Actor Yoo Seung Ho recently discussed playing 'Prior Walter' in the play "Angels in America - Part One: The Millennium Approaches."

The play is set in the 1980s US and tells the story of various marginalized characters, especially LGBTQ+ people, struggling with different aspects of their lives.

Yoo plays the role of 'Prior Walter,' who is an enthusiastic lover and a loving friend to his other significant other, Louis, whom he also breaks up with over the phone after receiving news of his AIDS diagnosis. You had to approach the character with much heart to portray this emotional experience.

He is reported as saying, "I didn't want to focus solely on him as a sexual minority. I wanted to see him as a person in love, which allowed me to connect with Prior's pain and vulnerability on a deeper level. I have seen sexual minority members representing milestones or drama, as we tend to focus on them only being sexual minorities."

The actor practiced intensively during rehearsals, spending an average of three and a half hours on acting every day. His biggest struggle in the role is feeling close enough to his character.

Talking about the role, he said, "It seemed distant from me at the beginning, but I tried to focus on the love between Prior and Louis without definition or specificity from society."

He added, "I met the director without fully understanding the material. But he encouraged me to lean into my understanding of what love is instead of getting caught up in labels."

As a result of the role, Yoo's way of acting and perceiving acting has fundamentally changed.

He explained, "I realized portraying a sexual minority can't be just about portraying the character as a regular minority, separated from others. It's about how humans can connect, and that realization was an enormous change as an actor."

He added, "Now, I feel the need to deliver the message of love with interest in such a theme through my acting, so I want to find more characters or movies that make that possible. It is important to show a sexual minority with different sides, just not as a sexual minority. I think there isn't a lot of such media at the moment."

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This article was written by:

Rovelyn Barba