“I wanted to return to being a 14 year old and make the audience remember the passionate young love.”
Kim kibum played the lead role of TVN’s monday/tuesday drama, I Love Lee Taeri. His character wished a weird wish and ended up becoming a 25 year old from a 14 years old. He played as the counter part for ice princess Park Yaejin who didnt trust in love after being betrayed by her first love.
After spending 3 months as Geum Undong, he seems to be still caught in the character.
“After finishing it, i took a break for about 4 days. I had special affection for UnDong character so the after-effect was strong. I’m trying to adjust back to my own life.”
I love Lee Taeri is a special work for him. He finished it well, dispite it being his first time as lead role. He was also able to escape the image he had before.
“As we recorded, i wondered ‘Am i leading the drama well?’ I was pressured from being the lead role. But i had faith in Park Yaejin sunbaenim so i wasnt stressed too much. I depended on her a lot.”
“I’ve been doing ‘Good Boy’ characters before this so i wanted to escape from that. I really wanted to try a comical acting and ruin my image. Guem Undong role came to me in a comfortable way so i was able to act comfortably and the viewers liked that.”
Kibum showed a cute romantic scenes with Park yaejin during the drama. The age difference between the two in real life is 6 years. But their acting was very natural, almost like any Older/Younger couples.
“When i first heard about acting with her, I thought ‘Will we match..?’ but when we acted and saw ourselves on TV, i never thought that it was awkward. We worked well together.”
Another part loved by the viewers was the perfect combination of kim Kibum and Jang SuhWon. The two appeared as a student / teacher relationship and showed great charms.
“Jang SuhWon hyung and I studied our characters together 2 months before recording. There were many scenes with us together so we wanted to practice it earlier to make it funny. Sometimes we conversed only with the lines from the script. (Laugh) I’m glad the scenes were portrayed well.”
I Love Lee Taeri used Time Slip. Many dramas are also using the subject. What does it mean for Kibum?
“I read a manhwa on timeslip about 5 years ago. I kept thinking that it would be funny to see as a drama. The topic was funny. ‘I love Lee Taeri’ came as a refreshing subject like that.”
Kim Kibum wanted to show a message to the people with the character Geum Undong who suddenly becomes an adult.
“I wanted to show them what the current social world looks to innocent childrens eyes. I wanted to portray the uneasyness a 14 year old with an adult body would feel. I wanted to express it a bit different way. And average people have their first love around then. I wanted to bring back that memory for all the viewers with UnDong’s first love.”
Kibum chose a best scene out of the drama. The scene chosen was the scene where Undong transformed to an adult body while swimming. Why did he choose that scene?
“With that scene, the drama’s story starts. After reading the first script, i really anticipated for the story line. I prepared hard for it. I wanted to show a more perfect scene. I worked out hard to look pretty. I think that’s why i’m attatched to that scene.”
“Before recording, i tried to learn what 14 years old’s think like. I watched lots of animations and met many kids. I tried to look for kids who were similar to the character Guem Undong. Since Undong is a swimmer, i studied Park TaeHwan too. (Laugh).”
Kibum was seriously thinking and worrying about his acting. His continuous studying and thinking makes us anticipate for his future works.
“There are many characters i want to try. I want to try a different type of character. I want to show a completely different character the next time. I think it’s really fun acting roles that are different from your real personality.”
Credits: Source:Herald News
Translated by: Naya @Nksubs
