Big Bang’s T.O.P. Even when he appeared in the drama ‘IRIS’ as Vic, not many people accepted his transformation into an actor as being sincere. But now T.O.P is the lead role in the war movie ‘Into the Fire’ (dir. Lee Jae Han) worth 113 million won, and even before its premiere it is known among critics that “this movie is T.O.P’s movie,” “this is T.O.P’s rediscovery,” and expectations are high.

I met T.O.P on May 20th at a cafe in Seoul for an interview to promote ‘Into the Fire.’ With his big screen debut film to release in a few weeks, T.O.P expresses pride rather than nervousness. He worked so hard to the point where he can say that “I put myself aside and committed to the role.” The day after filming a scene in the drama ‘IRIS’ he went to the set of ‘Into the Fire’ in Kyeong Nam Hap Cheon, and “as soon as I heard the synopsis I got sucked in to the character of Oh Jang Beom. Usually if I’m working on one project I don’t think about anything else, but as I was filming ‘IRIS’ I received the scenario for ‘Into the Fire’ and as soon as I got cast I felt as though I was transforming into Oh Jang Beom. At the end of ‘IRIS’ when Vic dies, I think the smoothness of Oh Jang Beom got projected without my even realizing,” says T.O.P. It’s easy to see how much he wanted to be a part of such a project.

Though at first he said he found no meaning in acting, T.O.P says, “I can’t just easily do anything. I think about it a lot first before starting. But I’m the type that hates doing anything that I decide to do halfheartedly,” and that “When I decided to step foot into acting, I looked back on myself and spent a lot of thinking about how I could make my own color. In music as a member of Big Bang I developed my own know-how but when it comes to acting… Of course the road won’t be easy, but a desire to become an actor who acts well developed in me. I have the mentality that if I don’t put all my effort in then I’ll become an indolent person, and I also think that before you put in that effort you should put a lot of thought into it first.”

It became known that T.O.P, in whom the desire to act began to grow, would often visit the home of Lee Byun Hun during the filming of ‘IRIS’ to receive acting lessons. About this, T.O.P says, “Lee Byung Hun would call me over often. If he would call me over to hang out, I would then go and seriously ask him for advice. He found that funny. Those times helped me a lot.”

While filming ‘Into the Fire,’ T.O.P received acting guidance from Kim Seung Woo, Cha Seung Won, Kwon Sang Woo, and other acting seniors. “Seung Woo would remember back to when he was my age and give me lots of good advice. Seung Won filmed in Hap Cheon by himself a lot, and whenever I would have a hard time he would take care of me. Once he took me all the way to Dae Gu and watched the movie ‘Avatar’ with me. I was really touched. And Sang Woo would hang out with me and monitor scenes with me and give me lots of advice. I was truly thankful.”

Being the only single guy on cast, T.O.P revealed that he “learned a lot about stability from his seniors.”

“All my seniors are married. While filming, we’d always eat together and sometimes have a drink or two, and those times became really comfortable. Filming this movie and meeting up with my seniors, the people around me commented the most on how I changed in my sense of stability. I thought about where I’d been influenced in this and it turned out it was from my three seniors. They all have stable families and the way they’d always call home was admirable. On the other hand I’m still young and growing so I’m still confused and my head is always busy, but I felt like I was watching complete and grown men and I think I started becoming like them subconsciously.”

In this way T.O.P matured. And now his growth is being judged by the masses.

The film ‘Into the Fire’ is set during the Korean War of August 1950. It is known to realistically portray the lives of the 71 soldiers in the student force. It is set to release this June.


Source: Nate News
Translation: seungie
cr: bigbangvip.net