The Face Genius Actor

Episode 120

Jean-Drulot Meyère was a globally acclaimed designer.

There had been concerns about whether he could fill the void left by the previous chief designer, Virgil Abloh, who was such an exceptional figure.

But Jean-Drulot Meyère had accomplished everything splendidly.

Especially, while maintaining the high-end transformation of street fashion, which could be considered Virgil Abloh’s achievement,

His reinterpretation of Louis Vuitton classics was a great accomplishment.

Thanks to this, Louis Vuitton has recently been able to maintain its position as a special luxury brand that encompasses both youthful sensibility and luxurious image.

I also preferred Louis Vuitton among various luxury brands.

My fondness grew even more after my brother became a model for Louis Vuitton.

However, regardless of this fondness, I never thought Jean-Drulot Meyère would come all the way to my accommodation.

Moreover, this was Saint-Étienne, about 450km away from Paris.

Given that Seoul to Busan is just under 400km, I could roughly guess how far it was.

For this reason, even after hearing that Jean-Drulot Meyère had arrived at the accommodation in Saint-Étienne, I found it hard to believe.

But with a call coming through the hotel phone,

I couldn’t help but believe it, and I hurriedly went down to the hotel lobby where Jean-Drulot Meyère was said to be waiting, along with Yeo Kyung-chan.

And there, we could easily spot Jean-Drulot Meyère.

Jean-Drulot Meyère also noticed me and started to greet.

“Bonjo…”

But he couldn’t finish his words.

Suddenly, he stood still on the spot and had a blank expression.

His expression was so blank that it seemed like drool might start dripping from his mouth at any moment.

After a while, Jean-Drulot Meyère snapped out of it and started speaking rapidly.

However, neither I nor Yeo Kyung-chan could understand everything he said.

It was all in French.

Yeo Kyung-chan looked at me and spoke.

“Should I call for an interpreter?”

“Yes, please do.”

Even after Yeo Kyung-chan left, Jean-Drulot Meyère kept talking to me.

He was pouring out words with an expression filled with happiness, joy, and delight, but I was at a loss.

Shortly after,

Only after the interpreter arrived could I properly converse with Jean-Drulot Meyère.

And the meaning of Jean-Drulot Meyère’s words, as confirmed through the interpreter’s mouth, was this:

“You’re so handsome! Incredibly handsome! How is this possible? It’s unbelievable! Amazing!”

* * *

As people in the hotel lobby started glancing at me and Jean-Drulot Meyère more frequently, we moved to a meeting room prepared within the hotel.

By then, Jean-Drulot Meyère seemed to have calmed his excitement.

As soon as we each took our seats, Jean-Drulot Meyère apologized.

“I’m sorry. I think I got too excited, Si-joon.”

I smiled and replied to Jean-Drulot Meyère’s words.

“It’s okay. I’m used to it.”

Understanding my joke, Jean-Drulot Meyère’s expression brightened.

“It’s certainly different from Si-hwan. Si-hwan’s first impression was so cold that it wasn’t easy to approach him.”

“My brother is a bit like that. But didn’t you become more comfortable as you got closer?”

“Yes. Now he’s become my closest colleague. It’s a shame he left Paris suddenly to challenge acting, but we keep in touch often. I also heard from Si-hwan that you were coming to Saint-Étienne this time.”

It seemed that my brother and Jean-Drulot Meyère happened to talk about me during a phone call.

Certainly, if not for my brother, there would have been no one to inform Jean-Drulot Meyère that I was in Saint-Étienne.

My brother had also mentioned to me in advance that Jean-Drulot Meyère would be arriving.

“By the way, my brother did say that Jean-Drulot Meyère would be coming here. But I didn’t hear the reason. Did you really come all the way to Saint-Étienne because of me?”

Jean-Drulot Meyère pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Let’s say I stopped by Saint-Étienne for a vacation for now. If you reject my proposal, I’ll think of it that way too.”

“Proposal?”

“Yes. Actually, the model for Louis Vuitton’s lookbook this season suddenly dropped out. So I came all the way here to ask you to be the model.”

From what I heard, it seemed Jean-Drulot Meyère had flown from Paris to Saint-Étienne.

In fact, I couldn’t help but think that way.

It was hard to imagine that someone as busy as Jean-Drulot Meyère would have used any other mode of transportation.

However, it was still surprising that he had come all the way to Saint-Étienne to propose a lookbook modeling job.

Above all, Jean-Drulot Meyère and I had never met before.

“A modeling proposal… That’s very kind of you. But did you really come all this way just for that?”

Then Jean-Drulot Meyère scratched his head and laughed as if embarrassed.

“Haha… I tend to come up with ideas and act on them impulsively.

I called Si-hwan to ask if he could come to Paris for just one day to do the lookbook modeling.

Then the conversation turned to you, and I remembered your face that I had seen in photos before, and before I knew it, I couldn’t help myself and suddenly stood up, and here I was in Saint-Étienne.”

“Ah.”

I could roughly understand what kind of person Jean-Drulot Meyère was.

Putting it nicely, he was a person of action; putting it negatively, he was reckless.

The fact that he flew to Saint-Étienne without any certainty that I would accept his proposal was enough to understand this.

‘If it were me, I would have just gotten the contact information and made a phone call…’

In fact, this would have been the more sensible action.

For this reason, I couldn’t help but ask about this point as well.

Jean-Drulot Meyère said he only realized he could have done that after arriving at Saint-Étienne-Bouthéon Airport.

“…I see.”

“Haha… Yes. It might be a bit hard to understand, but could you think of it as how much I wanted to have you as a model?”

“Yes, I’ll think of it that way. However, since I’ve already scheduled my activities here for 3 days, it’s difficult for me to give you a definite answer about participating as a Louis Vuitton model.”

“…Is that so?”

“If I discuss with my agency and adjust my schedule, I think I could make time, but if the photo shoot date is tight, that could also be a problem.”

Becoming a model for Louis Vuitton was certainly a meaningful opportunity.

It would clearly help my career as well.

However, I came here for the opening stage greeting of “I’m Not a Villain”.

And starting tomorrow, I was scheduled to do stage greetings twice a day, four times in total.

I didn’t want to participate as a Louis Vuitton model to the extent of canceling this schedule.

For me, greeting the audience who came to the theater to watch the movie was more important, even if the numbers weren’t large.

I explained this, and Jean-Drulot Meyère nodded.

“Of course. I don’t want to bring you in as a Louis Vuitton model at the expense of ruining your schedule. And coincidentally, this lookbook work is scheduled to take place over a week.”

This meant that it would be fine for me to participate as a Louis Vuitton model after completing all my schedules related to “I’m Not a Villain”.

“Then it seems the schedule can be matched without much difficulty. I’ll discuss it with my agency and get back to you.”

* * *

So, I fulfilled my stage greeting schedule for “I’m Not a Villain” for two days.

As expected, there weren’t many audience members.

On the first day, barely a third of the seats were filled.

This was the same for both the 3 PM and 6 PM screenings of “I’m Not a Villain” at the Saint-Étienne theater.

But I tried to express my gratitude to the audience who came to the theater, and Director Choi Seo-young did the same.

In fact, Director Choi was happy that a third of the seats were filled, which made sense.

Usually, even filling this many seats was difficult for independent films released domestically.

Also, one encouraging thing was that the audience who saw the film were quite satisfied.

We conducted all four stage greetings after the screenings to communicate leisurely with the audience, and their expressions were generally bright.

It was also very encouraging that not a single audience member left their seat and watched our stage greeting.

Perhaps because of this,

On the second day of release, half of the seats were filled, and we were able to finish the stage greeting schedule with more joy.

“I should go back to Korea now. Thank you for participating in the stage greeting schedule, actor.”

Director Choi Seo-young said goodbye at Saint-Étienne-Bouthéon Airport.

That’s right.

After discussion with Festa Entertainment, I decided to become Louis Vuitton’s lookbook model for this season.

From my and Festa Entertainment’s standpoint, there was no reason to refuse this offer.

Louis Vuitton even agreed to cover all expenses incurred for this model participation.

It wasn’t that Festa Entertainment was in such financial difficulty that they couldn’t cover the hotel costs in Paris and the additional airfare.

But there was no reason to refuse when Louis Vuitton offered to bear these costs.

For this reason, I had to say goodbye to Director Choi Seo-young at this point.

From Director Choi’s perspective, there was no reason to stay in Saint-Étienne.

“You’ve worked hard too, Director. Let’s meet again in Korea.”

After sending Director Choi back to Korea first, I moved towards Jean-Drulot Meyère.

Jean-Drulot Meyère, saying he wanted to see the movie I had made, stayed one more day in Saint-Étienne and watched “I’m Not a Villain” for two consecutive days.

He had watched “I’m Not a Villain” more than 4 times in total.

As a result, he naturally accompanied me on the journey to Paris.

“Si-joon! Over here!”

After watching “I’m Not a Villain”, Jean-Drulot Meyère was showing more friendliness towards me than before.

At first, I didn’t understand why Jean-Drulot Meyère was acting this way.

But on the first night of the stage greeting, while sharing some wine, I learned the reason.

“Have you ever heard from Si-hwan? That I’m a huge movie buff?”

“Ah. Is that so? I didn’t know. Don’t tell me… Is that why?”

“Yes, that’s right. That’s why when I heard about the release of your movie, I decided to stay one more day in Saint-Étienne. I was curious about what kind of movie ‘I’m Not a Villain’ was.”

“So, how was it?”

“It was interesting and at the same time, I thought it was unique. It didn’t have any similarities with any art films I’ve seen before. And after watching the movie, I thought, ‘Ah, I’ll be here tomorrow too.'”

“That’s high praise. Thank you.”

“No, this isn’t even high praise. In fact, I think ‘I’m Not a Villain’ will do even better than this. Just wait and see. It will definitely happen. And Si-joon.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s be close friends from now on.”

Jean-Drulot Meyère said this while playfully clinking his wine glass against mine.

And since that day, Jean-Drulot Meyère has indeed been showing friendliness towards me without hesitation.

For me, it wasn’t a bad thing to get to know the chief designer of Louis Vuitton.

‘Considering the lookbook shoot starting tomorrow, it might be a good thing?’

By the way, I was excited.

What would unfold in Paris tomorrow.