I was Mistaken as a Monstrous Genius Actor [EN]: Chapter 228

It was a predetermined matter. Just before diving into the past filming of ‘Iyota Kiyoshi,’ Woo-jin, while reviewing about nine homework assignments, had only one thought in his mind.

‘Kiyoshi. And Private First Class Jin Seon-cheol.’

Character synthesis. And the timing indicated in the scenario. Kang Woo-jin intended to synthesize Kiyoshi and Private First Class Jin Seon-cheol in this scene. He planned to mix them.

Why Private First Class Jin Seon-cheol?

It was simply because it seemed the most natural. More than anything, Private First Class Jin Seon-cheol had two egos or personas. In terms of summons, he had two: a timid one and a rough one. So, he could extract two roles just from Private First Class Jin Seon-cheol. In fact, the inner Jin Seon-cheol that Woo-jin felt was an image of two people standing.

So, let’s mix Kiyoshi with the timid one.

Private First Class Jin Seon-cheol was cunning. Both egos were the same. However, as it went on, the timid one became several times more cruel than the rough one. That tendency wasn’t something that slowly grew while feeling the ‘Island of Disappearance.’ The timid one was cunning from the start. He just pretended not to be.

He would combine that guy with Kiyoshi.

Kang Woo-jin had already tried it. There were no worries. However, what would others think when they saw this acting? How would the acting look? What about the public? The actors? The director and those numerous staff members? When the slate was struck in front of him, Woo-jin was feeling another kind of fun.

‘Well, if it’s an NG [No Good, meaning a retake is needed], I can just rewind it. The judgment is up to others. Yeah, let’s just go for it.’

The acting itself was always interesting, no matter what role he took. Kang Woo-jin had developed to the point where he enjoyed reading (experiencing) the worlds each role had and possessing them. But now, a different kind of anticipation was rising. It was like, what should he say, the feeling of showing a new product to customers for the first time.

That was because.

“Hi- Cue!”

This scene’s acting had Kang Woo-jin’s touch, even if it was slight.

“It’s creepy, doesn’t his face look unpleasant every time you see it? He’s like a robot.”

Of course, the power of the subspace was still significant in Woo-jin’s divine acting. It was almost 90% or more. Kang Woo-jin didn’t deny it. Rather, it was necessary. Unfortunately, if the subspace were stripped away now, the current Kang Woo-jin wouldn’t exist either. So, he planned to keep using it in the future.

But he shouldn’t forget the mindset of being the master.

It didn’t matter if the subspace didn’t think so. It was a matter of Kang Woo-jin’s attitude. In that sense, the newly injected ability, character synthesis, was positive. It created a focal point for Kang Woo-jin’s attitude as the master. I’m cooking. I’m the chef. It awakened such a proactive attitude. Whether it was unconscious or not.

“Don’t look at me with that disgusting face. React. Huh?”

Right? React? The actors and the director were all watching. The camera was also right next to Woo-jin. Kang Woo-jin, already Kiyoshi himself, casually called out to Private First Class Jin Seon-cheol, who was waiting. To be precise, his timid ego. The summoned summon immediately obeyed his master’s command.

The synthesis of the two summons was instantaneous.

The dry foundation of Kiyoshi was maintained, but the cunning timidity was layered on top. And then, a truly bizarre character was born. A man carefully walks on a drought-stricken heart. Crunch, crunch. The parched but withered land continued endlessly, and the walking man, though trembling, did not stop walking.

Fear and emptiness coexisted.

“S-stop it. Don’t do it. I-I’m scared. Don’t hit me. I, I gave you the money.”

The subtlety was also evident in the diction that rolled out of Woo-jin’s mouth. The eyes, nose, and mouth. The expression was the same. A tight forehead, flat facial muscles, a nose and mouth with little movement. But in Woo-jin’s eyes, the synthesized ego was surging.

He threw it. So, how do you guys feel?

Kiyoshi scanned the nine ‘homework’ assignments who were bullying him one by one. The one who showed the biggest reaction was Shinnosuke, who had just slapped his cheek. He flinched and froze. Was he flustered? Or scared? Looking closely, all nine had similar faces. Kang Woo-jin, or Kiyoshi, pulled out the Private First Class Jin Seon-cheol he had called.

In an instant, his face returned to normal.

There was almost no gap. It was a bizarre change of face. Back to the original Kiyoshi, he stared at the nine with dry eyes. He had finished his task, and now it was their turn.

But Shinnosuke lost his mind.

“······Ah.”

Then, barely grasping the situation, he managed to deliver his next line.

“You’re good at it? What is it? You could do it all if you were told to?”

It was a set line. Although shocked, Shinnosuke somehow managed to deliver the line. Next was the turn of the handsome Kinjo.

“I know, right? This guy, Kiyoshi. You could do it, but you’ve been keeping your mouth shut all this time? It’s more human and better when you do it, right? Hey, Shinnosuke. Let’s make him do something else this time.”

“Hmm. How about getting angry?”

“Good idea?”

“Hehe, Kiyoshi. You’re angry now. Try getting angry at us.”

-Swish.

Kang Woo-jin’s arm moved straight away. The extended arm reached Shinnosuke’s collar right in front of him. Then, Woo-jin pulled Shinnosuke towards his face with a jerk.

“Hey, trash.”

He changed again. The light in Kang Woo-jin’s eyes was completely different from before. His dry voice was filled with pressure. In an instant, Shinnosuke wanted to let go of this collar and run away.

‘W-what’s going on?’

No, why does another person feel like they’re on top of Kiyoshi? Meanwhile, Kang Woo-jin’s lines didn’t stop.

“Who do you think you are, ordering me around? Should I put cement on you and drop you into the sea? Do you want to die?”

It was Lee Sang-man. Woo-jin had synthesized Lee Sang-man now. But it wasn’t long. He used it as much as he needed, so he ordered it to go back. Kiyoshi, who quickly lost the scent, released Shinnosuke’s collar and muttered in a soulless tone.

“I did it.”

Shinnosuke was in shock.

‘Acting? Can this even be called acting?’

Kinjo next to him was the same.

‘What… it’s like several souls have possessed him. It wasn’t just his expression that changed, it definitely felt like a different person had taken over.’

The other actors in the back were the same.

‘How many people just came and went?!’

They couldn’t make a clear judgment. It was overwhelming. They were veterans in the Japanese entertainment industry, but what they had just witnessed was something they had never seen before. They forgot their position as fellow actors.

They were the audience.

Of course, the audience wasn’t just the actors. The cameraman who was filming Kang Woo-jin right next to him, the staff holding the boom mic to capture the actors’ voices, and the hundred or so staff members watching the scene.

The scene was quieter than ever.

“······”

“······”

The ‘Nakkisaeng’ production team here had already forgotten that they were filming. It was no different from watching a breathtaking theatrical performance. The lead was Kang Woo-jin. But the character wasn’t just one. How many were there? Then, some of the staff members unknowingly let out a low exclamation.

“Wow······”

He’s an actor. That’s what it’s really like. That’s how you do acting. The staff members all came to the same conclusion.

It was even more so because they were Japanese staff members.

The atmosphere or acting style that was already prevalent in this market. They had always seen only excessive or formulaic acting. To them, Kang Woo-jin’s acting was truly groundbreaking. Meanwhile, the bespectacled assistant director, who had suddenly come to his senses, approached the motionless, gray-haired Director Kyotaro and whispered in his ear.

“Director… s-should we stop it for now? It seems a bit off from the scenario.”

A bit? It wasn’t. The assistant director had a subtle feeling that the scenario had been devoured. But he couldn’t say that to the director, and the Japanese master director Kyotaro was just breathing with his face glued to the monitor.

“······”

About 5 seconds. Then, Director Kyotaro opened his mouth quietly.

“…No. Just proceed.”

“Yes?”

The Kiyoshi that Woo-jin was showing now had clearly devoured the scenario, but to the master director Kyotaro, he was still ‘Iyota Kiyoshi.’

It was just that the withering had become extreme, making him several times more wrinkled.

“It’s not off.”

It was just a three-dimensional variation of Kiyoshi.

Back to it.

Since the director’s signal hadn’t dropped, the actors, including Kang Woo-jin, continued to act. There was still some movement left. Then, Director Kyotaro, who slowly raised his head from the monitor, met eyes with Kang Woo-jin in the scene.

“Just one scene.”

It was only a few minutes at best. It might be shorter when editing. But it was acting that no actor in Japan could do, and it was a sight that even Director Kyotaro, who had been a director for decades, had never seen before.

Perhaps.

“······”

At this moment, weren’t we witnessing a new acting phenomenon? Director Kyotaro’s past with Woo-jin became distant. He had no idea what kind of life he had lived.

‘How much has he honed himself to perform such acting? He must have lived a life dedicated solely to acting. A life full of constant abuse, cutting himself up and not even letting himself heal.’

Director Kyotaro was impressed by Kang Woo-jin. It was an admiration mixed with delusion.

‘He prepared such acting for this short scene. It’s not right as a director to cut this. This… this new phenomenon must be known not only in Japan but in the world.’

And he decided. He would spread the witnessed new phenomenon, the delusion, to the world.

And a few minutes later, he shouted to the entire scene.

“Cut! OOOK!!!”

He gave an enthusiastic signal and jumped up, approaching the actors in the scene. His pace was fast. Director Kyotaro gestured to the actors that it was good, then grabbed Kang Woo-jin’s hand, who was sitting, and pulled him up.

“Thank you, Mr. Woo-jin.”

A sudden expression of gratitude. Director Kyotaro’s eyes, full of gray hair, were filled with warmth.

“You stayed with our movie even when it was difficult, and you prepared such absurd acting for Kiyoshi.”

Is he strong inside? Kang Woo-jin was a bit dumbfounded. The atmosphere had suddenly become strange. What is it? I don’t know, let’s just get through it.

He lowered his voice as much as possible.

“It’s nothing.”

Director Kyotaro, who was smiling slightly, let go of Woo-jin’s hand and said to the Japanese actors around him.

“I want to change the scenario with the cut just now. What do you all think?”

The actors nodded without much of an answer.

And.

“Are you running away because your acting is lacking? Has anyone… ever seen such acting?”

Megan Stone, among the quiet staff, who was so shocked that she covered her mouth with one hand, muttered to her team members around her.

“At least I’ve never seen it before.”

“His face… how many times did it change in an instant?”

“Right. But the main character, Kiyoshi, was maintained.”

“Was the second one madness? But it wasn’t rough.”

“Yeah, I felt it was madness without purpose.”

The fat man with wide eyes stroked his chin.

“A new acting method? But how did he learn to switch between multiple personas so quickly?”

Megan, who brushed back her brown bob, looked around and continued.

“More than that, take a look around.”

The team members look at the hundred or so ‘Nakkisaeng’ staff members nearby. The dozens of staff members of the actors too. There were also some actors who came to watch. Among them, the rookie actress Nakajo Kimi, who played the role of ‘Misaki Toka,’ had her mouth wide open. Her brain seemed to have stopped at Kang Woo-jin’s acting.

“With a few lines and short acting, he captivated so many people. And it wasn’t even a great scene.”

A smile spread across Megan Stone’s lips.

“He’s a star. That Korean actor will become the star of stars.”

Regardless, filming sped up.

The past scene filming of ‘Nakkisaeng,’ which began in earnest around noon, continued into the late afternoon. Whether it was because Kang Woo-jin’s ‘character synthesis,’ which no one knew about, caused a stir or not, the Japanese actors and the ‘Nakkisaeng’ staff, including Director Kyotaro, suddenly burst with passion.

Director Kyotaro had many NGs.

“Cut, NG. Ms. Mifuyu, it’s good that ‘Amie’ is venomous, but you’re too excited. Show me the condensed excitement.”

“Yes, yes! Director. I’ll try again!”

He gave directions to the Japanese actors’ acting forms, but if he felt that the directing was lacking, he would not hesitate to modify the cut on the spot.

The one actor who brought those modifications to the surface was just one.

“······Kang Woo-jin.”

As Megan Stone with the brown bob had just muttered, it was Woo-jin. The filming was undoubtedly centered around him. It was understandable since ‘Iyota Kiyoshi’ was walking and talking in reality.

Moreover, the current Kiyoshi was even more three-dimensional than yesterday’s.

It seemed like it could be grasped at a glance, but it was elusive. The Kiyoshi that Kang Woo-jin was playing was the same as in the scenario, but at the same time, he was tearing through the scenario and spreading a smokescreen to the viewers. But it was never excessive. It was the same in the eyes of Director Kyotaro, the person in charge of the scene, and Megan, who had been in Hollywood for a long time.

‘It’s not a rampage. It’s a surge. And he also knows how to handle the expanded character. He firmly maintains the essence of the character… and increases the volume only when he wants to.’

‘He keeps the line.’ This seems easy at first glance, but it’s a skill that only mid-level or higher actors can have, and the acting method that Kang Woo-jin is freely handling now was at a level that Megan had never seen before.

‘A new human? Is he really an alien or what?’

He knows how to make himself stand out as an actor. He also knows how to dominate the scene and the world of the work.

In short, Kang Woo-jin is flying right now.

Such Kang Woo-jin had just muttered to himself. Of course, internally.

‘Okay – I can use it like this. I’ve roughly adapted.’

It was about character synthesis.

End