Chapter 489 (1/2)

“No. It wasn’t us that did it.”

Park Hoon told the girl on the stage, who seemed to be dusting her shoulder, to stop.

“Uhm, Miss Han Yoonmi.”

“Yes!”

What a bright reply. He clicked his tongue and told her to stand still.

“Like this?”

“Yes. And try saying the line you just said again.”

“No. It wasn’t us that di….”

“Stop. Why are you shaking your shoulders like that? Are you trying to dance?” Park Hoon asked as he shook his own shoulders.

The girl couldn’t reply so she stayed quiet.

“I’m not sure how it might look from afar, but you look really frantic when you’re zoomed in on with the camera. Did you not act in front of a camera at your acting school? Have you never seen yourself on the monitor?”

“I have, but….”

“Then why are you like that?”

“Uhm, senior.”

The junior producer, who was watching from the side, pointed at the girl’s profile as he talked to him. There was a blue checkmark on it.

“Oh, looks like I wasn’t clear, huh. When I told you to stand on the right side, I meant that you shouldn’t be standing on the same side as someone like me.”

Park Hoon put a cross on the name ‘Han Yoonmi’ with a black marker. The junior looked at him with shock. The blue ‘recommendation’ mark. Park Hoon wasn’t swayed by such underhanded tactics. This always made him clash with the chief producer, but it didn’t really matter to him that much since the chief producer would stay quiet as long as he produced good results. This area was practically in the hands of advertisers anyway. It meant that the one that got good viewing rates was king.

“Don’t scold them so much. You’ll make them cry.”

“Are you here to play around? And also, that was at most a piece of sincere advice.”

“Like hell that was. Next,” said Miri as she looked at the stage.

This time, a girl stepped up with a fresh smile on her face. She looked to be in her early twenties. Park Hoon looked at the profile. She belonged to the agency Crystal. So this was the one that team leader Kang talked about?

“Hello! My name is Lee Joomin. Please take care of me.”

“She’s not bad,” Miri said.

Park Hoon also nodded.

“What do you think, junior?”

“Eh? I think she’s okay as well.”

“What part about her is okay?”

“Uhm….”

“Are you going to use her if it was up to you?”

“Yes. I think she would make the cast.”

“Why? Tell me the reason you’re thinking about right now.”

“Right. Keep practicing expressing your own thoughts in words. A producer’s plan begins with materializing abstract thoughts.”

He moved his eyes away from the nodding junior and looked at the girl in front of him.

“Miss Lee Joomin.”

“Yes.”

“There’s a character in the drama who is an aspiring singer. Can you try singing?”

“You said that an idol song was no good, right?”

“If you don’t know anything else, then you can try that one as well. The reason I said you can’t do it is because there are strange types of people who are fixated on that. How about it? You think you can do it?”

“I’ll sing just a little bit.”

The girl decided on a key without hesitation and started singing. As a decent performance was enough for the character, Park Hoon stopped her after a few lines.

“Thank you.”

While the girl stepped back, Park Hoon talked with Miri.

“I’m thinking about choosing her if I don’t see anyone good after this.”

“I think she’s good as well. She looks cute too. She’s the type that would work well on students these days. As for acting, well, we’ll have to start shooting to find out for sure.”

“Then let’s do that.”

Park Hoon looked at the next person. He was around 175cm tall, and his build was pretty good. He was skinny but looked sturdy, so to speak.

“He’s from JA.”

“That’s Lee Junmin’s place, right?”

“Yes.”

“Next, please come forward and get ready.”

The boy came forward. He looked up at the lights on the ceiling before remarking,

“Can you see my face well?”

Hearing that, Park Hoon smiled and replied that they could.

This was the first time they received that question today. It was a question that an audition participant had to do, but the ones before him did not go through such a fundamental process. While they looked at the participants with their eyes, they also had to look at them through the camera. Although there was a mark on the center of the stage, the participants would have to adjust their positions according to their heights and builds. Finding out what they looked like on camera was the basics of an actor.

“Please do your two free skits.”

“Understood.”

His voice was on the lower side and was pleasant to listen to. The boy started acting. He moved around actively and talked about the pretty girl he saw yesterday. The way he was restless as he was babbling on looked really natural. When Park Hoon had a look at his profile, he saw that the boy was in his 2nd year of high school. Park Hoon asked after his first skit.

“Is your personality actually like that? Like being talkative and active?”

“Alright. Then please show us your next one.”

The boy sat down on a chair this time. It was a rather still image, which was a contrast to the first skit. He was trying to show the wide range of his acting spectrum. He was someone who knew how to use his brain.

“I didn’t steal it.”

The boy clenched his fists in unease as he placed his hands on his pants. Park Hoon kept looking at the boy. If anyone asked him what the most difficult acting was, Park Hoon would reply that it was quietly talking about normal stuff. It wasn’t that an act with vigorous emotions was easy, but what discerned the truly skilled actors was their acting of normal, everyday life.

The boy neither shouted nor cried with a cringing face. He was just calmly claiming that he was wronged. Park Hoon rubbed the side of his head when he saw the calm acting. This was his habit when he concentrated.

“That’s it from me.”

The boy stood up from his seat. Park Hoon scratched the inside of his cheeks with his tongue and looked at Miri.

“He’s good.”

It wasn’t ‘he’s not bad’. The junior said that he was focused on the boy’s acting as well.

“What is the missing item?”

“I thought of it as a wallet.”

“What’s the teacher like in your act?”

“I modelled them after a high school teacher of mine. She’s the type to drag someone to the faculty office in haste.”