Kai Talks About Changing His Attitude Toward Variety Shows + Baekhyun Talks About His Leadership Style In SuperM

Aug 29, 2020

On August 29, SuperM appeared as guests on JTBC’s “Ask Us Anything.”

SuperM’s leader, Baekhyun, introduced the group as being formed from members of EXO, SHINee, and NCT. He added, “It’s a global project group that was produced by Lee Soo Man.”

About himself being the leader, he said, “Taemin pushes me a lot from behind. If we’re talking with the agency and there’s something he doesn’t like, he’ll whisper, ‘This isn’t it, right?’ and I find myself going up and saying something before I realize what I’m doing.”

Baekhyun explained that when it came to answering direct and unplanned questions in English, Ten, Mark, and Taeyong tended to take them. Taeyong shared that he was studying English and had picked up some practical tips while promoting in the United States. When Kim Young Chul quizzed the SuperM members in English, however, both Baekhyun and Taeyong tossed all the questions back to Mark. “I can’t do without Mark,” Baekhyun said.

In their self-introductions, Kai talked about his legendary clip on “Ask Us Anything” when he and Baekhyun played the “headphones” game. During the game, he misheard Baekhyun’s “two syllables in padding” (referring to padded coats) as “two syllables in panties.”

Kai said, “After that episode, I changed how I thought about variety shows. I’d walk down the street and people would say, ‘Oh, it’s the panty guy.’ Someone I’d never met before came up to me and said, ‘I enjoyed seeing the panties.’ I used to feel a lot of pressure about going on variety shows. I was afraid that if I made my image too funny, then people would laugh when I danced. But I think that because of the panties, more people watched me dance. I saw comments like, ‘I didn’t know the panty oppa was so cool.’ I changed my attitude toward variety shows after that. This must be what they mean by a virtuous circle.”

Like he did with EXO, Baekhyun shared that he tried to take showers with the SuperM members to get closer to them. Kai commented, “We’ve done it so often that it didn’t faze me at all. But the junior members weren’t used to it at all.”

Taeyong said, “The first time, I secretly escaped. I was prepared to show my own ‘inner side,’ but I wasn’t ready to see the inner sides of the hyungs yet. So I said I was hungry and escaped. But recently all the members did shower together.”

Lee Soo Geun commented, “This is part of Korean culture, but did the non-Korean members find it awkward?” Lucas agreed that it was awkward and Ten said, “We’d never even showered together as part of WayV.” But he added, “[When Baekhyun suggested it], I was okay with it. I’m the type to take it off if I have to. Freestyle. If the other person isn’t awkward, then we’ll both just take it off.”

Taemin, as the most senior of the members, was asked to pick some points that the group could improve. He said, “Baekhyun is a good leader, but there are times when we have to be really serious and look cool for the camera. At those times, Baekhyun doesn’t care about looking cool. He just wants to make us laugh. There was a time when we were being filmed stretching and getting ready for a performance, but he was off by himself doing some weird stretches. We couldn’t keep it together.” But Kai added, “But if filming goes on for a long time, Baekhyun gives us strength.”

Kai was asked if he felt different around Baekhyun in SuperM compared to EXO because Baekhyun was the leader in SuperM. Kai answered simply, “No.” He added, “It would be weirder if he suddenly acted different because he was the leader. He always is who he is. He is a very comfortable leader. If we have any complaints, it turns out he has even more complaints. That’s his leadership style.”