Song Kang-ho is the first actor to make a guest visit to the “Myung Films Retrospective: Memories of Twenty Years”. Here is an excerpt from the GV Q&A session after Joint Security Area (JSA) was screened. Myung Films’ representative director, Shim Jae-myung, moderated the event.
What does JSA mean to you as an actor?
I would dare to say that JSA expands the audiences’ emotional boundaries. It looks like the movie is addressing the issue of division, but in reality it focuses more on humanism. I believe that it examines division from the perspective of humanism. I also think that it made a huge impact on the Korean film industry. I was awarded a huge acting honor in this movie and the whole experience was truly rewarding.
Are there any characters that are difficult for you to portray? How do you analyze them?
It may sound cliché to say, but for me—it’s never easy. The Throne will be released soon and I’ll confess that I actually disappeared for a while to secretly practice my acting. I stayed for three days and two nights just with my manager to rehearse and when we were shooting. I pretended that I hadn’t. I’m not saying that practice alone will make you a better actor, as you also need to have innate talent, but practice is necessary and it results in better acting.
You said you need a lot of practice, but how do you bring your emotions to the surface?
No matter if it’s a play or a movie, what matters the most is the scenario. You need to read it out loud. At first, doing so feels very awkward. If you continue reading and work on making it more natural, you’ll have a moment where it suddenly comes together. Personally, I think this is the best way to go about things.
How do you choose scripts?
I focus more on the freshness of perspectives than on the materials. It’s not that I want to do something because I’ve never tried it before. It’s that when the work provides a new point of view on something that seems ordinary, I’m drawn to it. This is the most important barometer for my choices.
