Kim Nam Gil Joked “Grand Prize? It‘s Only Me”, Then “I’m Not Obsessed” (The Fiery Priest 2)

Actor Kim Nam Gil expressed his expectations for the Grand Prize and viewer ratings.

At the production conference for the new SBS Friday-Saturday drama ‘The Fiery Priest 2’ held at the SBS building in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 8th, Kim Nam Gil joked, “I think it‘s only me”, when asked about the possibility of winning the Grand Prize. He previously won the SBS Grand Prize in 2019 for the first season of ‘The Fiery Priest’.

Kim Nam Gil said, “I have no such expectations at all. It’s not just words, I‘m grateful that I can do a second season”, but “I told people, ‘Really good acting doesn’t care about awards,’, but (the awards ceremony) is just around the corner. I‘m not obsessed with awards, and I don’t think (the grand prize) is even worth it,“ he said, revealing his honest feelings.

Regarding the viewer ratings, ”The situation is different now than it was five years ago when Season 1 was aired, so I don‘t think it’ll be easy to surpass those ratings. Out of personal aspiration and courtesy for Season 1, if we look at it in terms of a numerical scale of ‘many people were happy watching this work’ rather than numerical success, I hope it definitely goes over 20%.“

‘The Fiery Priest 2’, which returned five years after the blockbuster Season 1, is a collaborative investigation drama about Kim Hae-il, a passionate priest with anger management issues who is a priest during the day and the boss of the Angels‘ faction for ‘Bellato’ at night, as he heads to Busan to fight the country’s biggest drug cartel. The first broadcast on SBS at 10 p.m. on the 8th (Friday) as a follow-up to ‘The Judge from Hell’.

Jung Hee-yeon, Donga.com reporter shine2562@donga.com
Photo|SBS