[INTERVIEW] ELLE July Edition – Together With Park Yoochun… What Happened In Bali‏



Upon reaching Bali’s airport after midnight, he was told that waiting has to be done at the airport for almost a day and his expression immediately changed into excitement. The lethargic eyes immediately gained spirit. “What shall we do?” From the several hours after that, till the day of returning, Park Yoochun had a mandatory daily activity. And that was to swim freely like a seal in the wide swimming pool of the pool villa. Perhaps it is his own interest that he prefer the sea than the mountain, swimming than walking. “I really like the sea. Just by looking at the endless horizon, it is able to change my frame of mind. Though I do like activities eg. banana boat and wakeboarding at the river too, it’s incomparable to fishing and water sports (in the sea).” Whenever he was swimming, the speakers will be used. But most of the time he will plugged in his earphones and listened to music. This made others wonder if he is unable to stand any void spaces of no rhythm?


“It’s simply because I like music. Since young, music has a precious existence to me. It is the same till now.” In that case, what is the ‘hot track’ that has been playing on your handphone? “I’m not lying here but I have been listening to Junsu’s album everyday recently. It is really cool. It made me proud as a JYJ member that it is an album of high quality.” To the album released by a fellow group member, he supported it like a young girl. Not long ago, he was infatuated with acoustic music. During the filming of the drama, it was that genre that maintained his sensibility.



Although he owned a lot of things, that unknowingly emptiness continued throughout the man’s healing trip. Just like the theme for this pictorial, and in actuality is the same for anyone else in human interactions, his emptiness and loneliness emerged at different times from others. “Emptiness, loneliness, and thankfulness etc, all these perplexed feelings seems to be existing at the same time. Of course there would be times where I felt lonlier than others. It’s not that there’s no ways to ovecome it but it’s not a time to be alone. Because there are family or colleagues. Recently I felt that the sensibility at those times could be useful for my actor career. The sensibility moment can be good for music making too.”



Gaining experiences with ‘Sungkyunkwan Scandal’, ‘Miss Ripley’ and ‘Rooftop Prince’, Park Yoochun made people wonder if he is born with the ability to arouse topic discussions. Everytime he would be the center attraction of interesting stories. His way of treating acting with familiarity and exquisity made his name known to different generations. “I felt happy due to ‘Sungkyunkwan Scandal”s good reviews and responses but felt the burden at the same time. It was also the reason behind the burdening and troubles during the filming of ‘Miss Ripley’. For ‘Rooftop Prince’, I cleared my heart and went filming with a clear mind. Thinking, rather with a determination to surpass the previous works, why don’t I display the character naturally, ‘please accept my presentation’.” Comparing when feelings are emptied or in struggling times, experienced ones would say that extraordinary results are usually for those who acted naturally. “I think that collaborating well (in real life) with fellow actors is the same theoretically. In this drama, I am very thankful to Han Ji Min. Even it’s just a one-liner, she would listen well to her partner, me and helped me to act with my correct feelings. Overall, the ambience within the cast and crew was very good. I really became closer with Woo Shik, Suk Won hyung and Min Ho.”


Coincidentally with ELLE’s schedule, this man welcomed his ‘once in a year’ day. In this world, there are people who felt that they have to spend their birthday memorable and there are those who felt that it is okay to spend it quietly. Park Yoochun who ever said that, “Since 1999, I have never spent my birthday in Korea once.”, belonged to the latter. “Birthday is not exactly that meaningful. It’s just a day in a year.” No matter how cool that person is, on that event-less day, just a simple preparation of wine would be able to settle that depressing feel. Though he misses his mum’s cooking a lot, the crew was thankfully able to find a Korean restaurant infused with local delicacy. (At Bali, his favourite dish is a soya sauce with shredded chillies.) As long as you are with a good company, the taste of the dishes does not really matter.


Spending a total of 6 days 4 nights at Bali with him, he looks the same as the first time we have met. Though I do not have the power to test his heart’s warmth at first meeting, I would want to send him a supporting message that he used to give to himself. “You did well. Hope you will become a responsible person always.”

source: ELLE.co.kr
credit: sally_2002
trans by: rachui@sharingyoochun