“I will never do ordinary romance” — Nam Yoon-su reveals turning down two other big projects while waiting for Love in The Big City confirmation

DAZED Korea interviewed South Korean actor Nam Yoon-su for their latest October issue, published on October 21, 2024. The actor's most recent K-drama, Love in The Big City, was released on TVING the same day. It focuses on a gay man's journey to finding love in the bustling and fast-paced city of Seoul.

The actor, who was previously seen in The King's Affection, shared how he had promised himself that he would never do "ordinary romance." Nam Yoon-su continued that he dropped two other big K-drama projects so that he could do Love in The Big City.

"There were two more projects I was talking about at the time. But I didn't do them and kept waiting. I wanted to do them before I died. My motto when acting is 'I will never do ordinary romance'," he said.

He continued:

"My body doesn't respond to typical romances. <Lovestruck in the City> was new. 'How many men will I meet?' To be honest, I was more curious about that. I think I met more than in the book."

In the drama, Nam Yoon-su portrays Go Young, who is an aspiring writer and a closeted gay man. Despite being HIV-positive, he never lacked the courage to find love in a city where being from the LGBTQA+ community is surrounded by a lot of stigma and prejudices.

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Love in The Big City cast, directors, and author give a closer look behind the drama's creation

Love in The Big City is adapted from Park Sang-young's 2019 bestselling novel by the same name. DAZED Korea interviewed the lead cast Jin Ho-eun, Kwon Hyuk, Na Hyun-woo, and Kim Won-joong who played Nam Yoon-su's love interests in the 8-episode drama along with the author.

Park Sang-young explained how he originally didn't think Nam Yoon-su could portray a writer, however, the author added that he wanted Go Young's face to be someone who looks extremely loveable—something that Nam Yoon-su brought on board.

"I want people to see a very lovable person through Nam Yoon-soo's Go Young. I want people to see the figure of a person who makes mistakes, goes through ups and downs, and does hateful things from time to time, but who you can't help but love in the end," Park Sang-young said.

Nam Yoon-su further shared how he got hate comments filled with cuss words when he first uploaded the trailer of Love in The Big City on his Instagram account. He recalled how he lost over 20,000 followers the same day but gained over 40,000 followers the next day.

"When I posted it on my SNS account, I got a lot more comments than my previous posts. There were a lot of curses too. (...) But the first day the trailer was released, my follower count dropped by 20,000. Then it went up by 40,000 again. I get DMs like, “Why did you film this?” Then I reply, “You shouldn’t ignore stories like this.” Then they immediately contact me saying, “I’m sorry.”"

Director Heo Jin-ho, who is one of the four filmmakers who directed the drama, Love in The Big City, revealed how he was stunned to meet Nam Yoon-su, Jin Ho-eun, Kwon Hyuk, and Na Hyun-woo. He stated that he was surprised at how good-looking the men were as compared to the characters from Park Sang-young's novel.

Director Heo Jin-ho mentioned how he thought that Kim Won-joong was unconventionally pretty. Hence, he tried to film all five men in a manner that would accentuate their beauty on screen. For the unversed, Kim Won-joong played William Habibi, one of Go Young's love interests in episodes 7 and 8.

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Love in The Big City is available on the TVING online platform and Viki.