The 23-year-old EXO-band-member-turned-actor Do "D.O." Kyung Soo may have initially felt awkward onset during his time shooting "Unforgettable," but it seems to safe to assume that by the time the romantic drama wrapped, this was no longer an issue.
"At first, I felt burdened since I'm the oldest among them," D.O. told the South Korean magazine BNT, in an interview earlier this month at a café in Seoul.
"But in the film, we were all 17 years old, we were, like, friends. They were so nice, so they took care of me well. All the actors from the movie became so close that we took a shower together."
And though the EXO vocalist failed to elaborate on that potentially juicy detail, he did reveal that his own romantic experiences provided him ample material from which to derive his performance in "Unforgettable."
"My first love wasn't a happy one," D.O. said. "It was sad and gloomy. The emotions that I felt in the past really helped in [driving] the film forward."
The K-pop star also praised the much-discussed scene from the movie in which his character Beom Sil kisses an umbrella.
"Rather than kissing on lips, the umbrella kiss scene was good enough to work in 'Unforgettable,'" D.O. said.
"I could feel the distance that the character wasn't able to express and I thought the idea was brilliant."
In an interview last month with the South Korean media outlet eNEWS, his co-star in that scene, Kim So Hyun said she thought the sequence was a bit odd.
"If I'm being completely honest, when I saw the script and even right before we went into shooting, I thought it was a little weird," Kim said.
"I even asked the director 'does [D.O.] really kiss the umbrella?' The other actors also wondered how that scene would play out. I heard the staff was split on it too. The women said he should kiss the umbrella, while the men said he has to do the real thing [and kiss me]."
But it was the EXO member's performance that made the 16-year-old actress feel comfortable.
"The director insisted that we had to do the umbrella kiss, so we shot it," Kim recalled. "But when it came to actually shooting it, it didn't feel weird at all. It was just sad and unfortunate. I thought Beom Sil's pure heart, in that he likes her but can't approach her, was conveyed well. I think it showed on the screen too."
Despite the disproportionate focus the umbrella kiss has been getting, the Hallyu celeb says he is simply glad to be able to bring his own experiences to the screen
"As much as I went through struggles, I learned a lot and became strong," D.O. said.
And he's glad to connect with his fans in any format he can.
"I feel different when I'm a singer and an actor," he said. "I communicate with the fans on the stage right away, but I feel emotions with the audiences on screens."
According to the website Asian Wiki, "Unforgettable," which takes place in Goheung, Jeollanam Province, South Korea, is the story of a group of childhood friends reconnecting after an extended time apart.
"On a live music radio show, a letter arrives from 23 years in the past," the plot synopsis reads. "Through the letter, the first love and friendships of five friends are revealed."
The film is scheduled to open in Korea on Feb. 24.
