Three seasons of survival drama later, the Emmy winner is trying something softer -- where his co-star admits she's having way too much fun bossing him around
"I'm starting to think she brought me on just to mess with me," Lee Jung-jae said during Tuesday's online press conference, only half-joking. "I keep asking, 'Why are you treating me like this?'
The Emmy winner for "Squid Game" is making his return to Korean television after wrapping three seasons of the Netflix survival drama, and he's picked something deliberately lighter: "Nice to Not Meet You," a rom-com that's all banter, casual misunderstandings, and zero deadly games that drench you in blood and gore.
Lee plays Hyeon-jun, an A-list actor stuck in his fifth season as a fictional cop. Typecast as the virtuous hero in a procedural that never ends, Hyeon-jun wants out; he's gunning for a role in melodrama, one that lets him cry on camera instead of throwing punches.
It's a setup that mirrors the meta-casting at work. Lee, now recognizable anywhere in the world from "Squid Game" — first the clueless player, then the bitter survivor trying to take down the game — is pivoting to something decidedly lighter. He's looking for that shift in television, where he built his career long before international fame.
"My previous works were quite genre-heavy," he said. "I wanted to try something lighter, more vibrant and fun. At just the right moment, Lim Ji-yeon reached out."
Turns out that wasn't just a casual suggestion. Lim, known for playing the merciless villain in Netflix's "The Glory," actively pursued him. "After reading the script, I instantly thought Lee Jung-jae would be perfect for Hyeon-jun," she said. The two belong to the same management agency, Artist Company, but this marks their first time working together.
Lim plays Jeong-sin, a political reporter who gets tangled up in a scandal and ends up reassigned to the entertainment desk. As it happens, this one also marks a left turn from her recent works — "The Glory," "Lies Hidden in My Garden," "The Killing Vote": all unrelentingly dark.
"I've played so many characters weighed down by hardship," she said. "I wanted someone bright and optimistic for once."
The show's premise hinges on Jeong-sin being a total fish out of water. She has no interest in pop culture and zero patience for celebrity gossip, but now she's covering a top star she'd rather avoid. In that friction lies the comedy — so does the pathos.
"The most meaningful part is watching Jeong-sin gradually open up to a new world after meeting this top star," Lim said. "Someone with no interest in pop culture suddenly gets exposed to all the chaos of media and fame."
To prep for the role, Lim said she studied entertainment reporters at press junkets. "They all had these different characteristics and charms," she said. "So I figured, why not just start from myself? If my job were a reporter instead of an actor, what would that look like?"
The power dynamic between an aggressive reporter and the celebrity being hassled by her more or less became reality on set. "We bickered a lot on set," Lee said. "She's so rough with me that I wonder if she cast me just to boss me around."
Lim seemed unbothered by the characterization. "I feel catharsis every single day," she said, grinning. She noted that Lee's willingness to take whatever she throws at him has made the work easier. "He just rolls with everything. At some point, it stopped being acting."
Even before the shooting began, the age gap between the two leads had raised eyebrows — Lee is 53, Lim 35 — a nearly 20-year difference that had people talking as soon as the casting was announced. "There's nothing to overcome," Lee said. "Despite the age difference, she still treats me this way."
Lim agreed, sort of. "I'm way more comfortable with him than actors my own age," she said — to which Lee muttered something about how that's because she does whatever she wants.
One thing unique about the drama is that it features a show-within-a-show: "Good Detective Kang Pil-gu," the fictional action franchise that made Hyeon-jun famous. The format gives Lee a chance to revisit the action choreography from "Hunt," the 2022 espionage thriller he directed and starred in.
Director Kim Ga-ram, who worked on "Nevertheless" and "Good Partner," said filming those sequences almost broke the crew. "The staff kept joking we signed the wrong contract," she said. "This wasn't supposed to be two shows."
The challenge was letting Lee do action without disappointing fans. That meant calling in the stunt team from "Hunt." "They know exactly what he can and can't pull off," Kim said. "So they choreographed around that."
Lee, seeming exhausted, confirmed it worked. "Luckily, the same stunt team came on board. They knew my weak spots."
"Nice to Not Meet You" drops Monday at 8:50 p.m. on tvN, with episodes hitting Prime Video every Monday and Tuesday for viewers overseas.
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com
