Easygoing Korean actor Lee Je Hoon charmed both local and regional media during a short 30-minutes press conference held at Resorts World Sentosa on 24 March 2023, a day ahead of his first ever Fan Meeting in Singapore.
Here to promote the latest season of Taxi Driver II, available on Viu, the actor showed his affable personality and his versatility as an actor when he easily switched from Lee Je Hoon, the actor to Kim Do-gi, his main character in the Taxi Driver series, a former 707th Special Mission Group captain who works for Rainbow Taxi Company after his mother was killed, to Wang Taozi, one of the many memorable characters which Kim takes on in the series, to help clients take revenge on those who have wronged them.
Incidentally, when asked to pick one, amongst all the characters that he has played since 2007, to live as for the rest of his life, the thespian chose Wang, the burner phone peddler from Harbin. He would like to repay the love of Madam Lim, the female gangster. Lee claims to have spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to present Wang and his unrequited love relationship with Lim. The flamboyant clothes that Wang wore in the series will never be found in actor Lee's personal closet as he prefers to walk around in pants, tees and flip flops, especially in Singapore.
Despite not appearing in Singapore for any official event since the pandemic, Lee declared to have made a few personal visits to our sunny island since last year as we are one of the few countries with early relaxed travel restrictions. He is familiar with Chinatown but has yet to visit Joo Chiat. Also, it was his first time visiting Sentosa, where this press conference was held.
He enjoyed filming with the cast acting as his colleagues in the Rainbow Taxi Company so much that he had to calm himself down during shoots, to better portray Kim's cool persona. He felt super excited and grateful to be acting with the same team, with whom he shares much camaraderie with. The 38-year old further shared that prior to filming Taxi Driver, he was a careful driver. After learning to accelerate and drift the taxi for the car chasing scenes, he now has to constantly remind himself to snap out of Kim's character and drive safely on the road.
When asked if he has a preferred passenger in mind, he immediately thought of the movie Collateral where cab driver Jamie Foxx, drove his passenger Tom Cruise, who turned out to be a hitman on a contract killing spree. Lee felt that it would be fun if his taxi passenger turns out to be a killer.
As a taxi passenger himself, Lee was surprised to find drivers recognizing him and asking to take photos with him. The drivers usually identified him by his voice when he thanked them at the end of the taxi trip. He would then promote the Taxi Driver series to them.
To choose one Korean dish to eat for the rest of his life, he asked if he could switch to local fare since he likes Hainanese chicken rice, Bak Kut The etc. He eventually chose buffet as that will offer more choices.
When teased by the interviewer to hold his next press conference topless at a beach in Singapore, the cheerful actor promised to exercise really hard, before showing his megawatt smile for the media's final round of photo-taking for this short session.
Taxi Driver II started its 16 episode run on 17 February 2023, showing every Friday and Saturday on Viu.
Special thanks to Viu for inviting KpopStarz to cover Exclusive press conference with star of Viu Original Taxi Driver 2, Lee Je Hoon.
Writer: Wang | Photo Credits: En
