An actor who has starred in 3 movies with 10 million ticket sales recalls his experience of being homeless for a role
This actor actually experienced homelessness to serve his role in “Train to Busan”.
Actor Choi Gwi Hwa and comedian Kim Min Kyung appeared as guests on SBS Power FM’s radio program “Cultwo Show”, which was broadcast on August 8th.
Referring to Choi Gwi Hwa’s latest movie “The Roundup”, DJ Kim Tae Gyun asked him, “You came back as a 10 million actor. Is this your first movie with 10 million admissions?” Choi Gwi Hwa revealed that this was his third movie that recorded 10 million ticket sales.
Kim Tae Gyun then mentioned Choi Gwi Hwa’s first 10 million movie “Train to Busan” and asked, “You played a homeless person in the movie, and I heard that you actually experienced homelessness by living at Seoul Station for this role?”
Choi Gwi Hwa surprised everyone by replying, “I experienced it for about a day.” He continued, “Playing a homeless person can be realistic with makeup being roughly put on. But I was worried about whether it would look fake if I did it too easily. So I talked to the production team and the director and went to Seoul Station by myself.”
He added, “I had to look like a homeless person, but I didn’t know how to do it, so I bought two bottles of makgeolli (rice wine) and shrimp crackers in a black plastic bag and approached homeless people.“
“I started on the escalator side and gradually gained confidence and went to the big square,” Choi Gwi Hwa recalled his first experience of being homeless at the time.
After listening to this story, Kim Min Kyung asked, “Did (the homeless people) feel uncomfortable when an unfamiliar person approached them?” Choi Gwi Hwa said with a laugh, “I also thought, ‘What should I do if I get caught?’ but they didn’t doubt me at all. ‘Where have you been?’, ‘didn’t see you for a few days?’ The atmosphere was like that.“
Source: wikitree
