Lee Jun Ki has been called the original flower boy. His delicate good looks brought him fame when he portrayed the beautiful minstrel clown who fascinates a despotic king in the historical film "The King and The Clown." But he also makes a convincing wastrel and thug as Jang Tae San in "Two Weeks," the drama about a man who only has two weeks to set things right.
He recently won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Kim Eun Ah in "Arang and the Magistrate." Although the drama did not earn top ratings, it is clearly a fan favorite to have earned the winning number of votes.
Here are five fun facts about the actor.
1) He was set to star in "Faith: The Great Doctor" when he was called to serve his military duty. He was also shooting a film, "Grand Prix," with Kim Tae Hee, and applied for a postponement. It was declined and he had to pull out of both projects. "Arang and the Magistrate" was his comeback project after returning from military service.
2) He was rumored to be dating actress Yoo Ri Ah but said they were only friends and colleagues. When asked if he had a girlfriend, he avoided the subject by joking about it.
"Shouldn't I say that I don't have a girlfriend even if I do," he said. "I have answered like this ever since my debut and think this is the right way to answer. I don't want to date in the public eye."
3) At 31, he doesn't worry about getting older. Despite having started his career as a flower boy, he is okay with getting wrinkles and has no desire to get Botox injections or plastic surgery
"These wrinkles are natural, since I'm older," said Lee Jun Ki. "I was young and fresh in my 20s, so that's probably why I didn't seem so manly. I like the feeling of being in my 30s. Every year that I get older, I feel like my character choices are expanding. As a male actor, I don't hate getting older."
4) He's humble and thinks of himself as an actor who is learning his craft rather than a star.
"I hope to continue like this, one step at a time, improving my acting ability along the way," said Lee Jun Ki. "There are no shortcuts. You simply have to continue learning and gaining life experiences.
5) He doesn't sleep a lot.
"Apart from the three hours that I spend sleeping, I'm always doing something," he said. "I used to sleep a lot, but once I started getting more interested in the world, I became something of an insomniac. I always feel like I'm chasing or longing for something. Nowadays I feel like time is too precious to sleep through."
You can see Lee Jun Ki escape the police and the bad guys in his cliff-hanging drama "Two Weeks."
