He is just 21 years old now. So it could be due to his youth, but Kim Bum is a young man with the face of a boy who never takes a break. Last year, he led the beginning of MBC TV series ¡°East of Eden¡± and after spending the first half of 2009 working on KBS¡¯ ¡°Boys Over Flowers¡±, he finished filming ¡°Emergency¡± and went straight to shooting SBS ¡°Dream¡±, which aired starting July 27. His new name is Lee Jang-seok, a pickpocket-turned-combative sports fighter. In a world where twenty-something actors complain about the lack of good work and producers about the lack of good actors, Kim Bum is a rare young actor who continuously works hard on his career. What has this young man, the one with a shining smile and passionate eyes, been up to lately? 10Asia met for an up close and personal interview with Kim Bum at the press conference for ¡°Dream¡± in July.

Actor Kim Bum [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]

10: Do you feel different after doing ¡°East of Eden¡± and ¡°Boys Over Flowers¡±, in terms of your popularity, for instance?
Kim Bum (Kim): I actually don¡¯t really know because I¡¯m always engrossed in my work. But I¡¯m grateful that fans in Japan and other Asian countries have shown so much support for ¡°Boys Over Flowers¡±. And I feel that Korean fans have also become more active. The senior actors in ¡°East of Eden¡± taught me a lot of things, and even till now, I call up director Kim Jin-man and the cinematography director to ask about things I want to know about acting. And I¡¯ve become very close with the F4 brothers in ¡°Boys¡± and Koo Hye-sun, who played Geum Jan-di, so we all got together for my birthday recently after wrapping up work early. I was disappointed that Kim Jun couldn¡¯t join us because he was working in Japan.

10: You must have had a lot of jobs offered to you after ¡°Boys¡±. Can you tell us the reason you chose to do ¡°Dream¡±?
Kim: I actually had finished shooting ¡°Emergency¡± in between the two dramas which I think is going to open around the Thanksgiving Chuseok holidays. ¡°Dream¡± will be the first different role the public will see take on after playing So Yi-jeong in ¡°Boys¡±. I keep getting great parts, and some people might worry that I¡¯m doing too much too fast, but it¡¯s not like that. I thought a lot about it before I chose to do it, and I tried to concentrate as hard as possible in a short period of time. First of all, I was attracted by the drama's portrayal of the world of professional athletes and sports agents. In fact, ¡°Dream¡± is not so much a combative sports drama but a human story about one character meeting good people and how much he changes and grows through that experience.

10: Tell us about your character, Lee Jang-seok.
Kim: He has the nature of a fighter, but he is actually very soft-hearted and lonely. He grew up in poor family surroundings and his pickpocket father taught him how to pickpocket after making him quit middle school. He ended up going to a juvenile reformatory in place of his father, so he has a lot of wounds because of him. He is sick of his father, but he also longs for paternal love and so he acts tough in order to protect himself. He¡¯s similar to the character So Yi-jeong in ¡°Boys¡±, who looked dashing, cool and glamorous on the outside but also had complex family issues. Personally, I feel compassion for the two characters and there are aspects of them that I respect as an actor.

10: But this character is completely different from So Yi-jeong on the outside. (laugh)
Kim: Truthfully, I was pressured and worried that the fans who liked So Yi-jeong wouldn¡¯t be able to relate to this character. But now I¡¯m so into Lee Jang-seok's character that all I can think of is how to express this guy. An actor has to keep changing and not settle for one image, so I hope the viewers will be able to free themselves of the fantasy of ¡°Boys¡± and see me as actor Kim Bum. I can¡¯t live as So Yi-jeong of F4 forever, so I want to leave it as one of my great memories.

Actor Kim Bum [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]

10: What kind of responses have you received about your transformation in ¡°Dream¡±? (laugh)
Kim: I actually hadn't really been aware of it, but on my birthday, somebody told me that I seemed colder than I was when I did in ¡°Boys¡±. I took it as meaning that I'm that much more into the character, so it was a good thing, but ¡®colder¡¯? Come on. (laugh)

10: The process of transforming must be interesting -- turning from a pickpocket to nightclub waiter and to a combative sports fighter.
Kim: After he does serves at a reformatory in place of his father, he comes out and looks for a job but he can¡¯t find any because of his bad record. So he gets a job at a nightclub, gets caught up in a violent fight, and sports agent Na Jae-il (played by Joo Jin-mo) who was at the scene helps him debut as a combative sports fighter.

10: How did you prepare to play the role of a combative sports fighter?
Kim: I don¡¯t have much time to learn these days because we are shooting all the time. I did learn the basics from a real combat sports fighter before going into shoot. But no matter how hard you practice, everything changes once you actually go into shoot so we just go with the flow. I haven¡¯t filmed the fighting scene yet.

10: What¡¯s the atmosphere like on set?
Kim: I was in shooting in Ilsan until dawn and came down here and I'll have to leave for Japan again tomorrow for a press conference. It¡¯s a full schedule so everybody is tired, but Mr. Oh Dal-soo, who plays the father of my character, really livens up the set with his ad-libs. One time I was in a scene with my eyes closed and it was so funny just listening to his ad-libs that I started laughing and made a blooper. (laugh)

Reporter : Choi Ji-Eun five@10asia.co.kr
Photographer : Chae ki-won ten@10asia.co.kr
Editor : Jang Kyung-Jin three@10asia.co.kr
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr
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