Yoo Ah In On Working With Park Shin Hye, Appearing On "Home Alone," Difference Between "#ALIVE" And "Peninsula," And More

Ahead of the release of his film “#ALIVE,” Yoo Ah In sat down for an interview to discuss the movie, his career, working with Park Shin Hye, and more.

“#ALIVE” is a zombie “survival thriller” about the sudden outbreak of a mysterious illness that causes those infected to attack others. As the disease rapidly spreads throughout Seoul and grows out of control, survivors are trapped alone inside their apartments without access to cellular data, Wi-Fi, texting, or phone calls. Yoo Ah In and Park Shin Hye star in the film as Joon Woo and Yoo Bin, two survivors isolated in the middle of a now-dangerous city.

In his interview on June 17, Yoo Ah In expressed his confidence in the film, sharing, “Since it’s my work, I’m honestly nervous and unsure, but I do think it’s a success that people have said, ‘It’s not boring.’ I think it shows that movies can be fun even if you don’t spend tons of money.”

Laughing, he continued, “I did receive a lot for my appearance though. However, there have been many instances where projects with higher budgets did worse.”

“#ALIVE” is Yoo Ah In’s first project of such a genre, which is considerably surprising given his long career. He claimed that it was due to his preference for serious genres, explaining, “For no particular reason, I really liked things that were deep. Although I feel the same way now, it’s not everything anymore.”

He added, “When I was a young actor, I had the desire to show things that were not typical of young actors. I wanted to try things that were difficult to see from actors in their teens and twenties. Now I’m more comfortable.”

Just like how he has branched out when picking his acting projects, Yoo Ah In also shared that he had personally suggested his upcoming appearance on “Home Alone” (“I Live Alone”), with hopes to participate in a wider variety of activities.

He shared, “I don’t feel as careful about things I used to be careful of, and I want to try a more diverse range of activities. As a boy moving upwards from Daegu to Seoul, I’ve achieved almost all of my simple and materialistic goals. Although I said that they were simple and materialistic, I surprisingly feel that I’ve achieved everything I could consider a goal. To be honest, I guess you could say I’ve lost the fun. I took a lot of time to think about what kind of goal I needed to live my life as a human being.”

Regarding his “#ALIVE” co-star Park Shin Hye, Yoo Ah In commented, “The most fun and surprising moment on set was when I would strongly put forth my opinion and advocate for it, but Park Shin Hye would not be swayed. She would strongly propose the opposite opinion and would powerfully assert her side to establish her acting and her character.”

The actor added, “That’s how she would lead. It wasn’t a problem of who won or lost, but we were the same in not being easily influenced to change our opinions, which I found very refreshing.”

Yoo Ah In continued with his praise for Park Shin Hye, saying, “Compared to when she was in her teens, she’s turned into an impressive actress who has discovered how to protect herself and how to present herself and her identity on set. I don’t just think about it and then stop, I actually wonder how much time she’s had to take to become the actress she is today.”

Yoo Ah In also discussed Kang Dong Won‘s upcoming zombie film “Peninsula,” the sequel to “Train to Busan.” He jokingly commented, “I predict that ‘#ALIVE’ will hold a monopoly for about a month after [its release], so I’m not very worried.”

He carried on, saying, “It’s easy to call it a monopoly, but we’re in a situation where it’s hard to acquire a release date in Korea. Within this situation, our film will be one of the first to release, so I hope both [‘#ALIVE’ and ‘Peninsula’] survive. Although they are similar in genre, I think they’ll be completely different movies. Since they’re films with very different aspects, I believe people will be able to experience fun in different ways. From my perspective, the audience’s opinion is important. It’s good for them to enjoy it in a variety of ways.”

“#ALIVE” releases in theaters across Korea on June 24.

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