‘Melo Movie’ Choi Woo-shik “Same-age Park Bo-young and I rely on each other... Real-life dating experiences projected” [DA: Interview ②]

Actor Choi Woo-shik expressed his gratitude to Park Bo-young, who he acted with as his co-star.

In an interview for the Netflix series ‘Melo Movie’ held at a cafe in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 17th, Choi Woo-shik said, “It was the first time working with someone the same age. It was a first for (Park) Bo-young and me,” and “Thanks to that, we were able to talk comfortably without hesitation and share ideas. It was comfortable.”

‘Melo Movie’ is a romance drama that depicts a movie-like time between ambiguous youths who want to love and achieve their dreams, discovering each other, becoming inspirations for each other, and overcoming their own traumas. This is a work in which director Oh Choong-hwan of dramas such as ‘Hotel Del Luna’, ‘Start-Up’ and writer Lee Na-eun of ‘That Year, Us’ have joined forces.

Choi Woo-shik plays Go Gyeom, who enters the film industry with his love for all the movies in the world and goes from being an extra to becoming a critic. Go Gyeom is the character who falls in love with Kim Moo-bi, whose name is fateful, just like the rules of melodramatic movies, from their first meeting. His counterpart, Kim Moo-bi, is played by South Korea‘s representative ‘ro-comedy goddess’ Park Bo-young.

Choi Woo-shik said, “When I first heard that Bo-young had been cast, I felt like I had gained a thousand soldiers. She was incredibly reassuring. I knew that I had shortcomings and that I had to learn. Once Bo-young joined, I thought it was 90% over,” and “I now understand why people are like, ’Park Bo-young~ Park Bo-young~‘ and why they like Park Bo-young. There was a lot of good energy and synergy while working together. Since we are the same age, we relied on each other a lot and it was really nice to be able to ask each other things we didn’t know,” he said.

Choi Woo-shik also said, “When filming the kiss scene on the utility pole at the end of Part 1, we had a huge discussion behind the monitor. I‘ve filmed the drama ’So Us‘ before, but I didn’t know what to do because I was trying to do it suddenly. I was worried about how to make the female audience excited, but after discussing it with Park Bo-young and the director, (the answer) came to me perfectly,” he expressed his gratitude.

The kiss scene on the utility pole that Choi Woo-shik mentioned is the scene where Park Bo-young gives a pre-(?) kiss in the falling snow and Choi Woo-shik kisses her back. In the existing romantic comedies, the formulaic ‘Promise Episode 8’ (a kiss scene or an impressive scene of that kind appears at the end of Episode 8) was broken, and a scene that rapidly increased the romance index from the end of Episode 1 appeared, drawing attention.

When the reporter said, “The character setting of kissing right after the short line, ‘Okay, then’ was bold and completely different,” Choi Woo-shik covered his face and felt embarrassed. He said, “The writer wanted to show me a more direct way as Go-gyeom than the side I’ve shown in my previous works,” and laughed, saying, “I think she tried to show me as a friend who is more honest about his emotions. It was a little difficult because it’s different from my personality, but I liked that part too.”

Choi Woo-shik said that he also projected his own experiences of unrequited love and breakups while acting as Go-gyeom. He said, “It can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, but I don’t create characters from ‘0’. No matter what role I play, I feel like I‘m projected onto it. So there’s definitely a ‘Choi Woo-shik-like?’. I think the character is well-executed when I show what I‘m good at and feel comfortable and not feel awkward,“ he confessed. He also revealed, ”I think Go-gyeom and I have a synchronization rate of about 70-80%. The writer intended that, so the synchronization rate is quite high. Of course, I won’t be able to date as passionately as Go-gyeom, but when I‘m with my comfortable friends, I’m similar in how I‘m joking around and how I like people. The writer only writes about the good sides, so it feels like a fantasy, but there are similar points.“

Regarding the synchronization rate between Park Bo-young and Kim Moo-bi, he said, ”The synchronization rate was surprisingly high. It may be because of my experience, but I was also cool and confident, and I was also very timid on set.“

Jung Hee-yeon, Donga.com reporter shine2562@donga.com
Photo courtesy of Netflix

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