Key takeaways
- Jin Young was drawn to the Summer Vacation script because its portrayal of characters with inner struggles meeting and transforming resonated deeply with his own life experiences.
- He employed minimal expressions and subtle physical choices to convey Jo Yu Gyeom's initial listlessness, building a foundation for the character's emotional transformation.
- Despite being an unskilled swimmer in real life, Jin Young trained extensively in water to authentically portray his character's freedom and relief found in swimming.
- The actor credited Cho Yi Hyun with making the emotional journey believable while managing the complexity of a love triangle between Jo Yu Gyeom, Kim Ha Yeon, and Hong Ye Ji's character Sung Sae Ryung.
Jin Young, member of B1A4, recently shared insights into his upcoming teen romance drama “Summer Vacation,” where he plays Jo Yu Gyeom opposite Cho Yi Hyun’s Kim Ha Yeon. The actor discussed his character’s emotional arc, his approach to creating internal depth, and the challenges of bringing a swimming prodigy to life on screen.
The Script and Initial Draw
When first reading the “Summer Vacation” screenplay, Jin Young found unexpected emotional resonance. He explained that the script transported him back to personal memories of midsummer, though not through simple nostalgia or surface-level beauty. Instead, the narrative traced how characters carrying their own burdens and wounds could encounter one another and undergo genuine transformation. This emotional architecture aligned with his own life experiences, drawing him deeply to the project.
The story centers on Kim Ha Yeon, played by Cho Yi Hyun, an ordinary high school student whose summer unfolds in unexpected ways before she returns to her familiar life. Jo Yu Gyeom, Jin Young’s character, occupies a contrasting position—the son of Upo Village’s landowner and eldest grandson of the head family’s main branch. Despite his striking appearance and notable swimming talent, he navigates the constraints of tradition and family obligation, living what appears special to others while experiencing his own existence as confining.
Constructing Jo Yu Gyeom
The Surface and the Depth
Jin Young approached his character with deliberate choices about how to externalize internal emptiness. Jo Yu Gyeom possesses status, looks, and athletic ability, yet experiences his life as cramped and hollow. The transformation begins when he meets Kim Ha Yeon and experiences genuine curiosity about tomorrow for the first time. Jin Young found this trajectory compelling because it required careful calibration between two emotional states.
To capture his character’s initial listlessness, Jin Young employed minimal expressions and restrained physical movement, prioritizing naturalism over dramatic display. Every small detail served the performance: the direction of his gaze, the pace at which he responded to others, his visible lack of investment in the world around him. By anchoring Jo Yu Gyeom’s apathy in these particulars rather than broad gestures, Jin Young created space for the character’s evolution to register as authentic when it emerges.
The Subtle Transformation
This approach required patience from viewers. Jin Young hoped audiences would gradually notice shifts in his eyes and the changing quality of his reactions as Jo Yu Gyeom opens to possibility. The payoff comes not from sudden revelation but from accumulated small alterations in how the character occupies space and engages with others around him.
Learning to Swim
Behind the scenes, Jin Young confronted an unexpected challenge: his character is a swimming prodigy, yet he describes himself as not particularly skilled in the water. Rather than avoid this obstacle, he invested in becoming increasingly comfortable during filming, recognizing that swimming served narrative function beyond sport. For Jo Yu Gyeom, the water represents genuine release from suffocating circumstances—a space where he might feel freer than his constrained land-bound life permits.
This commitment meant extensive time in the pool during production. Jin Young remarked that he spent so much time filming in water that he suspects he has exhausted his lifetime swimming quota. The physical investment paid off because the actor genuinely worked to inhabit that freedom, even as his actual swimming ability developed gradually over the shoot.
Chemistry and the Love Triangle
Working with Cho Yi Hyun
Jin Young credited Cho Yi Hyun with making the core relationship work emotionally. To him, Kim Ha Yeon is the catalyst who awakens Jo Yu Gyeom’s curiosity about tomorrow, and Cho Yi Hyun’s portrayal of her brightness and sincerity gave him a clear emotional target to follow. He noted that Cho Yi Hyun portrayed Kim Ha Yeon’s bright and honest charm so effectively that he could comfortably follow the feelings of attraction developing in his character.
Navigating Complexity
The drama introduces complication through Sung Sae Ryung, played by Hong Ye Ji. Jo Yu Gyeom’s relationship with Sung Sae Ryung carries history and complexity, tangled in guilt, fear, and obligation. Jin Young had to balance two contrasting versions of his character: with Sung Sae Ryung, he is familiar yet tense and burdened; with Kim Ha Yeon, he becomes livelier and more spontaneous, changes happening so naturally that they surprise even him. This duality proved essential to the drama’s emotional architecture.
Reflecting on Summer
Looking back at the filming experience, Jin Young found that time had not dimmed his memory of the set. The atmosphere, the scenery, and the overall feeling remain vivid to him, much as the summer itself becomes a singular, unrepeatable experience for Jo Yu Gyeom. Just as the character will carry this summer forward, Jin Young carries the experience as a memory worth revisiting.
His hopes for viewers reflect the drama’s central concern: that audiences will watch as young people carrying their own wounds and worries meet at the height of summer and undergo genuine change. He hopes “Summer Vacation” will linger in viewers’ minds long after they finish watching, becoming the kind of story people return to across the years.
Source: Soompi
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Jin Young choose to star in Summer Vacation?
Jin Young was drawn to the script because it reminded him of memories of midsummer. He appreciated how the drama portrayed characters with their own worries and wounds meeting and transforming through each other, which resonated with his own life experiences.
How did Jin Young prepare for playing a swimming prodigy when he isn't skilled at swimming?
Though not a skilled swimmer, Jin Young made efforts to become more comfortable in the water during filming. He recognized that swimming represented Jo Yu Gyeom's escape from his stifling reality, and he wanted his character to appear freer underwater, spending extensive time in the pool to achieve this authenticity.
What did Jin Young say about his chemistry with co-star Cho Yi Hyun?
Jin Young credited Cho Yi Hyun for portraying Kim Ha Yeon's brightness and honesty so effectively that he could naturally follow Jo Yu Gyeom's developing attraction. He expressed appreciation for her performance, which helped ground the emotional core of their relationship.
