The Face Genius Actor

Episode 053

A few days ago.

A woman whose furrowed brow suggested years of experience finished a phone call.

“Yes, I understand. I’ll see you on the filming day.”

The woman was Cindy’s manager, Kim Sung-hee.

Kim Sung-hee took out a notebook and wrote “Lee Si-joon music video appearance confirmed.”

These days, many people don’t use notebooks, but Kim Sung-hee had been consistently using one since she first started managing Cindy over a decade ago.

Not easily changing her methods – this was the reason Kim Sung-hee had been able to have a long career as a manager and even start a company with Cindy.

That’s right. Kim Sung-hee was both a manager and the CEO of EM Entertainment, where Cindy was signed.

‘Now I should tell Cindy about the appearance.’

With that, Kim Sung-hee made a call, and Cindy was delighted to hear the news.

-Really? He really agreed to appear?

“Yes, that’s what they said. It’s an obvious choice, but…”

-Wow! That’s great!

“Are you that happy about casting just one rookie actor for a music video?”

-Of course! He’s not just any rookie actor. You saw him too, Kim CEO. That face. That acting ability.

“But Cindy, don’t forget who you are. How sad would your fans be if they knew?”

-I know, I know. I know I’m Cindy. I’m so excited for the music video shoot!

“You’re not listening to me again…. Anyway, what are you doing right now?”

-What do you mean, what am I doing? What time is it? I’m just lying down, of course.

“Still? What did you do yesterday?”

-I was lying down.

“All day?”

-Yeah. All day.

“You’ll really hurt your body like that. Even if it’s a break period, you should exercise moderately.”

-I know that, but I can’t help it. My body won’t listen. I’m too lazy….

“How did someone like that write a new song?”

-Oh? Did I not tell you why I wrote this new song?

“It’s not because the avocado was too soft and delicious again, is it?”

-That was for “Creamy”. That song came out 2 years ago already.

“Then did you write it after seeing a boiled tomato fall to the floor while moving it to a bowl?”

-Why are you suddenly bringing up “Jaguak” now? Don’t you want to hear my story?

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s not that I do, either. Anyway, how did you end up writing ‘Straight Sun’?”

-How I ended up writing it… Wow, surprisingly, I wrote it while binge-watching “I Will Cast Love”.

“Don’t tell me…. You wrote it after seeing Lee Si-joon, who we just cast. It’s not something like that, right?”

-No, that’s exactly it! That’s right! While watching the drama, inspiration just hit me. I had never seen someone so handsome in my life.

“Oh my goodness.”

Kim Sung-hee held her forehead with her hand as if she had a headache.

But Cindy, not minding this at all, excitedly began to explain in detail how she came to write “Straight Sun”.

It was the first time Cindy had praised someone this much, so Kim Sung-hee was momentarily taken aback.

But she didn’t show it.

She was only worried that Cindy might behave like this at the music video shoot.

Cindy’s behavior seemed too unsophisticated and unbefitting her status.

Kim Sung-hee was usually sensitive about Cindy losing her dignity.

It was natural, as Cindy was the only celebrity and the flagship star of EM Entertainment.

‘I hope nothing goes wrong on set.’

A sense of unease blossomed in Kim Sung-hee’s heart.

At the same time, negative thoughts about Si-joon, whom she had not yet met, began to sprout.

* * *

The lyrics of “Straight Sun” were about the speaker reminiscing about happy times and running towards their lover.

The music video shoot proceeded in the same vein.

The main concept was Cindy driving a pink vintage car on the highway, reminiscing about happy times with her lover.

As I was playing the role of Cindy’s lover, I was naturally scheduled to appear in the flashback scenes.

This was why I was given a generous two-hour practice time.

They were shooting Cindy’s highway scenes before filming the flashback scenes.

“Actor Lee Si-joon! Please standby!”

While I was in the middle of practicing with “Straight Sun” as background music,

The assistant director knocked on the waiting car’s door and called out like this.

I replied with a “Yes” and took off my massage mask.

At the same time, the vivid music video set that had been unfolding before my eyes disappeared.

“Actor, I’ll touch up your makeup.”

“Yes, please.”

With that, I received help from Song Jin-ah and moved to the set with Yeo Kyung-chan.

On set, Cindy was performing to the music of “Straight Sun”.

‘That person is… Cindy…’

As befitting a star with tremendous popularity across Asia, Cindy’s appearance shone.

But I focused on something other than her appearance.

It was her acting.

Certainly, the music video acting Cindy was showing now felt different from what I knew.

It wasn’t like what other top actors showed in “Arrest” or “I Will Cast Love”.

It was relatively exaggerated acting.

Compared to drama genres, it felt like watching acting in a romantic comedy.

It seemed this direction came from the characteristics of music videos, which need to make a strong impression in a short time along with the music.

But that didn’t mean Cindy’s acting was easy or simple.

‘It’s just a different genre… The difficulty level itself is the same.’

People often think that naturalistic acting is much more impressive.

It’s true that naturalistic acting is closer to serious drama, but romantic comedy has its own acting style.

Expressing emotions and actions slightly exaggeratedly while maintaining overall quality – 

This was not an easy task.

Even a small mistake could lead viewers to misunderstand that the acting was lacking.

The same was true for music videos.

Simply exaggerating expressions and actions could create a sense of rejection in viewers.

For this reason, one had to perform while maintaining a proper balance.

Moreover, unlike dramas, voices aren’t conveyed in music videos.

That’s why facial expressions and physical acting were even more important.

This was the part I found most difficult while practicing.

However, Cindy, probably due to her extensive experience in music video shoots, was handling the difficult acting well.

Her acting skills themselves were excellent.

It wasn’t for nothing that she was recognized as one of the top actors in the romantic comedy field.

It was amazing how she expressed emotions fitting each moment through just expressions and actions.

‘So this is how you handle this scene.’

As a result, there was a lot for me to learn.

If it hadn’t been just practice, I would have come out earlier to observe.

I felt it was a shame.

But soon the feeling of regret disappeared, and my heart was filled with anticipation.

It was a good opportunity to work with a skilled professional like Cindy.

I thought I made the right decision in accepting the offer to appear in the music video.

Experiencing romantic comedy acting, even indirectly like this, would certainly help in my future acting career.

[Mountain Man][9:12] Son! Why didn’t you take the side dishes?

[Mountain Man][10:09] Did you meet Cindy? How is she? Pretty?

[Mountain Man][11:37] To think our son is acting with Cindy…

It would have been even better if my father hadn’t been sending messages like this constantly.

While I was ignoring my father’s messages and admiring Cindy’s acting,

Cindy’s filming finally wrapped up.

“Cut! Okay!”

“Good work!”

“Thanks for your hard work!”

After exchanging greetings with the staff, Cindy came straight towards me.

Someone who looked like Cindy’s manager was also approaching from not too far away.

‘Ah. Wasn’t it the agency CEO, not the manager?’

As Cindy arrived in front of me first, I bowed my head politely in greeting.

“Hello, senior. I apologize for the late greeting. I’m Lee Si-joon.”

When I greeted her, Cindy took a sharp breath and couldn’t continue speaking for a while.

I was tilting my head wondering what was going on when,

“Hello, Actor Lee Si-joon. I’m Kim Sung-hee, CEO of EM Entertainment… Oh oh…”

Kim Sung-hee seemed to have lost her footing in front of me and was falling forward.

Grab.

I quickly caught Kim Sung-hee to prevent her from falling.

“Are you alright?”

When I asked this, Kim Sung-hee raised her head and answered.

“Yes, I’m fine… Hup.”

But for some reason, Kim Sung-hee couldn’t finish her sentence.

She was just staring at my face silently.

Belatedly, I realized that the distance between Kim Sung-hee and me was too close.

Anyone would be flustered with someone else’s face so close to their nose.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I grabbed you too closely while trying to catch you.”

I slowly let go of her and stepped back.

Kim Sung-hee seemed to come to her senses then and opened her mouth.

“Ah. No, it’s fine. Thanks to you, I was saved… Actor Lee Si-joon…”

Kim Sung-hee seemed quite embarrassed about almost falling like this.

The evidence was her face turning red.

“Are you okay, CEO Kim?”

Meanwhile, Cindy approached and checked on Kim Sung-hee.

“I’m fine. You should greet Actor Lee Si-joon.”

Kim Sung-hee really seemed fine.

Her face was still red, but she didn’t appear to be hurt anywhere.

Certainly, in such an embarrassing situation, it would be polite to quickly change the topic.

Cindy seemed to think the same and started talking.

“Hello, Si-joon. Thank you for appearing in my music video. I really enjoyed watching ‘I Will Cast Love’.”

“I’m a fan of yours too, senior. I often listen to your music and have watched all your dramas. I also listened to your new song when I arrived on set, and it was really good. It’s an honor to work with you today.”

“I heard you arrived early and listened to the song. Is that right? Wow. Not only handsome but also so well-prepared… This is completely unfair. Unfair.”

“Someone like you who’s good at both music and acting is really unfair. I briefly saw you filming the music video earlier, and your expressions were so good. I look forward to learning a lot from you today.”

“What do you mean learning from me? You don’t have to think about it so formally. Come to think of it, this song itself was originally…”

Cindy suddenly trailed off and looked towards Kim Sung-hee.

‘Hmm…’

I could roughly guess what was going on.

Meeting her today, I found Cindy to be quite sociable.

Because of that, it seemed Kim Sung-hee was managing Cindy strictly.

There were cases like this.

Cases where they manage their celebrity out of fear that others might look down on them.

It wasn’t hard to notice that Cindy was one of these cases.

‘I don’t know what she was going to say, but I guess I won’t be able to hear the rest of Cindy’s story.’

While I was thinking this,

Unexpectedly, Kim Sung-hee picked up where Cindy left off.

“She says she wrote it while watching Actor Lee Si-joon’s acting. She was inspired after watching ‘I Will Cast Love’.”

“CEO Kim! How could you say that? I was going to say it myself. I wrote the song, after all.”

“I thought you were trailing off because you were embarrassed to say it, so I said it for you.”

“No, I trailed off because you were giving me a look.”

“A look? When did I? Rather, I said it would be good if you told that story. Actor Lee Si-joon should know how this song came to be, so he can prepare for his acting more easily.”

“Wow! In over 15 years of working together, I’ve just learned today that CEO Kim is an airhead. It’s amazing. Amazing. I’m so amazed I can’t even speak!”

Perhaps because they had been working together for a long time, their back-and-forth was fantastic.

I couldn’t tell at all when would be a good time to jump in.

Yeo Kyung-chan also seemed bewildered by the current situation and couldn’t say anything.

By the way, I couldn’t believe that ‘Straight Sun’ was a song made after being inspired by watching ‘I Will Cast Love’.

‘Is she serious?’

I thought this for a moment and then shook my head.

I thought it was probably just said as a courtesy.

Anyway, I was glad that Cindy was more sociable than I had expected.

I had worried that it might be difficult to get close to her because she was such a big star.

But meeting Cindy today, I could immediately see that such worries were unfounded.

I smiled as I watched the two people still engaged in a war of words.

‘This is fun. I’ll probably learn even more while filming today.’

As I was smiling like that, I suddenly felt a silence.

Wondering if I had made some mistake, I turned my head to see Cindy and Kim Sung-hee blushing.

‘It’s not cold enough for their cheeks to turn red, so why are they like that?’

I was a bit puzzled, but since the atmosphere was clearly good, I didn’t think much of it.