[Translation] Lee Dong Wook – Vogue Korea December 2023 issue magazine interview

How Lee Dong Wook and Lim Soo Jung live as singles

Lee Dong Wook and Lim Soo Jung, saying their names in succession is as if a love from an unfamiliar world comes to this world and touches your lips. Perhaps like a dream, their names appear side by side in the movie “Single in Seoul”.

A Walk of Musical Notes, Lee Dong Wook

“Please sit on a chair with a backrest.” Lee Dong Wook said. The 2pm sunlight that shone through the studio window was as cool as water pouring from a sprinkler. It’s hard not to marvel at Lee Dong Wook when you see him. Be it appearance or personality. He tends to laugh off compliments. “It’s embarassing.”

The staff at the filming studio brought over a chair with a large backrest. “After reading the questionnaire that you gave me in advance, I thought, ‘What does this mean?’ and my hands and feet curled up.” Lee Dong Wook raised both hands and gathered the tips of his fingers. Lee Dong Wook has a talent to make the person he looks at seem special. Many people read a romantic mood coming from him. Was that the result of a well-organised act? When you meet the gaze of his eyes, you will understand that Lee Dong Wook’s talent lies in his eyes, as if you were reading a clear text in a Korean language book. The narrative of the eye is the accumulation of time, but what emotions has he filled his life with? But since he is so embarrassed, I shall stop this embarrassing investigation here.

Lee Dong Wook played the role of Youngho, a power influencer who insists on being single, in the year-end movie “Single in Seoul”. He receives an offer to write a book about single life. “Youngho is a character who builds walls and breaks off relationships. I can relate to it, but he is different from me. I tend to observe when someone approaches me. I like my time alone, but it’s much more fun to be with people.” Sweeping up his dry hair with his hand, he changed the subject. “I don’t believe in MBTI. The depth of humans is like the universe, it’s a bit difficult to judge it based on just a few alphabets.” But MBTI is created because the depth of human beings is like the universe. Because we need an easy standard for understanding humans. Of course, for Lee Dong Wook, four alphabets can never be the standard for “understanding”. The moment I thought about it, I think I knew where his romantic mood came from. But I shook my head because I thought I shouldn’t understand humans too easily.

“There is a scene where Youngho is writing a book and reads what he wrote through narration. He praises singles in a very serious way. It may be a bit harsh if I say this, but it’s like bullshit logic. He says ‘Everyone who is not single now are all guilty!’” What, guilty? He laughed.  Such exaggerated language may be how “Single in Seoul” makes the audience laugh. But does Lee Dong Wook hate exaggeration? “That’s right! I don’t know why the director wrote that part in the scenario, but Youngho was wearing hip-hop style clothes and wearing large dangling jewellery… ” Like a rapper in “Show Me The Money”? I interrupt and ask, and he immediately follows at a faster pace. “Yes! There is a scene where I wear a snapback and look at the mirror feeling very satisfied. It was a scene that appeared very briefly, but I have never dressed like that in my life.” It probably would have been ridiculous. But I only thought of that to myself, and I said “wow, that would have been cool.” “Oh, yes, maybe because people at the film set said that, but I was so embarrassed to see myself in the mirror, not as Youngho, but Lee Dong Wook.” Lee Dong Wook breathed out like a runner with a high heart rate. It may be an embarrassing scene for him, but the audience will enjoy it. Because you wouldn’t get to see Lee Dong Wook with that kind of appearance. He gave a hollow smile with a facial expression that says “no, that’s not it”.  At that moment, a movie promoter who was sitting next to him spoke in a tone as gentle as a blanket, “It’s been edited.” Lee Dong Wook turned his head and looked at him/her. “Has it been edited? Ah yeah. Great. Good. That’s what I said, it doesn’t suit.” I didn’t ask if he meant that it didn’t suit the movie or if it didn’t suit him. “The other parts are very realistic.” After finishing the interview, I heard this from actress Lim Soo Jung. “Dong Wook sshi says he doesn’t like it, but he does everything eventually. He doesn’t just do it, he does it well.”

When we look up records about Lee Dong-wook, it appears that he ‘doesn’t know much about new slangs.’ The press release for “Single in Seoul” introduces Lee Dong Wook as a ‘flirting master who makes your heart flutter.’ Does he know the word ‘flirting’? “I knew about it not long ago. When we were young, we would use expressions such as ‘work on it’. ‘Seduce’? That’s right, we used this kind of word. But at the press conference, I was asked what is my flirting technique? There isn’t. I don’t have any.” That day, Lim Soo Jung said, “Lee Dong Wook himself is flirting personified”. That makes sense. Even though he played the role of a murderer in the drama “Strangers from Hell”, there was a feeling of bromance with the victim Im Siwan. “When I’m in front of a person I like, I become no longer fun. Gags and reactions are all about timing. I missed that timing.” I said, Lee Dong Wook is also a human. He followed my words. “I am human”.

There is a special scene. Lee Dong Wook and Lim Soo Jung briefly met in the drama “Search WWW”. Lee Dong Wook appeared in one scene as Lim Soo Jung’s past lover. The elevator door opened and Lee Dong Wook came out along with the light. Lim Soo Jung stood in front. “It was thanks to the lighting. It was dazzling even when I saw it. I was a cameo and only appeared in that scene, so I think they did it strategically that way.” But in between the light, between his co-star and Lee Dong Wook, whether it is the emotions or narrative, Lee Dong Wook is an actor who bridges the gap. His elegance is that he calmly sinks into the space, and that is a quality that constitutes Lee Dong Wook other than acting; the “flirting” that makes a person fall in love with him.

“While working on this project, I learned why Lim Soo Jung is a good actress. I tend to be impatient. So, there are many times where I say ‘That is that’ and express in a way that is definitive, like a formula. Actress Lim Soo Jung will pause for a while, think more and decide what to take out and what to include. Thanks to her, I was able to look back on the emotions I expressed. That was a huge help.”

Each and every one of the words he pronounced sounded round and soft. His language seemed to exist to show respect to someone, and his feelings seemed sincere to me. But judging a person’s character is not the point of this article.

Lee Dong Wook’s routine on his rest days at home is exercising and watching TV. He mentioned in various interviews. “That’s right, that’s all.” He couldn’t recall the title of the movie he watched recently, so while he took out his handphone, I told him that I had seen the anime “H2” more than 10 times. He likes the works of the “H2” manga artist, Mitsuru Adachi. “Hiro’s mother went to the hospital because she was sick, and in the next cut, a funeral portrait of Haruka’s mother appears.” I couldn’t remember that scene. It also seems different from what I remember. But there was something more important to him than the content. “So this is the point. The way the anime unfolds is similar to the storyboard. Cut placement! That scene has a really excellent storyboard, and excellent cut placement. When I was young, the death itself was a shock, but when I grew up and watched it again, I think I liked this author because of this kind of arrangement.” He spoke about a few more scenes. Details that I don’t remember even though I’ve seen it more than 10 times. He also spoke about the works of other manga artists and famous Korean comic artists. After he became an adult and had more financial freedom, he bought all the comic books that he liked as a child, and he still keeps some of them without even opening the box. A person who likes what he likes. A person who discovers the reason for what he likes, and likes that same reason again. I wanted to write that this is the way he deals with the world, but I think he would feel embarrassed, so I deleted it and wrote again.

The questionnaire displayed on the iPad is almost reaching the end. Lee Dong Wook waited for the next question with a smile on his face. An expression without any pressure, without any sign of being on guard. So I asked something that felt somewhat cautious. I asked if he decides on his next steps while thinking about his future as an actor, or if he feels more relaxed as time goes by. He gathered the sunlight like a snowball and threw it at my face. It’s a lie. No one could possibly do that. But I could feel it. He spoke with that kind of feeling. “I am the latter. It has been around 25 years since I debuted, so what now? I want to do what I want, and I want to do it when they find me. If I get multiple project offers, I want to choose the one that I like the most. I think it won’t be fun if I’m too cautious.”

On the YouTube channel “Pinggyego” hosted by Yoo Jae Suk, Lee Dong Wook appeared and once introduced himself saying, “Hello, I’m YouTuber and actor Lee Dong Wook.” “That’s right. ‘Actor’ went to the back (of the introduction).  But it feels burdensome when someone else says that to me. Yes, well, through YouTube activities…”, Lee Dong Wook couldn’t continue his sentence and laughed. “It’s funny to say with my own mouth that I am a YouTuber. I think that through my YouTube activities, I have gained younger fans who didn’t know me, and it has definitely helped me expand my reach.” He found a beneficial aspect again. But it’s good even without any beneficial aspects though.

The question that made Lee Dong Wook’s hands and feet curl up at the start of the interview was “When Lee Dong Wook acts and looks at someone, it seems like musical notes are moving around in his eyes. What kind of background music should be played?” He said he listened to Baek Yerin’s “A Walk” a few days ago, and that song came to mind after reading the question. Someday, I think we will see a scene of Lee Dong Wook’s musical notes pouring out along with that song.

[Excerpt mentioning Lee Dong Wook from Lim Soo Jung’s portion of the interview]

Outside the makeup room was full of commotion. Lim Soo Jung made a heart with her fingers and sent transparent emotions through the small glass of the swing door. It seemed that after finishing his photoshoot, Lee Dong Wook saw Lim Soo Jung and made a heart with his hands first. “Dongwook-sshi makes people happy. But just now, he was like the Grim Reaper for a moment.”

Source: Vogue Korea

Translated from Korean to English by Gabby. Please credit if sharing on other platforms. Please do not duplicate my entire translation elsewhere without permission. You may translate to other languages.

Click here for behind-the-scenes photos: https://naver.me/5pHYzllD