Lee Dong-wook is tapping into his “bad” side in the upcoming heavyweight Original Korean drama series, Bad and Crazy, now on iQiyi.
The South Korean actor is playing a new role unlike any of his characters before. He’s more than excited for his fans to finally witness a side of him that they have never seen before in the 12-episode series with action scenes he described as a “war against exhaustion.”
Bad and Crazy weaves together themes such as action, dark comedy, suspense and crime in this tale of “vengeance in an insane society.” Lee takes on the role of Ryu Su-yeol, a nefarious police inspector looking to get ahead in life.
Lee is one-half of the much-awaited “bromance” in the show. The “crazy” to his “bad,” is Squid Game breakthrough actor Wi Ha-joon, who plays the kooky yet righteous, K. Together, they fight side by side in their search for justice.
During the global press conference, joined by the rest of Bad and Crazy’s stellar cast Han Ji-eun and Cha Hak-yeon, Lee spoke about his excellent on-screen chemistry with Wi.
“The bromance and chemistry are clear and we were a great team together,” he described their team-up.
The 40-year-old actor of K-drama hits Guardian: The Lonely and Great God and Tale of the Nine Tailed did not deny that Bad and Crazy’s action scenes were exhausting. Wi echoed the same sentiments, revealing that his “older brother” managed to power through the scenes.
“We had a great chemistry and I think he’s really good with moving his body. He knows how to move his body,” Wi praised his senior.
Meanwhile, Lee couldn’t help but praise Wi for his performance, especially during difficult stunt scenes.
He recounted the times his junior put his best foot forward. “The action team had the stunt doubles for us, so that they could play the dangerous scenes but Ha-joon, instead of using his double, he volunteered to do his own action scenes even the really difficult ones.”
With the show’s intense stunt scenes, Lee spoke in jest when he revealed that overcoming his laziness was the biggest hurdle for him.
He explained: “I shot a lot of scenes for this drama and I appeared from the beginning until the end and if you have action scenes in between, I could not afford to give my 200 percent in action scenes because I knew I had to stay on the set until the end of the day.”
Even with the demands of his role, Lee mastered his role without much prep. He disclosed that he owed his confidence to the interesting script.
“The script itself was very entertaining. I just wanted to stick to the script and I just really needed to do my part well. I have the freedom of expressing my character the way that I wanted and the director gave me a lot of freedom in terms of expressing my character,” he pointed out.
Lee promised that this new heroic drama is the culmination of wonderful performances by everyone on their crew — from the action team to the rest of the cast.
Bad and Crazy is now streaming on iQiyi, with new episodes to be released every Friday and Saturday in over 191 territories.