Interview with Yoo Ah-in in ‘Hell’
“I still remember the reaction of ‘Ya In is the right person to put on the world stage'”
“A work with an original work, it feels like shackles”
“Exit due to death, it’s good to have less work… I hope Jung Jin-soo revives”
“I was reminded of my 20s when I was playing Jung Jin-soo. I was drenched in pretentiousness and pretentiousness and lived in my 20s thinking, ‘I’m going to die around 30’. I was able to live by experimenting. I lived with energy that seemed irrelevant even if I died tomorrow, and it was like there was no back and no future. I still laugh at the Chigi of those days when I see myself living well.”
Actor Yoo Ah-in, whom I met through a video interview on the 3rd, asked what kind of life he would have lived if he received a notice that he would die in 20 years like the character Jung Jin-soo in the Netflix original series ‘Hell’.
‘Hell’ is a story about a supernatural phenomenon in which people are sentenced to hell by the messengers of hell who appeared without notice, and the religious organization Saejinrihoe, which was revived from this chaos, and those trying to uncover the truth of the incident are intertwined. In the drama, Yoo Ah-in played the role of Jeong Jin-soo, chairman of the Saejinrihoe, who preaches about the existence of an angel who sentences the date of going to hell and a messenger from hell who executes it.
Jung Jin-soo, played by Yoo Ah-in, is a key figure in shaping the worldview of the beginning of ‘Hell’. When asked how he approached Jung Jin-soo’s character, Yoo Ah-in said, “I took the process of materializing and three-dimensionalizing the information given, such as a pseudo-religious chairman, a relatively young age, and a mysterious figure with a shocking warrior. I thought it would be fun if I could make a character that I could give. In fact, when I look at the references of pseudo-teachers, I think, ‘Do you believe it!’ There were no people shouting. He has the magical power to suck people in quietly. I even got the sauce for those parts,” he said.
He continued, “Compared to the amount of appearances, I had a lot of trouble figuring out how high the water level should be, since he is a character who has to create the energy of the play. “I tried to blend that difference in a harmonious way while keeping it as it is. As the filming progressed and I merged with the other actors, I felt their breathing and action, trying to find a proper balance,” he added.
Wasn’t there any pressure on genre characters? Yoo Ah-in said, “I felt a lot of pressure. Because he was a difficult person to create a sense of immersion towards the play, and he was a person who had to create the maximum effect and tension with only a minimum of appearances. The process of creating the atmosphere was not easy. I filmed it with a lot more tension than usual. It felt like I had to accomplish the missions without failing in every scene.”
In the commentary video for ‘Hell’ released on the 2nd, director Yeon Sang-ho described Yoo Ah-in’s eyes as ‘a scary eye without those eyes’. In response, Yoo Ah-in said, “I studied the size of the eye opening so that only the white and the black could exist and not even the slightest light could be reflected. I don’t know,” he said.
The reversal of Jung Jin-soo in ‘Hell’ is that he was a person who had already been notified 20 years ago. In part 3, Jin-soo Jeong was shocked when he was killed by a messenger from hell. Yoo Ah-in said, “I wish I had less work,” said Yoo Ah-in, who said, “I’m sorry that Jung Jin-soo died quickly.”
When Jung Jin-soo asked if he thought he would be able to resurrect in season 2, Yoo Ah-in said, “I am one of the people who most look forward to re-appearing.
Netflix’s ‘Hell’ is getting a hot response, such as taking the top spot in the global TV sector. In response to such popularity, Yoo Ah-in said, “I really like the 1st place. I wish it had been in the 1st place for a long time.” “I think the most welcome is that Korean works can be introduced worldwide through Netflix. Interpretation and evaluation of works are getting fiercer. Being able to get a wider range of reactions in the process seems to be a positive and encouraging thing as an actor.”
When asked the most memorable reaction, Yoo Ah-in said, “It was a comment left by a Korean on YouTube, and he said, ‘If you want to show it on the world stage, Yoo Ah-in is perfect.’ He said, “The more I act, the more difficult it seems to be. I feel the pressure of having too high expectations for myself, and I can feel the blades of the audience who don’t allow even the slightest bit of gap, so I think it’s dangerous if I don’t come to my senses.”
When asked why he thought ‘Hell’ was so popular even though it was a rather difficult subject, Yoo Ah-in said, “I didn’t think ‘Hell’ was difficult at all. I thought they were very realistic and accurately pinpointed the contemporary context. In reality, it is easy to witness the phenomenon of blind trust in unverified beliefs and attacking them using it as a weapon. I thought it was simply melted inside,” he said.
He continued, “It’s a very unrealistic and violent story that people go to hell through an angel’s elevation, but if you think about it a little bit differently, it’s not much different from what’s happening in the world right now. When I bring hate, violence, and collective madness into the real world, I think that similar phenomena are constantly happening. There is a very contemporary and heavy message.”
“I think that’s the reality we’re facing right now. Less than an hour after the work of ‘Hell’ was released, there were people posting reviews and posting malicious comments. If you have faith, do you get to act like that? How do you evaluate and put a period in someone you just passed by? Can you trust and blindly trust and talk about a single line of information you pick up? Such realities seemed to overlap with the work.
When asked if he had read the original webtoon, Yoo Ah-in said, “I didn’t see the script before, but after seeing the scenario. I didn’t even look at it in detail.” He said, “I’ve done quite a few works with originals, but because there are originals, it’s possible to make videos, but from an actor’s point of view, the originals feel like shackles. I pray. I can’t escape. Even if I want to express myself more aggressively, even if I want to express something different from the original, I feel like I need to get permission from the original fans. It’s a burden because it’s given to me, but it’s more important to stay away from the original work to relieve the burden.”
In the face of a crisis where faith is about to collapse, will Yoo Ah-in choose belief or reality? Yoo Ah-in said, “I think belief creates belief, and belief creates belief. And I tend to doubt and test one or two things until the very end. “I think I have to keep making it. I don’t think my beliefs and beliefs are always right. I try to throw my own beliefs and beliefs into the world little by little, listen to responses, and find the center.”
When asked what he wanted ‘Hell’ to be remembered in Yoo Ah-in’s filmography, he said, “I don’t want anything.
“Before, I received a lot of love for playing bold characters in ‘Sado’ and ‘Veteran. I prayed. This time, I wanted to show an upgraded version of a character with strong energy while playing the character Jeong Jinsu. It was an attempt to throw.”
By Tae Yuna, staff reporter for Tenasia youyou@tenasia.co.kr
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