[FULL TRANS] Yoo Ah In New Year’s Interview: “Rather than trust, I want to raise expectations”
Yoo Ah In is one of the busiest actors in the industry. Despite the COVID-19 situation, he released #ALIVE, VOICE OF SILENCE, and the series HELLBOUND one after another. In particular with VOICE OF SILENCE, he collected awards after awards in Korea and abroad. And this new year, he’s just wrapped up three other films; THE MATCH, HI.5 (HIGHFIVE), and Netflix original movie SEOUL VIBE. JTBC sat down with the actor during the Lunar New Year holiday for an interview. Here are the full translations:
Q: How do you feel about starting the year 2022?
Yoo Ah In: I’ve been working on four projects in a row since last year, and each work has different background. The genre and style are extremely different, too. I feel like I’ve started the new year quite busy as well. Because of this, I’ve lost the concept of time while trying to absorb them. I think this year will also be a hectic one. I can’t believe it’s the year of water tiger! I feel like I’m inexplicably getting the tiger energy all of sudden…Hahaha.
Q: Every time you released your works, you made the “Ahinsidae” (Yoo Ah In Year/Era), and this year happens to be the real Year of the Tiger. Do you have any plans, goals or new expectations to look forward to?
Yoo Ah In: I’m looking forward to how everyone will accept the ‘new version of Yoo Ah In’. These past few years I’ve been working hard on choosing works by exploring other possibilities through new challenges. I would like to sort out these results, and then look forward to the future. I’ve wrapped up one part of it.
Q: Let’s start with the previous work VOICE OF SILENCE. Simply speaking, I think this is a work in which you turn the all-round crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic into an opportunity by expressing it so simply. Like VETERAN and SADO (THE THRONE), this also has become another representative work of actor Yoo Ah In which was critically acclaimed. All the time spent with VOICE OF SILENCE and the many trophies you received through this work, what meaning do you think will remain for Yoo Ah In?
Yoo Ah In: Ironically, the time I spent with “Silence” (VOICE OF SILENCE) was a very “noisy” time. The work that provoked a lot of discourse and the work that even the commotion was lovely is my memory of VOICE OF SILENCE. I don’t want to define the trophies in any way. I want those heavy trophies to become my strength, rather than a burden.
Q: Are there any special congratulatory messages that you remember deeply?
Yoo Ah In: I don’t celebrate my award, but it was fun to see celebrations from my close acquaintances who replaced them with jokes saying, “I’m tired of (you) winning the awards” or scolded me, “When will you make a proper acceptance speech without being nervous?”. In fact, I don’t take awards too seriously, but I think the meaning of the awards arises when I feel that they’re empowering and rewarding to the fans and the people I work with. In that sense, I don’t think these awards really belong to me.
Q: I personally think that VOICE OF SILENCE served as an opportunity to experience Yoo Ah In’s work, roles, perspectives of people, and silently shows everyone your stronger acting skills beyond the youth stars. Do you think you have a lot more potentials that you haven’t realized yet?
Yoo Ah In: It would be great if I could quantify my potential abilities on my own, but it’s not easy. In fact, I always feel like I’ve reached the limit, and in order to slightly exceed or break that limit, I have to challenge it decisively. I’m looking forward to what will happen in the unknown territory that I haven’t been to, or imagine what kind of characters I can re-create. But I struggle from serious dilemmas, because this requires strong control to fall into the joy of anticipations themselves. I’m sorry for not being able to give a clear answer.
Q: While you were safely presenting the works you had participated, at the same time you’re also carrying out restless new activities to the point where you feel like you’re falling down, such as THE MATCH, Hi.5, and SEOUL VIBE. It’s natural for actors to act, but is there a reason for your special prolific action? Were these projects too good to miss out?
Yoo Ah In: They were the projects I met at a time when I wanted to use myself in a slightly different way. They have different tendencies, styles, and each one has a unique Korean aesthetic and cinematic quality, so I was greedy to work on them all properly. Now, those moments of hard work have brought me to the limit of physical strength that I’ve never felt before. Thanks to this, health has become the most important value of my life these days, unlike the past when I lived as if there was no tomorrow, just like that of my debut film [BOYS OF TOMORROW].
Q: I think it’s unfair to describe it simply as ‘good luck’ now, but you have come to this day in a solid way. You can’t predict everything, but are you also the type that creates certain timing and opportunities by yourself?
Yoo Ah In: I look at, accept, and feel all the situations and consequences as they naturally come. I believe that only then can I send the most sincere response to the world.
Q: If you think there’s a work that made ‘the current Yoo Ah In’, which work come to your mind?
Yoo Ah In: The movie BURNING. Of course, all the works and the characters I met in those works built Yoo Ah In, but BURNING is a work that gave me new responsibilities and the will/determination to keep going as an actor. In some ways, I even think it’s also a work that gave me a new life.
Q: I’m sure many people think about you, “It’s good that you’ve accomplished everything you want to achieve as an actor.” This is a kind of direct trust in actor Yoo Ah In. What do you think about accepting and viewing the public trust towards you as an actor?
Yoo Ah In: I’m really grateful, but trust is too scary. Rather than trust, I want to raise expectations for everyone. Sometimes I even want to break that expectation and bring other surprises to everyone. I strive for honesty and staying true to my desires every moment in the process of creating a tacit understanding with the public, so I don’t have a certain fixed view of the public.
Q: Do you have something you absolutely want to ‘contain’, even though it changes every minute?
Yoo Ah In: It’s the actor’s job to look for and control universality, but I will try to refrain from making absolute evaluations or definitions of any phenomenon, person, event, etc. In fact, this has become so natural (to me) that it doesn’t require an effort.
Q: You’re about to celebrate your 20th debut anniversary. If you could describe your 20-year career in one word?
Yoo Ah In: Baby step? [T/N: “걸음마” or “baby step” is one word in Hangeul. It could also mean “let’s get off to a good start”]
Q: In the interview with Park Jung Min after the Baeksang Art Awards ceremony, he said that Yoo Ah In “has the senior aura”. Although he’s actually a senior too, but he feels like you’re a senior with a big age difference, and he also said something like you “brought courage to his peers”.
Yoo Ah In: I think creators who truly love our profession have a deep fellowship with each other even if they don’t have to show it. Sometimes we’re used as rivals, sometimes we’re compared to each other, but on the other hand, we’re also colleagues who inspire and stimulate each other and grow together. It’s a very grateful existence. Like Park Jung Min, he’s the type of actor-friend who evokes strong stimulation and curiosity.
Q: When you look back, when was your most fiery period?
Yoo Ah In: It seems to be ‘now’.
Q: Is there anything Yoo Ah In is afraid of?
Yoo Ah In: Going to work early in the morning.
Q: Are there any emotions that you’ve gotten used to like habits due to your job as an actor?
Yoo Ah In: Inner filter that refines expression? I feel things like that are getting more and more subtle. It may be a virtue required of celebrities today, but it often feels suffocating. There’s a big difference between restrained and suppressed expressions. So, it also makes me think about what expressions to create a stronger sense of solidarity and to enable freer communication.
Q: You said once that after listening to Kim Yoon Ah’s Kyrie, “I’ve been comforted,” and “I’ve listened to it more than 1,000 times”. Is there any music that you like listening to or that brings you comfort recently?
Yoo Ah In: I love Se So Neon whom I met while working on their [Freedom] Music Video last year. I’ve been listening to Freedom again on my way home from work, and it was so nice because it gave me a sense of liberating feeling!
Q: Anything you’re interested in these days besides acting?
Yoo Ah In: I want to learn carpentry and furniture design. I’ve always been curious about ways to permeate into other people’s lives other than acting.
Q: A very light question; your MBTI is known as INFP’s “artist type with strong internal beliefs”. Have you actually done the test and do you agree with the statement “INFP 100% human”?
Yoo Ah In: Everyone seems to have made a mistake about my MBTI. Every time I took the rest my results always came out differently, I’m so confused. My latest result is ENFP.. haha 😀
Q: Will we get to see producer or director Yoo Ah In one day?
Yoo Ah In: One day, maybe? I’m also looking forward to becoming someone that can take responsibility for those tasks.
Translated by Yoo Ah In International Fans Community
© Yoo Ah In International Fans Community
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Photos: Chantecaille and Musinsa screencaps
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Thanks so much for the translations!