Yunho on *Fine* audition: two weeks, a Mokpo taxi driver, and a door-opening character entrance

TVXQ's Yunho sat down with host Lee Su-ji on SBS Ani Geunde Jinjja, which aired July 20. He walked through the audition that won him the role of Jang Beol-gu — a Mokpo gangster in the drama Fine — and the "rediscovery of actor Jung Yunho" notices that followed.

The road in was rocky. Yunho showed up to his first meeting with the director completely unprepared. He didn't know a script reading was scheduled. He told the director the truth on the spot and asked for two weeks. "The director, being the captain, said if he still wasn't satisfied after two weeks, he could do as he pleased," Yunho recalled.

He used that window to travel to Mokpo and find a native speaker who could teach him the 1970s–80s regional dialect the role required. The first taxi he caught happened to be driven by an older man who was a Mokpo local. From their conversations Yunho pulled specific words and tones, eventually working out what he called "the rhythm of Mokpo dialect" — including the line "어디 여시 꼬랑지 단 거 맹키로 어디서 수작질이여."

Two weeks later he walked back into the director's room and greeted him in character the moment the door opened. "The director saw this and said I had changed in two weeks," Yunho said. "And right there, he gave me the role and showed me the entire cast list."

The episode also surfaced his acting debut, Barefoot Heading, which Lee Su-ji brought up as evidence that recognition didn't come immediately. Yunho didn't flinch: "I do not deny the past." (He was considerably less composed when Lee Su-ji produced a novel he wrote in high school — "Who on earth found out about this? Please, please get rid of that novel" — which drew laughs from the set.)

On his general approach, Yunho said he doesn't think of himself as someone who works hard. "If I'm going to do something, I should do my best at everything." He also mentioned keeping fan-gifted photos on his wall at home and using them to talk himself back into focus when motivation dips.