Exclusive phone interview with Korean singer-actor Rain, real name Jung Ji-hoon, who is set to make his Hollywood debut next month with movie “Speed Racer”.
The interview was done via an interpreter; the only English words Rain had said were “Hi, I am Rain” and “Thank you, thank you. Nice to be hearing from you”… but I’ll take it as an honour regardless. Full transcripts below…
Interview with Rain Jung Ji-hoon
Hi, I am Rain.
- Anyohaseyo, thanks for accepting the interview.
Anyohaseyo.
Q: What is your biggest attraction to appeal to the western audiences?
I think being an Asian itself is a big attraction for the audience over here.
Q: What is the biggest different working in Korea and in a Hollywood production?
Actually there is not much different between working in America and Korea; maybe the language is different, but most of all it’s similar.
Q: What is the biggest challenge while filming Speed Racer? Is English still a barrier?
Actually it hasn’t been a year yet that I started to learn English; I am trying to do my best to get this language overcome. By next year I think I will be much better and free from this English barrier.
For now I don’t want to make any mistakes in public, so I am using an interpreter.
Q: Is Rain a fan of the original anime?
Actually, Speed Racer was before I was born. I didn’t have the chance to watch what it is, but now I am a huge fan of it, definitely.
Q: Who is your best buddy among the cast? Did you make any good friends while filming the movie?
Actually for our cast, it was like a family to me; but amongst them, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox are my best friends… if I have to pick somebody.
Q: Tell me more about the directors.
The Wachowski brothers were really really nice and they are very great person to work with.
Q: Do you share any similarities with Taejo, your character in the movie? I mean your own real personality and the character in the movie.
There is nothing really in common between my character and his, but me being a bit dry… and quiet… might be a bit similar.
Q: I read that you are disguising as a woman in the movie; mind sharing more about the story?
This is my first time dressing like a woman, and it’s the first time I knew my legs are actually very pretty.
Q: There are a few Korean stars that are making their Hollywood debut this year, what do you think about the rising popularity of Korean artists in US?
Right now I don’t think that there is much popularity of Korean stars in America yet, but as along the way if there is more… good. I think the popularity of Korean actors will increase together with other Asian actors as well.
Q: Is this the proudest moment in your career, or is there any other thing else?
Yes, for me right now it is the proudest moment, but I wish there will be more proud moments in future in my life as well.
- Best wishes to you. Thanks for the interview, kamsahamnida.
Thank you, thank you. Nice to be hearing from you [The End]
The interview was done together with Stareastasia which I’m one of the editors. We were actually invited to cover Rain’s promotion in Los Angeles, but none of the editors could make it to LA (no budget lol); so we had to resort to a phone interview instead… which was not bad at all.
To be frank there wasn’t much direct conversation with Rain. I was a bit surprise that he didn’t use his English for the interview; I have watched some of his English interviews on Youtube, and I think he did pretty well with those. He sounds humble and polite during the interview, a bit more of confidence with his English is what he need to excel in the west.
I know some of Rain’s fans are eager to see some saucy and more private questions, but do mind that this is a promotion event for Speed Racer after all… I should keep the questions related to the movie as much as possible.
Speed Racer will hit the theatres on May 9th. You can watch some trailers and get more information about the movie as its official website. Thanks to Rain, Warner Bros, and the coordinators for the interview.
[...] the original transcript by YJ, our editor who conducted the [...]
Rain, marry me!!!!
yay, it’s up!!! why so serious questions? if i get the chance to interview rain i will ask him whether he plans to go naked in movies in future or his relationship with korean actress he has work with :p
nvm, it’s still nice, good job :)
lol, the questions are good.
you don’t want to make him uncomfortable.
since he is such a polite guy, the interviewer should be polite too.
i use to like him, then i sort of stopped, i think i like him again now! and more too =]
good questions there, great job YJ.
but i feel the interview was too short, i mean… it’s an exclusive interview xD
Congratulations on the interview! The questions are slightly ordinary but I like your report because it sounds very professional. I hope you can interview more stars after this, congrats again =)
hello, I just read at Popseoul the exclusive interview… and now your interview also exclusive? I am confused, which is the real exclusive interview?
kyon… I wish I could ask that too lol. Honestly, we didn’t want to be blacklisted by Warner Bros and the PR agencies. It’s not easy for non-prime media to score this kind of interview, and I don’t want to create a bad name, and hopefully me (and perhaps some other bloggers) would get the chance to cover some future events again.
bb and Marie… thanks for the compliment.
red… thanks. I only got 8 minutes, and with all the (time for) translations, this is probably as much as I could get. Actually the time was up before I realised it, 8 minutes were actually quite short.
As for the exclusiveness… Warner Bros allocated a time slot for the phone interviews; each interviewer was given 8 minutes (I assumed) without the attendant of other media… and we had our own sets of questions (and answers obviously). So, each of these interviews is exclusive respectively, there is no real or fake about it.
As far as I know… Stareastasia.com, Popseoul.com and Thai site Nangdee.com were given the chances and have published their own exclusive interviews and featured stories :)
Rain dressing up as a woman???? OMFG!!! I so wanted to watch the movie now!!!
HI RAIN
YOU KNOW WHAT
IM YOUR NO.1 FANS IN THE PHILIPPINES
thank you Thank You THANK YOU for the interview…anything involving Rain = A+++!!! =0D
I think you did a gr8 job, ESPECIALLY considering that you only had 8 minutes & an interpreter was involved as well! :o)
Hopefully we’ll have the chance to read more exclusive interviews on your site in the near future! (^_^)
Aren’t you the popseoul lady? I’m confused, your name sounds like the one mentioned on the phone…
[...] Another Rain interview [Yeinjee] [...]
I liked the questions you asked him…very professional.
Does this mean you have Rain’s number? jk
That’s relief that there’s someone who can interview Rain in decent manner…
Do you have audio clip?
Did he really dress up like woman?
I got to see this. man.
I wonder how many bloggers interviewed him over the phone on that day…
interesting.
[...] Rain’s Interview With StarEastAsia.com 28 04 2008 Check it out! [...]
I’ve clicked that link… but it’s come back to this blog… @_@