Korean star shares about acting with Maximus, the horse

The main stars for Korean fantasy romance drama The King: Eternal Monarch were interviewed recently on viki.com, the video streaming website.

The tale, according to soompi.com, is about two parallel universes — one world is like a democracy in modern-day Korea, while the other world is in a Korea ruled by an emperor.

Emperor Lee Gon (played by actor Lee Min Ho) and detective Jung Tae Eul (actress Kim Go Eun) help each other to take care of loved ones and close the portal between the two universes.

Lee is reported to have worked hard to prepare for the role of emperor by practising rowing and horseback riding.

One of Lee’s “co-stars” is a horse called Maximus. Lee says it is cute and that its nose turns red when it is cold. Both love lemon-flavoured candy and each has some after filming.

During the interview, a video was played which showed Lee looking worried when he saw Maximus becoming restless. After filming, the actor told the crew to let the horse go free for a while because it was getting stressed.

Lee is later shown staring into the horse’s eyes and saying: “You have to remember me.”

During the filming of one scene when the horse was in the distance, it suddenly came behind Lee. This turned the scene into a blooper but the actor smiled anyway.

Kim, on the other hand, said she enjoyed playing the part of a detective because she could handcuff people. She laughed as she said this, causing Lee to laugh, too. The actress said that usually she acted as people who were being chased but now she was able to handcuff people and take them away. She added that she was confident about this part as she had been in action films in the past. The challenging part, however, was for her kicks to reach the height at which they were aimed and to get the strength she needed. In order to be able to do that, she had trained at a taekwondo studio near her home.

Both stars were asked about their response when each found out that the other had been cast in the show. Lee said he was very happy as Kim was someone he had  most wanted to work with among his peers.

When asked what career they would choose if they were in a parallel world, Kim wanted to be a doctor while Lee wanted to be a ballad singer. This caused everyone on the show to burst out laughing. The interviewer then suggested that Lee could achieve the dream in this universe but the actor replied it would be difficult.

The premiere of this 16-episode drama series aired on SBS TV last Friday (April 17). It is reported that the episode achieved the highest ratings ever for an SBS drama airing on Fridays and Saturdays. /TISG