Of course, as naturally as those lies came to the model, it’s no surprise that they whiz right past Kawano. She doesn’t detect any insincerity in those words at all, so the logic tracks, and she can’t recognize any of the scheming that lay underneath the surface. Instead, she seems…flustered? Maybe that’s not entirely correct, but it’s close. She’s embarrassed to be lavished with such direct praise. The words of critics, magazine columnists…those didn’t really fire her up anymore. Film critics, in fact, were some of the worst people she had ever had the displeasure of interacting with. She didn’t really care about their praise, no matter how abundant it was. The idea of her films resonating with an actual, human audience, though? That’s what mattered.
Sure, Junko Enoshima wasn’t exactly what you would call commonfolk. She was just as prestigious and popular as any film critic – if not much more, but she still felt as though she were…down to Earth, by Kawano’s estimation. She felt more like an actual person with an internality that she could appreciate, and whose words were straightforward enough not to seem like simple flattery. Perhaps that, combined with the admission that she’d watched Kawano’s work so many times, is a good explanation for why she felt so presently sheepish.
“Ah– t-thank you. I…wouldn’t have imagined it would be that captivating, but…” She trails off, her fingers twiddling idly in her lap as she tried to politely maintain eye contact. There was a certain…pressure to that, though. She wasn’t very good at it.
“It’s…challenging. When I film something I guess it’s like…I’m trying to have a conversation without words, right? I’m trying to…plant some kind of idea, or message to the person watching…but I can’t just sit down in front of the camera and spell it out, because that’d just be annoying…” She wasn’t the type to stand on a soapbox, after all.
“So…it’s always important to find ways to get what I want to say across. And pictures sometimes speak louder than a thousand words…so…” Yeah, she’s not maintaining that eye contact. “Agh– s-sorry, I don’t meant to ramble.”
Junko had listened very closely, she seemed genuinely interested in Kawano’s words. And she was, she didn’t start a conversation for nothing after all, she just needs to make sure Kawano doesn’t get the wrong idea or think that Junko wasn’t interested. A lot of people seem to think that Junko wouldn’t care for what they’re saying.
“No worries!” She waved her hand, “I’m the one who asked about it after all! So like, a conversation without words, yeah? That’s soo cool!! I never actually realized that much went into movie making!” She moved around excitedly, “So movies mean that much, like if you wanted to make all these people have the same or a certain idea you’d just make your movie like that? Or is it more complicated?” Junko seemed to talk with her hands a lot.
She tilted her head, “Actually…what was your favorite movie you’ve ever produced? We should totally meet up sometime and watch it together!!” She bounced in her seat, her formally made pigtails getting a little messy, “Of course, if you want to, I’m not like, the kind of person to pressure people into things, y'know? I hate creeps like that”
That was only a half lie from Junko, she did run into a lot of creeps from the industry like that. At the start she had to just accept it since she was a smaller star then, just starting out. But now she can basically just get them fired no problem, and thank god for that.
Junko shivered slightly, the cold of the outside finally catching up to her. With her wearing clothes that hardly suited the weather, she supposed she shouldn’t have been too surprised, especially considering they were slightly revealing.
