Lee Jun Ki – Life Story (Part 1)

Lee Jun Ki – Life Story (Part 1) | 2009.06.03

MBC Golden Fishery Part 1 Interview, 2009.04.29

Profile

- Name: Lee Jun Ki
- Birthdate: 1982.04.17
- Age: 28
- At the age of 20 he held the dream of being an actor and left Pusan without money.
- He got rejected from many auditions.
- A Hungry Life!
- A full-time arbeit (part time job).
- Debuted in the Japanese movie “Hotel Venus” after that he appeared in some Korean dramas, “Star’s Echo”, “Drama City: What Should I Do?”, “Nonstop 4″ and in the movie “Flying Boys”.
- In December 2005, through his beautiful role as Gong-gil in the movie “The King and the Clown” which brought 12,000,000 viewers he became popular and received lots of new actor awards.
- In 2006, he became a syndrome and became popular.
- He started to appear in a lot of CFs and earned a big income.
- In 2006, he was chosen 1st by the reporters as a bad celebrity!
- But, after his works, “Fly, Daddy, Fly” and “Virgin Snow” he wasn’t that successful .. but after his drama “Time Between Dog Wolf” and “Iljimae” he became more popular and viewers, fans saw a different side of him as an actor.
- In each act he puts his life on the line and focuses on his role.
- Thinking of his future roles he calls himself ‘greedy’.
- Lee Jun Ki doesn’t want to use action substitutes.
- A passionate actor Lee Jun Ki!

Time Between Arbeit and Auditions

Came up to Seoul without a plan…
Failed hundreds of auditions…
Dreaming to be an actor…
Hungry Life…
Full-time arbeit…

Home town is in Pusan. His real dream is not to be an actor but to be a computer programmer. During Junior high school when preparing for college, the time to prepare and decide, a friend asked him to watch a play with him entitled, “Hamlet”. After watching the play and saw the people’s reactions after watching, his dream changed dramatically in a short period of time and dreams to become an actor. His family opposed, his father beats him a lot and it was chaotic, but he begged his father to at least let him learn it. His father agreed to let him learn it for a year and prepare for college. He was sent to an acting academy, started to make friends and started hanging out with them in just 2 months. Because of wanting to have fun and play with his friends he spent his 4-5 months amount of tuition fee (at that time it – W400,000 a month). His father found out about that and when he came home his father brought up a big jar of coins which is equivalent to his 4 months of tuition fee, he was asked to pay his tuition fee with that money. After that he realized that he did a big mistake to his father.

Later on, he told his father that he wanted to major in play/movie. His father told him that he could go but he needs to earn go his own tuition fees. He was thankful that he found a part time job right away as a student. But.. at that time people in their country can’t work unless they are not 19 years old.

He scratched his citizen ID and forged his age! Doing serving in his part time job he was able to earn W300,000 – 350,000 ($300-350) .. He used that money to pay his application fees but he got rejected from all of it. Lastly he tried at Seoul Arts University but got rejected also, they mostly look on your performances and he lacks actual performances. He did lots of things while preparing, after getting paid in his works he learned acrobatics, tumbling, and dance. He tried lots of auditions but he’s rejected. His father told him to just study again but he did not follow his father, he did his best to achieve his dream and he left home.

He came up to Seoul without a plan. He was acquainted someone in the media industry, someone he knows ever since he was in Pusan, Robert Holly. He met Robert Holly when there was a Pusan program where Robert Holly debuted and he came to the broadcasting company. They are friends for 8 years now. He wanted to learned english at that time so he got to know Robert through that. Lee Jun Ki stayed at Robert Holly’s place when he was in Seoul for around 2 months. But after realizing he was a big burden to his friend he decided to find a place where he can work and live at the same time.

In one building owned by one person, Lee Jun Ki is working at the billiard place, beer hall and sleep on the rooftop. But because of an incident, a commotion with the customers he needs to leave that place as his boss’ order. He got his wage worth around W150,000 ($150).. For all the money he saved up he needs to use it for his tuition. At the same day he received 5 offers at Dong-dae mun but those offers are fakes. It’s good that he didn’t fell for that! He don’t have the amount of money they we’re asking for that.

He looked up online and he found other people are preparing for their college applications. They don’t have the money to go into an acting academy so they gathered up and practice with the people aiming the same goal. He stayed and did all of his best and prepared for only one school, Seoul Arts University. He tried it once more and he said to himself that if he got rejected again he will just go home and follow his father’s orders. After the results came out and he saw his name on the list, he called his parents right away and after 2 years his parents complimented him and now he was able to see his parents.

While in college he still looked up and try for auditions, he failed for about 50 auditions a year. Luckily, he found an orientation where he can try our for various auditions, he decided to try out all of it, but he wasn’t accepted in any of it. There was one entertainment company left and he tried out for that but there was a broadcasting company came out with their camera shooting their special report for newbies, it’s the SBS Real Korea aired on July 27, 2001. He was recorded while trying out his audition.

The manager gave him a name card and told him that they’ll give him a call but since he didn’t got a call he went to their office and he was able to talk to the manger, and the manger said that if there’s a chance he’ll give him a call. After a month of waiting they gave a call and he started with Magazine photo shoots.

Lee Jun Ki’s Developing Drama, Part 1

Debuted in the Japanese movie “Hotel Venus”. A Japanese director saw his profile and said that he wanted to do a project with him after passing the second audition. At the same time there was a popular movie in Korean that was prepared, a youth movie and he was accepted to that as well, but he chose the Japanese movie and he went to Japan to work on that. He didn’t receive any support from his company, he only took $200 with him in Japan. His manager had a meeting on the first day but after that his manager went back to korea. While working in Japan, the movie company let him stay in a small business motel and the movie company gave him 3,000 Yen a day for his food. It was unfair to be not supported by his company but he said that they agreed on that part and at that time the company was suffering too and he preferred for the company to get better so he took care of himself. In Japan he took arbeit too. Even after gaining some attention as a new actor he still do arbeit because he still needs to earn money for his tuition and expenses even though he’s already in a management company already. After the age of 19 he never received helped from his parents, he said that it’s the path he chose and it was something he could do.

While in Japan his manager just visited him again a week before the shooting ends. They ate together, went out and have fun using the money he saved up.

Until now they are still working together, same with his other staffs..

After shooting he came back to Seoul, until he got to do other of his works. Until, he got his work in “The King and the Clown” which is only accidental. He and his manager met 2 entertainment reporters and he was asked to try and prepare for that. The next day he went to the company and got the scenario. There are many other new actors who tried out for that role too, there are 3 parts of the auditions and he was the one accepted. And in the movie “The King and the Clown” he caught attentions and that movie was a big success!

Looking closely – In 2006, he was chosen 1st by the reporters as a bad celebrity!, Part 1

‘Japan is my land!’

Around the beginning of 2006, Lee Jun Ki posted a comment in his friend’s cyworld, a note with a message “Japan is my country and I will go there when I am done with this movie. I like pro-Japanese people”. But people who saw the post give a lot of meaning on it and share it without explanations all through out the internet and some people says bad things about him. As it gone worst he said that “Japan is my country” as he aims to become a star in Japan by pursuing his acting career there in the future, and that “pro-Japanese” is a joke that he uses among his friends who study Japanese together. He eventually closed the blog, which he ran for over two years, due to too much traffic. Instead, he announced that any news or announcements would only be conveyed through his agency’s Internet Web site.

Read the news here from HanCinema

Watch here: -SOON!

Source & credits to: MBC Golden Fishery
Korean to English Translations by: Nahnus of JunKiGlobal / Lee Jun Ki Crunchyroll
Summarized by: dfr529 of JunKiGlobal
JunKiGlobal