#esquire 2017

GONG YOO: Yes, it might have been a huge deal looking from the outside.

S: Guardian was written by screenwriter Eun Sook Kim after Descendants of the Sun, A Gentleman’s Dignity, and Secret Garden. What do you mean by ‘it might have been’ a big deal? Why did you turn down the role for so many times?

G: If I had really wanted the role then missed the opportunity, as a result like you said, it might have been a big deal to me as well.

It’s not uncommon for an actor to miss a great work I guess. And if you are an actor, you must accept the fact.

G: I can’t list them one by one, but I have also missed many great works of opportunity.

But, it’s also very common for these projects to be extremely successful because other actors have appeared from them.

G: Right. I believe it’s sort of a destiny—when that particular actor did the role instead of me and it comes out successful.

G: When I think about Shin Kim, the first feeling I feel is loneliness. When I first took the role, I regarded him from head to toe, lonely. At first he was a human, and now became a godly figure. I wanted people to feel that loneliness when they saw Shin Kim’s facial expression or even just through his eyes. When they first meet Shin Kim, they must feel that loneliness at least. That was the attitude I had towards Shin Kim.

The more I watch the scenes, more I can feel the loneliness of Shin Kim. G: Kim has said about the bromance between the guardian and the grim reaper. The humor that creates all sorts of episodes inside the house when the two lonely gods meet. The story is so sad, but it’s so funny. In a way Guardian is like a sad comedy.

- Funny and sad at the same time? G: Exactly. Her script is not easy at all. It feels like a roller-coaster. There is so many things in one sequence. It starts seriously but end ends up in a comedy. So many scenes where you repeat laughing and crying. It’s not easy for the director and actor to take the scene inside the camera. Eung-bok is a very sensitive person. I have pondered many times on how to express crying, laughing, and crying again.

Maybe that was the reason. I can feel the loneliness even from the humor between guardian and grim reaper. I think they do such things because they are lonely. G: That was their own way of communication. That’s why they look even lonlier. It’s Kim’s unique way of expression. I tell the grim reaper who can’t remember the past, “It doesn’t matter what you were in the before-life,” The grim reaper asks, “Really?” And I said, “Why? Because whatever you were in the before-life, I would have hated you anyway.” That’s their own way of communication. To comfort each other. They loved each other more than any one. And therefore, the one and only friend to each other.

You know that type of personality of yours, so that’s why you wanted to run away from the rejecting meeting in the first place. G: (Laugh) Right, and Jang Kyun Kim CEO was really smart in that point. He knew me for a long time, so he probably knew what kind of person I was. Because he really wanted me to take this role, he convinced me to be in that meeting, and finally lead me to make a choice.

G: Acting job is a job, but you can’t regard it only as a job. This is the part that’s really hard to explain to other people. Because of this job, I was able to enjoy all the wealth and fame, and I am thankful indeed.

After discussing with you, it seems like a sword is still inside Gong Yoo’s heart. I think it’s really the time to find the person who can take out the sword.

G: If you phrase it as the sword still slaying the heart, I don’t think there is anyone. I don’t think it was the question about a relationship. The interview with Esquire was the first real interview I had after the Guardian shoot. Really, it went deeply inside me. Right now, I am left feeling deep and deep inside me. But through this interview, I first thought that I wanted to tell people around me more about myself. About the weight of the life’s weight that is pressuring me. Maybe I can cry infront of them. Right now, I feel like I am in the desert myself. Thirsty, and windy, but I can’t see anything. Unbearable that I want to reach out to people, but it’s not always easy. Isolated feeling. Sword inside my heart, so it hurts, but I can’t take it out. Someone has to take it out, but it was the situation where I couldn’t ask anyone to take out from me. Even now, I honestly think that nobody can. Even now. But, now I think I shall ask people to do so.

Nobody can see that sword inside Gong Yoo’s heart. And that’s why Gong Yoo is radiant but lonely. There must be the person who can see the sword.

G: That’s right. It’s a little scary that the analogy matches with me too perfectly. Although I still don’t think anyone can take the sword out from my heart, I still believe that someone will come and do, so I shall tell people about me. I think I need to.