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[Interview] Meet Lee Sung-kyung And Kim Young-dae, The Stars Of Shooting Stars!

Lee Sung-kyung is back on drama-land after 2 years and this time she is working together with Kim Young-dae, leading a new drama – Shooting Stars! 

Shooting Stars is about hardworking people behind the entertainment scene who shed blood, sweat and tears to enable Korean celebrities shine bright like stars in the sky. It tells of Oh Han Byul, the head of the PR team at an entertainment agency, and the flawless top star Gong Tae Sung, who is also her natural enemy. They bicker all the time, but soon also develop feelings for each other.

The lead casts, Lee Sung-kyung and Lee Young-dae had answered few questions regarding the drama recently. Check out the interview with the lovely stars below:

This question is for the both of you. This drama is about stories happening behind the stars working in the entertainment industry. Many people are working hard with different roles behind the scenes, like the people working around you in real life. You must have discovered new emotions relating to their stories. Do you feel anything different towards staffs around you after this drama?

Lee Sung-kyung: Did you feel anything?

Kim Young-dae: Maybe it was because I started to film this drama. “What is that person sitting there doing?”, “What is that person’s role?”. I didn’t know about them previously. I learnt a lot through this opportunity. To our PR team sitting with us here today, I’m also starting to feel very thankful. This drama had instilled a lot of such emotions in me. Not just the PR team but…

Lee Sung-kyung: Your manager is going to cry..

Kim Young-dae: He is always like that. Managers, and all the staffs who work hard around us, I started to feel how thankful I am towards them.

Lee Sung-kyung: I have worked for a long time with the people around me, some of them are still working, some have already left. We would talk to each other on any difficulties since we became closer than just work relationships, staying beside each other when we face difficulties. A lot of such scenes flashed back in my mind; I have also taken them as references while acting. I didn’t experience personally but indirectly beside them; I could relate to them. I’m glad that I could express them through my acting, not just for this occupation, I believe a lot of others could resonate too. This is possible to achieve too. I really like this part.

If you see a shooting star in the sky, what will you wish for?

Kim Young-dae: <Shooting Stars> will be a hit. It’s my personal wish. If I could wish for something else, I hope COVID-19 could end soon, I hope the world could be peaceful, I hope everyone could be happy. That’s all from me.

Lee Sung-kyung: Me too. I hope COVID-19 could come to an end, I hope the world could be peaceful. I hope everyone who watches our <Shooting Stars> could be healthy and happy. Everyone please be healthy and happy, and watch our <Shooting Stars>.

Kim Young-dae: That is our point.

Now we have two questions for each of you individually. Let’s start with Young-dae. You played the role of a flawless top star, have you done any special preparation for this role? Did you refer to any people in real life or other actors during the process?

Kim Young-dae: Actually, I have learnt a lot from my seniors at the filming site. They all have their own comfortable pace of acting. Since I’m not actually a top star in real life, I was a little unsure of what to do at the start, actually Han-byul helped me a lot. She told me a lot of stories which I can refer to, that helped me a lot. You could even tell the difference in the front part of the drama versus the back part, I have progressed while filming the drama. Apart from this, you mentioned that this is a flawless character just now, actually he has a lot of flaws. I have also worked on how to play out those flaws in an interesting way. It was easy, because I actually have a lot of flaws too. It was like expressing my original self in an interesting way.

Previously, <Penthouse> has introduced you to a lot of audience, this time you are playing the lead role. Do you feel a great sense of responsibility that followed? How do you feel?

Kim Young-dae: I was very nervous and insecure. To be honest, I felt a lot of responsibility and stress. But I saw it as a process that I must go through with my first lead role, so I accepted it as it was. It will become memories when I look back in future.

The next question is for Sung-kyung. Your role Oh Han-byul has extraordinary eloquence and crisis management ability. Have you done any special preparation for this character? Did you encounter any difficulty?

Lee Sung-kyung: There were a lot of existing references for Han-byul’s character based on my experience so I didn’t have to seek for extra advice, I already had a lot of materials to refer to. There are a lot of people at my company whom I have worked with and got close to. I have heard a lot of stories from the senior female staffs and their worries, although I didn’t experience what they went through personally, I could resonate with them a lot. And I incorporated what I resonated with into my acting. It was fun, like my own story and experience. Playing this character brought me such a fresh experience.

Does actor Lee Sung-kyung and the head of PR team in the drama have any similarity?

Lee Sung-kyung: I like to resolve issues quickly and I feel the importance of it. From Han-byul’s point of view, PR and crisis management need to be quick, I also think it’s important to respond to issues quickly. I’ve always been doing so, I think the direction we work towards is similar.

Lastly, we have some fan service time for you to greet the fans. You may do some gestures too, please look at the camera.

Lee Sung-kyung: Say some final words respectively?

Kim Young-dae: Dear audience of tvN Asia, Thank you very much. I hope you would really love our <Shooting Stars>.

Lee Sung-kyung: <Shooting Stars> will bring you lots of interesting and touching stories, I hope you would feel lots of joy after watching it, Stay healthy too. Thank you.

The drama is currently airing Every Saturday and Sunday 9.15pm on tvN (Astro Ch395 & Astro GO ǀ unifi TV Ch211 & unifi playTV), don’t miss it!

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