her.

“Thank you. I’ve always been cheering for Hana, and I feel so good that you say you’re a fan.”

At my words, Kim Hana reached out her hand for a handshake and said.

“It’s an honor that you’ve been supporting me.”

“It’s more of an honor for me that you’re my fan.”

I quickly took her hand and continued.

“Let’s do well in this production.”

We slowly shook our clasped hands.

Kim Hana was looking at me with a gentle smile.

***

It had been almost a month since I started getting headaches when I thought about the past.

Now, I didn’t bother trying to overcome these headaches.

No, there was no way to try.

Taking medicine.

Trying not to think about the past.

None of it worked.

From the moment I accepted that it was my destiny to live a thousand lives,

I decided to consider this headache and pain as simply accompanying me.

Because there was no other way.

If this difficult pain wasn’t going to disappear from me,

I just decided to live with it.

The last 9 years out of 10,000 years.

I couldn’t let those short years pass by with pain.

In my last life, what I cherished most and desperately wanted was ‘acting.’

I decided to spend the remaining 9 years living a life focused solely on acting.

“Hee-sung, you’re here early today?”

I, who had been cooped up at home, had been clocking in at the office every day for the past week.

“Yeah, the filming is coming up soon, so I need to put in a little more effort into practice.”

At my words, Manager Kim shook his head and replied.

“It’s already enough. You can take it slow so you don’t get exhausted.”

“No. I want to do better this time.”

I hurried to the practice room.

Manager Kim shook the script at me and said.

“The revised script came last night.”

“Was it revised a lot?”

“No. Just some parts of the scene.”

I reached out my hand towards the script he was holding.

Then he hid the script behind him so I couldn’t take it, and smiled.

“I’ll show you in the practice room.”

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Manager Kim, who had been giving a meaningful smile, sat down as soon as he closed the door to the practice room.

I took a seat in front of him and pulled a chair closer to him.

“What’s going on?”

“No, it’s nothing much. You know how our production had a working title.”

“Yeah, it was just ‘Thief.'”

The script that hadn’t been titled yet.

Manager Kim grinned.

“The title has been decided.”

“What is it?”

Then he slid the script in front of me and replied.

“Fence.”

I nodded, raising the corners of my mouth.

“Nice. Shall we read the revised script?”

I quickly opened the script.

Manager Kim also started reading another script he had brought.

We read the script for a long time without talking.

However, many of the parts I had been disappointed with in the script were still the same.

I had hoped that the director might have the same thoughts as me.

But none of the scenes I had thought about had been revised.

I slowly nodded and closed the last page.

As I closed the script, Manager Kim also turned the script over and looked at me.

“How is it?”

“Well, nothing much has changed.”

“Yeah, the director said he just revised a few parts he was concerned about.”

I tapped the script with my hand and asked Manager Kim.

“But, Hyung [older brother/male friend], what’s Director Kang Hong-joon like?”

At my words, Manager Kim pursed his lips and quickly rolled his eyes.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know Director Kang Hong-joon.

Director Kang had more than one or two works, and he was a director who had achieved success in many productions.

But apart from Director Kang’s performance, I was curious about the person Kang Hong-joon.

Unless I worked with Director Kang, there was no way to know about his work style and tendencies.

Manager Kim talks a lot with managers in the same profession.

He had much faster information in this area than me.

In particular, he knew most of the personalities of actors, directors, and staff through seniors in the company.

Manager Kim started to speak to me, twitching his lips.

“Well… as you know, none of Director Kang’s movies have flopped. His skills are amazing.”

“That’s right. It’s not just breaking even, almost all of them have been successful.”

“That’s right. Of course, there are some that didn’t do so well. But it’s faster to find those movies because they’ve all done so well.”

I nodded, raising the corners of my mouth.

“He definitely has a good sense and seems to be good at his job.”

At my words, Manager Kim frowned and said.

“His skills are good. Good, but… well, how should I put it? He’s said to be a bit rigid.”

I tilted my head at his words.

Because it was Director Kang’s personality that I didn’t know at all.

I listened to Manager Kim’s continued words.

“On top of that, he’s picky and incredibly stubborn.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he doesn’t accept other people’s opinions. Of course, that includes the staff he works with. He completely ignores the opinions of the actors. He’s the type who has to shoot and work the way he thinks.”

At Manager Kim’s words, I swallowed a sigh and leaned back in my chair.

“Well… he’s a difficult style to work with.”

Manager Kim nodded in agreement at my words.

He pulled his body forward and said to me.

“But he gets good results. So everyone has nothing to say.”

“I see. He only works according to his own stubbornness, but it’s always a success. Everyone had no choice but to follow him.”

Manager Kim raised his eyebrows and said.

“You know. In this industry, the number of viewers is everything.”

“That’s right. No matter how friendly and successful the filming set was, if it’s not a hit, the director is instantly labeled as an incompetent director.”

Manager Kim replied with a worried face at my words.

“Director Kang… is famous for being difficult during filming. If he doesn’t like something even a little bit, he’ll do it again unconditionally. He has to do it until it comes out the way Director Kang wants it.”

I shrugged and opened my mouth.

“Well, a director has to have that kind of passion.”

“But the problem is that the degree is a bit too severe. If he doesn’t like the footage after watching it later, he’ll even reshoot that scene.”

I shrugged my shoulders and opened my mouth.

“I’m worried, but I think it’s not bad because he seems meticulous and passionate.”

“Yeah, but he’s always had good results, so everyone trusts him and goes along with it even if it’s hard.”

I had never worked with a director who was so picky and stubborn that he made the actors suffer.

Of course, everyone was passionate about filming.

But all the staff and actors were the same as the director.

They were directors who listened to and accepted the opinions of many people.

However, I was a little worried about Director Kang, who insisted only on his own thoughts and opinions.

But I thought he had that much conviction in his work.

I was looking forward to filming with Director Kang.

***

It was a dark dawn before the sun had even risen.

I stopped reading the script and looked out the window.

“Wow, it’s really dark.”

Manager Kim looked at me in the rearview mirror and replied to my words.

“It’s the darkest dawn.”

“Yeah, it’s darkest before dawn.”

I raised my body, which had been leaning, and approached the driver’s seat, looking at the navigation and asking.

“Hyung [older brother/male friend], are we almost there?”

“Yeah, we’ll be there soon. It’s the first day of filming, and it seems like we’re at the docks today because of the location.”

“I see. I’ve only seen places packed with containers in movies, but it’s amazing to see it in person.”

“That’s right. It always appears in illegal scenes.”

Manager Kim and I talked about the place we would arrive at soon and drove along the empty road.

Several tens of minutes later.

The car stopped at the scene.

I straightened my clothes with a trembling heart.

“Haa, I’m still nervous on the first day of filming.”

At my words, Manager Kim took a deep breath with the same face as me and replied.

“I’m nervous too. There’s that tension of the first filming.”

“That’s right. Shall we get off now?”

“Yeah.”

As soon as I got out of the car, I ran to the set and started greeting all the staff and actors, including Director Kang.

“Hello. I’m Jin Hee-sung. Please take care of me.”

While I was greeting many people,

The assistant director checked the time and shouted to the actors.

“We have to film before the sun rises completely, so we’ll start preparing for filming right away!”

“Yes.”

The set quickly moved to their respective positions and began preparing for filming.

I, Choi Seo-bin, and Kim Hana checked the script one more time and walked to the set.

Director Kang grabbed the megaphone and shouted at us.

“Before we do the lines, let’s shoot the scene where you come out towards the container.”

“Yes.”

We answered as if in unison.

Filming started right away.

After shooting the same scene several times,

Director Kang nodded and gave the okay sign.

We were briefly checking our clothes and makeup.

At that time, Director Kang approached me and Choi Seo-bin.

“Seo-bin and Hee-sung, when you say your lines this time, make the tone as urgent as possible, but make sure the lines don’t fly away.”

“Yes, I understand.”

He nodded and looked at me and Choi Seo-bin alternately and asked.

“Then can we start filming right away? Do you have any questions?”

At Director Kang’s question, I carefully brought up the words I had been hesitating to say.

“Um… Director.”

He raised his eyebrows and looked at me.

The first scene where the lines come out.

I had written down some ad-libs that I thought would be good to add while practicing this scene.

But I couldn’t do it spontaneously during filming just because it was an ad-lib.

I had to coordinate with the director and match the lines in advance so that the other actor wouldn’t be embarrassed.

So I asked him to do the ad-lib I had thought of.

“I prepared an ad-lib after the last line of this scene, but this….”

Before I could finish speaking, Director Kang frowned and cut me off.

“No.”

I opened my eyes wide and asked at his firm tone.

“…Pardon?”

At my question, Director Kang stared at me and replied.

“Don’t do anything else, just do it as it is in the script.”