Lee Jung-jae: “I never imagined playing a Jedi one day”

After “The Mandalorian”, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and even “Ahsoka”, a new “Star Wars” series appeared on June 4 on the Disney+ platform. One more. Despite being a fan of the saga, we ended up no longer rejoicing, as the quality is rarely there – “Andor” and the first two seasons of “Mando” are exceptions. Above all, we struggle to find interest.

“The Acolyte” fortunately reassured us (a little). The plot takes place during the last days of the High Republic, almost a century before the events of “Star Wars, Episode I”, when the Jedi Order is at its peak. A respected Jedi Master leads the investigation into a series of mysterious crimes. We are more in the thriller than the pure adventure, the episodes go straight to the point and there is above all an interesting theory on the Force while the Jedi seem not to like competition very much.

Among these, there is Sol, played by South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, 51, and whom “Squid Game” fans will have recognized, since he played the main role, No. 456. His acting in “The Acolyte” is unfortunately much less expressive than in the Korean series. Although he learned the English language to don the costume of the Jedi master, he does not fully master it. It was also with an interpreter that he did all his interviews last weekend at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

As Lee Jung-jae told the matin.ch, one day playing in “Star Wars” was unimaginable for him: “It wasn’t a childhood dream because it never occurred to me that I could have a role in it.” And he expected even less that the character he was offered to play was that of a Jedi. Today, he is obviously “very honored to be part of the franchise” but also “very enthusiastic about the idea of ​​participating in the twists and turns of this mysterious thriller”.

In South Korea, Lee Jung-jae discovered “Star Wars” in the early 1980s as a child, when he was in 6th grade. “I didn’t feel like it was just an action movie where you wield lightsabers and shoot laser guns, I felt like it had a lot of different stories,” he recalls. The fight scenes, in fact, the actor explains that he started training two months before the start of filming “The Acolyte” and that it was “difficult”.

On the subject of “Squid Game”, he does not comment on season 2 already filmed – season 3 would even have been canned immediately, according to the Korean magazine “Osen”. But he has his theory about the phenomenal success of the series around the world: “Everyone can relate to the theme, the philosophy, the descriptions, the decisions that the characters make in this situation and the considerable efforts they make to make these decisions.”

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