Squid Game’s Wi Ha-joon channels inner funny man in new K-drama Bad and Crazy

MANILA, Philippines — Action with a twist? Wi Ha-joon is trying his hand at something new in his acting career.

The South Korean star, best known for his death-defying role in the hit series Squid Game, is at it again for an action-packed role as “K” in the iQiyi’s upcoming K-drama, Bad and Crazy.

To premiere tomorrow, Dec. 17, the series is a closer look at the lives of law enforcers. It features a bad cop Soo-yeol, played by Lee Dong-wook, who “regains his humanity” after meeting a crazy yet righteous man, K.

“They are stark opposites of each other, but they gradually work together and become very good team members and team players,” Wi described Soo-yeol and K’s duo during the show’s international online press conference on Monday.

Bad and Crazy is highly anticipated for its unlikely duo as they face the challenges of doing what’s right and just for the people. Their “bromance” is not the only thing fans can look forward to from the series, but also the action-packed scenes from the rest of its lead cast – Han Ji-eun and Cha Hak-yeon.

Wi’s performance as the “helmeted” K was perfected with tons of training just before the shoot. For the actor, stunt training was not the only practice he had to endure. Based on the trailer, K had a comical side to match his playfulness.

He explained: “K as a character is quite different from the characters that I’ve played before and there are a lot of comical aspects to this character. So, I wanted to really bring that aspect of him to life. I watched a lot of comedy television shows and films. I’m not very funny in real life, but I train to maintain that aspect of my character as much as possible on set.”

Wi vouched that he truly transformed himself and broke his own mold as an artist just to nail down the new role.

Wi on his character in the iQiyi’s upcoming K-drama: ‘There are a lot of comical aspects to this character. So, I wanted to really bring that aspect of him to life.’

The “helmeted” K earned acclaim from his castmates as they gushed over his amazing work as a highly-skilled action actor. Lee shared that Wi had even volunteered himself to do his own stunts instead of using a stuntman for his difficult action scenes.

“Ha-joon and I had the most action scenes in this drama and I think the two of us, we’re best in action, especially Ha-joon. He understands very well what the action team wanted from his and I just followed the guidelines,” he said.

While Han Ji-eun went so far as to say that Wi is way above average actors with his performance for Bad and Crazy.

Despite Wi’s determination to play his role right, he admitted that his character “K” had left him drained.

“At times, I was exhausted, it was not easy to play this character but I pulled it off, luckily,” he mentioned.

As praises rained over Wi, he made it known that his “bromance” partner had gone through the same challenge but exceeded everyone’s expectations with his performance as Soo-yeol.

“Dong-wook had to go through a lot and he did not have to practice at all to do full action scenes with me. We had a great chemistry and I think he’s really good with moving his body. He knows how to move his body,” he said.

Catch the Bad and Crazy duo on iQiyi tomorrow, Dec. 17.