(MCMC)

Minho of SHINee said in an interview Wednesday that he started smoking to depict a delinquent student in the upcoming film “Derailed” and quit after the filming was over.

“Whenever I smoke before camera, I said to myself, ‘It’s not me smoking. It‘s the character smoking,’” he said. “I found myself understanding the character.”

The 24-year-old singer and actor plays Jin-il, a teen runaway who lives with a gang of teenage runaways. They make money by working part-time jobs or pickpocketing.

“At first, I told the director that I’m not a smoker, so he took my smoking part out,” Minho said. “But every time I read the scripts, I felt uncomfortable. After thinking over and over, I thought I should learn to smoke a cigarette.”

He learned from experience that quitting smoking is hard.

“Now I totally understand why people smoke cigarette after meals, while drinking alcohol and during the break,” he said. “Knowing what smoking is like, I tell smokers to ’smoke less,‘ instead of ’quit smoking.‘”

“Derailed,” starring Minho and Ma Dong-seok, is currently playing in local theaters.

By Son Ji-hyoung (json@heraldcorp.com)