[Interview] Yang Dong-geun "Values Changed After Marriage, Life Itself Is Art"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Isul] Actor Yang Dong-geun reflected on the path he has walked over his 34-year career. He revealed that becoming a father opened up a completely different world and brought significant changes to his acting perspective.

On the afternoon of the 25th, Yang Dong-geun shared various stories about the film during an interview held at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, ahead of the release of the movie Night of the Undying Humans (Director Shin Jeong-won).

Night of the Undying Humans is a comic thriller about killing the unbreakable immortals. It is the new work by director Shin Jeong-won, who showcased a distinctive style in Sicily 2km, Chaw, and The Fortune Tellers, released after eight years. Director Shin completed the film based on the original screenplay written by Jang Hang-jun.

On this day, Yang Dong-geun said, “The alien theme felt fresh and rare, which I liked,” and added, “Director Shin Jeong-won is almost a genre himself. The genre vibe was very attractive,” explaining his reason for participating. He also added, “It was the first time I received such a unique genre screenplay, so it felt new.”

“The public is accustomed to Hollywood films. Also, movies are essentially 'director’s art.' Rather than questioning whether I could do it or not, I saw this as a work with a clear genre color painted by the director, and I wanted to be part of that mise-en-sc?ne,” he said. “My approach to the work also changed. I approached it with the mindset of exploring an unknown world.”

Yang Dong-geun said Night of the Undying Humans would be another turning point. After 34 years since his debut, he tried a new acting method and burned with passion. He said, “Recently, I completely changed my acting philosophy and values. Watching various films and actors changed my attitude toward acting. I have been on sets for a long time, but doing things the same way was no longer fun. I wondered how I could continue to work on set with affection, and the answer was to enjoy it. I was combative but didn’t really enjoy it. I decided to enjoy the set like other actors and approached it with that mindset.”

“Honestly, before, I didn’t know how to communicate with directors on set. I lived like a lone wolf all my life. After having a family, I gradually learned how to live. My wife scolded me. I even appeared on variety shows I had vowed never to join and built relationships, learning along the way. I was someone who couldn’t do that and didn’t dare try, but I realized I couldn’t live like that. For ten years, I struggled and chipped away at myself, deciding to fully enjoy the set.”

Yang Dong-geun also revealed that he learned flexibility through the film. “I used to think acting naturally was being flexible, but I realized that true flexibility is accepting the director’s directions flexibly. I was really off track. In the past, when I didn’t understand or couldn’t accept something, I would ask why, but on this set, I followed directions immediately. Because of that, many edited scenes were cut. For the first time in my 30-year acting career, I tasted and discovered flexibility. Now, I approach works with a lighter and more comfortable mindset.”

Regarding working with director Shin Jeong-won, who directed Sicily 2km and The Fortune Tellers, he said, “The director is introverted and thoughtful, and I understood because I am like that too. That artist must have some picture in his mind. I didn’t need to know the whole picture; I just quietly did what I had to do and trusted that it would become the director’s vision. That led to completely unexpected results,” expressing satisfaction.

In Night of the Undying Humans, Yang Dong-geun moved away from his familiar acting style and built the work with a new acting method. He tightened his usually relaxed acting rhythm to fit the story’s development. He said, “The time when I purely thought only about my acting is over.”

“You have to act considering the film’s running time. There are many parts explaining the unbreakable and a lot of lines, and if I had acted in my style, it wouldn’t have had rhythm or been fun. I had never acted calculating the running time before; this was my first attempt. It was the first time I acted with the calculation that I had to go all out. I think it hit the mark. It was refreshing.”

Yang Dong-geun debuted in 1987 with the KBS drama Top Lee and has been an actor for 33 years. He confessed, “There were many times it wasn’t fun. I wanted to quit.”

He continued, “After debuting, I felt acting was fun in a few works in my early twenties, but after that, it was mostly not fun. I did works reluctantly. I thought, ‘I’ve done this before,’ and wondered how long I could keep acting. If I wanted to continue, I had to change something. I recalled actors who used to enjoy acting. I wondered how they enjoyed the set. When I entered my thirties, I thought, ‘I’m getting older,’ and ‘I’ll be getting uncle and father roles.’ Then I’d get married. So I thought I couldn’t keep acting the way I had been.”

Yang Dong-geun married non-celebrity Park Garam in 2013 and has three children. He said about the changes after marriage, “If I hadn’t married, I might have been found in a pile of garbage somewhere in a winter alley.”

“When life patterns change, values naturally change too. The values I thought were important in life and acting changed, and so did I. That was really interesting. There is a before and after father Yang Dong-geun. I used to have my own frame. Like a hippie or gypsy. I thought I had to have something different as an artist. I lived closed off. I did acting and music, but I had no daily life. My artistic world had no daily life. After marriage, being thrown into the fierce reality of parenting was a shock. I was just fooling around, thinking it was art. Reality was art. Art is not about pursuing something different; the life we live itself is art.”

In the early 2000s, Yang Dong-geun was an actor who maintained mystique. From a certain point, he began appearing on various variety shows about observation, parenting, and travel, revealing a new side of himself. He reflected that this was all possible because of his wife and family. He emphasized that he truly discovered ‘himself’ after marriage.

“Living as a celebrity, you get trapped in frames imposed by others. It becomes unclear whether that is my life or not. It’s commonly called celebrity syndrome. Trying hard means listening to others, setting goals, and running, but then you wonder, ‘Where am I?’ and ‘Why am I so tired and hurt?’ That makes me sick. I have to break free from the frame. Living an autonomous life is my lifelong task.”