[Excerpts taken from TOP's interview with W Korea Magazine & L'Officiel Hommes on his role as Myung Hoon in Alumni]

{W Korea Magazine}

It takes a few months to release a movie after shooting it, so some actors say that it feels like they’re meeting the movie again after a long time.

It was the end of January when the shooting ended. It’s been a while since it finished but the whole movie is inside my head. It didn’t really feel like I was meeting it again after forgetting it. It took some time getting out of that character and it was in me for a long time like a trauma. In long terms, it was like a character that I made for almost a year so it felt more like I was checking to see if I missed anything when I watched the movie.

That insecurity can be seen from your eyes.

Since the beginning of the movie, I tried to start off by expressing the eyes of a boy who is in a pit of despair. So it was hard and painful for me emotionally.

You said it was hard to get out of the movie and many actors say that it’s hard to get out of a character after acting like an intense, emotional scene.

I suddenly became lethargic after the movie shooting ended so from January to May of this year, I didn’t do anything and I was lying in my bed the whole day. During the filming of the movie, I also had a BIGBANG world tour to do and the schedule was killing me. I filmed Monday through Thursday, staying up all night and then on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I had to go overseas and do a concert and I would sleep in the planes and then get back on schedule again. I think I was mentally confused and my identity was being shaken back then. In the morning I was filming scenes where I was killing people and I saw blood and then in the weekends I had to show a strong performance in front of thousands of people. The splendor of the stage, and the situation of falling in to a bottomless pit in the movie were crossing and it was so frustrating and I became sensitive. And when the world tour and the movie filming ended at the same time, I couldn’t do anything afterwards. I just stopped and sat down for a while.

Did time help you to get back on track?

I was lying in bed for 4~5 months and I felt like I would be ruined if I stayed like this. It was a time that I had to prepare for a solo album but I couldn’t think of anything and I couldn’t do anything at all. Slowly I forced myself to go outside and eat with people on the weekends and that’s when I started to really wake up. At that time, I could feel that I was turning into an unsociable person.

From a past interview, you said that you don’t like the image of “National Little Brother”

I can’t even be called that but I dared to say that (Laughs). I think this movie’s character is really unique. Since this is a movie about his identity, the viewers will be nervous watching the movie, to see if the character is making the right decision or not instead of loving this character. Because my character was someone who was having an identity crisis, it made me really sensitive too. After the movie shooting was over and when Bigbang were eating to gather as a 5, my members finally told me. That I was so sensitive that they couldn’t even dare to talk to me.

You said the same thing for the interview after '71: Into the Fire'

Ah, I did? I think I got sensitive because I had to see someone die all the time. Because… I’m actually very tender. (Laughs)

I guess it wouldn’t have been mentally comfortable to filming a movie with a deep, heavy topic.

It would have been easier if I just thought of it like ‘It’s not real’ or ‘It’s just like a game’ but at that time I couldn’t really think like that. I think I got really into it because I kept on thinking that I had to go deeper into this character.

{L'Officiel Hommes}

LH: You must have put a lot of effort to become Myung Hoon.

Choi Seung Hyun: I wanted my dark sides that I never showed on stage to be seen on the screen. I wanted to look lonely even when I’m just standing. The best way to learn how to do that was to stay by myself. I didn’t meet anyone for about a year. I spent a lot of time by myself. I even told that to my company, YG. I don’t want to do any promotions so don’t plan any schedules. It must have been hard for the manager since he had to cancel all the requests for my appearance on TV shows and stuff.

LH: I guess you’re a fussy actor for your manager

Choi Seung Hyun: Probably. I do whatever I want to do and only do what I want to do not only in movies but as in BIGBANG as well. After the movie shooting ended and the final movie release date was announced, my younger members told me this. “Hyung, we’re going to go see just how great that movie is.” I didn’t know but apparently my members tried to stay away from me during tours to avoid conflicts. They said that they couldn’t even dare to talk to me because I looked so sensitive and sharp.

[credits to @BIGBANGisVIP for the translations,  originally posted at BBU.]