For actor Joo Ji-hoon, Disney+‘s ’The Lighting Store‘ was not an easy project at all. Since it is a drama with many characters, his screen time was much less than his previous leading roles, but he could not show his eyes because his character always wears sunglasses. For an actor, covering his eyes was “like having his greatest weapon taken away.”

Although he was anxious about this, he believed in the “synergy that comes from working with his fellow actors.” He described the drama as a “team battle”, and recalled the great acting of the drama’s cast including Park Bo-young, Kim Seol-hyun, Uhm Tae-goo, and Lee Jung-eun, and laughed, saying, “I realized from the first filming that it was okay to lose some of my weapons”.

○“5 hours of special makeup for a fleeting scene”

Joo Ji-hoon plays Won-young, the owner of a lighting store that connects the living world and the afterlife. His senior, Kim Hee-won, who made his directorial debut with this drama, gave him the ‘Lighting Store’script and said, “‘Choose the character you want,’”’.”

“There were many characters, but I was drawn to Won-young, who watches everyone. Of course, there were characters who could have shown more dramatic acting, but I thought that this drama was a work where the message was more important than individual acting, and I thought Won-young played that role. Director Kim Hee-won also said, ‘I knew you would choose Won-young.’

I also had the unforgettable experience of receiving special makeup and “transforming into an old person” for a “momentary scene” that gave a hint about the age of a mysterious character whose age cannot be guessed.

“It was a really brief scene, but instead of using CG, I received makeup that took over 5 hours myself. When I saw myself dressed up as an old man, I was really surprised because I looked exactly like my dad, haha.”

○“Worried about acting out fatherly love for the first time”

He showed his heartbreaking fatherly love while playing a ‘dad’ for the first time since his debut and confessed, “I was scared to act out emotions that weren‘t inside me”.”

“When acting out emotions like sadness, I usually focus on the subject, ‘I’m sad,’, but for the first time, I acted out emotions where I felt sorry for the other person (daughter) and sympathized with them and felt sad. From old man makeup to acting like a father, I think I showed off two of my ‘hidden talents’ in this production.“

He introduced himself as a ‘producer-type actor’ who constantly communicates with directors, producers, etc., rather than a ‘method actor’ who immerses himself in a character on his own, and said, ”I‘m also preparing to take my first step as a ’producer‘ by developing my own scenario.“

”There are many actors like (Kim) Hee-won who, after acting, get interested in the work and then turn it into directing, but I’m a case where I turned into a producer. There are already scripts for some of my works, and I‘m talking to investors, distributors, and platforms to release them on. I think full-scale production will pick up speed once those conversations are concluded.“


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com