Head Over Heels EXCLUSIVE: Choo Young Woo on risking life for love, changed friendship with Cho Yi Hyun and more

Pink Villa

5 hours ago

High schooler one morning, fellow doctor running chaotic ER the next, Choo Young Woo's 2025 has been nothing short of challenging. Reuniting with Cho Yi Hyun, the two are all set to present a young romance story, entangled with a fantasy concept. Head Over Heels premieres on June 23, to be streamed on TVING in South Korea and on Prime Video in selected regions.
Following a first-love concept, the show aims to display the story between a girl who tries to protect the boy she has a crush on, while living a secret life as a shaman. Meanwhile, the new transfer has a tendency to lead with bad luck, and gets entangled with a strange classmate, ensuing a lot of confusion and some butterflies!
About Choo Young Woo and his interview for Head Over Heels
Choo Young Woo, son of popular Korean model Choo Seung Il, has been steadily climbing the acting popularity ladder, with an unexpected hit in the form of The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call, which aired earlier this year. He's hoping to create the same effect with his latest role, named after his character of Bae Gyeon Woo. In an exclusive chat with us, the 26-year-old spoke about falling in love, his real life luck, and the possibility of checking out his past. Read below.
After playing a doctor in his twenties, you then shifted back into a high schooler role. How do you manage to slip in and out of roles, and do you ever get confused?
Choo Young Woo: Not really. No matter the role, I always try to look at the world through that character's perspective, so I don't find it confusing. I think what helps the most is finding a part of myself that resonates with each character and bringing that to the surface.
Seong A can see the future — if you had that ability in real life, is there something you'd want to know or prefer to avoid? If you could see the past, which moment would you go to?
Choo Young Woo: If I could see the future, I think I'd want to know small everyday things, but I'd want to avoid big misfortunes. If I could revisit the past, I'd love to go back to when I was little and watch myself playing with my parents.
What does your luck look like in real life? Was there ever a day when you thought you invited bad luck?
Choo Young Woo: I can't point to a specific day, but like the saying goes, sometimes misfortune comes all at once. I do remember times when one bad thing led to another, and the whole day just felt like a string of unlucky events.
This isn't your first time working together. How did your relationship [with Cho Yi Hyun] change from the last time you starred in a K-drama, and what do you talk about when you hang out together?
Choo Young Woo: I think working on this project brought us even closer. We used to mostly have small talk, but since we spent so much more time together this time, our conversations became more casual and personal— like what we ate, whether we got enough sleep, or how we were feeling.
If you could swap roles with your co-star for a day, how would you approach playing their character?
Choo Young Woo: I'd focus on highlighting Seong A's double life. I'd make sure to clearly show the contrast between her life as a shaman and as a regular student, and try to show a lot of things about her job.
What are some surprising things you learned about each other while working on this drama, and what are you saved as, on each other's phones?
Choo Young Woo: I found out that Yi Hyun is extremely careful. She's the kind of person who wouldn't cross a bridge without tapping it first. In my phone, she's saved as 'Yi Hyun.'
If your co-star was living a double life, what do you think they'd be good at doing instead of acting, and what would their alias be?
Choo Young Woo: I heard Yi Hyun's been really into gaming lately. I think she'd make a great professional gamer, and 'Seong A' would be the perfect alias.
If soulmates were real, paint a picture of how you would like to meet yours, and would you risk your life to save them?
Choo Young Woo: However it happens, I think just meeting someone you truly love is fate. If I met a fate like that, I think I'd be willing to risk my life for them.
You've both turned into professionals, specializing in certain aspects for your roles. Which one would you pick as the easiest, and which was the toughest?
Choo Young Woo: Rather than thinking in terms of what was easy or hard, I just enjoyed the process because it was a new challenge. Regarding the level of difficulty, the underwater scenes and fire scenes were probably the most difficult to pull off.