Jung Kyung-ho portrays fragile character with depth in 'Crash Course in Romance'

• Published date: 06 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Actor Jung Kyung-ho has amassed quite a wide-ranging repertoire throughout his 19-year acting career, taking on projects spanning the genres of thrillers and crime to comedy and romance.

But among those, he has made a strong impression by playing delicate, sensitive roles like a terminally-ill man in "Beating Again" (2015) or a detective who constantly faces attacks or accidents in "Life on Mars" (2018). His most recent portrayal of such a character was as an anorexic, overly sensitive celebrity math lecturer, Choi Chi-yeol, in tvN's rom-com series "Crash Course in Romance."

"Looking back, I've been playing agitated and sensitive characters for the past eight years. I used to think I needed to break away from that box. But one day, I was monitoring my acting as Choi Chi-yeol and I felt I was doing something different than my previous roles," the actor said during an interview with The Korea Times, Thursday, held at a cafe in Gangnam District.

"I think my portrayal of the character, now that I'm in my 40s, has become deeper … stronger and more natural. I didn't intentionally try to do something different, but (my acting) has become more flexible than before."

The series revolves around a former national handball player, Nam Haeng-sun (Jeon), who runs a small store selling side dishes and raises her high school daughter alone. When her daughter tries to sign up for a private crammer class offered by Choi, a celebrity math instructor, Nam steps into the cutthroat world of private education for high schoolers, while becoming entangled in a relationship with the teacher.

The series garnered huge popularity with its feel-good romantic comedy plot of Nam and...