A new word, ‘Gaejeossi’, that belittles some middle-aged men who lack consideration and manners for others. There is an actor who laughs “Haha” when he hears this word that all middle-aged men in Korea hate to hear the most. This is Kim Eui-seong, who has perfectly digested all kinds of ‘Gaejeossi’ characters with his excellent acting skills in various works, causing misunderstandings that are not misunderstandings (?).

The ‘real Kim Eui-seong’ that we met in the interview was completely different. He was a person far from ‘Gaejeossi’, with a polite attitude and speech, a warm smile, and even appropriate humor. When asked ‘Isn‘t it unfair that there are misunderstandings due to your character?’, he playfully laughed and said “But thanks to that, I guess you can make a decent living, right?”.

Oh, I’d rather be a villain than the main character‘s friend!”

Even Kim Eui-sung stuck out his tongue and said, “The most disliked character ever”, Chief Choi, who he played in the comedy film ‘Lobby’, which opens on April 2nd. He said about his character, a political powerhouse who harasses a young female golfer, “I acted with a sense of innocence when I was acting, but when I saw the finished product, I seriously disliked it.””Chief Choi probably had good intentions to look cool to the person he liked. The problem is that it was one-sided good intentions or favor without consideration for the other person and without objectivity. Watching Chief Choi, I also thought that I should be more careful with my daily behavior. I should live plainly, humbly, and harmlessly.”

From “Train to Busan” to “Lobby,” he has always played characters that many people hate, but he said, “I truly loved all of those characters,” and laughed, saying, “If not me, who would love them?”

“It’s fun to play these kinds of characters. Actually, I’m not the main actor. If you’re not the main character, the character who fights the main character is the most fun. Desire is important for a character, but in fact, the main character’s friend has no desire. I’d rather have the enemy of a protagonist with strong desires.“

O“Ha Jung-woo‘s comedy was difficult”

‘Lobby’ is also piquing the curiosity of the audience as a work directed by Ha Jung-woo, but Kim Eui-seong honestly confessed that he hesitated to appear in it because it was ‘Ha Jung-woo’s comedy film’.

“If you watch Director Ha‘s previous work ‘Roller Coaster’, there are people who strongly sympathize with the unique humor, but there are also people who feel the hurdle, and I was one of those ‘people who felt the hurdle’. That’s why I worried a lot. However, I wanted to work with ‘Director Ha Jung-woo’ too.”

Contrary to my worries, “I ended up really loving ‘Lobby’,“ he said, adding that he devoted himself to practicing golf for this film based on the ‘Golf Lobby’ theme. Before this film, he had no idea how to play golf.

“I had to practice a lot because I had never played golf before. But I didn‘t think ‘good form’ was important. I heard that when you go to a golf course, there are a lot of old men who have been playing golf for a long time and have a lot of experience, but their form is not good. So I used those old men as my motif.”


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.