‘Dirty Money’ Kim Dae-myung “My complex about my beautiful voice, now I‘m grateful that it’s being used well”[Interview]
Photo provided by｜UAA
Kim Dae-myung plays a corrupt detective who falls into the abyss after touching the illegal funds of a criminal organization in the movie ‘Don‘t Touch Dirty Money’, which will be released on the 17th, and goes back and forth between meanness and desperation.
The movie, which tells the story of two detectives (Jung-woo and Kim Dae-myung) who get involved in an accident because they are greedy for ‘dirty money’, finished filming in 2019, but its release was delayed due to COVID-19 and finally saw the light of day after five years.
Kim Dae-myung, who is even more delighted and happy about this movie as much as the long wait, confidently said, “I think it turned out to be an interesting piece because Director Kim Min-soo put a lot of effort into the post-production.”
He introduced this work, his first crime action film, as “the first film to show my masculine side.” He said that he lost 15 kg in order to change his previous warm and round image.
“I didn’t go into filming after losing weight, but I lost weight while filming to fit the flow of the story in order to express the situation and pain of the character being pushed to the limit. We filmed for 6 months, and by the end, I had lost 15 kg more than when I started filming.”
His chemistry with Jung Woo, who plays a fellow detective who is like a real brother to him, was also excellent. The two starred in PD Shin Won-ho‘s representative works, ‘Hospital Playlist’ and ‘Reply 1994’, and laughed, saying, “There’s a strange sense of closeness as people in the same Shin Won-ho division.”
“Our different styles create even better synergy. Jung Woo-ssi has a ‘tiger-like charm. I‘ll put me as more of a polar bear. Haha!”
Photo provided by｜Acemaker Movie Works
In ‘The Terror Live’ in 2013, he appeared as a terrorist with only his voice, and last year, he caught attention by voice-acting for the robot Thunder in the movie ‘Alien+Human’. Because of his unique voice, he has received many voice acting offers, but he confessed that when he first started acting, he “had a complex about his unique voice.”
“Men‘s voices change a lot after puberty, but mine didn’t. ‘I‘ve always had this voice.’When I was young, I wanted to have a deep voice like my senior actors. I especially admired my senior Han Suk-kyu’s voice. I tried practicing with my voice lowered on purpose, but it didn‘t work well. But now that my voice, which used to be a complex, is being used so well, I’m really grateful.”
Recently, he expanded his scope of activities by appearing on the YouTube entertainment show ‘Taste, Style, and Daemyung’ with PD Na Young-seok and starring in a music video for Jo Jung-seok, who is about to debut as a singer. Regarding this, Kim Dae-myung emphasized, “I am a very lucky person,” and “All these opportunities are thanks to the good people I am with.”
Reporter Lee Seung-mi smlee@donga.com
