Joo Won Shares The Major Transformations He Made For Netflix’s ‘Carter’

In Netflix’s Carter, the ever-popular Joo Won undergoes a formidable transition from a clean-cut poster boy into a steely, no-nonsense agent. For the second consecutive week, the Korean action film has held the top spot on the streamer’s chart for non-English language films, amassing 26.7 million in total hours viewed. Joo Won has landed many awards and praise through influential roles in Bridal Mask, Yong-pal and Fatal Intuition and was part of the main cast of the long-running KBS variety show, 2 Days & 1 Night.

Carter is edited to look like the whole film was shot in one long, continuous take. “It was a big challenge for me as an actor and for the filming crew,” Joo Won said. “I had to memorize all the choreography beforehand because there’s just so much action.”

The film consists of a breathless array of action sequences, with one particularly memorable skydiving scene which involved executing fights in the air — a sequence that took 10 days to film. “The action set pieces in Carter are actually very next level in Korea as they’re presented in a one-take style,” Joo Won said. “I had to build my physique and get myself ready.”

For four months leading up to production, Joo Won trained and practiced Carter’s action choreography. He also learned to ride a motorcycle for a chase sequence in the film and got a motorcycle license before production began. The “one-take” style of the film put some pressure on Joo Won as any mistake required the production team to reset the scene and start from the beginning. The most number of takes that Joo Won ended up doing for a scene was 27, but he shared that thankfully, it was a scene which did not require much time to reset.

“I sometimes got very nervous because I was not sure if I could pull it off in one take, but we practiced a lot. Just for one take, we would have hour-long rehearsals,” Joo Won said. “When we have rehearsals, I get less nervous and feel less pressure because I know that I’ve tried this already.”

Many might not know this, but Joo Won used to act in musicals like Grease, Spring Awakening and Ghost the Musical. He shared that the one-take style of Carter resembled a stage performance and he found his theater acting background helpful. “When you’re on stage, you don’t have cuts. It’s just like one long [take] and that was exactly what happened,” Joo Won said. “It wasn’t new to me because I did a lot of musicals and theater before and I was quite used to it.”

On his relationship with director Jung, Joo Won shared that Jung is more of a “big-picture type” while he described himself as more “detail-oriented.” Jung is known for his action-filled flicks like Action Boys and The Villainess, with the latter premiering as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s midnight screenings in 2017. “We made a very good team together and we had very good communication on set,” Joo Won said. “I realized while filming this movie that director Jung really has no limitations in his action sequences and camera movements. He really tries to push the boundaries and go beyond the conventional.”

Reflecting on his career, Joo Won said that he always pushes himself to take on different kinds of roles and challenges. “I think that’s a responsibility that all actors have, to show something new: a new story, new character, new genre or new side of you to the viewers,” Joo Won said. “I actually try very consciously to take on new roles to keep myself fresh as an actor.”

Watching the enthusiastic reception of Korean content globally and the major role that Netflix has played in drawing in new audiences for Korean shows, Joo Won hopes that Carter brings further opportunities for him. “This is a delight for me as an actor. It’s a good window that’s just been opened for me to show myself to the global audience,” Joo Won said. “I have very high hopes that later on, there will be collaboration between Asian and American productions.”

He offered his thoughts on what future U.S.-Korea productions might look like. “While romance will be very nice, I think it will take a little more time to see some great romance [projects] with collaboration between different countries,” Joo Won said. “So I’m thinking more of action. It’ll be easier to collaborate between different countries.”

Although some may lament that the elaborate, labor-intensive action sequences and details in Carter may not all translate onto the small screen, Joo Won eagerly pointed out that streaming platforms still offer many benefits. “Nowadays, people are more used to watching films at home rather than in a movie theater. The good thing is that there is this list of different films and dramas from all across the world. You can just click and watch all of them on Netflix and other streaming services,” Joo Won said. “It took time for me to get used to this new change but I think it’s pretty good that it kind of unites us into one whole big family who can all share our projects and content together.”