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| Actor Park Hae-soo / Courtesy of Netflix |
'Squid Game' actor reflects on busy year of acting
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Park Hae-soo cannot remember a busier period of acting in his 15-year career. In the span of just one year, he went from being a bit of a late bloomer to a global sensation ― all thanks to the success of "Squid Game," which took the world by storm and became the most-watched show on Netflix.
After making his debut through the musical, "Mister Lobby," in 2007, Park experienced a wave of success following his breakout role in tvN's "Prison Playbook" (2017). He even earned the nickname, "Netflix employee" after appearing in four Netflix series and movies: "Persona," "Time to Hunt," "Squid Game" and the latest, "Yaksha: Ruthless Operations."
The 40-year-old has attended several awards ceremonies, such as the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, to see his colleagues bring home trophies and meet some of Hollywood's biggest stars.
"It's extraordinary. I am thankful for the opportunity to present original Korean content to audiences globally," he said during a recent interview with The Korea Times.
Park talked about the global boom of Korean cultural content, adding how TV series and films can induce change in people's preferences.
"I think international audiences are impressed by the original plots and screenplays of Korean cultural content. They also respond to how stories depict the reality of human condition. In the past, major Hollywood studios would say they are looking for Asian actors. But now, they specifically want Korean actors," he said.
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| Actor Park Hae-soo in a scene from the film, "Yaksha: Ruthless Operations" / Courtesy of Netflix |
His new film, "Yaksha," a film about Korean spies taking up a dangerous mission in China, landed at No. 3 on the Netflix movie chart worldwide.
The spy action film follows the story of Ji-hoon (Park), a prosecutor in the National Intelligence Service who is given the task of inspecting the Shenyang branch and the leader of the overseas black operation team, Kang-in (Seol Kyung-gu). Digging into Kang-in, Ji-hoon gets dragged into a perilous mission in a Chinese city riddled with spies from the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan and China.
Park described Ji-hoon as a bookish character who has high moral values. Because the film involves heavy action sequences, he performed real-life action scenes ― mostly chase sequences, fist fights and even jumped off a bridge.
"I personally prefer taking a physical approach to acting. When I prepare for a role, the first thing I do is to explore the character's walking style or capture every little action of his," he said.
However, he agreed that the film lacks a cohesive tone between each actor.
"I wish I had shown why Ji-hoon is so desperate to go after the black ops team. I think we didn't delve into it in more detail. I agree that my character falls flat," he said.
Although he is now a global star, Park said he doesn't have immediate plans to star in a project overseas.
"My concern is not whether the project is global or not. Nothing has changed, really. I still choose my works based on the script, the character and the director because I'm confident that our (Korean) original stories are good enough to arouse empathy from viewers around the world," he said.
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