'Sometimes I had to shoot it with 1 hand': Cha Seung-won reinjured elbow carrying heavy rifle in upcoming K-drama The Tyrant

In the upcoming K-drama The Tyrant, South Korea has created a virus that grants people superhuman abilities through the titular Tyrant Programme, but the US catches wind of this and wants the programme stopped.

However, during the handover process, the last sample gets stolen, leading to former intelligence agent Im Sang (Cha Seung-won) being hired to assassinate those involved and get it back.

In a regional press conference yesterday (July 15), the 54-year-old shared his character's comedic motives in taking up the job in an otherwise gritty, action-packed drama.

"He was going to open a train-themed cafe, but didn't have enough money to cover all the interior designing fees and needed some cash," he said.

"As a former intelligence agent, he's extremely talented in taking out the bad guys, but when it comes to everyday life, he's not street-smart, so to speak. He's absolutely clueless, so he was scammed out of his pension."

In his attempts to get the virus sample back, Seung-won acted in a lot of action sequences, particularly ones where he carried a large rifle.

"I had a tennis elbow which was healing but because of that rifle, I got a tennis elbow again," he shared. "It was really heavy and sometimes I had to shoot it with just one hand, which made my elbow very weak."

But Seung-won considered the prominent rifle a character in and of itself, that helped Im Sang, so he "wanted to do a really good job of using that gun".

Im Sang's main opposition came in the form of the thief tasked with stealing the sample, Ja-kyung, played by 26-year-old Jo Yoon-soo in her first leading role.

"This character needed someone who was unknown with an unknown face," director Park Hoon-jung explained his casting choice. "This is a character whose name is very well-known in that space, but they are someone who is sort of a veiled mystery."

As a veteran actor, Seung-won had praises for his co-star despite saying he was not "the complimenting type".

"She put in so much effort and did such an amazing job. When I was watching her do her thing, I just wanted to encourage her and cheer her on from the sidelines because she was just really great," he said.

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Director Park then added that among all the actors he's worked with, Yoon-soo was the best at hand-to-hand combat.

"She didn't even need a stunt double for fistfights. She is just amazing with her punches," he said.

Kim Seon-ho and Kim Kang-woo reunite

While Im Sang and Ja-kyung go head-to-head, so do Director Choe (Kim Seon-ho) and Paul (Kim Kang-woo), a US agent.

Seon-ho, 38, explained about his character: "Director Choe is the architect of the Tyrant Programme, the youngest to become the Director, and he wants to protect the programme. He's always used to being the mastermind but not the one involved in the action."

He described Paul as a similar mastermind who works behind-the-scenes who has come to South Korea "all the way from the US to destroy and terminate the programme".

"But this time around, the two have come to the forefront and are meeting each other," he added.

Seon-ho and Kang-woo, 46, were also co-stars on the former's previous film, The Childe.

Kang-woo said: "In The Childe, we weren't very friendly, so this time around, I hoped we would be friends.

"But we're clearly not."

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1H4l04jzkU&ab_channel=Disney%2BSingapore[/embed]

The Tyrant premieres on Disney+ with all four episodes on Aug 13.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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