Park Ji-hoon dropped 15 kilos to play Korea's saddest king

To the global fanbase that followed him through Wanna One's meteoric rise and subsequent solo career, Park Ji-hoon hardly needs an introduction.

The same goes for viewers of "Weak Hero Class 1," where he played a scrawny high schooler who takes on bullies with whatever he can get his hands on. His role in the 2022 streaming hit earned him a best new actor prize at the Blue Dragon Series Awards. His second jaunt in the franchise, which dropped on Netflix last year, cemented him as something much more than a K-pop star dabbling in drama.

But the upcoming "The King's Warden" is something else entirely. The 26-year-old actor's first leading role in a feature film casts him as Danjong, the boy king who ascended Joseon's throne at 12 and died by 17.

He is a figure so steeped in tragedy and the cold machinery of royal politics that Koreans continue to tell his story centuries later. Everyone knows how that story ends; the question is what you do with what little room remains.

"He was so young, but he must have understood so much," Park says at a cafe in Samcheong-dong on Tuesday. "I kept thinking while filming, 'he went through all of this as a child. Before he was a king, he was just a kid.'"

Director Jang Hang-jun, better known for his talk-show persona than his uneven directing career, approached Park for the role. At first, the actor balked. "I heard what the director said at our last meeting, and on my way home, his words just kept echoing. Like a movie had just ended."

Jang had told him, point-blank, that Danjong had to be him. "That's when I thought, maybe I can give this a shot. Maybe I should trust the director and just go for it."

So he went all in. To portray a king stripped of everything — the throne, prestige, will to live — Park shed 15 kilograms in the 2 1/2 months leading up to production, living off of little more than an apple a day.

"The director told me I needed to lose weight, but he never gave me a specific number," he says. "That was my own ambition. I wanted to look beyond just thin, more like skin and bones."

The film follows Danjong's exile to the remote mountain valley of Cheongnyeongpo after his uncle's coup. There, he forms an unlikely bond with Eom Heung-do (Yoo Hae-jin), the shrewd village chief assigned to watch over him. For Park, acting opposite one of Korean cinema's most formidable character actors — in his first feature lead, no less — was its own kind of ordeal.

"It was our first day of shooting, and during the rehearsal, he walked toward me, and I couldn't even look at him. I really couldn't. I was so nervous." Yoo's response was to tell him to relax, do whatever felt right. "From that moment, the tension just lifted."

What eventually grew in its place was something closer to kinship. The two took walks together along the river between takes; emotions came with time as the shoot went on. "It wasn't planned at all," Park says. "The feelings just built up naturally, scene by scene, along with the story itself."

With the outcome all but predetermined — and the film itself generating little suspense along the way — "The King's Warden" functions largely as an extended buildup to its tearjerker of a finale. In the closing stretch, facing execution, Danjong chooses to end his life with dignity, in a way that implicates his trusted companion in ways neither could have imagined.

As one might expect, the whole setup is hokey in its design and worse, brazenly manipulative in its intent, but those who can stomach it may find a glimmer of sincerity in the performances. At least you can tell Park is in it for real; it's all there in the eyes.

Asked about filming that final sequence, Park gets visibly emotional. "During the rehearsal, I cried so much. It felt like a son seeing his father again after a long time."

When Yoo walked through that door, feelings hit him at once. "I don't have a lot of experience, but I remember that moment so vividly. I kept thinking: Will I ever feel something like this again in my life? It was that intense."

At last week's press screening, when Yoo praised his young co-star, cameras caught Park's eyes welling up. "It wasn't about the compliment," Park says. "It was remembering the energy from that scene, the chemistry we shared. That all came rushing back."

So is he done with music? Not quite; the K-pop idol in him isn't going anywhere. "I haven't ruled it out at all. I still have fans who've supported me since my idol days," he says. "They're happy when I do both. It's not one or the other for them."

As for what sets him apart as an actor, Park describes himself as a quick study — less about homework, more about watching and absorbing on set. "I don't come to set with a lot of preparation. I think I just learn things fast.

"Watching other actors work — their breathing, their delivery, their presence — I take it all in without really trying."

"The King's Warden" opens Feb. 4.