Hwang In Yeop Opens Up About Playing His 1st Lead In "True Beauty," The Mistaken Impression People Often Have Of Him, And More

Dec 24, 2020

In a recent interview and pictorial for Cosmopolitan magazine, Hwang In Yeop shared his thoughts on his new drama “True Beauty” and more!

The rising star is currently starring in tvN’s “True Beauty,” a drama adaptation of the hit webtoon of the same name, as the untamable high school rebel Han Seo Jun. The drama marks Hwang In Yeop’s very first time playing a leading role, and the actor has risen to the challenge undaunted.

As he prepared to take on the beloved character, who is incredibly popular among fans of the webtoon, Hwang In Yeop shared that he did everything he could think of to make his portrayal of Han Seo Jun as true to the original as possible.

“I plan to do everything I can to show viewers the most Seo Jun-esque performance I can,” explained Hwang In Yeop. “I’d never once ridden a motorcycle in my life before I started acting as Seo Jun, but I even got a license [to prepare for the role], and I went to action school on my own so that I could film the action scenes [better].”

“I thought I needed to do those things in order to more fully satisfy the people who were looking forward to the drama because they liked the character of Seo Jun in the original webtoon,” he continued, expressing his deep fondness for the character and his respect for Han Seo Jun’s fans. “It’s nice for me to personally feel satisfied, but I think what’s most important is satisfying everyone. That’s why I thought it was clearly necessary for me to make these kinds of efforts, and that’s how much I personally care about the character of Han Seo Jun.”

In “True Beauty,” Han Seo Jun looks like a cold-hearted bad boy on the outside, but he turns out to have a surprisingly warm heart on the inside. In his real life, Hwang In Yeop has also faced the hurdle of people making false assumptions about his personality based on his looks.

“The shape of my eyes often causes other people to mistakenly assume I have a cold personality,” he said, “but I look entirely different when I smile. And to be honest, I smile a lot and joke around a lot in real life.”

Hwang In Yeop went on to share, “When I was younger, I was very introverted and wasn’t good at expressing my emotions properly, which would sometimes lead to misunderstandings. But as I started working as an actor, I gradually began to realize that it’s not difficult to reveal myself to others. So now I make an effort to honestly express myself.”

As for his thoughts on playing a high school student at the age of 30 (by Korean reckoning), Hwang In Yeop remarked, “I’m wearing a school uniform again for the first time in in nearly 10 years. When will I be able to have this kind of experience again? I could feel pressure about my age, but since [the director] trusted me and gave me this role, I’m having fun with it. I’m getting more and more used to seeing myself acting in a uniform.”

In spite of his demanding filming schedule, Hwang In Yeop humbly shared that his gratitude at having been given such an opportunity is more than enough to keep him energized.

“Even if I’m not getting enough sleep, just being able to feel tired while doing the work I want to do is such a happy blessing,” said the actor. “I used to turn off my alarm as soon as it rang, but these days, it’s really easy for me to get up in the morning. I’m so happy right now, in this very moment, that I hardly even feel it when I’m tired.”

Hwang In Yeop added, “I debuted a bit a late, but now I’ve ended up being able to do the acting work that I wanted to do, so I should work even harder at it. Each and every moment is extremely precious to me right now.”

Finally, when asked what kind of actor he hoped to become in the future, Hwang In Yeop replied, “An actor that people look forward to. Like when I saw previews for dramas or movies with my parents and said, ‘So-and-so is in this. Let’s watch this no matter what.’ If I could become an actor like that, whom people look forward to and whose acting people know they can trust, I don’t think there’s anything that could make me happier. I hope there’ll be a moment when people say, ‘I hear Hwang In Yeop is in this. I’m looking forward to it.'”