Park Hae-joon, who was known as the ‘e epitome of a villain,’, successfully transformed his image by filling the small screen with tears. He did so while playing the character of Yang Gwan-sik, a father of this era who sacrificed his entire life for his wife and children, in the Netflix series ‘Fooled Me,’, which heated up South Korea for four weeks.

Park Hae-joon, whom we met on the 1st, was unable to let Yang Gwan-sik leave his heart, just like the viewers who are still reminiscing about ‘Fooled Me.’Even he, who “the type to quickly delete a project I have finished filming in order to immerse himself in the next project,”, said “This project lingers in my mind. I want to watch the drama again carefully,” he said, conveying his unusually fond feelings for the drama.

O“50% synchronization rate with the innocent Yang Gwan-sik”

Director Kim Won-seok said about the reason he cast Park Hae-joon in the role of the kind and honest Gwan-sik, “Because he is the kindest person I know in real life.” Park Hae-joon waved Director Kim’s remarks away, saying, “The director is talking because he doesn’t know me well.”

“I’m the type of actor who listens well and does whatever the director tells me to do. Maybe that’s why he cast me? Because he can control me however he wants. In fact, the director and I trust each other very much. If you just do as the director tells you, there‘s absolutely nothing wrong.“

While acting as the honest and upright Gwan-sik, he reflected on himself, saying, ”How have I always been?“ Gwan-sik, a pure-hearted man who has loved a woman he met when he was 10 his whole life, is a character in the ”realm of the gods that I dare not approach,“ but he smiled shyly and said, ”Still, he’s about 50% similar to me.“

”While watching the drama, my wife said, ‘You have a lot in common with Gwan-sik.’ I don‘t think I’m a bad husband. I‘m a bit stingy with other people, but not with my wife. “I think it’s similar to Guan-sik in that he unconditionally puts his family first.”

IU, who was like my “daughter,” has become IU‘s “nim.”

He also attributed the reason why the character of Guan-sik was able to receive so much love to Park Bo-gum, who played the role of Guan-sik in his youth.

“Bo-gum is such a cool person, but I felt bad that I had to play the middle-aged version of him. Before I even appeared in the drama, Bo-gum had already made the kind and honest Guan-sik character so perfect and cool. I guess I benefited a lot from Bo-gum.”

With only two sons, he drew attention by saying that he indirectly experienced “the heart of a father with a daughter” while acting with IU, who played his daughter Geum-myeong in the drama. “IU sent me Korean beef for the holidays,” he said, bragging about how he received filial piety from his “daughter IU.”

“IU was really like my daughter on set, joking around and being comfortable, but I was really surprised when I went to IU’s concert. The kid who used to sleep in a shabby corner of the room on set sang for 4 hours in front of a huge audience that filled the Olympic Stadium. Wow, it was really amazing. From then on, IU became a little difficult.”


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

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