Actor Lee Byung-hun recalled the achievements of the Squid Game series and the Netflix film K-pop: Demon Hunters.
On the evening of the 19th, Lee Byung-hun's talk for Actors House at the 30th Busan International Film Festival took place at the Shinhan Card Hall in Sohyang Theater, Dongnam University, Busan.
Lee Byung-hun recently rose to global stardom by playing the Front Man in the Netflix series Squid Game and Gwima in the film K-pop: Demon Hunters. He confessed that regarding being so widely loved around the world, "Creators may have started with aspirations and dreams, but as someone who only took part a little, I never imagined receiving such enormous love and popularity and even causing some kind of phenomenon. It was a very lucky case for me."
He said, "Global star? I'm still not used to it. It may sound like a lie, but I become very nervous and deliberate for a long time, and when making the final choice I take an 'whatever' attitude. If I deliberate, decisions should be made based on calculations about whether it will work out, but in the end when a decision is actually made I do it with an 'I don't know' feeling. It's like, 'what is life?'" and laughed.
That was the case with G.I. Joe, he said. Lee Byung-hun recalled, "It was when I first decided on a Hollywood project, and I couldn't choose between the films The Good, the Bad, the Weird and A Bittersweet Life. Each felt somewhat lacking and I wondered, 'should I not do it?' I even, regrettably to director Kim Ji-woon, declined for the first time. After dragging it out for more than a month, I decided 'okay' through the director's persuasion, and the rest followed."
He revealed, "But until the very end I couldn't decide on G.I. Joe. I was so conflicted that I asked directors Kim Ji-woon and Park Chan-wook. Should I do this project or not? But what made it harder was that Park Chan-wook told me to try it, and Kim Ji-woon said, 'why would you do something like that,'" which made the audience burst into laughter.
Lee Byung-hun said, "I asked both of them and because they answered differently I fell into a deeper maze. After thinking about what to do, I decided on The Good, the Bad, the Weird, then A Bittersweet Life, and finally G.I. Joe in sequence." He added, "All of them were tough shoots that required action. One was shot in Hong Kong, one in the United States, so that period was the most physically demanding time in my life."
[Photo] OSEN reporter Min Kyung-hoon.
[OSEN]