Hell's Actor-Chapter 111: Lady Ethereal

"I am back!" Hyerin cheerfully announced as she stepped through the threshold of her apartment.

Averie ran towards her, arms wide open in an effort to embrace.

"My dearest!" he yelled.

"My friend!" Hyerin responded, joyed and red-faced.

"How beautiful you are!"

"You too!"

"Come here!"

Hyerin opened her arms wide. But her seemingly overjoyed friend ignored her, snatched the envelope from her hand, and shoved her aside.

"My dearest script!" He embraced the envelope. "How I have waited for you, my darling! My beautiful!"

Min-Ha consoled the pouting Hyerin. "Thank you for printing it out."

"What’s the point? He plays me for a fool."

"Hey, hey, hey," Min-Ha said in a soothing tone, rubbing her back. "You are a fool."

"You too, Min-Ha?" She dejectedly tottered towards her bed and slumped down on it. "Yes, I am a fool for letting him stay with me for so long."

"Find me a place to stay, then!" Averie yelled from the kitchen counter. "You think I like living here? Everywhere I look, there’s flowery underwear. Wear purple for once, you heretic!"

"What are you on about? I take care not to keep stuff like that lying around!"

"You don’t wear purple, and I know it! Old DVDs and purple underwear, that’s what you are going to get for your birthday!"

"Fine!" Hyerin yelled. "I will just make a post about it online. ’Look what Averie gifted me,’ I’ll say!"

"Be my guest!" Averie laughed, rubbing the envelope against his cheek. "My fans won’t get weirded out; they will only get jealous, nothing else!"

Hyerin glared at him before sighing and returning to her usual tranquillity.

"He who debates with a fool is a fool himself," she muttered, melting into the warmth of the sheets.

Hugging a pillow, she looked up at her friend.

"So, what did the director say on the phone? You didn’t even let me hear anything before you sent me out."

"Hey, hey, hey," Min-Ha whispered in her ear. "He kicked you out."

Averie prepared a cup of milk. "It’s an arthouse film."

Arthouse films or art films were productions that were created with a purpose entirely different from commercial films.

The primary objective of these films was to create art, unlike commercial films, which were there to entertain.

"It will compete in the Serenes Film Festival," he continued, "so it can’t be screened anywhere before that."

He added a large piece of black chocolate and sugar to the milk. He stirred it well—with a fork, for some reason.

"The production house is big enough, but they don’t even rank in the top ten in France."

"Not atypical for art films."

"Considering the festival is next year, it actually is. Jean-Louis Groux isn’t a small-time director. He may not be the absolute best, but he is genuinely considered a great director."

"I don’t get it. Is there a problem?"

"From all over the world, filmmakers gather to compete in this festival. The mainstream film audience may not care about it as much, but this is a significant event. And production houses understand that."

He had a sip of the chocolate milk. It was extremely bitter.

"It only takes place every four years, so they do pour money and effort into it. It brings prestige, after all. Now think about it: not a single one of the major studios talked with him?"

He added a spoonful of salt to the cup.

"He considers it his best work up to date. I think he must have held meetings with the big seven production companies, and they rejected the proposition. These houses will be Director Groux’s direct competitors."

He sipped the coffee again. It tasted far worse than before.

He added another spoonful of salt.

"He is going into pre-production in a month. It will take a few months before they can enter production. If we choose to accept the role, we will have a lot of time before that."

"What do you think?" Hyerin asked.

"Think about it for a second. Why would he choose a young foreigner new to the industry instead of the actors he has more trust in, the ones he has worked with before?"

"He may not like them."

He sipped the coffee again. It tasted even worse than before.

He added another spoonful of salt.

"Not unlikely. But even then, why choose me? I don’t even have any experience in films."

’Feels dirty saying that.’

"He did say he was having a hard time looking for an actress," Averie continued. "He said something about changing the script according to his new vision if I was going to be a part of it. I think that’s what took him so long to send the script. But there must be something more."

Averie took the papers out of the envelope.

There was a synopsis and a script.

Lady Ethereal.

’That’s a nice little title,’ he thought.

He rolled Hyerin to the side, jumped on the bed, and began reading.

The story mainly revolved around a woman who looked to be in her youth.

’Not much is mentioned about her.’

The plot was barebones compared to something like BSPH, but that was never the central attraction of this work.

The more Averie read, the more he was pulled into the world. He understood why the big productions were denying the good director.

’How can one touch someone’s heart so profoundly? What actress could possibly play this role?’

It required a young actress, but Averie knew they couldn’t possibly find someone who could do it.

’Are you going to put extra makeup on an old actress?’

The story wasn’t exciting, nor was it thought-provoking. It was supposed to be simple.

’Atmosphere, that’s what this maniac of a director is relying on. He wants to sweep the audience away with the atmosphere so much that they would forget how little complexity the plot really has.’

Averie would have scoffed any other day, but today, he could not.

’It has so little dialogue.’

His heart was beating loudly, and a smile was creeping up his face.

’So, what role am I supposed to play? The brooding man, perhaps?’

Suddenly, Hyerin’s phone rang.

"Drown them... with the blood of our children, yaaaaaaah!"

It was a metal song. Averie had set it without her knowledge.

She quickly picked it up.

Once the call ended, she looked at Averie, tears in her eyes.

"You received an invitation for the Golden Lotus Awards." She sniffled, wiping away her tears. "I am so proud of you. To think my friend—"

"Yeah, shut up. I’m not going." freeweɓnovel-cøm

"Qué?"

Hyerin was so shocked that she mixed up her languages.

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