(continued from interview ③) Actor Kwak Dong- yeon shared his thoughts on taking on the fantasy historical drama genre through East Palace.
On the morning of the 24th, an interview with East Palace lead actor Kwak Dong- yeon was held at a café in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
Released on the 17th, East Palace tells the story of Gucheon (Nam Joo-hyuk), who has the ability to cross between the world of ghosts (鬼), and the court maid Saenggang (Roh Yoon-seo), who keeps a secret, who answer the king (Cho Seung-woo)'s call and unravel the curse that haunts East Palace. In the series Kwak Dong- yeon appeared as the crown prince and delivered a passionate performance.
Kwak Dong- yeon said, "Actually, from the very first shoot my character could have been a spoiler just by existing, so we were asked to be careful every time the release approached. As I recall, they released a still cut on the day of release or the day before." He added, "What I felt most sorry about was that fans asked incessantly what was going on, but even while filming I couldn't say we were filming. Some people enjoy waiting for a surprise reveal, but others get frustrated, and that bothered me the most. Now that it's released I mostly feel relieved."
When asked why he joined the project, he said, "At first I couldn't imagine a historical drama combined with fantasy. I worried a lot because it was hard to envision how it would be visualized. But I have a very close relationship with the director at the production company that made East Palace, and thanks to that trust in the directors I was able to participate in a good project."
The crown prince Kwak Dong- yeon played is a character with the biggest twist in the work, and in the latter part he had to undergo heavy prosthetic makeup and even perform advanced wire action. He said, "In episodes 7 to 8 I appear with my hair turned white, and the prosthetic makeup was difficult then. They attached rubber patches from my neck to my face. So no matter what expression I tried to make, it was hard, and when I wore lenses my vision was poor, so I felt like my hands and feet were tied when trying to express things acting-wise. As filming went on I adapted to some degree, and since the action sequences were so large, I thought that if I couldn't use my face I would express more with my body."
He continued, "At first the prosthetic makeup took about four hours. The makeup team gradually sped up. Later it was reduced to about two hours. It was glued to the face, but because it was summer it kept falling off, so touch-ups took more time. When removing it we used something like oil, and at the time my skin was damaged a lot, but modern medicine helped," he said with a laugh.
As a fantasy, the action was also extraordinary. Displaying flashy action filled with CG toward the end, Kwak Dong- yeon said, "That sequence was filmed almost at the very end, so the set was really in a hurry. We practiced enough at the action school before, but the seniors from the action school were so professional on set. I'm actually a case that is very sensitive about safety, but the stunt team senior members took special care regarding safety in advance, so I trusted everyone on set and threw my body into it."
He said, "It was amazing to make the ground rise and send off vengeful spirits with a hand gesture to attack. I thought performing with a chroma key had become a necessary gateway even for actors in Korea, so it was good to experience that on set, discuss it with the CG team and staff, and build up experience communicating about how to match the sources that would go into the scene."
When asked whether he expected to work this hard despite it being a special appearance, Kwak Dong- yeon laughed and said, "I never dreamed it." He added, "It was a fun experience. It was a shoot that condensed a lot of technical elements. Lighting and action sequences with wires and equipment were such that as an actor it will remain good experience for future work."
He, who said other actors must have had a hard time too, said, "I once teased the director while watching an edited cut on set, jokingly calling him a 'scary person.' Actor Moon Woo-jin, who played the king (Cho Seung-woo)'s childhood, shot a scene entering a pond in midwinter. He seemed to have broken the ice and gone in. But the shot was so beautifully filmed. I joked, 'Do you dunk people in that ice water?' Seeing that made me think the actors and staff poured their souls into the shoot. I also went into the water, but I'm relieved it wasn't icy water," he said with a laugh.
He added, "Working on East Palace taught me a lot about how to view a project. The picture I imagined when I first read the script and the resulting picture are worlds apart. If I put it concretely, I realized how greatly the technical teams, like the lighting and other technical crews, shape the work. It seemed even more so for the fantasy genre. Of course, an actor's performance is important, but all the parts' envisioned pictures come together to make the work. Going forward, when I work I learned that communicating more about the pictures the staff and production team envision will help us catch each other's needs faster and reach a good destination."
[Photo] The Black Label
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