(JTBC)

French film director Luc Besson, who was behind the iconic 1994 film “Leon: The Professional,” said Korean actor Choi Min-sik is his favorite actor to work with on the latest episode of JTBC’s talk show “Non Summit” on Monday.

The director recently visited Korea for the promotion of his latest film, “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”

During Monday’s episode, Guillaume Patry, the “non-summit” from Canada, asked the director, “(Among) all the actors and actresses you worked with, which one was the one you loved the most working with?”

“So you want me to have enemies!” Besson said archly. When Patry said he can suggest two if he wants, the director refused and said “It’s Choi Min-sik, honestly. He’s such an actor.”

“Shooting of ‘Lucy’ with Choi was so funny because he doesn’t speak a word of English and I don’t speak a word of Korean. So we looked like two monkeys on the set trying to explain things (in body language),” Besson said.

“We had so much fun together. I’ve never seen someone so sweet who can, on screen, look so mean,” he said.

During the show, the director also picked Milla Jovovich, with whom he worked with on “The Fifth Element” (1997) and “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc” (1999), and Natalie Portman as his favorites.

“Non-summit,” also known as “Abnormal Summit,” is a talk show that features a panel of foreigners living in Korea who discuss social topics and share different cultural perspectives. The members of the panel all have a strong command of spoken Korean.

By Kim So-yeon (syk19372@heraldcorp.com)