Star
Namgoong Min: The introspective actor with a gift for comedy
Apr 17, 2017
It’s been two weeks since KBS’s Chief Kim
ended its unexpectedly successful run, and its stars have been busy doing the
rounds on the media circuit since. I love an underdog story, and Chief Kim was
not only a story about underdogs, but also an underdog itself in the primetime
miniseries competition. Going up against a highly anticipated drama like
Saimdang, Light’s Diary, expectations for Chief Kim weren’t high; however, it
managed to lead in the primetime ratings for most of its run, making it a
runaway hit for the producers and its stars.
In Chief Kim, Namgoong Min played the
titular Kim Sung-ryong, a small-time crook accountant working for gangsters,
who gets hired by a large conglomerate to embezzle a large sum of money. As
those who tuned in know, through a series of fateful accidents, Kim Sung-ryong
becomes an unlikely, initially reluctant hero who stands up for the little
employees against the corrupt higher-ups, and saves the company along the way.
Namgoong Min’s debut was 18 years ago, and
yet, it wasn’t until his villainous turn in 2015’s Girl Who Sees Smells that he
managed to raise his profile as an actor. Asked about his unfortunately long
period outside of the limelight, Namgoong Min was straightforward: “If I had
had better luck, I might have become a bigger star earlier on, but I believe
that the main reason it took so long for me to find success was because of
myself. I had to find what I lacked, and what I couldn’t do, before blaming
something like luck for my failures. I busied myself with acting, and doing
more research into what acting was. I also believe that I was able to present
myself as an improved actor because of my past efforts.”
For an actor who has been in the business
for nearly two decades, Namgoong Min has a surprisingly short filmography, and
when asked about it, he pointed to himself as the reason behind the dearth of
roles he’s played. He blamed his own stubbornness about only taking characters
he liked as an obstacle to his career, saying, “Because I was only responding
to offers with characters I wanted to play, I was actually blocking the flow of
opportunities coming my way. When I received offers to play the second lead in
certain dramas, I should have better developed the characters, and through
that, improved my own acting skills. That way, I would have improved step by
step as an actor. Instead, I made a big mistake by being stubborn about only
playing characters that I wanted to play, and rejecting opportunities. As an
actor, you should never be so proud that you give up those kinds of
opportunities.”
He came to this realization when he was
forced to take a hiatus because of his own choices: “I once took a two-year
hiatus from acting after I was in Can You Hear My Heart? (in 2011) on MBC,
because I was being too picky with the offers I was receiving, whether it was
because of the genre or the character. That was when I started changing my
views on taking projects. I decided that I shouldn’t just look for characters I
wanted to play, but really take a deeper look into the characters that were
offered to me and become them. After that, I started to take on a lot of
projects, regardless of the genre or character type.”
That newfound determination certainly paid
off when he revived his career with a string of successful, varied performances
in Girl Who Sees Smells, Remember–Son’s War, Beautiful Gong Shim, and Chief
Kim. But to Namgoong Min, his focus seems to remain on his self-improvement as
an actor, and when asked about his thoughts on Chief Kim, he answered, “I will
always treasure Chief Kim, because it made me reflect on myself. This drama was
a chance for me to think about acting as my craft, which I enjoyed. I liked it
more that I could see my limitations and faults, without having someone else
point it out for me. There was a real danger that I could become content with
my own abilities, and when I was filming Chief Kim, the more compliments I
received, the more I realized what I lacked. Now, I’m as full of passion for
acting as when I first started out as an actor.”
Although Chief Kim ended up being a
success, at the outset, expectations must have been low when going up against a
drama with a lot of early hype like Saimdang, Light’s Diary. Namgoong Min
acknowledged that some did feel that pressure, saying that even certain crew
members revealed at the wrap party that they had been really worried at the
beginning. However, he clarified that that was the exception, and not the norm,
saying that, “Whenever I go into a project, I always believe it will do well.
I’m just glad that Chief Kim was well received by viewers, which was a project
that made me reflect back on myself and grow as an actor.”
He added that, “In general, people who make
dramas try not to think about beating the competition. The moment we become too
aware of other shows, it becomes difficult to really bring to life the project
we are working on. In our case, Saimdang, Light’s Diary was an entirely
different genre anyway, and I think our success stems from not being too
conscious of it, and having fun filming on our own set.”
I can certainly imagine that the cast and
crew of Chief Kim had a lot of fun on set, especially with the notorious ad
libbing in the scenes. It was to an extent that people wondered whether Chief
Kim even had a proper script, and Nam Sang-mi (who played Ha-kyung) revealed in
her own interviews that she ruined a lot of takes and generally had a really
hard time not bursting into laughter at Namgoong Min and Junho’s (who played
Yul) constant ad libbing. Namgoong Min clarified, though, that, “There were
certainly scenes where the ad libs made up more than half of the lines, but
there were also others where the ad libs were only sprinkled in to accentuate
the existing dialogue. I think that ad libbing was used to great effect in this
drama, because it served to enhance the script, that was of course well-written
already.”
Asked which ad lib was the most memorable
for him, Namgoong Min said that although there were too many to count, “If I
had to pick the most memorable ad lib, I would say that my kiss with Junho left
the deepest impression.” The bromance game between Sung-ryong and Yul was
certainly strong in Chief Kim, and both Namgoong Min and Junho said in separate
interviews that they were hoping for a best couple award at the year-end KBS
ceremony. I will third that motion, thank you.
Although Namgoong Min brought the comedy in
Chief Kim in what seemed like an effortless way, in reality it was anything but
effortless for him. He even said (to my horror) that, “I might take a break
from comedy for a while, because I’ve found making people laugh is really
difficult.” Nam Sang-mi also said that Namgoong Min went through a hard time
portraying such a constantly comic role because his own personality runs more
towards being gentle and introspective.
I was surprised to hear that Namgoong Min
ran into difficulties because of the comedy, especially because prior to Chief
Kim, he was a similarly quirky, comic character in Beautiful Gong Shim. Asked
about his two consecutive comedic roles, Namgoong Min replied, “Rather than think
about differentiating Kim Sung-ryong from Ahn Dan-tae (in Beautiful Gong Shim),
I wanted to get to know Sung-ryong better as a character.”
As expected from Namgoong Min, whose
approach to his roles seems to center around the details, he said, “As soon as
I got the role, I started to build Sung-ryong’s persona, from his look to the
way he speaks. I colored my hair with a shade I found was most unsuited for me,
and cut my hair short to show all of the wrinkles on my forehead. I also raised
my voice register, because my natural tone is much lower. I even went to thrift
stores to buy clothes for the character myself, and that’s where I found Sung-ryong’s
signature yellow jacket. The only problem was that many of the clothes I bought
were suede and slightly moldy, so my dry cleaning bill came out to a lot.”
I’m just really happy that Namgoong Min’s
many efforts paid off, and he’s pretty much been flooded with CF and follow-up
drama offers. When asked when we can expect to see him next on the small
screen, he replied, “Since last year, I’ve acted as five or so different
characters, so I’m pretty exhausted. Also, since last December, in between Chief
Kim shoots and CFs, I haven’t been able sleep for more than 3 hours a night.
Because my screen time in Chief Kim was proportionately quite large, I didn’t
really have much time to rest. I practically lived with the script in my hand,
and on days where I had lots of dialogue, no matter how much I ate, I would
lose 1.5 kilograms.”
However, it seems that Namgoong Min isn’t
going to rest on his laurels for long. He’s naturally a forward thinker, and
said, “Doing Chief Kim made me really reflect on my acting and choices, so I
don’t know what my next project will be, but I do know that I will show an
improved side to me.”
And, finally, when asked if he thinks his
career is now in its prime, he laughed and replied, “I don’t think that’s the
case at all. I still have much more to show.”Source-http://www.dramabeans.com/2017/04/namgoong-min-the-introspective-actor-with-a-gift-for-comedy/