[Yoon Chan-young] Marie Claire: WAY TO GO (November 2019)

Yoon Chan-young began his acting career as a child actor and had already numerous works on his filmography. Marie Claire published an interview with Chan-young for his last movie in his teenager ‘The Fault is Not Yours’. He also talked about his passion in acting, hobbies and concerns.

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I want to do well. Yoon Chan-young is waiting for his 20 years old with that mind.

The movie “The Fault Is Not Yours” is about to be released. It’s going to be even more special as it’s the first film in which you played a double role and the last movie in your teens.

I started to prepare it in January last year and filmed it until spring. Looking back, that’s the first time I was into acting. I think I did what I wanted to do without getting bound to the role. I didn’t care about anything else, but  I decided to concentrate on my inner self. So, I think it will remain as a special memory as I can express myself more, rather than because of my double role.

I think you had more expectations for the outcome than anyone else.

At the first  screening, I invited my class teacher and classmates. Some of them cried, and others said they sympathized with the sorrow and pain of adolescents in the movie. The teacher said she remembered the first time she had chosen to become a teacher and that it was nice because she had time to think and organize a lot of things. I also felt something like that while watching the movie. I’m satisfied with the result that it can give you something to think about from each perspective.

Were there any works that you referred to while preparing the movie?

I read the original essay “The Fault Is Not Yours”. Especially, ‘Jun-young’, who is addicted to Bond and unable to protect himself, is a real character in the original book. So I tried to get as many as hints out of the book as possible. On the contrary, ‘Ji-geun’ is a fictional character created for the movie, so I tried to concentrate on Ji-geun’s mind rather than referring to some work. It’s a character who doesn’t reveal his feelings, so I think I find out (Ji-geun’s mind) by exploring what I’m thinking inside.

What was the fun of acting during filming?

When I was young, I wan an outgoing person. So I just started acting because I wanted to show people fun things. When I was in my third year of junior high school, I fell in love with the movie “La La Land” and started thinking “I want to be an actor” and “How can I act better?”. Then after I went to an art high school and took a drama class, I had fun learning about the (acting) method for the first time. I set up a soundproof booth on one side of my house to practice monologues, read a newspaper every morning, watch a movie in the evening, read a book, and follow a scene from a movie that I enjoyed with my friend. There’s a scene in the movie “The Notebook” in which the male and female protagonists dance on the street and lie down. I once followed that scene with a friend on a car-free road in front of my school, because I wondered how it would feel to act such a scene. I’ve been filming a lot since I was young, but I’ve never studied acting before. I think it was fun to naturally improve my acting skills by doing something like that.

But for what reason you started reading newspaper?

I just wanted to try it out. I’ve heard that there are many actors who read newspaper in the morning. I started reading it as I was curious what would be different  if I were to read newspaper. But it wasn’t fun (laughs). A while ago, I shifted to magazine. Interviews and articles are more interesting and touching. Every month, I go to the bookstore to read and buy one or two magazines that I like. I’ve bought the November issue of Marie Claire. Interview with actor Lee Jae-wook and actor Cho Hyun-chul  was fun.

What was the most effective method you tried for acting?

Novels helped me to organize my thoughts. Especially “Demian” by Hermann Hesse or “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka. I’m also learning how to organize my thoughts and interpret the scripts by reading the thoughts of others, not the words. Everything in the script is the course of the dialog and the stage direction, so it’s up to me to figure out the inner thoughts of the character. If it’s a novel, those thoughts are written, isn’t it? The diary is effective for observing myself. At first, my school acting teacher said that if I wrote a diary every day for three years, the teacher would give me his/her entire fortune (laughs). Eventually, I failed to write it every day, but when I did, it was nice to be able to look into me. It also feels good to use it when I have a complicated mind.

You seem to have a desire to be good at acting.

The more I do it, the better I want it to be. Sometimes I’m worried that I’m getting too serious, but I still want to do well.

What do you think is a good acting?

There will be no acting that satisfies everyone 100 per cent. Well, I guess it’s more important to be satisfied with yourself. I think I can say that I’m good when I’m not ashamed of my acting.

Is acting the biggest concern these days?

Maybe. A couple of days ago, I took the college entrance exam. In recent months, I’ve been sticking to acting only. There are so many things to do, and it’s very competitive. I should prepare monologues in several versions, memorize dialogs, and a lot of scripts and books to read. I only acted all night at school with my friends. It was hard but it was also fun.

I thought you wouldn’t feel the need for college because you already have a lot of hands-on experience.

I was curious about what it would be like if I went to a regular high school. I could have had a more ordinary, daily experience. But in the end, I came to the conclusion that it was a good thing to go to an art school. The fact that a lot of people around me study hard about acting is motivating me, so it’s nice to have an experience of getting better together. There are some acting lessons learned on the sets, but I thought it would be great to learn the academic material from the teachers and share my thoughts with colleagues.

Now, let me ask you a question outside of acting. What do you look like when you don’t act?

I usually watch soccer or play soccer games (laughs). On the day of the soccer match, it’s my daily routine to watch it at dawn and then go to school. I wanted to see Tottenham vs Crvena Zvedza match at dawn today, but I couldn’t do it because I had a morning shoot. Son Heung-min scored two goals, and I’m sad that I couldn’t watch it live. I also like listening to music. I tend to listen hip-hop music when new songs are released.

There isn’t much time left for you as a teenager. Looking back, how did you spend your teenage years?

I don’t think it was smooth. I’ve had a hard time in the past three years. I don’t know well, but now that I think about it, I’ve passed through puberty. I’ve had a hard time thinking about little things. So from next year, I hope I have more fun and happy in acting.

What do you want to do when you turn 20?

One of my concerns is to hear that I look younger than my peers. It’s not a bad word, but as an actor, it made me anxious. When I’m in my twenties, I want to look mature and play a mature role. I want to try romance and play a bolder role. And I want to be on the stage. A while ago, I went to see the play “Equus” starring Ryu Deok-hwan, and I wanted to play the role of ‘Alan’ someday. Oh, my favorite movie is La La Land. My dream is one day to work with director Damien Chazelle.

I can feel the spirit of ‘I’m going to do everything I can and want to do’ from you.

Yes. There are still many things I haven’t shown and done yet. So I want to enter the adult world as soon as possible.

Source: (1) / 2019-11