Single actor Lee Joon-hyuk honestly answered his feelings about playing the role of a “single dad” raising a child alone without a wife.

Lee Joon-hyuk recently had an interview to commemorate the end of the SBS Friday-Saturday drama “My Perfect Secretary” at a cafe in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

On that day, when asked if his fantasy was fulfilled while acting as a father, Lee Joon-hyuk honestly answered, “It‘s not that kind of life when I go home, so it’s not fulfilling,” causing laughter.

He continued, “Acting is a job. In fact, Mr. Byul is a very professional actor. I think I‘ve gained a really great colleague as a colleague. I learned a lot about children by continuously talking to them. Rather than feeling fulfilled, I feel a greater loss because it doesn’t exist in reality.”

Lee Joon-hyuk showed perfect father-daughter chemistry with child actor Kiso Yoo. He revealed, “I became close with Byul through Mukjjipa.” Then, “When I asked Byul, ‘Are you going to call me Daddy?’ she said, ‘No.’ So I asked, ‘Are you going to do it if you lose after doing Mukjjippa 10 times?’ and she said, ‘Yes.’ In the end, she won by doing Mukjjippa. To be honest, I was afraid of acting with a child. There were a lot of things going on on set, but I hadn‘t done much with a child. One day, I held Byul in my arms and we talked a lot. What really surprised me was that she was not a child actor, but a truly professional actor. She talked at length about the hardships and concerns on set as if she were talking to any other fellow actors. I’m so grateful to Byul,” she recalled.

The nursery rhyme ‘Baby Boy’, written by actor Lee Joon-hyuk as Byul‘s lullaby, was also featured on the OST. Regarding this, Lee Jun-hyuk said, “At that time, I was really into songs, so I made a guide and stuff, and I told the director, ’I made this,‘ for fun. But the director said, ’Oh, this is good. I want it to be in our drama as a nursery rhyme,‘ so I said, ’Oh really? Then I‘ll make it properly,’ and I formally paid money to cast Hye-won and made it. In a way, it seems like my hobby just naturally continued.”


There is a part that viewers of ‘Na Wan-bi’ have questioned while watching the story. It is ‘Why did you divorce such a perfect Yoo Eun-ho?’ Did you have a separate discussion with the writer about the reason for the divorce? Lee Jun-hyuk said, “Actually, I didn‘t know until I received the script. I was convinced after receiving the script. Maybe it’s the most shocking reason rather than there being a special reason. Eun-ho also said, ”If something had happened, I would have tried to do something about it, but when I heard, ‘I can’t breathe when I see you,‘ I felt like I had no choice but to accept it. That’s why I understood. I think that‘s the most horrible thing I don’t want to hear, no matter who the other person is.“

When asked if he chose the piece because of his change in thoughts about marriage, Lee Jun-hyuk said, ”I‘m someone who has lived chasing my dream for almost 20 years. But then I thought, ’Why are you only looking at this?‘ I want this family to be beautiful and everything that’s done there to be noticed as cool in this era. Instead of thinking that going to a company and working is cool, what if you thought that everything that‘s done within it was cool? That’s when I had those thoughts. That‘s why I came across this piece, and I think that if you have a family, you’ll feel a sense of stability. “Wouldn‘t it be nice if I could really cook for someone?” he replied.

Lee Jun-hyuk continued, “I want to be a father who really loves his wife,” and added, “If you think of this as a language, you have to show your child that there is a ’person you love‘ in this world. If you show your wife that you really love her, even if your child is hit by the world while growing up, won’t he feel, ‘No, there are two people in this world that you really love’? Of course, it will be difficult,” he said with a smile.

When asked if there were any similarities between Yoo Eun-ho and Lee Jun-hyuk, he said, “Of course, he is the most similar among the characters I‘ve played so far. He doesn’t kill anyone, and he‘s a bit more ordinary, so I was able to use myself more. I thought it would be burdensome if I strongly varied my character in this play, so I decided to throw in my personal sense of humor. He said, “I think the similarity between Eun-ho and me is that we care about and are considerate of others.”

Then, was there anything you paid special attention to for Yoo Eun-ho? Lee Jun-hyuk said, “I kept thinking that she should be plain first. Since she’s a secretary, I thought she shouldn’t be aggressive, and I didn’t want her to be burdensome. Even if she has a calm side, she should be like a pillar. A cool person changes with each era, but I think the coolest person I see right now is someone like this.” He shared his attitude toward the character.

If you watch the behind-the-scenes footage, it seems like there’s a lot of ad-lib. Lee Jun-hyuk said, “I think the romantic comedy genre needs to include that kind of thing.” “Even if the text is great, it’s difficult when people actually bump into each other. For example, it’s not easy to suddenly play basketball with the CEO while walking. The basketball scene itself may be a cliché, but the bridge to that point is important. So I tried to add some wit like, ”Do you like basketball?“ In that sense, even if the next scene is a cliché, it feels like an equivalent exchange. I thought a lot about that kind of connection,” he confessed.
What is Lee Jun-hyeok’s favorite ad-lib scene? He said, “I liked the basketball scene, and the candy-eating scene. Another thing I like is the blind-down scene. That kind of movement and rhythm was really important, and I wanted it to match the music. I like ad-libs that use a lot of movement because even if they aren‘t revealed, you can feel the rhythm when the scene passes. Like following Ji-yoon to the window in the scene where Kwak Si-yang appears. That kind of thing can’t be written in the text.”

(Continued from [DA: Interview ④])

Kim Seung-hyun, Donga.com reporter tmdgus@donga.com
Photos | Ace Factory, Studio S, IO Contents Group

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