Siwon - ELLE Magazine

ELLE: What will you be doing if you didn’t become an artiste?
SW: I often discuss this with my parents, i think I will be in a university or overseas studying. I will most probably be a normal worker in a company like my other friends.

ELLE: But you still chose this path?
SW: I think it’s an adventure. In life, anything can be an adventure. Trying a new thing, trying a new image on stage, singing a song of a different genre is all an adventure. You can never know what’s your next step. Even this interview with the Hongkong media is something I have never anticipated.

ELLE: If everyday is an adventure, isn’t life very tense for you?
SW: Because I am adventurous and like to try new things, I enjoy the process. I seldom feel stress about it. When you challenege a new thing, you might fail in it but you might also learn many things from it. It’s how you adjust your atittude towards it. Like if you want to set sail in the sea, you must be prepared to run into storms.

ELLE: Your celebrity career seems to be smooth sailing, have you come across any storms?
SW: Everyone makes mistakes. What upsets me is causing problems to members, family or working partners because of my mistakes. But when I come across problems, I face them with a positive atittude. You might not believe this but I read books about life or how to solve life problems. From there, I learn many new thinking.

ELLE: Is there anything else you wish to challenge?
SW: I would like to try different roles. As long as it’s a different role, a role that nobody thought of, I would like to try even if it’s from a small independant movie production house. I want to be Korea’s Al Pacino, to be not limited by certain roles or my image. Actually KOD was very interesting but I had a hard time filming it as the role is very different from myself.

ELLE: What are your concerns when choosing a script?
SW: The first feeling you have when you are reading a script is very important. A good script will not bore you and you will finish reading it in one go. If you find yourself distracted and doing other things while reading, then the script probably isn’t a good one.

ELLE: Many men envy your body and abs. Do you spend a lot of time exercising?
SW: Actually I am born like this… joking. I exercise with the members whenever I have time and I have a diet list for my meals. I don’t have a lot of free time, if I don’t exercise, don’t manage it properly, I will gain weight quickly. If I know I have a photoshoot on a certain day, I will not eat anyting that day, else I will have a tummy (small words, I guessed it) easily. But exercising has to go hand in hand with rest. I read an article which said that exercising when you are tired will hurt the liver.

ELLE: What do you do on your day off?
SW: I rarely have time to rest. When I have a day off, I wake up at 6 or 7am. And then… I go back to sleep. After waking up I eat and meet up with friends to drink or drink with my boss. I want to travel very much but I don’t have time. If there is time, I would like to travel around the world and go to a warm place for surfing. But I probably have to wait till when I am with my manager, so I can steal my passport and air ticket and escape immediately.

ELLE: You have little time to enjoy your single life?
SW: Firstly, I have no time, my manager is aware too, I don’t even get to rest on Christmas. It’s hard to find a girl who can understand this kind of hectic life. Even if there is, I will feel that it’s unfair for the girl. It’s not that I enjoy single life, I just don’t have a choice.

ELLE: So do you spend a lot of time with your family? You are very protective of your family’s privacy
SW: I stay with my parents now and we go to church every week. I will also find time to exercise with my father.

ELLE: 5 hours of photoshoot and interview has ended. Korean entertainment industry is very protective of their artistes’ privacy. Questions for this interview have been screened by his manager. At the last question, Siwon suddenly added ‘Since you have made the trip all the way here, do just ask me if you have anymore questions. You can ask me anything’. Since Siwon doesn’t mind, we shall ask directly.

ELLE: There are many rumours regarding you especially on your wealth. It is said that your parents are in the higher management of a multi-national company and that your mum is a diplomat.
SW: DI..PLO..MAT?? Actually my family is a normal family, not that wealthy but it’s true my family is strict, most korean families are like this I think. Actually not only Korean celebrities, most celebrities do not want to reveal their private lives. This is to protect the people around you. Since they are not celebrities, we have the responsibility to carefully protect them.

ELLE: You took 6 years to graduate from college, why did it take so long?
SW: It’s already great that I can even graduate. It was really difficult. I need to accumulate credits but I have to go to so many schedules at the same time, it was hard. So please include this: Thank you very much to the lecturers who let me graduate.

ELLE: Didn’t your classmates take special care of you? Taking notes and doing homework for you.
SW: No….! I hope there was but no, there was nothing. All my homework and reports were done solely by me.

ELLE: You are going to enlist soon. Are you worried it will affect your career?
SW: All Korean men have to serve the military. I believe I will learn new things in the process so I am not worried. Maybe from this process I can present a new me to everyone.

ELLE: What’s your goal in your career?
SW: I would like to become a person who can represent Korea and be able to shine brightly on others (means bringing positivity to others). Actually I am slowly progressing it. If I do it right, I will have more influence, then I will be able to do more good things.