Become a Star

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. The safety equipment is perfect. Even if he does fall, we have prepared an inflatable crash mat that’s filled with lots of air as an extra precaution.”

Kang Ho-Soo was left speechless after hearing what Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk had said. He clutched the back of his neck as he picked his next words carefully. Otherwise, he could not guarantee what kind of curses or swear words would come spewing out of his mouth.

“Um, PD, this is the 13th floor.”

“Who doesn’t know that?”

“Who actually shoots scenes where the actors jump from building to building in real life for a drama? It’s not even a movie. What is the point of the green screen then?” Kang Ho-Soo proceeded to demand that if Park Jong-Hyuk did not like the idea of using a green screen, he should hire a stunt double.

“Are you downplaying dramas?”

“Who cares about that! If something happens to Chae Woo-Jin during the shoot, are you going to take responsibility for it?!” summarized Kang Ho-Soo.

According to the storyline, Woo-Jin had to film an escape scene after Louie had successfully completed a mission by jumping from building to building. Naturally, Kang Ho-Soo had assumed that the scene would be shot with a green screen as the backdrop, and edited with CGI thereafter. However, that was not the case.

When Kang Ho-Soo asked the production director if they would be using a stunt double, the latter had said no once again. Needless to say, Woo-Jin’s manager, Kang Ho-Soo, kicked up a huge fuss when he had heard that Woo-Jin would be doing all the stunts personally, relying solely on wires and safety equipment. He had immediately contacted the agency and their legal team should be on their way now. Until their arrival, Kang Ho-Soo was determined to prevent the shooting from commencing.

“It’s doable for me though.”

"See! Even Woo-Jin says it's doa... Hey!” Kang Ho-Soo was so flabbergasted that he yelled at Woo-Jin, which was unlike him. Kang Ho-Soo looked at Woo-Jin with a pressurizing gaze, as though Woo-Jin had betrayed him. But Woo-Jin was unaffected as he merely looked calm and composed.

Woo-Jin did not have a fear of heights, and it seemed unlikely that an accident would happen with the safety equipment that had been set up. Even if he were to fall, the thick inflatable crash mat would cushion his fall, so it was not an issue. In fact, he had even thought that it would be fun to fall on it. He had been trained to jump this distance several times before at the stunt school. The only difference was the height, but it was not that big of a deal to Woo-Jin.

“Look! Even actor Chae says it’s okay! I’m telling you, it’s safe! ”

“That’s because Actor Chae is still a rookie and there are a lot of things he doesn’t know yet because he’s young. Has there been a Korean drama where the actor had to personally jump from one building to another on the 13th floor?”

“If there isn't, I can be the first to do it.” Woo-Jin interrupted with a smile, while totally disregarding the atmosphere. As soon as Kang Ho-Soo heard that, he practically beat his chest and yelled. He didn’t even realize that he was speaking to Woo-Jin without honorifics. “Woo-Jin, you stay out of it!”

“You people are giving Actor Chae a hard time right now. You think he's a young and inexperienced rookie?”

A strange alliance had somehow been formed. “Since we’ve already prepared everything, we should start shooting soon. We have to shoot it while it’s still dark. If we keep delaying, the sun is going to rise.” Woo-Jin tried to persuade the staff around him, saying that they would have woken up for nothing if they did not start shooting soon.

“Shall we?”

“Woo~ Jin~!” The excited production director glanced at Kang Ho-Soo and snorted as he gave instructions to the crew. They had prepared five cameras on standby to shoot this one scene. They had been preparing for it over the course of quite a number of days. Naturally, they had also finished discussing this matter with Woo-Jin.

Production Director Park did not recklessly press him to do such a dangerous shoot. He had first proposed it to Woo-Jin, and if Woo-Jin rejected the idea, he would have hired a stunt double. However, Woo-jin himself was opposed to the idea of hiring a stunt double. Woo-Jin looked at it from the viewers’ point of view and felt that there was nothing as insincere and tasteless as using a stunt double for the action scenes. It would be obvious that they were different people, and insisting that the stunt double was the actual actor is ridiculous and would have killed the suspense in the scene.

More importantly, Woo-Jin did not feel the need to use a stunt double because he felt that he could do it. He also knew that life was precious, so if it was an impossible task, he would have firmly rejected them from the get go.

After double and triple checking the safety equipment attached to his body, Woo-Jin went up the rooftop railings. It was a scene that made the viewers petrified, but the person doing it seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself as he smiled calmly. There was a camera that was dedicated to shooting the behind-the-scenes video; the camera crew had used it to capture every single one of Woo-Jin’s movements and facial expressions.

“Wow~! It’s a lot more terrifying than I expected.” Woo-Jin lowered his head and looked down at the bird’s eye view that was beyond his imagination and whistled.

“Right? So just give up and come down, okay?” Kang Ho-Soo, who had not given up on talking Woo-Jin out of it, tried to persuade Woo-Jin as he shook his leg nervously – an action that did not match his appearance and stature.

“Don’t block the camera and step aside!” However, Production Director Park treated him harshly and kicked him out of the viewfinder.

The stunt choreographer taught Woo-Jin the radius of action that was calculated based on the angle of the cameras, and reminded him multiple times to be careful. Chae Woo-Jin was the most relaxed and laid back person on set today, so the stunt director had been extra concerned about him.

Accidents normally happened when the person executing the stunt got distracted. Being too nervous would cause one’s body to atrophy, which would be bad, but being completely relaxed was not a good thing either.

“We have to rehearse a couple of times right?”

“Kang Ho-Soo is already kicking up such a huge fuss because you’re shooting it once, so forget about the rehearsal. Our studio actor will demonstrate it once so please watch carefully.”

Even if what they had shot turned out to be less than ideal, what was important was that the actors did the stunts personally. There was no need to overexert himself as any awkward parts could be edited using CGI.

“How can I learn well by watching others?”

Woo-Jin gave the wires full control over his body, and jumped a couple of times on the spot at the edge of the railing. Seeing Woo-Jin fly in the air, Kang Ho-Soo, who had been kicked to a corner of the rooftop, felt dizzy and lost strength in his legs.

“I’ve gotten used to the height to a certain extent, so I’ll try jumping after the demonstration,” said Woo-Jin to the production director.

“A… are you really going to be okay?” Even Production Director Park, who was known for putting actors through hell, had to hesitate. Originally, his job was to coax and browbeat the actors who wanted to chicken out of shooting the scene into getting everything done. However, Chae Woo-Jin was too proactive, so he was concerned. When Production Director Park had originally envisioned how things would unfold, he had never imagined a situation like this happening, so he became as meek as a sheep, as he tried to get a read on him.

“I’m really okay. When I was in the military, I jumped out of a helicopter without using wires and crash mats.”

“I’d suppose that height and this height would be different though.”

“The height is different, but the act of jumping is the same. I’ll get going now.” Woo-Jin jumped off the railing and moved towards the entrance of the rooftop. After checking on the camera that was following him, Woo-Jin started running vigorously. When he got close to the railing, he leaped lightly over it with the help of the springboard on the floor, and raised his right arm and stretched it in front of him.

During the editing process, they would edit this scene to make it seem like an iron ring had shot out of a device that was mounted on Louie’s arm, hooking itself onto the building on the other side. Woo-Jin tugged on the rope that had been connected in advance to check its tension. He then grabbed it and jumped off without hesitation.

He had heard some faint sobbing sounds behind him, as well as Kang Ho Soo’s heavy breathing. The latter was trying to hold back his screams. Immediately, a thin smile crept across Woo-Jin’s face. In the blink of an eye, Woo-Jin had flown to the building on the other side, and landed on the wall on both feet. He grabbed the rope and quickly climbed up to the roof.

Originally, the people at the top of the building were supposed to pull the rope and pull Woo-Jin up, but Woo-Jin had climbed up to the roof with his own strength without taking a break. While the staff was stunned by his actions, Woo-Jin climbed over the railing and waved to Production Director Park, who was standing on the other side.

“This is so much more fun than bungee jumping!” Of course, Woo-Jin had never bungee jumped before. However, after watching others do it and comparing it with his experience, there was barely any difference in height, and when it came to safety equipment, his current safety equipment was more secure.

Production Director Park was dumbfounded after hearing what Woo-Jin said through the microphone that was attached to his body. Production Director Park had an indescribable expression on his face. Even though he himself was well known for being crazy, he felt that Woo-Jin was even crazier than him.

The stunt which Woo-Jin had done earlier was perfect; it was not lacking in any aspect. Normally, there would be no need for additional takes. However, like what Woo-Jin said previously, he had treated this as a rehearsal. A smile could be seen on his face as he jumped from building to building, which was not a portrayal of his character Louie. Woo-Jin had also turned around and waved excitedly after landing on the opposite rooftop, thus ruining the footage and rendering it unusable.

He had to redo it because it was unsatisfactory, but Woo-Jin was actually very satisfied with himself. Woo-Jin did not have any equipment to jump back to the original building, so he had to go down via the elevator and go back up to the building. Despite the trouble of detaching and attaching the wires again, the production director could still hear Woo-Jin’s excitement over the microphone.

“Production Director, after jumping, I was wondering – instead of going up to the roof, wouldn’t it be more realistic to go down the wall of the building? I’m supposed to be fleeing by leaping over to the next building. If I go down the building from the roof via the stairs or elevator, I could get caught by the security guards waiting below. Instead of going up to the roof, wouldn’t rappelling down the walls be a foolproof method of escaping?”

Everybody knew that, but it was already difficult to jump from one building to another. Who would have the audacity to ask Woo-Jin to rappel down the wall? Regardless of how shameless and ruthless the production director was, he could not bring himself to do that.

“It makes sense, but it’s dangerous.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, I’m okay. After doing it once, I think it’s fun, and I’m confident that I can do it. Let’s try it out once, if it doesn’t turn out well, then we’ll stick to the original plan.”

When Woo-Jin said ‘I can always do it again’ from the bottom of his heart, Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk became flustered and came up with excuses.

“The sun will rise soon, it sucks that the shooting got delayed…but just do it in moderation. Don’t overexert yourself.” Park Jong-Hyuk lamented to himself that he had never stopped any actors from doing something like this before throughout his directing career. But ultimately, he accepted Woo-Jin’s suggestion. He had acknowledged the fact that if Woo-Jin were to successfully pull it off, it would paint a much more realistic scenario and create a better outcome.

The stunt choreographer taught Woo-Jin the movements once again, based on the new changes, and in the meantime, the placement of the cameras were also changed.

“Don’t mess around and jump seriously this time!”

“Yes, sir.” Woo-Jin, who was more excited than usual, introduced the new movements into the shooting without any hesitation. As soon as Woo-Jin became Louie, he started doing the rooftop fleeing scene seriously. After arriving on the roof and jumping over the railing, Louis jumped over to the next building without hesitation, and landed on the wall on both feet before tugging on the rope.

After checking that the rope was taut, he finally rappelled down the wall. Louie’s actions looked very natural and decisive as he was descending. Every time he kicked off from the wall, his actions looked seamless. If not for the wire rope hanging around his body, the scene would look absolutely perfect and phenomenal.

Woo-Jin, who had arrived at the inflatable crash mat safely, ascended the 2 meter wall once again to shoot the final landing scene. As soon as the air mats were removed, Woo-Jin landed beautifully with one knee on the ground. Right after they had heard ‘cut’ followed by the sound of the clapboard, the staff rushed over to Woo-Jin to remove the wires around him and checked his body for injuries.

“Are you injured anywhere?”

“Are there any sore or painful areas on your knee or ankle?”

“Is your chest okay? The wire vest puts a lot of pressure on it. Can you breathe properly?”

The staff who had worked with Park Jong-Hyuk long enough to be called the “Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk Team’, were equally flustered because this had never happened before. Because Production Director Park was awkward, the staff flocked to Woo-Jin in his place and started bombarding him with the questions, all while examining his physical condition.

“Excuse me, excuse me. Please let me through.” Kang Ho-Soo pushed the staff members aside one by one with his broad shoulders and huge stature, and approached Woo-Jin.

“Woo-Jin, are you okay?”

“My limbs and chest are fine. It is not painful.”

Woo-Jin swung his arms around and jumped on the spot a couple of times. Every single time he jumped, the people around him held their breath and felt nervous, but fortunately, the worst case scenario did not happen.

“Do you know how shocked I was? The legal team arrived at dawn and the CEO called and kicked up a big fuss as well.”

“I said I was fine, so everything’s fine. I know that my body is precious too, and I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t doable. I did it because it was within my means and it was great because it was fun. You worry too much, hyung.” Woo-Jin smiled pompously and pushed Kang Ho-Soo to one side, and told him not to get in the way of the shoot.

After removing the wire vest and all the ropes, Woo-Jin became Louie once again, with one knee on the ground. It was the following scene after he had jumped off the building.