It's been three years since his last show.

South Korean actor Gong Yoo is returning to the small screen with Netflix's upcoming mystery melodrama The Trunk. 

At the press conference for the series on Nov 26 in South Korea, the 45-year-old revealed the work he put in behind the cameras.

He brought up a solo shower scene.

"Because I didn't have abs, I had to work hard in a short amount of time," he said.

His co-star Seo Hyun-jin chimed in: "He actually told me he wanted to re-film the scene after he bulked up."

Gong Yoo continued: "I had to go on a diet for two weeks for that scene… It was also filmed from an angle you wouldn't usually see in other shows."

In The Trunk, 34-year-old Hyun-jin plays Noh In-ji, an employee at a marriage service called NM (or New Marriage).

The company provides its clients with a spouse for a year-long marriage contract.

She meets her client Han Jeong-won (Gong Yoo), a lonely music producer with past traumas, and the latter agrees to the temporary marriage service at his ex-wife's insistence.

They're later thrown into a series of unsettling events when a mysterious trunk surfaces in a lake.

Expanding on why she chose to star in the series, Hyun-jin said: "The series is something that you can't grasp at one glance. Like the emotions portrayed, it's not so explicit. That's what I really liked about this show. You have to read the room. You have to read between the lines, and that means I have more freedom of expression." 

She describes her character In-ji as someone who is "almost like a hermit crab". 

"You know how they carry these very hard shells that they live in in order to cover their soft bodies? I thought that In-ji is someone who has a very tough outer shell to protect her soft and vulnerable side, carrying that heavy weight on her back that she can hide into," she said.

Gong Yoo said he chose to take on the drama as he loves the creative intent behind it and the novel it's based on.

"It tells us about the love and dynamics between people with a fresh take so people can interpret it in different ways," he shared.

He added that he was "instinctively drawn" to his character Jeong-won.

"I felt a lot of empathy towards him, and I felt sorry for the guy," Gong Yoo said. "Psychologically, he's not very stable and he's someone who leads a very lonely and desperate life. Why I felt even more for him was because he's not aware of his loneliness."

When asked about their chemistry, they both agreed they have good synergy.

"We didn't need additional effort. Because when we got to talking about the way we viewed the script and the characters, we were very much on the same page. So l was intrigued, because he knew instantly what I was thinking," said Hyun-jin.

Gong Yoo was full of praise, saying: "I really wanted to see her act in person. I've been a huge fan of hers… I was curious about her as an actress; the facial expressions and the eyes that she makes when she's at her craft. I was so excited to be able to see that in person and experience that."

He added that he became "even more assured" when he found they had similar views as sometimes "details can differ even with the same script between actors".

"When we were doing the overseas junkets, when I saw her and heard her answer different questions, it's almost as if she was taking words right out of my mouth. And so I think that's why she and I are the main leads of The Trunk."

The Trunk, which also stars Jung Yun-ha, Kim Dong-won, Jo Yi-geon and Uhm Ji-won, premieres Nov 29 on Netflix.

syarifahsn@asiaone.com

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