Actor Lee Byung-hun shall be entrance and heart at this yr’s Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant, the place he’ll not solely accompany his newest movie, Park Chan-wook’s comedian thriller No Different Alternative, however can even be honored with one of many fest’s Tribute Awards.
However the truth that Lee had made the bounce from being certainly one of South Korea’s most distinguished main males to worldwide stardom was already in proof in 2016 when he visited Toronto as a part of the starry and various forged — together with Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke and Chris Pratt — that director Antoine Fuqua assembled for his remake of The Magnificent Seven, which opened that yr’s pageant.
Explaining why he’d forged Lee, Fuqua stated he’d been impressed by his efficiency as a hitman on the run in 2005’s A Bittersweet Life, and the second they met in individual, he knew he wished him for his neo-Western. “He’s simply so cool, and he has an excellent humorousness, too,” Fuqua stated.
Within the movie, Lee’s and Hawke’s characters are touring companions, and as Lee made his approach alongside the crimson carpet, he stated that they’d developed a particular rapport: “Being a finest buddy with Ethan’s character — I preferred that probably the most.” When the forged reassembled for a pageant press convention, although, Lee gave the impression to be having second ideas. “We obtained shut very naturally on set,” he stated, including that his spouse, actress Lee Min-jung, is a Hawke fan. Lee stated that when he invited her to the set, “I’ve by no means seen her so joyful. … So I really like him,” he joked, “and on the similar time I hate him.”
