While Ji Chang Wook is busy protecting his country, we at The Kitchen will be taking a walk down memory lane to translate some of his older interviews that we didn’t manage to cover. Many were published before this site was launched, while there are other recent ones that we may have left out due to a lack of time. In conjunction with his debut anniversary, we thought it would be proper to publish one of Ji Chang Wook’s very first interviews he had with the press when he was just a rookie actor. It’d be fun to see how much he has grown over the years, and how he has still remained quite the same in some aspects. Enjoy the read!

My name is Ji Chang Wook.

Year 1987 5th July is my birthday.

In reality, I’m the only son. Moreover, I’m the kind who hardly says anything at home. My character Mi Poong in the KBS drama “Sons of Sol Pharmacy” has a family background and personality that is totally different from mine in reality.

During high school, I wanted to work on architecture or civil engineering somewhat. When I was even younger, my dream kept changing everyday, be it a police officer, teacher, judge, lawyer or doctor…I wanted to be all of them. But my mind changed as I gradually came to know about reality. Hahaha.

During middle school, my form teacher would see our test results and only called up the top 50 students in the whole school during assembly to applaud them. Other students would stand up and I could only clap, which made me sad. From then onwards, I forced myself to study. Later on my name did get called eventually, but I was young and just did things without knowing anything.

When I enrolled in the theatre and film course at Dankook University,  I sang a song from the musical “Les Miserables” for my practical test. I have a keen interest in musicals. Large productions are good, but I also like those performed in small theatres. The distance between the actors and audience is small so we can have rapport.

Actually when I was performing in musicals at Daehangno, I got scolded a lot. I was the maknae in the team back then so I think I had the big burden as the least capable person.  I was open to everything and I had to respond to everything, but because I was restricted a lot and confined so I wasn’t able to present anything I had to offer. I was always scolded, and it was a piece of work where I suffered the most.

Watching movies is something I enjoy. I’m not particular about anything, but if I had to choose, I do like the thriller genre. But a movie I saw recently is “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. I like Brad Pitt and the movie also had good reviews. It was a movie that was made well.

The director of the movie “Sleeping Beauty”, Lee Han Na, is actually my senior from the 2002 class at Dankook University. Although she transferred to an academy mid-way. I decided to appear in the movie because of my faith in the director. Honestly, I couldn’t understand everything about movies at that time, but I discussed a lot with the director about the character’s story.

When I was filming the T-CASH advertisement, there was a flow in the story so I worked on it comfortably as though I was acting. It was an interesting experience. I gave half of my earnings from the advertisement to my mother.

Before being cast in “Sons of Sol Pharmacy”, I had an audition in front of the director and the scriptwriter. They said they picked me because of my smile. Haha.

I personally learnt knitting and cross-stitch just like Mi Poong. I’m not extremely good at it, but I’m at the level where I’m able to knit a scarf. I’m able to make a pattern using a knit stitch and purl stitch. Cross stitch can be done by looking at a picture and imitating it repeatedly so it’s easy.

Exercising is something I like. I would run around and play with my friends everyday when I was a student. I played soccer and basketball. During middle school especially, we had swimming sessions as part of our regular classes so I swam a lot too. There was a swimming pool at the basement of the gym.

Anyang is my hometown, and I will still meet my neighbourhood friends when I have time. We will go to the first street to play billiards, and we also go to the internet cafe. I’m able to share concerns about work when I meet my university friends, but I will meet my neighbourhood friends when I have personal problems.

I still play Starcraft occasionally. I’m not good at it, but I do enjoy playing it. I even watched Starcraft competitions on TV diligently during middle school. My favourite player is Hong Jin Ho! I also play as the Zerg most of the time. (*Zerg is a type of alien race in the game Starcraft)

When I have time I want to learn an instrument. I hope to learn the guitar especially. I ought to learn the piano more too. I used to attend a school when I was little, but I hated it so much, I pestered my mother so I quit immediately. Later on, I learnt how to read the score and sing and play the chords for my juniors, but I’m still lacking.

I occasionally hear people say that I look like Jonathan Rhys Meyers. My friends in school dramatised the movie “Match Point” as a play, so my nickname was Jonathan for quite some time after that. Hahahaha.

Translated from Korean to English by Gabby.  PLEASE DO NOT REPRINT, REPURPOSE, SCREENCAP, TRANSLATE INTO OTHER LANGUAGES, OR OTHERWISE COPY OUR CONTENT WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.  This interview was translated for the sole purpose of providing English content to international fans.  No copyright infringement intended.

Source: 10Asia