“‘Check In Hanyang’ shattered my kind image.”

Since his debut in 2017, actor Jung Gun-joo has mostly played upright and kind ‘innocent’ characters. His bright eyes reminiscent of a large dog and the dimples that sink into his cheeks when he smiles make his sad charm stand out.

When Jung Gun-joo, who had always seemed so kind, properly ‘turned dark’ in Channel A drama ‘Check In Hanyang’, which ended on the 9th, even fans reacted with “surprise”. In the drama, he plays the heir to a luxury hotel, Cheon Jun-hwa. When he falls for his female servant Hong Deok-soo (Kim Ji-eun), he sheds his initially sly and charming image and transforms into a powerful tyrant, becoming the center of a plot twist.

“I thought people would hate the darkened Cheon Jun-hwa, but surprisingly, many people responded, ‘I find this new side of me charming.’. I realized firsthand that it‘s fun to show a different side of me. That’s why I want to try more transformations in the future. Oh, and the scene where he bites off the tongue of a cow and warns the officials who ignore his father, Taesang Bang-ju (Kim Eui-sung), ‘Be careful with your tongue’ became a hot topic. Fortunately, what I ate was meat sashimi. Contrary to viewers‘ worries, it was so delicious that I ate a few more pieces after filming. Haha!”

However, his fate of ending in unrequited love again, following ‘Extraordinary You’, ‘Monthly House’, ‘Flower Scholar’s Passionate Love Story’, was not able to change in the end. Jung Gun-joo laughed, saying, “Someday, I definitely want to try a deep ‘two-way romance’.”

“I thought my kind impression wouldn‘t make me hate someone even if I had unrequited love, so I only played characters with unrequited love. It’s a shame, but I don‘t really care about modifiers like ‘sub-guy’‘‘requited love expert’. Just playing a character in a drama is something to be thankful for. What would it be like to actually fall in love? It’s a bit different from Cheon Joon-hwa, who puts everything into love. I try not to make the other person feel burdened.”

Jung Gun-joo, who started the year off brilliantly with ‘Check In Hanyang’, whose final episode surpassed 4% (Nielsen Korea) in viewership ratings, will soon present ‘A Week Before I Die’ on TVING. He emphasized, “I just want to work hard at the work given to me.”

“I had a hiatus for a while after filming ‘Monthly House’ in 2022 until I was cast in the movie ‘Rebound’ the following year. It was really hard at the time, but looking back, it was a good nourishment for me. I gained the strength to accept anything calmly. Before, even when I heard the words ‘Be grateful for acting’, it didn‘t really hit me, but now I know better than anyone else how desperate I am for acting. “If I ever experience a slump like that again, it will be just as hard, but I have faith that I will get better faster than before.”


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com

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