Bad Guy is finally returning this week, and to whet your appetites, here’s a collection of mini-interviews with the cast. They were given two weeks ago on the drama’s open set day, June 14, at the filming location in Yongin.
We won’t yet know if the World Cup interrupted Bad Guy’s ratings run irreparably, but one glass-half-full way to take it is that it gave the production some extra time to film without pressure. Two weeks ago at the time of these interviews, the drama was filming episodes 7 and 8 (episodes 6 and 7 air this week).
Let’s start with series star Kim Nam-gil, portraying the titular bad guy:
Kim Nam-gil admitted that this has been his most difficult drama, acting-wise, which is probably because it’s his first leading drama role — he now has to regulate his performances to click with each cast member, and it’s a lot more work than stealing scenes in the supporting cast.
As a 29-year-old, Kim feels the age difference enough to comfortably call co-star Oh Yeon-soo, who plays Tae-ra, “noona.” On the other hand, he generally calls Han Ga-in by her name. (He’s 29, Oh is 38. Han is 28, Kim Jae-wook is 27, Jung So-min is 21.) Kim explained, “I’m a year older than Ga-in-sshi so sometimes I call her ‘Ga-in-ah,’ but most of the time it’s ‘Ga-in-sshi.’”
The reason is that while they’re of a similar age (which would allow them for friendly address), he usually calls married co-stars “sshi” because it’s a little more polite. (It adds a little bit more distance.) In Queen Seon-deok, he likewise called co-star Lee Yo-won “Yo-won-sshi.”
Kim also copped to being incredibly nervous when it was time for his kiss scene with Oh Yeon-soo in an upcoming episode; when the director gave the notice that they were going to shoot that scene, he had to calm himself down for five minutes. He was sweating, “But Yeon-soo noona took the lead and the shoot went fine.”
The kiss is reportedly pretty racy, and Kim said, “Actually, I thought it would be good if it were steamy. I wanted to give this married woman with a child and a family a dangerous fantasy, or even a vicarious sense of satisfaction.”
The Gun-wook character seems to have seeped into his mannerisms while off-duty, as he related the following story: “I watched the World Cup match quietly with my family at home, and when the first goal went in, the roar around me was like a battlefield. In the past, I would have shouted too, but this time I just clapped. When the second goal was scored, instead of getting all worked up, I had a calm demeanor. And I said quietly, in Gun-wook’s way of speaking, ‘We’ll be going to the Round of 16.’ [Laughs]”
Regarding ratings: “Ratings are given from heaven,” meaning it’s not something a person can do anything to achieve. He said of competitor Baker King Kim Tak-gu, “Sure I’d like for our ratings to be higher, but when I watched Baker King, personally I thought it was entertaining. I don’t think it’s right to belittle another drama just because it’s competition.”
Even though Kim said that he and Han Ga-in agreed to be on “courteous terms” (keeping things professional), Han expressed a contrary statement, saying, “He jokes around a lot, but we don’t stick to formalities.” She added, “When we’re feeling down, Kim Jae-wook-sshi and I support each other. We’re comfortable enough to confide in each other.”
Han married actor Yeon Jung-hoon (East of Eden, Jejoongwon) several years ago, and was asked if he feels jealous of her handsome co-stars. Her friends even tell her, “The drama is really enjoyable to watch” with its eye candy.
She answered, “Kim Nam-gil and Kim Jae-wook are both younger than my husband, and they’re very cool. In the past he never really said much, but these days he frequently mentions visiting the set. It seems to bother him a little to hear comments like ‘Just standing together, the two of them look wonderful.’ He doesn’t really let it show that much, but I can feel it.”
Husband Yeon Jung-hoon also noted that some of her mannerisms in real life come out onscreen, particularly her “aegyo,” or her ways of acting cute or appealing. Aegyo doesn’t necessarily mean a romantic thing — in Han Ga-in’s case she refers to her character’s attempts to ingratiate herself to Madam Shin.
Kim Jae-wook demonstrates some of his Japanese fluency in recent episodes, which comes from living in Japan as a child. He came to Korea when he was 7, and actually didn’t know any Korean at the time. He still speaks Japanese with family members.
Kim became famous after taking supporting roles in Coffee Prince and Antique Bakery, and said, “In previous projects, I’ve played androgynous characters. I didn’t intend to suddenly take on a character who was different. It’s just that I’m working to express Hong Tae-sung’s inner character appropriately.”
He’s also looking pretty rail-thin in this drama, and explained that it’s because he gets sensitive (to stress) when he’s filming a project. He has lost 2 to 3 kg since beginning, because his appetite shrinks as he focuses on work, but he stated that he’s trying to take regular meals so he’s not skipping too many.
Kim also took the optimistic look at the interference of Bad Guy’s schedule: “Because of the World Cup, we got two weeks [of time]. I think the drama can use this time to become stronger.”
Oh Yeon-soo plays the tightly wound Tae-ra, who finds herself attracted to Gun-wook, who is by now (sorta) her sister’s boyfriend. Oh expressed her own curiosity to know how the relationship between Tae-ra, Mo-nae, and Gun-wook will develop.
With the reportedly passionate kiss scene approaching, Oh explained that her two children (grades 1 and 5) go to bed before the drama airs. The younger child doesn’t know about the kiss, but the older one scoffed, “Do you think I’ve never seen you do a kiss scene?”
Oh Yeon-soo recently found herself at the center of some gossip when another actress, Park Joo-mi, made comments about turning down the Tae-ra role. Oh tweeted a few disgruntled comments and the producers leapt to her defense, asserting that Oh was always their top choice, which caused the other actress to make her official apology.
Oh clarified the intent behind her original comments, saying that she hadn’t meant to cause such a stir. She had reacted out of annoyance because she was trying to film scenes on the Bad Guy set, but all day had been bombarded by phone calls from curious people asking her how she felt about Park’s statement. She added, “I wasn’t largely bothered by it, but it came off like I was furious.”
Last but not least: Newcomer Jung So-min, who plays ingenue Mo-nae, has gotten a lot of comments on her resemblance to Yoon Eun-hye. She says that in the past, she’d been told she looks like her in the lower part of her face (around the mouth), but this is the first time she’s heard that she looks like Yoon overall. (It’s the eyes that keep her from looking too much like Yoon Eun-hye, since Jung’s eyefolds are smaller and very natural-looking. Personally, I love that she hasn’t succumbed to the rampant practice of surgically making them bigger, since I think that gives her a unique appeal among actresses.)
Jung studied dance in her childhood, which actually led her to acting: “I started acting because it was supposed to help me in my expressions in dancing, and I fell in love with it. I was preparing for my entrance exams while sneaking to the hagwon [academy] without my parents knowing. After I got into university, I told my father I was an acting major, and for a while he didn’t speak to me.”
credit : javabeans
