Director Han Jae-rim of “The 8 Show” expressed his feelings about the private life controversy of the lead actor Ryu Jun-yeol
Han Jae-rim met with reporters at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the morning of May 22nd and talked about Netflix’s new original series “The 8 Show”, which is gaining keen attention from global viewers after its premiere on May 17th.
Contrary to the director’s intention of introducing an interesting story, the drama aroused keen interest as the main character actor Ryu Jun-yeol was embroiled in a controversy over his romantic relationship with ex-girlfriends Lee Hye-ri and Han So-hee.
In this regard, director Han refused to comment by saying, “To be honest, I only paid attention to the work and had no interest in the actor’s private life”. He emphasized, “I will only care about him if he commits a crime. Therefore, I tried not to focus on it knowing it’s his private life issue”.
Coincidentally, director Han Jae-rim also offered Ryu Jun-yeol and his ex-lover Han So-hee casting offers for his next film “Delusion”. However, the plan naturally fell through because of their romance scandal. Having worked with Ryu Jun-yeol on several projects, director Han shared, “Jun-yeol and I have good chemistry. I saw his acting once in ‘The King’ but we were not close back then. He was calm and he’s still very calm and doesn’t talk much. When I offered him the role, he said he would listen to my talk without even looking at the script and I was so grateful for that”.
When asked about his feelings after failing to cast Ryu Jun-yeol and Han So-hee for “Delusion”, director Han said, “No decisions had been made at that time. I was not too upset because I was also concerned about the media”. Regarding the criticism due to Ryu Jun-yeol’s private life scandal that distracted viewers’ attention to “The 8 Show”, the director said, “But he worked very hard until the end. He earnestly wanted to join all the promotions. I didn’t feel anything unusual about him”.
