'I fasted in the evening to keep them from swelling': Rain had to act with his eyes in new K-drama despite them being 'small'

A chaebol (conglomerate) heir's wife starts developing feelings for her bodyguard after he saves her from a gun fight.

However, the man has secrets of his own, and has taken up his role to get revenge for a friend who was killed.

That is the premise of the new K-drama Red Swan, which premieres today (July 3) on Disney+. It stars Kim Ha-neul as Oh Wan-soo, a pro-golfer-turned-chaebol-wife, and Rain (also known as Jung Ji-hoon) as Seo Do-yoon, a policeman-turned-bodyguard.

In a regional press conference yesterday that AsiaOne attended, singer-actor Rain shared that he didn't have many lines in the drama and would have to show his emotions through his eyes.

"In the script, it would say, 'Do-yoon looks at Wan-soo as if he understands everything'," the 42-year-old said.

"I had to act a lot with my eyes, and my eyes are pretty small, aren't they? So I fasted in the evenings to keep them from swelling. I needed to be as expressive as possible with my eyes. I would also do morning runs before going on set."

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Ha-neul, 46, said she was the one with "most of the lines" during the scenes, except in action sequences where she'd mostly "scream and shout".

She would observe how the others were doing their action scenes instead.

"I watched people be engaged in that intense action and that gave me so much excitement, the fact that people were risking their lives and throwing themselves in front of me to help me," she said

"So I was really immersed in those scenes."

Rain retorted: "Every time I was doing those action sequences, she was sleeping," to which the emcee suggested that Ha-neul must have felt "so reassured that she dozed off".

Rain joked that maybe Ha-neul was "thinking" instead of sleeping.

Rain — who is known for action roles in K-dramas (A Love to Kill, The Fugitive: Plan B, Sketch) and Hollywood (Ninja Assassin, The Prince) alike — also shared that he did his scenes by himself, without the use of stunt actors.

"I felt bad using a double. If you get paid to appear [in a show], you have to take responsibility and do it yourself," he said.

"I felt better and more comfortable doing the action sequences myself."

Red Swan also stars Jang Gyu-woon as Kim Yong-guk, Wan-soo's husband, Seo Yi-sook as Park Mi-ran, the chairman of the chaebol Hwain Group, Yoon Je-moon as Han Sang-il, the chaebol's legal representative and Ki Eun-se as Jang Tae-ra, a woman determined to become the new face of the chaebol.

Rain will be in town to perform at Waterbomb Singapore on Aug 24.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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