An Actor Who Has Lived For 10,000 Years [EN]: Chapter 196

196. Hollywood (9)

My cell phone rang, and I quickly glanced at it.

“Who could be calling at this hour…?”

[Caller: Brian]

I tilted my head, recognizing the caller ID.

It was Brian, the actor I met in New York who was doing theater.

I’d been impressed by his acting, and we became friends.

That actor, who preferred theater because of the connection with the audience, was now in front of the camera, gaining fame.

We cheered each other on and celebrated our respective futures.

I was surprised to see a call from him.

The fact that he was calling, not emailing, meant he knew I was in America?

I quickly answered.

“Hello?”

– Jin, it’s Brian. Is this a good time to talk?

“Yes, it is.”

– Are you in Hollywood right now?

At his words, I replied with surprise.

“How did you know?”

– There was an article about it here, too. Director James’s movie…

It was unlikely that a competition between Asians would be a major article all over America.

Still, did he look up my article because of our friendship?

“Ah… so you saw that and figured I was in Hollywood?”

– That’s right. By any chance, which hotel are you staying at?

“Pardon?”

– I was hoping to meet up. I’ll come to your hotel.

“Now?”

– Yes, now. It’s urgent.

“Okay. I’ll send you the hotel address right away.”

Brian’s urgent tone and his insistence on coming right away told me something was up.

I didn’t know exactly what it was about, but I could tell it was important.

As soon as I hung up, I sent him the hotel address.

– It’s close. I’ll be there in 30 minutes and call you.

He sent a quick reply.

“Heesung, is something wrong?”

Manager Kim, who’d overheard the call, asked with a worried look.

“Brian, do you remember him?”

Manager Kim nodded.

“Oh, isn’t that the actor you befriended after seeing that amazing play in New York?”

“That’s right. But Brian said he really needs to see me.”

“Why?”

He tilted his head.

I shook my head.

“I don’t know, but I felt like I had to meet him. Can I go out for a bit?”

Seeing my serious face, Manager Kim simply nodded.

I closed the script and turned off the article on my phone, then started getting ready to meet Brian.

***

“Jin, over here!”

It had been a while since I’d seen Brian.

He was sitting at a table in the hotel lobby cafe, waving at me.

“Brian!”

The moment I saw his face, my curiosity about what was going on intensified.

I approached him, expressing my joy.

“It’s been so long. How have you been?”

He smiled and shook his head.

“I’m good. To think we’d see each other in Hollywood like this.”

I sat down and asked.

“Brian, what brings you to LA, not New York?”

He raised his eyebrows.

“As I emailed you, I recently came to LA to film a movie.”

“Wow, that’s great. I’m happy to congratulate you in person.”

“Thank you, Jin.”

I took a sip of the coffee he’d ordered.

It had been a while, so we caught up on each other’s news.

But we weren’t just meeting to catch up.

He leaned in closer.

“Jin, I’ll tell you why I came here, since it’s urgent.”

I dropped my smile and focused on his words.

“Yes, what’s going on?”

“As I said on the phone, I came across your article this morning.”

“How did you…?”

He carefully pursed his lips.

“Because I know you came to audition.”

I tilted my head at his meaningful words.

He sighed briefly.

“But things are different than I thought…”

“What do you mean?”

“Actually… I recommended you to Director James.”

My eyes widened, and I put my coffee down.

“What? Really?”

He nodded slowly.

“After you went back to Korea, I watched the improvisational acting video you did in New York. I was so impressed that I recommended you to Director James.”

It was completely unexpected.

I didn’t know he was friends with Director James.

I never would have guessed that Brian would recommend me to anyone.

“So I heard that Director James watched that video and contacted you.”

“This time?”

“No. You should have been contacted before this movie. Haven’t you ever been contacted by Hollywood before?”

I had been contacted by Hollywood several times before, but not all of them were from Director James.

I had refused to go to Hollywood several times without even checking the director.

It seemed that Director James was among them.

If I didn’t like working with Director James, I wouldn’t have responded to this Hollywood offer.

It wasn’t that I disliked Director James, but at the time, I was reluctant to go to Hollywood because I didn’t think I had fully established myself in Korea yet.

I wanted to establish myself as a Korean actor first.

Now that I thought I had established my position to some extent, I responded to this Hollywood offer and came here.

I nodded, recalling the past.

“I did, I remember refusing. I don’t remember if it was exactly Director James’s movie, though.”

“As far as I know, Director James remembers that you refused the offer back then.”

“Ah…”

“But he still wanted to work with you, so I heard he made an offer this time.”

I listened and replied.

“I’m still grateful that he wants to work with me. And thank you so much for recommending me, Brian.”

He made a noise of acknowledgment.

“But… maybe because of what happened back then, it seems like he doesn’t want to give you a role easily, not just a simple offer.”

“Pardon?”

“I read the article… I read it all earlier. He created a structure where you compete with a Japanese actor. Director James did that.”

I frowned.

Because I refused his offer last time, this time he didn’t easily offer me a good role but made me compete with a Japanese actor.

Moreover, it was a technique to stir up audiences in both countries by pitting them against each other under the huge banner of a Korea-Japan rivalry.

…I knew it.

I swallowed a sigh and muttered.

“That’s what it was. I have to do well in the audition tomorrow.”

Brian looked at me with a worried face.

“But no matter what role you get, it might be difficult to film with Director James.”

“What do you mean?”

“Given Director James’s personality… I mean, he won’t let you film smoothly.”

I immediately understood.

“Are you saying I’m going to have a hard time on set?”

He pouted and nodded.

“Yes, definitely.”

“Haa…”

Brian looked around and leaned in closer.

“So…”

I perked up my ears.

“I have a good idea.”

“What idea?”

“Jin, have you heard of Director Jeffrey?”

I nodded vigorously.

“Of course.”

Director Jeffrey was one of America’s famous directors and a well-known rival of Director James.

Jeffrey and Director James often released movies around the same time.

The box office results went back and forth, and they were known as lifelong rivals.

“I’m friends with Director James, but I also have a connection with Director Jeffrey.”

“Really?”

“Yes, so I declined to appear in both works this time.”

In Korea, the formation of factions or lines is very clear.

If there is a rival director, an actor who shoots a movie with one director gets on that director’s “line.”

They may not appear in the other director’s movie, and that director may not cast actors from the other director’s line.

But unlike that, in America, there was a strong sense of individualism: you are you, I am me.

Regardless of rival directors, their lines, or friendships, they cast whomever they wanted.

“So I was wondering if I should introduce you to Director Jeffrey.”

“Me?”

“Actually… I’ve already told him your story, so if you say okay, you can go. Or you can just go to Director James’s movie audition.”

I felt confused by the new offer.

Brian continued with a serious face.

“Think about it deeply.”

I swallowed hard.

“Can I know about Director Jeffrey’s work?”

He smiled as if he had been waiting.

“I brought it in advance because I thought you’d want to see it.”

Brian took a script from his bag and handed it to me.

It wasn’t a perfect script, but it was definitely the final script before production.

I received the script.

“I’ll read it and decide.”

“Okay. If possible, you should decide before Director James’s movie audition.”

“Why?”

“Otherwise, Director Jeffrey might feel like you dropped out of that side and came to him.”

I nodded.

“I will. Thank you, Brian.”

***

After leaving Brian, I immediately returned to the hotel and started reading Director Jeffrey’s script without even changing my clothes.

After reading a few pages, I got goosebumps all over my body.

“Huh? What is this? The subject matter is the same.”

Director Jeffrey’s movie was also about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, just like Director James’s movie.

Auditioning and filming around the same time meant…

“This time, the two rivals are going head-to-head!”

I examined the script with an even more serious attitude.

After a long time, I had no choice but to become serious after reading the entire script.

There was only one Asian character in Director Jeffrey’s movie.

If I went into Director Jeffrey’s work, I would play that role.

Even compared to the two Asian characters in Director James’s movie, Director Jeffrey’s Asian character had a much larger role.

It was a supporting role, but it was close to a leading supporting role.

A character who showed off his presence from the beginning and died heroically around the mid-to-late part.

It was such a big role, but because he died in the middle, it seemed like the character was set as a supporting role because there was no ending part.

As I looked at the scene where that character appeared again, I got goosebumps all over my body again.

“What is this?”

I felt not only goosebumps but also my hair standing on end.

There was a scene in Director Jeffrey’s script that was exactly the same as the scene I saw in my dream.

And that was the role I would play.

I got up from my seat without looking at the script and shouted.

“…This was it!”