Chungju Lee “Christian, my charm is determined by the audience”

Actor Lee Chung-ju mentioned his character Christian in the musical ‘Moulin Rouge!’

Lee Chung-ju met with Ten Asia at a studio in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 17th and told various stories about the currently performing musical 'Moulin Rouge!'

‘Moulin Rouge!’ is a mash-up musical that tells the love story of Satine, the star of the club Moulin Rouge in Paris, France in the 1890s, and Christian, a young composer.

‘Moulin Rouge!’ contains over 70 songs that have been loved for over 160 years across three continents, from Offenbach to Lady Gaga. It is a mash-up of not only famous songs from the original movie 'Moulin Rouge', but also world-famous pop hits such as Madonna, Sia, Beyonce, Adele, and Rihanna.

In particular, ‘Moulin Rouge!’ is a first-class replica performance produced to suit the Korean situation with the direct participation of the original creative and production staff. The stage set, props, costumes, wigs, etc. are used in Korea as well as in the United States to embody the original production quality. It was produced simultaneously in Australia, England, Germany, and France. As a result, it is also the work with the highest production costs in Korean production history.

Lee Chung-ju plays Christian in the play. Christian is a pure artist who has just arrived in the romantic city of Paris. All he has is natural talent and passion, but he falls in love with the sparkling dream star Satine at first sight and dreams of eternal love, 'Spectacular! The person who creates ‘Spectacular!’

On this day, Lee Chung-ju talked about Hong Gwang-ho's Christian and the Christian he plays. He said, "Even if it's the same role, the same script, and the same song, the people who do it are different. I think my charm depends on the audience's judgment. What I think about most while playing Christian is the same as Gwang-ho, and when Christian sings 'Moulin Rouge!' “Isn’t he a storyteller?” he began.

Lee Chung-ju said, “I start the story with Christian and end the story. As a storyteller, the important thing is to make the audience feel that Christian is heart-forward. You can think of him as the person whose heart goes out first.” “It was a story we shared a lot, and we talked about it until the day before we left. We talked so hard that my ears pierced.”

He continued, “He told me to focus on how Heart for Word is conveyed. Christian is a person whose heart moves first, not his head. The audience must accept this. As a storyteller, if Heart for Word is not conveyed to the audience, the performance will be ruined. "I said it was a failure. The audience was convinced by Christian that he should have the same feelings as Satine. That's the most important point," he added.

Lee Chung-joo said, "That should be shown in the monologue. It should be shown how hot this person's heart is and how his heart goes out first. This is something I also thought about and studied as a character. Rather than how he loves Satin, this person “I worry about how to move it so that the audience feels like Heart for Word. I’m still worried. The only thing that looks strange is the difference between a single piece of paper,” he said.

He also said, "Christian is a person with a heart of gold. He is like a ray of light to Satin. We need to convince Satine that she has no choice but to choose Christian over the Count. That's what I'm most concerned about. If it's shown well to the audience, “That’s just me, Christian,” he explained.

Lee Chung-ju said that he and Christian are similar. He said, "I think that's why I was comfortable. There were a lot of similarities. I don't measure forwards and backwards, and I'm not good at calculations. There were a lot of things similar to that. I felt that I could move more as me than as Christian, who I put on for acting. (To build a character) 'Titanic' "I did a lot of referencing Jack from 'He resembles Christian. Didn't Jack tell me that there is a world like this in Rose? They are very much in love and they are similar. I also have similar parts," he said.

Meanwhile, ‘Moulin Rouge!’ will be performed at Blue Square Shinhan Card Hall until March 5th.

Kang Min-kyung, Ten Asia reporter kkk39@tenasia.co.kr