Actor Choi Dae-hoon has found another life-defining character! After capturing hearts as Uncle Hak in the Netflix series ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’, he is back as a grumpy yet strangely lovable “total nuisance.”
‘Wonderfools’, a Netflix original series reuniting Choi with director Yoo In-sik, is a comic superpower adventure set in 1999. It follows a group of neighborhood misfits who unexpectedly gain superpowers and struggle to fight villains threatening peace.
In a recent interview with Sports Seoul, Choi shared, “I really love comedy, but at the same time, I think it’s the most difficult genre.” He confessed that when he first saw the script for ‘Wonderfools’, he felt both “this looks fun” and “how am I going to pull this off?”
The character Choi plays, Son Kyung-hoon, has a rather ominous nickname: the “Official Nuisance of Haeseong City.” True to his name, he is a character who causes trouble for everyone and is so annoying he can make viewers’ blood boil. However, since he eventually has to grow into one of the heroes, balancing these sides was no easy task.
“Son Kyung-hoon isn’t someone who provides stability. He constantly creates anxiety and gets in the way, but then helps out at the most critical moments,” Choi explained. “Because all those sides had to coexist in one person, I constantly worried about whether I could pull it off.”
While it was a tricky role, director Yoo In-sik believed in him until the end. Having previously worked together on ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’, Director Yoo described Choi as “an actor whose potential hasn’t fully exploded yet.” Believing in his endless possibilities, the director entrusted him with the most challenging character in ‘Wonderfools’.
Indeed, Son Kyung-hoon is much more complex than the other characters. While others express their superpowers physically, Son Kyung-hoon had to use both his body and his lines. Specifically, since his “sticky superpower” activates when he lies, ‘Wonderfools’ was essentially a series of ad-libs for Choi.
The highlight is definitely the scene where he infiltrates the Gu-won-young-saeng-gyo cult, sticking to the ceiling while pouring out lies as naturally as breathing.
Choi laughed, recalling, “Trying to keep lying was actually really hard. I didn’t even know what to say.” He even did impressions, throwing out lines like “I’m Lee Deok-hwa” and “Uh, I’m Kim Dae-jung.” He also shared a behind-the-scenes story, saying, “I had to lie quickly, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought, so the staff even displayed the lines in large text on tablet PCs for me.”
The 1999 setting of the drama also held a special meaning for Choi. Having worked as a theater staff member in Daehak-ro at the time, he described his current life as “like a dream.”
“Compared to those days, I’m truly grateful and happy now,” Choi confessed. “Looking back, I think I am who I am today because of that time. Back then, my biggest wish was, ‘Please, I hope I don’t have to go to any more auditions.'”
Since then, he has been steadily building his filmography, from the “upside-down lawyer” in ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ to Chu Ja-hyun’s younger brother in ‘Trigger’, Uncle Hak in ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’, and now Son Kyung-hoon in ‘Wonderfools’.
“I feel like I’m in ‘spring’ right now. A very sunny spring. I feel like I’m right in the middle of enjoying the cherry blossoms.”
