There’s no denying that 2021 is Song Kang’s year. Following the international success of his Netflix series Sweet Home in 2020, the star has gone on to lead three more dramas including Love Alarm 2, the upcoming romance drama I Know, But opposite The World of the Married actress Han So Hee, and the recently launched tvN series Navillera.
Navillera finds Kang as Lee Chae-rok, a 23-year-old male ballet dancer, who, due to financial troubles, is debating on whether to quit his passion. He soon makes his decision after he meets Shim Deok-chul (Park In Hwan), a 70-year-old retired mailman who’s finally chasing after his long overdue ballet dreams in the same school that Chae-rok attends.
Considering that it’s his first dance-related role, the 26-six-year-old actor confessed that he had to physically dedicate a lot of himself to the character. This, of course, included six months worth of grueling ballet lessons. "I tried to prepare to the best of my ability. I thought to move my body and draw these elegant graceful lines and watched a lot of videos to prepare for that part,” he shared in a virtual presscon for Navillera.
He continues, “Before we began shooting, I learned the ballet for five to six months and the moves were very technical and tricky so I thought that rather than focusing on the professional aspect, I tried to make my body look beautiful and have a very emotional facial expression. As I was studying ballet, I realized that it was really fun since it was my first time learning to dance and I liked the fact that my body was changing.”
While Kang isn’t a professional dancer in real life, he does have one thing in common with his character Chae-rok: Both of their parents are athletes, too. Where Chae-rok’s mother is also a ballerina, Kang’s father was actually revealed to have been a gymnast back in the day. When asked if his dad helped him in any way to get into the character, he shared: “Rather than giving me a lot of advice, he gave me a lot of support that I had to do my best every time. I felt a lot of pressure because it was my first time dancing ballet and I was worried whether I would be able to pull it off, but I think I did a pretty good job.
Known as the "Son of Netflix" by his fans and the press, Kang mentioned that he didn’t feel daunted taking on this unfamiliar role at all. Instead, he talked about how shooting the drama had energized him, especially since he got to learn a lot through his character, “It was more about how I was going to create this character. It was just about constant efforts that needed to be put in so I didn’t feel like it was too difficult per se, but it was just a natural process,” Kang told the media.
With that said, we certainly can’t wait to binge-watch his latest show and see his ballet training finally pay off!
You can watch Navillera's official trailer below:
Navillera is now streaming on Netflix.
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