Han Ye-geon felt that the atmosphere on the set was far from good.
It was evident that most of the actors were paying a great deal of attention to Arthur Diaz.
If even the veteran supporting actors who had appeared in various movies felt that way, what about the actors who had stood out in the auditions?
Han Ye-geon had already realized that fact clearly through the script reading.
He wished it was just his own worry, but even right now, wasn't everyone watching Arthur Diaz's every move?
'The only one not paying attention is Actor Joo Seo-yeon, I suppose.'
She definitely wasn't an ordinary actress.
There were rumors that she was timid, but seeing her now, it didn't really feel like that.
Should he say she was composed?
Instead, she gave off a strong impression that Arthur Diaz constantly trying to talk to her was just annoying.
Of course, Seo-yeon's attitude only made the other actors around them feel even more anxious.
'But, Actor Joo Seo-yeon's behavior is the normal one.'
Arthur Diaz was, ultimately, an actor.
No matter how great an actor he was, on the set, the director was king.
Even if he could tear up the contract and pay the penalty fee to leave at any time, Arthur wouldn't make that choice so easily. Unless something truly special happened, doing such a thing wouldn't be right for someone with the profession of an actor.
To put it bluntly, it would be a lack of professionalism.
At the very least, that guy wasn't that kind of person.
"Actor Joo Seo-yeon, and Actor Arthur."
Han Ye-geon casually plopped down on a chair prepared on the set and called the two.
A roughly prepared steel chair.
Across from him, two more of them sat empty.
Called by Director Han Ye-geon, the two who came looked back and forth between Han Ye-geon sitting in the chair and the two empty chairs.
"Just sit wherever. These are the only chairs left."
"Yes."
How should he put it, it felt very raw.
Thinking that, Seo-yeon took a seat.
Glancing at Arthur, he wore an extremely gentlemanly expression, unlike when he spoke with her.
'Is he only like that to me?'
Stella was like that, and so was Arthur.
Why did they only act like that towards her?
They seemed to work quite hard on image management towards others.
No, come to think of it, Arthur did seem to care about his image even towards her.
It was just that she had seen through his true nature.
"First of all, Actor Joo Seo-yeon, you didn't do the script reading last time. So I'm asking. Before we go into filming, do you two need some time to coordinate separately?"
Honestly, he thought it wasn't particularly necessary for the two of them.
The character Seo-yeon plays, 'Jin Yeon-seo', had already been somewhat revealed through
Arthur probably saw it too, so he would know.
Besides, there was no need to add more flesh to the character.
'The name changed.'
Seo-yeon also realized that she hadn't changed much from the character 'Yeohwa' she saw in the previous audition.
The superpower was also the same: regeneration ability.
However, it felt like physical enhancement type powers were also added a little.
As expected, it was a rather plain superpower for a protagonist to have.
'Even so, Yeohwa was confusing because there was someone with a similar name around.'
It's a relief the name changed~, Seo-yeon just thought so and looked back at Arthur.
Because she was curious about what answer he would give.
"I think it's fine for me to go straight into filming. I don't think we need to adjust to the character any further anyway. I think it would be better to coordinate the rest during the actual filming."
It was a calm tone, but Arthur's gaze as he said so was directed at Seo-yeon.
He tried to hide it as much as possible, but there was no way Han Ye-geon wouldn't notice.
'It's intense, so intense. It seems like she attracts a lot of attention from Hollywood actors.'
He remembered that Seo-yeon had been entangled with 'Stella Baldwin' in various ways before.
Foreign broadcast media consistently mentioned Stella's work in Korea.
And the regular who appeared along with that was Seo-yeon.
That alone was surprising enough, but seeing Arthur Diaz also take such interest was a bit mystifying.
"Are you okay with that too, Seo-yeon?"
"Yes."
What a concise answer.
Whatever she wants to do, fine. It felt something like that, I suppose.
Han Ye-geon scratched his cheek and nodded.
"Then alright. Let's go right ahead."
Today was the first shoot anyway, there was nothing particularly grand about it.
Han Ye-geon was originally the type to build scenes while filming.
"Honestly, I also thought it would be better to just go in and see. That's more comfortable for me."
Even though there was a script, the direction given to it was the type that changed from moment to moment.
So coordinating in advance had little meaning in his filming.
It could change on the spot depending on the acting anyway.
'He's extremely different from Director Baek Min.'
Seo-yeon realized that Han Ye-geon and Baek Min were completely different styles.
While Director Baek Min definitely filmed scenes to match the picture he had drawn, Han Ye-geon was, to put it nicely, free, and to put it badly, unstructured.
If he improvised better scenes on the spot and filmed them, the burden placed on the actors was that much greater.
But to Han Ye-geon, that didn't matter at all.
He was a director who considered filming a 'good scene' more important than the actor's fatigue.
Even his own initial thoughts weren't that important to him.
"Now, now, now, let's gather. I'll roughly explain what we're filming today."
Clap, clap, clap. At his words and clapping, the staff and actors focused their attention on him.
'Surely they aren't proceeding right away without even a script reading?'
'Even if Arthur Diaz is fine with that, what is Actor Joo Seo-yeon thinking?'
The actors were bewildered.
Because they naturally thought the two actors would at least do a brief script reading.
Arthur Diaz had already done script readings several times, but Seo-yeon hadn't done anything like that.
Yet, they were going straight into filming like this?
Of course, such cases weren't entirely nonexistent.
There had actually been several times they filmed without a script reading.
But, the first shoot.
Even against Arthur, who showed amazing acting in the script reading?
'Is she seriously crazy in the head? Or does she just not think at all?'
Though a supporting actor, Min Do-ha, who was inconspicuously mixed in among the extras, chewed his thumbnail as he looked at Seo-yeon like that.
Min Do-ha had seen Arthur's acting at the script reading.
Until the Hollywood actress with a renowned name, Stella, appeared, the whole world called him a 'genius actor' and praised him.
And, as if to prove those words weren't false, his acting had an oppressive feel that made even veteran actors wilt.
Even without building up a great atmosphere, the words he spat out normally became the character itself.
'As if I were facing an actor doing method acting.'
Min Do-ha felt pressured even though he hadn't acted opposite him.
'Even that guy who showed good acting in the finals against Seo-yeon was no match...'
"Huh? Are they going straight into filming?"
While Min Do-ha was thinking that, someone approached and spoke to him.
Turning his head, a woman with a gentle face, Narumi Sora, was standing there.
She said she'd be late, but it seemed she had just arrived.
'Seo-yeon Joo's lackey!!'
His body flinched.
She was the actress who had been following Seo-yeon around since the actors gathered that one time.
He heard they even went to Japan together.
For Min Do-ha right now, she was the person he wanted to avoid the most after Seo-yeon.
Because, thinking about the appearance she showed in the finals, she was definitely not an ordinary person either.
'Why is she talking to me?'
When have we ever met.
He was about to say that, but then thought it might be possible since they had been together since
Of course, for Min Do-ha, it was something he really wanted to avoid.
"Ah, yes. Both actors said it's fine to start right away. They said it's more comfortable..."
"Really? Well, maybe that's true."
"Pardon?"
"She did even more intense things on Hyper Action Star. It was similar in the finals right away too."
Similar in the finals?
Min Do-ha looked at Sora with a questioning face.
"That time was even action acting, so if it's acting like today... well, I don't think it'll be a problem."
Sora still couldn't forget Seo-yeon's performance in the finals.
They tried to coordinate, but honestly, even that wasn't necessary.
'And just looking at the cameo acting she showed in Japan.'
Seo-yeon wasn't an actress who particularly needed a long preparation time.
Sora felt that in Japan.
She was a girl who could memorize the lines and tone Sora read for her exactly as they were and reflect them in her acting.
So matching the acting on the spot was nothing.
"Sora, you're really good at Korean."
"..."
"You sound just like a Korean person."
Of course, Min Do-ha couldn't understand what Sora was talking about, so it seemed he just found her words themselves amazing.
'Ugh, should I speak more like a Japanese person?'
Sora was inwardly troubled.
Her agency had already told her to 'show a bit more of a character-like feel.'
To show a color that makes her feel a bit more like an actress from Japan.
Come to think of it, other Japanese natives spoke somewhat awkwardly.
'Should I do that too?'
Looking at her in reality, she was just like a Korean.
But once they went on broadcast, everyone spoke as if half their tongue was missing.
That was the easiest character concept for foreigners to grasp...
While Sora was worrying about that.
The two actors stood on the set.
This place today was the scene corresponding to the prologue part of the movie.
It was the scene where Arthur, a researcher, helps Seo-yeon escape from the research institute.
Watching that scene, Sora calmly thought about the scene they would film today.
'The protagonist, Jin Yeon-seo, is a psychic created by the Darwin Project, a research institute that studies human potential.'
The Darwin Project was a superhuman research project led by the United States.
Its true purpose was only properly revealed in the latter half.
The protagonist in the early part appears only as an experimental subject locked up in some facility.
The protagonist was a completed experimental subject there, but she managed to escape with the help of a young researcher she met there, 'Adam'.
'The protagonist in the early part is a girl who knows nothing.'
A child whose entire world was the research institute since she was born.
Adam was the researcher who taught common sense to such a Yeon-seo, and the only one who told her about the world.
Just as Yeon-seo grew up in the research institute.
Arthur, thanks to his father who was the director of the institute, had watched this 'Darwin Project' since childhood.
He was a young man who came to work at the institute following his father.
The relatively emotionless Jin Yeon-seo steps out into the world, happens to be taken in by a certain family, and lives an ordinary life as she grows up.
Like that, 2 years. The time it took for Jin Yeon-seo, who came out into the world, to become an ordinary girl was surprisingly short.
'On top of that...'
Sora stared at Seo-yeon.
This was the content revealed on the surface in the early part.
Thinking of the hidden twist and the content that would follow, it was necessary to drop a few hints in the prologue.
Above all, she had to act in a way that made Jin Yeon-seo in the early part feel distinctly different from Jin Yeon-seo in the latter half.
"Alright, then we will start filming."
Having finished her makeup, Seo-yeon was only wearing a pure white gown.
Along with bare feet.
Her hair was also left wildly untidy, making her look different from her usual neat impression.
'Now, finally.'
Arthur, similarly wearing a white researcher's outfit, looked at Seo-yeon.
He could finally show the acting he had consistently wanted to show through the script readings all this time.
'Did Oliver say she was a real Esper?'
Arthur smirked as he recalled his friend saying that quite seriously.
What nonsense.
'Even so, what does that matter? In the end, acting is everything here.'
Thinking like that, he calmly grasped his emotions.
Arthur's acting was honed to the extreme.
He had to perfectly control his emotions and reveal them subtly, to the point where it might look like method acting.
Because the emotions he had to express right now were largely two things.
"Actor Arthur's acting and actions need to reveal a little foreshadowing. That way, when the audience sees it in the latter half, instead of 'What was that?', it should be 'Ah, so that's why'."
"Yes, I know."
"And in Seo-yeon's case..."
Seeing Seo-yeon looking around at her outfit, Han Ye-geon stroked his chin.
The acting demand for her side was much more concise.
'But originally, concise acting is the hardest.'
Honestly, without a script reading, he didn't know how much Seo-yeon could pull off this acting.
Unlike when she appeared in
The character now called 'Jin Yeon-seo' was in a state where she didn't properly know emotions yet.
To be exact, a state of not having experienced them.
A feeling of having only vaguely heard about them through words.
"It would be good if you could act a bit mechanically, like a girl who doesn't know emotions."
"Yes."
"If you make a mistake, we can just reshoot, so don't feel too burdened."
"Yes, I understand."
Seo-yeon answered calmly.
Seeing her like that, the surrounding staff clicked their tongues inwardly as if feeling sorry for her.
'Even if he says that, if the picture is a bit off, he'll make them reshoot multiple times.'
'Telling her to do that kind of acting right away without even a reading, the burden must be immense.'
'I know, right.'
Act like a girl who doesn't know emotions.
Such simple words.
However, this was by no means easy acting.
If done poorly, there was no acting that looked as ridiculous and stupid as this.
Yet, proceeding right away without even a reading?
'Well, this itself is practice, I suppose.'
With those thoughts, the staff each took their places.
And, Director Han Ye-geon's hand went up and he shouted action.
A cheerful sound was heard as the slate was clapped to announce the first scene.
And.
「Eve.」
Eve was the name the research institute used to call Jin Yeon-seo, eve - 001.
The mark of the first successful experimental subject, and the number that could be called the origin of this research.
'Adam' had come to her, who was looking at the flower bed as always, to stop the thing that was about to happen to Yeon-seo.
To quickly get her out of this laboratory.
「Eve, why aren't you saying anything? Every moment is urgent right now, we need to hurry and get out of here...」
Up to there, Adam, who raised his gaze.
No, Arthur stopped talking for a moment.
Quiet red eyes were staring at him.
The gaze of the girl quietly staring at him.
Something alien.
Something not human.
Because it felt like a monster that couldn't understand emotions was looking at him.