While Korean actor Kim Young-dae admitted he has little in common with the bad boy he plays in the hit TV series Penthouse, nonetheless portraying a school bully took a toll on him psychologically, he said.
He told the Malaysian journalists this during a roundtable session that StarLifestyle participated in, right before the penultimate episode of Penthouse Season Two aired on One (Astro Ch 393).
“My personality is very different from my character’s personality, ” shared Kim, who turned 25 on March 2.
“Playing a school bully – particularly when my character does really bad things to Bae Ro-na (Kim Hyun-soo) in Season One – was mentally painful to me.
“But I am an actor, so I tried my best in those scenes even though they were difficult, ” he added.
It centres on five families living in the fancy units on the higher floors of the 100-storey building.
Kim’s character, Ju Seok-hoon, lives at the top floor penthouse owned by his parents Ju Dan-tae (Uhm Ki-joon) and Shim Su-ryeon (Lee Ji-ah).
Since these family members have everything they want and more, most of them end up behaving atrociously on the account they are above everyone else... literally and figuratively.
Hence, this entitled attitude result in tragedies and all kinds of twisted events. However, not everyone is taking the abuse lying down.
What this means for the audience is, a weekly dose of suspenseful tales of revenge.
Like the fans, Kim is also thrilled with the show as it tests him as an actor constantly. He revealed that working with all the known seasoned actors in Penthouse have been a great learning experience for him.
“There are so many wonderful senior actors in the show, ” mentioned Kim to StarLifestyle.
“However, if I had to choose just one senior cast member who has inspired me the most on the set of Penthouse it would be actress Kim So-yeon, who plays Cheon Seo-jin in the show.
“She’s a really, really good actress. When I have scenes with her, I can get into my character really fast because she’s just that good as Cheon Seo-jin.”
Kim’s admiration for other actors is understandable as he had ventured into acting only a few years ago.
He was still a student at Fudan University in China, when he came back to South Korea for a holiday break, and happened to meet with the manager of his current talent agency.
In an interview with Xportnews, Kim said: “I started acting after he persuaded me, but I actually had a lot of conflicting emotions. Curiosity and doubts about what he saw in me, and also a sense of taking on a new challenge. I hadn’t been taught acting through formal lessons, so it wasn’t easy.”
Since making his debut in 2017 through the web drama Secret Crushes followed by smaller roles in the 2019 dramas Item and Welcome To Waikiki 2, Kim has upgraded to somewhat bigger roles in more recent K-dramas.
They include Extraordinary You (2019), I’ll Go To You When The Weather Is Nice (2020), Cheat On Me If You Can (2020) and of course the current Penthouse, Penthouse 2, and the upcoming Penthouse 3.
“Since starting my acting career I have tried to go deeper in every aspect of the field, ” remarked Kim, who enjoys watching films in his free time.
“I try to understand a scene more thoroughly (when reading the script), as well as the emotions the character is going through at that moment.
“And I will continue to learn more and more about acting by portraying a variety of characters in future projects, and getting better at it, ” he promised.
“I want to pay back all the love and support I have received from the fans by working even harder.”
The final episode of Penthouse 2 airs at 9.45pm on One (Astro Ch 393) on April 3.
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