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 Son Suk-ku says Netflix 'D.P.' allowed new approach to creating character
Actor Son Suk-ku plays the role of Lim Ji-seop in the Netflix's military action series “D.P.” Courtesy of Netflix
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
Actor Son Suk-ku shared that his latest role as a soldier named Lim Ji-seop in the Netflix original series “D.P.,” gave him an opportunity to try a new approach to acting.
Actor Son Suk-ku / Courtesy of Netflix
“(With the character,) I learned to try creating and shaping the character as I go, exploring what will come out of it, rather than creating and planning the character in a box. It was an opportunity to switch the process. And Lim was the right character to try such an approach,” the actor told The Korea Times, during an interview in Gangnam District, Monday.
Led by director Han Jun-hee, the military action series follows soldiers Ahn Joon-ho (Jung Hae-in) and Han Ho-yeol (Koo Kyo-hwan), who are part of a special unit called Deserter Pursuit (D.P.) responsible for bringing back soldiers who go AWOL. The two track down deserters facing injustices and corruption in the organization as they learn about what caused the soldiers to abandon their posts.
Its second season, which was released on July 28, delves deeper into major cases like a mass shooting in the military triggered by corruption. After the death of a fellow soldier named Cho Suk-bong (Cho Hyun-chul), the two start to stand up against injustice and help correct wrongs.
Son portrays an army captain stationed at the same base as Ahn and Han. After graduating from an elite military academy, his only interest is to progress up the ladder of the organization, trying his best to avoid any incident that will jeopardize his ascent.
“From Season 1, I thought it would be interesting if my character, Lim, changes gradually if there's Season 2. And I didn't know how it will be portrayed. But when I saw the script (for the second season,) what intrigued me most was the subtle nature of this change," he said.
A scene from the series “D.P.” / Courtesy of Netflix
In the second season, Lim undergoes a change in his mindset, starting to question what's right and wrong and where he stands on the issue.
“I think (his change) started from Season 1's ending, where Lim recalls Cho's gunshot sound,” he said.
“But because he was on the other end of Jun-ho and Ho-yeol, I wanted that change to take an unexpected trajectory. I wanted him to be on the fence instead of going straight through changes. And I thought this made him more human.”
He explained he tried to make his character convincing so the viewers can resonate with his journey towards seeking justice.
“I gave a lot of ideas to find justifications for Lim. He learned a lot from Cho's case and blamed himself for what was not. But even then, I felt he was in it for his own desire to get reinstated to the base more than for the greater good. So I put in a lot of thoughts to how I should set the character in the beginning,” he said.
“You want to be different than the past but the circumstances head against your intention. So you get disappointed in yourself. But at times, setbacks can become the driving force for change, and that's what happened to Lim.”