Actor Lee Yi-kyung has candidly expressed his feelings about the process of leaving Hangout With Yoo and the face-wiping controversy, and remarks he made in past explanations are being reexamined.
Lee Yi-kyung was previously embroiled in controversy over a face-wiping scene in an episode of the MBC variety program Hangout With Yoo that aired in June, in which he met actress Shim Eun-kyung. At the time, he became a topic of discussion for gaining an unfavorable image due to excessive face-wiping.
Afterwards, Lee Yi-kyung left Hangout With Yoo amid the aftershocks of personal life rumor spreading that occurred last month, and it was reported that contrary to his initial statement that he left voluntarily, the production team had first urged him to leave, causing a stir. Lee Yi-kyung also said that he did not want to do the face-wiping controversy on Hangout With Yoo either, but that the production team had asked him to do it and his line had been edited out.
The Hangout With Yoo production team also explained, "The face-wiping situation that Lee Yi-kyung mentioned was a lapse by the production team in failing to protect the cast member. Trying to give viewers laughter, Lee Yi-kyung spontaneously showed the face-wiping situation during the Hong Kong and Japan shoots, and at the time the production team judged the reaction was not bad. Later, to provide more entertainment we asked Lee Yi-kyung once again to do the face-wiping, but we were overly greedy," they said in explanation.
After Lee Yi-kyung's determined exposé brought the face-wiping controversy back into the spotlight, his earlier explanation of the controversy again attracted attention. Lee Yi-kyung mentioned the face-wiping controversy on Hangout With Yoo when he appeared on Defconn's YouTube channel last July.
In that content, Defconn said to Lee Yi-kyung, "You recently met Shim Eun-kyung and caused a scene by face-wiping in Japan, right?" and Lee Yi-kyung opened by saying, "I had no way to explain it anywhere, so I can explain it here." Defconn added, "At that time Shim Eun-kyung was shocked."
About that, Lee Yi-kyung said, "Actually the shoot in Japan lasted only four hours. With Jae-seok hyung. Since we had to produce over an hour of footage there, I had actually sent Eun-kyung a KakaoTalk message from the day before. 'I will be very rude. Just express yourself honestly, and if you really can't stand it let me know.' I didn't know Eun-kyung's style, so," referring to having asked Shim Eun-kyung for prior understanding.
Then Defconn said, "Usually before a shoot when we meet we say, 'We don't have footage today so I'm going to overdo it, okay?' So the fact you sent a separate message the day before means you liked her," and Lee Yi-kyung explained, "When you meet on the shoot day it starts right away—how can you talk after meeting? If you meet outdoors it starts immediately."
When Defconn asked, "What, it's not Infinite Challenge, so why start like that?" Lee Yi-kyung added, "You know from Infinite Challenge. You know people do it like that."
Lee Yi-kyung added, "The rise in publicity was because the camera angle was insane. While I was doing this, half of Eun-kyung's face was visible and she really had a contemptuous expression," and he lamented, "How would I feel doing this?"
[Photo] YouTube video screen capture.
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