Lee Sang-min revealed that after paying off 6.9 billion won in debt, his revenue last year alone exceeded 1.5 billion won, and he spoke about this directly.
On the afternoon of the 21st, an interview with Lee Sang-min for the Wavve original variety show "Bloody Game X" was held at the Content Wavve building in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.
Lee Sang-min returned to a survival program 11 years after The Genius 2, captivating viewers with surprising strategies and seasoned play. However, he delivered the disappointing news that he withdrew for personal reasons.
He said his wife played a big role in his appearance on Bloody Game X, explaining, "She is a very precious person to me. When I received the offer in November and was considering it, my wife said, 'If you're thinking about it, don't you want to go? Go.' She's the kind of person who really likes these survival shows. She told me to go since she was enjoying Bloody Game, which helped me decide."
When asked about his wife's reaction to seeing the broadcast, Lee Sang-min candidly said, "She asked why I was drinking and playing the game like that, and said my face looked red in every scene on TV. She said she didn't like seeing that," which drew laughter.
After suffering massive debt from a failed business in 2005, Lee Sang-min paid off the entire 6.97 billion won debt after 20 years. In addition, he revealed on this program that his annual salary last year was "1.5 billion won."
Asked whether he felt any burden about disclosing his actual income, he replied, "I didn't feel burdened. The salary is accurate, and I reported it to the National Tax Service and paid all the taxes, so there's no need to downplay it," he retorted. He added, "I think I'm a rather dangerous person. When I enter a survival program, I should be careful about my character, but I entered the game without that, so many people seemed surprised."
The Genius 2, which Lee Sang-min appeared on 11 years ago, was an individual survival format, while this Bloody Game X proceeded as a team-based survival. Of course, Bloody Game X switched to individual play when 10 members remained, but Lee Sang-min voluntarily withdrew before that and only played the team matches.Was it not difficult to adapt?
Lee Sang-min said, "It wasn't hard to adapt. In the past, The Genius 2 recorded once a week. When you went out and came back, you would hear other people's stories, but here it was actually advantageous for me to do things in one place. I couldn't play the individual matches because of that..." He continued, "Many people loved it up to episode 6, but when they saw episode 7, there were comments like, 'Lee Sang-min withdrew because he would lose in the individual round.' That's not the case..."
As the oldest member on Bloody Game X, Lee Sang-min is 31 years older than the youngest contestant, Gang Ji-hu, who was born in 2004. How was communication with the younger participants?
Lee Sang-min lamented, "I felt a sense of generational gap. The P1 team was a team that communicated well, but actually P3 and the Challenger team took time. Since Ji-hu was doing it for the first time, after completing the card combination he gave up when Yuhyeon said, 'Can you handle the P3 team?' I didn't understand how the game progressed with alliances forming; many things combined and it took time."
Meanwhile, during the 'night of plunder' there was also a physical clash with Shin Seung-yong. At the scene, Lee Sang-min said, "Since I play only according to the game's rules, and physical force was allowed, I didn't think of it differently. I couldn't know what the exit looked like with Seung-yong before the broadcast, and I only knew the situations with me and Jimin."
Lee Sang-min confessed, "The editing made it somewhat fun. Seung-yong took the money bag from Jimin, but there was a fake money bag. So the real money bag was discarded, and knowing that, Seung-yong got angry and came back. In the meantime I was picking up the money. Because we played the game for so long, I realized it when the mood settled afterward."
However, he said he felt he needed to mediate the situation for the sake of future games. He said, "I couldn't let this feeling carry over until tomorrow. We proceeded to play the next game regardless of what happened yesterday," adding, "Seung-yong was scary. If Seung-yong had been harboring malicious intent, it wouldn't have been scary, but it was frightening in the moment. Being at a survival for the first time, trying to protect things can make someone act without realizing it, so that's understandable."
He added, "(Seung-yong) was like King Kong. He had the strength to lift both me and Jimin. I still managed to get through the dangerous moment, but Exit was somewhat injured. Seung-yong wanted to take it, and Exit didn't want to give it up. The accident couldn't be predicted; it happens. I thought it was something that could happen, and played the game accordingly."
But regarding the claim that 'killing Shin Seung-yong' began after Lee Sang-min's departure, he speculated, "It was in a situation where I wasn't there. I don't think it was about killing Seung-yong because of past grudges. When someone decides to drive it that way, it gets guided that day," and added, "The memory of the night of plunder suddenly coming up on day 7 isn't natural. There must have been something else then. I think the idea of 'killing Shin Seung-yong' was created by thoughts from that time."
[Photo] Provided by Wavve
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