The Face Genius Actor

Episode 078

A few days later.

The filming of Part 14 of “Let’s Live Together, Princess” officially began.

And I had already filmed the scene where I’m lying unconscious in the hospital room and the flashback scene of Kim Jung-heon’s past.

We proceeded with filming like this at Director Yoo Sung-hyo’s request.

It seemed like the plan was to quickly handle my limited screen time and focus on Cindy’s filming.

This gave me some free time.

It was natural since I had no filming until the latter part of Part 14.

Thanks to this, I could move to the advertisement filming location more lightly and arrived at the scene 30 minutes early.

It was my usual habit to arrive at the filming location about 10 minutes early.

But today I hurried a bit more.

‘The people I’m supposed to film the advertisement with are so amazing… I had no choice.’

KC put quite a lot of effort into this advertisement.

The evidence was that they gathered all the models who had ever filmed advertisements for KC affiliates.

Thus, actors whose faces you could instantly recall just by hearing their names, such as Yoon Hee-jung, Ji Jung-hyun, Cha Jung-in, Goo Han-jin, Han Hye-yoon, Chun Kyung-wan, and others, all gathered.

In addition, Baek Joo-sung and Kang Yoon-ah, who could be called South Korea’s top sports stars, also joined.

It was an incredible lineup.

‘If it weren’t for my relationship with Ji Jung-hyun, I wouldn’t have even been included here.’

It was true that I was gaining a lot of popularity through “Let’s Live Together, Princess”.

But this wasn’t enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people cast in today’s advertisement.

These people had all built very long careers in the entertainment industry or had starred in dramas even bigger than “Let’s Live Together, Princess”.

Not to mention sports stars Baek Joo-sung and Kang Yoon-ah, who held the title of ‘national heroes’.

‘Even if I had been cast in this advertisement despite all that, I would have barely made it onto the list at the very end.’

But the situation changed when Ji Jung-hyun and Park Jun mentioned my name at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Thanks to them, my name became known more than I had thought.

Especially the scene where I tilted my head in confusion at the same time my name was mentioned during the acceptance speech.

This scene was captured on camera and caused a big sensation.

It didn’t stop there; this scene was made into a meme.

It was used when hearing something illogical, when unable to understand the current situation at all, or when struggling to make a decision.

‘Even Yeo Kyung-chan was using this meme like an emoticon…’

In the end, thanks to the success of “Let’s Live Together, Princess” and the meme titled “Face genius who doesn’t know why he’s loved.gif”, I gained quite a bit of recognition.

And I could be cast as one of the models for KC Card’s advertisement.

And luckily, as I was cast, I was the youngest among them.

This could be said in terms of age, experience, recognition, and all aspects.

This was why I arrived at the scene 30 minutes early today.

“Hello, seniors!”

Fortunately, the people arriving at the scene one by one recognized me and greeted me warmly.

“Ah. Si-joon.”

“I’m enjoying your drama.”

“Congratulations on winning the Best New Actor award.”

Above all, for some reason, Ji Jung-hyun’s presence, who arrived right after me, was a great help.

Thanks to Ji Jung-hyun sticking close to my side, everyone except veteran actor Yoon Hee-jung came to greet us first.

Even the advertisement director and on-site staff came to greet us first, which felt strange.

“Why are you making such an ambiguous expression?”

“…I’m just not used to this kind of situation.”

“As you gain more experience, you’ll need to get used to it.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

“You’re not trying to say that you’re uncomfortable because I’m next to you, are you?”

“…No, that’s not it.”

Honestly, it was a bit burdensome.

But it was also difficult to move away from Ji Jung-hyun.

This was because Ji Jung-hyun was my partner for today’s filming.

Coincidentally, the storyboard was arranged that way.

‘This is probably because of the Baeksang Arts Awards too.’

For some reason, I felt relieved that Park Jun wasn’t here.

I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of another big conflict.

After greeting Yoon Hee-jung, who arrived last at the scene.

The advertisement filming with Ji Jung-hyun officially began.

The concept of this KC Card advertisement filming was a bit unique.

The main concept was to have conversations with the person you’re with while waiting for the advertisement filming.

“Alright. If you’re ready, we’ll start the first take. Ready! Cue!”

* * *

I’m sitting with Ji Jung-hyun in one corner of the advertisement filming set.

We see someone coming from afar and we both give a light bow.

“Wow. There are really a lot of people.”

“Yeah. Hey, look. It’s Kang Yoon-ah.”

“Where?”

“Over there.”

Ji Jung-hyun and I greet Kang Yoon-ah, who’s standing far away.

“It’s amazing. I heard Baek Joo-sung is coming too…”

“Yeah. That’s what I heard.”

“Then who’s the main today?”

As I ask this while skimming through the storyboard in my hand, Ji Jung-hyun, who was craning his neck to look for Baek Joo-sung, answers.

“That’s a very good point. Let me see the storyboard.”

I hand the storyboard to Ji Jung-hyun.

Ji Jung-hyun examines the storyboard with a seemingly serious expression and then speaks.

“Hmm… Oh?”

“What is it?”

“It’s centered around me.”

“What?”

“I’m the main.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. For sure.”

I look at Ji Jung-hyun as if I can’t believe it, then answer half-heartedly.

“Okay. I see.”

Just then, Baek Joo-sung finally appears.

Ji Jung-hyun and I reflexively bow our heads.

“Let’s get his autograph after we’re done.”

“Yes. Definitely.”

* * *

This was the first filming scene for Ji Jung-hyun and me.

But for some reason, the director’s expression wasn’t good.

“Cut! Let’s do it one more time!”

I was a bit taken aback when I received the signal for a retake.

It couldn’t be helped.

The scene I had just performed with Ji Jung-hyun had been practiced hundreds of times through the method mask.

And the acting had proceeded exactly as we had practiced, without a single mistake.

‘What was the problem? Neither of us made any noticeable errors…’

For a moment, I wondered if the commercial director had a similar style to the B-team director of .

After all, the B-team director of preferred to shoot multiple times and choose the best scene.

‘Is he unexpectedly meticulous? He didn’t seem that way…’

While I was thinking this, Ji Jung-hyun nodded beside me and muttered,

“So that’s his style.”

Did Ji Jung-hyun analyze the director’s tendencies similarly to me?

I had this thought briefly but couldn’t confirm it.

The reshoot began immediately.

“Ready! Cue!”

So Ji Jung-hyun and I exchanged dialogue in the same way as before.

Ji Jung-hyun slightly changed the rhythm of one line, but there wasn’t much difference from before.

However, the commercial director’s expression was still not pleased.

‘What on earth is the problem?’

While I was thinking this, Ji Jung-hyun and I delivered our last lines.

“Let’s get an autograph after it’s over.”

“Yes, definitely.”

But unlike before, the shooting didn’t end here this time.

Suddenly, Ji Jung-hyun turned his head towards me and added a word.

“We shouldn’t pretend to be close in advance, right?”

That was Ji Jung-hyun’s ad-lib.

“Cut! That was good! Let’s do one more!”

I couldn’t react to Ji Jung-hyun’s sudden action.

I never imagined an ad-lib would pop up in such a short scene.

But thanks to Ji Jung-hyun’s ad-lib, I could see that the commercial director’s expression had improved a bit.

‘I see. The director wants to enhance this scene with ad-libs.’

Sure enough, Ji Jung-hyun continued to ad-lib in the subsequent takes.

“Shall we have a team dinner today?”

“I should ask him to teach me soccer.”

“We have an open spot in our early morning soccer club.”

“I’ll brag on Instagram that I saw Baek Joo-sung.”

“I wonder if there’s something like a signed ball in soccer.”

With each of Ji Jung-hyun’s ad-libs, the director’s expression improved.

But for some reason, he still wasn’t giving the okay sign, and I realized it was because of me.

The commercial director was hoping I would respond to Ji Jung-hyun’s ad-libs with my own.

‘Ah…’

As I grasped the director’s intention, I felt cold sweat running down my back.

I was afraid to do an ad-lib that I hadn’t practiced with the method mask.

‘So this day has finally come…’

It’s not that my co-stars had never ad-libbed before.

Rather, in , , and , there were actors who did ad-lib.

Goo Kyung-mo did, Gong Hyung-jun did, and even Cindy had some ad-libs.

But in these cases, we had always discussed the ad-libs before filming.

So we could have separate practice time.

Even when we couldn’t do that sometimes, there was nothing to worry about.

I tended to check parts where ad-libs might occur during my script analysis process.

After I started hiding the method mask in the massage mask, worries about ad-libs disappeared completely.

But now the situation was different.

I hadn’t expected the commercial director to want ad-libs like this.

Also, it wasn’t feasible to stop filming now to practice with the method mask.

We had already done 16 takes.

It was impossible to drag out more time because there were still scenes with senior actors to be filmed.

‘Moreover, this isn’t a situation where I can predict what kind of ad-libs Ji Jung-hyun will do.’

It would be nice if the director stepped in and gave some direction at times like this.

But the director didn’t seem to have any intention of moving.

He seemed to just want to leave the situation to the actors and keep filming until a good scene came out.

‘If he had any thoughts from the beginning, he would have asked to discuss ad-libs in advance.’

As the situation was becoming increasingly difficult, during the 17th take, Ji Jung-hyun threw an unexpected line.

“Be honest. Do you like Baek Joo-sung or me?”

At this moment of heightened tension, as soon as I heard Ji Jung-hyun’s words, I felt like all the tension suddenly drained away.

And before I knew it, a question popped out.

“What?”

As if to say, why are you asking this now?

Unexpectedly, this seemed to work, and laughter erupted among the staff on set.

Confused, I first checked the commercial director’s expression.

And the director was wearing the most satisfied expression he had shown so far.

Sure enough.

“Cut! Okay!”

Finally, we got the okay sign.

And the senior actors who had been watching this shoot didn’t hold back their admiration.