Park Ji Hoon shared his honest thoughts about the strong response to “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier”.
The Wanna One member and actor is having a very successful year. After becoming a 10 million movie actor through “The King's Warden”, he also gained attention through Wanna One’s 10th anniversary reunion and his solo activities.
Park Ji Hoon then returned with TVING and tvN’s Monday Tuesday drama “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier”, based on the Naver webtoon of the same name. The drama follows private Kang Sung Jae as he grows into a legendary military cook.
In the drama, Park Ji Hoon plays Kang Sung Jae and takes on his first full comedy acting challenge. Unlike his serious image in “The King's Warden”, he showed a completely different side with bold comedy and unusual humor.
Thanks to his transformation, “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier” started with 5.8% ratings on May 11 and has continued to stay in the 7% range through episode 8.
In a recent interview, Park Ji Hoon said he was worried because comedy acting was new to him. He shared, “It was my first time doing comedy acting, so I was honestly very worried.”
He added that the drama started filming during a very hot summer and said, “Everyone worked hard, so I hoped many people would watch it. I am thankful that viewers liked it.”
Despite his success in film, drama, and music, Park Ji Hoon stayed humble. He said, “I am truly thankful that my projects are doing well. Of course I am happy, but nothing has really changed inside me. I am just doing the work given to me.”
He explained that he tries not to get too excited because he does not want to look arrogant. He said his new motto is, “Let’s do our best with what is given,” and added that he tries not to focus too much on results.
Park Ji Hoon also said filming “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier” was fun from the beginning. He explained that when he first read the script, he felt he could show comedy timing and sides of himself that he had not shown before.
He also revealed that many funny moments were added on set. One example was a scene inspired by “Culinary Class Wars”, where he brings a hamburger to Yoon Kyung Ho’s character. Park Ji Hoon said the idea came from Yoon Kyung Ho, and many scenes were built naturally during filming.
Because of Park Ji Hoon’s extreme comic acting, some viewers even joked that he must have received a high appearance fee or was tricked by the script. Park Ji Hoon laughed and denied the rumors, saying, “I did not even think about appearance fees. It is really not true. It was not script deception either.”
He added that he accepted the drama because he felt he could show many things in a simple and direct way.
When asked about the most chaotic scene in the drama, Park Ji Hoon chose the scene from episode 4 where he blocked a ball while holding a pork backbone in his mouth.
He said, “That was the most chaotic scene.” He explained that there was almost nothing prepared at the time, so he asked the staff to play music and danced along to it. He said the dance was inspired by Russian folk dance.
He also chose the seaweed soup costume as one of the most shocking moments. Park Ji Hoon said he only saw the outfit on the day of filming and was surprised because it was cut very low. He shared that he quickly tied the costume on set to avoid any issue, adding that the outfit gave him the biggest reality check.
With only four episodes left, Park Ji Hoon also shared his thoughts on a possible second season. He said, “It is not something that can happen just because I say yes. But if season 2 happens, I would like to do it again with the same team.”
Episode 9 of “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier” will be released on TVING and tvN on June 8 at 8:50 PM.
