INTERVIEW Go Soo sympathizes with father character's instinctive love in 'Lucid Dream'
Actor Go Soo pose during the interview with press at a cafe in Samcheongdong in western Seoul, Friday. / Courtesy of NEW
By Kim Jae-heun
Korean actor Go Soo has always shown affection for the fantasy genre, although his clear-cut features are much better suited for the romance genre. This time, again, the actor chose a sci-fi thriller that adopts the fresh subject of lucid dreaming. The movie follows investigative journalist Dae-ho tracking down the whereabouts of his son who was kidnapped three years ago.
Actress Kang Hye-jung portrays the role of psychiatrist friend So-hyun helping Dae-ho to retrace his memories of the incident using up-to-date lucid dreaming techniques.
Go is father to a daughter and a son in real life and he said it helped him to better embody his character, who is desperate in most of the scenes looking for his son.
“I have a five-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. As I raise two children myself, Dae-ho’s desperateness came more realistically to me,” Go said during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, Friday. “I instantly felt my character’s emotions when I first read the scenario.”
Although “Lucid Dream” deals with the rather unfamiliar subject of interfering with people’s dreams, Go emphasized that its surrealism makes the movie entertaining rather than serious.
“Lucid Dream” will hit local theaters on Wednesday.
Q. What was the most difficult to act psychologically?
A. When I first read the scenario, it was unique and fresh. The story was about lucid dream and I saw it as a casual parade of sequences. But there was one moment where I felt touched by Dae-ho’s desperateness. I agonized over how to express Dae-ho’s feeling in such a fast developing story.
Q. You cried every time you watched “Lucid Dream.”
A. It was some years ago when we shot this film and I had chance to watch it three times. I watched the movie as an audience and I could feel Dae-ho’s mind well. When Dae-ho jumps from the building to face death, it was the saddest scene.
As an actor portraying the role of Dae-ho, it really felt sad that he had to endure three years without his son. Although I have never experienced such an incident and don’t even want to think about it, lucid dreaming was a hope for Dae-ho to find his child.
Q. You gained 10 kilograms and lost the same weight in the scene.
A. In the beginning I gained 10 kilograms to portray my character who is just an ordinary Korean man. Director also suggested me to gain some weight. But when the story developed to show the time three years after, I had to lose weight to show what a horrible time Dae-ho went through while his son was kidnapped.
When I had to gain weight, I just ate and ate. I ate a lot of breads. But losing weight was the problem because I appear in 90 percent of the scenes in this film and I had no time to fast. So I asked the director to give me a week.
Q. What genre do you want to star in next film?
A. I always think about my next character in the next film. There are roles that I want to portray and there are characters that people want to see. I just have to go through various roles and experiences. I try to find myself passionate all the time.
I also want to try a strong character that I have not shown until now. Perhaps a villain.