SEOUL– It took eleven months to shoot the newest Netflix Original series “Vagabond”. It’s the same total of months that artists Lee Seung-gi and Suzy Bae have been teasing their fans about the series.
It’s all over their respective Instagram accounts. Suzy posting her eye contact battle with a cat in Morocco. We think she lost to the orange tabby because the cat did not budge while she broke into a smile. We also know that the actress spent her birthday while shooting because she shared a video of her blowing a cake after exploring the streets of the country.
Seung-gi, on the other hand, has been teasing almost every month about it. Not contented with his regular “Vagabond” Instagram posts, he also talks about the series in his variety show with Yook Sung-jae, Yang Se-hyeong and Lee Sang-yoon called “All the Butlers”. This is how Airens (Seung-gi’s fandom) were updated about the drama.
“Vagabond” director Yu In-sik said that they have been eyeing the actor for the part of Cha Dal-geon as soon as he joined the Special Forces. The series is about Cha Dal-geon who is a stuntman seeking answers as to why his nephew had to die in an airplane crash. His trip reveals a conspiracy and corruption.
“I told him I’d like to shoot an action drama with him. He said that he’d love to. We were very fortunate to cast him for the role,” In-sik said. He also said that the production team have been formulating this drama about four or five years ago.
The director described having Suzy in the series as icing on the cake. He added that the project took off because of her. Super interviewed Seung-gi and Suzy on Sept. 11 at the Imperial Palace Hotel, Seoul. We had to ask the actress about her reaction when she found out that she would be working on this drama.
“This was the first time for me to work on an espionage action drama genre, so every moment of shooting was exciting for me. I really enjoyed it. Every time that I went on set was full of fun. It was exciting to do gun-shooting scenes,” Suzy said while making heart-pounding gestures.
Chemistry on set
There are a lot of expectations about the chemistry of the two lead artists as the drama serves as a reunion of sorts for them. They worked together in the drama six years ago called “Gu Family Book” which is also currently streamed on Netflix.
Suzy promised that their chemistry for this action series is better than the first time. She had great memories from working with Seung-gi in the past which is why she was excited to work with him again.
“It is not so easy to work with the same actress for the second time, especially if the actress is a household name like Suzy. I was so happy to work with her again on Vagabond. Her acting was great but I know this already from six years ago. There were many scenes that were physically demanding but she didn’t frown even once,” Seung-gi said.
During the press conference for the series on Sept. 16, a journalist asked the actor what sets his character Dal-geon apart from the other action genre character.
Seung-gi said that the biggest difference is that his character is an ordinary person. He is not a trained, retired or amnesiac agent who is physically trained as a spy. The actor said the director Yu refrained from doing unnecessary scenes just for the sake of it.
“His motivation comes solely from his heart. When we were shooting in Morocco, my character would run on the roof, drive a car, and was supposed to drive a motorcycle, too. On site, though, director Yu said we should completely remove motorcycle scenes because it is too fancy. An ordinary man would just run,” Seung-gi said.
The actor said that they made an effort to create action scenes from which the audience can feel the emotions. This is what sets “Vagabond” from the rest, according to Seunggi. He also added that this is why he did not have much to refer to or take from other action role models. He said that he focused more on taking out the unnecessary in his acting.
Loving her role
On the same press conference, Suzy talked about how she fell in love with her character Hae-ri. She said that it was a love at first reading of script. Her character develops in the series which she hopes her acting will reflect.
Suzy’s character Hae-ri is a National Intelligence Service agent. In the opening scene of the series, we see Seung-gi aiming a gun at her but hesitates when he sees that the target is her. How their lives intertwine in the series is something everyone will find out as the drama progresses.
Super asked her if she could ever be friends with her character Hae-ri if she meets her.
“Hae-ri can be a good friend. I think she is a very passionate person. She has this wonderful personality inside her, which she isn’t even aware of. It can be completely different from what she thinks of herself; so yes, I think I can be friends with Hae-ri,” she said.
“She’s all good, but she has some bad drinking habits,” Seung-gi piped in.
“Hae-ri has some drinking habits but this is a spoiler!” said Suzy laughed.
“This is a spoiler, yes. You can check that out on the show,” Seung-gi said.
