Post KAIROS interviews with Seungyoon & others

Director | Shin Sungrok | Lee Seyoung | Ahn Bohyun | Lee Joomyung | Kang Seungyoon Interview

POST-KAIROS Interview with KANG SEUNGYOON

(Source | translations by @4winnr)

Through the drama Kairos, Kang Seung Yoon showed his mature acting skills and diverse charms , once again proving his presence as both an actor and a singer. Kang Seung Yoon played the role of Im Geonwook in MBC’s Mon-Tue Miniseries <Kairos> (Writer Lee Soo hyun, Director Park Seung Woo) which ended on the 22nd of December. He received a lot of love for his role as the warm hearted boy+friend and helper of Aeri in the drama. He also received many favourable reviews for playing a key role by helping to solve the mysteries in this time-crossing series.

Kang Seungyoon’s subtle and nuanced acting shone even more in the second half of the series. After Aeri’s death, he showed a wider emotional spectrum and even spared no effort in using his body to steadily digest various action scenes, adding fun to the drama. We met with Kang Seungyoon, who is able to show his own colour in every endeavor he does from singing to acting, to find out more.

Q. How does it feel now that filming and the broadcast of the drama have ended ?
KSY: I felt like I “melted” into the character Geonwook for about half a year. I’m really thankful to have learned from such good people at a good place, and now I’m sad that we have to let each other go. Personally, I had fun and was happy filming every moment so I feel like I could say it was really the best set.

Q. Was there a particularly memorable scene or line of Geonwook’s for you ?
KSY: It didn’t get shown on the broadcast but I do have have favourite scene. It’s after Aeri dies, and Seojin (Shin Sungrok) asks me if I want to talk to Aeri from a month ago through the phone. At that moment Geonwook goes, “I’m not going to do it now. I will save Aeri.”
It was a scene where he had to really hold back his emotions all on his own. I really like it even when I monitored it while we were filming it, and it was also a line I liked a lot because it expressed Geonwook’s will/determination. I also got to use my body a lot in this drama. I filmed the actions scenes with Taek-gyu (Cho Dong In) where we hit each other without a stunt double. I got praised on set while we were filming it so that was memorable.

Q. While playing the character Geonwook, was there any parts you paid attention to in particular for his portrayal and were there any parts you found difficult ?
KSY: I focused a lot on not trying not to lose the character in itself. Geonwook is in a lot of different situations in the drama – when he’s with Aeri, when she dies, and when he starts working with Seojin. With every situation I thought it would be important that Geonwook’s lines were spoken from his heart. Especially in the later half it got increasingly difficult to not lose the emotions of Geonwook (in that moment) as the timeline kept changing, but I did a lot of mind control on my own to make sure I didn’t lose the heart of the character.

Q. Was there any special mindset you tried to have while working as Actor Kang Seung Yoon or any moment in the during working on the drama where you felt like you’ve grown ?
KSY: I tried to have the mindset “let’s learn hard”. Of course I had the mindset of focusing on acting and falling in love with my character, but I also thought that I should work hard to learn from any scene (of the drama). I was really thankful this time because the director and seniors gave me a lot of good and detailed advice. I didn’t want to just simply listen to their advice and made the decision to make them my own one by one. Even though there’s always parts I’m regretful about but I’m thankful that many people thought I’ve grown throughout the drama.

Q. You received a lot of good reviews and love for your <Kairos> OST ‘CAN YOU HEAR ME. We’re curious about some BTS of the recording
KSY: I’m thankful that the composers gave me a lot of reign (over the recording). During the actual recording I think a lot of the content of the drama went into the song. Like its title, ‘CAN YOU HEAR ME’ is a song where the 1 minute is very important in conveying what we have to say, just like in the drama. I sang the song while thinking of how to emphasise and bring out that meaning. of course I also paid attention to using a tone that would suit the drama, and it seems like the viewers were able to empathise and gave good reactions so I’m thankful for that

Q. Lastly, any words for the viewers who were together with you?
KSY: It was a time where I was so thankful to feel the enthusiastic love of the fans of <Kairos>. In the beginning when Geonwook betrays Aeri they gave a harsh response, and later they rooted for him when he became a reliable person. their constant immersion in my character and honest responses to him left a deep impression on me. while watching this happen I was able to feel that ‘nevertheless, I did well” as geonwook. I want to sincerely thank them for their enthusiastic response to <Kairos> and being with with us for all this time.

Director | Shin Sungrok | Lee Seyoung | Ahn Bohyun | Lee Joomyung | Kang Seungyoon Interview

Director PARK SEUNGWOO about Seungyoon

I was one of the people who voted for him on SuperStar K2. Because it’s my first proper drama I casted a lot of people with my own self interest. He’s very serious towards acting. I remember the emotional text message he sent me in the early morning. He was really serious. He said he would like if it we didn’t think of him as an idol singer and even though I teased him asking if he drank, I thought he was so pretty (hearted) and was thankful

Q. At the end you had a little bit of love line with Geonwook confessing though ?
A. When they were eating chicken, Aeri actually feeds him some chicken but I ended the scene without showing it. I edited it out. I didn’t want to cut Aeri-Geonwook but since there were lots of Seojin-Aeri supporters I had no choice. (laughs)

SHIN SUNGROK about working with Seungyoon

I knew about Kang Seungyoon from an audition program, so it was the first time I found out how much passion he has for acting, and his eagerness to learn more about it. I’d see how much he wanted to do a good job, how stressed he became when something didn’t work out, and it took me by surprise when I realized that Seungyoon had as much passion for acting as I did. He is very playful and we are close, but when it came to acting, he would always be professional and sincere as he possibly could. Seeing that made me realise what a hard worker he was. (Source | trans cr: @softboimino)

LEE SEYOUNG about working with Seungyoon

Q. How was it like working with actors Ahn Bohyun, Shin Sungrok,
Nam Gyuri and Kang Seungyoon?
A. I think Kang Seungyoon is a really good actor. We worked together the most in the drama. Not just Seungyoon, but with actress Lee Joomyung too. The three of us ate many times together, took many photos together & built chemistry while contacting each other. I think you can our teamwork translated to the “bff” vibes you can see on screen too. the energy the two gave. (Source | trans cr @4winnr)

Director | Shin Sungrok | Lee Seyoung | Ahn Bohyun | Lee Joomyung | Kang Seungyoon Interview

Interview with AHN BOHYUN

It’s already a well know fact that he’s close with Kang Seungyoon. When asked on their teamwork in the drama, Bohyun said, “Although we didn’t get to meet a lot of times on set, but every time we met we were always glad to see each other. and would cheer each other on. He’s also a friend that answered all my questions about cameras really well. and because I was originally a WINNER fan so it was fun that we got to do this drama <Kairos> together.” (Source | trans cr @4winnr)

Actress LEE JOOMYUNG about Seungyoon

Q. How was it like working with actors Lee Seyoung and Kang Seungyoon? Any particular episodes you remember?
A. Both of them to begin with have good personalities. so that’s why even from the 1st filming it was really comfortable. now we’re friends for real. Although every scene was memorable for me, what particularly comes to mind is in Ep11 when Soojung makes fun of Geonwook asking him “is your heart fluttering?!”
I laugh even now when I think about the scene which showed Geonwook’s expression & how I could feel Aeri’s smile from behind. I think this scene really showed the “real chemistry” between the three of us. (Source | trans cr @4winnr)

Director | Shin Sungrok | Lee Seyoung | Ahn Bohyun | Lee Joomyung | Kang Seungyoon Interview