Those who remember actor Moon Woo-jin will each have a different image in their head. As a smart child actor in ‘Beauty Inside’, a brave high school student in ‘Diva of an Uninhabited Island’, a concubine in ‘The Nuns in Black’, and a serial killer in ‘Trigger’.

Moon Woo-jin, who is busy focusing on his studies and starting a new project as the new semester begins, has started a pictorial shoot for the April issue of Cosmopolitan.

After finishing the shoot in one breath with his witty expressions and posing, he smiled shyly as the interview began, saying, “I wonder what kind of image of me he saw that made him cast me.” He then talked about his current status, saying, “I just started filming the drama ‘Spring of the Four Seasons’. In the drama, I appear as the child version of actor Ha Yu-jun, and since my role is an idol trainee, I prepare for the drama by learning dancing, guitar, drums, etc. after school.”

Moon Woo-jin is passionate about his studies, as he was ranked first in his class and eighth in the entire school during middle school, even while acting.

“I want to go to the Department of Theater and Film. If I want to go to a university famous for its acting department, I have to manage my grades well. As a student, when my schedule is empty, all I can do is study.”

He also mentioned his recent role as Choi Hee-jun, a concubine of a concubine, in the movie “The Nuns.”

“It’s completely different from the characters I’ve played so far, so I looked up a lot of reference materials. I recited the lines until they just stuck. I prepared as much as I could on my own before filming, and I also received a lot of help from seniors Song Hye-kyo and Jeon Yeo-bin on set. When exchanging lines, tension naturally builds, and there are acting scenes that come out when you get immersed in the situation. That‘s how ’Choi Hee-jun‘ was completed.

He continued, “I tend to look at the script and plan it out in advance. I think, ’I need to use this kind of look for this line, and I need to show a different look for that line.‘ However, even if you plan it 100% perfectly, you can’t cover all the variables that arise on set. On the other hand, when you get completely immersed in the set, lines that you didn‘t memorize well can come pouring out all at once. I think that’s how it was on the set of ‘The Nuns’.”

In the Disney Plus original series ‘Trigger,’ he took on his first villain role as Son Jun-young (Gore), a suspect in a serial cat murder case.

“Rather, for ‘Trigger’, I didn‘t look for a separate project and I thought a lot about how to make the laughter sound bizarre. The script just said, ‘Gore laughs’. The key was to look scary while laughing.”

Moon Woo-jin, who is growing from a child actor to an adult actor, must also have a longing for a solo role rather than playing someone else’s child.

He said, “After playing a lot of child roles, that image has become fixed, so I don‘t think it will be easy to grow into a proper adult actor. That’s why I have a lot of worries.”These days, I‘m thinking about how I can look more mature, and how I can act in a simple way rather than just being cute. I want to try more diverse roles as an adult.”” He continued, “I was quite flustered when my puberty changed, but I got through it well and am taking care of my appearance. “One of the things that child actors worry about is whether they can successfully take the path of a ‘coup’,” he said with a laugh.

Moon Woo-jin recently finished filming his first solo lead role in a feature-length film.

It’s an independent film called ‘Accordion Door,’ and it’s a piece that Director Son Kyung-soo tells the story of his adolescence. I worked with actor Lee Jae-in. The film will be submitted to a film festival first, so the release date hasn’t been set yet.” Regarding his first lead role, he said, “It was a new feeling. I personally experienced the parts that a lead role should do, such as the process of communicating with the director and creating the character, and the effort to brighten the mood on set by being ‘cheerful, cheerful.’ ‘Is this what the weight of a lead actor feels?’ I think I also had mixed feelings.”

You can see more pictorials and interviews with actor Moon Woo-jin in the April issue of Cosmopolitan and on the website.

Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com reporter jhj@donga.com

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