For Yoo Seung Ho, who has been acting for 21 years, the recently ended tvN’s Memorist was the genre he never experienced before.
Memorist is an investigation drama in which state-certified psychic detective Dong Baek and criminal profiler Sun Mi track down a mysterious “absolute evil” serial killer. With this work, Yoo Seung Ho challenged his first detective role and showed enthusiastic performances.
Through Memorist, the actor garnered favorable reviews for showing a new side of him that he had never shown before. Although viewership remained around 2 and 3 percent, viewers are calling the work “a well-made investigation drama.”
Yoo Seung Ho said, “Since it was a new genre for me, I got into it with many worries. I practiced actions even before the start and paid attention to my appearance as I played the role of a police officer. Now that the drama has ended, I feel relieved and somewhat sad.”
Although the viewership might be disappointing, Memorist is a work that allowed Yoo Seung Ho to shed his child actor’s images. “Maybe it’s because I have been acting for a long time hearing from people that I looked young; I had no confidence in this kind of role. However, I was able to break out of these thoughts with ‘Memorist.’ And I heard a lot of positive responses from people around me, so I think it will help me a ton in choosing a character in the future,” he said.
Regarding the low viewership, Yoo Seung Ho said, “I really appreciate the viewers who enjoyed the drama. But the fact that we couldn’t attract more viewers means we certainly missed something.” He added, “I would be lying if I said I don’t have any regrets over the viewership. However, I believe that the relationships and the events shown in ‘Memorist’ are definitely interesting.”
Yoo Seung Ho had put on weight to get even more absorbed in character, but was misunderstood that he failed to “stay fit” despite starting a new work. He said, “To look more reliable and firm as a police officer, I have gained weight. But people said, ‘Aren’t you taking care of yourself? Your jawline has disappeared,’ and hearing it was upsetting. Watching myself, I also noticed that I have put on weight and my jawline has disappeared, but I thought that it was more important to match the character rather than to look pretty.”
The actor dropped out of the movie Firefighter (literal translation), which was scheduled to be his next work, as the filming schedules got messed up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Just listening to the stories around, you can feel how it’s difficult to go into any work. I am planning on taking a break until COVID-19 pandemic dials down and slowly prepare for the next work,” he said.