The controversy surrounding actor Song Young-kyu's drunk driving came to light only after a month, impacting the projects he is involved in significantly. The real issue lies not in the incident itself, but in his 'silence' while continuing to work without taking any action, which has resulted in a greater inconvenience.
Currently, Song Young-kyu is involved in three works: the play Shakespeare in Love, the drama The Defects, and the drama Try. He holds at least a supporting role in all of them.
The situation for Shakespeare in Love is especially urgent. This evening, on the same day the controversy broke out (25th), a performance featuring Song Young-kyu was scheduled. Given the nature of the performance, it is practically impossible to find a substitute actor or revise the script in just one day. Ultimately, the production team decided, after much deliberation, to proceed with Song Young-kyu's appearance without canceling the performance. While this decision was based on the realistic reason of prioritizing the audience, the entire work has been put in a difficult situation due to the actor's personal mistake.
The situation for the drama is no less serious. The ENA drama The Defects, as well as the new SBS Friday-Saturday drama Try, which is set to air its first episode today, are both pre-produced dramas that have already completed filming. While Song Young-kyu's role is not overwhelmingly large, he plays an important connective character in both dramas, making it virtually impossible to edit him out completely.
The production teams for The Defects and Try are currently struggling to minimize Song Young-kyu's screen time in editing. However, the situation for Try is more complicated. The drama has already delivered this week's broadcast to Netflix under a global release agreement with SBS. Because the system for overseas OTT platforms involves sharing the original footage several days before airing for the purpose of multinational subtitle work, modifying or deleting Song Young-kyu's scenes from the already subtitled and translated footage is impossible.
As a result, in the first episode of Try, which airs today (25th), Song Young-kyu will appear as is. The production team has set a policy to minimize his presence in future episodes, but as they are already being broadcast to viewers and global platforms, it seems impossible to avoid controversy.
The misconduct of one cast member is affecting not only the colleagues who trusted him and worked together on the project but also the audience and viewers. The aftermath of Song Young-kyu's 'month of silence' creates a level of fallout that cannot be easily covered by a mere apology.
[Photo source] Work poster
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