(following interview ③) Film Wild Sing director Son Jae-gon revealed the casting backstory of actor Oh Jung-se.
Son Jae-gon conducted an interview on the morning of the 28th at a café in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. At this meeting he met domestic reporters and talked about his new film Wild Sing.
The film Wild Sing, which opens on June 3, is a comedy about a mixed-gender three-member dance group called "Triangle," which once swept the music scene but was unexpectedly caught up in an incident and disbanded overnight, mounting a reckless challenge to seize a comeback opportunity that arrives 20 years later. It is a new work from the production company of Extreme Job, the comedy that thrilled about 16.26 million viewers in 2019, and Son Jae-gon directed it.
In particular, Wild Sing raises expectations as actors Gang Dong-won, Park Ji-hyun and Um Tae-goo take on the roles of Triangle members Hyun Woo, Do-mi and Sang-gu respectively, preparing by practicing actual dance and song. Adding to that, actor Oh Jung-se plays the rival of Triangle, ballad singer Choi Sung-gon, adding laughter. In fact, Oh Jung-se's perennial No. 2 hit song "I like you" from the film has been pre-released before the film's opening and is drawing attention.
Son Jae-gon explained the casting of Oh Jung-se, saying, "We had talked about doing another project together first. And Oh Jung-se and I started around similar times in our careers, so we knew each other. Not that we saw each other often. I thought we would someday work together. I make comedy dramas and Oh Jung-se is good at comic acting. But since I don't do a lot of projects, I couldn't understand why it took so long for us to work together," he said, describing the background.
He continued, "Even so, Oh Jung-se's presence changed over time. It's not that he became more popular; he didn't do that much comedy even before. He had built up a lot of experience as an actor, but at some point his acting felt different—not that he suddenly aged, but that it felt like he was doing his own acting. Since this was his first time in the actual project, I felt that Oh Jung-se agonized over every scene and met a lot about it," and added, "He didn't make a big show of it, but seeing him pour that much energy into each work made me worry, because he did many other projects. Even when the script was followed exactly for each scene, he added ideas, and many scenes were maximized by accepting Oh Jung-se's ideas even though the scene itself stayed the same."
He also emphasized, "Like action films, you inevitably receive help, but what the actor actually does and what relies entirely on technology are different. So I demand to some extent. But I don't put it in the contract. What if they say they won't do it? So it's important how much the actor will actually do. It's not a matter of good or bad but emerges from the actors' working styles. I don't think it's bad to do only as much as will appear in the film. But the Wild Sing actors practiced to the point of apology."
Son Jae-gon said, "When you edit, you feel apologetic. You can only show a part of the making-of. Regardless of whether someone is introverted or extroverted, it's not easy for actors to concentrate in front of the camera when trying to focus in practice, so exceptionally we set specific times and planned to shoot the making-of," and added, "Of course I also worked a lot outside those times. The director does the most work. But I felt sorry about the dance and rap. In particular, Oh Jung-se pondered for a long time about how much of even the small choreography in the film he should do."
(continued from interview ⑤)<
[photo] Provided by Lotte Entertainment.
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