Gong Yoo is in charge of Netflix at the end of the year. Following the recent release of ‘Trunk’, he will also appear in the globally anticipated ‘Squid Game 2’, which will finally be unveiled on the 26th, foreshadowing his ‘scene-stealer performance.

In the previously released ‘Trunk’, he played the role of Han Jeong-won, a music producer who lives with trauma, and acted as a ‘temporary couple’ with Seo Hyun-jin, who played the role of No In-ji, an employee of a secretive matchmaking company.

Unlike the “soft romance’ in ‘Goblin’ and ‘Coffee Prince’, he portrayed the dark side of love in this production, emphasizing, “It‘s good to feel vicarious satisfaction with pretty love, but I think it’s one of the roles of movies and dramas to shed light on dark stories and pain that we want to turn away from.”

○“The meaning of love that I‘ve found is... ”

Gong Yoo said that he thought deeply about “healthy love” while looking at the many characters in the drama who are in twisted relationships, such as being obsessed with the other person in the name of love. He concluded that healthy love is “the love of ‘existence, not ‘possession’.”

“I realized more clearly that the love that you believe you have to possess can ruin everything. I think we should pursue a love that is comforting and strong just by existing, even if we don’t possess it.”

Gong Yoo said that he was able to convey the deep message of the drama even better because he worked with Seo Hyun Jin, and he highly praised her, saying, “I can‘t imagine the character of Noh In-ji if it weren’t for Seo Hyun Jin.””“The actress Seo Hyun Jin that I saw on set was a really delicate and ‘bad in a good way’ person. She‘s someone who really acts out every scene and emotion fiercely and badly. I understand why you don’t gain weight.”

○“Whether she‘s the main character or her screen time doesn’t matter”

He also emphasized that ‘Trunk’ is a work where “the female protagonist is more important”, not the male one. He, who has not hesitated to choose a character to support the female main character that top male actors are reluctant to do, such as in the movie ‘Kim Ji-young, Born 1982’, said, “‘The number one main character’ isn‘t that important.”

“When I was young, why wouldn’t I have been greedy for title roles? But now, whether I‘m the main character, the second lead, or a supporting actor, it’s more important for me to be ‘part’ of the story I want to tell. I don‘t want to do a work that just stands out without any substance.”

‘Squid Game’ was the same. After the huge success of Season 1, in which he made a special appearance, some people asked him, ”Aren’t you greedy for the lead role in Season 2?“ However, he said, ”I‘ve never thought about that at all.“ He is credited as a ”special appearance“ in Season 2 as well.

”I think it was fun because my character in Season 1 was just that long. It was a one-page script, and because it was that long, I was able to act much more freely and creatively. Season 2 is just a little bit longer than one page of A4.“


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com