[STAR DIARY] Lee Min-ho - Part 6

Not long after Lee Min-ho had started shooting "Boys Over Flowers", he was to go on his overseas location shoot to New Caledonia.

"We shot there for twelve days and we ate baguette bread and meat the whole time. The island was French-governed territory, so everything was incredibly expensive. I think one meal cost about KRW 400,000 to 500,000 won. A coke cost about 15,000 won -- need I say more? Imagine eating that hard bread three times a day for twelve days."

Food was not the only problem during the New Caledonia shoot. "Seriously, the shoots went on without any break. There was barely any time to sleep. When we weren't shooting the drama, they would wake us up to shoot a photo spread of F4. Later I was told that, in my sleep, I had kicked my stylist with my foot when he was trying to wake me up. I don't remember doing that but, I think I was under stress subconsciously because I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat rice and the weather was so hot." (laugh)

Even the hot weather turned out to be an unexpected pain. "It was illegal to leave the car idling, so we had to deal with the hot weather without turning on the air conditioning in the car. And they told us to show our teeth and give a large grin when we see a local native. Or else they would drag us away." (laugh)

In addition, Lee had to appear extremely friendly with actress Ku Hye-sun during the filming in New Caledonia because the romantic storyline between their characters Goo Joon-pyo and Geum Jan-di was reaching its peak. "We had just started working, so we really hadn't gotten to know each other. And so it was a little hard because we had to pretend that we were very close. In the scene where Goo Joon-pyo and Geum Jan-di were walking around on the beach, there were even water snakes in the water and so I was about to go crazy."

"At the time, we would look like rich people on camera. But when the director yelled 'cut,' we really looked like beggars. (laugh) In the making-the-film footage for 'Boys Over Flowers', there is a shot of me wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and sitting on the boat while eating a baguette bread. I was eating to survive at that point."

But Lee says he was able to shoot comfortably in Macau. "All the scenes we had to shoot were inside the hotel. So we shot comfortably for two weeks without having to go outside the hotel. And thankfully, my character was avoiding Geum Jan-di in Macau, so it was easy to work with Ku Hye-sun, whom I was not very close to at the time. Haha."



Reporter : Ko Jae-wan star@
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@