Actor Joo Won talks shooting his own stunts in upcoming Netflix movie 'Carter'

Movies

Published: 02 Aug. 2022, 14:28 Updated: 02 Aug. 2022, 15:42

Actor Joo Won talks shooting his own stunts in upcoming Netflix movie 'Carter'

Actor Joo Won at a press conference for the upcoming Netflix action movie "Carter" at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

Actor Joo Won and director Jung Byung-gil held a press conference for the upcoming Netflix action movie "Carter" at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Tuesday.

"When I saw the script, I thought to myself, 'is this even possible?' but I wanted to try it," said Joo Won. "I thought that if I could do this well, it would be an iconic part of my career."

"Carter," according to Netflix, is about a man who wakes up missing his memories. Directed by a mysterious voice from a device in his ear, he sets off on a hostage rescue mission rife with danger.

Actor Joo Won, right, and director Jung Byung-gil held a press conference for the upcoming Netflix action movie "Carter" at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

"Our film is just over two hours long and for about two hours, it is all action," he said. "I had to learn all the action sequences before going into the shoot and sometimes, the moves would change on the set. So I had to practice the action scenes a lot, almost like an actual athlete."

"Carter" is also packed with an array of actions including body action, motorcycle chases, skydiving, airplane stunts and climbing, according to the series' director Jung at the press conference. While shooting the scenes was dangerous at times and required heavy physical work, most of the scenes were done by Joo Won himself, rather than stuntmen.

"They let me rehearse over 10 times so that I could feel comfortable while doing the scene," he said. "If I didn't have that, I wouldn't have been able to show such exhilarating action scenes."

Actor Joo Won at the press conference for the upcoming Netflix action movie "Carter" at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

"Carter" is a one-cut action film but the technique was a challenge to both Joo Won and director Jung.

"The camera is rolling but it isn't filming the actors at all times, so I had to show my emotions when it was pointed at me," said Joo Won, recalling that it was difficult to adjust to.

"If we make a mistake, we had to film the entire scene again because it is a one-cut film," said Jung. "It took up a lot of time and resources,"

Director Jung is best known for the film "Villainess" which premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

He wrote the script for the movie 10 years ago and finished the final version in 2020 while he was staying in the United States. Jung said that he showed the script to Chad Stahelski, the director of "John Wick" (2014) who said that he enjoyed it and asked Jung how he was going to shoot it. "Thanks to him, I was able to go into the shoot with confidence," said Jung.

"Carter" will be released on Netflix on Friday.

Joo Won debuted in the 2007 musical "Altar Boy." He is best known for performances in the KBS drama series "King of Baking, Kim Takgu" (2010) and film " Fatal Intuition" (2015).

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]