Cha Tae Hyun Addresses His Past Controversy During Press Conference For His New Drama

May 12, 2020

On May 12, the upcoming OCN drama “Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation” held an online press conference.

“Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation” is a crime-oriented action comedy about a screwball detective who will stick at nothing in order to catch the criminal (Cha Tae Hyun) and an overly zealous producer of an investigative crime TV show (Lee Sun Bin) who team up to solve unsolvable cases. The rest of their ragtag team includes a former criminal profiler (Ji Seung Hyun), a former gangster (Yoon Kyung Ho), and a former autopsist at the National Forensic Service (Jung Sang Hoon).

This is Cha Tae Hyun’s first return to the public eye in over a year. In March 2019, it was reported that Cha Tae Hyun and Kim Jun Ho had engaged in gambling over golf games together, based on text messages in the “2 Days & 1 Night” group chatroom that were obtained from Jung Joon Young’s phone. At the time, Cha Tae Hyun issued an apology and clarified that the golf games did not take place abroad and that the money was immediately returned afterward. Both he and Kim Jun Ho stepped down from their programs, including “2 Days & 1 Night,” which went on indefinite hiatus until it was reformed with a new cast for Season 4.

At the press conference, Cha Tae Hyun said, “The first thing I want to do is apologize. I will address once again the fact that I disappointed many people, including fans, because I engaged in improper behavior. Through this incident, I will work even harder to be an actor who acts in an upright manner. I am sorry.”

He added, “During my hiatus, I spent a lot of time in reflection and regrets. I am grateful for the good opportunity that I have been given here.”

This is Cha Tae Hyun’s first time playing a detective role. He said, “I was worried about playing my first detective character. My image is completely different from the previous detective characters who have appeared on OCN. The director said that he wanted to show a new side of me and add a side of comedy to the character of Jin Kang Ho. After I saw the script, I understood why he had offered me the role.”

Director Kang Hyo Jin said, “Cha Tae Hyun said that he had never played a detective role. I cast him because I really wanted to know what it would look like if he did.”

Cha Tae Hyun continued, “I think that Jin Kang Ho has a refreshing quality, like drinking soda. We filmed a lot of action scenes for this project. It will be very different from the action scenes on OCN before.”

The actor also talked about the good chemistry among the cast and said, “It’s a show about crime investigation, but there were times when we couldn’t film properly for laughing. We are a bit worried that we will be the only ones who found us funny. There was a time when I couldn’t pronounce anything properly during filming, and it was because Jung Sang Hoon was so funny that my pronunciation went all over the place. There is definitely a good atmosphere on set.”