The press conference for SBS' office drama 'VIP' took place at SBS Hall, Seoul.
'VIP' will depict the mysterious lives of a team at a department store that manages VIP clients.
The Monday-Tuesday drama is set to be unveiled on October 28 at 10PM KST.
Q: Are there any similarities and differences between yourself and your characters?
Lee Sang Yun: At first, I thought my character was incredibly similar to myself except for the fact that he was quiet and kept his feelings to himself.
But as the story went on, he seemed more and more different, especially when seeing the kind of decisions he made.
If I say I felt like we were about 80 percent similar to each other in the beginning, it went down to like 30 to 40 percent towards the end of our shooting.
You'll see why this is the case if you watch the drama.
Jang Na-ra: I shared almost nothing in common with my character.
I would say I had maybe around 30 percent of things in common with her.
That's why I had to put more thoughts into my acting.
That's also why I wanted to act this character.
As the shooting went on, I realized how different we were.
We chose a different way to deal with things.
I would say that she was someone who I wanted to be though.
Many of us tend to bring home all the difficulties and stress from work, but she didn't.
She was a pretty cool lady.
Lee Sang Yun: I'm surprised that these guys said they wanted to be like their characters.
Because I was like, "I should not live like this guy, ever. I should not do things like that."
I actually was able to learn a valuable life lesson from him.
The drama will show you why, but...
I'm just shocked. You guys all wanted to be like them?
Yeah, that was the last thing I wanted.
Q: All your dramas so far have received immense love from the public. Do you feel much pressure about the viewing rate for this drama?
Jang Na-ra: Well, not all my dramas were successful.
How shall I explain this?
I want to do well, but it's never that easy.
Filming a drama is what I love to do, so...
I want to portray the story I'm trying to tell as realistic as I can.
To be honest, I can never think of anything else other than that.
It would be nice if our drama ends up having a good viewing rate though.
Lee Sang Yun: I think the reason why Na-ra's projects always end in success is because she puts everything into them.
With some exaggeration, I feel like she puts pieces of her life into her projects.
She just works that hard.
That's probably why she does well all the time.
Q: Why do you think people should watch 'VIP'?
Jang Na-ra: I believe our drama has the ability to make you nervous and tense in a unique way.
You'll feel the different sort of nervousness and tension.
Lee Sang Yun: You'll learn lots from it, whatever those may be.
I can't say what exact things that you'll learn about...
However, I can confidently say that each character will give you a lesson.
I said this earlier, but I honestly have learned a lot myself.
During our shooting for the last five and a half months, nobody on our team worked over 52 hours a week.
It felt quite strange at first, actually.
I would wake up in the morning and wonder why my eyes didn't hurt.
They should hurt from extreme sleepiness, but were fine.
Our director here really had stuck to the new 52-hour workweek.
Ever since I joined the 'VIP' team, I found myself trying to teach lessons to my friends.
Whenever I met them, I would tell them what to do and not do.
I strongly believe that 'VIP' will give people some great life lessons.
(Video Journalist/Editor: Park Seung Yeon)
(SBS Star)