Become a Star

Chapter 29

Even though his agency did not put pressure on the media to publish anything about Chae Woo-Jin as an actor, there were already reports about people digging for information about him. Perhaps if those people knew that Chae Woo-Jin was already one of DS’ artistes, they would not hesitate to openly promote him.

By nature, the media and agencies shared a mutually beneficial relationship where they tried to be in each other’s good books, taking care of one another. Their relationship was one where they would do favors for one another, even if they did not ask the other party for one in the first place. Even though it required quite a lot of effort, it was a relationship worth investing in.

After the preview was over, Jang Su-Hwan was once again reminded of the importance of their relationship with the media when he saw an article with a picture of Park Min grimacing. If one were to become haughty once they had become successful and went against the media, they would be ‘rewarded’ with such photos and articles. Even though there was no need to be intimidated by the media, it was clear that an actor abusing their power and disregarding their circumstances was a foolish act.

Jang Su-Hwan looked at Death Hill’s official poster and promotional materials that were placed side by side on his desk. The faces of the two main leads were on the poster with their names printed in big letters. Chae Woo-Jin’s name could be found at the bottom of the poster, among the names of the other actors, printed in small letters. That was the same for the promotional materials – unless one were to intentionally search for it, it was difficult to make out Chae Woo-Jin’s name.

However, unlike the official poster, Chae Woo-Jin’s face could be seen quite clearly in the promotional materials. There was an image of the scene that was taken right before they kissed, where he had perched on top of the female lead, who was sitting on the sofa, grabbing her chin. Even though they were at the back, that took up a third of the whole poster. Apart from that scene, there was also another where he held the female lead in his arms as they walked as well as one where he was placing a band-aid on the female lead’s wounded face. They were in sharp contrast with Park Min’s scene with the female lead, where they were only running away, while holding each other’s hands. The comparison was making it evident that a love story between Chae Woo-Jin and the female lead had formed. The images of Woo-Jin and the female lead were really nice to look at, and above all, they were sexy.

The reason why the official poster and the promotional materials were so different was because Park Min had an investor backing him. There were rumors saying that Park Min, who had returned after filming a commercial abroad, was very guarded against Chae Woo-Jin for taking over his parts in the movie while he was away. Actually, instead of being guarded, it was more accurate to say that he was retaliating against Woo-Jin.

His indiscriminate hostility towards the rookie, who had the audacity to steal his sequence, put pressure on the production company via his investor. There was no other reason why Chae Woo-Jin was not invited to the press conference, previews and interviews. It was a well-known fact in the industry that Park Min’s sponsor was Death Hill’s biggest investor. If she had only been an ordinary investor, she would not have been able to aggressively and biasedly push for more opportunities and advantages for Park Min. She had acted as though she was not interested in getting back the money she had invested into the movie. Seeing how her purpose of investing was not to make profits but to lift Park Min’s spirits, Director Moon seemed to have suffered quite a bit because of her abuse of power.

Unlike the official poster, the promotional materials were produced and released as late as possible. If they were made in advance, it was possible that the investor would have removed Chae Woo-Jin’s face from the promotional materials. Because of that, Chae Woo-Jin was now known as ‘The Unknown Actor’ after the press preview. It was not easy to locate his name in the poster or the promotional materials because the name of his character hadn’t been mentioned at all throughout the movie. In the last scene, he posed a question to the female lead asking if she even knew what his name was.

In an official interview that had taken place after the preview screening, Director Moon Seung-Kwon casually mentioned that Chae Woo-Jin was only a rookie. He purposely did not announce it out loud or make it obvious. The biggest reason for that was because Park Min’s investor was present. Director Moon Seung-Kwon said that he had simply casted a rookie for a role that had to be filled, and that he was thankful towards the actor for doing such a good job, saving one of the scenes of the movie. He had only answered questions pertaining to the content of the film, and had avoided talking about the actors as much as he could.

Regardless of how famous a director was, in order to shoot the movie they desired, they had no choice but to depend on investors because of the ever-increasing cost of production. It was inevitable for them to be swayed by the power of capital. However, in truth, Director Moon was too greedy this time. Baseless investments lowered the quality of a piece of art. He had also regretfully realized that by using this opportunity to shoot the movie, at the slightest slip, it could lead to the movie getting ruined in the end.

“Woo-Jin probably doesn’t know about it yet.”

Woo-Jin probably did not know that just because the critics mentioned it, ‘The Unknown Actor’ was one of the most searched phrases at the moment. Since he did not browse the internet much, Woo-Jin lacked sources of information. Even if he looked at the search queries that were currently trending, he most likely wouldn’t know what that term meant.

The young man, who had always known what to do and would do a perfect job at that, was strangely slow and indifferent when it came to his own personal affairs. If the people around him looked at him and started whispering something about a handsome man, he would instead assume that they were talking about someone else and glance around.

“Well, that humble personality of his is charming too.”

CEO Jang did not think it was necessary to change Woo-Jin’s personality. Even though Woo-Jin was not an idol, Jang Su-Hwan knew that a personality as such would play a huge part in attracting fans. However, it was also good that Woo-Jin was not that naive and foolish. No matter where he was, Jang Su-Hwan wouldn't have to worry about him.

Unlike CEO Jang Su-Hwan, who was satisfied just thinking about Woo-Jin, Director Moon Seung-Kwon was in a less than ideal situation. After completing an interview with the host of a variety program about celebrities, Park Min pulled Moon Seung-Kwon aside and started arguing with him.

“Director, how can this happen? How did you edit the movie such that people would think that the supporting character is the male lead?”

Park Min’s face, which was always akin to a sculpture, was distorted with anger. After the preview, he was more resentful of the praises he was hearing about the unknown actor than he was about the criticisms he was getting about his acting.

“How many times have I told you? It was a scene that was definitely needed and because the actor did a good job, we ended up getting a really good scene. It would have been fine if you had done a good job too. What exactly is the problem?”

Moon Seung-Kwon would most likely not work with Park Min ever again for the rest of his career. Additionally, he could confidently say that the investor who was backing Park Min would never pump in any capital into any of his movies in the future ever again. Nevertheless, the movie still had not been released yet, so they tried their best to be civil with one another as much as possible. In the future, they still had to attend preview screenings and regional stage greetings, so they could not afford to spark rumors of discord.

“But that was originally my sequence!”

If you acted in that sequence, our movie would have been ruined. Director Moon Seung-Kwon held himself back from speaking his mind, and tried to respond calmly.

“You left the set to shoot a commercial abroad. Were we supposed to not do anything for a week and simply wait for you? Also, regardless of the actor, as long as it was done well, it’s fine with me.”

“You should have waited for me! Didn’t my sponsor invest in this movie?”

Eventually, the agitated Park Min touched the detonator first. Director Moon Seung-Kwon, who had experienced a life crisis after accepting the money he should not have taken in the first place, could not take it any longer. He pointed his finger at the main culprit who, by ruining his movie, ruined his reputation as the box office legend.

“Yeah, I barely put up with your acting because of her. If not for her, I would have removed you from the movie entirely! What, you’re telling me that you should have acted in those scenes? What do you think would have been different if you acted in them instead? In any case, everybody has been saying that you’re an actor who can’t act well and only depends on his looks. Why are you coveting after other people’s scenes when you couldn’t even do your own parts properly? If you had acted in those scenes, do you think that the same praises about A would be directed towards you instead? Stop spouting ridiculous things and come to your senses, you terrible actor!”

Despite his fame and title as Korea’s box office director, Moon Seung-Kwon had a good personality, and had always been kind and courteous towards his subordinates. Once they had started a production together, he always prioritized the relationships with his co-workers instead of arguing over every little detail. He had rarely, no, never raised his voice in such a reckless manner to an actor that had appeared in his movie.

“How...how could you say that?”

“Did I say something wrong? I will never work with you again in the future. If there’s someone crazy enough to want to shoot a movie with you, I will do everything in my power to stop that from happening. If you are unhappy about it, whether it’s the preview screening or any other events, it doesn’t matter whether you show up or not, because there is someone else I would rather invite to these events. Please get out of my sight!”

I should have done this earlier. Initially, he had tolerated Park Min because of the investor. After that, Moon Seung-Kwon had continued tolerating him for the sake of the movie. Last but not least, he continued to tolerate him up until now for the sake of making the movie a box office hit. However, it was too much for him. There was a limit to his patience; he could no longer overlook Park Min’s bad behavior. How could he work with an actor who did not respect the director at all?

For a moment, Park Min was speechless when he saw Director Moon turn away from him coldly. Ever since he debuted, he was known as the most handsome man in Korea. He was well-respected by both the public and the important people in the entertainment industry. Even though recently, people had been criticizing him because his terrible acting skills weren’t showing any signs of growth, he was still Park Min.

In fact, there were many other actors with similar careers who were still getting a lot of flak for their poor acting skills. If one were to compare Park Min to them, at least he had a unique appearance. Besides, if they had to pick from a pool of actors with similar acting skills, everyone would pick Park Min as the best of the bunch and be anxious to cast him.

Taking his acting skills out of the equation, Park Min was the most wanted actor and won the hearts of the public as the most handsome man in Korea. It was solely the director’s fault for the controversy that had arisen over his acting skills in Death Hill – it was not his fault. It was evident that the director had sacrificed him to promote the rookie. He felt that the reason why people were criticizing him for his looks was because they had focused on making the rookie look good by giving him all kinds of special effects. Park Min was certain that Chae Woo-Jin’s appearance paled in comparison to him in reality.

“He’ll come to his senses only after being properly compared and put in his place.”

Park Min laughed insidiously as he took out his phone and called someone. Regardless of how influential his sponsor was, he could not publicly go against Director Moon. If he were to do that, it would mean that Director Moon was inferior to him.

“Noonim!” [1]

Park Min used a voice that was noticeably and incomparably sweeter than the one he used with Director Moon. The lady listened to Park Min’s grievances and concerns, comforted him, and even got angry on his behalf. Ultimately, she promised to give Park Min what he wanted.

Less than 30 minutes after that, Director Moon received a call saying that he could invite Chae Woo-Jin to the VIP preview screening. For some reason, the person who had been cutting off Chae Woo-Jin’s opportunities expressed that it would be good for ‘all actors’ to be gathered together. After hanging up the phone, Director Moon went silent for a moment. He blinked, not knowing how to accept her suggestion.

“Is this Park Min’s way of apologizing?”

Director Moon, who wanted to call Chae Woo-Jin more than anyone else, was confused because of the current situation. That’s why he accepted it as Park Min’s apology.

“Well, he was the one who talked back to the director.”

Director Moon was elated and called Chae Woo-Jin. There was no need to say too much; this was what he truly wanted to say to Chae Woo-Jin:

~

“You might not know me well, but I’m such a person, ok?”

~

However, he had to wait.

“Woo-Jin fell asleep during the skincare treatment. Should I wake him up?”

Hwang Yi-Young picked up Woo-Jin’s phone; she knew that Director Moon Seung-Kwon was on the other end of the line and tried to be as polite to him as possible, but the tone was less than enthusiastic. Director Moon hung up after telling her that he would call again in a bit, and waited for time to go by.

The moment everyone had been waiting for with excitement had finally arrived. Director Moon wanted to gesture to Woo-Jin, who was about to enter a whole new world, to go come quickly.

1. A respectful term for older women used by younger men <i class="far fa-hand-point-left">