"East Palace" Nam Joo-hyuk confessed that he lost 7kg while filming.
On the morning of the 21st at a cafe on Samcheong-ro in Jongno-gu, Seoul, an interview was held with Nam Joo-hyuk, the lead actor of the Netflix series "East Palace."
"East Palace" tells the story of Gucheon (played by Nam Joo-hyuk), who can travel between the world of ghosts (鬼) and the human world, and the court lady Saenggang (played by Roh Yoon-seo), who keeps secrets, as they answer the king's (Cho Seung-woo) summons and uncover the curse that haunts the East Palace. It attracted attention even before its release as Nam Joo-hyuk's post-military comeback work.
Nam Joo-hyuk gave a passionate performance as Gucheon, who had lived apart from the world but is ordered by the king to pursue the curse tied to the East Palace. Gucheon is a character who moves between the world of ghosts and the human world and lives a lonelier life than anyone else. He carries inner wounds but also has a playful and free-spirited temperament. He led the narrative from the center of the drama and demonstrated a weighty presence.
Nam Joo-hyuk, who completed his military service in September last year, ended his relationship with his former agency Management Soop in December that year. He then settled with a new agency, Fable Company. In addition to his comeback work "East Palace," he is also slated to appear in "Code," the new film by director Yoo Su-min of "Weak Hero."
"East Palace" rose to number one on Netflix Korea immediately after its release, and Nam Joo-hyuk said, "Contacts have been coming in from around me, and when I heard the news that it was number one, it felt amazing. But oddly, when I receive contacts from around me, I feel calmer. It's been about three to four days since the release, and the more time passes, the calmer I feel."
It was a production with unusually many CGI scenes, and he said, "During filming there were many parts where CGI would be added, so the environment itself was often unfinished. So I filmed while imagining it. Even when I watched the finished work, many parts matched what I had imagined. There were many images beyond my imagination. It seemed they produced results in postproduction equal to what I had imagined. Filming was difficult, but personally I'm satisfied."
Showing a range of performances from sword action to underwater action, Nam Joo-hyuk said, "I went straight into it about two to three months after discharge. At that time my weight was about 85kg. Because I was in the military I ate well and was doing fine. But by the end of filming I was 78kg. My pre-military weight had originally been 78kg. So I returned to normal. I returned to my pre-enlistment, pre-activity weight," and explained, "If you look at the early scenes, Gucheon is chubby. (laughs) I thought I could use that well. Gucheon's backstory isn't fully shown, but he was a kid who ate a lot of temple food and lived comfortably in a temple; after first entering the palace he goes back and forth to the world of ghosts and gradually becomes weaker. We dressed that state well."
In response to the remark, "You must have wanted to act while in the military," he said, "From about the rank of corporal, my desire to act grew. When the discharge date was near, I thought, 'I have to focus more and do well.' With that mindset I filmed 'East Palace,' and I think I gave 120%. I poured everything I had dreamed of into it. The Gucheon character required that I give everything. I really gave 120%."
Meanwhile, "East Palace" was released worldwide in about 190 countries through Netflix on the 17th. <
[Photo] Provided by Netflix
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