Lee Jae-wook ‘felt sorry’ for himself playing high schooler in The Impossible Heir while Lee Jun-young was overjoyed

Adult actors may play high schoolers often, but do they actually enjoy it?

At least for Lee Jun-young, the answer is a resounding yes.

In a Feb 26 press conference for Disney+’s new K-drama The Impossible Heir, the 27-year-old shared: “Every year, I feel like this is going to be my last role wearing a school uniform. But thankfully, I’m always given another chance.

“So once again, in The Impossible Heir, I had a lot of fun performing in a school uniform.”

He plays Kang In-ha, the titular illegitimate son of a wealthy conglomerate owner and a school bully. When calculative and ambitious Han Tae-oh (Lee Jae-wook) moves into his town, he isn’t cowered by In-ha and instead joins forces with him to help him claw his way to the top of his dad’s empire.

While much of the drama takes place in their adulthood, earlier scenes show the two boys’ meeting in high school.

Jun-young continued: “I really wanted to play the part, so I shaved twice daily since I’m a student, but my facial hair grew quite quickly.

“But I really tried to maintain that look, you know, I did face masks. And it was really quite a challenge to look the part.”

Jae-wook, 25, on the other hand, had hesitations about portraying a high schooler.

“It’s been quite a while for me since I last played a student and I kind of felt sorry for myself,” he shared. “Because just by wearing a school uniform, I was thinking at the back of my mind, ‘What if it’s not convincing?'”

However, some of his worries were assuaged by Jun-young being such a “natural” at playing a high schooler.

“He gave off such a fun energy, we would play badminton on set. So I think that kind of organic chemistry really helped us get into character,” Jae-wook added.

Jun-young also considered Jae-wook to be a great help to him during filming.

“We are of similar ages and I haven’t worked with actors who are my age, so I was a little nervous and also very excited,” he shared.

“But we had so much fun on set and he would lead me all the time, and I liked him leading me. His character is like the dog who raises his owner, and that dynamic actually was the same in real life because Jae-wook is such a good leader.”

When Jun-young saw Jae-wook tired on set, he would try and cheer him up, he added.

“We had so much fun that we had a lot of bloopers because we would end up laughing whenever we locked eyes,” he shared.

Jae-wook added: “I think the chemistry shows through on screen, and Su-zu, who plays the character of Hae-won, is also a very good friend of ours. So we were all having a lot of fun on set.

“Instead of saying that we had good chemistry I would just like to say that we had so much fun on set, and we wanted to bring out that childlike side of ourselves. So I felt like I became my younger self once again.”

Hong Su-zu, 30, plays Na Hae-won, the daughter of a mother in debt. Facing off against debt collectors from a young age, she becomes more ambitious. Hae-won finds a kindred spirit in Tae-oh, who also shares a tragic past and had his stepfather arrested so he could flee with his mother.

She is also drawn to In-ha’s power.

The bromance between Jun-young and Jae-wook wasn’t just confined to the set, as their antics even made the press conference host flustered.

“Just looking at the way you (Jun-young) look at Jae-wook with so much affection, it’s a little too much for me,” she said. “I love to see it.”

This resulted in a staring contest between the two men, with Jae-wook joking: “You hate me so much?”

“No, I love you,” Jun-young responded.

The Impossible Heir airs today on Disney+.