Jang Dong-yoon "Playing a Villain Who Enjoys Murder Was Hard to Relate To" (Summary)

Film 'Akmadeul' Press Screening Held
Jang Dong-yoon and Oh Dae-hwan Play Dual Roles as Murderer and Detective

Actor Jang Dong-yoon (30) has shed his gentle image and returned as a ruthless murderer.

Taking on his first-ever villain role, Jang Dong-yoon said at the press screening of the film The Devils (director Kim Jae-hoon) held on the afternoon of the 26th at CGV Yongsan in Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, "It was not easy to portray a character who experiences intense and extreme emotions." He added, "I challenged myself with a villain role to broaden my acting range."

Still from 'The Devils' [Photo by TCO Co., Ltd. The Contents On]

Opening on the 5th of next month, The Devils is a body-swap action thriller depicting the confrontation between the notorious murderer Jin-hyuk (played by Jang Dong-yoon) and detective Jae-hwan (played by Oh Dae-hwan), whose bodies are switched at the moment of capture.

Taking on the dual roles of both murderer and detective, Jang Dong-yoon confessed, "It was difficult to empathize with a villain who kills not out of any backstory or justified goal or emotion, but rather enjoys murder."

He explained his focus, saying, "I had physical limitations. I kept thinking that I needed to avoid looking weak in appearance or build."

He said, "If I wasn’t conscious, I would revert to my usual face. The director said, 'Why do you look so kind? Your face looks gentle and nice.' I consciously tried to express Jin-hyuk’s face."

There was a minor accident during the action scenes involving knives. Jang Dong-yoon recalled calmly, "It happened because I let my guard down in front of the camera. When filming, you get scratched and hurt here and there, so it wasn’t a big deal."

He added with a smile, "Even during the brutal scenes, there was no time to feel how cruel they were on set. I was just tired and wanted to finish quickly." He emphasized, "The atmosphere on set was warm and friendly, and we joked a lot during filming, so the accident didn’t leave any trauma or aftereffects."

Still from The Devils [Photo by TCO Co., Ltd. The Contents On]

Oh Dae-hwan, who took on his first leading role, said, "Rather than feeling the weight of being the main character, I focused on performing the role well." He added, "I thought a lot about how to act well within a limited space."

He said the action scenes in the mountains were the most difficult. He joked, "While filming the running scenes, I almost had a heart attack. We filmed just the two of us, Jang Dong-yoon and me, without any supporting actors, and I almost died."

Jang Dong-yoon and Oh Dae-hwan performed the body-swap acting. Oh Dae-hwan said, "We agreed not to imitate each other’s speech or actions." Jang Dong-yoon also said, "I tried to act according to my own acting style."

Regarding the difference from existing body-swap genre films, director Kim Jae-hoon explained, "I thought mixing thriller and body-swap genres would create a fresh feeling for the film," adding, "We tried to create differentiation in the middle to latter part of the film."

Director Kim stated, "Action appears in scenes where the emotions of the two characters who face each other reach an extreme. We borrowed action to express the explosion of emotions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.