Jung Sung Il makes his first multiple-personality role in Sapiens.
Yoo Jae Myung plays a lawyer investigating a chaebol heir’s kidnapping.
Sapiens screened in the Special Premiere section at the 31st BIFF.
Jung Sung Il is taking on his first role involving multiple personalities in Sapiens, a thriller that premiered at the 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). The actor discussed the challenges of playing the character during an open talk at the Busan Cinema Centre on October 8, alongside director and co-stars, Yoo Jae Myung and Ryu Hyun Kyung.
Jung Sung Il on playing multiple personalities
Sapiens follows Na Do Han, a man with multiple personalities who becomes the prime suspect in the kidnapping of a chaebol heir. Lawyer Seo Hee Jae, played by Yoo Jae Myung, must find the missing heir while trying to determine whether Do Han’s condition is genuine or an act.
Jung admitted that the role initially felt daunting because of the many existing portrayals he could use as references. “At first, it was a very burdensome project. There was the challenge of expressing multiple personalities, and there were also so many great existing references. I asked myself whether I could achieve more than that as an actor. But the script was so good, and there were reliable actors I could lean on, so I wanted to give it a try at least once,” he said.
He explained that the team ultimately decided the story should focus on the person caught up in the incident rather than simply displaying his different personalities.
“The conclusion we reached was that 'Sapiens' is not a film that shows Na Do Han has multiple personalities, but a story about a person inside a big incident,” Jung said. He added that he deliberately pulled back on his performance to avoid disrupting the story’s flow.
Ryu Hyun Kyung praises Jung's performance
Ryu Hyun Kyung, who also stars in the film, described acting opposite Jung’s different personas as a striking experience.
“When the female personality came out, I acted opposite it, and the emotion changed completely. It really felt like a battle of nerves between women, and I was so surprised that I asked him how he did it,” she said.
Sapiens was invited to BIFF’s Korean Cinema Today – Special Premiere section, where audiences got an early look at the psychological thriller.
