Jung Il-woo has been battling cerebral aneurysm for 9 years: "Still has a serious headache when acting, is worried about death"  (2024)

Actor Jung Il-woo, who played the role of the chaebol detective Eun Sun-woo in the ENA Wednesday-Thursday drama “Good Job,” announced that he has been battling cerebral aneurysm for the past nine years.

Jung Il-woo was diagnosed with cerebral aneurysm in 2013 at the age of 27. As a result, Jung Il-woo, who was in depression, climbed the Santiago trail a month later and fell into the fun of trekking. He said, “I’ve wanted to walk Santiago since a long time ago. I can’t think of anything when I trek 40km a day, aside from dying. I loved the people I met there, the freedom, and the comfort. I was grateful for the time spent alone after living like a war with dozens of staff. I think it was the happiest time in my life,” he recalled.

There was also a big change in his life after fighting against the disease. Jung Il-woo said, “Before that, I was impatient and had a lot of negative thoughts, but it changed to positive. I have decided to enjoy my life with gratitude. I also learned what small happiness is. I realized that happiness does not come from big places,” he said.

“Good Job,” which ends on Sep 29th, is a hero+romantic investigation drama about chaebol detective Eun Sun-woo and super visionary Don Se-ra (played by Kwon Yu-ri). He said, “We prepared and filmed ‘Good Job’ for a whole year. This work was a work that gave me a lot of feelings as an actor. There were a lot of scenes where I changed the lines and details of the script like the director while acting, and there were many ad-libs. As I acted, I worked a lot on making things that were not in the script, so I poured out more affection to this work than any other work. The chemistry between the actors was good as well. I felt empty after the shoot. I think this lingering feeling will last a long time,” he said, expressing his feelings ahead of the series’ ending.

Jung Il-woo said, “It is a 12-episode series, but I feel like I did 30 episodes,” adding, “There were many accidents while filming. The shooting was suspended because of a motorcycle accident during filming, due to which my ankle was broken and I could not walk for three weeks. Also, I got COVID-19 just before filming, so I took a two-week break. The shooting was delayed continuously, so the shooting only ended four days ago. I still don’t feel like it’s over,” he said.

When asked why he chose “Good Job,” Jung Il-woo said, “I enjoyed reading the script. I’ve never done this genre before, so I was full of curiosity. I thought it would be a pleasant and comfortable work with a sprinkle of romance in it,” he explained.

“What I was worried about was how to balance our drama because it was kinda like a sitcom,” he said. “In the hospital scene, I ran to Kwon Yu-ri saying, ‘Honey~’ and that was an ad-lib. I was worried if it was too much or if it broke the character’s personality, but I think that’s the taste of our drama,” he said with a smile.

“Good Job” is the drama that took over the timeslot after “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” ended with a highest viewer rating of 17.5%, which surrounded the show with burdens even before the first broadcast. In response, Jung Il-woo said, “I saw it as a positive response. The recognition of the ENA channel has risen due to ‘Woo Young-woo,’ and naturally, the recognition for our drama has also risen. I think we own this to ‘Woo Young-woo’. It would be a lie if we said there was no pressure, but I see those as something positive, and now I still don’t think the channel is important. When I filmed the movie “Bossam – Stealing Destiny,” I was worried because not many watch MBN dramas around me, but the ratings were close to 10%. As long as the dramas are broadcast and loved by the audience, I think the channel doesn’t matter,” he said.

“My initial goal was that I’d have no wish if it exceeded 3%. Because I thought that no matter how well the previous work did, ‘Good Job’ wouldn’t be able to take over. The work started with the mindset of starting from 0, but it surpassed 3% and took first place among Wednesday-Thursday dramas. I’m very satisfied.”

Jung Il-woo continued to work with Kwon Yu-ri after “Bossam: Steal the Fate”. He said, “It was much more comfortable the second time.” He praised, “There was no kiss scene in ‘Bossam: Steal the Fate’, so the director of ‘Good Job’ prepared a lot on set to film the kiss scene beautifully. Sitting at the desk then on the lap was the director’s idea. I think it came out well. Yu-ri led me well. She was like ‘You should hold my hands and drag me away at times like this’. Yu-ri is positive and has a very active acting attitude. She has a lot of ideas and greed.”

Of course there were concerns. Jung Il-woo said, “I was worried when the director first recommended Yu-ri. Because our previous work was so successful.” He expressed his gratitude, “I thought Yu-ri’s charms were fully contained in Don Se-ra. When I read the script, I felt that Se-ra had more charms than Seon-woo, so I actively told Yu-ri that she could do well if she played this character. Thank you for pulling it off so well, and I want to tell you that you did a great job.”

However, some people are joking about whether they are dating because they worked together in 2 consecutive works. Regarding this, Jung Il-woo emphasized that Kwon Yu-ri is a good colleague and friend.

Jung Il-woo also revealed his thirst for villain roles, “I think it’s time to play a villain role. Maybe I should change my image by playing a villain role before I turn 40. There are 4 years left.”

It has already been 17 years since Jung Il-woo debuted. Looking back on his career so far, he smilingly said, “I think it should have been harder and more broken when I was in my 20s. In the meantime, I’ve seen pain, been betrayed and hurt while working. I’ve become stronger. I always regret that if I had done more works, I would have become a better actor. I’ve been working nonstop after turning 30. I’m acting thinking that I might become a better actor in my 40s.”

When asked about the remaining plans for this year, Jung Il-woo confessed, “I have a fan meeting tour in Japan throughout October. There’s a movie release in November, so I think I’ll be busy until the end of the year. I personally want to go for a walk or have time alone when I have some time off.”

“The meaning of the work for me during the year of ‘Good Job’ was literally ‘Good Job’. The time I spent with everyone was a good job. Regardless of the success or failure of the work, I hope it’ll be a work that can be talked about for a long time like talking about the military.”

Source: Daum

Jung Il-woo has been battling cerebral aneurysm for 9 years: "Still has a serious headache when acting, is worried about death"  (2024)
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