Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
INTERVIEW Tang Joon-sang of 'Racket Boys' says months of badminton practice paid off
Actor Tang Joon-sang plays Yoon Hae-kang, an ace player on the middle school's badminton team, in SBS sports drama “Racket Boys.” Courtesy of CL& Company
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
SBS sports drama “Racket Boys,” which ended Monday, has garnered popularity not only with the feel-good storyline and its actors' compelling performance, but also with the young actors' badminton skills, which caught viewers' attention.
Actor Tang Joon-sang, who plays Yoon Hae-kang, an ace player on the middle school's badminton team, explained that his months of practicing badminton since last October ― even before filming the series ― have paid off.
“Because Hae-kang is a badminton prodigy, I didn't want to wing it. I wanted to seem like an actual professional player,” Tang said during a recent interview with The Korea Times via video chat. “I needed to portray a professional's techniques and movements, so I had to train myself hard. It was very difficult and physically challenging, but once I saw how it came out in the scenes, I felt that it was worth it.”
Helmed by Jo Yeong-gwang, who directed the TV series, "Heart Surgeons" and "Hyde Jekyll, Me," “Racket Boys” follows a middle school badminton team from a small town as they try to win in the national junior league. It is scripted by Jung Bo-hoon, who is known for writing the tvN series, "Prison Playbook."
Hae-kang moves from the city to join the team, which is on the brink of falling apart, when his dad and former pro-badminton player, Hyun-jong (Kim Sang-kyung), takes the coaching job to rescue the team.
He is disappointed with his life in the small rural town and in quitting baseball to join the team, but as he opens up to the other boys on the team, he starts to find another purpose from the sport.
The poster for the series / Courtesy of SBS
The 18-year-old actor said that working in this series helped him grow as a person.
“I think that I learned a lot from the series, because I was working with actors of my age as well as with veteran actors who are much older than I am,” he said. “I came to learn how I should interact with different people and work in harmony from this series.”
He also added that he grew very close with each of the actors on the badminton team ― Choi Hyun-wook, Son Sang-yeon, Kim Kang-hoon and Kim Min-ki ― as they helped each other with acting.
“We all had the same goal, to get to know each other as fast as we could, to show great team chemistry. And as we practiced badminton together, that was just naturally accomplished,” he said, adding that they would play against each other for fun in between shooting the scenes.
“Even though we are all about the same age, they were also skilled in acting, so that helped us get into the scenes better. I would be spurred on by their acting and would also share my ideas on how to make the scenes better. We learned a lot from each other.”
Scenes from the series / Pan Entertainment
Since debuting as a child actor at the age of seven in the musical, “Billy Elliot,” Tang has already built a diverse portfolio, with roles ranging from a young North Korean soldier on tvN's “Crash Landing on You,” and a trauma cleaner with Asperger's syndrome in Netflix's “Move to Heaven.”
The actor said that he is the most thrilled when viewers see him completely differently for each role.
“My favorite comment (about my acting) is how I look completely different from my previous roles, like, 'I didn't know it was the same guy who played in 'Crash Landing on You' or 'Move to Heaven,'” he said. “That's what I care most about, portraying a different way of acting in each work, so those compliments make me feel like I'm walking on air.”
When asked if he ever wanted to try different jobs other than that of an actor, Tang expressed a firm belief in his choice of career, despite having started acting at such a young age.
“The reason I became an actor is so I can try out different occupations. Since I was young, I've always had so many things I wanted to become, like the president, a police officer, a soccer player and so on,” he said. “Acting is work that allows people to get a glimpse of various other jobs, so I intend to have those experiences as an actor.”