Q: Do you have any other plans for the year outside of your activities as JYJ?
Junsu: We can't really say anything about that for sure as of now because we may say we do but end up not doing anything or say that we don't but end up doing things if we get offered very good projects. So although we're set to wrap up the year with our activities as JYJ, it's not definite because we've had a lot of dramas and musicals come our way.
Q: What drives you to constantly put yourself up to other challenges such as acting, musicals and producing shows?
Jaejoong: The best thing would be to be good at at least one thing (laugh) since it'll take you a long way. But for me, it's about personal taste more than any other particular reason. I like to interfere, mind other people's businesses and if something is wrong, try to set it right so that's how I somehow came to do producer work as well. Even with songwriting, there was a song that I didn't like so I said I'd try writing it myself and I actually liked what I did so I came to write songs.
Q: So have you considered going for the fields of the entertainment industry that you haven't tried at yet?
Yuchun: I'm personally not confident with musicals. I think I'll get compared to Junsu too much.
Jaejoong: If you put it that way, I didn't want to do acting at first either because I didn't want to get compared to Yuchun.
Yuchun: But we're thinking of pursuing a variety of activities individually.
Jaejoong: We haven't drawn boundaries to which fields we'll pursue but the first reason we pursued individual activities was to make JYJ get known better. We can't go on televised music shows so our individual activities is what made our names in acting or musicals get known but we gradually became drawn to those activities as well.
Q: Yuchun, you've mainly played poised characters. Would you ever want to play a cheerful or the prince charming-type characters?
Yuchun: There are a lot of characters I want to play but it's not like I can pull off all of them so I'd like to take my time.
Q: What character do you want to play the most if you could?
Yuchun: I personally want to play a villain the most, more so because I know I don't look like one. But playing a role that's different from image is all about acting skills so I think I should put myself up to that challenge after I become better.
Q: Junsu, would you go for dramas?
Junsu: It's not that I'm not interested but for example, I already did two musicals this year so it was hard for me to pursue more individual activities, I wanted to take a break as well, and the members of my group were doing "Miss Ripley" and "Protect the Boss" so during those times, I thought it would be right for me to support them. I'd like to try acting at some point but when I see Yuchun and Jaejoong do them, I also don't feel as strongly about it because it looks like they have such a tough time doing them. (laugh)
Q: Yuchun, your character Song Yu-hwan in "Miss Ripley" never poured forth his emotions although your fans would've liked to seen it. Don't you have any regrets about that?
Yuchun: I do extremely. There were quite a number of times that while I was acting, I thought, 'If this was me, my emotions would have exploded here' yet I just tried to understand why my character was acting the way he way was. So it wasn't that I didn't feel any frustration over his actions but I just told myself that there's probably just something wrong with me for feeling that way. It was only after I shot the scenes and saw them later on that I realized there would've been ways to express his emotions without them exploding but that's where I lacked.
Q: How would you evaluate Jaejoong's acting as his senior in that field?
Yuchun: To start with, I had a lot of fun watching his show. And I don't think I'm in the position to say whether he was good or bad but seeing that I got engrossed in the show so naturally, it seems like he really pulled off his character very well. Jaejoong and I have different images and I think Jaejoong did well at pulling off the different image of character that he gives off. That's what I envied about him and was also moved by. I think he pulled off his character well to the extent that I thought that I'd like to play a character like his if I get the chance to.
Jaejoong: Thank you, senior actor. (laugh)
Q: So as someone who won an award for best new actor last year, do you think his performance is worth winning an award as well?
Yuchun: Honestly, all of us at our agency is thinking that he will. Oh, is that a strong statement? (laugh) Let me correct myself... We're thinking that it would be nice for him to win an award.
Jaejoong: I really haven't even thought about it.
Yuchun: But really, not because he's a member of our group but everybody would think so...... Yes, Ji Sung, Choi Kang-hee and Wang Ji-hye are all great actors but honestly, I think he shined the most. (laugh) Don't you think so too? Really, I'm not joking. Everyone was great but how should I put it... There was an aura about him. That's what I saw.
Jaejoong: It's because I was handed the right character. It would've really been a great one had my acting been better.
Q: Well it definitely seemed like you had great chemistry with Ji Sung, more than any other actress. How was it working with him?
Jaejoong:Those of you who watched the drama probably noticed but you probably saw that I somehow got better with every episode. I myself saw it too. And it would've been impossible without Ji Sung. I'm sure he was busy studying his own character yet he helped me with my lines as well and rehearsed scenes with me. That's why I felt comfortable at my scenes with him and it probably showed on screen.
Q: The writer of the show said you're similar to the character you played. That you're a perfectionist yet are playful and clumsy in some ways. Would you agree?
Jaejoong: Chaebols are usually portrayed as perfect people in dramas... They're smart, athletic and even good with relationships. Yet in our drama, there was always something that chaebols can't do. For example, they would be bad at sports yet had a lot of other strengths so this was depicted in a way that made them seem clumsy and the same goes for me. I'm not very active so I'm bad at ball games although it looked like I was very good at them in the drama.
Q: Would the rest of you agree there are such clumsy aspects to him?
Yuchun: With Jaejoong... It's better that he doesn't show too much of himself playing sports like soccer, basketball or baseball. (laugh) But maybe it's because he's with us but we have fun.
Junsu: Like he said earlier, ball games is his weakness. (laugh)
Q: Is that why you're not part of the celebrity soccer team FC MEN where Junsu is the captain? You haven't been appointed to it? (laugh)
Jaejoong: Only my name is part of it.
Junsu: It's not that we haven't appointed him. He just doesn't come out.
Jaejoong: Everytime we have games, the media is there but I don't really want to show my clumsy side to them... Like how I fall over...
Junsu: No, that's not true. That happens very rarely. There are much more practice games that we play at by ourselves.
Jaejoong: Okay, I'll go to one of those then. I don't mind the ones we play at by ourselves but there's so much pressure when reporters are there and fans are there all taking pictures.
Junsu: It was a bit nerve-racking at first. It was.
Jaejoong: There are probably more spectators at his games than professional games.
Q: Jaejoong, you cooked in the last scene of "Protect the Boss." And I heard that you're actually good at cooking too.
Jaejoong: Yes, I cooked everything in that scene myself too.
Q: Are there any dishes of his you'd recommend?
Junsu: Kimchi fried rice! Kimchi stew! And there's a stew he created by just dumping in all the leftovers.
Yuchun: We don't live together anymore so there are less opportunities for us to eat his cooking now but I felt that he's a great cook when in the past, he'd make a dish out of whatever we have. And he's great at seasoning food at well.
Junsu: And he'd do it without using any artificial seasoning! He's very proud of himself for that too.
Jaejoong: I think that if I was born back in the days, I would've been Jang-geum [top kitchen cook who became first female physician in Korean history].
Q: You must be reminded of the days when you used to live together then.
Junsu: He used to cook for us a lot in Japan in particular. Things like midnight snacks.
Jaejoong: Junsu didn't really get to eat them a lot.
Junsu: I don't really snack when it's late.
Jaejoong: Yuchun and I are the ones that ate are lot. And Changmin...
Q: Have you still not gotten in contact with the members of TVXQ?
Yuchun: No.
Jaejoong: Please let us.
Yuchun: They appear in my dreams a lot.
Jaejoong: They appear so much in my dreams too. And once, they appeared in all three of our dreams. It feels like a lot of time has passed although more time may be needed but in our case, a lot of the misunderstandings and bitterness that may have accumulated over time and from being apart, have disappeared so we'd like to meet them if we can and talk to them.
Q: All the issues revolving your group are linked to the problem you have with your former agency and your fans are probably the ones that worry about you the most so is there anything you'd like to say to them?
Junsu: We started as singers and would like to continue with our career as singers for as long as we can but we still have a lot of limitations to our activities so we're trying to put our all into our concerts. That's why whether it be through concerts, performances, fan events or fan meetings, we're trying to meet and communicate with our fans directly. Our efforts may not be satisfying enough for our fans but we're trying our best to in the most natural way possible.
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10 아시아 Reporter : Park So-Jung nineteen@
10 아시아 Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@
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