Choi Min-sik denies casting Choi Hyun-wook in Netflix drama 'The Last Row Boy'

Choi Min-sik wants to set the record straight. At the production presentation for Netflix's The Last Row Boy (맨 끝줄 소년), held June 24 at Hotel Naru Seoul M Gallery in Mapo-gu, Seoul, the veteran actor pushed back on a circulating rumor.

"The claim that Choi Min-sik cast Choi Hyun-wook is absurd," he said. Director Kim Gyu-tae and the production staff made the decision. Choi Min-sik's part was smaller: he was curious about who would play his scene partner, asked to observe the audition, and was given permission. The director then consulted him. Together with the assistant director and producer, they discussed the candidates and narrowed the choice to Choi Hyun-wook.

Choi Hyun-wook was the only auditionee still around by the end. Everyone else had gone home. When the session wrapped and it was dinner time, Choi Min-sik invited him to eat. Choi Hyun-wook offered to pay. "It was probably the company that paid," Choi Min-sik said.

Choi Hyun-wook prepared one or two scenes for the audition. "Actors my age grew up watching Senior Choi Min-sik's works," he said. "I was very nervous, but I tried my best to show what I had prepared."

Choi Min-sik took the project because it has Spanish source material and he'd been missing work with a literary quality. The student-professor dynamic felt far from current trends, he said—which made it fresher.

Director Kim Gyu-tae previously helmed Netflix's Trunk and dramas Our Blues and It's Okay to Not Be Okay.

The Last Row Boy is a suspense drama about Heo Moon-o (Choi Min-sik), a failed writer and Korean literature professor, who discovers the genius of Lee Gang (Choi Hyun-wook), a boy sitting in the back row of his classroom, and becomes obsessed with his writing. The series premieres on Netflix on June 26.