Become a Star

“I think so too. He didn’t even show as much resentment and anger towards his adoptive mother as Do-Ya and Park Min did.”

For the first time, Kwon So-Hyun and Park Han-Young sang the same tune.

Chae Woo-Jin’s Lloyd was neither gruesome nor was he conflicted with love and hatred after killing his adoptive mother; his version of Lloyd was a meticulous and cynical painter. Chae Woo-Jin’s Lloyd stared at his adoptive mother like how a painter stares at his model. As he imagined what his final painting would look like, he felt delighted. There wasn’t a hint of an angry murderer anywhere.

“But wasn’t his acting perfect? Unlike the other actors that were busy reciting their lines, he even acted out the minute details like he was doing a monodrama. Even though there was clearly a line by the adoptive mother about how the child seemed to be fascinated by his white hair, most of the actors simply ignored it and stood there without doing anything, right?”

Park Min had also acted out the part where the boy tugged on Lloyd’s hair, but he did it while standing up. Chae Woo-Jin was the only person who got down on his knees and faced the child at eye level. More importantly, when the child grabbed his hair, he managed to exquisitely act out the complicated facial expression while his head was lowered. He managed to capture Lloyd’s annoyance, as well as the fact that he didn’t particularly dislike the playful child.

“Aren’t interpretations very diverse when it comes to acting? I personally think Chae Woo-Jin merely had a different interpretation from the other two.” Aside from Choi Min-Hwan, the other two judges were actively in favor of Chae Woo-Jin. The actors they were originally in favor of fell short and were all out of the running. Hence, they were able to fulfill their duty as judges by giving their evaluations from a very objective perspective.

“It has been said that Confession of White will be remaining true to the original novel, so how could he interpret it differently!”

“In that case, you’re against giving Chae Woo-Jin the highest score only because he’s not staying true to the original nove, Chairman Kwon?”

“Yes, that’s right!”

After seeing Kwon So-Hyun's firm response, a subtle smile appeared on Choi Min-Hwan’s face as he pulled out a new script from his bag. The audition script received from headquarters originally included very detailed stage directions and footnotes written by L. Dmitri. However, all of those details had been removed from the scripts that were used for the auditions. What was left were only the characters’ lines. Although the details had been removed to allow the actors to study and freely interprete Lloyd’s psychology, it was also to see how much the actors understood Lloyd.

“Here are the scripts from headquarters.”

Choi Min-Hwan handed out the original scripts to the four judges for the first time.

“If you had something like these, you should’ve shown them to us earlier.”

A quick glance was enough to see how detailed the stage directions were. This made Kwon So-Hyun mad. She displayed her frustrations at not being able to get her hands on it sooner, as Park Min would’ve done a better job with the help of the original script.

“It was the headquarters' policy. Please read it first.”

Choi Min-Hwan might have said that, but the executive that looked at the original scripts together with him had urged him not to disclose them to the judges. Unlike Choi Min-Hwan, who was clueless about the inner workings of the film industry in Korea, the executive was certain that the scripts would be leaked if the judges had seen the original.

When he saw Kwon So-Hyun today, Choi Min-Hwan felt he had done the right thing by heeding his executive’s advice.

“This…”

Out of the three scripts, the judges started off by reading script number one; each and every one of them made either sounds of admiration or groans of disappointment.

“It’s shockingly in line with Chae Woo-Jin’s acting, right?”

“Could it have been leaked by any chance?” Kwon So-Hyun, of all people, was the first to suspect that the scripts had been leaked, so Choi Min-Hwan laughed.

“If you’re doubtful, you can look into it. Including myself, there are only three people in Korea who have read the original scripts, so it’ll be easy to investigate. Actually, while we’re doing that, why don’t we investigate if anyone else has leaked the other scripts for this audition?”

After hearing Choi Min-Hwan’s words, the other three judges looked at Kwon So-Hyun in unison; they had been secretly suspicious of her too.

Kwon So-Hyun disregarded the gazes that were focused on her; she feigned generosity by saying she had faith in Choi Min-Hwan, and took a step back.

“Lloyd’s urge of murdering his adoptive mother when he laid eyes on her was not driven by a twisted love and hate that stemmed from being abandoned.”

Instead, Lloyd understood the rationale behind her decision because he was smart enough to comprehend it, or perhaps he was old enough to understand how the world worked. Lloyd wasn’t a lunatic who craved unconditional love. Similarly, he wasn’t a crazy killer right from the start either.

“There’s a line in the original novel that goes something like ‘I understand her, but the guilt she feels is nauseating. The more apologetic she feels, the more we become sinners’.”

Some people had interpreted this as Lloyd’s love and hatred towards his adoptive mother. But to be precise, rather than being angry, he was more caught up in the fact that his pride was hurt. He hated how she always treated the weak and how she looked at people who were pitiful.

His adoptive mother also had the arrogant mindset that they had become even more miserable because she left them, and Lloyd found that absurd. Thus, Lloyd wanted to gain the upper hand over her. More importantly, she wasn’t even happy. How dare she have the audacity to pity others when she herself was unhappy?

How can you be smiling like that?

There was desperation in Park Min’s voice, which was mixed with love and hatred, when he recited this line. On the other hand, Woo-Jin said it in a mocking tone. That was circumstantial evidence pointing to the fact that Chae Woo-Jin had a better understanding of Lloyd’s psychology.

His adoptive mother made Lloyd realize that they weren’t miserable because she abandoned them, they had a hard time because there were so many people like her. Lloyd hoped that by getting rid of people like her one by one, only people who were upright would remain.

Hence, Lloyd did everything in his power to plan his first murder. Using his artist’s instincts, he treated his adoptive mother as a model, and worked on capturing the happy life she wanted in the painting. He accepted his mother’s lecture about becoming a good child, and made her happy. It was an act of anger and spite –– it had never been an act of affection.

In Lloyd’s eyes, his adoptive mother was an enemy that isolated him from the world, and she was nothing more than a hindrance.

“I thought Chae Woo-Jin had a new interpretation, but in reality, it seems like he fully understood the original story.”

“Exactly. Frankly, I gave Chae Woo-Jin a high score because he acted in a way that was completely different from the other actors. After seeing similar performances for three days, it was new and refreshing.”

“Indeed, all of the other actors either portrayed a scary killer, or they portrayed a pitiful person while looking pretty.”

“Even so, they were all inspired by someone else’s acting. They were a far cry from the original to the point it was embarrassing for us to watch, isn’t it?”

The other judges either agreed with Choi Min-Hwan’s words or just smiled. Most of the actors they had seen auditioning over the last three days had mimicked Chae Woo-Jin’s killer character from the drama that was aired not too long ago. An interesting thing to note was that even the actors from other countries were not very different.

Even though Do-Ya and Park Min tried their best to do something new, they couldn’t escape from the clutches of Chae Woo-Jin’s influence. Regardless of how many times they had seen the video clips of Chae Woo-Jin’s acting, they subconsciously thought about mimicking his eyebrows and lips.

Ultimately, they had no choice but to give them a low score. This was why Chae Woo-Jin had the highest score even though Kwon So-Hyun and Park Han-Young gave him low scores. Despite their inability to comprehend Chae Woo-Jin’s version of Lloyd, the fact that the acting that he displayed was perfect aided their decision.

The judges thought that Chae Woo-Jin had a different interpretation of Lloyd because he couldn’t possibly recreate the same killer character that he was already famous for during his audition. However, judging from the contents of the original script, his interpretation and directing skills were perfect.

“Isn’t it too predictable if we pick Chae Woo-Jin! Why are we holding auditions if there are no new challenges? And what kind of actor follows the script? Doesn’t Park Min’s new interpretation of the script reveal his years of experience as a veteran actor?”

“Are you contradicting what you said earlier?”

When it was pointed out that she had clearly said she was against giving Chae Woo-Jin the highest score because his acting wasn’t true to the original novel, Kwon So-Hyun acted like she didn’t hear it and said something else.

“Taking Park Min’s contributions to the Korean entertainment industry into consideration, I think he’s entitled to bonus points.”

“Anybody who hears this would think Park Min is an old man. We’re not picking the winner for an achievement award. How can you say that at an official audition that is conducted by a company? Are you evaluating actors just for show? This is a simple matter of giving the first place to the actor with the highest score.”

“How can you decide based on the score alone when it comes to acting! We need to cultivate a young promising actor with a bright future like Do-Ya in order to develop Korea’s cultural enterprise!”

Ultimately, their arguments went back to square one. It was pointless to show them the scripts containing the stage directions, and it was also pointless to suggest selecting the actor based on their scores.

“In that case, let’s call the three of them here again and have another round of auditions.”

Kwon So-Hyun and Park Han-Young smiled rigidly after hearing Choi Min-Hwan’s suggestion. Meanwhile, the other judges didn’t even bother holding back the smirk on their faces.

Would Do-Ya and Park Min outperform Chae Woo-Jin the second time? Regardless of how much one thought about it, the answer was ‘no’.

“Let’s reschedule it then…”

“No. We can just summon them right here, right now. I told them to keep their schedules open this afternoon just in case. In other words, if need be, they have time to go through an additional screening process.”

Choi Min-Hwan didn’t expect something like this to happen, but in the event there was a difference in opinions, an additional screening would be required. Thus, he made preparations for it just in case.

“And I’m sorry for saying this, but I hope nobody will use their phone or leave this place before the three of them get here. Even though I trust all of you, wouldn’t it be good for us to not create any unnecessary misunderstandings?”

Choi Min-Hwan looked at the judges while holding up the scripts. It wouldn’t require much time for any of them to relay the stage directions and footnotes in the original scripts. If someone were to do that under the pretext of using the bathroom, it would be difficult to make a fair judgment.

“I agree. We shouldn’t have any misunderstandings among us. Let’s all wait for the actors to get here.”

“I like the idea of a do-over. Frankly, I regret giving Chae Woo-Jin such a low score, so I’m glad we’re doing this again.”

“Ah! Now that I think about it, I feel the same way. Should I give him a perfect score this time around, like some people?”

Kwon So-Hyun and Park Han-Young flinched after hearing the other judges’ words that had underlying meanings, and they realized a do-over wasn’t such a good idea. The three judges had already made up their minds, and it was doubtful that they would give Do-Ya and Park Min a better score than they did the first time around.

Even Kwon So-Hyun and Park Han-Young themselves were planning to give Chae Woo-Jin a lower score this time around, so there was no telling that those judges wouldn’t do the same to Do-Ya and Park Min. If that were to happen, Do-Ya and Park Min would be more than one or two points behind Chae Woo-Jin. In other words, not only would they not get first place –– they could lose everything.

Kwon So-Hyun and Park Han-Young were now standing at the crossroads between keeping the current score and having a do-over. From other people’s point of view, it was not a big deal, but to the two of them, it was as though they had to make the greatest decision in the world.

It was so pathetic, but the other three judges couldn’t mock them, so they feigned ignorance in unison, as though they had agreed to do that beforehand.

Choi Min-Hwan sighed and ended up facepalming. If it were possible, he wanted to turn back time to the day before he picked those two judges.