[INTERVIEW] Musical actor Park Hyuk-kwon

Interview with musical actor Park Hyuk-kwon

My name is Park Hyuk-kwon.
I was born on July 11, 1971. On our family's register it says I was born in 1973 because my birth was reported later on. After making my debut, I thought it was bit too much when management once said my birth year was 1975. (laugh) So now I work with my birth year as 1971.
When I was a junior in high school, I went to school for two days and stopped going. I just hated going. I hated everything. I just hated everything about it from the teachers to the classmates to the school and even my home. So I left my home in Suwon, saying I was going to school and stayed in Incheon for two years. In order to make a living I worked as a waiter and at the marketplace. I returned home and took my GED (general equivalency diploma).
That is when I saw an advertisement in a sports newspaper looking for new recruits for a theater troupe. I called them up and went in for an audition. They told me to come in right away. I remember putting up a lot posters. I thought to myself that I should do a good job of what I do since I'm already in it, applied to the theater department of the Seoul Institute of the Arts in 1993 but was declined, and then I re-applied a year later which was when I got accepted.
I'm a crier. I cry very easily. (laugh) It's something that I was born with. I sometimes feel that sadness is where all emotions end up. Some people feel embarrassed when they cry but I don't think that way. When you're sad you cry, you laugh when you’re happy and get angry when you're mad. That is the rule to follow in order to live life in the right state of mind.
I have a girlfriend. We have been going steady for about a year and half. I don't know about marriage. I'm not saying I won't get married but the whole system of marriage is funny. I think it's because it's an institution which isn't natural but is rather made for the comfort of human beings. However, I don't want to seem negative. Even if I do get married now, I don't want to rush into it just because I'm old.
When guys get together they talk about women 40 percent of the time, 30 percent about movies and the other 30 percent about what's happening in the world. We also make dirty jokes. (laugh)
I have days where I spend the whole day observing people. It's quite fun just looking around. I also pay close attention to the people who come out on the news thinking 'Why would someone say something like that?' It doesn't matter if it's real or not because the truth will be revealed.
When I was on location in the United States filming the movie "Chaw," veteran actor Park Kwang-jung passed away. He was the C.E.O for the theater troupe Park when I was an actor there. When I heard he wasn't feeling well I visited him once and I felt bad because I didn't keep in touch with him as much. It was hard to approach him because he was the C.E.O and since he wasn't really affectionate to others, it wasn't easy to become close with him. However, around the time when I was becoming serious about acting, I was really thankful to him because he has given me many opportunities. And there were a lot of times when I've been getting by with the aspects that I have learned from the past.
I worry about making a living. The company told me they were looking for a role I could play in a sitcom after my appearance in MBC's "The Great Surgeon." I think my manager thought I would do well in comedy because he knew me well but I didn't do it. My character was serious in "The Great Surgeon" and I thought I would feel bad for the director if I moved onto a sitcom. I now regret not taking the role a little bit though because if I did take the role it would have been appealing for the general public. (laugh)
I also received several offers for commercials. It was a commercial for an insurance company and some product. I didn't do the electronic commercial because I didn't like the company and I rejected the latter because I would appear as an unknown person instead of as actor Park Hyuk-kwon. I passed on the insurance company commercial because after a period of time, it would be embarrassing to look back and see myself chasing after money and I didn't do the product commercial because I didn't want the company using an actor's face to fool the audience. But when I looked back on it, I regretted this too. (laugh) I'm still faced with a lot of conflict.
I want to establish a school where people can think. I learned about people while I was studying acting and I want to create a gathering where people can discuss what makes the world go round.
I don't have a television at home. Nowadays, there is so much fakeness on TV and in movies. I don't even watch five movies in a year. And when I do watch TV, I watch "Animal Kingdom." It's so funny to watch because it's not artificial. The panthers look like gangsters. They look around to see who comes and goes and it's really funny to see them acting arrogant. And once in a while the panthers will glance over at the camera. Ah. That's how I should be acting.
I think the acting of actor Javier Bardem is real. His acting skills in the movie "No Country For Old Men" was proclaimed and I want to play a strong and clear-cut role like that.
People who don't have likes or dislikes are foolish. We need them to have a standard of judgment. I don't like people who are wishy-washy about the world. When people say things like 'What is good is good' and 'Since the world is round...,' I want to hit them. (laugh)

Reporter : Won Sung-yoon twelve@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jang Kyung-Jin three@, Lucia Hong luciahong@