In the movie, he plays Hwang Chi-seong, North Korea’s consul general in Vladivostok, a man driven by power and profit who keeps a wary eye on Park Geon, who suspects him. Instead of warmth, Hwang projects cold tension and suspicion. Park keeps his emotions tightly controlled while letting the character’s anxiety and ruthlessness show through.
“Director Ryoo Seung-wan is someone everyone wants to work with, so I was genuinely happy when he asked to meet,” Park said. “The ‘Humint’ script was a great read and really entertaining, so I was excited. But I’d done ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ last year, and I felt pressure about taking another villain role. I wondered, ‘Do I have anything more to show?’ and worried it might overlap with what I’d done before. After meeting the director, that concern was resolved. It was different — different from my previous roles — and I felt he understood Hwang Chi-seong in detail, so I committed to the project with confidence.”
Park described Hwang’s action scenes as less like carefully planned moves and more like the reflexes of someone cornered. He said the overall intensity was not high, but he tries to do as much physical work himself as possible. He also focused on showing Hwang’s instability and unpredictability in how he handles a gun.
“It’s a role where he dies in a frenzy, so the action intensity was low, and the gun work turned out well thanks to Tae Sang-ho, a military specialist reporter, who paid close attention to it,” Park said. “When it comes to action, I try not to hold back. Hwang is a character with a sense of freedom. With the gun, I used it more freely than rigidly — holding it this way or that, using it however I could in a hurry. Because he’s cornered, there was more room to express things others might not. It can look ridiculous, like when he’s startled and falls, but I wanted to show he’s truly backed into a corner. I thought it suited me. He’s scary because you don’t know how he’ll attack. I wanted that sense that he could do something unexpected to come through.”
Park said he starts preparing by getting comfortable in the spaces where a character lives and works, arguing that understanding a role is tied to how a person occupies a place. Before filming, he visited sets such as a North Korean restaurant and the consul general’s interrogation room, imagining how Hwang would stand and move there.
“When I work, space is very important,” he said. “I need time to get used to it, so before shooting I go early and make it feel familiar. The North Korean restaurant wasn’t literally my space, but I thought it was a place Hwang could control, so I visited places like that and the interrogation room in advance. I thought he needed to be overwhelming, comfortable and in a position of advantage, and that acting as if nothing bothered him could read as confidence.”
Asked about filming overseas, Park recalled his time in Latvia with an easy smile. He said the cold was manageable, though outdoor shoots — including an airport scene — were difficult. Off set, he said, the cast built memories that contrasted with the film’s tense mood.
“People say it was freezing, but it wasn’t the kind of cold that makes your bones ache,” he said, laughing. “But when we shot the airport scene, it was so cold that outdoor filming was tough. The Latvia location shoot left a lot of memories. We’d have dinner and drink beer, and during travel it snowed heavily, so we’d have snowball fights. People over 30, like little kids,” he said, laughing. “It felt like we got close again by running around like children.”
Park said the teamwork on set also came quickly. While “When Life Gives You Tangerines” brought actors together through affection and connection between characters, he said “Humint” bonded the cast through a demanding schedule in an unfamiliar environment over three months.
“On ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines,’ the story itself has deep affection between people, and that builds into a point where feelings cross and connect, so the actors got very close and opened up,” he said. “This time, filming was hard and there was no one else to rely on, so over three months it felt like we got close fast. We ended up sharing everything — what we ate, what happened that day. Our rhythm on set got good, too. There was a sense of urgency like, ‘If I can’t trust that person, even before being an actor, I have nowhere to lean myself,’” he said, laughing. “Jung-min liked it so much he said he wants to go back to Latvia. The teamwork shows even more during promotion than during filming.”
Park has built a career across major projects — including the dramas “My Mister,” “The World of the Married,” “When Life Gives You Tangerines” and “First, For Love,” and the films “4th Place,” “Believer,” “12.12: The Day” and “Humint” — often showing markedly different sides of himself. He said it has been less strategy than luck.
“These are projects you might meet only once in a lifetime, and I’m grateful they sent them to me and I got to meet those roles,” he said. “It’s luck — the fact that I can do work like that,” he said, laughing. “My wife once said, ‘You’re really unusual. How can someone who played Lee Tae-oh in “The World of the Married” be given the role of Gwan-sik in “When Life Gives You Tangerines”?’ She said she was jealous, and that I did well to show that range. I deeply agreed. I felt proud, and it felt strange, too. I can only say I’m lucky.”
Asked which project he feels most attached to, Park pointed to the film “4th Place.” It may not be widely known, he said, but it reminded him that acting can be fun and helped open doors for later work.
“I’m grateful for every project and feel attached to them, but ‘4th Place’ comes to mind,” he said. “I had a really fun, comfortable time on set, and it made me feel, ‘Acting is fun.’ It was like a starting gun telling me, ‘Keep filming in a fun way.’ Directors and production staff later sought me out after seeing that film. Even now, many people tell me they really like ‘4th Place.’ It’s not a well-known movie, but I’m thankful there are still people who watched it, loved it and remember me. Personally, it gave me hope that I could keep working.”
Near the end of the interview, Park spoke carefully about movie theaters. Rather than urging audiences to show up, he said he hopes going to the cinema can again feel like a natural part of life.
“There was a time when going to the theater with family during holidays was just normal,” he said. “If there were about four weekends in a month, it felt natural to go at least once. I hope that kind of normal returns. I won’t say, ‘Come to the theater,’ like you’re being pushed, but I hope people can again feel that going to the cinema is something enjoyable. And I hope you’ll show love for ‘Humint,’ too.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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