Just like his name, like a gentle breeze. With his unstoppable laughter, and the look of him concentrating on stage so as to not miss anything out, Sandeul feels more like a comfortable neighbour kid rather than an idol.
B1A4′s Sandeul (21, Lee Junghwan) debuted on the musical stage through musical ‘Brothers Were Brave’, raising their curtains for the first time on 26 June. Musical ‘Brothers Were Brave’ ran their first show in March 2008, and were nominated for 6 awards in the 3rd The Musical Awards including Best Production, Best Script, Best Composition/Lyrics, Best Choreography, Best Musical Director and finally Best Supporting Actress. They took home the Best Script and Best Composition/Lyrics awards in the end, getting critical acclaim on the musical.
Sandeul, alongside Sung Dooseob and Jo Kanghyun will be acting as the younger brother Joobong. The role of older brother Seokbong will be played by Kim Dohyun and Kim Jaebeom. Sandeul’s first performance will be on 13 July, and he joked that he’s still hiding his skills for that day.
At time of the interview, Sandeul’s eyes were red due to an eye inflammation. Upon my question of whether his eyes were alright, Sandeul was startled and asked me how I found out.
“My eyes don’t hurt. I have not done anything to it recently, but it keeps on turning red. I thought that I’d be fine after some sleep but it didn’t become better so I got a checkup at the hospital and it was an inflammation. They said that it’ll be alright if I refrained from wearing my contact lenses so I didn’t do it. But for the performance, I wore it for a short while. I told the fans that I am really fine and I just could not wear my contact lenses, but instead they told me to stop lying because it probably hurts. I am really alright. (laugh)”
The first musical that Sandeul ever watched in a theatre was ‘Ballerina Who Loves a B-boy’. He who was very interested in musicals since before was visiting universities with his friends before debut, and decided to watch a musical, and that is how he ended up watching ‘Ballerina Who Loves a B-boy’. When he first learned about musical, Sandeul’s first thoughts were ‘what are those people thinking about as they stand on the stage?’.
He wanted to find the answer to that question, and challenge the genre of musicals that he had always been very interested in. With that hope, he has risen to the stage of musicals, and his happiness right this very moment is so huge that there are no words to express it.
“Even though it was just a short while, but when I stood on the stage for the press call I was so happy that I was overwhelmed with emotions. I was so eager to do even more. I’ll show (the audience) all that I can during the actual show.”
He in the musical who explodes with pride, Joobong is 29 years old. However, Sandeul’s age in reality is only 21 years old. In order to overcome the age difference of 8 years, Sandeul agonized very much. Because he never experienced being 29 years old, and did not know what thoughts do people at that age had, it was difficult for him. Sandeul said, “I think I overcame the difficulties by learning many things from the nice hyungs.”
“I did not know what kind of mindsets do 29 year olds live with, so I asked both the director and the actor hyungs. I think I asked Kanghyun hyung and Dooseob hyung the most. There are many pent up feelings in Joobong’s heart so he is easily annoyed but being 29 years old it was not getting angry immediately either. The hyungs explained to me that it was more of a resigned to life annoyance, ‘Yeah, how would hyung even know. Forget about it’. Even since then, I picked up things faster. It helped me very much.”
He may be young, but that is Sandeul’s weapon. The actors are required to use satoori (accent) in the musical, and it is absolutely comfortable for Sandeul who was born in Busan. When they opened up their practice room for the press the other time, director Jang Yoo Jung revealed that the other actors went around chasing Sandeul to learn how to use a satoori. But because not all the lines in the script used a satoori, Sandeul had the pressure to fix his way of speech as well.
“At first I was really awkward. I wondered if I could actually do well without the use of my satoori. The director had also noted my satoori from the start, so I put a lot of effort into it. But now, I can’t really feel whether I am using my satoori. Haha. Is it not so? Well, of course to people born and living in Seoul mysatoori can still be heard. (laugh) When I go back to my hometown now, everyone says that I am speaking weirdly after drinking the water in Seoul.”
He uses his satoori so much that everyone knows that he’s a young man from Busan, yet he insists that he doesn’t use it. When you hear him say so, there is no way you cannot smile. After laughing for a while, you realize that this young man has more affectionate charms than what you see from his exterior image.
When I ask him a question as he’s laughing, there are tens of question marks that pop up immediately on top of his head, leaving him no time to be inattentive. We then wondered how this young man is going to portray the hot-tempered and rough Joobong. Just exactly how similar is Sandeul and Joobong?
“Joobong is a child with a very warm heart. But he expresses it in the opposite way. I am also very warm hearted. Ah, it’s a little too much to say that with my own heart. (laugh) I think we’re similar to about 60%. Joobong is unable to express himself well, but I am not like that. Even though I am not good at expressing myself either.”
He who had just said that he is only 60% similar to Joobong suddenly smiles awkwardly when asked about how is the relationship between him and his elder sister. He is also unable to express himself well to his elder sister.
“I think she always picks a fight with me. When I want to simply ask her ‘noona, do you want to eat this?’, I end up expressing myself as ‘I’ll eat it when I want to’. I am quite blunt. I am like so to my mother as well, so I hope she understands my mind. I often hear that I am very alike to my mother, so when I am blunt she would just said that she expected it anyway, and me and my sister would continue squabbling. Now that I see it, we are exactly the same as the Joobong-Seokbong brothers. 100% alike. But I’ll just say that it’s 60%. (laugh).”
These squabbles also extend out to the B1A4 members. When the members first heard about the casting in the musical they were very jealous. But this jealousy has now gone beyond, and become nagging.
“Their nagging is no joke. When I’m practicing my script, they say things like ‘that’s not right. I’ll watch you so try again’. It’s really annoying. I am obviously doing it the same way, but they keep telling me to do it properly, so I do it out of spite. So there have been times that I practiced in front of the members while being heated. I think the tendency to squabble is in-born in me. (laugh) Especially when I’m with Baro. It doesn’t happen much when I’m with the hyungs, but maybe because Baro is of the same age as me. Baro’s nagging can wake a person up, it’s horrible. (laugh)”
He says that his personality is one that makes it hard to express himself well with the people he is close with, but even though he says so you can feel that he is extremely grateful for the members’ interest and affection. He tells us that he feels a greater sense of responsibility towards the great interest directed at him by the fans.
“When I heard that my shows were sold out within 11 minutes of ticketing, honestly it was burdensome. I had no idea that each show could admit 800 people. When I heard about that and thought about the many people coming to watch me, I was very nervous. I thought that I was in trouble, and I couldn’t continue being like that, and ended up practicing more.”
The previous season saw SHINee’s Onew successful debut in the musical industry with the character of Joobong as well. When he saw Onew’s performance videos, Sandeul thought that he did really well. But immediately he had the goal to do even better than Onew. When a person thinks of the possible comparisons people will make and eventually gets pressured, he or she may not be able to perform as well. We can feel the determination from he who tells himself to be more confident on purpose. Sandeul may be gentle, but he is a professional who is solid and passionate about his work.
Upon the mention of the hyungs who have a huge age gap, Sandeul’s eyes sparkled. Kim Jaebeom who is unique with his jokes and his down to earth personality, Jo Kanghyun and Sung Dooseob with their talkative personality, and witty Kim Dohyun. When they gather around, there is no way you cannot enjoy yourself.
Sandeul recalls, “There is a memory of how interestingly the hyungs plays. They joked around as we received our scripts, and even did kungfu. It’s really fun in the practice room. I want to give the hyungs energy, but the brothers themselves are energy and vitality. Rather, I end up receiving strength from them.”
However, there is one thing Sandeul is worried about. And that is the kiss [T/N: It is really just a peck.] scene between Seokbong and Joobong. It is an episode where they peck each other by accident, and they end up slapping each other.
“As of yet, I have never actually done the kiss scene with the hyungs. So I’m in huge trouble. There has never been once that our lips actually touched. We go close to each other, open our eyes slightly, make the kissing sound, and immediately end it with the slap. Now that I actually have to do it, I am slowly preparing my heart. To have to kiss a guy in my first musical, I think it wil be a huge unforgettable memory. (laugh)”
There is a sad scene where the mother suffering from dementia asks “who are you?”, but the singing scene where the father says “sons, I do not want to leave this life” tugged at Sandeul’s heartstrings, and he sang with a heavy heart. He who yet to perform for his first stage, Sandeul has already fallen into it, laughing and crying.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the musical ‘Brothers Were Brave’ even after the show ends. I don’t think I can forget the actors hyungs, noonas and staff. They are people who I want to meet and perform with again in future when I have the chance to challenge other musicals.”
Due to his singer promotions, he can only learn about musicals from videos. He says that the few musicals that are memorable to him include Big Bang’s Seungri’s ‘Sonagi’, Im Changjung’s ‘Laundry’as well as Jo Seungwoo’s ‘Jekyll & Hyde’.
“I watched senior Im Changjung in his role of Sollonggo during ‘Laundry’ and he was so good. I laughed so hard watching it alone. I want to do a variety of musicals if I have the chance. I think‘Laundry’ is really unique and interesting to do. ‘Sonagi’ was enjoyable thanks to senior Seungri’s fresh expressions. I want to do all these musicals that I have watched, except ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ by senior Jo Seungwoo. I was really shocked, I got goosebumps from watching the Confrontation scene. It was really amazing. It may be difficult now, but I will work hard and try to do it once in my life. It’s really interesting. ‘Brothers Were Brave’ is interesting too. (laugh)”
When Sandeul talked about ‘Jekyll & Hyde’, you can feel his admiration and how amazed he felt when watching it that day through words. In that moment too, he was so natural and honest. I wonder how much growth will his newfound interest for musicals give to this young man.
Lastly, when asked on behalf of the fans how he maintains his fitness, he laughed and said, “I eat well, and sleep well. I think that is all. I eat well even if I’m not given food, I eat even more if I’m given food. If I have already eaten and you give me food again, I eat it. So I am extremely healthy.” At this point, I start to understand why B1A4 is receiving so much love from the noonas.
“Instead of the Sandeul whom everyone knows, I will be showing everyone a side to me as the younger brother Joobong in ‘Brothers Were Brave’, so please come comfortably and it’ll be nice if you enjoyed the show and left.”
Musical ‘Brothers Were Brave’, starring Kim Dohyun, Kim Jaebeom, Sung Dooseob, Jo Kanghyun and B1A4′s Sandeul will be on show at COEX’s Artium Hyundai Art Hall till 1 October.
Source: TV Daily
Translation Credits: skipfire @ FLIGHTB1A4.com
Translation Credits: skipfire @ FLIGHTB1A4.com