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Actor Park Seo-joon has taken another step up as a performer.

On JTBC’s “Waiting for Kyung-do,” which ended on the 11th, Park delivered a passionate performance as Lee Kyung-do, the deputy head of a newspaper’s entertainment desk. By portraying a character who repeatedly meets and parts ways with the same woman over 18 years, he broadened his spectrum, from fresh romance to poignant melodrama and, at times, everyday comedy.

In a wrap-up interview held recently at a cafe in Gangnam District, he said it was “a project for which I received a lot of praise for my acting.”

He added, “There are many kinds of romance, and I was drawn to this one because it handles a long narrative. I also thought the way that narrative was laid out was meaningful,” explaining why he chose to return to romance for the first time in seven years since “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim.”

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He continued, “When acting as a person in that kind of story, I wondered what parts of me would be captured. Depending on age and circumstance, what would Kyung-do have done? That became my focus,” adding, “Even the scenes where I shed tears involved different shades of emotion. Sometimes it explodes, sometimes it’s murmured, or sometimes it’s anxious in situations that required different expressions, I acted while thinking about what emotion Kyung-do needed to convey.”

Among them, the scene that most “stuck” with him was in episode 3, where, in his relationship with second-generation chaebol Ji-woo (Won Ji-an), tteokbokki and pork cutlet symbolically convey the inferiority complex felt by Kyung-do at age 20.

Saying “It resonated with me,” Park explained, “If you’re a man, it’s probably something you’ve experienced at least once. The empathy I gained from that made me see the work differently. The writer is a woman, and I wondered how she could know this feeling.”

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He added, “It was that impressive, and since it was the first emotional beat we handled while filming this drama, I wanted to capture it well. It was early in the shoot, so I also had to get in sync with the staff, and because it was a scene where emotions erupt, they were very considerate. At first they were watching a two-shot, but when my emotions surged, they immediately switched to a bust shot,” sharing a behind-the-scenes story of his explosive acting.

The ratings hovered in the 3% range, which was a bit disappointing, but Park said, “As someone who worked on it, of course it’s great when many people watch. Even so, apart from ratings, we told a sufficiently meaningful story.”

He also said, “There haven’t been many recent projects that deal with such a long narrative, and it’s a work that looks deeply into stories anyone has probably experienced at least once. Even the smallest scenes have narrative, so I think people whose tastes it suited watched it,” adding, “I think it’s a work that can continue to be talked about. It’s not a story that will simply be forgotten.”

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In particular, he emphasized, “With this project, I received a lot of praise for my acting. It’s also the first time I’ve received messages every week while it was airing,” adding, “I think it’s because the genre had so much to show emotionally. My attitude toward a project was the same, but it seems people appreciated performances where the emotions were maximized.”

Park said he also heard from actor Cha Tae-hyun: “He reached out every week during the broadcast, saying, ‘You’re good’ and ‘It really reminds me of the old days,’ and from episode 3, he said he watched with his wife. As a junior, it was meaningful, and I was very grateful.”

Lastly, Park hinted at ever more mature acting as he “waits for 40.”

Born in 1988 and 39 by international age this year, he said, “I’ve often heard people say a man really starts at 40. I’ve always prioritized doing what suits that age range. One reason I couldn’t bring myself to take on genres like noir was that I thought I’d look too young. When I reach my 40s, I think the range of choices I can challenge myself with will change again. I’m also excited because even doing romance then will likely feel different.”