Vogue Korea July Interview Part 2

• The monitoring of ratings, news, audience online and offline responses is part of his hardwork

The seniors always tell me " Just take care of yourself, do not live with so much worries",  I would reply " I wont", but as my projects aired and I see the results, I will blame myself to a certain extent, I will fret about what I should do to help. If you cant enjoy hardwork then it is not possible to succeed. Fortunately I enjoy such thinking. In contrast, when I get back to the regular life Lee Joon Gi, I feel rather bored, I do not like such periods of time. Hence when I am not filming, I will organised fan meetings, release albums and try all sorts of stuff. It cant be help, I rather be an actor to enrich my emotional life. I want to create something on an ongoing basis, to gain stimulation from there.

• What sort of books do you read normally?

I only read scripts. From a certain point onwards, I dont read books anymore. Through the mobile phone, I can understand the news, economy and science... to watch this world that continue to revolve. As compared to books, I want to receive news and information more quickly.

• Did you started off being so since debut or did you change gradually?

I changed slowly but I have more or less settled. During the process, because of my attitude, I had it tough but later on I had a sudden realization that I am right. Perhaps some will say why do you have to use up so much of my feelings to live, you should clear your mind to live a relax life.  I do know this theory but it is who I am. Someday I may feel tired and I will change. Since gaining the love of the everyone, I started to be anxious. I was ever a phenomenon, as I looked back, my dream was to be an actor but I became a big star. Since then I have insist on my own unique mode of action. Since the beginning, I hate to lose. I fret about what to think, what I should be responsible for, how I should live. How I should keep the trust that the public have of me. Although I started being quite childish, but I realized that by interacting with others, I enriched myself as well, so naturally I change.

• Appearing time and again in historicals, it seems that you have established a special forte

"You are well suited for fantasies" " you are well suited for historicals" " you are suited for difficult journeys", when I hear these, I am very happy because I am an actor who is useful.  Fans always encourage me to take on lighter roles, to stop getting involved in blood and mud, just wear a suit and girls will be attracted instantly (laugh). Very often my interviews end with "we hope to see Lee Joon Gi in a romantic comedy". I really stress about this every year. It is unfortunate that I cant meet such works but it has to be a romantic drama with a proper story line. It will certainly be uncomfortable to act in an unsuitable romance, then do I still want to do it? I worry about this alot so I did miss many opportunities, fortunately among the scripts I rejected, there werent "Descendents of the Sun" or "Goblin" (laugh).

• The choices and the results

When examined closely, the historicals that I did are all different, although both the two recent ones had fantasy elements. When I received the scripts, I considered it for awhile, I wanted a project with a fresh idea. The staff gathered at the office and thought hard about it, "you cant be appearing in a historical again", "but this is different". During the time of "Joseon Gunman", the thoughts were its a cross-era project. During "Scholar Who Walks the Night" it was "a vampire that lives in the Joseon era, its a mix of time period" then for "Scarlet Heart Ryeo" it was "the female lead went back in time, plus the fight between brothers, this is a cross-era project". It kept going on in this manner (laugh). Even for concept drams it was so, for "Two Weeks" it was "acting as a father, at such a young age?" (laugh)

• You recently appeared in Resident Evil 6 and Never Said Goodbye, both are foreign movies, why did you cut back on Korean movies?

After I focused on dramas, I suddenly realised my works in movies are considerably lesser. Recently I visited and meet up with people in the movie industry and told them I dont mind any small or hefty characters, as long as I can be of use in the movie I can accept any character. I needed to do this as a mission, so I am trying.

• It seems that the process of becoming a Lee Joon Gi fan is similar, at first the person will find that this is not an actor of preference, but after watching a project, the person may exclaimed "Oh, there is such a person?" and then once they fall, they will watch the past works one by one and feel that this is an actor that I can watch repeatedly.

Since I am labelled as an actor in historicals, the viewers may discover a different me after watching my project. Most of the fans who came through "Scarlet Heart" are younger, some of them are not even clear who I am "Is Lee Joon Gi so cool? why is he so handsome here?" (laugh), I am happy to gain new fans and more variety of fans.

• In actual life, you are very manly, however during your debut you were synonymous with a beautiful man. How did you feel?

If you asked me now, I feel it is kind of cringe worthy. However when I was a rookie, to be able to receive such an title reflected that many people fell for Gong Gil's charm. At that time, the director was very strict about not revealing too much of my real self, I had to hold back a lot of stuff so for about 1- 2 years I maintained that image. It was tough, whatever I did is not acceptable. After about 7 years, I slowly gained recognition as an actor. The image as an feminine actor can affect a project and narrow my scope. Although it was a huge blessing, it was also a great challenge, perhaps due to that, I focus on action dramas to showcase my manly side.

• The experience accumulated during that time was greatly helpful to my career, by the way, I have injuries all over, these are the signs of action scenes.

An actor doing his own stunts is not entirely very good. The purpose of stuntmen is the possibility of injury, so doing my own stunts can lead to injuries. However I still do it because this is helpful to the emotions of the scenes. However I  do feel less flexible. In the past, I could do a flying kick for the whole night, but now after two hours, I feel like my muscles are getting torn. I am very familiar with the stunt crew. After not meeting them for a long time, they said " Joon gi is now old too, just do a kick to the chest level will do", I was really sad hearing it and I screamed " Why should I just kick to the chest level! It's crazy, not say that!"

• It seems that the only thing you are focusing on improving is your acting

I really dont know anything else other than acting. Even my family told me "Just focus on your acting, dont let the audience dislike you."

• Perhaps you can continuously improved on your system of acting

Yes, The ultimate goal is to be an useful actor, an actor that has high utilisation rate. It was great going to Hollywood, it showed that I am useful (laugh).

END.

Translated based on the Chinese translation by Jiaohuimeimeicons on Weibo.