36-year-old Ji Chang-wook becomes a chaebol family’s son-in-law “Not an easy life” (My Name Is Gabriel)
On June 20th, the press conference for JTBC’s new variety show “My Name Is Gabriel” was held at the Stanford Hotel in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. Present at the event were PDs Kim Tae-ho and Lee Tae-kyung, as well as cast members Park Myung-soo, Hong Jin-kyung, Ji Chang-wook, Dex, Gabee and Defconn.
“My Name Is Gabriel” is an observational reality show where the cast lives the life of another person among the world’s 8 billion people for 72 hours.
Ji Chang-wook confessed, “I’m Ji Chang-wook, who lived the life of ‘Pepe’ in Tequila, Mexico. It had been a while since I did a variety show, so I was clumsy and awkward. I wasn’t burdened at first, but I was very flustered on site.“
He said, “Living another person’s life isn’t easy, and I had no information.”
He continued, “It was difficult to deduce someone’s life. The work was also very tough. Director Kim Tae-ho said he matched us based on our tendencies, but since it was my first time, it was really hard.”
Park Myung-soo humorously complained about the hardships, recalling that he almost cursed out loud during filming. He lived the life of “Utti”, a Somtam vendor in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He shared, “It was so hard that I almost swore. Thai people even ran away.”
Park Myung-soo also compared this experience to his time on “Infinite Challenge”, where he lived the life of an orthopedic surgeon and felt joy seeing a patient recover. He added, “This time, I took on the role of a Somtam seller and head of a household. My wife was 28 years old.“
His comments contrasted with Ji Chang-wook’s interview, causing laughter. Director Kim Tae-ho mentioned that Ji Chang-wook emphasized during their hour-long interview that “celebrities need to have a hard time for viewers to enjoy watching“. Ji Chang-wook clarified, “I didn’t mean my own story, but I thought it would generally be like that. I regret saying that. I worked hard and had fun filming.”
JTBC’s new variety show “My Name Is Gabriel” will premiere on June 21st at 8:50 PM.