At a press conference for the Netflix series "Bloodhounds" Season 2 held on the morning of the 31st at the Ambassador Seoul Pullman Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, Jung shared, “I basically lived as Baekjeong for almost a year. I’d unconsciously act like him at home and got seriously scolded (by my wife),” drawing laughter.
Released in 2023, "Bloodhounds" delivered an adrenaline rush with two young boxers taking on illegal loan sharks through gritty, bare-knuckle action. Returning after three years, Season 2 follows Geon-woo (Woo Do-hwan) and Woo-jin (Lee Sang-yi) as they swing another satisfying straight hook at a global underground boxing league ruled by money and violence. Jung Ji-hoon joins as Baekjeong, the top villain who runs the illegal league.
In the series, Jung plays Baekjeong, a former boxer and the operator of the global underground boxing league IKFC. He tries to lure rising boxing star Geon-woo into the dark circuit. When that fails, a vengeful Baekjeong tightens the noose around Geon-woo and Woo-jin with his most ruthless, underhanded tactics yet.
Taking on his first villain since debut, Jung admitted, “Playing a villain felt like a huge burden. I’ve always done good-hearted, even formulaically happy roles, so I wanted to try something truly evil at least once. But I also worried that if I didn’t pull it off, people wouldn’t accept it.”
A fan of director Kim Joo-hwan, Jung said he loved Season 1 of "Bloodhounds." “When I heard the director was doing it, I had faith. I decided to do it even before our first meeting. I thought, if it’s him, I can just follow his lead. I chose this project willing to set aside my usual standards and philosophy about acting.”
Taking on Baekjeong, Jung attempts a bold transformation we’ve never seen from him. “I discovered that side of me for the first time,” he said, describing how even he felt unfamiliar with the character at first.
“The director gave me a ton of notes,” he continued. “I had to smile but still be scary. Smile, but not with my eyes. Be truly wicked. Certain moves needed to make Geon-woo and Woo-jin feel miserable. Physically, I couldn’t look too in-shape―just bulked enough to be believable as a boxer.” He added, “Honestly, it felt good to be ‘trained’ again after a long time. I tried to remove myself and just do exactly what the director asked.”
“I moved as if I always had a blade in my hand,” he said. “This character has no blood, no tears. Expressing that wasn’t hard. As I kept reading the script and talking with the director, I realized I was really soaking into it.”
Director Kim Joo-hwan, who cast Jung as the villain, expressed strong satisfaction. “No one else has this aura and charisma except Ji-hoon. We needed someone who could beat Geon-woo and Woo-jin at the same time―meaning overwhelming physicality. He also had to handle action, and only Ji-hoon could deliver that,” he said. “On set, he was our reliable eldest. Whenever we were struggling, we’d go to Ji-hoon for advice. Every time we watched Baekjeong’s scenes on the monitor, we kept gasping. I kept thinking, ‘Is this really the person I know?’”
"Bloodhounds 2", a seven-episode series showcasing Jung Ji-hoon’s fierce villain turn, premieres April 3 (Fri) on Netflix.
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Sun-ae)
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