Kim WooBin Chats With Kpopmap About His New Drama “Black Knight” And Preparation For Role | Exclusive Interview

Many will be familiar with the name Kim WooBin. Whether it was through his mega-hit roles in dramas like “School 2013,” “The Heirs,” “Uncontrollably Fond,” “Our Blues” and many more. His career started in modeling and he eased into acting so effortlessly as fans were taken to the actor very quickly.

Kim WooBin is known for his tough and rough exterior, bad-boy personas, and ability to captivate the screen in any role he takes on. Although his first starring role was in the series “School 2013,” Kim WooBin shot to fame for his role as the chaebol bad boy Choi YoungDo in “The Heirs.” People couldn’t help but fall for him wearing his heart on his sleeve.

In his most recent series, Netflix’s “Black Knight,” he stars alongside Esom and Song SeungHeon as 5-8, a knight who delivers parcels to people who are in need. Living in a world that has been overtaken by toxic air pollution, people rely on these delivery people to bring them oxygen and other necessities needed in order to survive. What was once a bustling city, is now buried in sand, and QR codes are implanted on the back of people’s hands to determine social class.

Kim WooBin’s character 5-8 is one who can seem both good and bad as he follows the rules and does what he has to do as a deliveryman. Although he may come off being a bit rough and apathetic, he does show sympathy and kindness as the series progresses, showing that his character is more than meets the eye.

Kpopmap had the great honor of sitting down with Kim WooBin ahead of the release of the series to discuss his character as well as the preparation that went into his role.

You’ve done many different types of roles in your career. My favorite is your role in “The Heirs”, but this particular character, Knight 5-8, is very unique compared to your other characters that you’ve played. What kind of preparation did you have to go through with this role that was different from your other roles?

For every series and movie I do, I put a lot of time into building my character. And as you said, I played a lot of different characters. But every time I start off with a new character, I first try to find some hints in the script or the scenario first, and then I try to find some common grounds with the character, and then I try to expand from that. For 5-8, I first looked at the scenario, I got some hints, and I had a lot of talks with the director as well. If there were some voids, I try to fill that in with my own imagination. So I think that’s how I prepared for my character.

As an actor, how do you approach the balance between staying true to a character’s intentions while also maintaining the expectations of the director or writer?

I really prefer to put much more emphasis on communicating with the director and the staff and the crew because I think a lot of people get together on set. And we have one common goal is to make a really good piece. So instead of thinking of my own ways to delve into the character, I really like to talk to the director and talk to the crew about each and every scene. For this series, I also talked a lot with director and the crew, made sure that our intentions are shown on screen and then we can make really good scenes together. And I also worked on my last film together with director Cho, so I think we have a connection. So even though we don’t talk that much, we kind of know where each other is going.

In the series you guys implemented FX (sound or visual effects), what was the biggest challenge you guys had? Because I noticed the places where you guys shot obviously was made out of FX. So what was the most challenging part making this series for you?

As you said, all the scenes that require FX is really hard to shoot for an actor because it’s really different seeing the scene in front of you and having to imagine it just in your head. But then I had the best of the team with me on set so they would give me a full, detailed explanation about how it’s going to be presented on screen. So they made it easier for me to imagine everything. And I just wanted to say one thing that was most fun about playing with FX was that 5-8 is a heavy smoker. He smokes a lot in his truck, but I’m not a smoker. So I asked the director, can you actually make the smoke coming out of the cigarette with FX? Then I’ll try to act like I am smoking, but actually I’m not. And then he said, yeah, that’s possible. So actually, the smoke coming out from my cigarette is FX work. And I saw it on screen. I think it looked really real. I really like that.

“Black Knight” is based on a webtoon. Do you read the source material and did it influence your portrayal of the character?

Absolutely. When I was offered the role, I read the webtoon. The director and the crew told me that it was based on this webtoon, but it’s a whole different world and the whole different story they’re going to portray. I read the webtoon, but just to see what the worldview is like for them. And then in the series “Black Knight,” there’s whole different characters and there’s a whole different storyline. So I focus on the scenario the most in building my character and thinking about my character.

Playing a legendary courier in “Black Knight” must require plenty of action scenes. How did you prepare for the action scenes? Was it any way different from preparing to play scenes in other series and films?

I think for action scenes only, practice makes perfect. So a lot of practice was required. And I had the action team that I did work with before, so I felt very at ease with them, and they would make me feel very comfortable, and I got a lot of help from them. And I think to have a really great action sequence, it’s not something that one person can pull off on his own. It’s the whole teamwork and the chemistry of the team. So I was very honored to have such great people on my team working together with me. And I think because they were such great stunt actors, we didn’t have any safety issues or anything that happened. I’m really happy for that. And your question about whether the preparation was different from the other works? Not necessarily. I think for every work I work in, communication and practice is most important. And it was the same for this series as well.

In what aspects would you say that you’re similar to your character in “Black Knight”?

When I was first offered the role, you know, I always have in mind that everyone deserves to be loved and that everyone is obliged to be happy. 5-8 is born as a refugee. He’s discriminated against from the get go, and he always thinks about why people have to live this way. Like, why are people discriminated against? I think the thought process was quite similar to my own. I wanted to get to know more about this guy. So, yeah, that’s why I think I’m kind of similar to the character, and that’s why I like my character.

Do you think you achieve creating a character that can connect with viewers all around the world? And what was the key component on approaching that.

I hope everyone resonates with him. That’s my hope. I think what was most important in portraying 5-8 was thinking about why he acts a certain way and why he feels a certain way, why he talks a certain way. This is the same for every project, but especially for “Black Knight,” I thought it was more important because he has rationale for every action and every word he speaks. On set, I try to think about what’s the meaning behind his actions, what’s the meaning behind his words, so I kept on thinking about why he goes to such lengths and why he does actions that he does.

After watching the series, if you had to pick a character in the series that you wanted to play besides the one that you played, who would it be and why?

I think all the characters are so compelling and they’re so strong. It’s a very hard question. I would love to try all the different characters in “Black Knight,” but because right now I have so much love for 5-8, so I would go with 5-8 once again.

What was your favorite part of working on “Black Knight”? And do you have any memorable moments from the set that you can share with us.

The entire process of filming “Black Knight” was pure joy for me. So it’s really hard to pick just one thing about one good part about it. But I remember the very first scene that I shot, it was a scene with Major Torah played by Esom, and it’s the scene where I’m confronting her and we’re like talking. It’s like a big confrontation. And Esom was in my debut work, debut piece together. So we reunited in like 1213 years. So I felt kind of new and good about that. But because we’ve seen each other after all this time, we weren’t very friendly to each other. We weren’t very close. So I think actually that worked for the first scene because we were supposed to be at odds with each other. And I think that worked actually really well into the scene.

Would you describe night 5-8 as a good guy or a bad guy? He’s ruthless and has no compunction about hurting people, but he’s also very good to the refugees.

Actually. Yeah, it’s pretty complex, but to me he’s a good guy because I’m 5-8.

So this show is going to be on Netflix, so it’s obviously going to be shown to many people in the entire world. And what kind of message do you hope that viewers get after watching this series?

As I said before, everyone deserves to be loved. And I think that’s the message that people can take away from this show. And it’s not just about the message, but there’s a lot of fun and entertainment aspects, entertaining aspects in the show. So I hope people enjoy that and I hope people can just breathe in the whole experience together just like I did.

Thank-you again to Kim WooBin for taking the time to answer questions about his series “Black Knight.” Make sure to check out the dystopian K-Drama, airdate is May 12, 2023 on Netflix.