Uee, a member of the girl group After School, will play a star swimmer on the upcoming tvN series “Ho Gu’s Love.”
But she is not the only k-drama actor who has swimming skills.
In “Ho Gu’s Love” Uee plays Do Do Hee, a member of the Korean national swimming team and a silver medalist in the Asian Games. The romantic comedy will give Uee a chance to show off the skills she acquired during the years she spent training as a swimmer.
The director won’t have to use many stunt doubles, as Uee was a reputable swimmer before her debut with After School. She was so good that she participated in the Korean National Sports Festival.
When her swim coach was interviewed on the SBS “Good Morning” program, he said that she worked hard to become a better swimmer. She was in very good physical condition, he said, and trained well.
Uee swam while in high school but later decided that it would not be her career path.
So Ji Sub thought he might become a professional swimmer too. His parents encouraged him to swim at around the age of 10 because he was a frail child. For the next decade he competed as a swimmer and even won a bronze medal for third place in the national Korean games. But he ultimately chose to become an actor, a decision his fans are pleased with.
So Ji Sub still loves sports such as swimming, water polo and tennis. But he did get a chance to demonstrate his swimming skills in a commercial for a sports drink.
The fact that you play a swimmer in a drama or a film does not necessarily mean you even know how to swim.
Lee Jong Suk could not swim before he took the role of a competitive swimmer in “No Breathing.”
“I could not even float,” he said at a press conference for the film. He had to train prior to the film and mastered freestyle swimming. His co-star Seo In Guk also needed swimming lessons.
Jung Il Woo’s role in “Flower Boy Ramen Shop” required him to swim and have an anxiety attack in the pool. For his role, he took lessons from real life swimming star, Olympic champion Park Tae Hwan.
His childhood friend Lee Min Ho also had to take swimming and surfing lessons before filming the opening scenes in “The Heirs.”
If you want to see Uee’s swimming skills, check out the first episode of “Ho Gu’s Love” on Feb. 9. In the drama her co-star is Choi Woo Sik, who was last seen in “Pride and Prejudice.” He plays Ho Gu, just an average guy.
Check out the clip below of Uee showing off her diving skills on a 2013 episode of “Barefoot Friends.”