Singer and actor Jung Jihoon candidly confessed, "If I'm given a role with justification, I want to wreck my body."
On the afternoon of the 8th at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, an interview was held with Jung Jihoon (Bi), the lead actor of the Netflix series Bloodhounds 2.
Bloodhounds 2 depicts Gunwoo (Woo Do Hwan) and WOOJIN (Lee Sang Yi), who beat up a ruthless gang of illegal loan sharks, delivering another satisfying straight hook against a global illegal boxing league governed by money and violence. It is the sequel released three years after Bloodhounds season 1, which was released as an eight-episode series in 2023.
According to the Netflix TOP10 website on the day, Bloodhounds 2 recorded 5,000,000 views (the value obtained by dividing viewing time by the show's total running time) three days after its release and ranked second in the global top 10 series (non-English) category. From immediately after its release until today, it not only took first place in Korea's top 10 series but also appeared on the top 10 lists in 67 countries worldwide.
Jung Jihoon delivered a fiery performance as the villain Baek Jeong, who heightens explosive tension by clashing with Gunwoo and WOOJIN in the story. Baek Jeong moves solely for money and operates a global illegal boxing league run by massive viewership and huge betting. His overwhelming, powerful visuals and a fishy smile that seems to enjoy the situation hint at the ruthless attacking nature of the villain. Above all, Jung Jihoon challenged a villain role for the first time in his 28-year career and newly joined this season 2 as a villain.
In Bloodhounds 2, where he showed several exposures, Jung Jihoon said, "Maybe I should stop taking my clothes off now. After this work, I thought, 'I should stop taking my clothes off.' (laughs) They call it body design, and the director's instruction was, 'I want Baek Jeong to look huge.' The bulked-up Baek Jeong is a butcher who catches oxen and people, but he said he didn't want him to be fat. I worried a lot about what to match it to," adding, "I didn't want the body to look too good, so I thought let's make it like a real killing machine. So I built such a body. But now I can't do that anymore. It's hard, and I don't even want to do it anymore," revealing his true feelings and drawing laughter.
Jung Jihoon, who said he repeated reading the script and then working out again after filming, said, "It was so hard. I heard athletes say that when they retire they stop completely. When you build your body, viewers think that's natural, but if I become even slightly lazy, the public will think, 'he's let go.'" He explained, "For now I have work to do, so I'm exercising steadily.. If you suddenly try to do it after not doing it, building the body is too hard. I'm doing a little bit every day, but it's not easy. Now I've reduced some muscle to make it slim."
He said, "I should probably stop taking my clothes off if possible. (laughs) If any director gives me the chance, I want to try lazy acting. I'm confident in that," and added, "I love eating so much that if I'm only given roles where my stomach sticks out this much and my body is wrecked, I'll do my best to stop."
Meanwhile, Bloodhounds 2 was released to more than 190 countries around the world through Netflix on the 3rd.
[Photo] Provided by Netflix
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