“Money Heist: Korean” Kim Ji-hun, “Rising to stardom 20 years after my debut… I feel so overwhelmed”
Actor Kim Ji-hun shared his honest thoughts on his recent popularity and some behind stories of his appearance in “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area”.
Actor Kim Ji-hun (41 years old) gained recognition 20 years after his debut. Starring in “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area”, he attracted keen attention from global viewers with his sexy charm. Although the drama only ranked 3rd in Netflix’s global ranking with mixed reviews, Kim Ji-hun received many compliments and was nicknamed “Hot Guy” by fans worldwide.
“This popularity got me bewildered”, Kim Ji-hun confessed. Through a recent video interview, Kim Ji-hun laughed as he said, “Right after the drama was released on the 24th of last month, I received a lot of SNS direct messages (DM) saying ‘Marry me’ in different languages. I’ve never gained such an explosive interest. I can’t believe it”.
“It was obvious that I had to do the bed scene”
Kim Ji-hun played the role of Denver, a member of the robbery gang trying to overtake the Mint of a unified Korea. He portrays a loyal and generous character and performs the Busan dialect. His subtle romance with Lee Joo-bin, who plays an employee of the Mint, is also considered a crucial factor that contributed to the popularity of the drama. The fandom of “Denver-Miseon Couple” was expanded even more thanks to their high-level bed scene.
He shared, “There are more steamy bed scenes in the original Spanish film. That’s why I naturally accepted it when I got cast in this remake version. It was the first time I and Joo-bin performed such an intense bed scene so we often whined ‘What should we do?’ whenever we had time. It was like finishing homework right before its due date. Haha! Sharing the same burdensome, we formed a strong comradeship and filmed it safely.”
He also revealed how hard he worked on Busan dialect acting. In fact, it was the way he chose to make a breakthrough from the image of the ‘General Manager’ established through many weekend dramas, especially MBC’s “Jang Bo-ri Is Here!”
“I asked Bae Hyun-kyung, an actor from Busan, to teach me the script for 3 months. I wanted to emphasize the tough image, so I visited rapper Simon Dominic. Thanks to them, I was able to use the ‘real’ Busan dialect properly.“
“Erase ‘Weekend Drama Prince’ image”
Although he became “Weekend Drama Prince” after debuting with KBS 2TV’s “Loving You” in 2002, he has been suffering from a thirst for “I want to do various genres“. It is expected that “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area” will serve as his “base to show a new image in the future”.
“I’ve been acting similar images in weekend and daily dramas for 15 years. After playing the villain in ‘Flower of Evil’ (2020), I rested for 2 years and waited until I met a new character. That was ‘Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area’. As a result, the drama’s global success comes to me more differently. I’m so proud and grateful that my efforts have paid off.“
About part 2, which will be released at the end of the year, he expressed confidence, “I’ll become the robber gang’s ‘central axis’.”
“Various reactions to the drama are what I expected when I heard about the remake. The original was loved so much that it’s natural to be compared. However, I’m confident that you will change your mind after watching part 2. It’s probably two times more interesting.”
Source: daum
