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 Lee Sang-yi, Woo Do-hwan build special bond through 'Bloodhounds'
Actors Lee Sang-yi, left, and Woo Do-hwan play boxers in Netflix's new original series “Bloodhounds.” Courtesy of Netflix
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
Actors Lee Sang-yi and Woo Do-hwan appear as boxers on Netflix's new Korean original series, “Bloodhounds,” to deliver an adrenaline-filled action bromance.
The two actors shared that the process of creating their characters to film this series led them to form a sense of companionship.
The 8-part action series, based on the webcomics of the same name, revolves around two young boxers, Kim Geon-woo (Woo) and Hong Woo-jin (Lee). After fighting each other for a final match, the two become friends, sharing the same dream.
After his mother incurs a huge debt from a ruthless loan shark named Kim Myeong-gil (Park Sung-woong), the two boxers join hands with a benevolent moneylender to take down Kim, who preys on the financially vulnerable.
A scene from the series “Bloodhounds" / Courtesy of Netflix
“There are mutual actors so I've heard that (Woo) is a hard-working actor like he puts in a lot of effort and is earnest when he takes on a project … And when we meet up for rehearsal and table reading, he asked a lot of questions. And having a lot of questions means he put in a lot of thought into the work,” Lee said during an interview with The Korea Times, in Jongno District, Thursday.
“We would go to the gym together to work out even when we were filming outside Seoul and would get chicken breast. Regardless of the series' success, we have a sense of companionship. The more you struggle, the more memories you have. So we kept an unusual friendship.”
To play the characters, Lee and Woo put in extra effort to learn the skills and make themselves physically resemble professional boxers.
Woo added that Lee gave him emotional support during the tough process.
“We would check on each other to see if we worked out or followed the diet … And I was always motivated by seeing Lee struggling hard. But we never told each other we want to quit. I relied on him a lot,” he said.
The series “Bloodhounds" ranked second on Netflix's weekly streaming chart for non-English series / Courtesy of Netflix
Led by filmmaker Kim Joo-hwan, who directed the 2017 comedy buddy movie, "Midnight Runners,” the series opened on June 9 and ranked second on Netflix's official weekly streaming chart for non-English series this week.
Lee and Woo both expressed that this series was a challenge for them.
“For me, 'Bloodhounds' was the first work since I ended mandatory military service, so there was a lot of pressure. I was also nervous because I've never played such a character. I've always done hard-outside-but-soft-inside, funny or cool characters,” Woo said. “But Geon-woo is just like a puppy. Sometimes he's cute but sometimes he's like a fool. Yet, he needs to be better at action than anyone else. So it was full of things I've never done.”
This is the first action series for Lee. He shared that he wanted to show off his versatility through this character.
“In my previous works, I would play characters who had crushes on women, like in 'Youth of May' and 'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha,'” he said. “I wanted to show a different side of me … like I wanted people to know that I can do action and I can have a ripped body. That was my goal and I think I did it pretty successfully.”