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“I Want to Be the Actor People Look Up”: Why Lee Junho Is Thinking About His Work Differently Now

Fans have loved him for years as a K-pop idol and a rising actor. But lately, Lee Junho says his goal is becoming something even bigger.

Not just popularity.
Not just hit dramas.

Instead, the actor says he wants to become “someone audiences naturally want to look up whenever a new project appears.”

The comment came during a recent interview with Korean news site; Daily TV about his drama Typhoon Family, and fans quickly noticed how deeply he reflected on the role and his career.

The drama that stayed with him long after filming

Lee Junho revealed that Typhoon Family was not just another project.

From preparation to filming, the drama took about one year and four months, making it one of the most emotionally intense projects of his career.

He admitted that saying goodbye to characters is always difficult, but this time felt different.

“Every project is hard to let go of, but this one especially stayed with me. The lingering feeling is still there.”

The tvN drama tells the story of Kang Taepoong, a rookie businessman who suddenly becomes the head of a struggling trading company during the 1997 IMF financial crisis.

Rather than focusing only on success or failure, the story highlights the relationships and emotional resilience of people who lived through one of Korea’s most difficult economic periods.

For Lee Junho, that historical setting was what convinced him to join.

He said the IMF era could serve as a bridge between generations connecting people who lived through it and those who only know it through stories.

Building Kang Taepoong from the ground up

Junho didn’t just play the role.
He obsessed over every detail.

To recreate the 1990s atmosphere accurately, he studied the style of singers from that era, including Deux and Cool’s Lee Jaehoon, using them as references for hair and fashion.

Some costumes were so hard to find that they had to be custom-made, and in some cases he even paid for them himself.

“I really wanted to wear clothes that matched the fit of that era. Some pieces like the purple coat or black leather coat couldn’t be found, so we made them.”

Even the Seoul dialect used in the drama was carefully calibrated so it would feel authentic but not exaggerated.

This attention to detail helped shape Kang Taepoong into a character many viewers described as an “all-time favorite male lead.”

The kind of character he wanted audiences to love

Lee Junho said his biggest wish was for viewers to understand Kang Taepung instantly.

“I wanted people to think, ‘Ah, this is the kind of person Taepung is,’ and naturally start rooting for him.”

He described the character as someone honest, emotionally open, and determined to push forward no matter the challenge.

Interestingly, Junho also admitted that he sometimes wished he had possessed that same mindset earlier in life.

“If I had this kind of determination in my twenties, maybe those years would have been a little less difficult.”

A romance that fans also noticed

The chemistry between Lee Junho and actress Kim Min-ha also became a talking point among viewers.

According to Junho, some of the most powerful emotional moments between their characters came from small pauses between lines, rather than scripted dialogue.

He said the relationship developed naturally without forcing romantic tension.

“What mattered most was whether the emotions between the two characters reached the audience.”

Lee Junho’s simple but powerful goal as an actor

Despite his growing fame, Lee Junho says his dream as an actor is surprisingly simple.

He wants to become someone audiences automatically trust when they see his name attached to a project.

“I want to be the kind of actor people search for.
Someone who makes viewers think, ‘If he’s in it, it will be interesting, touching, or make me laugh.’”

For him, acting is more than just performing.

It’s about living another person’s life and sharing those emotions with audiences.

And if his recent roles are any indication, fans already seem to believe in that promise.

Which may be exactly why people keep looking forward to whatever Lee Junho does next.