Scenes from "Yongpal" (SBS)

Joo Won, who stars in TV drama “Yongpal,” expressed his joy at the recent plot development in the latest episode that was aired Wednesday.

“I’m very glad (Kim) Tae-hee’s character woke up from her coma,” Joo Won said in an interview with local media.

“We’re shooting the drama almost as if it were a live show. I spent the whole of last night filming. Each episode has about 60 scenes and out of yesterday’s show, I took up nearly 50,” he said. “Now our parts will be more evenly divided.”

Joo Won had so far impressed viewers with his adroit portrayal of tense medical situations.

The viewer ratings for “Yongpal” rose beyond an unprecedented 20 percent within six episodes, according to the data aggregator Nielsen Korea, as opposed to the recent trends in dramas, whose viewer shares have lingered at 3 percent.

(SBS)

“I wasn’t expecting so much enthusiasm from the TV audience, I’m thankful for it,” Joo Won said.

“This unexpected success puts a lot of responsibility on us. The director, the staff and everyone are powering up to meet the public expectation to the end.”

He also defended female lead Kim Tae-hee, who has sometimes got mixed responses about her acting

“There can of course be insufficiencies in an actor’s performance. But the online comments kept resurfacing and I felt bad for her as a partner,” he said.

“Nuna worried so much while filming for the fifth episode. She feared the viewer ratings would fall because of her. I assured her that there was no need for her to worry, and look, the ratings kept climbing.”

SBS’ Wednesday-Thursday 10 p.m. drama “Yongpal” is written by Jang Hyuk-lin, directed by Oh Jin-suk and produced by HB Entertainment.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)

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