The K-drama world is abuzz again with the long-awaited return of Hallyu star Song Joong Ki. Prior to his two-year hiatus, the actor’s last big TV show role was for the historical fantasy drama Arthdal Chronicles back in 2019.
This 2021, Joong Ki is back, booked, and busier than ever—with dual projects for Netflix, no less. There’s his space adventure film titled Space Sweepers, and more recently, his black comedy drama, Vincenzo; both of which have done considerably well since their release. The actor has definitely pushed himself out of his comfort zone for his new roles and has revealed that he even had to learn two new languages for his recent projects: Spanish for Space Sweepers, and Italian for Vincenzo.
Speaking of Vincenzo, everyone seems to be talking about his particularly eccentric role in the drama. The 35-year-old plays the lead as a lawyer and mafia consigliere based in Italy. After the death of his boss, he decides to flee to South Korea to escape a brewing war between mafia groups. Apart from garnering high ratings this drama season, Joong Ki’s thrilling new black comedy drama comes with a rather striking revelation: He’s never actually been to Italy before!
Turns out, the actor has never traveled to Italy before, which makes it all the more impressive that he speaks a great deal of Italian lines in the drama. The actor confessed in an interview for tvN that he actually found the role challenging to take on considering he’s never set foot in the country. “The difficult part was that I’ve never been to Italy in my life. I’ve never spoken Italian in my life." Joong Ki hilariously added, "I’m more scared of my Italian teacher than of the director."
We know what you're thinking: A good chunk of Vincenzo’s first episodes were supposedly filmed in Italy. But lo and behold, this is where the power of CGI and special effects come in handy. All the scenes in Italy for the drama were filmed with a green screen and were then edited seamlessly to make it look believable. (More about that here.)
Well, at least when Joong Ki finally gets to visit Italy, we know for sure that his conversations with the locals won't start and end with just a simple "ciao!"
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