[Exclusive]"I've reached the end of my life," but Jang Dong-ju, the end of the private tunnel..Let's run again [★FULL Interview]

*This content was translated by AI.

• SBS Friday-Saturday drama "I'm a Human from Today" interviewed actor Jang Dong-ju as Hyun Woo-seok

"I want to be an actor who keeps acting, no matter what the rice is." An actor who values his own art as an artist."

Actor Jang Dong-ju opened up about the enlightenment he gained while passing through a long tunnel in his personal history.

Star News recently met with Jang Dong-joo, who played an active role in SBS's Friday-Saturday drama "I'm a Human from Today" (hereinafter referred to as "Oh In-gan") and conducted an exclusive interview somewhere in Gwanak-gu, Seoul.

Oh In-gan, which ended on the 28th of last month, is a drama about a fantasy romance between an MZ Gumiho who does not want to be a human and a left-handed man with excessive self-love, and Jang Dong-ju played Hyun Woo-seok, a promising soccer player from the youth national team, and worked with Kim Hye-yoon as Eun-ho and Romon as Kang Si-yeol.

Jang Dong-ju increased the immersion of the play by expressing the emotional drop of Hyun Woo-seok, whose fate was reversed with Kang Si-yeol through a moment of choice, through detailed emotional acting. He was also praised for convincingly embodying the emotional density of a person dealing with the fate, misfortune, and misfortune given to him.

When asked about his feelings at the end of the show, Jang Dong-ju said, "I feel good and sad. I think it is difficult for any actor to be satisfied with his or her acting. Still, I am grateful that I was able to finish the show well within the scheduled schedule, and I am surprised and grateful that many overseas fans watched it."

Hyun Woo-seok, played by Jung Dong-ju, is a character who gives tension to the play. Jang Dong-ju said of the character, "I had a conviction that Woo-seok should not be seen as a villain and a person who interferes with other characters. (To Hyun Woo-seok) I have a selfish side, but I thought Woo-seok was a person who could clearly reveal human instincts and desires," he said.

"There are times when everyone is driven to the edge of a cliff in their lives. In that case, I don't think there is anyone who can do it like an adult gentleman. He expressed his affection for the character, saying, "I analyzed it as a symbolic person who can express the weakest image of human beings and the military image that has no choice but to reveal their reality."

How did you feel about your first acting with Kim Hye-yoon and Romon. Jang Dong-ju said, "I'm a junior and younger brother, but I've seen and learned a lot. Personality is fundamental, not to mention. Both of them are really good in character. (Kim)Hye-yoon recited all the lines she prepared and practiced without getting a single miss of To. I also thought they were actors with a reason to be prolific," he said, praising Kim Hye-yoon and Romon.

Jang Dong-ju focused on understanding the character's feelings to show Hyun Woo-seok's fluctuating inner and emotional fall. In this regard, he said, "I thought we should move according to our most animal instincts," adding, "In real life, we have to consider human relationships and various situations, and there is a sense of disparity within them. First of all, Wooseok is a person who has a father who only looks at himself. While enjoying many things in a changed life, he cannot accept the fear that all of a sudden disappears, and furthermore, he goes through a time-limited life. I thought it would be difficult when I thought, 'If it were me, would it be acceptable?' I tried to understand Wooseok's feelings," he explained.

I'm 33 years old, and I've only been acting since I was young until I reached this age. Everything happened in my life. In such a situation, people go all the way to the end," he confessed about the background of understanding Hyun Woo-seok's inner side.

Jang Dong-ju convincingly depicted the emotions of the characters who were in the extreme through Hyun Woo-seok, who could not accept the reversed result of fate in the second half of the play. In the play, Hyun Woo-seok was diagnosed with heart cancer in exchange for changing his fate with Kang Si-yeol and was destined for six months.

In response, Jang Dong-ju said, "It's a scene where Woo-seok's emotional line is very prominent," adding, "I was happy that the scenes had high ratings." I can feel the audience's reaction directly," he said, expressing satisfaction.

"Just as a person has a different mind when he enters the bathroom and leaves, Wooseok tried to spit it out because he used it (the price of his changed fate). I felt again that I was a symbol of a weak human group. As an actor, acting that point was the key and difficult point. He said, "I tried to act so that viewers could feel like 'I'm sad' and 'I wish I were sick' because I shouldn't hate Wooseok."

He said, "The hospital scene was filmed for a really long time. The director made everyone else go out, talked again, and matched them again, and filmed them," he added.

Jang Dong-ju, who debuted in 2012 with the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream," has proven his wide acting spectrum by appearing in dramas such as "School 2017," "Revenge Is Back," "Mr. Fixed-term," "I'll Be Your Night," "Trigger," and movies "Honest Candidate," "Count," and "Handsome Guys." In the meantime, he recently announced unexpected news and attracted a lot of attention outside his work.

On January 29, Jang Dong-ju confessed on his SNS that he had suffered damage from cell phone hacking and threats. At the time, he confessed to the damage, saying, "I borrowed money by any means," and "I lost billions of won in another debt because of the urgent debt," and later received a lot of support after it was known that he promised responsibility to creditors.

For Jang Dong-ju, who had a hard time due to unexpected things, "Five People" will be a special work. Jang Dong-joo said, "I am grateful that the director does not take out the small scenes where (current) Woo-seok is reflected and the important scenes in the narrative, but puts them on the show."

He said, "Of course, there is something that is unfortunate about receiving attention for things other than works. I should shine as Hyun Woo-seok as a work, but I am also sorry for the production team. (The reason why I confessed to the damage during the drama was) It was an extreme situation and an inevitable choice, but I still feel sorry for the timing. It's a work that's already been filmed, but (the creditors) don't know that, so they keep getting phone calls. That's why I opened up the situation I'm in," he explained.

"Many people were worried. From the end of last year to the present, all the difficult situations will be buried in 2025. I felt all the pain I could feel in life and went to the end of my life. I thought it was all over, and every time, my family and acquaintances helped me, and I tried to get back up, but I kept falling down. It was an infinite repetition of it," he recalled of the difficult period.

Jang Dong-ju said, "Since I was young, I often thought, 'Am I allowed to be this lucky?' I used to think that it was time for an ordeal to come, but everyone seems to be solid and grow only when they go through it and overcome it. So many people contacted me, and I said, 'There's nothing more to lose. When they say, "I'm done here," they say, "That's not the end." You have to put it down more and go down more. He said, 'That way you can kick the floor and come back up'. I found hope when I fell to the bottom like that," he said, revealing what he realized through this incident.

He also said, "I spent the end of the year and the beginning of the year that I put down," adding, "Everything is something to pass by, and I'm going to go back to my original intention by solving it one by one. My family also said, 'Didn't you come to Seoul without any money and achieve it for 10 years. They cheered a lot, saying, 'You can go back to that time.' After the time I've heard both hands and feet by myself, I'm opening them up and sharing my struggles to solve the current situation.

Jang Dong-ju, who spent a long time like a tunnel as an actor and a human being, tries to move forward with the whole situation as a blessing in disguise. Jang Dong-ju, who humbly self-deprecated his past acting career as "full of mistakes," also realized what he realized through this incident is "humility."

Jang Dong-ju said, "I learned a lot about humility through personal things," adding, "I've been doing well without any major trials or problems, but looking back, I was full of mistakes. I think there was a lack of behavior and posture. If you've believed in yourself and lived like you were heading to the ground, now I'm going to try to learn more," he said.

The view of life has expanded as well. Jang Dong-ju said, "I think my thoughts on acting and my work have changed a lot. Now, I'm trying to focus on 'Can my life get better' when I'm doing a piece of work, he said.

Jang Dong-ju cited the rooftop scene where all the sign rooms gather in the play as the most impressive anecdote during the filming of "Five People." He said, "That scene was my first call, but I was all frozen because of the previous shoot, and I had a lot of lines. Because the wind is blowing, my mouth is frozen, so I can't hear the lines. Because of me, the shooting was delayed by two hours. It was hard because I felt like everyone was having a hard time. There was no problem when I practiced, but I couldn't because it was too cold."

"I left a long message to the director for the first time because I felt so bad after the shooting, but he didn't reply," he said. "I practiced really hard the next day, and after the shooting, the director called me quietly and said, 'I was very touched by the courage that the actor Dong-ju said he was sorry without any excuse and that he would prepare sincerely. I think I just need to do this in the future without being self-conscious. Someone asked, "Who can be perfect?" When I came back to the car after hearing that, I cried alone," he confessed.

Jang Dong-ju expressed respect for PD Kim Jung-kwon, saying, "I felt like an adult to the point where I thought, 'I should become an adult like that later.'

Jang Dong-ju, who has been steadily building filmography since his debut. What kind of actor does he want to be remembered as.

Jang Dong-ju said, "When I learned acting for the first time, I heard a lot that 'the one who does well does not survive or do well, but the one who holds out until the end does well.' I want to be an actor who continues to act, whether it's rice that becomes porridge. "I want to go beyond my job as an actor and become an actor who values his own art as an artist," he said.

"My experiences and experiences are full of mistakes. In terms of acting and the general point of view of the profession as an actor, I don't think it was very consistent, he said. "When I was in my twenties, I only went back and forth between home and the set. I don't remember anything else. At that time, it was overwhelming just to digest the given work and I don't have many memories. I don't think it will be like that in the future, but I'm going to focus more on myself and try to recover my mentality," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.