“So, I told you to be gentle…”
Hye-won sighed as she looked at her daughter, whose face had turned grim.
The movie she was going to be in, Hereheart.
Hye-won was cast as the lead female role, Hee-jeong.
By coincidence, Chae-young also passed the child actor audition and was about to play a role alongside her mother.
However, due to Chae-young’s injury, the child role was replaced.
The original casting had been secured purely through Chae-young’s talent, without Hye-won’s influence.
It was a disappointing situation in many ways.
“Ughhhhh! Seriously! Director Bong Jun-young’s film…!”
“It’s okay. You’ve still been recognized for your talent. You’ll get a good role next time.”
Being chosen as a child actor by Director Bong Jun-young definitely proved her talent.
Chae-young’s qualities as an actress were confirmed.
This time, it was disappointing, but there was nothing to be done about it.
Still, Chae-young couldn’t shake her disappointment.
“Uheeeeeee.”
Hye-won looked at her daughter sympathetically.
She knew how much preparation Chae-young had put into this movie.
‘Should I tell her that Siyeon took the role?’
Instead of Chae-young, the child role of Hee-jeong was taken by none other than Siyeon.
Although they wouldn’t meet on set, Hye-won had heard the news.
Now, Hye-won was debating whether to tell Chae-young about it.
Normally, Chae-young might think it’s fortunate that a friend got the role, but…
Given Chae-young’s personality, there was also the risk of her getting upset or causing a rift in their friendship.
‘I’ll wait a bit. Once Chae-young calms down, I’ll tell her.’
There’s still time before the movie is released.
If Chae-young’s feelings settle down in the meantime, then she can tell her.
Somehow, she felt that if she told her now, Chae-young might take her frustration out on Siyeon.
Hye-won knew her daughter well.
‘By the way, they say Siyeon’s action scenes are quite something. I wonder if I need to practice more.’
Hye-won was now an experienced veteran actress.
She had naturally done countless action scenes herself.
She maintained steady practice, so she believed she could perform Hee-jeong’s role in Hereheart well.
But honestly, she didn’t have the same confidence as Siyeon when it came to action.
She had seen Siyeon move before.
After all, she was the kind of child who jumped off a building at age 7.
‘I need to be prepared.’
After a long time without doing a project, Siyeon was adding a level of tension that Hye-won hadn’t felt in a while.
“Heugh… Hah… Si, Siyeon! Please go easy! It hurts so much.”
“Go easier than this? Should I just not hit you at all?”
The stuntman, Jong-hoon.
He was in his 10th year as a stuntman, and he was now facing an opponent he had never met before.
Usually, actors’ action scenes aren’t as strong as those of professional stuntmen.
So, the stuntmen adjust the action to match the actors.
But this time, it was different.
“Yes, yes. I think it’s better if I just pretend to hit without actually doing it…”
“But the director told me to make it as realistic as possible.”
“True, but…”
Jong-hoon felt like crying.
The child actor in front of him—wait, was this really a child actor?
Siyeon Kim, the 14-year-old playing the child role of Hee-jeong in Hereheart.
Her action scenes… no, her movement itself made no sense.
Given the rough background of the story, there were supposed to be intense action scenes.
Naturally, to make the acting as realistic as possible, there were scenes where the actors would have to actually hit each other.
Usually, in such scenes, it’s better to actually hit than to fake it.
So, Siyeon had been trying to hit Jong-hoon realistically.
‘…It hurts so much!’
Why did a 14-year-old girl’s hands feel this painful?
No, it wasn’t just painful, the first time she hit him, he even got a bruise.
When he did action scenes with other actresses, even if they hit him, he didn’t feel the pain.
No matter what, after 10 years as a stuntman, a female actor’s strikes wouldn’t hurt him.
But this child—
He had already asked her to go easy seven times, but it still hurt.
The scariest part was that the pain had lessened. She was controlling her strength.
But it still hurt this much.
He was genuinely curious about how her fists were made.
Before long, Jong-hoon forgot that Siyeon was only 14 years old and started addressing her as “Siyeon-nim,” using the most respectful honorifics.
“Jong-hoon! Are you okay?”
“Yes! I’m fine!”
“Then, we’ll start filming! Action!”
The filming resumed.
In the end, it was agreed that they would hit as lightly as possible.
Still, since this was the last scene Jong-hoon was in, he thought to just endure it this time.
“…Move. I need to meet that guy.”
“Are you planning to die?”
Siyeon and another male actor had a conversation in front of Jong-hoon.
Siyeon was on her way to meet Seok-woo, the second-in-command of the organization.
Jong-hoon played the role of a gatekeeper, blocking Siyeon as she rushed in, defeating other members of the organization.
‘The spot where I was hit earlier still hurts.’
Jong-hoon and Siyeon’s action scene lasted for over a minute.
Once Jong-hoon was defeated, Seok-woo would appear, so the focus was on the fight with the gatekeeper.
Jong-hoon waited for Siyeon, who was defeating the stuntmen in front of her, to approach.
“Ughhh!”
“Ahhh! Ack! Argh!”
The members of the organization who get defeated by Hee-jeong in the film.
The screams of the stuntmen who played those roles sounded so real.
Jong-hoon knew that they were real.
Every time there was a thud, the stuntmen’s screams were not acting—they were genuine.
‘…Here she comes!’
Finally, Siyeon approached Jong-hoon.
There was venom in Siyeon’s gaze.
She was determined to defeat these guys and take the second-in-command position in the organization.
This scene marked Siyeon’s rise in the organization, and after becoming an adult, time passed.
In other words, this was Siyeon’s last scene.
“AAAAAHHHHH!”
Hee-jeong charged forward, screaming.
In her scream, the pain she endured to get this far from the slums was contained.
The punch of Hee-jeong, filled with intense emotion.
But it was aimed precisely at Jong-hoon’s vital spot.
Wham—
Jong-hoon lightly deflected Hee-jeong’s punch.
‘No, that hurt like hell!’
In reality, it was not light at all.
It was just one hit, but his palm stung.
He couldn’t understand how such a small child had bones this hard.
No, maybe it was her muscles. What kind of training had she done? With that strength, she could probably break rocks with her hands.
Of course, it was possible.
Wham— Crack—
Their punches came at each other at an almost invisible speed.
It was a near acrobatic level of attack, but both of them received the hits accurately.
It seemed like wild swings, but every strike was the result of thorough practice.
And after the agreed-upon action, Siyeon’s final blow.
“Move!!”
Boom—
Siyeon stomped the ground forcefully.
With that, the set shook slightly.
At the same time, she delivered a punch with all her might aimed at Jong-hoon’s abdomen.
Whooooosh—
“Kuuhhh—”
Jong-hoon crashed into the wall, flying through it.
His eyes were rolled back, and foam was coming from his mouth.
It wasn’t acting; he had truly lost consciousness.
‘…I accidentally didn’t control my strength in the final attack.’
Due to getting too immersed, I forgot to ease up at the end.
Jong-hoon, who took the full force of Siyeon’s punch to his solar plexus, winced from beyond the wall.
It couldn’t be helped. First, the scene had to be finished.
And Siyeon continued her acting.
“…Uhm, was it agreed upon to break the wall and fly?”
“…No. That wasn’t part of it. We’ll have to fix the set.”
In one corner of the filming set,
Hye-won and Gil Dae-soo were having a quiet conversation while watching Siyeon’s performance.
Originally, it wasn’t Hye-won’s filming day yet.
However, Hye-won stopped by the set to watch Siyeon’s acting and show her support.
“…She must have done it on purpose, right? To save production costs.”
“That seems likely. The wall breaking wasn’t in the script.”
The wall breaking that happened when Jong-hoon was sent flying wasn’t supposed to happen.
According to the original script, Jong-hoon was supposed to get hit by Siyeon’s final strike, stagger, and fall.
Director Bong Jun-young was aware that it was much more violent than what was written in the script.
However, since Siyeon’s flow was so good, they decided to proceed with it.
The action was so good that it seemed like they could just use the scene with Jong-hoon flying.
Of course, no one had noticed that Jong-hoon had actually lost consciousness.
The immersion in Siyeon’s acting was that intense.
“So, do you think it’s okay? She’ll need to show even more action than that.”
Gil Dae-soo asked Hye-won.
Hye-won hesitated to respond.
Her head was still buzzing from Siyeon’s performance.
Even the stuntmen couldn’t keep up, so it was impossible for Hye-won to follow.
“…Honestly, I don’t think I can.”
“Right. But that was her holding back. Originally, she was going to seriously hurt someone.”
“What should we do?”
“We just have to do our best. Looks like the director wants to keep going as planned. No need to ruin such a great scene.”
Hye-won was really worried about her own filming.
Bong Jun-young’s expression while watching Siyeon was pure ecstasy.
If someone with such skill could captivate him like that,
then if the quality didn’t meet that level in future scenes, he would definitely be dissatisfied.
Bong Jun-young was known to be kind-hearted, but when it came to his work, he was uncompromising.
Hye-won felt like she could already see her future.
And just as Hye-won expected, shortly after—
“Cut! Cut! Cut! CUUUUT!”
During Hye-won’s filming, Bong Jun-young gave the cut sign with a completely different expression from when he saw Siyeon, now furious.
“Hye-won! How many times is this now?!”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“Didn’t you see Siyeon’s footage?! Why! Is this all you can do?”
Naturally, Hye-won couldn’t follow Siyeon’s action at all.
As a veteran actress, Hye-won was feeling the frustration she hadn’t felt since her rookie days.
She wanted to cry.