Aura of a Genius Actor

Huuu—

A long sigh came from the front row.

By now, thanks to Episodes One and Two, Derek's brutal critiques had already become infamous. But seeing them in person was apparently even more terrifying.

The fact that even more fans had appeared claiming that side of him was sexy only proved that life really did favor those born under lucky stars.

[First, Trinity. This isn't a talent show. There's nothing worth discussing here, so let's move on.]

His voice carried a strangely hypnotic quality.

Indifferent.

Cold.

He cut down the contestant without hesitation.

Already emotionally cornered by the sharp criticism that had come before, she finally burst into tears.

Derek didn't even glance in her direction.

Instead, he continued reviewing the next contestants.

[Johan, you changed your character at the last minute, didn't you? About two days ago...?]

[Uh... yes. That's right.]

[Because you didn't have enough rehearsal time, the character you established at the beginning and the character you created later became mixed together. Why take such a reckless risk?]

[It was only at the end that I realized my role wasn't a simple character. I thought he was someone obsessively pursuing a move that would overturn the situation...]

[That's correct. The role you played is indeed the key that creates tension throughout the scene. But if this was the level of completion you could achieve, you would have been better off sticking with your original interpretation.]

[.....]

[How many hours did you sleep yesterday?]

[...Seven.]

[You only completed your new interpretation to that extent, and you were still able to sleep? Hmm. Fascinating.]

He read their rehearsal process and their hidden weaknesses with almost supernatural precision.

[While shaping that role, you used the heroine from The King and I as a reference, didn't you? Unfortunately, you only borrowed her weaknesses instead of her strengths.]

[You've disguised your short breathing as though it were part of the character. Clever trick. But breathing is a fundamental skill. You can't hide deficiencies inside a character forever, can you?]

At other times, a few simple suggestions dramatically improved an actor's performance.

[You three. Maid, cook, and noblewoman. Switch roles clockwise and do another reading. Keep the exact characterizations you've already developed. Play the maid as if she were the noblewoman, the cook as if she were the maid, and the noblewoman as if she were the cook. Exactly as rehearsed.]

They merely switched roles and read the script.

Yet somehow the balance between the characters improved dramatically, and the scene became far more engaging.

It looked like magic.

Every time Derek pinpointed some hidden aspect of a contestant's process, Jerry High's eyes widened further.

Eventually, he couldn't hold back any longer.

[Derek... is there something behind me that only you can see?]

[What kind of question is that?]

[Seriously. You haven't even watched the behind the scenes footage, yet you're describing exactly how these contestants prepared as if you're reading their fortunes.]

[I'm an actor. You can see how people worked. You can see where their mistakes happened.]

Natalie immediately disagreed.

[No, that's not it. His intuition is something he was born with. I can usually estimate an actor's strengths, weaknesses, and level of effort from a performance. But not like Derek. He practically reads people like an astrologer.]

[Was he like that with you when you worked together?]

[Ha! Back then? He was terrifying. Compared to what he's doing now, this is practically affection. If anyone filmed what I went through, it would never be broadcast.]

He was already terrifying enough.

Unlike Natalie, who carefully and diligently evaluated each contestant one by one, Derek's critiques were arrogant, impulsive, and selective.

Anything that fell outside his standards wasn't even acknowledged.

It was the sort of teaching style that could leave an observer intimidated.

Interesting actor. I'd like to see him perform in person. I've watched him countless times on screen, but never live.

{Me too. I wonder what that acting tastes like. It smells incredibly intense.}

And so the first day of judging came to an end.

Behind the contestant seating area was a room separated by a magic mirror.

After the contestants left at the end of the day, eight people emerged from that room.

One of them was the individual who had been watching Yu Myeong that morning.

[What did you think?]

[Aside from a few people... not much.]

As they walked out discussing the performances, one man raised his voice.

[Most of them are amateurs. They can call themselves professionals all they want. If you throw bass and bluegill into a pond full of minnows, what happens? It'll become our feast.]

Jackson Foster.

A highly recognized actor in Australia.

The others were similar.

Though not yet famous in America, they were already well known performers in their own countries.

These were actors recruited from overseas because their abilities had already been acknowledged.

Actors who had been granted seeds.

Like the other contestants, they had arrived in California two weeks earlier and had already moved into the Actors House, where successful contestants would live after passing the entry task.

Antoine Monnier, a French actor, immediately challenged Jackson's statement.

[What if there's a snakehead fish living in that pond of bass and bluegill? Wouldn't it devour everything without leaving even bones behind?]

[What's with that comparison? I'm acknowledging all of you. I'm talking about the amateurs on the other side of the mirror. None of them looked like competition.]

[There's still tomorrow.]

[Won't it be more of the same? Sure, a few people stood out. That... Do Hyo Jun, for example.]

[Hmm... Antoine, honestly, I feel the same way. We're already established actors in our own countries. Even if there are a few talented people among them... compared to us... Of course, someone might suddenly grow during the process.]

Antoine smiled faintly.

[Shin Yu Myeong. Watch him. He's already a complete actor.]

[Who? Shin? Ah, The Truman Show guy. That performance was pretty good, but it didn't make much impact, did it?]

[You actually let the editing fool you? Is your eye for acting really that poor?]

[Well, if it was as extraordinary as you're making it sound, wouldn't the producers have highlighted it?]

[I don't know what their intentions are. But I do know that his performance was superior to anyone else in the preliminary round.]

Antoine Monnier possessed a relaxed and gentle demeanor.

Yet somehow he naturally occupied the center of every group.

The kind of person others instinctively accepted as a leader.

Jackson had never seen him adopt such a critical tone before.

He hesitated, missing the moment to become angry.

At that moment, one of the actresses spoke up.

[Antoine is right. I thought his performance was the best among all the contestants as well.]

Marta Garcia.

A Spanish actress with sun kissed bronze skin and sleepy turquoise eyes.

Normally indifferent to most discussions, she rarely joined arguments.

Everyone looked at her in surprise.

[What, are you taking his side because you're both Europeans?]

[If that's the best conclusion your brain can produce, you'd be better off removing it entirely. It's nothing but dead weight.]

Jackson's face reddened immediately.

Antoine stepped in.

[Marta. That was harsh.]

[I just said what I thought. Fine.]

She apologized as casually as she had insulted him.

Her perpetually half-lidded eyes °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° showed no particular emotion.

As though she understood perfectly well that she had a habit of saying whatever crossed her mind.

[Still, I don't understand it. Sure, his Truman was excellent. But what Antoine described... that's another matter entirely.]

[Described what?]

When another seeded actor expressed curiosity, Antoine briefly recounted what he had witnessed.

The performance of Mumu.

[That's impossible. He synchronized his acting to a prerecorded audio track?]

[The more remarkable part is that you never noticed he was timing himself at all. The performance was so natural and beautiful that it never once crossed your mind. After he finished, none of the members of our company could speak for quite some time. There were tears in their eyes.]

[...That's hard to believe.]

This time, Marta nodded in agreement with Jackson.

[We'll find out tomorrow.]

[Tomorrow should be interesting.]

Their eyes glittered with curiosity.

And competitiveness.

The following day, by the time Team Thirty Four completed their makeup and arrived backstage, Team Thirty Three's performance was just beginning.

The same script.

The role assigned to Do Hyo Jun was...

The king.

The four actors stood in a diamond formation.

The king at the highest position.

Below him, the noble and the minister facing each other.

And at their feet, the slave prostrated on the floor.

Yu Myeong was curious.

How had the other team interpreted the script?

How would they perform it?

Then the king spoke his first line.

And Yu Myeong immediately understood.

[Lords, give me your opinions regarding the murder of the prince that occurred within this hall. Who do you believe the culprit to be?]

The king knew everything.

No—

the king was the mastermind behind everything.

The interpretation followed the same path as Kai's hesitant theory from earlier.

But it had been developed much further.

[No, there is no need for you to apologize. Narva's actions are Narva's responsibility. And it seems the Merchant Guild holds a different opinion.]

His tone did not reassure the noble.

It cut him off as though his opinion were absurd.

As though he intended to use this opportunity to restore the authority of the crown, the king weighed the noble and the merchant against each other.

Encouraging one.

Suppressing the other.

The noble and merchant argued passionately, but the audience's attention remained fixed on the king, who seemed to manipulate them both from the palm of his hand.

The king was undeniably the protagonist.

Everyone else felt like supporting characters.

And yet it was fascinating.

Before they realized it, the audience had become invested in him.

They watched every reaction.

Trying to determine how much of the situation was part of his design.

Then the slave revealed the truth.

And for the first time, the king's expression wavered.

[I... believe the prince's death... was suicide.]

An expression of damn it.

That single look told the audience everything.

The king had been the one who handed the prince the poison and ordered him to die.

His final words to the prince now gained a new meaning.

Once your life ends, you will no longer have to live as your father's puppet.

The king's lips trembled.

There had been a witness.

How could he silence him?

Even as his panic surfaced, the noble and merchant's expressions changed as well.

Unlike the audience, they did not realize this was the king's scheme.

To them, the prince's words—

"I will no longer live as a puppet"—

sounded like a declaration that he would no longer live as a puppet king controlled by nobles and merchants.

Fearing the king might realize this implication, they hurriedly silenced the slave.

Thrust.

The slave collapsed, dying from a stab wound.

The merchant looked relieved despite blood staining his hands.

The noble gave him a subtle nod of approval.

And beyond them—

the king's expression was magnificent.

You've solved my problem for me... and handed me another weapon against yourselves. You fools. Hahaha.

Mockery leaked through the mask of shock.

It was the arrogant expression of someone who had obtained the card that would overturn the board.

While everyone's eyes remained fixed on that smile—

the play ended.

The judges were divided.

[That was an interesting interpretation. The idea that the king knew everything and orchestrated the entire situation... it made the performance impossible to look away from. In particular, Do Hyo Jun's portrayal of the king was extremely impressive. Without changing a single line of dialogue, he convinced us through his eyes, voice, and gestures that the king knew everything.]

Director George Housley offered lavish praise.

But then—

[Actually, I wrote this script.]

Unable to restrain herself any longer, Eva Dobransky revealed that she was the author.

[This interpretation is excessive. Even you knew this wasn't what the writer intended. You chose an unusual approach because you wanted to stand out. Even so, I have no choice but to acknowledge the performance of the king, which somehow held the entire piece together. But every other character became crude by comparison. If this were a real production rather than an audition, you'd be criticized for completely abandoning the writer's intent.]

Her displeasure at seeing the script's meaning distorted was obvious.

Natalie raised a different concern.

[This interpretation was primarily your idea, wasn't it, Mr. Do Hyo Jun?]

[Yes.]

[It may have made the play more entertaining, but as a team leader, I'm disappointed by how little consideration you showed your teammates. I don't know why the others agreed to this, but this interpretation turns everyone except the king into supporting characters. Nobody is curious about anyone else. You should have found a way for everyone to coexist.]

Hyo Jun seemed about to object.

Before he could speak, Derek interrupted Natalie.

[Well, if the play was entertaining, that's enough. There's no need to talk about consideration.]

Natalie opened her mouth to respond, but Derek continued first.

[However, it does need internal logic. If the king is that intelligent, why did he spend his life as a puppet? And why don't the nobles and merchants realize he's intelligent?]

At that question,

Do Hyo Jun flinched.