Jung Il-woo, a Homeless and a Not So Pretty Boy in "The Highway Family"
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Actors Jung Il-woo (35) and Kim Seul-gi (31) will bring out completely new faces through the movie "The Highway Family" (director Lee Sang-moon, movie company, Gogo Studio).
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In the movie, which seriously depicts the process of two families with wounds meeting and becoming one, the two play a couple who live on the street while traveling around a highway rest area.
It depicts the sad lives of those who have no choice but to live wandering. Jung Il-woo turned back, saying, "I tried to understand the character who lives a begging life with his two beloved children. There are people who don't even have a chance to live a normal life". Kim Seul-gi said the movie features "A couple driven to the end of their lives", but shows "hope in the end". Jung Il-woo and Kim Seul-gi said, "We saw a book called "Minimum Neighbor" by Heo Ji-woong, and I thought the title of the book resembled our movie", adding, "Through this film, I realized I should also be a 'minimum neighbor' to someone".
Jung Il-woo, who starred in a movie for the first time in 15 years since "My Love" in 2007, honestly said, "Because I was acting mainly in dramas, there were not many movie scripts". He said he wanted to play an unusual character in his return film as he waited a long time, describing the film as 'a jewel-like work that he finally met'.
Until the beginning of the movie, his role of Gi-woo seems bright without any countermeasures even in tragic situations. However, after a series of events, he reveals his weakness and collapses endlessly. Jung Il-woo said, "I wanted to test how far I could reach the emotions until the end".
"I was worried because it was my first time playing the role. Before the shoot, I spent a hell of a time thinking, "Why did I say I would do it?" The director told me to act like Yoon-ho in "High Kick!". You need to look as bright and happy as Yoon-ho to maximize your emotions in the second half".
"In order to properly express the homeless, I did not put on makeup or shave. I wore 'climbing shoes with tattered soles' throughout the shoot. In order to express a person suffering from mental illness, I met with a psychiatrist, talked, asked for understanding, and observed a patient counseling".
"I didn't care about the exterior at all. The director told me that I could go to all the way to the end. In the movie, I applied mud on my face and drooled because of mental illness, but I didn't feel anything. I met a lot of people at the nursing hospital where I stood substitute duty for the military. Looking at them, I didn't think that behavior was strange".
He has always dreamed of a change in acting, but he is confident that he will be able to break the 'constant image of Jung Il-woo of the audience' that he thought would solidify his image through dramas. Compliments from fellow actors who watched the movie also helped a lot.
"After the VIP preview, Park Hae-il said, "Il-woo, you can curse now!" I usually do dramas, so I didn't have to curse in my work. He meant that I would play more roles through movies. Kwon Yuri, who I worked with on the ENA drama "Good Job", also said, "Oppa, you're crazy". At the Busan International Film Festival, I heard a lot of the audience saying, "I didn't know it was Jung Il-woo". That's what I really wanted to hear".