It was the day after Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha wrapped up its filming. We met Kim Seon-ho in Seoul. The scenery of the filming location Pohang and the atmosphere on the set are imbued in the parting remarks by the actor portraying the character of Hong Du-sik.

Seon-ho’s Du-sik

Are we having an interview with Seon-ho ssi or are we interviewing Hong Du-sik right now? Both are me, so my answers would be somewhere in between those two. (laughs)

The drama used Pohang as its background. How was your first impression of Pohang? At first, I was like Hye-jin. The filming location was a pretty and quiet village, and it was a very calm place. There was this slightly melancholic feeling to it. It was totally possible to feel like that after spending time working busily in the buzzing city. But then, the melancholic feeling completely disappeared when I became Hong Du-sik and met the seniors in Gongjin. I began to hear the sound of the waves, as it somehow filled something in me.

Was it a total fishing village? Yes, it was located in the suburbs. There were times when you could only hear the sound of waves and wind. Oh, and the voice of the villagers greeting each other. There was no blaring music or café around there, and there weren’t any cicadas too. Although it could be sentimental to be by myself there, meeting the senior actors there strangely made it feels like healing to me.

After all, people have the ability to make or break the atmosphere. It seems like that statement is true and I got to experience it this time around.

As we watch Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, the place called Gongjin in the drama feels surreal and the drama itself gives off the vibe of excitement. Surreal?

It is indeed surreal to see the fairytale-like village where the good people live and various events take place. Plus, the warmth radiating among the characters continuously stimulates the senses of the viewers. It is a totally different kind of stimulation if we are to compare it with genre-centric dramas. People seem to be thirsty for sentimental comedy and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha’s popularity is the one filling that void. That’s right. This project can be regarded as one which built itself upon the familiar sensation anticipated by people. I regard dramas as fantasy. When I was still studying acting, I used to hear this: ‘What do you think will be if we are to act as if we are in reality?’ If an actor who has to act like he is sleeping ends up sleeping for real, there is no meaning/significance in watching him act. But then, if the actor does unique gestures like snoring or talking in his onstage sleep, the audience will laugh and feel the excitement in watching him act. After all, drama is a combination of all the most unique moments of the characters. Hence, I think that drama is a fantasy; everything can exist beautifully at the same time. These days, this kind of fantasy is rare to come by, so that could be the reason it has received attention at the moment.

These days, the trend seems to be a hard-boiled thriller genre, but Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha has brought a new wave with it. It’s actually a compliment for you, having a good discerning eye in choosing projects. When I first got the script, each and every phrase was so pretty to me. I wanted to appear a bit ordinary to others. My actor friends said that it was like watching a stage play after tuning in to the drama. Gongjin Village is the stage and the citizens appear in it, simply existing and interacting with each other. The script didn’t really say much, but as an actor, I thought that it is already a blessing to simply exist (against the background setting) like this. Drama characters usually run towards their respective goals, in order to achieve and gain something in the process. However, in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, the villagers are kind to new people in town and even give advice to them, including the newcomers into their lot. There is no special event to be shown, just people living their daily lives in the small town. I have always wanted to do something like this.

“I want to stand on the stage portraying the character perfectly as I completely change my own voice, tone, and gesture.”

When we browse through the comments, most of them are describing you as a harmless man. What do you think Hong Du-sik’s reaction if he hears someone saying that he’s a harmless man? “Ahhh what are you saying? It’s embarrassing!” But then, he will be secretly enjoying the compliment behind everyone. (laughs)

What do you think about the expression ‘harmless man’? It sounds like a praise but at the same time, it might come off as a frame limiting yourself as an actor. That’s true. Every actor would have this kind of thought in their life. Once, when I was just starting my career in acting and only starred in a few projects, someone watched my portrayal of a character and said, “You won’t make it.” For instance, the comment like, “You don’t seem like a villain.” That itself has become that actor’s frame, holding him inside. No matter how it is, an actor has to fit himself inside a frame; as he challenges a new acting, he removes his current frame and puts around him a new one. Hence, I don’t hate frame or think of it as a negative connotation. If people can look over the role I portray at the moment with kind eyes, I would be thankful, and I will try out something different in my next project.

Start-Up’s Han Ji-pyeong and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha’s Hong Du-sik are both characters of good nature and they are deemed as characters that suit Kim Seon-ho well. Don’t you feel burdened by nice characters? I did feel good but I have neither felt burdened nor arrogant. I did have worries while portraying the characters; wondering if I would be unable to do my part well. I feel burdened thinking about things that I have to attain but fail to do so. Acting in Daehak-ro, I learned to embrace reviews as well as wounds. I also had a lot of time to ponder about things. It was some sort of internal struggle as I went through my concerns, trying to find a way to differentiate between different types of evaluations and reviews. It has been more than 10 years since then. Right now, I am thankful for the concept of the review itself.

You have spent 10 years in Daehak-ro and it has been a while since you changed your lane into commercial acting. How different it is between acting on the stage and in front of the camera? People would say that the essence of acting is the same. But then, the technique is vastly different. Because of that difference, I had a lot of thoughts and difficult times as well. Seeing how different the voice is from the way it enters the microphone and how it is dispersed onstage, the acting with my partner differs as well. I slowly get used to my partner’s acting by assessing the tone and voice level of my partner at that given time. Stage and broadcast acting are technically different, but they should be similar essentially…I am still lacking a lot.

Acting onstage and for the broadcast is tonally different so you must have been struggling a lot in the beginning. They are so different. People who are good (at acting) might not experience it, but for me, I had times when I got confused. There were times when I felt lost while practising for stage performances. The hyungs would be teasing me, saying that they could not hear my voice and I was not delivering my lines well. It could be due to my lacking skills as well, but it is because acting is a matter of choice; I want to stand on the stage portraying the character perfectly as I completely change my own voice, tone, and gesture, transforming myself from top to toe. It might come off as being greedy, but now that we are getting busier these days going back and forth between the stage and the filming location, it has come down to a matter of choice (in acting).

Do you mean the choice you have to make in deciding the suitable acting on the set? – Yes. If we are in the studio now and acting out the conversation using a different way (t/n: like what they do during the script reading session), it will make us feel energized. Hence, it’s somehow conveyed through; it’s the same phrase, yet I thought that it could be a bit different from how it is communicated. Calling it a technique might turn it into a burden. I think that I should be able to convey those words effectively. It’s not that I do it every single time I am acting, but it only happens that way if I can follow the flow smoothly. I pay attention especially to my acting partner’s voice tone, listening and then matching my tone with theirs so that the conversation will appear natural, or so I thought. (laughs) On the other hand, there are also people who could switch between stage tone and filming tone right away, seamlessly.

Do you mean that if you cannot switch from the acting tone (used for a certain character), then the lingering feelings you have for that character will last longer? Back then, I used to have this haughty thought: ‘I can switch over fast, so I can easily discard this character I’m portraying at the moment.’ It turns out that I was very wrong because I couldn’t do that. (laughs) The character’s habit stuck with me and I even talked to my mom like how Du-sik would at times. I even used words and ways of talking that I never used before. After living as Seon Sang-tae in the drama The Good Manager for a few months, I continued talking slowly and awkwardly long after the filming ended. (laughs)

The characters you have portrayed are stuck with you like how the annual rings on a tree are. Yes, and there are times when I feel like bringing out the annual rings as well. When there are situations that call for it, there is no time to consider; when I’m pressed for time, I might have to make use of the different sides of the characters that I have portrayed before. However, if I end up doing so, that could be considered a failure. Hence, I’ll discuss with the director to come out with ideas to build the character again.

How is it going these days? Do you even have time to rest? I’m thankful that I can live my life busily these days. We wrapped up filming for Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha yesterday. I was busy because of the drama (schedule), but I think I’ll get even busier from now on. (laughs)

It’s good to have lots of work lined up for you, but it gets tough as well. Should you get some rest before continuing? Yeah, I should, but Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha didn’t get tough on me. The director is someone who gets his shots fast, and he is a punctual person when it comes to arriving and leaving after work. Plus, he is such a humorous person. He never gives anyone pressure or stress while filming, talking and treating everyone softly and kindly. There was this one time when the director said to me, “Seon-ho ssi, you are having a hard time right now and forcing yourself to smile, right?” At that time, I just returned from 2 Days 1 Night shooting and I was fumbling around because I rode a horse and went into the water. But then, the director sacrificed his sleeping time with other people in the team too, coming to the set after sitting in the editing room overnight, so I wouldn’t dare to say that I was having a hard time and frowned in front of them. Even if it got tough on me, I thought that I should laugh and continue making small talk with them. I have never felt physically exhausted as far as I have been working until now, and I did not feel mentally distressed either. If anything, it is a source of healing for me.

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha is not only a source of healing for the viewers but for the people who made it as well. This is a TMI, but when we first started filming, I thought that instead of focusing on the ratings, I should only enjoy the encounter with good people and aim at feeling happy while acting. However, both the filming locations and the people on the set became my source of healing. There were the waves in front of me and people laughing while talking with each other…it was such a great time. I got to escape a bit from my greed as an actor and basked in the bliss of enjoying the moment.

We should watch the making of videos/ behind the scenes. There were a lot of interesting characters like actress Kim Minseo, who played the middle school student Oh Ju-ri. Minseo is an acting genius I think. I was shocked when I met her for the first time. Where did she get that confidence for someone that young…honestly, it would be scary to have someone with that amount of confidence among the grownups. When I was her age, was I ever as confident and full of sense as Minseo? The director even said this to me before we started filming, “You should not feel inferior to Minseo when it comes to acting, Seon-ho ssi. She is very good at acting.” She is such a surprising friend.

How were you when you were Minseo’s age? I was super introverted. I laughed and talked with my friends but overall, I was a shy kid. At that time, acting was impossible for me. I would be rendered speechless and uncomfortable whenever I had to stand in front of others. Maybe it’s because I resemble my mother. I was extremely shy and grew really nervous easily.

There are a lot of people who are introverts among the actors as well. We are really curious about something, though: how do you manage to stand on the stage and act for someone who is introverted? Strangely, I myself have wondered about the same thing as well. How does that actor possess that kind of talent? Everyone has their own attractiveness and unique charm, and some even use novel words (while talking). At times, I do wonder how someone who is so introverted experiences something for them to be able to utter such a choice of words and show such expressions while acting? I was influenced by my family as well as my friends, and those influences became my acting forest, showing how important experience is for actors. If one does not have any experience, they should try to experience it first, either by finding it themselves or studying in order to turn themselves into a rich, abundant forest. An introvert is sensitive to others’ feelings and can be witty with words, so there are times when this kind of person is like a forest with a variety of trees inside them.

Acting is like a treatment for you. Yes, acting is indeed a treatment for me. Acting is like an outlet to show what I have felt and what I have gone through in my personal experience. Acting is like a genre itself; it is different depending on the person respectively. I think of acting as a two-way communication between me and the director. If the director says that it’s great to have me acting in blue hues, there is someone who is there to understand the director’s intention. Each of us has a different interpretation of the colour blue, but for an actor, it is how he expresses his own feelings. That is also how an actor strives to meet the expectation and match the interpretation of the director. It is really important how the two of them – the director and the actor – are able to communicate well. I get to improve my social skills by contemplating ways to communicate in acting. Plus, acting is the only thing I’m taking seriously and sincerely. Hence, acting is (a source of) healing to me.

So Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha is a case of communication done well with the director and the writer? They really gave in to me in many instances, so I worked hard to meet their expectations. Writer-nim paved the way for me to try out something different. The director also opened up the door to do fun things simply because they are fun. It was a project we made together by opening and allowing ourselves to do something, even if it is different (from what has been planned).

But then, why Hong Du-sik speaks informally? He speaks informally out of the blue, sparing the other person no time to think about anger and losing the chance to actually get angry at him. I was thinking about it too when I read the script. I could portray him as someone sensitive since the drama calls for it. The writer told me to get myself used to speaking informally, so I thought that it’d be possible for me to do so. If a particular line’s delivery turned out to be overly sensitive, I would discuss it with the writer and toned down my acting. If I am to think about the meaning behind Chief Hong’s informal speech…

What is the reason? Umm..I think of his informal speech as Chief Hong’s mask; it’s his way of holding on and pulling through in order to keep himself alive. Each of us humans wears our own masks. Hong Du-sik refuses to live like how he used to live before, so he might have worn the mask of being informal in order to be more frank and honest. He used to be a calculative person but someone close to him got hurt because of him, so he had to hide a part of himself inside him. Hiding the darkness while bringing out the light side of him, he intends to convince himself that he is okay, but that in return makes him appear haughty. I think that Hong Du-sik speaks informally when he wants to convey his sincerity. He would switch to formal speech when he is surrounded by his own darkness or in complicated situations. After thinking of it like that, I grow more comfortable of Hong Du-sik’s way of speaking informally. I came to the conclusion that it’s not that he couldn’t be formal; he just chose not to. Being Chief Hong means that the past Hong Du-sik is no more, as he thinks of the current version of him – shamelessly talking down to everyone – as his real self.

So, talking informally is like a defense mechanism for Hong Du-sik? Yes, that’s right. There was this one scene in which his defense mechanism of him was falling apart, and that was when he met Hye-jin’s father and suddenly talked formally. It was so sudden and I couldn’t understand why at first, so I called the writer. I listened to the writer’s reasoning, and that was because he was returning to his original version of Hong Du-sik when he met Hye-jin’s father. Hence, when he was saying contradictory things like, “It’s not possible for me since I’m Hye-jin’s friend”, he was using formal speech. By having conversations like that with the writer, we set up and built the character.

Chief Hong is a fellow full of surprise, with a sad side that makes us feel sorry for him. Yes, he has a lot of darkness inside him and that becomes the reason why he cries a lot. However, it was not even his fault in the first place. No matter how you look at it, he is such an unfortunate soul. He ended up running away but without any way to continue living, hence I thought that he ended up appearing like a totally different person by putting on a mask.

Running away is his way of showing that he wants to continue living. That’s right. Hence, he keeps going while wearing the mask. There are many ways (of interpretation), though. The way to interpret the talking down and speaking informally thing might be different for another actor. It might have been a defense mechanism for me, who looks for a way to portray it convincingly. But then, it turns out that talking down is a good thing as well. People would go, “What? Why are you talking down to me? I should speak informally to you as well.” It’s a way of tearing down the wall between people. It might seem to be rude and improper, but it might become another decent way of approaching someone.

If you embark on something solely because you like doing it, but it turns out that you aren’t doing well in it, how do you keep holding on when you feel like quitting? We have always wanted to ask this question to someone who has stayed in the same line of work for more than 10 years. I wouldn’t dare to talk about holding on and endurance to anyone, but it was difficult enough for me. Still, I endured and enjoyed it as much. When it became too difficult, I would even go for a 5-hour walk. I would be in agony for 3 or 4 hours, suffering by myself and thinking about why I couldn’t do it as I read the script…finding the reason within myself. Now that I looked back at it, that was such a fiery time. I treasure and cherish those moments fondly, experiencing the pain well and enduring them wisely. You can’t hide yourself, saying “I’m not hurting, I can’t be like this.” You have to confront all your pains and shortcomings coldly. If you are suffering because you don’t have any money, you have to come to terms with yourself that you don’t have money and you are having a hard time, then you have to find the best option that you can do in your situation. Hanging in there even if it means you could only have one meal a day with the 18000₩ pay you got from your part-time job. Time flies and good days are bound to come your way since bad days won’t last forever.

Just so you know, this is not my experience. Ah, it’s not my experience either…ah, I’m talking about my experience. (laughs)

©ARENA HOMME+